The Great Debate Page 6 in This Issue: CLAS Welcomes New Faculty
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November 2004 Volume 18 notes CLASThe University of Florida College of Liberal Arts and Sciences The Great Debate page 6 In this Issue: CLAS Welcomes New Faculty ........... 3 The Great Debate ............................. 6 Around the College ......................... 8 Grants .............................................. 10 Bookbeat ........................................ 11 The Dean’s Junk Mail Be Gone! ....................... 12 Musings The Fundamentals As important as our cross-disciplinary interactions are, E-mail [email protected] with your news and especially in the applied sciences and social sciences, events information for publication in CLAS- we need to remind ourselves of the critical importance notes. The deadline for submissions is the 15th of the month prior to the month you would of the fundamental academic disciplines—the essential like your information published. Don’t wait! units of mathematics, English, philosophy, history, the Send us your news and events today! languages, natural sciences, behavioral sciences and social studies. It is these core units that engage in the basic research that historically has led to some of the most far-reaching discoveries and the formation of new interdisciplinary programs. Inventions which have led to revolutionary technologies and analyses that College of Liberal Arts and Sciences News and Publications have changed our understanding of societies and their 2008 Turlington Hall behaviors have often had their as their origin the PO Box 117300 Gainesville FL 32611-7300 research of a challenging academic problem. [email protected] Our college has the responsibility of advancing http://clasnews.clas.ufl.edu these basic areas of inquiry by energizing fundamental CLASnotes is published by the College of Liberal research with support for promising interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences to inform faculty, staff and stu- programs. These new areas will bring experts together dents of current research and events. in an environment that is free to challenge traditional Dean: Neil Sullivan thought and encourages the exploration of new fron- Editor: Allyson A. Beutke Contributing Editor: Buffy Lockette tiers. To emerge as a leading international research Design: Jane Dominguez institution, we must succeed in this endeavor by select- Web Master: Jeff Stevens Copy Editor: Michal Meyer ing areas that are unique for UF and can attract the Photography: world’s best scholars and students. Robert Muller, Case Western Reserve University: cover, p. 7 Neil Sullivan Courtesy William Baber: p. 3 (Baber) Jane Dominguez: p. 3 (Barr, Baudis, Bergmann, [email protected] Caes), p. 4 (Ceobanu, Ge, Hermer-Vazquez, Link, Mennel), p. 5, p. 8 (Dukes), p. 10, p. 11 Buffy Lockette: p. 4 (Liu) Jeremy Clark: p. 8 (Fugate) On the Cover: UF junior LaToya Edwards, a political science and public relations major, debates US domes- tic policy against Cedric Logan, a student at the University of Rochester, during the National Student Vice Presidential Debate held at Case Western Reserve University as part of the events surrounding the vice presidential debate between US Vice President Dick Cheney and opponent John Edwards on October 5. See page 6 for full story. page 2 CLASnotes November 2004 Juliana Barr Peter Berg- is an assistant mann is an professor in associate pro- the Depart- fessor jointly ment of His- appointed tory. After between the earning her Center for CLAS PhD in 1999 European from the Studies and University of the Depart- Welcomes Wisconsin, ment of Madison, she held a one-year postdoctoral History. He received his PhD in 1983 from New fellowship at Southern Methodist University the University of California, Berkeley, and in Dallas, Texas before becoming an assistant his area of specialization is modern German professor at Rutgers University. intellectual history. Faculty Barr is currently revising a book Before coming to UF, Bergmann was a manuscript, “Peace Came in the Form of a professor at the University of Connecticut for Woman: the Power Relations of Spanish and 15 years. His present research project exam- More than 60 new faculty Indian Nations in the Early Southwestern ines German and American exceptionalism. members have joined Borderlands,” that explores the gendered He is teaching Modern European Intellectual CLAS this year. dynamics of European-Indian political and History, Nationalism and the Idea of Europe, economic interaction in 18th century Texas. and War and Society. She is teaching two courses this fall, Early America and Native American History I, and will teach Native American History II and a Chris Caes graduate course on American history in the is an assis- spring. tant