MARCH 2008 the Annual Fund in Action •Classical Study Abroad

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MARCH 2008 The Annual Fund in Action •Classical Study Abroad

e faculty and students in the College who special- Many alumni refer to ize in classical antiquity benefit immeasurably their time at the “Centro” FUNDRAISING PROGRESS Wfrom time spent in the classical lands. This is as transformative. Alumni, students, parents and friends true not only from where I sit, as chair of the Department At the renowned help make things happen through of Classics, but for a sizeable number of colleagues and American Academy their gifts to the Arts & Sciences students across the College. in Rome, scholars and Annual Fund — financial support for Nothing facilitates classical study abroad more than artists live and work in academic journals, plus career servic- the University’s memberships in the great American study an exciting intellectual es, workshops, travel, labs and more. centers at Rome and Athens, whose cost the Arts & community — not to As of Nov. 15, 2007, the fund had Sciences Annual Fund covers each year. There, students mention the irenic gar- reached more than $673,000 of its study ancient Greece and Rome in rigorous programs, den, breathtaking views $4.5 million overall goal for the fiscal younger faculty pursue research as postdoctoral fellows, and and fine library. Several year ending June 30, 2008. Also, as senior classicists hold eminent visiting professorships, show- faculty members and of Nov. 15, 2007, the College had casing the University’s overall strength in classical studies. students have won fel- raised $143 million of the $500 mil- As I write this, Will Killmer, a third-year classics lowships there, including lion goal for the Campaign for the major, is attending the Intercollegiate Center for Classical the distinguished Rome College. Overall, campaign gifts to Studies in Rome, the Eternal City’s leading program for Prize. Classical faculty in the University stood at $1.4 billion of undergraduates. “I love the program,” Will wrote me recently. art have held leadership the $3 billion goal. My colleague Bernie Frischer brims with enthusiasm when- positions, Malcolm Bell ever he mentions his year there as professor-in-charge. as professor-in-charge of the School of Classical Studies and John Dobbins as director of its summer archaeology program, one of two summer Academy programs to which students may apply. We have a long, close association with the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, which runs outstanding yearlong and summer student programs. My colleagues Jon Mikalson and Jenny Strauss Clay have both held its distinguished Whitehead Professorship. Several students have been fellows, including Justin Walsh

COURTESY OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY IN ROME (Art ’06), Fred Drogula (History ’05) and Tim Brelinski (PhD Classics ’08). Others recently completed the wonderful summer program, con- ducted in Athens and touring Greece, including classics students Georgia Sermamoglou- Soulmaidi (PhD ’10) and Kelly Shannon (’07) — another terrific opportunity for our students. The American Academy By John F.Miller in Rome; Classics Chair Professor and Chair

John F. Miller JACK LOONEY Department of Classics

Peter Brundage ’75 Robert G. Byron ’73, Law ’76 Charles Longley, Jr. ’65 Treasurer Laura Farish Chadwick ’89 Mary Bland Love ’74, Law ’78 John L. Nau III ’68 Charles R. Cory ’77, Darden ’82, Brian T. McAnaney ’68 Past President Law ’82 Robert L. Mettler ’62 Juliana Schulte O’Reilly ’86 Phyllis S. Coulter ’82 J. Sanford Miller ’71 College Foundation Chair, Emeritus Society David M. Crowe ’75 P.Clarke Murphy ’84 Board of Trustees Beverley W. Armstrong ’64, Everette L. Doffermyre, Jr. ’70, Law ’73 Tammy Snyder Murphy ’87 Darden ’66 William B. Fryer ’71, Law ’74 Locke W. Ogens ’76 Jeffrey D. Nuechterlein ’79, Law ’86 Paul B. Barringer II ’52 Amy M. Griffin ’98 Timothy B. Robertson ’77 President Trey Beck ’93 Lee Burleigh Harper ’85 Christian D. Searcy ’70 John B. Morse, Jr. ’68 Margaret Saer Beer ’80 David A. Harrison IV ’67, Law ’71 S. Sonjia Smith ’79, Law ’82 Vice President Gordon C. Burris, Curry ’67 Richard Philip Herget III ’85 Kathy Thornton-Bias ’88 Sheryl W.Wilbon ’88 Marvin P.Bush ’79 M. Mansoor Ijaz ’83 Frederick W.Whitridge ’54 Secretary Frank K. Bynum, Jr. ’85 Lemuel E. Lewis ’69, Darden ’72 COURTESY OF THE ARTIST Stephen Marc, Untitled from the Passage on the Underground Railroad series (2002), on view in Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art, at the University of Virginia Art Museum. This Mississippi montage merges a fence and houses (possibly an extension of the slave quarters) in Vicksburg near the Cedar Grove Plantation, a cotton field and plow, a torso with Phi Beta Sigma fraternity brands, and text from a slave-owner’s letter defending his decision not to emancipate his slaves. (See story, page 12.)

DEPARTMENTS 6 Whose Search Is It Anyway?

2 Letters et cetera As online technology transforms society at warp speed, 3 Around Grounds U.Va. Media Studies professors raise critically important 14 ’Hoos News questions about the public/private interest. 17 Last Look 12 Myth & Memory American Studies Director Maurie McInnis curates a new exhibition examining race, slavery and the plantation in American art. 14 Bridging the Divide ON THE COVER Award-winning Professor Emeritus Ruhi Ramazani In today’s media environment, helped to transform U.Va.’s Politics Department aerial maps of unprecedented scope and intimacy are shared and remains a respected expert in Iranian affairs. worldwide, and users’ mobile and online activities are recorded; 16 The Shadow Knows … U.Va. Media Studies professors Susan Tyler Hitchcock (’78) returns to her academic examine our rights and perceptions in the Internet age. roots with a new book on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and its 200-year resonance in popular culture. Photo by Tom Cogill

