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MEDICINALMUSHROOMS

NYU OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY ISSUE #20 / SPRING 2013 NONPROFIT ORG NIGHTWATCH

DEVELOPMENT AND ALUMNI RELATIONS 2013 SPRING / #20 ISSUE / MAGAZINE ALUMNI NYU 25 WEST FOURTH STREET, FOURTH FLOOR US POSTAGE PAID NEW YORK, NY 10012-1119 PERMIT 295 SIT-DOWN WITH SEXTON BURL, VT 05401

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NYUS_NYUalumni_Inside_Front_Cover_P4C_.indd “Too often inaudible above the thunder of ceremonial applause for Dr. King’s ennobling dream is his remonstration that black Americans were dealt a check after the Civil War that came back marked ‘insufficient funds.’ ” —NYUHISTORIAN DAVID LEVERING LEWIS AT A DISCUSSION ON THELEGACYOFMARTINLUTHERKING,JR.HOSTEDBYTHE JOHNBRADEMASCENTERFORTHESTUDYOFCONGRESS HEARD ON CAMPUS

“I don’t think a president who takes over the “On TV shows that command of the armed forces in war can they have today, come out of that untouched. It’s one thing they make it look like to have a great worldview and talk about you’re gonna become American leadership, it’s another thing to be famous overnight—and at the airbase when they bring the coffins it doesn’t work that back or go to Walter Reed and see kids who way. It just doesn’t. are permanently maimed because of your decisions. And I think George W. Bush felt And the kids, they’re that enormously, and that President Obama not singing now, feels it very, very heavily.” they’re screaming.”

—RET. GEN. WESLEY CLARK SPEAKING ON THE 2012 ELECTION —A SPECIAL CONVERSATION WITH CROONER INAGLOBALCONTEXTATTHESCHOOLOFCONTINUINGAND TONYBENNETT HOSTEDBYTHEHUDSONUNION PROFESSIONALSTUDIES’CENTERFORGLOBALAFFAIRS SOCIETYATTHENYUSKIRBALLCENTERFOR THEPERFORMINGARTS

NYU / SPRING 2013 / 1 ISSUE #20 / SPRING 2013 DEPARTMENTS CLASS NOTES O TTS CONT

FEATURES THE SQUARE CULTURE ALUMNI PROFILES 50 / TIMOTHY “SPEED” LEVITCH / 8 / NEW MEDIA 22 / PHOTOGRAPHY TSOA ’92 FUDGING NEWS IN THE SIDEWALK STORIES TOUR DE FARCE 30 DIGITAL AGE 24 / GALLERY 52 / VINCENT SCHIRALDI / TRIP TO THE DOCTOR 10 / CONVERSATION FILLING THE ART WORLD’S SSSW ’83 SEXTON TALKS CHANGE GENERATION GAP SHAKING UP THE SYSTEM ONCE TABOO, PSYCHEDELICS ARE MAKING AN ENLIGHTENING MEDICAL COMEBACK 12 / HISTORY 25 / CREDITS / BY JENNIFER BLEYER 55 / VALERIA NAPOLEONE / THE DOWNTON ABBEY OF ALUMNI STRIKE GOLD WSUC ’90 SHELTER ISLAND AT THE OSCARS PICTURING A RECIPE

13 / MUSIC PLUS ALUMNI NEWS, GLENN FREY TEACHES IN PRINT BENEFITS, AND UPDATES STUDENTS TO “TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT” 26 / MEMOIR FORMER NEW YORKER 14 / IN BRIEF RECEPTIONIST JANET NEW CAMPUS OPENINGS, GROTH TELLS ALL AN MD/MBA DUAL DEGREE, 48 36 AND MORE 28 / COLLECTION CLASSICAL ARABIC THE ART OF TELEVISION 16 / CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH LITERATURE, PAINSTAKINGLY EARLY HUMAN FOSSILS TRANSLATED THE MINDS BEHIND BOARDWALK EMPIRE, THE WALKING DEAD, AND EVERY ISSUE VISITUSONLINE! UNEARTH ANSWERS, YOGA BREAKING BAD DISCUSS HOW THEY MAKE SERIOUS DRAMA SOOTHES AUTISTIC STUDENTS, PLUS MORE BOOKS 1 / HEARD ON CAMPUS nyu.edu/alumni.magazine / BY RENÉE ALFUSO / CAS ’06 AND JASON HOLLANDER / GAL ’07 INFANT OBSERVATIONS, BY NYU ALUMNI AND 4 / BEHIND THE SCENES AND A NEW BIOSENSOR FOR PROFESSORS 4 / CONTRIBUTORS DIAGNOSING DISEASE 5 / STAR POWER 6 / MAILBAG “LIKE” US ON FACEBOOK! EN 64 / CAMPUS LENS facebook.com/NYUAlumniMagazine IN NYC

18 / CITY LIVING PIGEONHOLED PESTS

19 / PARKS 42 GOTHAM GETS A LORAX

20 / THE INSIDER ALL-NIGHTER DISCOVER THE CITY’S TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE SUN SETS ON NYU BEST—FROM BOTANICAL / PHOTOGRAPHS BY NOAH DEVEREAUX BLOSSOMS TO A SUPER COMIC BOOK SHOP

COVER: PHOTO ILLUSTRATION © RICK SCHWAB; © MACALL B. POLAY/HBO (BOARDWALK EMPIRE); © GENE PAGE/AMC (THE WALKING DEAD); © LEWIS JACOB/AMC (BREAKING BAD, GUNN); © FRANK OCKENFELS/AMC (MAD MEN); © KEITH BERNSTEIN/HBO (GAME OF THRONES, CLARKE); © HELEN SLOAN/HBO (GAME OF THRONES, DINKLAGE); © KENT SMITH/ SHOWTIME (HOMELAND); © SONJA FLEMMING/SHOWTIME (DEXTER) BACK COVER: PHOTO © MATTHEW SEPTIMUS MIXED SOURCES: PRODUCT GROUP FROM WELL-MANAGED FOREST,CONTROLLED SOURCES, AND RECYCLED WOOD OR FIBER. NYU ALUMNI MAGAZINE (ISSN: 1938-4823) IS PUBLISHED TWICE YEARLYIN FALL AND SPRING BY NYU OFFICE OF CERT.NO. SW-COC-002556. WWW.FSC.ORG. © 1996 FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL. UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT AND ALUMNI RELATIONS, 25 WEST FOURTH STREET, FOURTH FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10012; 212-998-6912. CONTENTS COPYRIGHT © 2013. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PLEASE ADDRESS ALL CORRESPONDENCE TO: IN KEEPING WITH NYU’S COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABILITY,THIS PUBLICATION IS PRINTED ON FSC-CERTIFIED PAPER EDITORS/NYU ALUMNI MAGAZINE AT 25 WEST FOURTH STREET, ROOM 619, NEW YORK, NY 10012, OR E-MAIL TO: THAT INCLUDES A MINIMUM OF 10 PERCENT POST-CONSUMER FIBER. (THE FSC TRADEMARK IDENTIFIES PRODUCTS THAT [email protected]. NO RESPONSIBILITY WILL BE ACCEPTED FOR UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS AND CONTAIN FIBER FROM WELL-MANAGED FORESTS CERTIFIED BY SMARTWOOD IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE RULES OF ARTWORK. BYLINED ARTICLES REFLECT THE VIEWPOINTS OF INDIVIDUAL WRITERS AND ARE NOT TO BE CONSTRUED THE FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL.) FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT NYU’S GREEN ACTION PLAN, GO TO AS EXPRESSION OF OFFICIAL UNIVERSITY POLICY. MAILED THIRD-CLASS NONPROFIT AT BURLINGTON, VT. WWW.NYU.EDU/SUSTAINABILITY. HTSCOKIEFO O:©JSNHLADR EAE EPE;©NUPOOBRA:OIO ASSELIN OLIVO; BUREAU: PHOTO NYU © KEMPNER; DELANEY © HOLLANDER; JASON © TOP: FROM CLOCKWISE PHOTOS behind the scenes LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON BANDLEADER AHMIR “QUESTLOVE” THOMPSON (FAR LEFT) OF THE ROOTS CNBC’S SUZE ORMAN SPEAKS AT A WAGNER EVENT ON CO-TEACHES A CLASS WITH GRAMMY-WINNING MUSIC EXECUTIVE HARRY WEINGER (SECOND FROM LEFT) IN “THE COST OF MARRIAGE INEQUALITY.” THE CLIVE DAVIS INSTITUTE OF RECORDED MUSIC. ach semester, we edi- City campus. The resulting visual Doctor,” p. 30). Early results from tors start with a tidy essay (“All-Nighter,” p. 42) is a paean the study show great promise. Issue #20 / Spring 2013 outline of story ideas to the work/play rituals that contin- “The Art of Television” (p. 36) and briefly fantasize that ue around Washington Square should have been the most difficult, JASON HOLLANDER (GAL ’07) E Editor-in-Chief all will run smoothly. throughout the witching hours. but up really was down on this issue. Reality hits quickly and often. A key Another feature sounds trippy, Three of the most renowned TV NICOLE PEZOLD (GSAS ’04) source may be on sab- showrunners in the Deputy Editor REN´EE ALFUSO (CAS ’06) batical in Papua, New business—the brains Staff Writer Guinea, or so en- behind Boardwalk Em- JOHN KLOTNIA / OPTO DESIGN thralled in a book tour pire, The Walking Dead, Creative Director that she can only offer and Breaking Bad— a five-minute inter- quickly and happily Articles view. Sometimes the paused from their hec- JOSEPH MANGHISE stories themselves just tic lives to grant us in- Copy Chief DAVID COHEN aren’t ripe for telling. depth interviews. We Research Chief Inevitably, we’re sent hope you enjoy our NAOMI HOWELL (GAL ’14) scrambling to rescue conversations with Editorial Intern or replace articles, big them as much as we and small. did. Art / Opto Design Such proved to be Every issue holds RON LOUIE Art Director common on the Spring 2013 issue. but we assure you that it’s cutting- surprises. This round, our editorial KIRA CSAKANY But serendipity came calling in the edge research. Scientists at NYU are juggling reminded us of a line from Designer form of new pitches and ideas— examining how psilocybin, a psy- Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle: “Pe- JANE YEOMANS even better than those with which chedelic chemical found in more culiar travel suggestions are dancing Photo Research Director we started. than 200 varieties of mushrooms, lessons from God.” Bon voyage. In one feature, we set loose a may be used to decrease anxiety Alumni Relations TARACTOR/ACTIVISTS WILMER VALDERRAMA (LEFT) AND S ROSARIO DAWSON AT A VOTO LATINO EVENT SPON- photographer on our New York among cancer patients (“Trip to the —The NYU Alumni Magazine team BRIAN PERILLO TOP-DRAWPERSONALITIESSPOTTEDONCAMPUS SORED BY THE NYU MULTICULTURAL ALUMNI GROUP.

Associate Vice President POWER ALY WOLFF-MILLS (TSOA ’11) Associate Director SARAH SHANAHAN Communications Specialist

CONTRIBUTORS (LAW ’55) JENNIFER BLEYER is a freelance Poets & Writers, and The Believer. SALLY LAUKNER’s (GSAS ’10) Board of Trustees, Chairman journalist whose work has appeared She splits her time between New work has appeared in The New York in , Slate, Salon, York and Minneapolis, where she Times’ Local East Village blog, Marie President Cosmopolitan, Monocle, Tablet, and co-owns Your Yoga studio. Claire, Cosmopolitan, and Teen- LYNNE P. BROWN Senior Vice President for University elsewhere. She has taught at NYU’s Vogue.com. Relations and Public Affairs MATTHEW HUTSON Arthur L. Carter Journalism Insti- is the author DEBRA A. LAMORTE tute since 2010. of The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking EILEEN REYNOLDS (GSAS ’11) Senior Vice President for University (Hudson Street Press). He’s also has written for The Believer, the Los Development and Alumni Relations ADAMCONNER-SIMONS is a written for Discover, Scientific Ameri- Angeles Review of Books, The Jewish REGINA SYQUIA DREW (WAG ’01) Boston-based journalist whose writ- can Mind, and The New York Times. Daily Forward, and the website of Deputy Director, Strategic Initiatives ing has appeared in Slate, The Boston . Her work has also New York University MICHAELKLEIN Globe, and The Huffington Post. is an award- been featured on NPR’s All Things Alumni Association winning illustrator whose work has Considered. PHYLLIS BARASCH (STERN ’81) NOAH DEVEREAUX is a freelance appeared in New York, , President photographer living in Brooklyn Forbes, and Condé Nast Traveler. MATTHEW SEPTIMUS is a com- SCOTT DWYER (STERN ’01) whose work has appeared in The mercial photographer who began JERRY S. GOLDMAN (ARTS ’73) New York Times, The Wall Street ALYSON KRUEGER (GSAS ’12) is his career at NYU’s Washington JEFFREY S. GOULD (WSUC ’79) BEVERLY HYMAN (STEINHARDT ’80) Journal, and Time Out New York. a freelance journalist based in New Square News. His clients include the RONALD G. RAPATALO (CAS ’97) York City. She has written for The Museum of Modern Art, the Inter- Vice Presidents THE EAGLES—WHO HAVE SOLD MORE THAN 120 MILLION ALBUMS—ROCKED THE BEACON THEATRE DURING THE FIRST ANNUAL STEINHARDT VISION AWARD MEGAN DOLL (GSAS ’08) has writ- New York Times, Wired.com, The national Culinary Institute, and TAFFI T. WOOLWARD (CAS ’04) GALA. (SEE PAGE 13 FOR A Q&A WITH MUSICIAN GLENN FREY ON HIS NEW GIG TEACHING AT NYU.) ten for Salon, ARTnews, Bookforum, Pennsylvania Gazette, and Tablet. New York Public Radio. Secretary

4 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 5 mailbag YOURGUIDETOTHESCHOOLCODES We Hear FromYou THE FOLLOWING ARE ABBREVIATIONS FOR NYU SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES, PAST AND PRESENT ARTS - University College of GSAS - Graduate School of SCPS - School of Continuing WAG - Robert F. Wagner Thanks to all those who responded to the Fall 2012 issue. Let’s keep the conversation going… Arts and Science (“The Heights”); Arts and Science and Professional Studies Graduate School of Public used for alumni through 1974 Service, formerly Graduate School HON - Honorary Degree SSSW - Silver School of Social of Public Administration CAS - College of Arts and Work Rockwell painted for The Saturday band and I married two months af- to be said about being content with Science (“The College”); IFA - Institute of Fine Arts WSC - Washington Square Evening Post during World War II. ter graduation). He was gone from and enjoying one’s own company. refers to the undergraduate STEINHARDT - The Steinhardt College, now College of Arts Bob Shearer a short and aggressive bout with Kudos to Alyson Krueger for writing ISAW - Institute for the Study school in arts and science, School of Culture, Education, and Science; refers to arts and (GSAS ’78, STEINHARDT ’93) multiple myeloma—a lethal blood a great article and to professor of the Ancient World from 1994 on and Human Development, science undergraduates who Scarsdale, New York cancer. Klinenberg for bringing this subject formerly School of Education studied at Washington Square It is more than four and half years to light. I feel vindicated! LAW - School of Law CIMS - Courant Institute of Campus through 1974 SINGLEDOUT now since I became a widow, and a Jane Genett Eagleston (WSC ’71) Mathematical Sciences STERN - Leonard N. Stern LS - Liberal Studies Program I was thrilled to read the article few of my female friends think Langhorne, Pennsylvania School of Business, formerly WSUC - Washington Square “Table for One,” about the book something is wrong with me [be- DEN - College of Dentistry the Graduate School of Business MED - School of Medicine, University College, now College Going Solo by sociology professor cause] I don’t chase men. They can- Administration; Leonard N. Stern formerly College of Medicine of Arts and Science; refers to Please send your comments and ENG - School of Engineering and Eric Klinenberg. He states: “The not fathom that while I am alone I School of Business Undergraduate alumni of the undergraduate truth is that no one really knows do not feel lonely. I work full-time, opinions to: Readers’ Letters, NYU Science (“The Heights”); no College, formerly School of NUR - College of Nursing school in arts and science from Alumni Magazine, 25 West Fourth longer exists but is used to refer to how they will be living in three or I volunteer, I am on the advisory Commerce; and College of Busi- 1974 to 1994 CAPITAL JOB Street, Room 619, New York, NY, its alumni through 1974 five or 10 or 50 years. The odds are board of the local hospital, and get NYUAD - NYU ness and Public Administration About the cover of the Fall 2012 that most Americans will spend lots of invitations. Yes, I am flour- 10012; or e-mail us at alumni GAL - Gallatin School of issue: Excellent. Norman Rockwell some of their adult lives living ishing, albeit in a different form than [email protected]. Include your POLY - Polytechnic Institute TSOA - Tisch School of the Arts, Individualized Study, formerly would be pleased. As you probably alone….” Well, I had no idea that when I flourished when my hus- mailing address, phone number, of NYU formerly School of the Arts know, the original was titled Freedom in my mid-fifties I would suddenly band was alive. school, and year. Letters become Gallatin Division From Want, and was part of a series be left alone—a widow after 37 I cannot speak for the “never mar- the property of NYU and may be called the Four Freedoms, which happy years of marriage (my hus- rieds”; however, there is something edited for length and clarity.

6 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 7 new media characters and scenes for more than point fingers at the bad guys with- fake—written, perhaps, by an in- little added snark.” two dozen articles; Jayson Blair, the out looking too carefully at sys- vestor seeking to profit by artificial- New media can also present eth- New York Times reporter who wrote temic problems.” ly inflating the price of ICOA’s ical quandaries for which a clear set

QUARE SQ dispatches from far-flung states One of those problems is that stock. “We all make mistakes,” says of guidelines has yet to emerge. So- without leaving his Brooklyn apart- writers and editors are expected to Adam Penenberg, also an NYU cial media platforms, for example, ment; and Jack Kelley, who fudged do more with less. Venerable pub- journalism professor. “But the idea have collapsed the distinction be- details in a USA Today story that lications have been cutting corners of not checking out a press release, tween public and private life for TRUTHOR led to a Pulitzer Prize nomination journalists like everyone else. After in beat reporting. And Lehrer’s drawing criticism for her comments wasn’t the only fall from grace in a “It’s easy to point fingers at the on Facebook and Twitter about season Silverman dubbed “journal- bad guys without looking too hostilities in Gaza last fall, New York ism’s summer of sin”: Time maga- carefully at systemic problems,” Times Jerusalem bureau chief Jodi zine editor-at-large Fareed Zakaria Rudoren was assigned an editor to CONSEQUENCES was suspended for plagiarizing a journalist Charles Seife says. help manage her social media pres- New Yorker article by Jill Lepore, ence. But it seems unrealistic to ex- NAVIGATING COUNTERFEIT JOURNALISM and Connecticut’s New Canaan for more than a decade as readers not checking with the company, pect all reporters to consult with IN THE DIGITAL AGE News fired staff writer Paresh Jha af- have gone online and subscriptions not trying to get a comment? That’s their editors before posting each ter discovering that he’d fabricated have declined. At the same time, egregious.” tweet. by Eileen Reynolds / GSAS ’11 sources and quotes in at least 25 journalists must write quickly and Penenberg knows better than As part of NYU’s business and THE stories. often, frequently sidestepping time- anyone that a writer determined to economic reporting curriculum, he premise of the if overworked, young journalist. C. Moynihan revealed in Tablet Had ethically challenged jour- consuming editorial processes to twist the truth can do so in any Penenberg has added training in “Google Game,” as Lehrer, 31, had penned three best- magazine that Lehrer had fabricated nalists become more common or keep up with the fast pace of the medium: As a young Forbes.com multimedia journalism, social me- the Poynter Institute’s selling books on neuroscience and quotes attributed to Bob Dylan in simply easier to expose, thanks to Web. “It breeds sloppiness, shoddi- business technology reporter, he dia, and even HTML and CSS T Craig Silverman well-received articles for top-notch his book Imagine: How Creativity the Internet? With readers’ trust at ness, and almost plagiarism,” Seife was the first to uncover the decep- coding—all in the interest of called it, was simple: publications such as The Washington Works. Lehrer’s publisher pulled it stake, editors, publishers, journal- says. Lehrer’s blog posts, for exam- tions of Stephen Glass, who thwart- equipping graduates with the skills Paste text from science writer Jon- Post and Nature. But his defenders from bookstore shelves. The New ism professors, and students now ple, escaped the multiple rounds of ed The New Republic’s fact-checkers demanded of the digital age. But ah Lehrer’s Frontal Cortex blog fell silent on July 30, when Michael Yorker fired him. An investigation of face thorny questions about how to editing and fact-checking for which by creating notes, diagrams, and this also means diverting time away into the search engine, and in sec- 18 of Lehrer’s Wired.com blog posts repair a system that has allowed The New Yorker is renowned, even even a phony website to corrobo- from the basics of what he calls onds find a nearly identical by NYU journalism professor and wayward writers to rise through its though they too ran under the mag- rate wholly invented stories for the “hard-nosed reporting.” When passage from one of Lehrer’s fellow science reporter Charles Seife ranks. At the center of this dilem- azine’s prestigious banner. print magazine. These days, Penen- evaluating student work, Penen- previous pieces—published uncovered 17 instances of “recy- ma is the industry’s own convulsive In a more universally embarrass- berg calls himself a “platform ag- berg routinely investigates phrases in, say, The Wall Street Jour- cled” material, outright plagiarism, transition to online journalism, and ing stumble last November, the As- nostic”—meaning he believes or passages that seem “too good to nal. Legions of amateur language lifted directly from press the fall of rigorous editing and fact- sociated Press, Forbes, Business articles should be held to the same be true”—and calls in students to sleuths joined in the hunt releases, or distortions of fact. Wired checking. Professor Seife wrote for Insider, and TechCrunch were all high standards whether they appear talk about what he finds. (Students after media blogger Jim terminated his contract. forced to retract statements after online or in print. But he ac- sign an ethics pledge at the start of Romenesko first busted knowledges that it’s study at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter The New Yorker’s newest difficult for even the Journalism Institute, and those most vigilant editorial who violate it risk expulsion.) gatekeepers given the Sometimes a conversation about sheer volume of con- journalistic responsibility can be tent online. enough to break a bad habit. One solution would Perhaps the best way for jour- be to simply publish nalists to keep themselves honest is less. Seife suggests that to seek out editors who, whether smaller publications, they work in print, online, or both, especially, should fo- do what good journalism profes- cus their energies on sors do. “To have a devil’s advo- careful, old-fashioned cate, a good editor who tried to reporting—the pain- destroy your story, who tried to staff writer for repur- staking work of “doing poke holes in your argument—I posing old material on research, speaking to don’t like operating without that,” the magazine’s website people, and getting Seife says. In an age of instant pub- in June 2012. In weeks, Lehrer be- announcing that Google would documents” in order to bring read- lishing and feedback, the greatest Some readers at first came one of the most notorious Slate that he believes Lehrer’s “jour- purchase ICOA, a wireless Internet ers something of unique value— discipline might just be avoiding dismissed Lehrer’s “self- names in modern journalism, along- nalistic moral compass is badly bro- provider, for $400 million. The rather than simply digesting news situations in which what you write plagiarism” as a minor side Stephen Glass, the New Repub- ken”—but he also told NYU source of the information was a from larger outlets and “repackag- goes, as Seife puts it, “straight from misstep by an impressive, lic writer who dreamed up whole Alumni Magazine that “it’s easy to press release later revealed to be a ing it with a little flavor and a your brain to the world.”

