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In the Neighborhood Immersing Residents of Boston’S Roxbury a Great Education Is a Gift

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In the Neighborhood Immersing Residents of Boston’S Roxbury a Great Education Is a Gift Boston University College of Arts & Sciences Development & Alumni Relations F A L L 2 0 0 9 Nonprofit U.S. Postage PAID Boston MA BoBostonston UniversityUniversity ArtsColleg & eSciences of Arts & Sciences Permit No. 1839 DeDevelopmentvelopment & Alumni RelationsRelations INSIDE: Beyond race— 595 Commonwealth Avenue examining the nature West Entrance, Suite 700 of African American arts sciences literature Boston, MA 02215 & Women investors, take note Creative Writing widens its scope around the world “Miss Conduct” advises on how we behave It’s a “bonit0 día” in the neighborhood Immersing residents of Boston’s Roxbury A great education is a gift. Pass it on. Help give tomorrow’s neighborhood in Spanish language and students what BU Hispanic culture gave you. By including BU in your long-term phil- anthropic plans, you can help students achieve an outstanding education. There are a number of ways you can do this. You can make a provision for BU in your will or make a gift that pays you income for life. Your gift can be directed to help students, faculty, or the program of your choice, and provide a charitable tax deduction for your estate. Take a minute now to help ensure BU’s future and create your own legacy. To learn more, visit www.bu.edu/opg or e-mail us at [email protected]. You can also call Planned Giving at 800-645-2347 or 617-353-2254. CONTENTS from the dean Fall 2009 10 With another academic year well under Another great sign of our institutional health is that, way, I can’t help noting how much has unlike many peer institutions, we undertook an ambitious changed since this time last year, when the program of faculty recruitment. More than 30 impressive new “You hire people who are like you—and world was spiraling into a profound eco- professors joined Arts & Sciences this fall in diverse fields across 12 I wasn’t like those guys because I was nomic crisis. Although the economy is still the humanities and the social, natural, and quantitative sci- not a guy.” a long way from recovery as this issue of ences. And we didn’t just replace faculty who left or retired; we arts&sciences goes to press, I am proud that expanded into critically important teaching and research areas, we remain a healthy, vibrant institution, as the University’s strategic plan outlines for our future. Jane Williams (CAS’71) thanks to the skilled guidance of President We also have been working hard to develop stronger link- Robert Brown and his leadership team and the campus-wide col- ages with you, the Arts & Sciences alumni. One great accom- laborative efforts to meet the challenges. plishment is the creation of the more informative, interesting, What are the signs of this institutional strength and and effective new CAS website (www.bu.edu/cas). The alumni profiles features health? Most important, a terrific new undergraduate class has section features rich content, including streaming videos of 8 COMPUTING SOLUTIONS 10 matriculated. Students and their parents have more reason than some of the fascinating and provocative lectures and discus- David House (CAS’10) is working HE SPEAKS IN YOUR VOicE: AMERicaN ever to consider their options carefully, and we came through sions that have taken place on campus. Take yourself back to with faculty researchers to develop Associate Professor Gene Jarrett writes about the politics of that test with flying colors. Our newest undergraduates are aca- your alma mater to refresh your education and find out what is a new computer tool that tracks racial representation in American literature from the Civil War demically strong and have a fascinating diversity of backgrounds, happening here. and models cell behavior. era to today. experiences, and interests. Their class is more international than For other web-based opportunities, we launched a new 12 BREAKING INTO THE BOYS’ 14 ever. Not surprisingly, they are also more financially needy than webinar series last spring with a discussion of climate change clUB ESPaÑOL SPOKEN HERE were previous classes. and global development led by Adil Najam, a CAS professor and Spurned at the start of her investing In Roxbury, many want to learn Spanish to be better able to con- Attracting great students requires that we continuously director of the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range career by the male establishment, verse with their neighbors. Arts & Sciences grad students have assess our programs and determine what we should do better. Future. Forty-five alumni from 17 states and six countries partici- Jane Williams (CAS’71) ultimately stepped up to teach them. prevailed, now heading a highly suc- Last year, the faculty, staff, and students of the Task Force on pated. We have created a new annual