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA March 2008 Letters et cetera

never heard of before. I thought should be congratulated for his I was going to learn more about archaeological research at the it as I read on, but the writer Monasukapanough site, espe- March 2008 Vol. 26, No. 2

jumps off on a tangent about cially in light of his collaboration INTERIM DEAN the first-year class composition with contemporary Monacan Karen L. Ryan by sex and race. Had I submitted people. (Such collaboration was DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS the same words to my English not the norm two decades ago.) Kennedy Kipps professor a quarter century ago, Insofar as Thomas Jefferson was EDITOR Sally Ruth Bourrie I loved seeing the “Trash Talk” it would have come back for a both archaeologist and ethnog- PRODUCTION MANAGER announcement in the October rewrite.What happened to those rapher of indigenous culture Crystal Detamore [2007] issue of Arts & Sciences. writing skills lauded by Atlantic (in his efforts to document CONTRIBUTING EDITORS When I was a third-year student I Monthly at the top of the page? Native American languages), it is Jeff Hill, Anita Holmes (English ’82), joined with others taking classes Mike McGinn fitting that the University of Hilary Swinson in the nascent Department of (Environmental Sciences ’84) Virginia is enabling native schol- GRAPHIC DESIGN Communication Design, Inc. Environmental Sciences to form ars, Rhyannon Berkowitz and CONTRIBUTING WRITERS the Student Alliance for Virginia’s I was delighted to read the Karenne Wood, each to pursue Charlotte Crystal, Jane Ford, Environment.We funded our series of articles by Linda Kobert research into their cultural histo- John Kelly, John Miller, small-scale operation by collect- concerning studies of Monacan ry and traditional language. I Karin Wittenborg ing aluminum cans in cardboard culture in central Virginia (A&S eagerly look forward to learning CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Dan Addison, Garth Anderson, boxes in the various buildings Online: “Beyond Jamestown,” more about all three of these Tom Cogill, Stephanie Gross, where we took classes (I covered May 9, 2007; “In the Cards,”May fascinating and worthy projects. Jack Looney, Cade Martin, Steve the Economics Department) 9, 2007;“Lost Language,”May 23, Leroy N.Meyer Warner and delivering our collection to 2007). From the perspective of (College ’69; MA Philosophy ’70; ADDITIONAL IMAGES American Academy in Rome the metals recycling business in philosophy of culture, these arti- PhD Philosophy ’75) The Charleston Museum town.We teamed up with the cles represent a very encourag- Professor of Philosophy Gibbes Museum of Art City of Charlottesville and the ing convergence between the University of South Dakota Susan Tyler Hitchcock Student Council for the first-ever interests of contemporary native Special thanks to the Arts & Sciences “Sharing Charlottesville”day communities and the academic Annual Fund and Benefactors Society, and carried out a huge, door-to- professions of archaeology and Arts & Sciences Development,The College Foundation, U.Va. Media door newspaper collection drive. ethnography. From a Virginia Relations, Strategic Communica- I still have the T-shirt. childhood, in the 1950s, one was tions, the U.Va. What a great change in cul- vaguely aware of intriguing Alumni Associa- Can’t Get Enough of tion, Diane Butler, ture has taken place since 1989. Tidewater tribal names, recorded Arts & Sciences? Jeff Graham, Congratulations! in toponymy (and used indis- Maurie McInnis, Christine Nasser Rolfes criminately at 4-H camp), such Check out our website for “Online Extras,” Heather Neier. (Economics ’89) as Chickahominy, Mattaponi, subscription opportunities and more: Arts & Sciences is published for the Member,Washington State House Pamunkey, Paspahegh; the tribal Magazine.Clas.Virginia.edu alumni, students, of Representatives names Shawnee and Tuscarora faculty and Visit A&S Online for new stories monthly and were prominently associated friends of the subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter: College and As I read my January 2008 issue with the mountain region of AandS.Virginia.edu Graduate School of Arts & Sciences I was puffed Virginia,West Virginia and North of Arts & Sciences up with pride after the top half Carolina, but nothing was Learn about the latest U.Va. research and at the University of Virginia. It is of page four where I learned in brought to our attention about subscribe to our monthly research e-newsletter: paid for with “U.Va.: Where great writers are indigenous peoples of the Pied- Oscar.Virginia.edu private funds. made”that we were ranked by mont; indeed, nothing was made Copyright 2008, Find alumni or update your profile: University of Atlantic magazine in the top 10 clear about any indigenous HoosOnline.Virginia.edu Virginia. schools for graduate creative groups of Virginia and what Arts & Sciences writing programs.Then I read became of them. Some of us did Give to the College: welcomes letters “FREE FOOD”on the bottom half wonder then and did ask. ArtsandSciences.Virginia.edu/give at AandS@ Virginia. edu or at of the page. Even after reading Now, as one who has profes- Visit the College online: P.O. Box 400804, it twice I was still scratching my sional academic interests in Charlottesville, ArtsandSciences.Virginia.edu head trying to determine its rel- Native American cultures, I can VA 22904.We reserve the right evance.The article starts off more fully appreciate the efforts Write us at: to edit letters for mentioning the annual “First of these researchers in Arts & [email protected] length, style and Year Food Fest,”something I’ve Sciences. Jeffrey Hantman appropriateness.

2 March 2008 ARTS & SCIENCES Around Grounds

Recent Gifts to Arts & Sciences The College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences received $2 million to establish the Hugh H. Obear Professorship in Classics, a memorial to Hugh H. Obear by his nephew, Henry N. Obear (Commerce ’33). Hugh Obear was a 1906 graduate of the University School of Law, lifelong supporter of the University and member of the District of Columbia Bar Association. Mark J. Kington (Darden ’88) and Ann A. Kington pledged $1.5 million, to be matched by a $1.5 million pledge from Paul Tudor Jones (Economics ’76) to create the Joe D. and Helen J. Kington Professorship in Environmental Change.The chair holder will teach JACK LOONEY and conduct research in regional and global environmental change, Sean Patrick Thomas (College ’92) with a mission to protect and preserve the natural world. and director John Sayles at the James W. Bradshaw (Psychology ’71) made a $1 million challenge Kin-ema Virginia Film Festival. gift to establish the Halifax County Scholarship to the University of Virginia Fund.This endowment will provide scholarship support n November, the Virginia Film Festival celebrated 20 years of to talented students of financial need with preference towards stu- Ifine films and fine discussion about them.With family the dents who reside in and attended high school in Halifax County,Va. theme,“Kin Flicks”brought together the College family — faculty, Robert P.Crozer (College ’69, Darden ’73) and family have given students and alums — who presented their films.The four-day $1 million to the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences event kicked off with director John Sayles’ Honeydripper, a tale of for unrestricted purposes. the birth of rock ’n’ roll set in the Deep South of the early 1950s that co-stars Sean Patrick Thomas (English Language and Litera- ture, Drama ’92).Thomas, Sayles and Sayles’ producer and life partner Maggie Renzi were on hand afterwards to discuss mak- Dangerous Liaisons ing the film. For more U.Va. community festival highlights and a red- U.Va. wins award for Web carpet gallery, visit our “Online Extras” at magazine.clas. security video. virginia.edu. “ hat happens on the Web Wstays on the Web.” Don’t bet on it. The Big Question That’s the message of an Help us talk award-winning new video by about what matters. the University of Virginia’s Office of Information Technol- What are the most impor- ogy and Communications. tant issues of our time? The Job Interview took a What are the big questions confronting first-place award from the society? Association for Computing The Arts & Sciences magazine JACK LOONEY Machinery’s Special Interest editors want to hear from you to help Ryan Stinnett (’10) watches Ryan Group for University and us guide our editorial lineup for the Stinnett in The Job Interview. College Computing Services. coming year. After all, the University of Ryan Stinnett (MFA Drama ’10) stars as a job applicant Virginia community — students, faculty whose satisfaction at impressing his interviewers turns comically and alumni — are the kinds of people dark when the committee asks him to explain an entry on his who are thinking about and taking personal blog,“MidnightConfession.com,” and a picture on action on the big questions. “Meandallmyfriends.org.” Go to our “Online Extras”site “We created this video to get our message across to students (magazine.clas.virginia.edu) and let us in a humorous, to-the-point way,”says ITC Webmaster Scott know what you think.We promise to Crittenden, who wrote and directed the 70-second piece, leading keep you posted about the results. a 12-member team. And we promise to tackle the To see the video, visit our “Online Extras” at magazine. clas. questions. virginia.edu.

