Volume 2, Issue 2 Superscript Spring 2012 The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences | Columbia University BEYOND THE BINARY Digital humanities today The Other Side of Remembering Profiles of NSF Alumni Profile: Inequality Vaclav Havel Winners Bel Kaufman Professor Shamus Khan goes Recalling the late Czech Five GSAS students earned The author of Up the Down undercover to investigate the president, playwright, and grants in fields ranging from Staircase looks back, 75 rituals of the 1 percent. dissident’s time on campus anthropology to sequestrial years after earning her as an artist in residence. chemistry. master’s degree. ANNOUNCEMENTS | ALUMNI PROFILE | PUBLICATIONS | LINKS GSAS Alumni Association Board of Directors CONTENTS Dale Turza, President, M.A. ’74, Art History and Archaeology 1 Message from the Dean Louis Parks, Vice President, M.A. ’95, Ancient Studies Inge Reist, Secretary, Ph.D. ’84, Art History & Archaeology 2 Beyond the Binary: Digital Humanities Today Tyler Anbinder, M.A. ’85, M.Phil. ’87, Ph.D. ’90, History From the Dean Jillisa Brittan, M.A. ’86, English and Comparative Literature 8 The Other Side of Inequality The spring semester is always an espe- the opportunity to be exposed to the rituals and conven- Robert J. Carow, M.Phil. ’94, Ph.D. ’94, Economics and Education cially busy time of year in the graduate tions of their chosen discipline. These departmental and Kenneth W. Ciriacks, Ph.D. ’62, Geological Sciences 12 Remembering Vaclav Havel school. In early January departments program settings are so diverse and self-contained that the Annette Clear, M.A. ’96, M.Phil. ’97, Ph.D. ’02, Political Science undertake the review of the sometimes experiences that arise from them may be felt by the stu- 18 NSF Winners: Profiles Leonard A. Cole, M.A. ’65, Ph.D. ’70, Political Science hundreds of applications they receive dents in them to be distinct and sui generis. For instance, Michael S. Cornfeld, M.A. ’73, Political Science for admission to the doctoral programs, a student in the Department of French and Romance Phi- 30 Alumni News Deborah Gill Hilzinger, Ph.D. ’02, History soon to be followed by the review of lology will have a very different existential and intellectual master’s applications. Finalists are invited experience of graduate school than a graduate colleague in 32 Alumni Profile David Jackson, M.A. ’76, M.Phil. ’78, Ph.D. ’81, English and Comparative Literature to campus so that they may familiarize History, or another in Mathematics. Their paths through themselves with the department, the graduate education at Columbia will be quite distinct, but 34 On the Shelf: Faculty Publications Sukhan Kim, M.A. ’78, Political Science faculty, the city, and their potential gradu- in the end the substantial majority will go on to graduate Andrew Kotchoubey, M.A. ’61, Ph.D. ’66, Applied Mathematics 36 On the Shelf: Alumni Publications ate colleagues in a dance of intellectual and become alumni of GSAS. Les B. Levi, M.A. ’76, M.Phil. ’78, Ph.D. ’82, English and Comparative Literature seduction. Doctoral applicants have until This extensive and welcome variety in student Bridget M. Rowan, M.A. ’80, English and Comparative Literature 38 Dissertations Carlos J. Alonso April 15 to accept or decline an offer of experience is one of the reasons why graduate school is Komal S. Sri-Kumar, Ph.D. ’77, Economics Dean, Graduate School of Arts admission to a Ph.D. program, whereas a particularly exhilarating context. One only has to read and Sciences; Morris A. and Alma John Waldes, M.S. ’68, Electrical Engineering, Ph.D. ’71, Plasma Physics master’s admissions are done on a rolling the extraordinary range of titles of dissertations defended 44 Announcements Schapiro Professor in the Humani- basis until early June. The remainder and thesis prospectuses now published in each issue of Lester Wigler, M.A. ’80, Music ties; Professor of Latin American and of the semester and the summer will be 109Low to get a sense of this heady mix of research topics 48 Helpful Links Iberian Cultures spent preparing to receive this new cohort and projects—as well as of the parallel existence of myriad of students into their expectant graduate graduate research activities going on in all campuses, from programs. Morningside to the Medical Center to the Lamont-Doherty Additionally, during the spring semester, the dean and Earth Observatory. But if students remain ensconced in Letters to the Editor the school’s senior staff meet individually with all gradu- their departments and programs they may never be ex- ate departments and programs to assess the health of the posed to this enormously diverse activity going on around To share your thoughts about anything you have read unit and to discuss any challenges and concerns about the them, sometimes even unbeknownst to them. This is why in this publication, please e-mail gsaseditor@colum- graduate operation. This intense activity brings home con- GSAS has secured funding for the creation of a graduate