NYU / SPRING 2013 / 9 conversation QUARE SQ

University at a Crossroads THE

JOHN SEXTON KNOWS THAT NYU NEEDS TO ENGAGE ITS FACULTY BETTER. HE TELLS US HOW HE INTENDS TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN.

n March 15, NYU’s Faculty of Arts and Where does this current I want to to work with them to posed that our Board form a spe- port—some personal, some by fac- felt by all of us. In these times of debate belong in the find ways to better ensure their in- cial committee of trustees led by ulties or other NYU constituen- strain and anxiety, it’s perhaps un- Science registered a vote on President NYU story? volvement in university decision- Chair Marty Lipton that will use cies. I am grateful for them; they derstandable that university leaders making. the next two months to listen to a make me feel that what we have are under increasing scrutiny and John Sexton’s leadership. Of the 682 full- In the late 1960s and early ’70s, Most of my professional life has range of faculty groups, students, been trying to accomplish has been even criticism for innovating to Otime tenured and tenure-track professors NYU was understood to be in se- been devoted to NYU. Like many and alumni and to hear their ideas heard and understood. I worry that forge sustainable futures for their rious trouble, yet the NYU com- of our faculty, I was part of the on how we can develop new the vote of no confidence will institutions. munity pulled together to ensure generation that helped transform mechanisms and channels to re- have some negative effects on the in the school, 569 participated. Fifty-two percent that the university survived, and this institution from a good re- ceive input from all stakeholders in university in the short term, but I of those voting expressed “no confidence,” while then blossomed. The difficulties of gional school to an outstanding, our community and, in particular, do think that the criticism inher- This is an especially those times were much more ob- revered international research uni- the faculty. ent in it compels me—and all of complicated time 39 percent disagreed and 8 percent abstained. vious—especially the terrible state versity. It is our faculty’s commit- us—to think even more deeply on to be a university of our finances, and the challen ment to teaching and learning that what we can do to make NYU president. After 12 That same day, the Board of Trustees passed ges posed by CUNY’s new open- is the core of what has driven Some say that benefit from its many voices, now years of leadership, admissions policy. But I believe our successes in recent decades, adversity makes an and in the long run. what propels you a resolution of support for Sexton, with Chair that today’s challenges are just as and will be the key to our future institution stronger. each morning to great—the political pressure on successes. What kind of productive navigate through all Martin Lipton writing: “It is clear to us that NYU is universities relating to costs, the soul-searching—both In the past decade, these tangled issues? expense of technology, and the for yourself and NYU— there have been a great success story. It is also the case that higher competition posed by foreign uni- Many on campus have has this experience more than 50 votes I was put on Earth to be a teacher, versities. The responsibility for me expressed a desire inspired? of no confidence at and my time in the classroom education faces pressures that call for leadership as president, and for the Board, is for their voices to be U.S. colleges and grounds me. Beyond that, I love to recognize those challenges now, heard right now. How It’s clear that we still have work to universities for widely NYU and its mission. I love that can enact change where needed.” Other state- before they overwhelm us, and to will the administration do, and I include myself in this varied reasons. Does NYU’s connection to the city and innovate in ways that sustain the accommodate that? equation, in getting the balance this signify a trend how we overcame near-bankrupt- ments of support have come in from deans across extraordinary academic momen- right on a crucial challenge facing in higher education? cy to achieve soaring success. I the university, as well as the NYU Alumni Association tum that has brought us here. We have already taken a number places like NYU: How do we ably love its ambition, and grit, and en- of steps to broaden and deepen and efficiently run a large, diverse, Universities are among the most trepreneurship, and how unpre- and departments or councils within the School of channels of faculty input, from an complex institution that can move enduring institutions in human tentious it is. I believe strongly in All else aside, a number agreement between the Faculty nimbly through a very difficult history, and they tend to be very the unparalleled opportunities we Medicine, College of Dentistry, College of Nursing, of faculty members Senators Council and the univer- time in American higher educa- tradition-bound. Those traditions, offer to our scholars and students, feel hurt or alienated sity administration on principles of tion and, at the same time, allow by the way, have carried U.S. uni- both here in New York and and School of Law. by NYU right now. What shared governance to the creation our community to be involved versities a very long way—they are through the Global Network Uni- would you say to them of faculty-led committees on space, and invested? The events of the seen as the gold standard for high- versity. I love that I was able to on a personal level? on global initiatives, on technolo- past several months have con- er education throughout the raise my family here, where I have The circumstances that led to reconfiguration of two superblocks by faculty that they have not been gy, and on how the university vinced me that we have to do a world. But this is a time of pro- spent more than 30 years—as pro- this moment, and may lead to fur- just south of campus—has struck adequately engaged with the The pace of change at NYU has should respond to a possible better job in this regard, and I am found and rapid change in higher fessor, as dean, as president—with ther votes at several NYU schools, some as pioneering and essential to changes that have taken place. been rapid and, at times, there was NLRB ruling on unionization of committed to finding ways for education, without a clear path- a single aim: to lend my talents to can be interpreted 10 different staying competitive on a postmod- NYU Alumni Magazine recent- not adequate consultation. But I graduate assistants. But beyond NYU to be an exemplar of getting way forward. Reduced support NYU as best I could and to leave ways by 10 different people. In ern educational playing field. Oth- ly spoke to Sexton about what would say to my fellow faculty that, it’s clear that it’s a good time this right for the future. from governments, concern over my successors a stronger, more re- one example, bold shape-shifting ers see them as a radical departure this experience has meant for him colleagues that it has not been in- to reflect on whether the mecha- I won’t say that the vote of no rising tuition, the impact of tech- silient university, able to withstand over the past decade—from the from the NYU they knew. A con- and can ultimately mean for the tentional. I feel badly if it seemed nisms to give voice to all NYU confidence didn’t hurt. Both be- nology on learning, the pressures the challenges of the 21st century. rise of new campuses in Abu Dhabi sistent thread throughout this re- university. that way because I greatly value constituencies are serving us as fore the vote and since, there have from a globally competitive land- That makes it easy to come in to and Shanghai to plans for a major cent debate has been a complaint their judgment and thinking. well as they could. So I have pro- been many expressions of sup- scape…the challenges are being work every day.

10 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 11 history music QUARE SQ

THE MATTERS OF THE APEACEFUL,TEACHYFEELING

When the man who co-wrote “Hotel mine, [songwriter-in-residence] MANOR California” talks about songwriting, peo- Phil Galdston, and another guy ple listen. So this year, lucky students in over at NYU, [professor] by Naomi Howell / GAL ’14 Lawrence Ferrara? They’re talking the Steinhardt School of Culture, him pen 18 top-40 hits, and find about starting an elite songwriter Education, and Human Develop- magic in the recording studio, program, and they want to pick ment were following every word translates rather well to the class- your brain about curriculum.” So OPPOSITE PAGE TOP: THEGEOR- GIAN-STYLE MANOR WAS BUILT that came out of their professor’s room. the timing couldn’t have been bet- CA. 1735 TO REPLACE THE mouth. Glenn Frey—who has ter. It was supposed to be a 15- SYLVESTER FAMILY’S ORIGINAL won six Grammys and sold more HOW’D YOU DECIDE TO COME minute conversation, and we 17TH-CENTURY HOME OF “SIX TEACH AT STEINHARDT? ORSEVENCONVENIENTROOMS.” than 120 million albums as a solo wound up talking for an hour and BOTTOM: THE ESTATE WAS USED artist and founding member of the I was at the Country Music Asso- 15 minutes, and only got started. AS A SUMMER RETREAT WITH Eagles—helped team-teach a mas- ciation Awards with the Eagles And then this year, Phil asked if I SOME SMALL-SCALE FARMING WHEN THIS PHOTO OF PLANTATION ter class in the school’s new song- three years ago, and we went on would be interested in team-teach- WORKERS AND A HAY WAGON WAS writing program. last. So for the better part of three ing a class with him. TAKEN CA. 1900. ABOVE: A PAINT- NYU Alumni Magazine spoke hours, I sat watching the show. ING BY SYLVESTER DESCENDANT HAS THE GIG BEEN CORNELIAHORSFORD,WHOOVER- with singer, actor, and guitarist And with no offense to any partic- SAW THE RESIDENCE’S SUBSTAN- Frey (below) at the Beacon The- ular artist or songwriter, I sat CHALLENGING? TIAL RENOVATION BY ARCHITECT atre last November as he and the through some of the most cliché, It’s different teaching songwriting HENRY BACON IN 1908. rest of the Eagles prepared to half-baked, boring songs. It than it is teaching how to write take the stage for the Stein- was troubling to say the music. That you can teach a little trees for wooden barrels to be hardt Vision Award Gala. least. more pragmatically. This is an elu- shipped to the islands and filled Before the Eagles went As luck would sive subject, but there are rules. with rum. The estate ran on on, three of Frey’s stu- have it, the very next Like, keep it interesting. Don’t the labor of African slaves, Na- dents performed original morning [producer have there be a place in your song tive Americans impressed into songs as the opening act. and engineer] Elliot where people are going to change service, and indentured Euro- The crowd’s roar proved Scheiner calls me up the channel or tune out. So it’s pean servants. Some of the that the creativity and says, “Would you been really exciting to share our archive’s earliest documents that helped talk to a buddy of insights. Phil and I are already are bills of sale from the Boston thinking about what we’ll do next slave market. and how we’d tweak the program By 1859, when the proper- a little bit. HTSCUTS YVSE AO ARCHIVE MANOR SYLVESTER COURTESY PHOTOS In this still-young country, it’s hard to ty passed to Eben Norton imagine grand estates riding out the ages Horsford, a wealthy Boston Downton Abbey–style in the care of a chemist and the inventor of baking powder, the manor was single family. And yet the Sylvester ized and protected within NYU’s used as a vacation home, wel- Manor on Shelter Island, nestled & Special Collec- coming the likes of Henry in between Long Island’s two tions, the new Sylvester Manor Wadsworth Longfellow and WHAT’S BEEN THE BEST PART forks, has been passed down Archive has inaugurated its open- Sarah Orne Jewett, whose OF THIS EXPERIENCE? through 15 generations of ing with an exhibition at Bobst handwritten poetry resides in Coming to New York and seeing Sylvesters. Among the house’s his- Library. the archive. Today, the most my daughter, who’s a senior at toric treasures are 60 linear feet of The manor was initially a point recent Sylvester relation has Tisch [laughs]. She’s made it a good

letters, journals, maps, photo- on the infamous triangle of trade, opened the estate to the pub- IMAGES KING/GETTY BOB © PHOTO excuse to come do this. But the graphs, and artifacts, offering a whose coordinates were in West lic as an organic farm and food best part of it is how contagious range of insight into early Ameri- Africa, the American colonies, and education center. the enthusiasm and the commit- can culture—from the little- the Caribbean. In 1652, Nathaniel ment of the students has been. acknowledged practice of slavery Sylvester bought Shelter Island to The “Sylvester Manor: Food and That really gets me feeling like a in New York to the industrializa- use for raising livestock to sell in Power on a Northern Plantation” songwriter again. tion of agriculture. Now organ- the West Indies and harvesting exhibition closes August 31. —Jason Hollander

NYU / SPRING 2013 / 13 INBRIEF

CONSTITUTIONAL CREW His response was to found the ic credit, will provide a sort of re- As residents, they’ll easily clock 80 NYU law professor Sujit new Center for Constitutional search department for clients hours in a week at the hospital. Choudhry flew to Sri Lanka in Transitions at the NYU School of abroad. They are currently prepar- The result generally is a tested 2003 to advise on the fledgling Law, which aims to act as a “back ing a series of reports for legal ad- physician with a wide-ranging democracy’s constitution. But it office” for legal advisers working visers in Jordan, Libya, Tunisia, knowledge of sickness and health. wasn’t until after he’d landed, in countries undergoing a regime and Morocco on issues that arose But some are finding that is no driven across the island, and start- change. For comparative consti- during the Arab Spring, such as longer enough. ed talking with local stakeholders tutional specialists such as how to build a liberal democracy Asthehealth-caresystemgrows that the key question facing the Choudhry, who is the faculty di- in which the partisan interests of ever more complex, doctors have nation’s constitutional designers rector of the project, fieldwork civilians don’t lead to an abuse of realized that they must also devel- emerged: What role would law usually involves traveling to a re- power by the security sector. “This op expertise in areas such as man- enforcement have in the federal mote locale with little advance is the first time in the world any- agement, business strategy, and state? Though scholars had devel- notice, minimal academic re- one has tried to do this,” Choudhry public policy—or risk abdicating oped models for this exact prob- sources, and bare-bones commu- says. “There is a lot of excitement their role in shaping the future of lem, Choudhry was unable to nication infrastructure. about this work—people are wait- medicine. To that end, NYU has access much of this information The center, which relies on 20 ing for our answers.” joined thecadreof medical schools Prague,Prague, Czech Czech RepublicR epublic Paris,Paris, FranceFrance half a world away. law students working for academ- that now offer dual degrees in DWORKIN HONORED WITH 2012 medicine and business administra- BALZAN PRIZE tion. Darien Sutton-Ramsey Before his recent death, Ronald (MED ’14), a third-year medical Dworkin, the Frank Henry Som- student and class president, sees mer Professor of Law, received the the degree as a way to “fill a void Balzan Prize for his “fundamental between the people who make contributions to jurisprudence, health care and the people who do characterized by outstanding gifts health care.” of sharpness, originality, and clari- The program is part of the ty of thought in a constant and School of Medicine’s Curriculum fruitful interaction with ethical for the 21st Century, or C21, AccessAccess thethe WWorldorrldld and political theories and with le- which also offers medical students gal practices.” The prize was ac- a chance to earn a dual degree in ThrThroughouggh NYUNY companied by an award of 750,000 four other disciplines: bioethics, Swiss francs, about $800,000, half clinical investigation, global public NYU Alumniar aree an important part Florence,Florence, Italy Italy of which must be invested in health, or health policy and man- research—preferably involving agement. “Our goal [with C21] is of the GlobalGlobal NetwNetworkork University UnivUn ersity young scholars. to take on very smart students and communitycommunity and yyou ou ararea e i ininvitedvitedd Far-Flung Study Dworkin authored numerous offer them pathways to go deeper books, including most recently, into the areas of their particular in- ttoo reconnect reconnectt with ffellowelelloelle low alumnalumnini From the White House to Sydney’s Opera House, NYU is Justice for Hedgehogs (Belknap terest,” explains Steven Abram- atat lecturlectures,es, rreceptions,eeceptions, and adding new icons to its study-away options. The Aussie ac- Press/Harvard), which he noted son, senior vice president and vice WashingtonWashingtgton D.C. D.C. ademic site opened this fall with a humanities-based cur- was not a treatise on animal rights dean for education, faculty, and educationaleducational pprogrammingprogramming riculum centered around English literature, environmental nor a take-down of hedge fund academic affairs. acrossacross the glglobe.obe. studies, and journalism. NYU Sydney will also introduce barons, but a nod to an ancient Abramson says that the response students to the country’s Aboriginal culture through class- Greek axiom and the notion that a from would-be students has been es on art history and anthropology, plus faculty-led field single value underlines truth, “remarkably strong”—particularly morality, justice, and life. to the MD/MBA, whose first class trips. Or if the outback seems too far from home, there’s the starts this fall. The investment, ConnectConnect with h fellowf ellow alumni Constance Milstein and Family Global Academic Center THE BUSINESS OF MEDICINE med student Sutton-Ramsey and visit ourr websitewebsite ttoday!oday! located in the heart of Washington, D.C. The newly con- Along the grueling path of med- notes, will give NYU grads far structed 75,000-square-foot facility will house 120 stu- ical education, students will mem- more tools to use in the field. With alumni.nyu.edu/global-passportalumni.nyu.eedu//global-pasglobal-passport dents per semester with courses focusing on government, orize every bone, muscle, and such a degree, he says, “I will be [email protected]@nyu.edu politics, economics, and public administration. ligament in the body, plus a litany able to treat not just one patient, of diseases and their telltale signs. but populations of patients.”

14 / SPRING 2013 / NYU CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH UARE SQ THE

occupational therapy anthropology physics Keep Calm and SIZINGUP WHAT’STHE FREQUENCY,VIRUS?