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA March 2008 3 She brought the same Giving philosophy to her work.The Gustafson Group at UBS spe- cializes in wealth management Is Living for high-net-worth individuals, families and foundations. ore than 20 years ago, Client portfolios must total at MMerle Gruber Painley, least $5 million — and they who worked in fundraising in must be willing to give it away. the College of Arts & Sciences, “We don’t work with clients asked her daughter Christine, who don’t have a desire to then a fourth-year, to lend a give some of their money away hand with fundraising. Little through charity,” she says. did anyone realize that her “We don’t want to work with invitation would result in an the kind of person who can enthusiastic and dedicated amass that amount of money alumna “career” that has bene- without any desire to give fited the University of Virginia some wealth away.” in myriad ways. Gustafson supports a num- Christine Gustafson ber of civic and charitable (International Business and Christine Gustafson (’82), the University of Virginia Women’s groups, including the American Economics ’82), now senior Center’s 16th Distinguished Alumna Heart Association, Fresh Start vice president of investment Women’s Foundation and at UBS Financial Services Inc. accomplished female graduate summer between her third Trends Charitable Foundation. in Phoenix, where she man- who has demonstrated excel- and fourth years “changed my As a member of Phoenix’s ages the Gustafson Group, lence, leadership and extra- outlook on life,” she says, Super Bowl XLII Host Commit- helped found U.Va.’s College ordinary commitment to her expanding her horizons intel- tee, she helped bring the Super Foundation and served as its field and used her talents as a lectually, culturally and philo- Bowl to the University of first president. As a director of positive force for change. sophically. Paris was very Phoenix Stadium in February. the University of Virginia The award has honored such different from Pittsfield, Mass., She also was a member of the Investment Management alumnae as newscaster Katie where she was born, and Raven Society, an honorary Company for the past nine Couric, Arizona Gov. Janet Roanoke,Va., where she grew society whose commitment to years and member of its exec- Napolitano and astronaut up. After Paris,“I knew I want- the University and to academic utive committee, she helps Kathryn Thornton. ed to live in a bigger city, to be excellence includes sponsoring oversee the University’s long- “What is remarkable about a citizen of a global city. My scholarships and fellowships term investment pool, which Chris Gustafson is that in time abroad taught me to think in recognition of scholarly now stands at more than $4 addition to her professional big, to expand my horizons.” distinction. billion. She serves on the exec- accomplishments, which are Perhaps ironically, the City Giving back to U.Va.’s utive committee of the current considerable, she has contin- of Lights, renowned for all that community of scholars where $3 billion Campaign for the ued to make a contribution to glitters, also deepened her she thrived, to the institution University of Virginia and the University,” says Donna and gave Gustafson the path that changed her life, was headed the Kickoff Gala Dinner Plasket, director of the Univer- that has become her bedrock. natural, she says.“The institu- for the national campaign. sity’s Bachelor of Interdiscipli- “In one class we talked a great tion gave me so much. I Gustafson’s philosophy — nary Studies Program and deal about service,” she says. believed I could do anything. that it’s important to pair chair of the Women’s Center’s She came to believe what Win- It’s important for me to pay professional success in the selection committee. ston Churchill said: “We make it back, for my children and for for-profit world with service in Gustafson arrived at U.Va. a living by what we get, but we future generations.” the nonprofit sector — was during a historic time in world make a life by what we give.” Gustafson will be honored birthed during her student politics and economics, she When she returned to at the Women’s Center Distin- years at U.Va. and is among says: “We were seeing new U.Va., Gustafson embarked on guished Alumna Award recep- the reasons that the U.Va. ideas come through, the con- her remarkable more than tion and lecture on April 18. For Women’s Center selected her cept of the European Union, 25 years of service to the Uni- more information, please visit as its 16th Distinguished the Euro. Everything was going versity by joining the Alumni womenscenter.virginia.edu. Alumna.The Distinguished international.” Association and helping to Alumna Award recognizes an Studying in France in the recruit other students.

4 March 2008 ARTS & SCIENCES Around Grounds

Honors for Arts & Sciences Francis S. Collins (Chemistry ’70) received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award a United States president can bestow. Under his director- ship of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, the Human Genome Project mapped and sequenced the full human genome and greatly expanded understanding of human DNA. David T. Gies, Commonwealth Professor of Spanish, received the Order of Isabella the Catho- STEVE WARNER lic. One of Spain’s highest acco- the Legion of Honor, presented New electric line sets in the updated Culbreth Theatre rigging system lades, the Order recognizes to “illustrious individuals”of replace the old hydraulic setup. “extraordinary civil actions”that “outstanding achievement”in benefit Spain and promote service to France. friendly relations between Guy Sterling (Speech, Drama College Wins Safety Star Spain and the international ’70), New Jersey Star-Ledger community. he College of Arts & Sciences received the Office of Workers’ veteran reporter, received the Compensation 2007 Safety Star Award from Virginia’s Depart- Assistant Professor of Astronomy American Society of Composers, T ment of Human Resource Management.Two departments in Kelsey Johnson was named a Authors and Publishers’ Deems particular — art and drama — went the extra mile to appoint or Packard Fellow, a distinction Taylor Award. His stories on hire a staff member to oversee safety issues. awarded to 20 top young John Coltrane, Judy Garland and In the McIntire Department of Art, Gallery and Studio researchers nationwide from a country music in New Jersey Technician Eric Schmidt improved studio ventilation, wrote a variety of scientific disciplines. earned him the national honor. safety policy and created an extensive safety-procedures web- John D. Lyons, chair of the The French Academy awarded site. His position was established in 2001 to handle the safety Department of French Language its Gran Prix Moron to Astron- and technical aspects of studio activities. and Literature and Common- omy Professor Trinh Thuan for In the Department of Drama,Technical Director Steven Warner wealth Professor of French, The Ways of Light: Physics and oversaw a complete inspection of the Culbreth Theatre rigging received France’s highest award, Metaphysics of Light and Dark- system, leading to recommendations resulting in a nearly $1 mil- ness (in French, Editions Fayard). lion system renovation. Other improvements included painting Roughly equivalent to the U.S. the scene shop floor a lighter color to increase visibility and a ’Hoo Knew Pulitzer Prize or National Book new fall arrest system for those working at heights. By 2007, Award, this award recognizes production- or shop-related accidents had fallen to zero.“We’re U.Va. ranked 14th a philosophical work involving a on a pretty good roll,”says Warner, who arrived in 2006.“In the among U.S. colleges and? new ethic or aesthetics. interview process, the department made it clear and I made it universities for student study- Philip Zelikow,White Burkett clear that safety was going to be my priority.” abroad participation, based Miller Professor of History, was Scene Shop Supervisor David Hale and others helped with on 2005 to 2006 academic named to the Bill & Melinda renovations.“They saved a lot of money by doing the work them- year data, with 1,712 U.Va. Gates Foundation’s six-member selves,” says Safety Coordinator Barbara Schroeder. students traveling abroad, Global Development Program This is the third year in a row that a U.Va. division earned the up from 1,684 in the previous Advisory Panel.The panel, Safety Star. Facilities Management won in 2005, followed by report. formed to provide outside Housing in 2006.“This year there was some comment made Source: Open Doors, the Institute of Inter- expert perspectives to increase about the University of Virginia monopolizing this award,” said national Education’s annual report on the impact of the foundation’s international activities, and the University’s Ralph Allen, director of the Office of Environmental Health & International Studies Office work, will advise on strategies Safety, in accepting the honor. and evaluate results.

