During the next two weeks, we are all invited to participate in the final stages of the search for our College's new Dean.
Three candidates will each present two public talks – an open forum presentation and a scholarly seminar – during their campus visits. The candidates will talk about their vision for the College of Liberal Arts in the first presentation, while the seminar forum will focus on their areas of expertise.
Jeff Vitter, Dean of the College of Science and chair of the search committee, encourages everyone to attend the sessions, ask questions, and complete evaluation forms. The search committee will review the feedback before conveying its recommendations to Provost Sally Mason, who will select the new dean. The appointment is then subject to approval by Purdue's
President and the University's Board of Trustees.
Michael McGerr, the Paul V. McNutt Professor of History and adjunct professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University. He will give a presentation at an open forum from 4:15-5:30 p.m. on March 8 in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse. The scholarly seminar is 2:15-3:05 p.m. on March 9 in Stewart Center, Room 206.
The candidates' vitas and vision statements are available online.
On Feb. 11, I had the pleasure to represent Liberal Arts at the President's Council weekend in Naples, Fla., where one of the major gift announcements benefited the College of Liberal Arts. We will share in a million dollar bequest endowing scholarships around the University. We are grateful for this wonderful gift – and hope that it will encourage others to support our undergraduate students.
Cordially,
Tom Adler
NEWS AND RESEARCH
Students' cosmetics plan wins entrepreneurial contest prize
A startup cosmetics company co-founded by a Liberal Arts student took one of the top prizes Feb. 16 in Purdue's 19th annual Burton D. Morgan Entrepreneurial Competition.
Ruth Pinto, left,
and Courtney Howard
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Manipure Cosmetics won the $15,000 first-place prize in the Black (undergraduate) Division for its startup company that aims to produce, market and distribute a line of soy-based all-natural cosmetics.
Courtney Howard, a senior from Lafayette majoring in Sociology and German, and Ruth Pinto, a sophomore from Lafayette majoring in Biology and Food Processing Engineering, made the winning presentation. They plan to have a soy-based nail-polish remover on the market within a year.
"We're surprised and ecstatic about winning," Howard said. "Our next step is to work with the Indiana Soybean Board to get our first product licensed. We then plan to expand into lotions, conditioners, hair care, soap and lip balm that we'll sell through Web sites and retail stores."
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Catholics' faith in church leadership is in 'Motion'
Catholics' faith in God is steady, but their faith in the church, especially with its leadership, is constantly in flux, according to a new book by a Purdue Sociologist.
Davidson
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Catholicism in Motion: The Church in American Society, (Liguori Publications, $19.95) by sociology Professor James D. Davidson, is a series of essays about Catholicism in America. Davidson covers the priest shortage, church leadership, worship practices, wealth of parishioners, the growing immigration population and the sexual abuse scandals. His essays are based on a variety of studies conducted in the 1990s and the past few years.
"Stability is the hallmark of the Catholic church, but there are many reasons, especially the large number of parishioners who are disenchanted with church leadership, that affect how Americans think about and practice Catholicism," says Davidson, whose essays are based on columns he has written for 12 diocesan newspapers, including ones in Indiana, California, Maryland and Utah.
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Scholar appears on History Channel to explain what's Reel to Real
A History professor will tell moviegoers on the History Channel's Reel To Real whether movies about shark attacks, war, and former presidents make good history lessons.
Roberts
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Professor Randy Roberts taped four segments in New York City for the History Channel in January. Jaws aired Feb. 25. MacArthur airs March 5 and JFK airs March 11. Roberts also taped a segment for Cool Hand Luke that will air later in the year.
Reel To Real, which airs weekly, shows a movie based on a historic event and a related documentary. During breaks, historians talk about the accuracy of the movie. The History Channel is Channel 40 on Lafayette's cable system, Insight Communications.
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EVENTS
Award-winning English author to speak at 75th Literary Awards
Booker Prize-winning author A.S. Byatt will speak March 22 at the 75th 2006 Literary Awards.
Byatt
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A public reading by the English novelist will be at 8 p.m. in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse. The reading is free and open to the public.
Byatt, author of the Booker Prize-winning "Possession: A Romance," also will speak about the writing process during the Literary Awards Banquet, 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the Purdue Memorial Union's North Ballroom. The banquet honors winners of more than 65 prizes given in the Literary Awards Competition to undergraduate and graduate students at Purdue and to high school students from across Indiana. The prizes are worth $14,000 total.