Carry Om EARLY HUMANS COUCEIRO CRISTIANA © ILLUSTRATION few years ago, Stephen lionths of a gram, one at a time, Arnold was at an Itzhak but not smaller viruses, such as po- nder the watchful eye ideal for children on the autism n 1972, along the crumbling mans, Homo habilis and our direct Perlman concert when lio and hepatitis. Now even the of their teacher, a spectrum because they thrive on A ravines of the Lake Turkana ancestor, Homo erectus. “Since his mind wandered. “I smallest known RNA virus parti- group of 6-year-olds predictability, says Kristie Koenig, Basin in Kenya, paleoanthro- we’re the only species of Homo was wondering what a piece of cle, MS2, at only six attograms, Uwalk into their class- an assistant professor of occupa- I pologist Richard Leakey un- [today], we tend to think that’s the dust would do if it hit the violin can be detected when it perches room, unroll pint-size yoga mats, tional therapy at the Steinhardt covered the skull of an way it was universally in the past,” string,” the professor of physics on the gold nanoreceptor. and inhale deeply before assuming School of Culture, Education, and odd-looking hominid. KNM-ER says NYU anthropologist Susan and chemistry at NYU-Poly says. “You know that if you can im- downward-facing dog position. Human Development. Together 1470, or simply “1470,” as it came Antón, who analyzed the bones as Surely the dust would change the prove the sensitivity of a sensor by It may look unconventional, but with Steinhardt doctoral student to be known, appeared to date a member of the Koobi Fora team. string’s frequency ever so slightly. 70 times on your first effort,” that’s how more than 500 class- Satvika Garg, Koenig ran a 16- from the dawn of the Homo genus “And that’s not the case.” He then wondered whether the you’re onto something, Arnold rooms across now week study of GRTL in which nearly two million years ago, but The advent of early humans same principle could be used to says. And his lab is just getting start the school day, thanks to “Get teachers and parents completed was unlike any early human fos- was likely a dynamic time, Antón detect something even smaller, started. Now they’re working to Ready to Learn” (GRTL). The pro- a checklist recording the daily sils found before. It had a large observes, where various species such as a virus, and he took the detect single proteins, which are gram, designed by occupational behavior of students with autism. skull and notably flat face. The may have experimented with idea to the lab. smaller. In blood, antibody pro- therapist and yoga instructor Anne The resulting paper, recently question that divided anthropol- foods or environments in their What emerged was a new type teins can signal infection before Buckley-Reen, comprises a 17- published in The American Journal ogists was whether it was simply evolutionary quest to survive. But of biosensor, one that could revo- viruses take over, giving doctors a

HT OREYGTRAYT LEARN TO READY GET COURTESY PHOTO an outlier—an scientists refrain from supposing lutionize the diagnosis of disease. head start on treatment if found in abnormal-size or too much from these latest finds. Here’s how it works: A laser sends inch across, the sphere will res- Physics Letters, Arnold and collab- time. In recent months, Arnold deformed indi- What Antón and her colleagues light through a glass fiber to a de- onate at a different frequency and orators reported that they’ve now has even found a way to insert his vidual—or evi- can say—after comparing them tector. When a tiny glass sphere is take in different wavelengths of taken WGM biosensors to a new biosensors into “smart” syringe dence of a whole to fossils housed in the national placed against the fiber, certain light. Arnold named the system level. By attaching a smaller gold needles. other species. museums of Kenya and Tanzania, wavelengths of light will take a de- a “whispering gallery-mode” nanoparticle to the microsphere, “Ultimately sensors will make The answer to as well as to living apes and mod- tour into the sphere and bounce biosensor, or WGM, in a nod to they’ve managed to amplify its diagnostics in-house, in minutes that question was ern human skeletons—is that their around inside, creating a dip in the the way voices bounce around the sensitivity. Before this innovation, rather than days,” he says. recently un- jaw was constructed differently. light the detector receives. If a whispering gallery under the dome they could detect viruses such as Let that idea rattle around in earthed with And the new finds presented virus clings to the microsphere, of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. influenza, which weighs a few your head for a while. three new fos- another twist. While some an- which is only two-thousands of an In a recent issue of Applied hundred attograms, or quintil- —Matthew Hutson sils—a juvenile’s thropologists had long suspected face, a nearly that “1470” represented a new complete lower Homo, many had assumed that it psychology case, an actor tried to stack rings not provoke their interest as onto a funnel and showed frustra- extensively. AUTISTIC CHILDREN WHO STARTED THE DAY WITH YOGA SHOWED LESS AGGRESSION AND HYPERACTIVITY. jaw, and a por- was a larger species—much like a tion of another gorilla is to a chimpanzee. But the tion at it being out of reach. In an- Vouloumanos believes this con- minute series of simple yoga posi- of Occupational Therapy, notes lower jaw—that closely match the new juvenile’s face and jaws sug- OBSERVANT INFANTS other, a communicator barked firms that infants are more per- tions, such as spinal twists and that the children who participated unusual structure of “1470.” Sci- gest “1470” was simply an outsize words or noises to a recipient: In ceptive than previously thought. child’s pose, as well as breathing in yoga showed less of the aggres- entists with the Koobi Fora Re- adult within a species whose size new study suggests Academy of Sciences, NYU psy- one instance, a made-up word, “[They] understand not only that exercises, for autistic students sive behavior and hyperactivity search Project, led by Meave and variation may have been as vast as that infants see the chology professor Athena “koba”; in another, a common other people have invisible ages 5 to 21. typically associated with autism. Louise Leakey (Richard’s wife and our own is today (think Shaquille correlation not just Vouloumanos, her former re- cough. The young subjects held thoughts, but that people can use While yoga is now common in In fact, the students reported feel- Abetween speech and search assistant Amanda Pogue, their gaze longer when a recipient speech to inform others about daughter, respectively), made the O’Neal compared to the average schools, Buckley-Reen’s program, ings of calm and happiness after discoveries, which were an- man on the street). “That’s the observed action, but also the very and Kristine Onishi of McGill Uni- failed in the action after hearing these unobservable thoughts,” which is led by teachers and uses the exercises. “You could see the nounced in the journal Nature. thing about the fossil record,” unobservable relationship be- versity had adult “communica- koba, indicating that they viewed she says. The implication is that instructional DVDs, follows the stress and anxiety levels drain They suggest this was indeed a Antón muses. “It always kind of tween speech and intention. tors” and “recipients” act out this result as incongruent with infants “could learn, in theory, same specific pattern each day. from the classroom,” Koenig says. separate species that lived along- throws you a curveball.” In an experiment published in predictable and unpredictable the instruction and the intention. about things beyond their immedi- This repetition and precision is —Sally Lauckner side two other early types of hu- —Nicole Pezold the Proceedings of the National scenes in front of infants. In one Results from the cough did ate experience.” —Naomi Howell

16 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 17 INBRIEF

CONSTITUTIONAL CREW His response was to found the ic credit, will provide a sort of re- As residents, they’ll easily clock 80 NYU law professor Sujit new Center for Constitutional search department for clients hours in a week at the hospital. Choudhry flew to Sri Lanka in Transitions at the NYU School of abroad. They are currently prepar- The result generally is a tested 2003 to advise on the fledgling Law, which aims to act as a “back ing a series of reports for legal ad- physician with a wide-ranging democracy’s constitution. But it office” for legal advisers working visers in Jordan, Libya, Tunisia, knowledge of sickness and health. wasn’t until after he’d landed, in countries undergoing a regime and Morocco on issues that arose But some are finding that is no driven across the island, and start- change. For comparative consti- during the Arab Spring, such as longer enough. ed talking with local stakeholders tutional specialists such as how to build a liberal democracy Asthehealth-caresystemgrows that the key question facing the Choudhry, who is the faculty di- in which the partisan interests of ever more complex, doctors have nation’s constitutional designers rector of the project, fieldwork civilians don’t lead to an abuse of realized that they must also devel- emerged: What role would law usually involves traveling to a re- power by the security sector. “This op expertise in areas such as man- enforcement have in the federal mote locale with little advance is the first time in the world any- agement, business strategy, and state? Though scholars had devel- notice, minimal academic re- one has tried to do this,” Choudhry public policy—or risk abdicating oped models for this exact prob- sources, and bare-bones commu- says. “There is a lot of excitement their role in shaping the future of lem, Choudhry was unable to nication infrastructure. about this work—people are wait- medicine. To that end, NYU has access much of this information The center, which relies on 20 ing for our answers.” joined thecadreof medical schools Prague,Prague, Czech Czech RepublicR epublic Paris,Paris, FranceFrance half a world away. law students working for academ- that now offer dual degrees in DWORKIN HONORED WITH 2012 medicine and business administra- BALZAN PRIZE tion. Darien Sutton-Ramsey Before his recent death, Ronald (MED ’14), a third-year medical Dworkin, the Frank Henry Som- student and class president, sees mer Professor of Law, received the the degree as a way to “fill a void Balzan Prize for his “fundamental between the people who make contributions to jurisprudence, health care and the people who do characterized by outstanding gifts health care.” of sharpness, originality, and clari- The program is part of the ty of thought in a constant and School of Medicine’s Curriculum fruitful interaction with ethical for the 21st Century, or C21, AccessAccess thethe WWorldorrldld and political theories and with le- which also offers medical students gal practices.” The prize was ac- a chance to earn a dual degree in ThrThroughouggh NYUNY companied by an award of 750,000 four other disciplines: bioethics, Swiss francs, about $800,000, half clinical investigation, global public NYU Alumniar aree an important part Florence,Florence, Italy Italy of which must be invested in health, or health policy and man- research—preferably involving agement. “Our goal [with C21] is of the GlobalGlobal NetwNetworkork University UnivUn ersity young scholars. to take on very smart students and communitycommunity and yyou ou ararea e i ininvitedvitedd Far-Flung Study Dworkin authored numerous offer them pathways to go deeper books, including most recently, into the areas of their particular in- ttoo reconnect reconnectt with ffellowelelloelle low alumnalumnini From the White House to Sydney’s Opera House, NYU is Justice for Hedgehogs (Belknap terest,” explains Steven Abram- atat lecturlectures,es, rreceptions,eeceptions, and adding new icons to its study-away options. The Aussie ac- Press/Harvard), which he noted son, senior vice president and vice WashingtonWashingtgton D.C. D.C. ademic site opened this fall with a humanities-based cur- was not a treatise on animal rights dean for education, faculty, and educationaleducational pprogrammingprogramming riculum centered around English literature, environmental nor a take-down of hedge fund academic affairs. acrossacross the glglobe.obe. studies, and journalism. NYU Sydney will also introduce barons, but a nod to an ancient Abramson says that the response students to the country’s Aboriginal culture through class- Greek axiom and the notion that a from would-be students has been es on art history and anthropology, plus faculty-led field single value underlines truth, “remarkably strong”—particularly morality, justice, and life. to the MD/MBA, whose first class trips. Or if the outback seems too far from home, there’s the starts this fall. The investment, ConnectConnect with h fellowf ellow alumni Constance Milstein and Family Global Academic Center THE BUSINESS OF MEDICINE med student Sutton-Ramsey and visit ourr websitewebsite ttoday!oday! located in the heart of Washington, D.C. The newly con- Along the grueling path of med- notes, will give NYU grads far structed 75,000-square-foot facility will house 120 stu- ical education, students will mem- more tools to use in the field. With alumni.nyu.edu/global-passportalumni.nyu.eedu//global-pasglobal-passport dents per semester with courses focusing on government, orize every bone, muscle, and such a degree, he says, “I will be [email protected]@nyu.edu politics, economics, and public administration. ligament in the body, plus a litany able to treat not just one patient, of diseases and their telltale signs. but populations of patients.”

14 / SPRING 2013 / NYU CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH UARE SQ THE

occupational therapy anthropology physics Keep Calm and SIZINGUP WHAT’STHE FREQUENCY,VIRUS?

Carry Om EARLY HUMANS COUCEIRO CRISTIANA © ILLUSTRATION few years ago, Stephen lionths of a gram, one at a time, Arnold was at an Itzhak but not smaller viruses, such as po- nder the watchful eye ideal for children on the autism n 1972, along the crumbling mans, Homo habilis and our direct Perlman concert when lio and hepatitis. Now even the of their teacher, a spectrum because they thrive on A ravines of the Lake Turkana ancestor, Homo erectus. “Since his mind wandered. “I smallest known RNA virus parti- group of 6-year-olds predictability, says Kristie Koenig, Basin in Kenya, paleoanthro- we’re the only species of Homo was wondering what a piece of cle, MS2, at only six attograms, Uwalk into their class- an assistant professor of occupa- I pologist Richard Leakey un- [today], we tend to think that’s the dust would do if it hit the violin can be detected when it perches room, unroll pint-size yoga mats, tional therapy at the Steinhardt covered the skull of an way it was universally in the past,” string,” the professor of physics on the gold nanoreceptor. and inhale deeply before assuming School of Culture, Education, and odd-looking hominid. KNM-ER says NYU anthropologist Susan and chemistry at NYU-Poly says. “You know that if you can im- downward-facing dog position. Human Development. Together 1470, or simply “1470,” as it came Antón, who analyzed the bones as Surely the dust would change the prove the sensitivity of a sensor by It may look unconventional, but with Steinhardt doctoral student to be known, appeared to date a member of the Koobi Fora team. string’s frequency ever so slightly. 70 times on your first effort,” that’s how more than 500 class- Satvika Garg, Koenig ran a 16- from the dawn of the Homo genus “And that’s not the case.” He then wondered whether the you’re onto something, Arnold rooms across New York City now week study of GRTL in which nearly two million years ago, but The advent of early humans same principle could be used to says. And his lab is just getting start the school day, thanks to “Get teachers and parents completed was unlike any early human fos- was likely a dynamic time, Antón detect something even smaller, started. Now they’re working to Ready to Learn” (GRTL). The pro- a checklist recording the daily sils found before. It had a large observes, where various species such as a virus, and he took the detect single proteins, which are gram, designed by occupational behavior of students with autism. skull and notably flat face. The may have experimented with idea to the lab. smaller. In blood, antibody pro- therapist and yoga instructor Anne The resulting paper, recently question that divided anthropol- foods or environments in their What emerged was a new type teins can signal infection before Buckley-Reen, comprises a 17- published in The American Journal ogists was whether it was simply evolutionary quest to survive. But of biosensor, one that could revo- viruses take over, giving doctors a

HT OREYGTRAYT LEARN TO READY GET COURTESY PHOTO an outlier—an scientists refrain from supposing lutionize the diagnosis of disease. head start on treatment if found in abnormal-size or too much from these latest finds. Here’s how it works: A laser sends inch across, the sphere will res- Physics Letters, Arnold and collab- time. In recent months, Arnold deformed indi- What Antón and her colleagues light through a glass fiber to a de- onate at a different frequency and orators reported that they’ve now has even found a way to insert his vidual—or evi- can say—after comparing them tector. When a tiny glass sphere is take in different wavelengths of taken WGM biosensors to a new biosensors into “smart” syringe dence of a whole to fossils housed in the national placed against the fiber, certain light. Arnold named the system level. By attaching a smaller gold needles. other species. museums of Kenya and Tanzania, wavelengths of light will take a de- a “whispering gallery-mode” nanoparticle to the microsphere, “Ultimately sensors will make The answer to as well as to living apes and mod- tour into the sphere and bounce biosensor, or WGM, in a nod to they’ve managed to amplify its diagnostics in-house, in minutes that question was ern human skeletons—is that their around inside, creating a dip in the the way voices bounce around the sensitivity. Before this innovation, rather than days,” he says. recently un- jaw was constructed differently. light the detector receives. If a whispering gallery under the dome they could detect viruses such as Let that idea rattle around in earthed with And the new finds presented virus clings to the microsphere, of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. influenza, which weighs a few your head for a while. three new fos- another twist. While some an- which is only two-thousands of an In a recent issue of Applied hundred attograms, or quintil- —Matthew Hutson sils—a juvenile’s thropologists had long suspected face, a nearly that “1470” represented a new complete lower Homo, many had assumed that it psychology case, an actor tried to stack rings not provoke their interest as onto a funnel and showed frustra- extensively. AUTISTIC CHILDREN WHO STARTED THE DAY WITH YOGA SHOWED LESS AGGRESSION AND HYPERACTIVITY. jaw, and a por- was a larger species—much like a tion of another gorilla is to a chimpanzee. But the tion at it being out of reach. In an- Vouloumanos believes this con- minute series of simple yoga posi- of Occupational Therapy, notes lower jaw—that closely match the new juvenile’s face and jaws sug- OBSERVANT INFANTS other, a communicator barked firms that infants are more per- tions, such as spinal twists and that the children who participated unusual structure of “1470.” Sci- gest “1470” was simply an outsize words or noises to a recipient: In ceptive than previously thought. child’s pose, as well as breathing in yoga showed less of the aggres- entists with the Koobi Fora Re- adult within a species whose size new study suggests Academy of Sciences, NYU psy- one instance, a made-up word, “[They] understand not only that exercises, for autistic students sive behavior and hyperactivity search Project, led by Meave and variation may have been as vast as that infants see the chology professor Athena “koba”; in another, a common other people have invisible ages 5 to 21. typically associated with autism. Louise Leakey (Richard’s wife and our own is today (think Shaquille correlation not just Vouloumanos, her former re- cough. The young subjects held thoughts, but that people can use While yoga is now common in In fact, the students reported feel- Abetween speech and search assistant Amanda Pogue, their gaze longer when a recipient speech to inform others about daughter, respectively), made the O’Neal compared to the average schools, Buckley-Reen’s program, ings of calm and happiness after discoveries, which were an- man on the street). “That’s the observed action, but also the very and Kristine Onishi of McGill Uni- failed in the action after hearing these unobservable thoughts,” which is led by teachers and uses the exercises. “You could see the nounced in the journal Nature. thing about the fossil record,” unobservable relationship be- versity had adult “communica- koba, indicating that they viewed she says. The implication is that instructional DVDs, follows the stress and anxiety levels drain They suggest this was indeed a Antón muses. “It always kind of tween speech and intention. tors” and “recipients” act out this result as incongruent with infants “could learn, in theory, same specific pattern each day. from the classroom,” Koenig says. separate species that lived along- throws you a curveball.” In an experiment published in predictable and unpredictable the instruction and the intention. about things beyond their immedi- This repetition and precision is —Sally Lauckner side two other early types of hu- —Nicole Pezold the Proceedings of the National scenes in front of infants. In one Results from the cough did ate experience.” —Naomi Howell

16 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 17 up with Jerolmack to talk about cination with the birds, these parks city living the city’s much-maligned birds, men form neighborhood and the people who love and feed community ties that transcend them, and why the “rats with racial barriers. It’s definitely a wings” moniker—first coined in New York story. An Urban 1966 by pigeon-hating city parks commissioner Thomas P.F. For a city slicker, what’s appeal- Hoving—is just unfair. ing about racing homing pigeons? Johnny FOWLFRIENDS When you send your pigeon out You observed that pigeons are for 400 miles, it has to traverse IN SOCIOLOGIST EXPLORES THE LOVE-HATE pretty crafty about getting New hostile terrain. There are hawks; NYC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PEOPLE AND PIGEONS Yorkers to toss them scraps. How Appleseed there are storms they have to go do they do it? around; not all of them will make

by Eileen Reynolds / GSAS ’11 KLEIN MICHAEL © ILLUSTRATION Pigeons are synanthropes—ani- it home. When that bird comes mals that adapt and actually do back over the horizon, there’s ENVIRONMENTALIST SOWS NEW YORK’S better in human-disrupted envi- this tremendous rush: Here’s this MOSTAMBITIOUSTREEPLANTING ronments than they did in the treasure that you bred and will- natural habitat. They’re reward- fully surrendered, not knowing by Naomi Howell / GAL ’14 ed when they walk close to peo- if you’d ever see it again, com- ple, cock their head, double ing back to you. In a way, even back—they have strategies to if you didn’t win the race, nur- organ Monaco cus to street trees. The work in- evoke feeding from people who ture has triumphed over nature. spent a lot of her volves coordinating city agencies, just came to a park to eat a pizza You’ve figured out how to ma- childhood un- civic groups, nonprofits, and resi- and talk with their friend. nipulate both the bird’s genes Mderneath the dents to prepare sites, ensure hardy and behavior to outfox the wide-hanging species—such as Honeylocust, The book looks at unlikely friend- storms, the weather, the hawks. oaks and maples of Central Park. It Ginkgo, and Green Ash—are ships forged over rooftop pigeon was around this time that she first planted each season, and provide coops in Brooklyn. How did that Why do pigeons have such a bad read Dr. Seuss’s environmentally enough “TreeLC” in the early come about? reputation? Is it true they can conscious book, The Lorax—about critical years of growth. As the

It’s based on a very pragmatic make us sick? a character who acts on behalf of (CONTINUED ON PAGE 20) problem. Pigeon flying is a lot of Do pigeons carry disease? Yes. the trees against corporate work. Hopefully your son helps But there’s a difference between greed—and felt an inherent you [to] clean the coop, bring diseases they can transmit to oth- kinship with his cause. “My mom would have to drag me away in tears when it was “There’s no documented case time to go home,” she re- of a person getting sick from a calls. “The park was where I wanted to be.” street pigeon,” Jerolmack says. She’s all grown up now, but for Monaco (WAG ’14), the 50-pound sacks of feed, train er pigeons and diseases they can that feeling hasn’t changed. the pigeons when you’re at transmit to people. West Nile? As director of Million- work. But if you can’t get your They’re resistant. Bird flu? They TreesNYC since 2009, she son, you hire a neighborhood mostly don’t get it, and if they spends much of her profes- kid. For the older [Italian-Amer- do get it, they die immediately, sional life outdoors spear- s anyone who’s dance, sociology and environmen- out of countless hours spent right icans] who stayed behind in which means they aren’t a good heading an effort with the ever shooed a bird tal studies professor Colin Jerol- here in New York, where Jerol- Bushwick as the neighborhood carrier. There’s no documented NYC Department of Parks from a bench mack embarked on four years of mack gazed up at the skies with changed, the only kids available case of a person getting sick from & Recreation to plant one Aknows, pigeons are research that ultimately took him members of the Bronx Homing were Puerto Rican and black. a street pigeon. That doesn’t million trees in the city’s an urban dweller’s to the iconic public squares of Pigeon Club, hung out with a And some of these kids became meanyoushouldbehappyabout five boroughs within a constant companions: They roost London and Venice, and even as group of working-class Brook- fascinated—what started as a job pigeon feces on a bench, but decade. The first phase will

on our air-conditioners, scavenge far away as South Africa, home to lynites brought together by the TUCKER SPENCER © PHOTO to make some side money be- let’s put it in perspective. The put about 700,000 trees our sidewalks, and leave their the annual Million Dollar Pigeon pigeons they breed, and watched came their own interest. Now whole disease thing is a red her- mostly in parks over the feathery waste on our monuments. Race. But some of the most com- scrappy birds they’re all adults, and they’re ring. It’s an excuse. It’s a frame coming years, when Mil- Mostly, we just watch them and pelling findings reported in his beg for pizza crusts in the neigh- bound together by these birds. that allows us to justify getting lionTrees will then shift fo-

try to steer clear. new book, The Global Pigeon (Uni- borhood’s tiny public parks. In neighborhoods like Bushwick rid of animals that we don’t like MONACOPLANSTOPLANTONE Fascinated by this human-avian versity of Chicago Press), grew NYU Alumni Magazine caught and Bed-Stuy, through this fas- anyway. MILLIONNEWTREESINNYC.