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA March 2008 5 6 March 2008 ARTS & SCIENCES BY JOHN KELLY PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM COGILL

here you have the crux of some of the most Timportantimportant discussionsdiscussions happeninghappening aroundaround today’s Information Revolution. It’s a question that will in many ways determine the future of how we search, learn and live. To understand the question — and its many possible answers — you need to know a thing or twoor two about about the the search search landscape landscape as itas exists it exists today. Whiletoday.While this is notthis theis not story the of story one ofsingle one company,single itcompany, is important it is importantto note that to whennote that the definitivewhen the historydefinitive of thehistory Internet of the age Internet is written, age is written, itit will will likely likely be be divideddivided intointo twotwo distinctdistinct sections:sections: “Before Google” and “After Google.”

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA MarchJuly 20052008 7 FROM ITS RATHER HUMBLE BEGINNINGS While other companies ranked their searches based on operating out of a dorm room at Stanford University, the number of times a search term appeared on a given Google, the brainchild of Ph.D. students Sergey Brin and website, Google chose to focus on the number of sites Larry Page, has forever changed the rules for how we use linking to that site. This secret formula raised the bar on the Internet. A 2006 Nielsen/Net Ratings survey found quality and relevance and continues to play a huge role in that nearly half of all searches on the Net are through the fortunes of businesses large and small worldwide. Google. Success of this magnitude is hard to quantify. The Second, Google brilliantly unlocked the potential of company’s 2004 initial public offering gave it a market Internet advertising, leaping from the banner advertising capitalization of $23 billion. At this writing, stock prices model (of dubious impact) to an ad-word-based model are hovering in the rarified air of $700 per share. In the that delivers our attention to advertisers with an efficiency September 2007 comScore rankings measuring market and effectiveness previously unheard of — and launched share among search engine companies, Google dominated, Google into a business stratosphere where it has few, if any, logging 6.6 billion searches, a 57 percent share over Yahoo equals. (Press releases state, “Google’s targeted advertising (23.7 percent) and Microsoft (10.3 percent). program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable So how did Google set itself apart from all of its early results, while enhancing the overall Web experience for competitors in the search wars? First, there is the algorithm. users.”) In 2006, Google reported advertising revenues of nearly $10.5 billion versus $112 million in licensing and other revenues. Today it seems that Google is looking to take its GOOGLE BOOKS LIBRARY PROJECT success into nearly every corner of the communications industry and even beyond, with new announcements Making libraries’ collections accessible to the whole wired appearing at a regular clip. It is aggressively entering wire- world is not without its critics. less telecommunications with its “Open Handset Alliance,” In November 2006, the University of Virginia joined designed to turn that industry on its ear by bringing the a growing number of leading libraries around the country open development model of the Internet to the mobile as partners with the Google Library Project. An advocate universe, forcing companies away from closed, incompati- for digitization beginning in ble networks. It is sinking hundreds of millions of dollars the early 1990s, the Univer- into breakthrough renewable energy sources and making sity of Virginia Library had Google Map options available at gas pumps. Its purchase estimated a cost of $300 mil- of YouTube has only reinforced YouTube’s founders’ vision lion to digitize its 5 million that the world remains ready for its closeup. books.“We realized that to accomplish this goal in our lifetimes, it was going to take some outside partnerships,” WHY WORRY? says Associate University Librarian Martha Sites. So what is it about Google and this new search landscape And then there are the concerns, including this one that should have us worried? Plenty, if you ask Siva Vaid- from Associate Professor of Media Studies Siva Vaidhyana- hyanathan, U.Va. associate professor of media studies and than:“From the first announcement of this project, I was cultural historian. He shares his views on the Google uni- deeply concerned that the libraries dealing with Google on verse in The Googlization of Everything, a book project he is this were making this move for the sake of expediency and writing in plain view through a series of blogs, an inten- sacrificing some of the core values of librarianship.There tional contrast to what he and others view as Google’s lack seemed to be no recognition that the libraries themselves of transparency. were giving away their riches. It seems to me like corporate Vaidhyanathan first turned his attention to Google welfare, basically.” with the 2004 announcement of its Google Books Library Read the full story in our “Online Extras” at Project, which counts the University of Virginia among its magazine. clas.virginia.edu. 27 partners (see sidebar). “It took me into all sorts of big