Banquet tickets, which are $15 for students and $21 for adults, can be purchased in Heavilon Hall, Room 324, or by calling the English department at (765) 494-3740. March 17 is the last day to buy tickets for the banquet. Ticket price includes dinner, the awards ceremony and Byatt's talk.
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Galleries spring exhibits highlight printmaking, bookmarks
Purdue Galleries will present a pair of exhibits dealing with small-scale printmaking – a biennial competition of small prints and fine art bookmarks with artist books – in two exhibits that will be on display from March 6 to April 23.
Fish, an etching
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Also included will be an opportunity for visitors to create their own bookmarks in the gallery and display and exchange them with other visitors.
The Galleries' biennial "Sixty Square Inches" competitive exhibition of small-scale contemporary printmaking will take place in the Robert L. Ringel Gallery at the Purdue Memorial Union. This year's exhibit will provide the 15th review of North American graphic artists working in an intimate format. Works in the exhibit are limited to 60 square inches in image size.
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Sears series closes with past leader of U.N. peacekeeping missions
Jacques Paul Klein, currently distinguished visiting professor at Princeton University, will present "U.S./U.N. Relationship in the 21st Century: Liberia as a Model" at 7:30 p.m. on March 7 in Fowler Hall. A reception will follow in Purdue Memorial Union, Room 118. After serving with distinction in a series of offices in the U.S. State Department, he directed successive U.N. peacekeeping missions in Croatia, Bosnia, and Liberia.
His talk is part of the Sears Lecture Series, which is sponsored by the Department of History.
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Other Events
– Two faculty members will discuss recent projects related to teaching at the Liberal Arts spring faculty meeting at 3:30 p.m. on March 21 in Stewart Center, Room 320. Ryan Schneider, assistant professor of English and a fellow of the Center for Undergraduate Instructional Excellence will present "Forms of The Word: Teaching Intersections of Written Texts and Oral Traditions," and Silvia Oliveira, assistant professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures, will present "Internal Diversity: Views from the 'Middle of the World.'" Oliveira is the 2005-06 College of Liberal Arts Diversity Fellow.
– A theologian best known for his biography on Pope John Paul II will speak on March 31 as part of Purdue's Religious Studies program. George Weigel, author of Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II, will present "From John Paul II to Benedict XVI: Achievements and Challenges" at 7 p.m. at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 535 W. State St., West Lafayette. The event is free and open to the public. Weigel, a Roman Catholic theologian, is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
FACULTY & CLA HONORS
– Linda Vanderkolk, coordinator for foundations design classes in Visual and Performing Arts, and Scott Frankenberger, Purdue alumnus and former visiting ceramics instructor, installed a 30-foot by 5-foot tile mural at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, Calif., on Jan. 28 through Feb. 4. Their design, "Tessellation Tango," was selected two years ago in an international design competition. The mural is made from about 950 diamond-shaped ceramic tiles that create a pattern similar to M.C. Escher's work using bird shapes.
– Alumnus Sean Patrick Adams, assistant professor of History at the University of Florida, has been awarded a research fellowship by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Adams, who received his bachelor's degree in 1990, will conduct research at the library of the New-York Historical Society. His project title is "Fires of the Republic: The Technology and Consumption of Heat in Antebellum America." The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History promotes the study of American history.
EXPERTS IN THE NEWS
Lafayette Journal and Courier –
Dual roles helped prepare student-athletes for future
(Alan Smith, Department of Health and Kinesiology)
Lafayette Journal and Courier –
Purdue welcomes state of the "art" theaters
(Russell Jones, Richard Thomas and Joel Ebarb, Patti and Rusty Rueff Department of Visual and Performing Arts)
Chronicle of Higher Education –
Rebuilding Balkan bridges
(Charles Ingrao, Department of History)
Tribune-Star, Terre Haute –
Web site dating now mainstream for singles
(Sorin Matei, Department of Communication)
Monday Morning Beirut, Lebanon –
Bush's State of the Union address: An Administration facing more problems than successes
(James McCann, Department of Political Science)
Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette –
Family ritual ... at the mall
(Andrew Buckser, Department of Sociology and Anthropology)
Louisville Courier-Journal –
When noise plagues you
(Lata Krishnan, Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences)
Indianapolis Star –
Changing times: Happy Presidents Day – now go out and shop
(Buddy Howell, Department of Communication)
Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette –
Firm body and spirit
(Ken Ferraro, Department of Sociology and Anthropology)
The Arizona Republic –
Jury still out on artificially sweet drinks
(Susie Swithers and Terry Davidson, Department of Psychological Sciences)
Radio Interviews