NYU / SPRING 2013 / 19 (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19) most aggressive tree planting in New York City’s history, Mona- co explains: “We knew that we needed people to care about this.” Many do care because of the IN NYC case Monaco has made to show how beneficial our vertical friends can be. Absorbing storm water, capturing carbon, providing shade, reducing energy use, and cooling the air are just some of the posi-

tives trees provide. It’s a lesson MEATBALL OBSESSION PETE’S CANDY STORE that Monaco learned well while interning over several summers for NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. The experience left her wanting to make a great impact— not just to help the city act “green- the insider er,” but literally to be greener. “I’d love for more people to recognize that if you invest in these few sim- ple steps of watering, making sure the soil is not compacted, and FORBIDDEN PLANET planting flowers to show that dogs ought not go to the bathroom on NYU FACULTY, STAFF, AND ALUMNI the tree beds—the trees will give BEST OFFER UP THEIR FAVORITES back so much,” explains Monaco, who received the 2012 Frederick by Renée Alfuso / CAS ’06 O’Reilly Hayes Prize for her work OF NEWYORK NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN with MillionTrees. Every street tree planted comes with a two-year maintenance GEEK OUT OVER COMICS OR GET OUT INTO NATURE (CAS ’13), president of NYU’s VERMEULEN M. IVO © KRAUSE; TIMOTHY © SUNG; EVAN © COTTI; CHANCE JOHN © LEFT: FROM CLOCKWISE PHOTOS aquatic plant life and tropical rain lations at NYU. “It’s a delicious 510 SIXTH AVENUE, for writers when the POETRY guarantee by a MillionTrees con- THIS SPRING Community Agriculture Club. forests. The garden is also home to blend of Italian-American cooking 212-260-8646; PROJECT was established there in tractor, and free education pro- So when the environmental stud- the city’s only freshwater river. and urban convenience.” WWW.MEATBALLOBSESSION.COM 1966. With a heritage that includes grams allow community members NERDVANA Ketchum still gets nostalgic when ies major needs inspiration, she “The Bronx River is very calm- The secret to Meatball Obses- Allen Ginsberg, John Ashbery, to pitch in during the trees’ criti- Enter through a door adorned he strolls through the new, ex- heads to the NEW YORK BOTAN- ing,” Mokrzycki explains. “It’s sion’s authentic taste is the owner’s BARS AND BARDS and Adrienne Rich, Rohrer ex- cal first three to five years. Though with Captain America’s shield panded 3,400-square-foot space ICAL GARDEN. Opened in 1891, nice to breathe misty river air in- family recipe: Dan Mancini uses “I love how poetry gives us this plains: “Everyone who is anyone Hurricane Sandy took down more while under the watchful eye of or talks to the eager staff. There the 250-acre garden contains stead of exhaust fumes.” his grandmother’s Sunday Sauce, thing between people that is time- has read there.” Today, the Poet- than 10,000 trees citywide last a life-size Terminator endoskele- are items for every type of fan— more than a million plants—from 2900 SOUTHERN BOULEVARD slow-cooked in cast-iron pots, just less—literally, this thing we can ry Project hosts writing work- fall, Monaco was relieved that it ton, and it becomes obvious that from Batman T-shirts to StarWars magnolias and cherry blossoms to IN THE BRONX, 718-817-8700; like she taught him as a kid grow- get from people who are long dead shops and special events like its was primarily the oldest and most FORBIDDENPLANET is geek statuettes and Game of Thrones over 600 varieties of roses. “The WWW.NYBG.ORG ing up in Bay Ridge. The Parme- and still speaking to us,” poet annual New Year’s Day Marathon vulnerable that were lost in the heaven. Beyond its vast selection posters. Plus, it’s one of the only garden offers a biodiverse land- san dipping bread is perfect for Matthew Rohrer says. When he’s Reading, which features more storm, while newly planted trees of comics, action figures, gam- places in the country that carries scape that can’t be found even in MANGIA ON THE RUN sopping up sauce, while artisanal not teaching at NYU’s Creative than 140 speakers over 11 hours. held their ground. It also empha- ing, and apparel, the shop also Doctor Who Magazine from the larger green spaces like Central When Italian cuisine meets the fast toppings like fresh mozzarella Writing Program, one of his fa- Past participants have included sized the importance of building boasts one of the world’s largest United Kingdom. Park,” Mokrzycki says. “It’s sort pace of city life, the result is old- pearls, sautéed red peppers, and vorite places to catch live poetry Philip Glass, Patti Smith, William bigger soil beds to absorb storm collections of manga and graphic 832 BROADWAY NEAR UNION of like a museum for plants.” world taste right in a cup. MEAT- mini ravioli keep customers want- is PETE’S CANDY STORE in S. Burroughs, Yoko Ono, and water, a crucial step in largely novels—with more than 50,000 SQUARE, 212-473-1576; Visitors can explore the un- BALLOBSESSION forgoes the ing seconds. The shop serves Ital- Williamsburg. The bar’s intimate Rohrer—who describes the epic concrete areas. But Monaco was volumes. “New York City is WWW.FPNYC.COM spoiled forest with its cascading tablecloths in favor of a walk-up ian ciabatta pockets from Hudson backroom is done up like a train experience as “intense and excit- perhaps most heartened by the blessed with a bounty of fantastic waterfall or take a guided tour of window serving all-natural meat- Bread bakery for meatball sand- car, where poets take the stage ing to be a part of. And also over- many residents who displayed re- comic shops, but my default is BRONX BLOOMERS the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, balls that can be enjoyed with a wiches, and cannoli from Artuso while “passengers” sip cocktails. whelming.” morse over the loss of beloved Forbidden Planet,” says Daniel “We tend to draw boundaries which each year hosts the largest spoon or on a sandwich. “You Pastry, near Arthur Avenue in the But one of the city’s most storied 709 LORIMER STREET IN neighborhood trees in the wake Ketchum (GAL ’06), associate between nature and the city, [but] exhibition of orchids in the Unit- think of pasta and meatballs as this Bronx, for dessert. Meatball Ob- literary sites lies, of course, in the BROOKLYN, 718-302-3770; of Sandy. “We’re grateful for peo- editor at Marvel Comics whose realizing that they exist together ed States. As the nation’s biggest sit-down family meal, but this session also offers free delivery— East Village. WWW.PETESCANDYSTORE.COM ple who appreciate their trees,” current titles include X-Men: will bring us closer to developing Victorian glasshouse, the conser- could be a delicacy right in the further proof that home-style St. Mark’s Church-in-the- 131 EAST 10TH STREET, she says, “and we’re doing our Legacy and Uncanny Avengers.A a sustainable urban environ- vatory hosts 11 distinct habitats— middle of the day,” says James De- comfort food doesn’t have to slow Bowery has been around since 212-674-0910; best to replant them.” regular since his NYU days, ment,” says Nikki Mokrzycki from cactus-laden deserts to vitt, deputy director for media re- you down. 1799, but it became a sanctuary WWW.POETRYPROJECT.ORG

20 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 21 photography UTE CULT MANONTHESTREET

PHOTOGRAPHERLENSPEIERCAPTURESMORETHAN depicts an elderly, homeless “amazingly fluid.” And so, his “Bus SEVENDECADESOFNEWYORKERS African-American woman sitting Series” was born. Seated on a side against a graffiti-ridden building in bench, using a small digital camera, lower with the words he has captured spontaneous and by Naomi Howell / GAL ’14 “Fight Racism” most prominent. poignantscenesofcitylife:twosis- “Hooded Figure in Snow,” a lone- ters in matching outfits, an elegant en Speier (LAW ’52) where his goal was always the same: News has taken him as far as Chi- ly, haunting image he shot from his old woman, a father saddled with was one of the last “Confronting the ordinary person, na, France, and England. Upper West Side apartment, shows three sleeping children. The latter young men to be doing their ordinary things, in a, Born in 1927 to a working-class a dark silhouette of a person walk- imagewonfirstprizeintheSalma- L called to serve in hopefully, magical way.” Jewish family in the Bronx, Speier ing atop a wintry hill in Central gundi Club art contest, and the fa- World War II. The Speierfoundplentyofmagicon developed an early awareness of so- Park. The photo was used on the ther—to whom Speier sent a copy bombshadalreadydroppedonHi- the streets of New York. He was cial issues, calling out family mem- cover of an Australian novel, The of the photo—thanked him for roshima and Nagasaki, and the em- particularly drawn to what he calls bers who expressed racism, which Book Thief. Another classic New “the most beautiful picture of my peror had surrendered by the time “the blending of architecture, de- he considered as insidious as the York photo depicts five elderly family I have ever seen.” he was assigned to Asaka, Japan. sign, and social consciousness.” For anti-Semitism he had experienced. women perched on a grungy stoop, Speier rarely informs the sub- Speier was quickly promoted to surrounded by shopping bags. jectuntilafterhe’stakentheirpho- corporal and worked as a clerk in In 2003, Speier suffered a tos—amethodthathashelpedhim the division’s adjutant general’s of- By riding the bus through stroke, leaving him with balance capture New Yorkers at their most fice there. In his free time, he ex- Manhattan with his camera, issues and unable to carry much candid moments for decades. “I try plored, always with his camera, equipment. One day, he climbed not to disturb the elements I see,” snapping images of everyday 85-year-old Speier has captured aboard the M5 bus in Manhattan he says. “I try to become an agent Japanese citizens. In one such pho- spontaneous and award-winning and soaked in the atmosphere. He of design, art, truth, things like tograph, boys play sandlot baseball found the characters inspiring and that. When it happens, I’m very in a ruined Tokyo street. Though scenes of city life. the opportunity to snap pictures happy.” UR the brutality of war was still fresh, Speier says that he came to devel- Speier, “architecture” is not about His activist inclinations later led SPEIER’SDECADESOF NEWYORKCITYPHOTOS op a “compassion [for the Japanese physical structures; rather, it’s the to working with the NAACP’s INCLUDE(CLOCKWISEFROM that] never left me.” emotional environment he sees his ACT-SO cultural program, where RIGHT): “5TH AVE PARADE, That sensibility followed him subjects occupying. “People are he was photography coach to mi- SPEIER LEN COURTESY PHOTOS BELUSHI MASKS” (1986); “DADPLUSTHREE, back to New York, where he fin- unaware they place themselves in nority high school students. It also BUS SERIES” (2011); ished college, and then NYU Law an architecture, a situation,” Speier instilled in Speier, who got his first AND“HOODEDFIGURE School. Speier started a private says. “I like to find those, see that, camera at age 13, an urge to “make IN SNOW” (1972). practice as a commercial trial and create for them what they a comment about the human con- but couldn’t shake his love of being don’t even realize they’re a part dition.” One of his favorite photos behind the lens. So after shifting his of.”Hispicturescannowbefound specialty to intellectual property, in the permanent collections of the and continuing to take photos all Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the while, he began to teach a class the Museum of the City of New at the New School: What Every York, the International Center of Photographer Should Know About Photography, and the photo the Law. As his portfolio grew, he archive of the New York Public went on to teach photographic le- Library. He has also been widely gal procedures at the Fashion Insti- exhibited—after a recent retro- tute of Technology, as well as spective at NYU’s Kimmel Cen- courses on black-and-white pho- ter, Speier is preparing for a solo tography, the darkroom, and print- show of his work at Calumet Pho- ing. By the 1970s, Speier had vastly tographic this spring. And his com- reduced his legal practice and was mercial work for Random House, immersed in street photography, Forbes magazine, and Eyewitness

NYU / SPRING 2013 / 23 ARILIPKIS(LEFT)ANDALEXAHN, BOTH 24, QUIT THEIR JOBS TO OPEN ATRIBECAGALLERYFORUP-AND- COMINGARTISTS. UTE CULT

selves, like many of their friends, too insignificant in the industry CREDITS to have any impact. So over a drink, the duo decided to stop UR “bemoaning the difficulty of be- ALUMNIWINBIG ingyoungintheartworld,”and to do something bold.

Fortune struck when a family At this year’s Academy Awards, life tragedy Fruitvale, starring AWARDS ACADEMY THE AND A.M.P.A.S. © PHOTO friend of Ahn loaned them the ANGLEE (TSOA ’84, HON ’01) MELONIEDIAZ (TSOA ’08), space to use for a year (hence the won Best Director for Life of Pi, while The Spectacular Now’s MILES name, TEMP). Paying no rent while Argo, executive produced by TELLER (TSOA’09)wonthedra- and using personal savings, they DAVID KLAWANS (TSOA ’91), matic Special Jury Award for Act- quit their jobs and taught them- took home Best Picture… TONY ing. Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, selves the basics of installing art- KUSHNER’s (TSOA ’84) Lincoln starring ROONEY MARA (GAL ’10) work and drafting legal contracts. earned him a nod for Best Adapt- as a young Texas outlaw, was also The NYU art scene network ed Screenplay, while LUCY nominated in the U.S. Dramatic then helped them find plenty of ALIBAR (TSOA ’05) was nomi- Competition. —Renée Alfuso options for their first exhibition, nated in the same cate- “Working On It,” which opened gory for co-writing the bayou fable Beasts of gallery last fall and showcased 12 artists chosen “because their art reflect- the Southern Wild… ed the new culture of today,” PHILIPSEYMOUR Ahn says. The show’s inventory HOFFMAN (TSOA made it clear that no one style or ’89) also scored a Best subject defines the new genera- Supporting Actor nod HIGH ART,YOUNG DUDES tion. One wall featured Dean for playing the titular Levin’s “So Series,” which of- cult-leader role in The fered pastel-colored word bub- Master… Meanwhile at A TEMPORARY SPACE FOR THE bles with phrases such as So the Primetime Emmy NEXT GENERATION Chill!, So Down!, and So Cool! Awards, Modern Fami- The opposite wall featured Sandy ly was named Out- by Alyson Krueger / GSAS ’12 Kim’s expressive photos of, standing Comedy among others, a naked woman Series for the third with Xs taped across her nipples. straight year, with gold

alking into tysomethings dressed in thick glass- offering unknowns the opportuni- lite location when these kids hit SPACE ART TEMP COURTESY PHOTO Julia Robinson, who teaches art TEMP’s next show consisted statuettes going to TEMP, a new es and hoodies is a far cry from the ty to curate exhibitions and pro- 30.” And Lipkis and Ahn were history at NYU, are invested in of mini exhibitions set up by con- writer-producers art space in cliché image of “uptown” gallery duce shows. At its core, TEMP giddy last fall because an art critic helping TEMP grow their net- temporary arts collectives across PAUL CORRIGAN Tribeca that regulars. Finally, there are TEMP’s gives the “nameless” artist a forum from The New York Times had just work. “What is really great about the world, including Videotage (TSOA ’94), BRAD W WALSH promotes young 24-year-old founders, Ari Lipkis to strut. been in touch. The Independent the art world is that it is very (Hong Kong), Matadero Madrid, (TSOA ’94), talent, one can’t help but think: (CAS ’11) and Alex Ahn (CAS And people are noticing. Art- Curators International and the much a community,” Ahn says. and the Raw Material Company and BILLWRUBEL This is different. ’11), who are as eccentric as their TEMP was born out of Lip- (Dakar). Not surprisingly, young (TSOA ’94). Outstand- First, there is the art—all made exhibits. Lipkis, a smiley, bow-tie kis and Ahn’s post-graduate artists and curators have rushed ing Miniseries or or curated by up-and-comers un- wearing Manhattan native, and his “What is really great about the frustration. They both majored in as word has spread about the Movie went to the der the age of 30—which is some- colleague, Ahn, a petite Los Ange- in art history at NYU and co- experiment, so finding new tal- HBO political drama times hard to distinguish inside the leno, run around hugging visitors art world is that it is very much chaired the Fine Arts Society, ent isn’t an issue. The better Game Change, pro- cavernous two-story, 4,500- warmly and giggling. a community,” TEMP which organized behind-the- question is what happens this Au- duced by AMY SAYRES square-foot space of exposed brick If all TEMP did was display the co-founder Alex Ahn says. scenes looks at the city’s most gustwhenTEMPisscheduledto (TSOA ’76) and and iron piping. On a recent visit, work of young artists, it would prestigious art spaces. But once shutitsdoors.Ahnishopefulthat written by Tisch ad- a patron helped explain that the stand out. The financial and repu- they finished school and got the ride isn’t over. “Maybe there junct professor DANNY video of the sleeping girl on tational risks of taking on untried info, an online guide to what’s hot Contemporary Arts Centre, the jobs—Lipkis as an aide to an in- will be a TEMP 2,” he suggests. STRONG… The dra- the train was art, but the bicycle artists are so high that most insti- in art, has featured TEMP twice. largest art hub in the Baltic states, dependent art collector and Ahn “Or maybe the landlord will be matic Grand Jury Prize in the corner was just someone’s tutionssimplydon’tdoit.ButLip- The Huffington Post declared: have worked with the gallery on asamemberofatechstart-upin generous and let us extend our at the Sundance Film ANGLEE ride.Andthecrowdofearlytwen- kis and Ahn go even further by “Here’s betting on a Chelsea satel- exhibitions, and scholars such as Dumbo—they found them- lease.” Festival went to true-

24 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 25 memoir GROTH AND JOSEPH MITCHELL, KREMENTZ JILL © PHOTO That same warmth and humor cation, six months into the job, bibliofile AT THE NEW YORKER’S 50TH- is well on display in her memoir, she abruptly found herself back at ANNIVERSARY PARTY, WERE when she tells of the poet John reception. The art director never INSUBORDINATE SPIRIT: A TRUE In 1631, Elizabeth Winthrop landed CLOSE FRIENDS DURING STORY OF LIFE AND LOSS IN in Boston—widowed, with an infant THE LATTER’S YEARS OF Berryman proposing marriage warmed to her, she knew at the EARLIEST AMERICA, 1610-1665 in arms. Niece and daughter-in- WRITER’S BLOCK. and of how she lost both her heart time; only later did she realize her and virginity to an unnamed New lack of success might also have (GLOBE PEQUOT PRESS) law of John Winthrop, governor of Arthur Getz (who used Yorker cartoonist who misled her had to do with the unexpected MISSY WOLFE the Massachusetts Bay Colony, her likeness in one of about marital intent. In one high- return of a former favored assis- SCPS ’12 she lived at the center of hostili- his New Yorker cover ly evocative chapter, Groth de- tant, “a woman I shall call Bren- ties between the English and illustrations), shared tails her “innocent yet not quite da, who…thought nothing of Dutch, their brutal attacks on IN the Munsees, and the natives’ “stiff ” with PRINT innocent” relationship with the going to bed with the boss,” Pauline Kael, gave direc- writer Joseph Mitchell, whose Groth writes. reprisals. Testing the boundaries tions to Woody Allen acquaintance began one evening A measure of melancholy as for Puritan women, she would go who was always getting on the F train, when she was well as mature acceptance and on to birth eight children from off on the wrong floor, headed to a graduate seminar on gratitude pervades the text. Yet three different marriages, help and dyed Easter eggs with Elizabethan lyric at NYU and he redemption, both personal and found Greenwich, Connecticut, as Calvin Trillin’s daugh- to his Greenwich Village home. professional, did come for a rare female landowner, serve as ters. But Groth also turns Soon thereafter the two forged an Groth—and long before publica- apothecary and midwife, and a critical but kind eye intimate connection, sharing lines tion of this memoir. She left The somehow find time for all those upon her youthful strug- from James Joyce’s story “The New Yorker in 1978 to start what 17th-century chores—from tan- gles, grappling with her Dead” over drinks at a writers’ would become a successful aca- ning hides to churning butter. In own reticence, personal hangout called Costello’s. From demic career. While at the mag- matrimony, she variously suffered missteps, and the “shame 1972 until 1978, Mitchell took azine, she had pursued a doctorate a drunk and a madman—and was of the writer who does- her to lunch every week, typical- in English literature at NYU, a nearly executed for adultery. Mis- n’t write.” ly on Fridays, where they often degree that required 15 years to sy Wolfe’s richly detailed account, The reaction from discussed his writing—a signifi- complete as she took one class at drawn from research in regional TALK OF the crowd to which she archives, should appeal to schol- cant topic in these years when he a time. A professor emeritus at ars and amateur historians alike. once aspired has been struggled with writer’s block and SUNY Plattsburg, Groth has au- celebratory: The New published nothing. But the rela- thored or co-authored four pre- —Nicole Pezold York Times covered her tionship, launched over Joyce, vious books, including an book launch last sum- would ultimately end, its demise award-winning critical assessment THETOWN mer, a packed affair at foretold in a disagreement over of Edmund Wilson. Academic the National Arts Club E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, which life brought its own challenges, DARE ME Don’t be fooled by the pom-poms A FORMER RECEPTIONIST REFLECTS on Gramercy Park. (REAGAN ARTHUR BOOKS) and ponytails: Megan Abbott’s ON LIFE AT THE NEW YORKER Writers Trillin, Rebecca MEGAN ABBOTT latest novel unravels the knotted Mead, and Mark Singer Groth turns a critical but kind GSAS ’96, ’00 truths in the lives of high school by Andrea Crawford of The New Yorker have eye upon her youthful struggles, girls and the often cruel world of interviewed her at events cheerleading. Team captain Beth in bookstores and li- grappling with her own reticence, Cassidy and her loyal sidekick, n 1957, when Janet Groth common vantage on the lives of braries around New York City. missteps, and the “shame of the Addy Hanlon, rule the squad until walked into the offices of the legendary figures she encoun- Garrison Keillor appeared with new coach Colette French arrives. The New Yorker magazine tered during that time. Now Groth her in St. Paul, Minnesota, calling writer who doesn’t write.” When the coach dethrones Beth, a I on West 43rd Street for the (GSAS ’68, ’82) has gathered her the memoir the best of an impres- string of risky, power-hungry first time, she was a 19-year- stories into a new book, The Re- sive lot of such books. she liked and he did not. but she avers, “There’s nothing behavior engulfs the team and old, Iowa-born, Minnesota-bred ceptionist: An Education at The New “It really does feel like some While full of such anecdotes, more noble, more wonderful, and their new leader—and a suspicious college graduate with literary am- Yorker (Algonquin), published last kind of validation, some late grad- Groth’s memoir is also a forth- more rewarding than a professo- suicide leaves the town in shock. bitions. During her interview— summer and to be released in pa- uation from something or other right appraisal of young ambition, rial career.” Touching upon readers’ memories with no less an interlocutor than perback in June. With graceful into—well, I’m terribly afraid pretense, and disappointment. Nevertheless, the publication of of tender, turbulent adolescence, E.B. White himself—she said that prose and rich details gleaned from there’s no place else to go except Groth aspired to but never got to her first nonacademic book has Abbott’s newest story is heart- she wanted “to write, of course, years of copious journal keeping, the angelic choir,” says Groth, write for the magazine. After a been heralded as a late-in-life liter- racing and raw. Publishers Weekly but would be glad to do anything she writes of attending cocktail from her Upper East Side studio year and a half behind the recep- ary debut. And Groth has found called it “a gut-churning tale of in the publishing field.” The mag- parties with “a crowd that had apartment. On this particular day, tionist’s desk, she received a pro- such delight in her newfound revenge, power, desire, and friend- azine granted that meager wish by learned to drink in the twenties she was surrounded by flowers that motion as an assistant in the art celebrity that the angelic choir may ship…in which even the perky flip installing Groth at the reception and…was hard at it still”—and, at had arrived for her 76th birthday. department, following in the just have to wait. She hints that a of a cheerleader’s skirt holds men- desk, where she stayed for the one such occasion, of being sub- She spoke with the husky voice of footsteps of Truman Capote. But sequel to The Receptionist, taking ace.” The New York Times review next two decades. jected to the infamous scorn of a mid-century film siren, laughing the promotion, her last, was short- readers beyond her New Yorker gushed: “It’s Heathers meets Fight The position gave her an un- Dorothy Parker. She modeled for often at herself. lived. Upon returning from a va- years, may well be on the horizon. Club good.” —Naomi Howell