8 March 2008 ARTS & SCIENCES “WHAT DOES THE WORLD LOOK LIKE IF GOOGLE IS OUR LENS?”

SIVA VAIDHYANATHAN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MEDIA STUDIES questions about how good Google is for us,” he says. “We seem blessed because we never have to write a check to this company, yet we also willingly invite it into our lives in new ways every day. I thought it was time that I took a critical and comprehensive view of the company and the way it affects us all. I want to ask some really basic questions, like ‘What does the world look like if Google is our lens?’” As our media environment accelerates through profound change, asking the questions is Vaidhyana- than’s mission, and he embraces the complexity. Google, he says, “is a story of excellence as well. It’s a story of a company spending a tremendous amount of money to hire the smartest possible people to produce the best possible products and services.” Of all the search-engine world’s red-flag issues, the practice of information harvesting continues to draw the most scrutiny. We as Internet users are AT WHOSE SERVICE? in the dual role of the hunter and the hunted. Every one of our searches is logged, creating a detailed dossier traced The dangers of information harvesting were recently to our IP address. The dossier is then transformed into the illustrated for the entire world in the high-profile case ultimate currency as a snapshot record of our questions, involving Yahoo and its dealings in China. Search informa- hopes, thoughts, wants and needs. tion that Yahoo provided to the Chinese government was “Any company that amasses that kind of dossier on crucial to the jailing and alleged torture of a writer essentially every citizen of the world, or a very large fraction convicted by the Chinese government of inciting subver- of citizens of the world, is frightening,” says Dave Evans, sion through pro-democracy Internet writings. During a associate professor of computer science. contentious November congressional hearing, chief According to Vaidhyanathan, it is not only what executive Jerry Yang announced that Yahoo would pay a Google knows about us but what we don’t know about cash settlement to the families of journalist Shi Tao (jailed Google that is most concerning. “Google has mastered a for engaging in pro-democracy efforts deemed subversive) way to so precisely target ads down to your zip codes, and online dissident Wang Xiaoning, both serving 10-year down to all of your predilections and desires that it can sentences. The gesture did little to quell fears exposed track. And because of the illusion of anonymity online, we by the case and positioned the issue on legislators’ radar reveal a tremendous amount about ourselves in ways we screens for the foreseeable future. would probably be uncomfortable about if we actually The increased focus is much needed, says Media knew we are giving up something. We are instrumental to Studies Professor Bruce Williams. “Now you have technol- Google’s success. And we don’t quite understand the terms ogy that is more and more sophisticated, and they are going of that exchange because we were never asked to be part of to sell my eyeballs to different companies — and there that exchange.” are some cool things about that. I go to Amazon and they suggest books or products I might like, and often I do.

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA March 2008 9 “HOW IS THE GOVERNMENT GOING TO REGULATE THE NEW MEDIA ENVIRONMENT?”

BRUCE WILLIAMS PROFESSOR OF MEDIA STUDIES PRIVACY REDEFINED There are plenty of search-engine privacy issues that hit much closer to home as well. In January, the University began migrating its virginia.edu e-mail accounts to Google’s Gmail or Microsoft’s Microsoft Live platforms (by user preference). According to U.Va. Information Technology & Commu- nication officials, the move allows the University to provide users with these platforms’ added functionality while maintaining a U.Va.-branded account well beyond their time at the University. In addition, the switch frees up a significant amount of I.T.C. brain power and expertise to focus on high-performance computing issues related more directly to core academic missions rather than e-mail care and feeding. The University has negotiated with both providers to prohibit ad-targeting to users who are students. This does not stop Google or Microsoft from harvesting students’ information. “The companies are scanning those e-mails and have on their servers all that information should it ever get subpoenaed,” says Evans. “They have access to it all, and now, because we are in the early stages of this, the impact of collecting this information over someone’s lifetime is hard to even imagine.” The concern is real yet inevitable in today’s world, according to U.Va. “But when they take the next step and sell that Vice President and Chief Information Officer James information to advertisers, I become a little more alarmed. Hilton. “Privacy issues are significant and, I think, much And I become really alarmed when the interests of a com- larger than this particular move [privatizing University e- mercial corporation become involved with the interests mail]. Your bank is monitoring what you are doing, your of the national security state. Now the same technologies grocery store is monitoring what you are doing, your gas developed by the same companies to target ads at me station is monitoring what you are doing. We live in an age are the same ones that allow the government to know where where people and companies are collecting a lot of infor- I’ve been on the Internet.” mation about individuals, so questions about privacy exist The problem gets thornier when you add globaliza- at the legislative level, where I think privacy issues and tion to the mix. “If you go on any search engine and type efforts should be focused.” in ‘Tienanmen Square,’ I will get one list back. When I go Hilton’s advice to University e-mail users? Read the to an Internet café in Beijing and do the same thing, I fine print. “People ought to read their user agreements. That get a very different list. Certain sites are just blocked, the is one of the reasons we wanted to offer a choice between algorithms the engines use are different and the targeting Microsoft and Google — because at any one moment, technology that sends ads to me gets used by the Chinese either of these companies is likely to be considered the government to block sites and do data mining on e-mails.” company with the most promise or the most feared.”

10 March 2008 ARTS & SCIENCES IN CORPORATE GATEKEEPERS It’s an example of the increasingly politicized notion of WE TRUST “Net Neutrality,” which in its simplest form represents the desire to treat all bundles of information communicated In addition to personal privacy issues, an increasing num- through the Internet equally (and has invoked discussion ber of media watchers are concerned with search-engine regarding the role of private companies as bandwidth companies’ changing role in the media marketplace. gatekeepers). Williams tackles the topic in an upcoming book, And the Verizon Wireless recently took the issue beyond Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Eroding Boundaries the Internet proper when it initially refused to send text Between News and Entertainment and What They Mean for messages from NARAL Pro-Choice America to NARAL Mediated Politics in the 21st Century, co-authored with members who had requested the program, citing the Michael Delli Carpini, dean of the University of carrier’s policy giving it discretion over “controversial or Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. unsavory” content. Today’s seemingly endless array of information out- “Information flows to us through pipes,” Williams lets is both liberating and cause for serious concern, says says, whether through telephone lines, the U.S. Postal Williams, who compares the current environment with the Service or the Internet. “The question becomes who has “golden age of broadcasting” 20 years ago when approxi- the right to control what information flows through these mately 80 percent of all active TV sets tuned into one of pipes? We have a certain amount of confidence that the three nightly news broadcasts. “In my most optimistic idea of Net Neutrality extends to our mail and to voice moments, one of the features of the system we have today conversations, but what is a text message? Is it more like a is that at your fingertips, assuming you are on the right voice conversation or more like an e-mail?” side of the digital divide, you can get more information That Verizon very quickly backed off when The New from more diverse sources about more topics than at any York Times and other media outlets reported its stance was other time in history. But at the same time, I think one of a “huge victory for media reformers,” says Williams. the features of the old system was that we knew who the How these questions are being answered today, in gatekeepers were. The question of who is standing at the small and large ways, every single day, will determine how gates today is much less clear, and, insofar as a corporation we receive information in the future. “In 50 years,” says like Google is at the gate, they have a vital but not recog- Williams, “when people try to understand how the media nizable enough role as gatekeepers in the same way that environment they are living in came to be, they are going professional journalists do.” to look back at the decisions being made right now.” A main element Williams sees lacking today is . accountability. “Back in the ‘golden age,’ broadcasters under- stood themselves to be gatekeepers due in part to the way regulations were written going back to the 1930s about the public service obligation of the broadcast industry. We had a limited number of gates, there was a lot of consensus about who was standing at those gates and the training they had, and the public service obligation was at least in part what drove them. There was a quid pro quo there. How do we understand the public service obligation Google has?” The question becomes “How is the government going to regulate the new media environment?” Williams says, pointing out that since the advent of television, radio and even the telegraph, governments have struggled with issues of regulation, including patents, copyrights and the rights to transmit information through a pipeline. “I think technologies have certain potentials, but those potentials are not inevitable, and whether one wins out over another is dependent on the policy decision that governments make. Are they going to continue to allow the communication monopolies to take over [broadcast] frequencies … turning over of the public airwaves to private corporations?” Issues inherent in the current information environment now regularly extend far beyond search-engine companies. Comcast was recently embroiled in a controversy when the Associated Press reported that it was surrepti- tiously reducing bandwidth available to large-file sharers.

