In the new book “Protean Power: Exploring the Uncertain and Unexpected in World Politics,” co-editors Peter Katzenstein and Lucia A. Seybert, Ph.D. ’12, argue for a new approach to international relations.
<p>The number of Americans over age 65 is expected to double by 2060, to 24 percent of the population, intensifying concerns about end-of-life care. In a talk on Feb. 23, sociologists Holly Prigerson and Libby Luth will speak on “Psychosocial Influences on End-of-Life Care: Leveraging and Application of Social Constructs,” at 3:30 pm in Rm. 302, Uris Hall. </p>
<p>Twenty-five hundred years after they were written, Plato’s dialogues continue to yield insights that resonate with current philosophical discussions. In her new book, “Plato’s Moral Psychology: Intellectualism, the Divided Soul, and the Desire for Good,” <a href="http://philosophy.cornell.edu/rachana-kamtekar">Rachana Kamtekar</a>, professor of philosophy, examines Plato’s approach to human motivation.</p>
Geoffrey W. Coates, the Tisch University Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, has received the 2017 Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Margaret Washington, professor of history, is featured in the new PBS documentary film, "'Tell Them We Are Rising': The Story of Black Colleges and Universities," directed by MacArthur Award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson.
Mila, a chamber opera with music by Eli Marshall, postdoctoral associate and visiting faculty member in the Department of Music, recently received its world premiere in Hong Kong.
The role of “counterfactual hope” in Alexander Kluge’s work, and his “incomparable dedication to the conjoined causes of survival and happiness,” writes Leslie Adelson, formed much of the inspiration for her new book, “Cosmic Miniatures and the Future Sense: Alexander Kluge's 21st-century Literary Experiments in German Culture and Narrative Form.”
Mariana Wolfner ‘74, Goldwin Smith Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow, has been awarded the 2018 Genetics Society of America Medal for her work on reproduction.
William Kennedy, the Avalon Foundation Professor Emeritus in the Humanities in the Department of Comparative Literature was recognized for the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies, awarded by the Modern Language Association.
A semester-long, in-depth series of lectures on “The Difficulty of Democracy: Challenges and Prospects,” hosted by the College of Art and Sciences’ Program on Ethics and Public Life (EPL), features six eminent social scientists and will take place in Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall, followed by a question-and-answer period.
<p><a href="http://afterexperimentalmusic.com/">After Experimental Music</a>, a symposium to explore current perspectives on experimental music studies, will bring scholars, performers, and artist-practitioners from across North America to Cornell University Feb. 8-11. In addition to academic presentations in Lincoln Hall, the symposium will feature two concerts of experimental music. All events are free and open to the public.</p>
A new performative sound kinetic installation by Assistant Professor Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri will premiere at the ECLAT Festival in Stuttgart, Germany on February 3. Titled Distanz, the work invites the audience to a refined and focused exploration of objects and sounds, carefully shaped and placed at different distances.
Annelise Riles, professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Jack G. Clarke ’52 Professor of Far East Legal Studies at Cornell Law School, has received the Anneliese Maier Award for lifetime achievement across the social sciences and humanities from the German government and the Humboldt Foundation.
In her new book, “Gentlemanly Terrorists: Political Violence and the Colonial State in India, 1919–1947,” historian Durba Ghosh examines the interplay between India’s militant movement and the nonviolent civil disobedience led by Gandhi, and how Indians reconcile these responses to colonial rule in their narrative of modern India’s birth.
Why do the patterns of misogyny persist, even in supposedly post-patriarchal parts of the world, like the U.S.? asks Kate Manne in her timely book, “Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny.”
Economic inequality in advanced industrial societies has been growing in recent years, and so has the demand for recognition by stigmatized minority groups. Sociologist Michèle Lamont offers evidence of these intertwined facets of inequality and recommendations for public policy in her Feb. 2 talk, "Addressing the Recognition Gap: Destigmatization and the Reduction of Inequality."
The 2017 winners of the Mabati Cornell Kiswahili Prize for African Literature have been announced by Abdilatif Abdalla, chair of the prize’s board of trustees.
Therapy sessions can be dramatic, but normally take place behind closed doors with only the therapist and client as witnesses. “Therapy as Performance,” a new interdisciplinary series premiering Jan. 19 at The Cherry Artspace in Ithaca, turns that convention on its head.
Jonathan Lunine, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, was selected as the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) 2017 Carl Sagan Lecturer.
Editors document the contributions African people have made to the world without romanticizing the difficult conditions in which many people on the African continent live.