NYU / SPRING 2013 / 27 Rossetti, managing editor of the collection be included in the LAL series date excerpt series, which is being published from before the dawn of printing by NYU Press. in Arabic, producing new edi- The series may be read as a re- tions involves the painstaking IN FOUNDINTRANSLATION sponse in part to a recent uptick work of tracking down and study- PRINT in interest among English readers, ing original manuscripts. An ANEWSERIESBRINGSTHEARABICCLASSICS post-9/11, in the language and eight-member editorial board of TO ENGLISH READERS culture of the Arabic world. Arabic and Islamic studies schol- Kennedy and Rossetti envision ars from various universities meets that one day it may serve as a kind twice a year to oversee the selec- by Eileen Reynolds / GSAS ’11 of Arabic analogue to Harvard tion, editing, and translation of University Press’s renowned these texts. Some stories might From Baseball as a Road to God: nd nearness brings on tribal politics, the rigors of tastes are hardly representative of a Geert Jan van Gelder, was released Loeb Classical Library of Greek seem familiar: “A Visit to Heav- no boredom to my desert life, and, of course, the ago- rich literary tradition that includes in December. Two others— Seeing Beyond the Game by NYU “ longing, / nor nies of love, Dhu l-Rummah and everything from theological trea- A Treasury of Virtues, a collection President John Sexton with Thomas A does the love for his predecessors—beginning in the tises to ribald tales. Now, a group of sayings and teachings attributed Producing new editions Oliphant and Peter J. Schwartz: her leave me when 6th century, with an oral tradition of scholars led by Philip F. to ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin and she has left,” an anguished poet stretching back even earlier—de- Kennedy, associate professor of son-in-law of the prophet involves the painstaking work student in my class once asked declares. “She is my cure and sick- veloped a system of meter and Middle Eastern and Islamic stud- Muhammad, and 9th-century of tracking down and studying [eminent historian] Doris [Kearns ness, and her memory my care; / rhyme as complex as anything ies, has set out to fill that gap by legal scholar Muhammad ibn Idris original manuscripts. but for the painful distance, pas- within the European literary building a comprehensive library al-Shafi’i’s The Epistle on Legal Goodwin], “Given your experience sion dies.” canon. of classical Arabic works. The Li- Theory, believed to be the oldest Aand knowing what you know now, if it Oh, woe is he! But owing to the difficulty of brary of Arabic Literature (LAL) surviving document on Islamic and Latin literature—the idea be- en and Hell,” an excerpt from the The poet’s affliction is a famil- translation, this poetry has re- —an NYU Abu Dhabi Intitute jurisprudence—followed in Feb- ing that future generations of satirical The Epistle of Forgiveness all played out again, would you want the Dodgers iar one, but his identity—to Eng- mained, like most premodern Ara- project—will present some 35 vol- ruary. “Part of our aim for the se- English readers will now be able by 11th-century writer Abu to remain in Brooklyn?” At first, the question lish readers, at least—might come bic works, virtually unknown to umes ranging from pre-Islamic po- ries is to publish broadly in the to study the Arabic classics along- l-‘Ala’ al-Ma‘arri, is considered struck me as ridiculous. Dodger fans were devas- side Homer and Cicero. by some as a forerunner to Dante’s The first offering, van Divine Comedy. tated by the move, an open wound that more than Gelder’s anthology, Classical Ara- Al-Ma‘arri’s work has con- half a century later still pains many in the bor- bic Literature, provides a sampling temporary resonance as well. The ough and beyond. of the wide array of themes and writer’s Syrian homeland has genres that will be covered in beeninthenewsalotlately.“We But upon reflection, I realized that the question the larger series, including wine hear about the Arab Spring, but is profound. As did Doris, who considered the rip- poems,popularscience,andeven it’s important to balance political ple effect. Assuredly, if the Dodgers had stayed, erotica. Though the authors news with more of this,” of the pieces in the anthology Kennedy says. That’s not to say she would not have converted [to an ardent Red lived hundreds of years ago, Ros- that Arabic literature can provide Sox fan], and therefore she would not have forged setti notes that their chosen “top- easy answers to thorny 21st-cen- the connection with her sons that the Red Sox de- ics are also very recognizable: tury questions about power and love, petty annoyances, human peace. Rossetti warns against the livered. The great memories of Red Sox Nation— relations.” tendency to “read Arabic as sort celebrating dramatic October wins—would be Some of the works, such as of a sociological text—as some- Egyptian writer Ahmad al- thing that can inform contempo- wiped away. Then, the Dodgers themselves would Tifashi’s “The Young Girl and rary politics.” Instead, he says, be seen differently—as today’s team rather than the Dough Kneader,” which van the series will have succeeded as the special team that left (our team that left); Gelder describes as a “moderate- when people begin reading Ara- ly pornographic” story designed bic literature the way they read for the leaving is part of what made New York’s to “simulate the girl’s breathless Russian or French poetry and Golden Age of baseball special. monologue,” will no doubt raise prose in translation—“as real lit- ANEXCERPTFROMJOSEPHE.LOWRY’SEDITANDTRANSLATIONOF THEEPISTLEONLEGALTHEORY BY AL-SHAFI’I. After a long pause, Doris answered. eyebrows—which the editors erature with its own merits.” as a surprise. He was not a chival- English readers. For the nonfluent, etry to a 19th-century proto-novel various different fields that consti- paused to consider. “Some read- Kennedy shares the sentiment: “No,” she said, with equal parts certitude and rous Arthurian knight or lovesick fleeting encounters with Arabic with Arabic alongside the English tute Arabic heritage: literature, ers might prefer not to encounter “I envision the series being a regret. Then, ever the historian, she added, “The Elizabethan dandy, but rather the literature have historically come in the bawdy and erotic in a repre- translation on facing pages. belles lettres, law, history, biogra- physical thing, where you can nostalgia and memories are purer this way.” 8th-century bard Dhu l-Rummah, the form of translations of the Ko- The first book in the series, an phy, travel literature, geographical sentation of Arabic literature,” walk into a bookstore and see considered by Arabic scholars to ran or, perhaps, hackneyed adapta- anthology of classic works select- literature, theology—a broad ar- Kennedy says. “We just want, those rows of books—and peo-

be the last of the great Islamic tions of stories from One Thousand ed and translated by University of ray of what was written back in and feel obligated, to be honest.” ple can see that there’s this huge PUBLISHEDBYARRANGEMENTWITHGOTHAMBOOKS,AMEMBEROFPENGUIN Bedouin desert poets. Reflecting and One Nights. But these small Oxford Arabic professor emeritus the premodern era,” says Chip Because most of the works to tradition.” GROUP (USA), INC. COPYRIGHT © 2013 BY JOHN SEXTON.

28 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 29 a spring day in 2010, “Sandra,” then a 63-year- On old ice-skating instructor Trip to the Doctor with short graying hair and an impish smile, received her diagnosis: ovarian cancer, stage 1C. The rock-hard tumor Once taboo, psychedelics are making growing inside her abdomen was surgically an enlightening medical comeback removed almost immediately. She spent the next several months soldiering through by Jennifer Bleyer exhausting rounds of chemotherapy. Oddly, it was only once she was in remission that

Photographs by Matthew Septimus the worst began. Sandra found herself crippled with anxiety. An online support group for ovarian cancer patients exacerbated her worry as other women warned that it was not a question of if but when her cancer would return. She ate compulsively, which compounded her fear—the stomach pains she got once from scarfing down an entire bag of Halloween candy felt like a sure sign that the cancer was back. In the days leading up to her regular oncology appointments, she nearly hyperventilated with terror. On one such visit to the NYU Cancer Institute last spring, Sandra mentioned her anxiety to a nurse practitioner who told her about an unusual research project happening at the university. It was a study to assess the potential of psilocybin—a psychoactive compound found naturally in a wide variety of mushrooms—to alleviate psychological distress in cancer patients. Once in her college days, Sandra had tried mescaline, a psychedelic found in peyote and other cacti, and experienced a bad trip. She had felt trapped in a waking nightmare that didn’t end for nearly 24 hours, until someone gave her some Thorazine to force her to sleep. The idea of taking a similar drug made her nervous, but her anxiety was so crushing she had little to lose. That was how she came to be lying on a couch a few months later in a warm, silent room at the Bluestone Center for Clinical Research, a drug trial facility within NYU’s College of Dentistry. Wearing eyeshades and headphones, Sandra sensed herself being launched into a dark, infinite void. It was terrifying. She felt as if she was trapped in the hold of a ship, tossing Patients in the NYU violently in a storm. A panicked thought Psilocybin Cancer crossed her mind: Am I breathing? She Anxiety Study begin their forced herself to moan as she exhaled just hallucinatory experience to make sure that she wasn’t suffocating. wearing eyeshades and headphones as Soon, Sandra saw her own body. There doctors encourage was a black mass beneath her rib cage. She them to bear witness steeled herself and confronted the mass, to an inner world.

30 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 31 recognizing it immediately as a vivid medicine at NYU, and the director of the accounts, however, their entry into modern became synonymous with everything that In an act nodding to manifestation of her own fear. Her fury Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse psychiatry didn’t begin until April 19, culturally earth-shattering era came to indigenous cultures that use psychedelics, boiled over. She yelled, “Get out! I won’t be at Bellevue Hospital, found it curious that 1943, when a Swiss biochemist named represent. patients in the NYU eaten alive!” In an instant, the black mass in his many years of treating addicts, he Albert Hofmann at Sandoz Laboratories Yet alongside promises of awakening study are presented was gone. had never seen one who was addicted to ingested a tiny amount of a chemical he came apocryphal stories of young people their psilocybin pill in “Then I started thinking about my psychedelics. had synthesized called d-lysergic acid jumping off buildings and burning their a ceramic chalice. family,” she remembers. “I was just In 2006, Ross was working under diethylamide, or LSD, which the company retinas by staring at the sun. In 1969, the overwhelmed with love. Totally bathed in the supervision of Jeffrey Guss, a clinical was developing as a potential circulatory Manson family’s grisly murders and the love. It wasn’t just my love for my children assistant professor of psychiatry who had and respiratory stimulant. Hofmann’s stabbing death of a fan at a Rolling Stones and my husband and my dearest friends— a long-standing interest in spirituality and experience was indescribably powerful concert were both linked to LSD. Whatever it was their love for me. It was all part of consciousness. One day, Guss (GSAS ’05) and surreal—he was certain he had therapeutic potential psychedelics held the same thing. I felt timelessness, that mentioned something called ayahuasca, become psychotic. He went on to report faded beside their perceived danger. I was part of an eternal existence. It was a psychoactive brew derived from an it to the scientific community, which Drug panic culminated in the passage the most magical, wonderful experience Amazonian plant that was rumored to developed a keen interest. of the Controlled Substances Act of I’ve ever had in my life.” cure addiction. Ross had never heard of it, By the 1950s, Sandoz was 1970, which established the federal five- manufacturing LSD for use in experiments tiered schedule of drug classifications; across Europe and North America. psychedelics, including LSD and “I felt timelessness, that I was More than a thousand clinical reports psilocybin, were categorized as Schedule part of an eternal existence,” about psychedelic research appeared I, meaning that they had a high potential in scholarly journals from the 1950s for abuse and no accepted medical says former patient Sandra. through the early ’70s, and as Ross use. The door on psychedelic research discovered, tens of thousands of subjects effectively slammed shut. realm of research as a serious scientist with ethnic-printed pillows, shelves Even months after the psilocybin’s but their conversation piqued his interest ingested LSD and other hallucinogens and not be tarred as a freak. He sought stocked with oversize books of Tibetan immediate afterglow had worn off, Sandra and he started researching beliefs about to examine its effects on alcoholism, surprised as Ross was to out Charles Grob, the head of child art, framed landscape photographs, warm felt more patient, calm, and centered the healing power of hallucinogens. He depression, schizophrenia, autism, and unearth this chapter in and adolescent psychiatry at Harbor- pools of lamplight, Buddha figurines, and, than ever before. And somehow, her fear was shocked by what he discovered. death anxiety. In 1958, the American American psychiatry, he UCLA Medical Center, who had started on dosing days, fresh fruit and flowers. of a cancer recurrence had disappeared “I felt like an archaeologist,” Ross Psychiatric Association held a conference Aswas intrigued to learn that research had conducting psychedelic research in the Notwithstanding the lovely room, completely. says. “American psychiatry looked very highlighting LSD psychotherapy, which quietly begun again. It started as a trickle mid ’90s. “He seemed like such a nice, psilocybin does present risks. Although seriously into the therapeutic applicability was thought to offer unprecedented in the early 1990s, when a psychiatrist normal guy who lived in the suburbs,” it is not known to induce addiction, only thing that Stephen of hallucinogen treatment models for access to the unconscious. Time and Life at the University of New Mexico got Ross says. “Not some fringe character.” overdose, or withdrawal symptoms, some Ross learned about a quarter century. There were tens of magazines covered the drug regularly and federal approval to examine the effects of With Grob’s encouragement, Ross, research has suggested it can bring about The psychedelic drugs thousands of research participants in the enthusiastically. Even the CIA developed dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, a powerful Guss, and another colleague, Anthony prolonged psychosis in people with a during his training as a psychiatrist United States, and my field of addiction an interest in the drug, testing its psychedelic that occurs throughout Bossis (GSAS ’91), a clinical assistant personal or family history of major mental was that they were highly dangerous. and alcohol was the most studied capabilities for mind control on unwitting the botanical world, on hundreds of professor of psychiatry and a palliative illness, so such patients are carefully A particularly bad taboo enveloped indication. And here it was, completely subjects as part of a covert operation volunteers. Soon, other scientists were care expert, joined together to propose screened out of the study. In the session LSD because it was known to trigger buried and suppressed.” called Project MKUltra. granted licenses for human subject a double-blind, placebo-controlled study itself, there may be some physical side psychosis. Yet Ross, a trim 42-year-old Indigenous cultures had used As psychedelic research proliferated, studies of Schedule I drugs, including Captionof psilocybin here n this treatment size and style.for anxiety Caption in here n effects, such as nausea, dizziness, and associate professor of psychiatry, child psychedelics for millennia as sources another avenue developed that would psilocybin and MDMA, the club drug thislate-stage size and style.cancer patients. In early tremors, but the more pronounced and adolescent psychiatry, and oral of divination and ritual healing. By all change the course of history. In 1960, two better known as Ecstasy. 2007, they received an investigational hazards are psychological. Periods of psychologists based at Harvard, Timothy Interesting results began to emerge. drug license from the Food and Drug transient anxiety can occur as patients PHOTO © MARTIN BOND/ALAMY Leary and Richard Alpert (now known At the Johns Hopkins University School of Administration and the Drug Enforcement navigate the challenging psychological as Ram Dass), initiated the Harvard Medicine, for instance, a controlled study Administration, as well as approvals from material related to cancer. More extreme Psilocybin Project to test its mental and of psilocybin concluded that not only was NYU’s Institutional Review Board and reactions, such as paranoia and panic, emotional effects, but their study had little it safe when administered in a structured Oncology Protocol Review and Monitoring can occur, but are rare and safeguarded of the rigor of others. Leary and Alpert environment, but that it reliably induces Committee. Although they were met against through careful preparation and dispensed the drug freely to cultural a mystical experience that can improve with some skepticism, Ross was struck a highly structured therapy session, celebrities and undergraduates in scenes psychological well-being over an extended by the degree of open-mindedness they much of which is influenced by the that more closely resembled parties period of time. More than three-quarters encountered given the controversial rituals of indigenous cultures that utilize than medical trials. And, of course, they of subjects who received a single 30 nature of the drug involved. “I would often psychedelic medicines. took it as well. It wasn’t long before local milligram dose of psilocybin reported that [hear] chuckles and laughs and, ‘I was a Subjects start with a series of authorities, and Harvard’s administration, it was one of the top five most meaningful child of the ’60s. I get it,’ ” he says. meetings with a male-female therapist caught wind of their recklessness and experiences of their lives, and 94 percent dyad to build trust, establish familiarity, Ninety-four percent of patients in one study halted the project. Leary and Alpert were said it had increased their sense of well- the NYU and set intentions. On the dosing day— said just one dose of eventually fired. being or life satisfaction 14 months after Psilocybin there is one for placebo and one for the psilocybin, a psychoactive Leary became infamous as a they’d taken it once. Almost none reported Today, Cancer real thing, set seven weeks apart—a small compound found in a psychedelic pied piper advocating negative changes in mood, behavior, or Anxiety Study is conducted in a serene container of psilocybin synthesized in a variety of mushrooms, had increased their the unfettered use of LSD to expand self-regard. space that seems more like someone’s government-monitored laboratory and sense of well-being consciousness. The drug fueled the Ross was fascinated but still living room than part of a bustling weighed daily according to strict DEA even 14 months after youth movements of the 1960s and unconvinced that one could enter this research clinic. There’s a couch strewn regulations is taken from an 800-pound they’d taken it.

32 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 33 people transcend their most primal fears. Such was the case with Patrick. One of the study’s earliest participants, Patrick was a successful, vibrant media professional who was 51 when diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a malignant cancer in the bile duct. The odds were against him, yet he approached his treatment with extraordinary determination and courage. After a secondary metastasis showed up in his lungs in 2008, he joined the NYU study. Bossis was one of Patrick’s two therapists, and he grows emotional recalling the transformation he witnessed The NYU Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study in his patient. “He was lying down saying team (from left): Jeffrey Guss, Gabrielle Agin- profound things about life, love, and the Liebes, Stephen Ross, and Anthony Bossis. place he was going,” Bossis recalls. “He’s experiencing infinite consciousness and safe. Twenty milligrams of powder, an The biggest mystery of all is how it crying, and you’re right there watching amount precisely judged to increase the works. Advanced neuroimaging studies this, and he walks out a different person. likelihood of a mystical experience, are have recently shown that the drug It was my proudest day as a psychologist, measured and pressed into a pill, which suppresses activity in the part of the brain and I’ve been in the field a while.” subjects swallow from a ceramic chalice. associated with self-awareness, hence In the euphoric days afterward, The drug starts to take hold after the feeling of transcendent connection to Patrick described having gone on a about half an hour and the subjects are everything. journey led by his sister-in-law, who encouraged to put on eyeshades and NYU’s study results will be published had died of cancer years earlier at 43. headphones, lie down, and ride the waves in another year or so after 32 people have “The culminating scene was of him of music on a carefully curated playlist. participated (there have been 23 so far), approaching this razor point on the edge The therapists sit quietly nearby. There’s and Ross is cautiously excited about what of the universe,” says his wife, Lisa. “He often sobbing and sometimes laughter. could happen next. Should his data indeed knew he could look over the edge and see After a few hours, subjects usually remove show a correlation between a single dose what the gods see. The wind was blowing their eyeshades and start bearing witness of psilocybin and decreased cancer-related and there was tremendous light, and to the inner world they’ve traversed. anxiety, he explains, those results combined he thought, I’m not going to look there “People come out with an acceptance with data from similar studies at UCLA and because I need to go back and see Lisa.” of the cycles of life,” Bossis says. “We’re Hopkins may be enough to move forward Patrick lived another two years, born, we live, we find meaning, we love, on a Phase III drug trial, which would during which his psilocybin journey we die, and it’s all part of something involve up to 400 subjects at multiple sites remained vivid and laid the foundation for perfect and fine. The emergent themes around the country. Such a study would be deeply spiritual experiences that he and are love, and transcending the body and extremely costly and time-consuming, but if Lisa shared in his final months. It altered this existence. In oncology, we’re pretty it proves the drug’s effectiveness, psilocybin his understanding not just of his cancer, good at advancing life and targeting could be rescheduled under the Controlled but the nature of reality itself. He said it chemotherapies, but we’re not so good at Substances Act. was the second most important event of addressing deep emotional distress about “That would be historic,” Ross says. his life, after meeting his wife. Patrick died mortality. So to see someone cultivate Some researchers imagine scenarios last May, leaving behind a journal in which a sense of acceptance and meaning, beyond that, wherein psilocybin is he wrote: something that we all hope to cultivate shown to effectively counter a range of “Everything that happened, anything over a 90-year life, in six hours? It’s psychiatric ailments and issues, and and everything was centered on love. I profound.” eligible patients visit special clinics was told to not worry about the cancer. After the dosing day, patients receive around the country for treatment sessions. It’s minor in the scheme of things, simply another six hours of psychotherapy, and Though that would be many years in the an imperfection of your humanity and that therapists often suggest ways for them future, the psilocybin cancer-anxiety the more important matter, the real work to stay connected to the experience with study has already spawned the country’s to be done is before you. Again, love… meditation and mindfulness exercises. only psychedelic psychotherapy training Undoubtedly, my life has changed in ways I Ross says that some participants’ anxiety program, developed and supervised by may never fully comprehend. But I now have abated for only a few months, while for Jeffrey Guss. By this spring, 14 state- an understanding, an awareness that goes some it lasted two or three years. Almost licensed clinicians will have been trained beyond intellect, that my life, that every life, everyone said they wished they could do it in the methodology of psilocybin therapy, and all that is the universe equals one thing… again. and they’re often left awestruck watching love.”