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 11 Myth &Memory Maurie McInnis mines material culture. COURTESY OF GIBBES MUSEUM ART

BY JANE FORD

bjects and ideas inform both history and Race, slavery and the plantation do not have a fixed contemporary thought and are the basis of meaning through time, she explained. Working on the the study of material culture. For Maurie exhibit and the companion catalog, McInnis says she was McInnis, associate professor of American art struck by “how much cultural currency the word ‘planta- and material culture and director of Ameri- tion’ has.” can Studies, understanding the antebellum The mythology of the South as a place of gentility OSouth in the 19th century encompasses understanding art and refinement is still held by many today, McInnis and objects from the perspective of politics with a capital says. She cited as an example the naming of residential “P” as well as with a lower-case “p” — class politics, social communities with such designations as “Plantation Lake,” structures and hierarchies. which is prevalent from the Carolinas to Florida. McInnis spent the last four years applying that under- For African Americans, however, the meaning standing to creating Landscape of Slavery: The Plantation revolves around an imbalance of power. “The two are in American Art, an exhibition on view through April 20 at fundamentally different ideas of what ‘plantation’ means. the University of Virginia Art Museum. The exhibition The reality is that beauty and brutality lived beside each focuses on themes of race, slavery and the plantation from other,” McInnis says. the 19th century to today. The span of time the exhibit covers reflects these McInnis, as consulting curator, was involved in all divergent views. “The artifacts explore widely varying ideas aspects of planning for the exhibit, working with Angela of what ‘plantation’ meant then and today.” D. Mack, the curator of the traveling show that originated The themes of protest, politics, nostalgia and identity at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, S.C. run through the artists’ works, which represent a wide “The exhibit is an exhibition about ideas rather than variety of viewpoints within these topics. These same ideas an art history exhibit that traces the development of an are addressed in the catalog, which includes essays by six artist or a stylistic movement,” McInnis says. The more authors. McInnis’ own essay focuses on the antebellum than 80 artworks in the show portray the landscape of the paintings of George Washington’s Mount Vernon and the cultural constructs of memory through the works of artists ways they were implicated in both anti-slavery and pro- from the 19th century to the present. slavery politics. To help clarify the ideas for both the exhibit and To see more images from the exhibition, visit “Online Extras” at catalog, McInnis began by using her research to develop magazine.clas.virginia.edu. courses. That research — coupled with insight from & students in her classes, “The ‘Old South’ in Myth and

12 March 2008 ARTS & SCIENCES Memory” and “Arts and Both artists show Cultures of the Slave that what is at the heart South,” which she co- of understanding the teaches with Assistant 19th century in the Professor of Architectural antebellum South is the History Louis Nelson — understanding of race proved invaluable for and slavery, she says. defining questions about Over time we construct culture and American “narratives to serve constructions about race. contemporary concerns “These courses and change surrounding helped me test initial these topics. Memories ideas and define and and ideas are not fixed, redefine concepts,” but changing.” McInnis says. The class ABOVE: Thomas Coram, View of Mulberry, House and Street (c. 1800), oil McInnis will work, which introduces on paper, Gibbes Museum of Art. PREVIOUS PAGE: Alice Ravenel Huger explore these shifting undergraduate students Smith, Mending a Break in a Rice Field, from the series, A Carolina Rice constructs of memory in to primary- and sec- Plantation of the Fifties (c. 1935), watercolor on paper. her upcoming book, ondary-source research Remembering the Revo- techniques, using primarily documents, now will benefit lution: Pictures, Politics and Memory. Her interest in the tremendously from the works in Landscape of Slavery: The divergent ways in which the North and South remember Plantation in American Art. the American Revolution, especially with the approach of “With the Landscape of Slavery show, we can now the Civil War, grew directly out of her research for the add objects,” McInnis says. The power of experiencing exhibition. Perceptions of iconic images and representa- actual objects as primary research sources to understand tions — such as Emanuel Leutze’s 1851 painting of the past in an interdisciplinary way provides a huge advan- “Washington Crossing the Delaware” — have changed tage over seeing a PowerPoint image of the object, she says. over time, in terms of how both the image and the event The exhibit includes works by a slave potter named itself are viewed. That change helps us understand how Dave, who worked in Edgefield, S.C., in the 1840s and contemporary cultural politics shaped the evolution of our 1850s. He decorated the large storage vessels he made key American myths, McInnis says. . with poetry and signed them. “His poetry was sometimes funny, spiritual, ironic or obliquely political,” McInnis says. Both the poetry and signing the pots are acts of political protest, since it was unlawful for slaves to read. “Dave is Maurie McInnis (Art History ’88) important. His work is an excellent example of an African- Associate Professor, American Art and Material Culture American artisan, of which the South was filled, but many Director, American Studies are anonymous to us,” McInnis added. His work was integral to the economic Maurie McInnis’ research has focused on the cultural history of foundation of the South American art in the colonial and antebellum South, particularly and at the same time reveals on the material culture of Charleston, S.C. Her publications much about slave life. in this field include In Pursuit of Refinement: Charlestonians Contemporary artist Abroad, 1740–1860 (University of South Carolina Press for the Juan Logan also deals Gibbes Museum of Art exhibition, 1999) and The Politics of with issues of slavery. His Taste in Antebellum Charleston (University of North Carolina “Foundations,” a sculptural Press, 2005). The Politics of Taste has received installation, is composed of such diverse honors as the South Carolina His- a series of iron, bricklike torical Society’s George C. Rogers Jr. Award for structures symbolizing the the best book of South Carolina history, the part African Americans Society of Architectural Historians’ Spiro Kostof played in building the Book Award for a work related to architectural

THE CHARLESTON MUSEUM, South. “They not only history that has made the greatest contribution CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA provided the economic to understanding of historical development and Dave “The Potter” Drake, foundation, but also liter- change, and the Pioneer America Society’s Fred alkaline-glazed stoneware ally built it,” McInnis B. Kniffen Book Award for the best book on material culture jar (1840), inscribed,“Dave says, adding that Logan is in North America. Her current book project, Remembering the belongs to Mr. Miles!/ engaged in an “ongoing Revolution: Pictures, Politics and Memory, explores the shifting Where the oven bakes-the pot conversation and dialogue meanings of the American Revolution in the 19th century and biles/31st July, 1840” with the past.” the cultural constructions of memory.