report, summarized in this cessful West Coast investment firm. the First-Year Experience comprehensively examined the experi- magazine beginning on page 25 and available in full multimedia 18 PaSSIONATE ROmaNTiciST ences of CAS freshmen, and made recommendations for improve- form online at www.bu.edu/cas/ar. 20 LITERATURE AND CULTURE continued on page 7 The BU community pays tribute to revered English Professor ments. We will move forward with these, aiming to equip BEYOND OUR BORDERS David Wagenknecht (CAS’62, GRS’64) on his retirement. students to succeed and make the most of their college years. With a lifelong interest in interna- tional issues, BU Overseer Robert a&s insider VISIT ThE COLLEGE OF ARTS & ScIENCES WEBSITE Hildreth is enabling the Creative at www.bu.edu/cas. Writing Program to extend its reach 2 Islam’s Visual Kaleidoscope around the world. 4 Alums Back to Class 33 miNDING YOUR maNNERS 6 Letters Savvy and witty, Robin Abrahams arts&sciences (GRS’02), The Boston Globe about alumni Fall 2009 | NUmbER 22 Magazine’s “Miss Conduct,” helps 22 Thank You, Donors! readers navigate the shoals of social interactions in the 21st century. 24 Meet CAS’s Warren Professors Published by Development & Alumni Relations EDITOR Jean Hennelly Keith 25 Year in Review: Arts & Sciences at Boston University’s College and Graduate School CONTRibUTING WRITERS Annual Report WRITE TO US of Arts & Sciences. Tricia Brick, Pamela Cooley (COM’83), Rachel 27 Live and Kicking — Bluesman James Montgomery We welcome your letters, which will be edited DEAN OF ARTS & SciENCES Johnson, Patrick Kennedy (COM’04), Natalie for clarity and length in this publication. Virginia Sapiro Jacobson McCracken, Corinne Steinbrenner (COM’06) 28 Distinguished Company: Arts & Sciences Letters will appear in full online on the Arts & Alumni Honored ASSOciaTE VicE PRESIDENT ART DiRECTOR Kim Cable Sciences website at www.bu.edu/cas. We also FOR DEVELOPMENT C. J. Menard 29 Class Notes welcome your story ideas. Please write to the CONTRibUTING DESIGNER Virginia Belich DIRECTOR OF COmmUNicaTIONS Editor, arts&sciences, Boston University, 985 PhOTOGRAPHY Boston University Photography, Amy J. Davis Commonwealth Avenue, Room 145, Boston, unless otherwise noted THE COVER: MA 02215, or e-mail [email protected]. Please COmmUNicaTIONS SPEcialiST Produced by Boston University Creative Services Graduate students from GRS Romance Studies include your name, address, and BU school(s) Jeremy Schwab are teaching Spanish to elders and others in and class year(s). E Printed on paper containing post-consumer Roxbury to help foster a sense of community in recycled material. this Boston neighborhood. Here, a mural with 1009 000485 “our idea” in Spanish serves as a colorful back- drop to a Roxbury community garden. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky a&s I NS I DER a&s I NS I DER News from the College and Graduate School Islam’s Visual Kaleidoscope “There are multiplicities in on historical subjects—a genre Fetvacı has helped the process along,” she says. “I’m researched extensively—while the contem- studying the ways that we think about the Islamic world,” says Emine porary Safavid Empire in Persia preferred the past and how certain things have Fetvacı, an assistant professor luxuriously bound and crafted but unillus- come to be accepted as fact as a result of of art history who specializes trated books about mythological kings and campaigning and writing.” Books were a heroes, and epic love stories. in Islamic visual arts and archi- means of shaping identity, and the high- In 2008, Fetvacı was one of three level government officials and courtiers tecture. “Islam is not homoge- researchers at BU to be awarded a who financed their production typically neous. Persian is not the same three-year, $50,000 Peter Paul Career expected a starring role in exchange for as Arab is not the same as Turk Development professorship, designed to their patronage. “One person appears to help promising junior faculty enhance their be very important to a battle described is not the same as Indian is not research program. Fetvacı used the award in one book because it’s written by a his- the same as Pakistani—even to travel to India, Syria, Turkey, and other torian he’s paying; another book shows among themselves, these peo- countries to examine and photograph his- someone else as the hero of the same torically significant art and architecture. conflict because the author is his protégé. ple are so diverse and different Highlights of her research trip included I have to read between the lines.” from one another. I tell my stu- the tomb of the Fetvacı plans further travel to Islamic dents to remember that we’re emperor Akbar in countries, as well as to Spain and Italy, Sikandra, India, and dealing with human civilization and also hopes to visit the Institute of Delhi’s Qutb Minar, Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of and its richness.” a tower begun Sciences in St.
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