34 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 35 THE ART OFTELEVISION

THREEREVEREDSHOWRUNNERSDESCRIBEHOWTHEYMAKE SERIOUS DRAMA BY RENÉE ALFUSO / CAS ’06 AND JASON HOLLANDER / GAL ’07

36 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 37 Winter with egendary film auteur Martin Scorsese certainly didn’t Steve Buscemi need to venture into television. But the medium— What would you say TV offers that once called “chewing gum for the mind”—proved the film can’t? best place to live out a decades-old fantasy. “I’ve Well, nowadays, just the ability to tell stories that involve characters as always dreamed of getting involved with a project opposed to cartoon figures and where characters could develop over time, almost like superheroes. The night we pre- miered in 2010, the lead-in to the way Victorian novels were written,” Scorsese Boardwalk Empire was Transformers (WSC ’64, STEINHARDT ’68, HON ’92) explained after 2, and I remember sitting there watching it and thinking: This is winning his first Emmy Award in 2011 for directing amazing—the Hollywood movie is the pilot of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, for which he is also executive producer. “I mean, people went absolutely ape this big action comic book and the shit when I killed Jimmy—I got sweeping historical epic is a televi- And so, TV could count yet another convert: “It gives you more license, and threatening posts on the Internet.” sion show, and it’s completely ass muchL more freedom.” backward. It used to be the other way around—TV was frivolous, you Indeed, ever since the hulking, panic attack-prone Tony Soprano saun- know, silliness. tered down his driveway and into our consciousness back in 1999, the rules of Have you noticed a change in TV storytelling haven’t been the same. Heroes no longer need angular jawlines dramas since working on The or righteous creeds—in fact, they’re often monsters we find ourselves rooting Sopranos? Absolutely. You can sort of draw a for. The Sopranos, along with dramas such as Six Feet Under, The Wire, Dexter, straight line from The Sopranos to Game of Thrones, Homeland, and Mad Men, has twisted the paradigm, demand- BOARDWALK EMPIRE two dozen other shows. The types of storytelling, the types of casting, the ing viewers to focus, soul-search, and empathize—at times against our better judgment—like never before. “It’s a deeper, more complex, more long-range GENSER/HBO ABBOT © ABOVE LEUNER/AMC; BEN © NICOTERO/AMC; GREG © POLAY/HBO; B. MACALL © DREAMSTIME.COM; | STEIDL JAMES © PAGE PREVIOUS PHOTOS: kind of storytelling that has led people to compare The Sopranos to War and Peace,” says Karen Hornick, who teaches the Poetics of Television at the TERENCE WINTER Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Brooklyn native Terence Winter (WSUC ’84) served as executive producer In Season 2, you killed off a major types of subject matter—that was Not so long ago, Hornick notes, “Television had a sort of justifiably bad reputation and chief writer on The Sopranos for five seasons. In 2010, he created the character, saying that anything just groundbreaking. I mean just the because it was always associated with commercialism”—hawking that certain detergent or Emmy Award-winning HBO historical drama Boardwalk Empire, which less “would have felt like a TV idea that you could cast Jim follows Atlantic City’s corrupt politician Nucky Thompson as he battles show.” Gandolfini in the lead. That’s part of car. But now good TV is a “product” itself and has found a home, most often, on cable chan- bootlegging gangsters during Prohibition. Yeah, it’s gotta feel real to me. I can why it just felt so real, and then that nels such as HBO, Showtime, AMC, and FX. This new golden age started bubbling in the tell when I’m watching something started to bleed into other shows. The show has such complex story [and] some convenient plot device happens. Keeping Jimmy Darmody alive late 1990s but came to a boil at last year’s Primetime Emmy Awards, when—for the first lines. Does that require more faith would have been exactly one of those things that would make me as a view- Some people criticized the ending time in history—there wasn’t a single broadcast-network series among the Best Drama nom- in your audience? er cringe and say, “I don’t believe these guys anymore; I don’t really believe of The Sopranos. Will that influ- I write the show assuming that the you’re a gangster because you would have killed this kid.” That was really the ence how you choose to end inees. It’s paid off financially as well. HBO, for example, grew its subscribers from 24 to 30 audience is intelligent, adult, curi- only way out, and I just wouldn’t have been able to live with the false story- Boardwalk Empire? million over the past 14 years, and the network earned about $4 billion in 2010—account- ous, maybe knows a little about his- telling, even though it might have been better for us as a show. Well, it won’t in the sense that I’m tory or, if not, is interested in I mean, people went absolutely ape shit when I killed Jimmy—I got threat- certainly not afraid of being criti- ing for one-quarter of the operating profits of parent company Time Warner. And, in turn, history. I think that would probably ening posts on the Internet. [But] I’m not doing the show to just please the cized. I love the ending of The talent is flocking: Movie stars now line up for roles meatier than anything offered on the big make up the most satisfied viewer mass audience—I’m doing a show that I can be proud of, and be truthful in the Sopranos. So whatever the ending because if you’re willing to put the way I tell the story. And yeah, I hope people watch it, of course, but I’m not ends up being, I think I’ll just go for screen, while top writers make TV a goal rather than a fallback. time in and actually pay attention gonna let the audience be the tail that wags the creative dog here. It’s gotta it, and I’m not trying to necessarily Of course, the dramas we follow each week don’t come easy. Like conductors of an and not balance your checkbook make organic sense. piss anybody off or please anybody, while you’re watching this, that’s I’m just doing the best job creatively. Italian opera, a new kind of maestro frantically, painstakingly engineers the stories. how the show works best. You real- Is it tough to keep trying to surprise viewers? I always said this show’s gonna end Called “showrunners,” these creative gurus oversee the writers’ room as well as the ly need to focus. We don’t spoon- Yeah, it’s really challenging. That’s one of the reasons the Jimmy Darmody with a very, very elderly Nucky walk- feed information to people; it’s not thing was so satisfying for me, because people were surprised by it. You ing into a diner and killing Tony minute-by-minute operation of an entire series. NYU Alumni Magazine sat down with wrapped up in a neat little bow, know, it’s just decades and decades of TV and movie history: People under- Soprano [laughs]. That’ll just bring it three of the biggest names in the business—the brains behind Boardwalk Empire, The because that’s what life is like. stand the language of film and storytelling, and they’re kind of ahead of you full circle. a lot. It’s like you gotta try to invent new ways to fool an audience and keep Walking Dead, and Breaking Bad—who told us about their heftiest challenges, deepest them surprised, and they love it. I mean that’s what you’re hoping for as a fears, and what it takes to keep these narrative machines moving. viewer, to go, God, I did not see that coming.

38 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 39 “The show is really about people trying HTS ET©GN AEAC IH OETYAGER ROBERT © RIGHT PAGE/AMC; GENE © LEFT PHOTOS: to survive in an apocalypse, when there’s a breakdown of society and BREAKINGBAD there’s no help coming.” VINCE GILLIGAN Inspired to write after watching The Twilight Zone as a child, Vince would have been canceled within its to be kind of an experiment in televi- Gilligan (TSOA ’89) honed his craft in the 1990s on the pioneering Fox first half-hour, in terms of pure sion in which the main character is mystery-drama The X-Files. He then had a brazen idea for a show—about viewership. But what I love about always on the move, always trans- a high school chemistry teacher who starts cooking crystal meth when our show is that the people who forming from who he was to who he he’s diagnosed with terminal cancer. The show has won seven Emmys love it really, really love it. I can’t will eventually become. since Breaking Bad premiered in 2008, and the final season will air this believe it ever got bought in the summer. first place, because on paper it Do you ever lose faith that you’re shouldn’t fly. A middle-aged guy plotting the story just right? Why has TV become such a beacon dying of cancer and cooking crystal meth…I am often surprised it works and You know, your confidence waxes

Mazzara with a zombie for adult dramas? that folks keep coming back. and wanes. I had another bout with THE WALKING DEAD These days more and more money it last week when I thought, every- goes into fewer and fewer movies. Speaking of which, you’ve created one of TV’s most polarizing heroes. Are thing we’re doing is shit. But I have [Film executives] look at the shrink- you afraid the backlash against Walter White could become too intense? these six other writers who can say, ing box office and they say to them- In the early days I worried about it greatly. It’s why Walt was diagnosed with “Come on, man, relax. Step back selves, we better give them what cancer in the pilot; it’s why he had a second job in the pilot, and [a job] in from the edge of the cliff. It’s not they want. But there’s still, and I which he’s mistreated by the rich, snotty kids whom he teaches. Honestly, it’s that bad. We have a lot of good stuff hope there always will be, that desire why he has a son with cerebral palsy. I was sort of loading up the sympathy here.” for storytelling for grown-ups, and factor in the early going so that he could become increasingly darker and the GLEN MAZZARA that sort of has fled to television. It audience would still sympathize with him for as long as possible. But I realize You’re about to wrap up this intri- After five years writing for The Shield, Glen Mazzara took over as becomes the story about a simple sister held the phone up to her and I had to go somewhere. in hindsight that I didn’t need to worry as much about likability. The only cate series after six years. Any showrunner for AMC’s The Walking Dead, based on the award-winning, tribe out there on the road trying to got to sort of say goodbye and just thing really to worry about is telling an honest story and staying true to the chance you’ll be truly happy with cult-favorite comic book series. Mazzara (WSUC ’89, GSAS ’93) recently protect each other, to deal with thank her for everything. It was real- And that somewhere was cable. character. the ending? stepped down after the show’s third season, despite breaking TV records losses, to find simple things like ly an incredibly painful experience, It goes without saying that if It’s funny, the audience is more tolerant sometimes and more under- Probably not [laughs]. I picture as the highest-rated basic-cable drama in history. He’s now in talks to food, water, and shelter—things but then when we came to this Breaking Bad were on a network, it standing of Walt than I am. I think he’s [laughs] pretty much an irredeemable myself a year and a half from now write a film prequel to The Shining for Warner Bros. that we always take for granted. scene in the show, I just really want- bastard at this point, but there’s a sizable chunk of the audience who still roots waking up out of a sound sleep and Then as the show advances, it ed to write that and put that out for the guy. And that’s fine, they’re not wrong. Breaking Bad was always meant having the perfect ending, except Zombie movies have been around becomes about those people trying to rebuild civilization, and how do we make there. What was surprising is that it’s six months too late. And that for decades, but this is the first TV our way back from this cataclysmic event? One of the things that we’re inter- via Twitter a lot of people reached troubles me. We’re trying to be show. Does the different medium ested in exploring is that the greatest horror is not so much the zombies but the out and said that they’d had a similar “I picture myself a year and a half chess players and think 20 moves create new obstacles? other people. Now that the rule of law has broken down and people’s inhu- experience. And it was really mean- from now waking up out of a ahead, and I fear sometimes there’s It does, because week after week we manity starts coming out, that’s really the true horror of that world. ingful to know that that simple sound sleep and having the perfect ending, a very obvious permutation right have to show our characters living scene resonated for so many differ- except it’s six months too late.” under our noses that we’re gonna with the zombies. And yet they It seems like each week anyone’s number could be up. ent people. You want to connect miss. But I can tell you we’re working can never become commonplace We don’t ever want to feel like we’re a safe show where people watch and say, emotionally with the audience, and our butts off to think it through. because that way they would cease “Oh, they’re not really gonna kill off this character.” And we’ve done that— to do that you have to write as hon- to be frightening. So how do you we’ve killed off significant characters in very surprising ways that have devi- estly as you can. That’s all you can do, right? keep the zombies fresh and interest- ated from the comic book. So by doing that we really put the audience on the It’s all you can do. Life itself does not ing and scary, when really they’re edge of their seats. When I say no one is safe, I really mean no one is safe on Do you ever have zombie night- contain a lot of perfect endings. It’s sort of slow-moving, dim-witted this show. mares from working on the show? just sort of messy and shapeless, creatures? I had one zombie nightmare a few and it just kind of goes on until it That makes it more suspenseful to watch, but is it hard for you to let go of months ago—I think I was having a dribbles and peters out at the end. But the show’s about much more your favorites? rough week at work or something. I So there’s artificiality to begin with, than just running from zombies. Yes, it is. This season we had to kill off a character [who] I really loved writing was definitely being eaten alive, to endings in movies and television. It’s really about people trying to sur- for, but the story dictated that someone had to die. I had to call the actor to tell and then I woke up. It was pretty It’s a good thing to reach for—a vive in an apocalypse, when there’s a [him]; I make those calls, and those conversations never go well. It’s difficult to scary—that’s a horrible way to go, proper, satisfying ending. But we breakdown of society and there’s no say, “Hey, I know you’re having fun, but now you’re out of a job.” But that’s the being eaten by a reanimated dead realize that they don’t necessarily help coming. There’s no govern- nature of the show, and if we don’t do that it’s going to feel dishonest. person! represent what we know of life. ment, no military, no health care or infrastructure anymore. And it just You’ve drawn from personal experiences, like the scene where Maggie says goodbye to her father. Yeah, unfortunately my mom passed away [last] spring. She was on life sup- Gilligan with Bryan Cranston port, and I couldn’t get to New York in time. Her death was imminent, so my (left) and Aaron Paul

40 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 41 sits quiet, but a few blocks away Washington Square South teems with activity. ALL-

NIGHTER6:07 / 6:12 PM 6:30 PM 7:07 PM

EDITOR’S VIEW: Justine, whose nerves seemed to After an especially long evaporate as she climbed a rock TAKE A LOOK Tuesday—near the tail end of this wall for the very first time. There magazine’s frenzied editing cycle—I was William, an economics major, was in the mood to go home, eat practicing piano in a tiny room to some soup, and watch a Family Guy give himself a creative break from AT WHAT rerun. Instead, I ventured out into studying. Then Coral, who smiled the cold, black February night for a sweetly and reread her lines, and six-hour photo shoot. told us she wasn’t nervous for HAPPENS WHEN A couple inches of snow still her 11 pm play audition. Finally, covered the pavement in a dark there was DJ Tim, a 2003 alum, brown quilt as I met photographer who bounced to the beats he was Noah Devereaux on Washington spinning for WNYU radio. And THE SUN SETS Square Park’s northeast corner. Our there were many more, all friendly aim: Wander NYU’s slushy streets and each so immersed in something. and buildings looking for anyone I parted from Noah around ON NYU or anything worth a picture. We midnight. With the luxury of had no real agenda, expectation, or sleeping in the next day, he would goal. Maybe not the soundest logic continue shooting till dawn. for a six-page feature story. But the But I had seen enough, and it all notion was intriguing—let’s see reminded me of a line from a letter what this place looks like on a truly Albert Einstein wrote to his friend PHOTOGRAPHS BY random night. János Plesch about universities. He Attention to my fatigue and liked being around them, he said, NOAH DEVEREAUX gloveless frozen fingers soon gave because that’s where “the future In Steinhardt’s way to something else. This place was being brewed.” Frederick I’d walked through nearly every day Is NYU and all its inhabitants Loewe for a decade transformed in front perfect? Come on. But in an Theatre, of me. instant, some people or moments students and First there was Ali, who are. And on the night of February staff break patiently rewashed his hands and 12, it sort of felt like that was true down the set feet to show us the technique and everywhere we looked. from City of explain how it helps him prepare Angels. for Muslim prayer. Then there was —Jason Hollander

42 / FALLSPRING 2012 2013 / NYU / NYU NYU / FALL 2012 / 43 Students ’Isha, or stretch their evening limits during a prayer, on the rock-climbing fourth floor class. of the Global Center for Academic and Spiritual Life. William Bekker (CAS ’13) takes a creative study break.

7:40 PM 8:00 PM 6:30 PM 8:55 / 8:59 PM 9:56 PM 10:53 PM

Ali Hussain (CAS ’15) purifies his hands and feet in NYU’s Ablution Room.

NYU fencers positioned Coral Pena (TSOA ’15), in practice right, and Kimberly mode inside Taff (TSOA ’14) prepare Coles Sports callback auditions for Center. the Tisch production of Milk Like Sugar.

44 / FALL 2012 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 45 A late-night view of Bobst Anthony Library. Rinaldi Students have (GAL ’14) a midnight practices a snack inside presentation. Weinstein Residence Hall’s food court.

11:51 PM 12:05 AM 2:24 AM 6:30 PM 5:43 AM 6:05 AM 6:16 AM 6:33 AM

A delivery truck driver can see daylight in the rearview mirror on DJ Tim Washington Sweeney Bobst Library staff Place. (STEINHARDT John Navarrete ’03), left, (above) and Nestor spins the Silva (top right) show “Beats put the finishing in Space” on touches on a night WYNU, 89.1 of cleaning. FM.