profes- sor, jointly appointed William Laura Baudis between the Baber is a is an assistant Center for professor in professor in European the Depart- the Depart- Studies and ment of ment of the Depart- Anthropology. Physics. She ment of Ger- He earned earned her manic and Slavic Studies. His specialty is Pol- his PhD from PhD in 1999 ish studies, and he received his PhD in 2004 Stanford from the from the University of California, Berkeley. University in University of Caes’ current research focuses on con- 1979 and has Heidelberg in ceptions of selfhood and agency in the lit- held positions at Tuskegee University, Purdue Germany, and completed a postdoctoral fel- erature and cinema of Polish Stalinism. This University and the University of North Caro- lowship at Stanford University in 2003. fall he is teaching Polish Culture and Society lina, Greensboro. Her main research interests are particle of the 20th Century. In the spring, he plans His most recent research is on African astrophysics and cosmology, in particular the to teach Modern Polish Cinema and The American masculinity and HIV risk behav- domain of particle dark matter. Her present Absurd in 20th Century Polish Literature and ior. He also is working on a book-length work is focused on the direct detection of Theater. manuscript, “The Social Ecology of Booker non-baryonic dark matter with the cryogenic T. Washington,” based on research funded dark matter search experiment and with by the Department of the Interior from liquid xenon. Baudis teaches Physics with 1997 to 1999 and research conducted at the Calculus and Mechanics 1. Booker T. Washington National Monument in Franklin County, Virginia. Baber is teach- ing an African American studies course, The Social Ecology of Booker T. Washington, and Introduction to Applied Anthropology. He is also developing a course for the spring 2005 semester on environment and disease. continued on page 4 CLASnotes November 2004 page 3 New Faculty continued from page 3 Alin Ceo- Linda Xueli Liu is banu is an Hermer- an assistant assistant pro- Vazquez is an professor in fessor jointly assistant pro- the Depart- appointed fessor in the ment of between the Department Statistics. She Center for of Psychology. completed European She earned her PhD in Studies and her PhD 2002 at the the Depart- from Cornell University of ment of Soci- University California, ology. He earned his PhD in sociology from in 1997 in biopsychology with a minor in Davis, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Cham- cognitive studies. Before coming to UF she the University of California, Los Angeles for paign in May 2004, with a certificate of grad- was a research assistant professor in the lab of two years before coming to UF. uate specialization in Russian language and renowned neurophysiologist John Chapin at Liu’s current research focuses on bio- area studies. His dissertation was on the pub- the State University of New York at Brook- informatics, specifically on gene expression lic sentiment of immigrants and immigration lyn. data and tissue micro-array data. She also policies in Central and Eastern Europe. Her research includes studies of olfac- works on statistical genetics and functional Ceobanu’s current research focuses on tory-based perception, learning, deci- data analysis and has collaborations with the post-communist societies of East-Central sion-making and motor execution. She McKnight Brain Institute. Europe and enlargement of the European collaborates with her husband Raymond Union, cross-national aspects of national- Hermer-Vazquez, a new assistant scientist ism, inter-group relations, and collective in psychology, and the two are studying the Barbara action and social movements. He is teaching physiological basis for how different brain Mennel is an Nationalism and Ethnicity in Europe and regions involved in these behaviors commu- assistant pro- Culture and Identity in the New Europe. nicate with one another, in both frequency fessor in the and time. They also are teaching a graduate Department seminar, Current Controversies in Neurosci- of Germanic Jian Ge is a ence. and Slavic professor in Studies. She the Depart- received her ment of William Link PhD in Ger- Astronomy. is the man studies He received Milbauer from Cornell University in 1998 and has his PhD in Eminent held positions at Bates College and the Uni- astronomy Scholar in the versity of Maryland. from the Uni- Department She currently is completing a book proj- versity of Ari- of History. ect on masochistic aesthetics in 19th- and zona in 1998 He received 20th-century German language, literature and served his PhD in and film. Mennel’s next research project con- as an assistant professor at The Pennsylvania history from cerns the cinematic representation of cities. State University. He also has held research the University