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA March 2008 13 ’Hoos News Knit One, Help Two Bridging the Divide hen Julia Duncan (Politics, History ’09) arrived at the WUniversity of Virginia in fall 2005, she knew she did not “Dean of Iranian foreign policy studies” want to leave community service — or her knitting needles — remains on the world stage. behind.The following spring, she founded a chapter of Warm Up America! on campus, and the group has been meeting on Sunday n a world where we all search prosperous, middle-class Muslim evenings ever since, knitting and crocheting for those in need. Ifor something, Ruhi Ramazani family in Iran’s capital,Tehran. “It’s very rewarding to have a skill where you can produce searches for understanding.The But life changed dramatically something for yourself or that someone else can use,” says the beloved professor emeritus of when he was 15 — his mother Menlo Park, Calif., native. government and foreign affairs died in his arms of heart disease; Wisconsin-based Warm Up America! was founded to bring has consistently urged American his father sought solace in alcohol, together volunteers to make afghan blankets, clothing and acces- analysts and policymakers to and Ramazani assumed respon- sories for those in need.The U.Va. chapter has about 40 members look beyond simplistic interpre- sibility for his two sisters. and includes needlework veterans and newbies who have been tations of Iran’s actions to reach At that time, after World War II, taught by the group.They create 7-inch-by-9-inch patches and a more nuanced understanding Iran grew unstable as commu- assemble them into afghans, which they donate to Charlottes- of Iran’s culture, religion, govern- ville’s Shelter for Help in Emergency, a provider of temporary ment and people. housing and other services for victims of domestic abuse. Officially retired from the “One of Ruhi’s great Their service has brought members close to the community University of Virginia in 1994, in other ways as well, says Duncan. A story in the Charlottesville Ramazani has hardly slowed hopes has been that Daily Progress garnered yarn donations from a local store, down. He organized an interna- he could personally financial help and additional volunteers.The U.Va. chapter also tional conference in Prague sponsored a talk about how artists have used exploring separation of church help bridge knitting by Sabrina Gschwandtner, author of and state and is editing the the divide between KnitKnit: Profiles and Projects from Knitting’s conference papers. He serves as New Wave. an outside reader on doctoral the country of his birth, “There’s a whole knitting community,” committees, he reviews books, Iran, and the country says Duncan.“Giving back is how my and he continues to share his parents raised me, and I think people expertise through books, articles where he has lived have an easier time staying engaged and opinion pieces. for most of his adult when it’s social.” Decades ago, the media By Sally Bourrie dubbed him “dean of Iranian for- life, the United States.” For more on Warm Up America! eign policy studies in the United • U.Va. chapter, visit our States”for his books, now clas- WILLIAM B. QUANDT “Online Extras” at sics, The Foreign Policy of Iran, EDWARD R. STETTINIUS, JR., magazine.clas.virginia.edu. 1500–1941: A Developing Nation PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT in World Affairs (1966) — the first AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS study of Iran’s foreign policy in any language — and its sequel, Iran’s Foreign Policy, 1941–1975: A Study of Foreign Policy in nists, nationalists, socialists and Modernizing Nations (1975). Islamists fought for the country’s At that time, international hearts and minds.The Communist relations studies focused on the Party hired people to intimidate great powers, but Ramazani con- students associated with other sidered the smaller countries as groups. One day, as Ramazani players, not just as pawns of sat in class at the University of larger countries. He continues to Tehran, thugs rushed in and Third-year Julia Duncan has emphasize the importance of stabbed a classmate to death. combined service and social history when interpreting current “I heard my name as part of the JACK LOONEY connections through Warm Up events and the factors that influ- turmoil,”he says,“so I called out America! “There’s a re-emer- ence a government’s actions. my own name as I ran through gence of knitting culture in this Born in 1928, Rouhoullah the hallways: ‘Get Ramazani!’”He generation,” she says. “Ruhi”K. Ramazani grew up in a realized he needed to leave Iran.

14 March 2008 ARTS & SCIENCES DAN ADDISON Professor Emeritus of Government and Foreign Affairs R.K. Ramazani remains a sought-after voice on Iranian issues. Here, at his home nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which he and his wife (a talented gardener) are leaving to the University.

By then, Ramazani was “infat- In 1953, Ramazani taught the “He’s had a significant impact “There was almost nothing in uated”with the U.S. Supreme first course on the Middle East at on the field of government and the international field that he Court and comparative law. In the University of Virginia, joining diplomacy through his students,” didn’t either run or have a hand 1952, with $300 in savings, he its faculty a year later. In 1954, says Professor of Politics James in running.” and his wife, Nesta, sailed for the he became the first person to D. Savage. “One of Ruhi’s great hopes United States and enrolled at receive a doctorate in the science U.Va. has recognized has been that he could person- the University of Georgia. of jurisprudence in international Ramazani’s many contributions ally help bridge the divide The newlyweds paid $10 relations and international law with a chair in his name, election between the country of his monthly rent for a WWII surplus from the U.Va. School of Law. to two endowed chairs, a Distin- birth, Iran, and the country trailer with neither shower nor Ramazani loves teaching. guished Professor Award and a where he has lived for most of bath, subsisting on Wonder “I take a lot of pride and joy in Thomas Jefferson Award. He also his adult life, the United States,” Bread, bananas and beans heat- my students who have gone on has received a Fulbright Award, says William B. Quandt, the ed in the can. He studied nearly to be successful,”he says, esti- a Social Science Research Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., Professor round-the-clock — and received mating he’s taught about 8,000 Council Award, and awards from of Government and Foreign the constitutional law exam’s students, including one young the Middle East Institute, the Affairs and Middle East expert. only A+. Because Georgia did woman who knew nothing American Association of Middle “It remains to be seen whether not offer a doctorate in law, about the Middle East when she Eastern Studies and the Center Ruhi’s hope for reconciliation his professors recommended arrived in his classroom.“Now,” for Iranian Research and Analysis, between the two countries he U.Va., where he received a he says, “Rita Ragsdale is the along with many honors for knows best will take place, but if DuPont Fellowship. U.S. ambassador to Djibouti. his writing. and when it does, he will have And Nat Howell, another “Ramazani helped build the played an important role behind For an in-depth profile of Ruhi student, was the U.S. University into a nationally the scenes.” Ramazani, visit our “Online Extras” at ambassador to Kuwait ranked institution,”says Larry J. By Charlotte Crystal & magazine.clas.virginia.edu. during the first Persian Sabato, University Professor and Gulf War.” director of the Center for Politics.