46 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / FALLSPRING 2012 2013 / 47 / 47 (Create- False Impres- Vengeance Out of (Zharmae). NYU / SPRING 2013 / 49 wrote the Shadows Space), the third book in his series of Ross Cortese, NYPD detective novels. STANLEY WOODS- FRANKEL / DEN ’59 / wrote the humorous mur- der-mystery sions Washington Square (En- The Criti- Goddard Space Flight Cen- ter in Greenbelt, MD. He is currently entering his 21st year as editor of cal, Path is the author of Beat the Bureaucracy terprise), and previously wrote a weekly column for The Baltimore Evening. Sun PERETZDAVID / MED ’59 / is approach- in the 1980s, depicts a once-familiar sight along Houston IF THESE WALLSThe above photo, COULD which appeared in TALK the News Street near the Bowery—then the epicenter oftown New art York’s world. down- Painted by artist and(1958–1990) in activist the Keith Haring summer of 1982,re-created the at mural that was location temporarily in 2008Keith by Haring Deitch Foundation, Projects in and honor the of whatartist’s 50th would birthday. have been the was named Player of the Year by the National Tennis Association, and his 100th birthday on November 5, 2012, marked his 80-year career as a tennis player. HOWARD K. OTTENSTEIN / GSAS ’58 / ing 50 years as a general- ist and writer with NASA’s , FERNE J. held successive and his wife, GARTENLAUB GOLD- STEIN / STERN ’55 / both attended NYU, as did their daughter, ANDREA K. GOLDSTEIN- ALBI / WSUC ’90. CHARLES H. HURME / ENG ’56 / positions in administration, design engineering, operat- ing statistics, system oper- ation, and computer application with American Electric Power Service Corp. He is married with two sons. In 2010, Hurme , are was GERALD J. BURTON S. STEINHARDT ’82, ’88 / and son-in-law FEIT / STERN ’78 / both alumni. BURTON WASSERMAN / WSC ’53, DEN ’57 / honored as the 2012 recipi- ent of the Theresa Lang Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in the areas of research, medical education, or pa- tient care at New York Hos- pital Queens. The late GOLDSTEIN / STERN ’54 /

PHOTOCOURTESYNYUARCHIVES KAREN WOLFF / Haskins Associates, Associates, the Alumni Council at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business, and the Stern Fund Steering Committee. He is also on the NYU Alumni Board of Directors, director of the NYU Self- Employment Entrepre- neurship Conference, and past president of the Ex- ecutive Forum. His daugh- ter, , , . MARGO received the NATHAN ARTHUR 0s 195 Three generations of Messingers attended NYU, including MESSINGER / ARTS ’51 / his father, MESSINGER / LAW ’16 / and his daughter, /MESSINGER STERN ’91 MELVIN A. STEIN / STERN ’53 / 2005 Alumni Meritorious Service Award. Stein is a member of Charles Waldo wrote his Catch a Rocket (CreateSpace). The We want to hear from you!happening Let in us your know career what and is life.news Submit items, your personal milestones, or anof obituary a loved one to: NYUFourth Street, Class Fourth Notes, Floor, 25 New West York, NY, 10012 or via e-mail to [email protected]. You can also share Class Notes onlineto by alumni.nyu.edu/classnotes. logging on ebrating the 50th anniver- sary of TemPositions, a New York City–based tem- porary staffing firm, of which he is founder and chairman. ROBERT F. BRODSKY / ENG ’48, ’50 / fifth book, Plane: More Tales From the Cutting Edge, and Be- yond book includes stories from his days at NYU and in Greenwich Village, where he played in a Dixieland band. , , re- is cel- EUGENE wrote his 15th studied aero- RACHEL Marianne: 6 Degrees 1930s 1940s SYLVIA SHAPOSNICK BURAK / STERN ’36 / was a member of the Zeta Phi Alpha chapter sorority during her time at NYU, where her son, D. BURAK / STERN ’71 / received his MBA. LEONARD R. SUSSMAN / WSC ’40 / book, of Connection, a Love Sto- ry, which was selected by the Library of Congress’s prepublication PCN program. NORMAN ISAACSON / WSC ’41, MED ’44 /

CLASStired in 1994 as professor of surgery at George Wash- ington University Medical School. He has authored many articles in surgical andliterature, is past pres- ident of the Washington chapter of the American College of Surgeons and the International College of Surgery, as well as the Ja- cobi Medical Society. At 91, he enjoys life in sunny Florida and travels all over the world. His grandson, Daniel, is a member of NYU’s class of 2013. SEYMOUR GOTTLIEB / ENG ’42 / nautical engineering at NYU, which his grand- daughter, WALKER / TSOA ’07 / also attended. RICHARD (DICK) ESSEY / STERN ’47, ’48 / NOTES AFTERYEARSOFGIVING

CLASS Oscar-nominated direc- characters, as living QUIRKY BUS TOURS OF NEW YORK CITY, LEVITCH RECENTLY tor Richard Linklater, things built and inhabit- HOSTEDACROSS-COUNTRY who cast him in scene- ed by living things,”Lev- 1960s TRAVEL SHOW ON THE WEB. stealing roles in Waking itch explains.“You’re not Life and School of Rock. just touring the place. NEAL P. GILLEN / STERN titled “Two Flight Paths Army (both Savas Beatie). Levitch eventually quit You’re touring us.” ’61 / wrote a new novel, to Rabbi School.” the bus company to lead Levitch’s own tour of 1954 Adventures in New HARRIET ALONSO / NOTES his own one-man New York ended in York (CreateSpace). ERIC ROBESPIERRE / STEINHARDT ’67, ’70 / tours—first in NewYork, 2004,when he left town WSC ’64, TSOA ’66 / wrote her fifth book, Yip then San Francisco, and after 33 years for San ROBERT DUCHIN / wrote and self-published Harburg: Legendary Lyri- finally Kansas City,where Francisco. He says that STERN ’63 / wrote Not Living Large in America: cist and Human Rights he now lives.This past his relationship with the Enough of Her: Ordinary The Life and Times of the Activist (Wesleyan summer, he returned to city remains complex, in People, Extraordinary Love Family Ginsburg (pro- University Press). the spotlight as host of flux, and, yes, quite an- (AuthorHouse), a personal nounced Du Pont). the Linklater-directed thropomorphic. “With memoir about his 47-year BARRY REHFELD / ENG Hulu show Up to Speed, New York I’ve gone marriage. MARK RUBINSTEIN / ’67 / wrote Home Sweet which found him hop- through courtships,mar- STERN ’64 / wrote the Zero Energy Home (New ping across the United riages and divorces, had LOUIS MENASHE / GSAS novel Mad Dog House Society). States discussing some of makeup and breakup sex, ’63, ’66 / received the (Thunder Lake), a thriller the country’s “monu- considered it completely American Library released in October 2012. RENA CHARNIN MUELLER / GSAS ’68, alumni profile mentally ignored monu- irreplaceable, and then Association’s CHOICE’s ments.” Wired magazine never wanted to see its Outstanding Academic JUDITH S. WEIS / GSAS ’86 / received the 2011 praised it as“not your av- face again,”he says.“Ul- Titles 2011 designation ’64, ’67 / wrote Walking American Liszt Society TIMOTHY “SPEED” LEVITCH / TSOA ’92 erage walking tour”;Lev- timately,[I left because] I for his book, Moscow Sideways: The Remarkable Medal for her work as the itch calls it “Sesame Street felt like it was just a bread Believes in Tears: Russians World of Crabs (Cornell doyenne of Liszt studies. as orchestrated by the crumb at the buffet.” and Their Movies (New University Press). Beastie Boys.” Whether or not Up to Academia). He is now ALICE TREXLER / But more seriously, Speed gets renewed,Lev- professor emeritus at BARBARA FASS LEAVY / STEINHARDT ’69, ’76 / Up to Speed is a passion- itch will keep busy with the Polytechnic Institute GSAS ’65, ’68 / wrote was appointed emerita NEWYORK ate plea by Levitch for mobile barbecue tours, of NYU. The Fiction of Ruth Ren- associate professor of modern-day explorers to occasional acting gigs, dell: Ancient Tragedy and dance as of her retirement do more than just check and a long-simmering LARRY SEIDMAN / ENG the Modern Family (Poi- on September 1, 2012. She (ANDTHEKITCHENSINK) off must-see sites. plan to start a Shake- ’63 / is now serving as soned Pen). founded and was director “Tourism is like high speare theater troupe a community rabbi in of the Tufts University school,” he says. “The that makes monologue Orange County, CA. His ARTHUR LEFKOWITZ / dance program, and in popular landmarks are “deliveries” across New path from an NYU MS in STERN ’65 / wrote Bene- 2011 received the Seymour vapid, while the dweebs York City. He concedes electrical engineering to dict Arnold in the Company Simches Award for STATE OF MIND becoming a rabbi was de- of Heroes, released in Oc- Distinguished Teaching sitting in the back of the that he hasn’t led the cafeteria are the ones most straightforward scribed in a July 2012 tober 2012, and he is the and Advising for Arts by Adam Conner-Simons with interesting things life, to others’ occasional Wall Street Journal article author of Benedict Arnold’s and Sciences. to say.” The self-de- chagrin—including his scribed “semi-schizo- 99-year-old grandmoth- phrenic” backs up that er—but for Levitch, he ITH A NASALLY VOICE, A FLAT-FOOTED city] is an explosion,an ex- Levitch, a former dra- O’KEEFE/HULU DANA © PHOTO notion by striking up can’t imagine living at 1970s DUCKWALK,ANDAMACHINE-GUN periment, a system of test matic writing major, was conversations with all any other speed.“There’s tubes gurgling, boiling, originally drawn to tour kinds of inanimate ob- something permanently WLAUGH,TIMOTHY“SPEED”LEVITCHWAS out-of-control,radioactive guiding because it com- jects.In Kansas,he asked naive about me that I JUDITH UMLAS / ARTS American Associates at Press). Wolner is an associ- a sight to behold giving “promiscuously” cuts Bennett Miller (TSOA atoms swirling,” he says. bined his interests in the John Brown’s Bowie can’t explain,”he says in ’70 / wrote Grateful Lead- Ben-Gurion University of ate professor in the archi- tours atop the double- through the conformity of nongrad alum), who “Civilization has never city, history, performance, knife (via Skype) how it a rare moment of self- ership: Using the Power of the Negev. tecture department at Ball decker Gray Line buses of the street grid. Quick to wouldgoontodirect Mon- looked like this before.This and wooing women. The felt to be supplanted by reflection.“I’m in a state Acknowledgment to En- State University. Manhattan.He fell into the quote the likes of Federico eyball and other hits.The is ludicrousness, and this Cruise then opened up Lev- spears in the abolition- of perpetual wonder gage All Your People and EDWARD W. WOLNER / gig after college, deliver- García Lorca, Friedrich film captures the Bronx cannot last!” itch, now 42, to new ist’s rebel army; in New about the world. As a Achieve Superior Results WAG ’72, GSAS ’77 / LAWRENCE A. KLEIN / ing soliloquies about Nietzsche,andWillyWon- native’s frenzied energy in At that crescendo, he opportunities, from pub- York, he chatted up the tour guide, that has its (McGraw-Hill). wrote Henry Ives Cobb’s ENG ’73 / wrote Sensor everything from the “sup- ka, he became a pseudo- one scene as Levitch ex- sighs heavily,pauses a beat, lishing a NewYork travel 52nd Street subway grate advantages.” Chicago: Architecture, In- and Data Fusion: A Tool for posedly natural creation celebrity after starring in pounds on the chaos of and announces: “The new book and performing beat where Marilyn Monroe’s EDWARD M. KAPLAN / stitutions, and the Making Information Assessment called Central Park”to the The Cruise (1998), an ac- New York to his bewil- Ann Taylor store on the poetry with the rock band skirt famously caught a To stream Up to Speed for LAW ’71 / has been elected of a Modern Metropolis and Decision Making (SPIE). way that Broadway claimed documentary by dered passengers. “[The right.” Weezer to befriending breeze.“I view cities as free, visit hulu.com. to the board of directors of (University of Chicago (CONTINUED ON PAGE 53)

50 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 51 alumni profile complete bureaucratic, rote tion clients to give back to teaches a course on social alumni connection CLASS activities,” are inherently the very communities in policy at the Silver School, flawed. He explains: “I which they may have com- first found himself drawn VINCENT SCHIRALDI / SSSW ’83 would rather see empower- mitted crimes, connecting to social service while in- VIOLETS SPAN THE GLOBE ment and programs that en- them to neighborhood jobs, terning as an undergrad at rich clients’ lives and make civic projects, and religious the NewYork State Divi- them less likely to reoffend.” centers. “We’re requiring sion forYouth (now the True to the name Global Network University, NYU graduates can be found all across the world. Taking a Bite Out Toward that end, Schiraldi our staff to help enmesh the Office of Children and Check out which regions are currently home to the most NYU alumni. NOTES has redesigned the city’s clients in healthy commu- Family Services). After re- probation department to be nity activities,” Schiraldi ceiving his MSW from of Repeat Crime more community-based, says.“When they complete NYU, he founded the opening Neighborhood their community service, Center on Juvenile and Opportunity Net- work of- wewantthemtodoitwhere Criminal Justice, which by Sally Lauckner / GSAS ’10 fices (or NeON) in each of they committed their crime aims to reduce the use of the five boroughs. Previ- and where they’ve lived the prison system as a solu- ously,clients were expected their whole life.” Under tion to social problems,and ROWINGUPINTHEWORKING-CLASS to report to courthouses in Schiraldi, the department then a second nonprofit, NEIGHBORHOODOFGREENPOINT, downtown locations. Now has increased by fourfold the Justice Policy Institute, G BROOKLYN, IN THE 1970S, VINCENT they can head to smaller, the number of probation which examines mass in- more neutral spaces—the clients who exit the system carceration and the over- Schiraldi saw lots of friends In fact, Schiraldi says, their Probation, he’s aiming to Manhattan office in Harlem early by adhering to re- representation of people of and neighbors run into behavior had usually grown change that. islocatedinaformerschool, quirements and not reof- color in the system. trouble with the law.They worse. Even as a child, he Tapped by Mayor for example—much closer fending. Some 80 percent Schiraldi moved to the were usually sent off to could tell something was Michael Bloomberg to to their homes. of people on probation in government side of justice Spofford Juvenile Center in wrong with how the system overhaul the department in But Schiraldi says that NYC now complete the in 2005,when he was asked the Bronx, where they dealt with offenders;now,as 2010, Schiraldi believes the concept behind NeON system,compared to 65 per- to reform the Department 0-100 101-500 501-1,000 1,001-1,500 1,501-2,000 2,001-2,500 390,000+ would come back, he ob- the commissioner of New most probationary pro- is about more than simple cent in the rest of the state. of Youth Rehabilitation served,far from“reformed.” York City’s Department of grams,which“ask clients to proximity; it allows proba- Schiraldi, who currently Services in Washington, D.C.After five years,he was (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 51) member in economics Practice Psychiatric Nurs- ed a Fulbright Scholar happy when Bloomberg LINDA ERBS ALBERTS / (1978–81) and in the C.V. ing: Integrating Psy- grant to lecture at South- called with this latest chal- ARTS ’74 / is married to Starr Center for Applied chotherapy, Psycho- west University in Beibei, lenge.“I’m a sprinter, not a alumnus MICHAEL Economics (1981–84). pharmacology, and Comple- Chongqing, China, during long-distance runner in ALBERTS / GSAS ’73. mentary and Alternative the 2012–13 academic year. any one place,” Schiraldi Her sister, CHERYL ERBS MITCHELL V. PATT / Approaches (Springer). explains.“I think a lot of FEINER / WSUC ’75 / , WSC ’74 / was promoted CAROL KING / STERN correctional bureaucracy is also an alumna. as clinical associate RONALD T. MARCHESE / ’77, STEINHARDT ’92 / needs to be shaken up, and professor of medicine, GSAS ’76 / is the co- is the director of the Next sometimes the person who HOWARD GLASSER / division of cardiology, in author of Splendor and Step: Engaged Retirement does the shaking can’t also STEINHARDT ’74 / is the the department of medi- Pageantry: Textile Treas- and Encore Careers pro- be the person who stabi- founder and chairman of cine at the NYU School ures From the Armenian gram of NJ’s Princeton lizes it.” the board of the Children’s of Medicine. Orthodox Churches Senior Resource Center. As Schiraldi notes, the Success Foundation. He is of Istanbul (Citlembik), D.C. population is about the author of nine books, EDWARD A. STEEN / ENG which was awarded the DANIEL J. HAYES / the size of Staten Island, including Transforming the ’74 / recently retired as 2011 R.L. Shep Ethnic WSUC ’78 / was selected which makes the landscape Difficult Child: The Nur- associate general counsel- Textiles Book Award. for inclusion in the 2013 of NewYork seem enor- tured Heart Approach chief intellectual property edition of The Best mous in comparison. But (Nurtured Heart), which counsel of Vale Americas PAUL F. OLIVERI / WSUC in America. He even with an agency of has been the top-selling Inc. (formerly Inco Limit- ’76 / has become of coun- is a partner at Jackson HT OREYOFC FTEMAYOR THE OF OFFICE COURTESY PHOTO more than 1,000 people,he book on ADHD for the past ed) after 31 years with the sel to Sullivan Papain Walker, LLP. believes that probation can 10 years. corporation. He subse- Block McGrath & Cannavo, work better for both of- quently was certified as a PC, one of New York’s STEVE KUNES / SCPS fendersandthepublic.“The HAIG R. NALBANTIAN / New York State small- largest personal injury ’78 /, whose writing ca- goal is to help [probation- WSC ’74 / served as re- claims court mediator. and medical malpractice reer has spanned more ers] flourish,”Schiraldi says. search lead for the World law firms. than three decades, has “And when they flourish, Economic Forum’s project JOYCE J. FITZPATRICK / been hired by producer on global talent mobility. NUR ’75 / is the co-editor CLAY STEINMAN / TSOA Norman Lear and Village MAYORMICHAELBLOOMBERGCOMMISSIONEDSCHIRALDITOOVERHAULNEWYORKCITY’SDEPARTMENTOFPROBATION,WHICHHE’SREDESIGNEDTOBEMORE they won’t commit more COMMUNITY-BASED. crimes.” He is a former NYU faculty of the book Advanced ’76, ’79 / has been award- (CONTINUED ON PAGE 57)

52 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 53 HT ALRAESIDE PAUL © PHOTO

lasagna). It also CLASS synthesizes Napoleone’s twin roles in the art world— that of collec- tor and patron. NOTES So unlike most c o o k b o o k s , Napoleone’s eschews con- ventional illustrations of the recipes. Instead, she inter- lards each section with an assortment of works from 49 female artists, the major- ity of whom are featured in alumni profile her own collection. Since her first acquisi- VALERIA NAPOLEONE / WSUC ’90 tion in 1997, Napoleone has become well known in the art world for exclusive- ly collecting the works of women.And while many in RENAISSANCE her place often employ a consultant, Napoleone prefers to do all the legwork herself, including visits to HOST each artist’s studio. “Before the actual buying goes a lot by Megan Doll / GSAS ’08 of research,”she says. The book is an especial- ly personal endeavor for Napoleone because it mines her gustatory history and because a portion of its profits will go to support Down Syndrome Educa- tion International, a cause close to her heart. Napoleone, in turn, prizes how personal many of the NAPOLEONE’S UNCONVENTIONAL COOKBOOK FEATURES artists’ contributions are, WORKS OF ART FROM HER such as Jill Spector’s PERSONAL COLLECTION zabaione mousse, a sort of ALONGSIDE THE RECIPES. photographic tableaux vi- vants in which the artist and OR THE PAST 15 YEARS, VALERIA the public. Culled largely her daughter figure, and NAPOLEONE’S ELABORATE DINNER PARTIES— from her Lombardian fami- Polish-born Goshka Macu- ly, the book unites child- FATTENDED BY ARTISTS, WRITERS, GALLER- ga’s collages, which juxta- hood memories, like her pose images of Soviet-era ists, and designers from painter Delia Brown tasted Three years later, Valeria father’s beloved pasta e fagioli foodstuffs with cheesecake across Europe—were sim- her food for the first time. Napoleone’s Catalogue of Ex- soup, with contemporary pinup girls.“I hope that this ply a labor of love for the “She loved it and said,‘You quisite Recipes (Koenig savories from her parties, book has two lives in a noted art collector.That is, absolutely must do a book,’” Books) makes a treasure such as arrosto di vitello al lat- home,”she reflects,“one in until one such night during Napoleone recalls.“It made trove of recipes from the te (roast veal with milk) and the kitchen and one on the the Frieze Art Fair, when total sense to me.” veteran hostess available to lasagne al forno (baked coffee table.”

NYU / SPRING 2013 / 55 (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 53) since 1995 and as presi- CLASS Roadshow Pictures to dent since 2005. adapt Richard Bach’s 1977 1980s best-selling novel, Illu- JANET HUBBARD / SCPS sions, for the big screen. ’79 / is the author of more OLIVIA YOU CHIN / University of Wisconsin- at the First He has written extensively than 20 nonfiction books WSUC ’80 / has co- Milwaukee’s Alumni Citi- Floor Gallery for TV and contributed for young adult readers. authored her first book, zenship Award. He in Harare, to the writing of 11 major Hubbard’s latest mystery Love, Olivia: A Stem Cell continues to work as sen- Zimbabwe. NOTES motion pictures, including novel, Champagne: The Transplant Story (West- ior trial attorney for the 1988’s Academy Farewell (Poisoned Pen), Bow), about receiving a Milwaukee area office of TENSIE Award–winning Rain Man. was published in August devastating diagnosis and the U.S. Equal Employ- (HORTENSE) 2012. dealing with it. ment Opportunity WHELAN / WSUC ’81 / MICHAEL FERRY / LAW Commission. received a 2012 James

’79 / was recently reelect- MARILYN SINGER / DENNIS MCBRIDE / LAW Beard Foundation Leader- ed president of the board STEINHARDT ’79 / wrote ’80 / was elected presi- JANET GOLDNER / ship Award. She is presi- of directors of the National a new children’s book, dent of the Wauwatosa STEINHARDT ’81 / has dent of the Rainforest Consumer Law Center. He A Strange Place to Call (Wisconsin) Common been selected for a Ful- Alliance and co-chair of

has served on its board Home (Chronicle). Council, and received the bright specialists project (CONTINUED ON PAGE 58)

56 / SPRING 2013 / NYU CLASS alumni connection Want to Hear More About Alumni Activities? THENYUTWITTERVERSE Contact Us!