bia.edu. Unless you note otherwise in your message, cretely the overarching responsibility that GSAS has to its student center that will serve as a place where students any correspondence received by the editor will be departments and students. Our interviews engage depart- may find their intellectual interlocutors outside their own considered for future publication. Please be sure to ments from Anthropology to Italian to Physics, but ... the departments and programs. Located in Philosophy Hall, include in your message your name and affiliation to questions asked are quite similar. How are your current the center will join rooms 301 and 302 to create a multi- the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. students doing and when will the most advanced among purpose space that will allow graduate students from all SUPERSCRIPT is published three times per year by them finish? What kind of pedagogical training are they over campus to work, meet, relax, and hold student-spon- receiving? How are you preparing them for an increasingly sored lectures and conferences. A café will serve beverages the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and the GSAS demanding job market? What resources do you need to and light fare throughout the day as well. The center is Alumni Association. run the highest quality master’s program? The questions currently scheduled for inauguration in fall 2013. reflect one of the principal charges of the Graduate School: Initiatives such as this graduate center are important to look after the well-being of our students across all because they lead students to realize that they are part of Dean: Carlos J. Alonso research disciplines and divisions of the university. a larger dimension of this university, one that transcends Editor: Robert Ast While at Columbia, the intellectual and social lives of their specific graduate program or department. This will, Associate Director for Alumni Relations: Ambareen Naqvi our graduate students revolve principally around their de- in turn, make visible to them the work that GSAS under- Design, Editing, and Production: University Publications partment or program. Classes, lectures, workshops, social takes for its graduate students year-round, and for which events, colloquia, etc., create in the aggregate a rich context we only ask that they thrive and excel in their chosen for both graduate students and faculty, and for the former intellectual path. Link back to contents page 3 Superscript Superscript 1 BEYOND THE BINARY Digital Humanities Today Graham Sack Character Network Sociograms by Kristin Balicki Middlemarch (George Eliot)) The Pickwick Papers (Charles Dickens) n recent years the expansive field of the digital humanities— network analysis, a method more often found in the social sciences. The Ambassadors (Henry James) which entails everything from computer simulations of his- “Novels can be thought of as imaginary social forums,” he remarks. torical environments to GIS mapping of archaeological sites “One of the functions they serve is as the representation of the social Ito digital analysis of texts, to cite only a few ways in which experience…I decided to use social network metrics to look at the levels digital technology is now being employed in the humanities—has of connections in Bleak House versus other novels. At first, it was all gained increasing prominence in academe. But the diversity of the manual. I went through the text and tried to figure out how everyone digital humanities is rarely reflected in the discourse surrounding was connected to everyone else.” The paper took him two years to com- it; instead, the new field is often presented either as the savior of the plete. humanities or the fad du jour. Columbia faculty and students are among those on the vanguard helping to move beyond this reductive One of the digital humanities’ greatest benefits, states Nicholas binary as they think through—and implement—the use of digital Dames, chair of Columbia’s Department of English and Comparative tools methodologically, pedagogically, and professionally. Literature, is the ability to process countless works in a manner that is General Features: General Features: General Features: impossible for the individual scholar on his own: “Quantitative meth- • Large network (112 characters) • Small network (12 characters) • Large network (99 characters) • High proporUon of isolates (20%) Graham Sack is one such researcher. A Ph.D. student in English and ods allow you to see aspects about literary form that you hadn’t seen • No isolates • Moderately high % of isolates (17%) • Very low graph density (4%) and clustering • Very high graph density (71%) and clustering • Low graph density (7%) and clustering comparative literature, Sack is using textual analysis to study 19th- and track the development of certain elements of literature over time coefficient (72%) coefficient (85%) coefficient 73%) •High average path length (2.4) • High average path length (2.2) century British novels.