<p>Using the now-complete Cassini data set, Cornell astronomers have created a new global topographic map of Saturn’s moon Titan that has opened new windows into understanding its liquid flows and terrain. Two new papers, published Dec. 2 in Geophysical Review Letters, describe the map and discoveries arising from it.</p>
<p>With the new emphasis on hands-on, active learning throughout higher education, lab courses would seem to have an advantage – what could be more active than doing experiments? But surprising new research reveals traditional labs fall far short of their pedagogical goals.</p>
<p>The collaboration between Cornell’s Jewish Studies Program and the Center for Jewish History in New York City continues with two upcoming events on January 8 and March 26.</p>
Roberto Sierra, Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities in the Department of Music, has been awarded the Tomás Luis de Victoria Prize, the highest honor given in Spain to a composer of Spanish or Latin American origin, by the Society of Spanish Composers (SGAE) Foundation.
<p><a href="http://chemistry.cornell.edu/geoffrey-w-coates">Geoffrey W. Coates</a>, the Tisch University Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, is one of 155 new members elected to the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the organization announced Dec. 12. The 2017 NAI fellows will be inducted April 5, 2018, at the NAI annual conference in Washington, D.C.</p>
A&S Communications
Serge Petchenyi / Cornell University
Students participate in an in-class discussion.
Innovative approaches to pedagogy are changing the future of Cornell, and the College of Arts and Sciences has launched a web feature to spotlight new developments throughout the college. The site includes stories about teaching methods, education research, curriculum redesign and more.
<p>The final painting historian <a href="http://history.cornell.edu/mostafa-minawi">Mostafa Minawi </a>shared in his Nov. 29 talk on the Ottoman Empire’s struggle for survival said it all: In the foreground, European delegates stand energetically discussing the partitioning of the African continent. The sole representative of the Ottoman Empire in the painting is hunched over in a chair, hand covering his face and identified only by the fez he wears.</p>
<p>Reporters pecked on typewriters, smoked in elevators and used rotary-dial telephones. But despite the anachronisms, the 1976 film “All the President’s Men” offered uncanny resonances with current U.S. politics, according to a panel following a Nov. 8 screening at Cornell Cinema.</p>
On Nov. 17, the Cornell Astronomical Society and Department of Astronomy invite the community to celebrate Fuertes’ centennial. “A Century of Observing at Fuertes” features Phil Nicholson, professor of astronomy, and Mike Roman BS ’06, PhD ’15 reflecting on the observatory’s history and its long-term impact. The talk will be held at 7:30 pm in the Appel Service Center, across from Fuertes Observatory, and is free.
In a new transdisciplinary pedagogy that encourages active learning, McKenzie has combined the kinds of conceptual, aesthetic, and technical learning found in seminar, studio, and lab spaces into an approach he calls “StudioLab.”
<p>The limited racial and ethnic diversity among people in biology-related careers has long roots, according to a new study.</p><p>As undergraduates, underrepresented minority students face challenges on campus and in the classroom, which can discourage them from pursuing science careers. Research has shown that the use of active learning techniques – such as working in groups and participating in classroom discussions – can help close the achievement gap among undergraduates.</p>
<p>Animals, neuroscience, consciousness and medicine: Associate Professor of English <a href="http://english.cornell.edu/elisha-cohn">Elisha Cohn’</a>s interests range far and wide, all seen through the lens of narrative, her driving passion.</p>
<p>A new initiative by Cornell’s Department of Near Eastern Studies (NES) to provide continuing education opportunities for local K-12 teachers launched Sept. 26. The collaboration with Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga Board of Cooperative Educational Services (TST-BOCES) offers teachers a six-session professional learning opportunity focusing on the relationship between the United States and the Middle East through the lenses of politics, migration, religion and literature.</p>
<p>In his opening remarks at the second annual <a href="https://neurotech.cornell.edu/2017/08/16/2017-symposium-schedule/">Cornell Neurotech Mong Family Foundation Symposium</a> Sept. 22, Cornell Provost Michael Kotlikoff said: “The goals of <a href="https://neurotech.cornell.edu/">Cornell Neurotech</a> are vital ones, with life-changing implications, and I am grateful to Stephen Mong and the Mong Family Foundation for enabling Cornell faculty and staff to strive toward them.</p>
On Oct. 20-21, Cornell will host a trans-disciplinary workshop on apes, language and communication, “The Eloquence of the Apes,” featuring renowned primatologist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Cornell researchers across multiple disciplines.
In the spirit of the ancient bards, Joe Goodkin will perform an original musical adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey for solo acoustic guitar and voice on Oct. 24 in Klarman Hall, KG70, at 5 pm.
<p>Ever since the invention of the laser more than 50 years ago, scientists have been striving to create an X-ray version. But until recently, very high power levels were needed to make an X-ray laser. Making a practical, tabletop-scale X-ray laser source required taking a new approach, as will be described by physicist Margaret Murnane in this fall’s Hans Bethe Lecture.</p>
Professors are using active learning, peer-assisted workshops and practice tests to help students succeed in what can be one of the most challenging first-year classes.
The 2017-18 Environmental Humanities Lecture Series will bring to campus four pioneering scholars in the environmental humanities, beginning with Heidi Hutner (Stony Brook University).