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA March 2008 15 ’Hoos News

doing so, humans overstep this magazine developed. She boundaries created by the all- wrote or edited articles and knowing gods. Adam and Eve newsletters for the Alumni dared to eat the fruit of the Association; the law, nursing, Tree of Knowledge of Good engineering, education and and Evil, and for that commerce schools; the Career humankind has been Planning, Development and punished ever since. News offices; and the Health Frankenstein’s System. She also authored monster comes from the popular The University of an equally deep well of Virginia: A Pictorial History meaning, says Hitchcock, akin (University of Virginia Press, to Carl Jung’s archetype of the 1999 and 2005). shadow: the primitive life At the same time, Hitchcock force, our ideal and rational taught in the engineering self’s dark underbelly. In school’s Humanities Division orderly society it may be (now Science and Technology The Shadow Knows … quiet, but in times of chaos or Studies), where the fateful t started decades ago, one 1818 through dozens of social change, it reveals itself. intersection with Frankenstein I Halloween at the University stage adaptations in Europe Interestingly, as Hitchcock’s occurred in her course,“Man of Virginia. … and the United States and book hit the shelves, Broad- and Machine: Images of Susan Tyler Hitchcock (PhD even became the subject of a way was hosting two Technology in Literature.” English ’78) wore a “lurid green 1910 film by Thomas Edison — Frankenstein-based shows. Beginning with Mad Mary mask” to teach Mary Shelley’s one of Hitchcock’s favorites — Hitchcock’s ties to the Lamb in 2005, she says,“My Frankenstein. An especially long before Boris Karloff’s University are multifaceted career allowed me to write lively discussion sparked, and 1931 green-headed, bolted and nearly continuous. After about what I knew and loved Hitchcock herself was hooked. characterization of the mon- receiving her doctorate, she and studied as a student.The She had discovered more than ster became standard. chose to write for the general Frankenstein book continues another Romantic writer — Hitchcock’s Frankenstein public rather than pursue an that trend — and I am begin- her dissertation was about returns her to her academic academic career.“Instead ning work on my next book, Shelley’s husband, poet Percy roots.“If you take my writing of a job, I got a book contract,” which will be about John Bysshe Shelley — she had career to have begun in 1978, she says. Gather Ye Wild Milton and Paradise Lost — found a myth. More than two when I got my Ph.D., it did Things appeared in 1980. which I reread for the sake decades later, in the story of come full circle in 2005 with For many years,“the major- of writing the Frankenstein the scientist who fashioned a the publication of Mad Mary ity of my writing was for and book and found newly fasci- living creature from corpses, Lamb,” she says.“I returned about the University,” she nating, not only the poem Hitchcock has birthed her own to literary history and to the says. She served as founding itself but also the family creation, a meaty (pun intend- Romantic period that so editor and writer for setting within ed), lively and intellectual fascinated me as a graduate Of Arts & Sciences, which it was examination of why an early student.” the alumni news- written.” 19th-century Gothic romance Shelley’s Frankenstein has letter from which still resonates. been called the first myth of In Frankenstein: A Cultural modern times, says Hitchcock, History (W.W. Norton & weaving two contradictory Company, 2007), Hitchcock mythological threads. Some examines how Shelley’s myths celebrate the courage Frankenstein, or The Modern to push beyond normal limits Prometheus retained its popu- and perform the impossible — larity from its first edition in classic myths of the hero, such as Odysseus or To read an excerpt from Frankenstein, Beowulf — while visit “Online Extras” at others caution magazine.clas.virginia.edu. against such risks,

& implying that by TOM COGILL

16 March 2008 Last Look

New Media? It’s Status Quo. BY KARIN WITTENBORG, UNIVERSITY LIBRARIAN f you relish change, being a librarian is one of the best jobs in the world these days. I These are times of infinite possibilities. The best research libraries are intellectual crossroads where intersec- tions among faculty and students, tradition and innovation, people and resources, and the university and the world produce exciting results. These are heady times indeed. Libraries are all about discovery, creating new knowledge and archiving materials to keep them safe in perpetuity. I am amused by the expression “new media.” Libraries are in business for the long haul, and we’ve already run through a lot of media. In the U.Va. Library, our oldest “new media” are Babylonian clay tablets (c. 2350 B.C.). We have scrolls on animal skin, manuscripts on vellum and later on paper, old books, mass-produced paperbacks, photographs, films, recordings on magnetic tapes, eight-tracks, CDs, DVDs and resources that are entirely digital. All of these were new media at one time. Books, for example, appeared in the mid-15th century when Gutenberg invented movable type. For centuries, you could only get to books if you were very rich or had CADE MARTIN access to a library. Books were so expensive to produce that they were chained to the “I believe that a added a new level of richness we have not shelves. Only the advent of mass publishing had before. Now, in addition to text, we can made books widely accessible at a reasonable library’s role have sound, images, moving images, visual- price. is to help create izations, simulations, blogs, podcasts, social I believe that a library’s role is to help knowledge networks and a host of other possibilities. create knowledge and make it available as and make All can intersect to create new knowledge, broadly as possible. Today digital technolo- and I’m delighted that the U.Va. Library gies are opening the doors wide — copy- it available as can be one of the crossroads where that right permitting — to a vast world of broadly happens. information and knowledge accessible to as possible. ” This morning I saw the “international anyone who has an Internet connection. media wall” that the Office of the Provost has Thanks to the Google Books Project, made possible in Alderman Library. The the Open Content Alliance, the Million Book Project and intent was to “bring the world onto Grounds.” other efforts we’re involved in, millions of books in the Seeing the silent feed of television being broadcast public domain are free to anyone with computer access, from Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe — just a anywhere, anytime. And snippets of copyrighted books are few of the more than 50 stations that will be feeding the included in search results so that people can discover what’s satellite dish on Alderman’s roof from around the world — out there on that topic and see where to buy or borrow it. made my wait in line to get coffee at Alderman Café that This is truly the democratization of information, and much more interesting. . the best part is that, generally, these texts are interactive. You can search through texts in ways that would not be To learn more about the U.Va. Library’s possible in a printed form. In the old tradition of libraries, partnership in the Google Library Books scholars are using “new media” to ask new questions and & Project and to explore the library’s digital create new knowledge. I love that. collections, find links in our “Online Extras” at New technologies and new formats have not replaced magazine.clas.virginia.edu. print, and I don’t believe that they will. They have simply

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA March 2008 17 MARCH 2008 GARTH ANDERSON A cross-section of Beta Bridge paint layers. Last fall, a sheet of paint about 4 feet high, 10 feet long and 3 inches thick — and weighing approximately 1,000 pounds — peeled away from the oft-painted University of Virginia landmark. For the full story and more photos, visit “Online Extras” at magazine.clas.virginia.edu.

IN THIS ISSUE: Personal privacy and the public interest Exhibition showcases plantations and slavery Susan Tyler Hitchcock surveys Frankenstein