ALUMNI RELATIONS 212-998-6912 Twitter is a fast and [email protected] NOTES easy way to keep tabs on the entire NYU COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE, HEIGHTS community. With COLLEGES more than 250 unique 212-998-6880 [email protected] Twitter handles—for schools and colleges, student and alumni COLLEGE OF DENTISTRY 212-998-9824 groups, facilities, not to mention [email protected] individual students, alumni, facul- COLLEGE OF NURSING ty, administrators, and staff—the 212-992-8580 NYU Twitterverse appears infi- [email protected] nite. Do you follow? COURANT INSTITUTE To find and follow one or many 212-998-3321 [email protected] of NYU’s Twitter handles, type “@” followed by the username in the GALLATIN SCHOOL OF INDIVIDUALIZED STUDY Twitter.com search bar. 212-992-9868 [email protected]

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCE 212-998-6880 (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 57) Offices of Michael A. Lam- DOUGLAS MAYHEW / idiomatic expression in [email protected] the Sustainable Food Lab pert, PA, has been elected STEINHARDT ’87 / is the French and English, which Advisory Board. chairman of the tax sec- author and photographer was recently published in INSTITUTE OF FINE ARTS 212-992-5804 tion of the Florida Bar. of a new book, Inside the the magazine FUSAC. [email protected] CHRISTOPHER LEBER / Favelas: Rio de Janeiro LEONARD N. STERN MED ’82 / wrote Trust ALEXANDER MOON / (Glitterati Inc.). ROGERIO ALMEIDA / SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Your Radar: Honest Advice STERN ’85, LAW ’85 / is STEINHARDT ’89 / has 212-998-4040 [email protected] for Teens and Young joining Sidley Austin’s New DEIDRE SCHIELA / received citizenship of Adults From a Surgeon, York office as a partner in STERN ’87 / , a partner at João Pessoa, the capital LIBERAL STUDIES PROGRAM 212-998-6880 Firefighter, Police Officer, the global finance practice. PricewaterhouseCoopers, of the state of Paraiba, [email protected] Scuba Divemaster, Golfer, His practice includes the LLP, has been named West Brazil. He is the founder of and Amateur Comedian representation of U.S. and Region Assurance Leader. the undergraduate course ROBERT F. WAGNER GRADUATE SCHOOL (Derby), an advice book for international banks based in physical therapy at the 212-998-7537 young adults and parents. in Europe and Asia. HENRY C. RUSCHMEYER Federal University of [email protected] / GSAS ’88 / published his Paraiba. SCHOOL OF CONTINUING THOMAS REEDER / TSOA BRENDAN CORBALIS / first book, a history titled AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES 212-998-7003 ’82 / wrote Stop Yellin: TSOA ’86 / is pursuing his Chateaugay Lake: The ADY COHEN / TSOA ’89 / [email protected] Ben Pivar and the Horror, JD at Villanova University Adirondack Resort Era, received the prestigious SCHOOL OF LAW Mystery and Action-Adven- School of Law with an an- 1830–1917 (North Country). ACUM (Israeli ASCAP) 212-998-6410 ture Films of His Universal ticipated graduation date Award for 2012 for the mu- [email protected]

B-Unit (BearManor). of 2015. He also holds an CHARLES TICHY / sic he composed for the SCHOOL OF MEDICINE MFA from . STEINHARDT ’88 / re- animated children’s film 212-263-5390 [email protected] MITCHELL KARIG / cently published a novel- Caspion (“Silverfish”). STERN ’83 / married his MARY JANE VIAGGIO ette, Sems Redux (Tate). SILVER SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK partner of more than 30 HAYES / STEINHARDT JONATHAN STERN / 212-998-9189 years, Neal Glennon, at the ’86 / is the author of LISA (WITKOWSKI) TSOA ’89 / and DAVID [email protected] Hudson Theatre in Man- Emma’s House of Sound VANDEN BOS / WSUC WAIN / TSOA ’91 / won THE STEINHARDT SCHOOL hattan on July 15, 2012. and Emma’s Freaky Sneak- ’88 / and her husband, a Creative Arts Emmy OF CULTURE, EDUCATION, ers (both St. Augustine); John, are the creators of Award for their work AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 212-998-6942 MICHAEL A. LAMPERT / the former has been Speak Easy Puzzles, the on the Cartoon Network/ [email protected] LAW ’84 / of the West turned into a theatrical second volume of their Adult Swim show Childrens TISCH SCHOOL OF THE ARTS Palm Beach, FL, firm, Law production. collection of games of Hospital. 212-998-6954 [email protected] 58 / SPRING 2013 / NYU H MIESAEBIDN MG®I EITRDTAEAKO SCADI SDWT PERMISSION WITH USED IS AND ESBC OF TRADEMARK REGISTERED A IS IMAGE® BUILDING STATE EMPIRE THE CLASS NYU GIFT BOX 1990s ANINSIDELOOKATRECENTCONTRIBUTIONS TOTHEUNIVERSITY DAN CILLIS / STEIN- development at the Gether, a mobile polling meet and exceed the KENT EVANS / HARDT ’90 / was nominat- Worcester Art Museum and prediction game, which highest standards of CAS ’98 / ed for a New Mexico Book in Worcester, MA. also serves as a social patient care. wrote A Crash NOTES • Alec Baldwin (TSOA ’94, • With a gift of $3.5 million, tional investment firm; Lori Award for his novel State- utility, unleashing direct Course on the HON ’10) has made a sec- NYULMC trustees Lau- serves as chair of the NYU hood of Affairs (iUniverse). ERIC G. FIKRY / WSUC response for organizations. DAVID HANNA / STEIN- Anatomy of Ro- ond gift of $1 million in sup- rence D. and Lori W. Fink Cancer Institute Advisory ’93 / has been elected HARDT ’96 / wrote his bots (Pangea), port of the Tisch School of generously honored their Board. ROBERT BOCHAR / WAG partner at Blank Rome, DAVID KAPLAN / CAS ’95 first book, Knights of the a story inspired the Arts’ Talent Identifica- long-standing physician ’91 / is a budget analyst LLP. Fikry concentrates his / was appointed as general Sea: The True Story of the by the author’s life. tion Process program—an and friend Philip K. • Ming Chu Hsu (STERN with the U.S. Department practice in commercial liti- counsel for the financial- Boxer and the Enterprise ambitious effort to identify, Moskowitz, MD by estab- ’89) has generously pledged of the Interior’s Bureau of gation matters, with a par- services firm Allonhill in and the War of 1812 (NAL). SABRINA PANFILO / CAS recruit, admit, yield, and re- lishing the Philip K. $1 million. Half of the gift Ocean Energy Management ticular emphasis on the Denver. ’98 / is the author of tain the most talented stu- Moskowitz, MD Professor will go toward the estab- VIOLETNIGHT in Washington, D.C. He has gaming industry. JOSEPH STEINBERG / three children’s books, dents, regardless of ability to and Chair of the Depart- lishment of a Global Sites been working at the Interi- SLOAN LUCKIE / STERN GSAS ’96 / is now a con- including Tomey and the pay. “At a time when funds ment of Neurology. The Librarian to ensure that stu- or Department for more JANE ISENBERG / STEIN- ’95 / wrote Body Under tributor to Forbes, writing Caterpillar (Vantage), On May 22, 2013, NYU for higher education appear Finks cited Dr. dents across NYU’s Global than 20 years and is mar- HARDT ’93 / wrote the Construction: How to Build the business, cybersecuri- which made the New to be more difficult than Moskowitz’s care and com- Network University have celebrated its 181st com- ried to Virginia A. Johnson. prize-winning memoir Go- and Maintain Optimal ty, and life blog. He is York Post’s Required ever to access,” Baldwin passion, and the need to the library resources, serv- mencement ceremony—once They have two teenage ing by the Book (Bergin & Health (CreateSpace). also CEO of Green Armor Reading List in April 2012. says, “it’s my great pleasure develop comprehensive ices, and information in- again at its new home for children, Trevor and Irina. Garvey), and The Bel Bar- Solutions. to do what I can to bring services in neurology. Lar- struction that they need; the event, Yankee Stadium. rett Mystery Series (Avon). SOPHIA ROMMA / TSOA M. ALI PANJWANI / the best possible candidates ry is the NYU Langone the other half will provide On the eve of the big day, MICHAEL JUSTIN LEE / ’95, ’97 / wrote the play MICHAEL TYRELL / CAS STERN ’98 / has joined STERN ’92 / wrote The KATE RAMSEY / TSOA Cabaret Émigré, which was ’96 / is the author of the Pryor Cashman as a part- into the Tisch program—a Medical Center’s board co- financial aid to NYU the Empire State Building (above) program [that] I believe is chair and founder and chair Shanghai students. Chinese Way to Wealth and ’94 / wrote The Spirits and recently presented by the poetry collection The ner in the firm’s corporate shone bright in NYU violet to help the best in the country.” of BlackRock, a multina- Prosperity: 8 Timeless the Law: Vodou and Power Negro Ensemble Company Wanted (National Poetry and China practice groups. students, parents, and friends toast Strategies for Achieving in Haiti (University of at NYC’s Lion Theater. Review). With JULIA the graduating class. Financial Success Chicago Press). She is an SPICHER KASDORF / JORDANA DYM / GSAS (McGraw-Hill). assistant professor in the YVONNE SHORTT / CAS WSUC ’85, GSAS ’89, ’99, ’00 / , an associate history department at ’95 / is the executive di- STEINHARDT ’97 /, he ed- professor of Latin-Ameri- RAY NEWMAN / WAG ’92, the University of Miami. rector of the Rego Park ited the anthology Broken can history at Skidmore ’94 / was recently appoint- Green Alliance, a nonprofit Land: Poems of Brooklyn College, is co-editor of ed as professor and chair TIM K. SMITH / TSOA ’94 organization in NYC. (NYU Press). Mapping Latin America: of the department of com- / made his directorial A Cartographic Reader munity health sciences in debut with Freeform or LYSTRA SWIFT / NUR ’95, DAVID GEORGI / GSAS (University of Chicago). the College of Health at Death, a documentary ’04 / was honored with the ’97, ’08 / has published the University of Southern about New Jersey radio Excellence in Nursing Poems (Northwestern Uni- AVI D. FEINBERG / CAS Mississippi. station WFMU. Leadership Award from versity Press), a new trans- ’99, LAW ’02 / has been Memorial Sloan-Kettering lation of the work of named a partner in Fried JERE SHEA / TSOA ’92 / RANDAL BOUVERAT / for encouraging and inspir- medieval French poet Frank’s market-leading was hired as director of STERN ’95 / launched ing colleagues and staff to François Villon. real estate practice.

2000s

PAULA HORNBOSTEL / She also wrote “Twentieth KEVIN RYAN / LAW ’00 / serving homeless and traf- lished at age 74. She IFA ’00 / wrote “Mes Century Earth Goddess: A wrote the national best- ficked young people in the retired from the full-time Mains: A Sculptor’s Vow” in Portrait of Isabel in the Art seller Almost Home: Americas. faculty of the NYU School Gaston Lachaise: A Modern and Letters of Lachaise” in Helping Kids Move From of Medicine in 2008 and is Epic Vision, published in Face and Figure: The Sculp- Homelessness to Hope (Wi- FELICE AULL / GSAS ’01 / an adjunct in the Depart- conjunction with the exhibi- ture of Gaston Lachaise, for ley). He is the president of wrote The Music Behind Me ment of Medicine’s Division tion at Gerald Peters the exhibition at the Bruce Covenant House Interna- (Alabaster Leaves), her of Medical Humanities as

Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. Museum in Greenwich, CT. tional, the largest charity first poetry chapbook, pub- (CONTINUED ON PAGE 62)

NYU / SPRING 2013 / 61 sumer products and brand author of Pathways to the Difficult Emotions and De- atre Company, London’s Recovery (CreateSpace). MARSHALLA RAMOS / STEIN- DANIEL O. BAZÁN / STEIN-

CLASS (CONTINUEDFROM PAGE 61) licensing at Warner Music Common Core: Accelerat- velop a Healthy Relation- newest and only repertory HARDT ’08 / wrote a children’s HARDT ’11, TSOA ’12 / produced well as in the Group. She has been elect- ing Achievement (all ship to Food (New fringe theater company. LEIGH (WOODBURY) book, Isabella’s Hair and How Settle for Greatness EP, which SPECIALSPECIAL TAXTAX BREAK BREAK FFOROR medical library. ed to a three-year term on Heinemann). Harbinger). BROUGHAN / STEINHARDT She Learned to Love It (Create- features himself and hip-hop Aull is editor the board of the Interna- JOHN BURGMAN / GSAS '08 / has been promoted by Lit- Space). artist Najee The 1. CCHARITABLEHARITABLE GIVING GIVING FFROMRROM emerita of the tional Licensing Industry RYAN E. MACKENZIE / KEVIN MICHAEL ’07 / has been awarded a tle Star Center—a structured, YYOUROUR IRAIRA NYU Litera- Merchandisers’ Association. STERN ’04 / was recently NICHOLS / STERN ’05 / Fulbright U.S. Student Pro- sensory-friendly facility for chil- VIVEK BALD / GSAS ’09 / AMITA SWADHIN / WAG ’11 / NOTES ture, Arts, and reelected to the Pennsylva- and his wife, Leah, wel- gram scholarship to pursue dren with autism—to assistant wrote Bengali Harlem and the is serving as the Los Angeles Medicine Data- JOHNNY G. SKUMPIJA / nia House of Representa- comed their third daughter, journalism in South Korea. clinical director, where she over- Lost Histories of South Asian executive director for Peer base, which CAS ’02 / has become a tives. He represents a Naomi Lulu, on July 28, sees the work of program man- America ( Health Exchange. A documen- NOW EXTENDED she founded, partner at Cravath, Swaine district in the Lehigh Valley 2012. He is a portfolio RAWAN NADIM JABAJI / agers, develops and monitors Press). tary version of her work with FOR 2013 and is on the editorial & Moore, LLP. and focuses on business adviser for Merrill Lynch GSAS ’07 / was a corre- the problem behavior-reduction secret survivors, a theater boards of the Bellevue Lit- and labor issues. global wealth and invest- spondent for Culture plans for her caseload, and cre- JEREMY CORAPI / SCPS ’09 / project she created while in erary Review and Litera- PETER SAITTA / CAS ’03 ment management. Shock, which aired on the ates transition plans for children joined Farrell Fritz, PC as a first- graduate school, is available ture and Medicine. / is an internationally rec- FARIBA NAWA / GSAS Oprah Winfrey Network. as they exit the program. year associate, with concentra- on DVD. ognized lecturer on acne, ’04 / wrote Opium Nation: JONNA PERRILLO / tions in litigation and real

CHRISTOPHER BONAS- hair loss, and the psycho- Child Brides, Drug Lords, STEINHARDT ’05 / wrote KRISTEN LEWIS / STEIN- LUIS FELIPE MOHANDO / LAW estate. DAVID MCLOGHLIN / GSAS ’12 TIA / GSAS ’01 / , an asso- logical stresses of skin dis- and One Woman’s Journey Uncivil Rights: Teachers, HARDT ’07 / is associate ’08 / married KATRI PAAS / / wrote his first book, Waiting ciate professor at Lehman ease. He will be practicing Through Afghanistan Unions, and Race in the director of development at LAW ’08 / on June 22, 2010, HEATHER PARK / CAS ’09 / for Saint Brendan and Other USE YOURYOURI IRARAT TOOM MAKEAKE A College, wrote Southern dermatology at the Skin In- (HarperCollins), which was Battle for School Equity the Museum of Contempo- in Tallinn, Estonia. joined the firm Otten Johnson Poems (Salmon Poetry). TAX-FREETAX-FREE GIFTGIFTT TOO NYU Stalemate: Five Years stitute of New York. a finalist in the PEN liter- (University of Chicago rary Art in Los Angeles. Robinson Neff + Ragonetti PC NowNow yyouou can enjoenjoyy a Without Public Education ary awards. Press). She is an assistant REBECCA MURRY / GSAS ’08 as an associate. EVAN D. WILLIAMS / IFA ’12 / tax-effectivetax-effective strategy strategy fforor in Prince Edward County, CHRISTOPHER LEHMAN / professor of English educa- TERESA BENNETT / graduated from NYU with an became a member of the Ap- IRA distributionsdistributions in 202013.13. Virginia (University of STEINHARDT ’04 / wrote JENNIFER TAITZ / SSSW tion at the University of PASQUALE / SSSW ’07 / MA in English language and lit- KRISTEN VACCARIELLO praisers Association of America. CongressCongress eextendedxtended the taxx advantagesadvantages fforor individuals Chicago Press). A Quick Guide to Reviving ’04 / wrote her first book, Texas at El Paso. wrote her first book, erature. She has taught at TOZZO / SCPS ’09 / married He is currently Tompkins Coun- who makemake charitable gifts Disengaged Writers; Ener- End Emotional Eating: Us- Mending Broken: A Southeastern Louisiana Univer- Vincent Tozzo on October 20, ty’s only member of any major fromfrom an IRA account.account. SARA NEMEROV / STEIN- gize Research Reading and ing Dialectical Behavior LEE LYTLE / TSOA ’06 / Personal Journey Through sity for the past four years. 2012. art appraisal organization. HARDT ’01 / is SVP of con- Writing; and is the co- Therapy Skills to Cope With started the Paradigm The- the Stages of Trauma +

YOURYOUR GIFTGIFT SUPPORTSSUPPORTS NYU’NYU’SS FUTUREFUUTURE

Use youryour IRA charitable MARTINLIPTONREFLECTS disdistributiontribution ttoo makmakee yyourour Obituaries annual gift, paypay or prprepayepay y yourour currcurrentent pledgepledge,, or esestablishtablishh ON 60 YEARS AT NYU New York University mourns the recent passing of our alumni, staff, a scholarship fund aatt NYUNYU.. Martin Lipton (LAW ’55), chair of the NYU and friends, including: Board of Trustees and a founding partner of JERRY FINKELSTEIN / WSC ’29 JULIAN P. BERCH / ENG ’52 the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & GEORGE HODES / STERN ’30 PHILLIP J. CANGELOSI / WSC ’52, GSAS ’57 TAKETAKE AADVANTAGEDVANTAGEO OFF THISTHIS Katz, has seen the university go through HILBERT FEFFERMAN / ARTS ’34 WARREN LLOYD HOLTZMAN / STERN ’52 GIVINGGIVING OPPORTUNITYOPPORTUNITY JANICE CUTLER / WSC ’37, GSAS ’46, CAS FACULTY JACK B. KIRSTEN / STERN ’53 ••Y Youou must must be 7700½ yearsyears of age age.. several incarnations since arriving as a law LEONARD B. HARMON / ARTS ’40 MILTON BASSIN / POLY ’54 student on Washington Square in 1952. In SILVIO SIMPLICIO / ENG ’40 MAURICE ALPERT / LAW ’56 • YouYou must must insinstructtruct yyourour IRARA custodiancustodian ttoo makmakee the WILLIAM COPULSKY / ARTS ’42, STERN ’57 JOHN AUGUSTUS KITINOJA, JR. / STERN ’60 addition to having served as an adjunct distributiondistribution dirdirectlyectly toto NYU. NYU. ALTHEA RABE RILEY / WSC ’42 DONALD J. RYAN / GSAS ’62, ’72 professor, he is a member and former chair ROSE-MARIE F. LEWENT / WSC ’45 ELIZABETH LYLE HUBERMAN / GSAS ’63, ’69 of the NYU School of Law Foundation Board HELEN GURWITT SALTZMAN / STERN ’46 ROBERT E. DIMAURO / GSAS ’64 of Trustees, a member of the University’s JUSTIN N. EHRLICH / ENG ’47 JACALYN F. HAMBURG / WSC ’67 FORFOR DETAILED DETAILED INFO:INFO: SAUL FERDMAN / ENG ’48 MONA RIKLIS ACKERMAN / WSC ’68 Board, and its chair since 1998. PAUL W. KURTZ / WSC ’48 SAFWAN KHALAF AL-TELL / IFA ’68 Please contactcontact Alan SShapiro,hapiro, Esq.Esq. Last fall, Lipton penned a reflection on the ROBERT J. SOLOMON / STEINHARDT ’48 DOLORES M. FABIANO / GSAS ’68 NYU DDirectorirector of Gift Planningg WILLIAM G. HAEMMEL / STERN ’49, GSAS ’50 ERICA K. ROSENTHAL / LAW ’68 Phone: 212-998-6960212-998-6960 six decades he’s been a part of the NYU MURRAY L. KLEIN / ARTS ’49 WANDA JEAN GREEN / STEINHARDT ’69 E-mail:E-mail: [email protected]@nyu.eedu community. Read the essay here: RAYMOND SUPANCIC / STERN ’49 JAMO BLAKE / STEINHARDT ’80 nyu.edu/about/leadership-university- BERNARD TANNENBAUM / WSC ’50, LAW ’53 FREDERICK CHOI / STERN DEAN EMERITUS JOHN J. MCBRIDE / WSC ’51 RONALD DWORKIN / LAW FACULTY administration/board-of-trustees.html. ISLENE G. PINDER / STEINHARDT ’51 EVELYN B. HARRISON / IFA PROFESSOR EMERITA

62 / SPRING 2013 / NYU NYU / SPRING 2013 / 63 campus lens HT OHDEVEREAUX NOAH © PHOTO

WHAT AN EXHIBIT IN NYU’S KIMMEL CENTER OF ENTRIES FROM THE 2010 NYC CONDOM WRAPPER DESIGN CONTEST.

WHY IN 1971, NEW YORK CITY KICKED OFF A FREE CONDOM INITIATIVE BY DISTRIBUTING THEM AT STD CLINICS. THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT NOW GIVES AWAY MORE THAN 36 MILLION LIFESTYLES BRAND CONDOMS A YEAR IN OVER 3,500 PUBLIC VENUES CITYWIDE. TO FIND OUT WHERE, USE THE NYC CONDOM FINDER MOBILE APP.

WHEN NATIONAL CONDOM DAY, WHICH IS (OF COURSE) FEBRUARY 14.

64 / SPRING 2013 / NYU OctOber MArk Your 19 CAlendAr 2013 NYU AlUmNi dAY

Join your fellow alumni lookiNg forwArd To SEEiNg YoU and experience the best of NYU and NYc at oN SatUrdaY, NYU Alumni Day october 19, 2013!

Visit alumni.nyu.edu for more information.

NYUAlumni

NYUS_NYUalumni_Inside_Front_Cover_P4C_.indd MEDICINALMUSHROOMS

NYU OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY ISSUE #20 / SPRING 2013 NONPROFIT ORG NIGHTWATCH

DEVELOPMENT AND ALUMNI RELATIONS 2013 SPRING / #20 ISSUE / MAGAZINE ALUMNI NYU 25 WEST FOURTH STREET, FOURTH FLOOR US POSTAGE PAID NEW YORK, NY 10012-1119 PERMIT 295 SIT-DOWN WITH SEXTON BURL, VT 05401

www.nyu.edu/alumni.magazine

EXPAND YOUR MIND on page 30 WARNING: THESESHOWSMAKE YOUTHINK