Faculty News
Representing the Passions
Richard Meyer, associate professor of art history, edited Representing
the Passions: Histories, Bodies, Visions. The collection explores the
interplay between the experience of extravagant emotions and their
expression in Western art, music and writing.
Sloan Fellowship
Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences and Computer Science Ting
Chen, who also holds a joint appointment in mathematics, received the
Alfred P. Sloan research fellowship. Chen’s work exemplifies the
creative spirit the fellowship promotes—he researches problems of
reconstructing gene regulatory networks, sequencing DNA and peptides,
reconstructing evolutionary trees and evolutionary distances and
gene-finding and protein analysis.
Literary Cafés at California Club
Noël Riley Fitch, lecturer in the Masters of Professional Writing
program and writer, recently presented her work, Literary Cafés of
Paris, at the California Club Athena Circle’s reception and luncheon.
Fitch is an award-winning biographer and historian of expatriate
intellectuals in Paris during the first half of the 1900s.
New Faculty Advisor
Professor of Biological Sciences and Neurology William McClure has
accepted an appointment as faculty advisor of the Baccalaureate M.D.
program, succeeding Albert Herrera, professor of biological
sciences.
Distinguished Alumnus
John P. (Jack) Crossley, associate professor of religion, was awarded
Pepperdine College’s 2003 distinguished alumnus award. Crossley has
served as graduate advisor, coordinator of graduate studies and
director of the College’s School of Religion.
Goodwin Award of Merit
The American Philological Association awarded Associate Professor of
Classics Clifford Ando the Goodwin Award of Merit for his book Imperial
Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire.
Linnell for President
81-year-old former USC College Chemistry Professor Robert H. Linnell
was listed on the New Hampshire primary ballot in January. For Linnell,
his presidential run is not about winning. He says, “I don’t want to
win. I just want my voice heard.”
The Politics of Fear
Barry Glassner, the Myron and Marian Casden Director of the Casden
Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life and College
professor of sociology, recently spoke at a conference on “Fear: Its
Political Uses and Abuses” at the New School University in New York.
Former Vice President Al Gore opened the conference.
Ryskamp Fellowship
Assistant Professor of History Jason Glenn was awarded the American
Council for Learned Societies’ Charles A. Ryskamp Fellowship for
2004-2006. Glenn’s latest work, Politics and History in the Tenth
Century: The Work and World of Richer of Reims will appear this year.
Fulbright Scholarships
Four USC College faculty were awarded Fulbright Scholarships. They are:
Bettine Birge, associate professor of East Asian languages and
cultures, Teh-Lung Ku, the Wilford and Daris Zinsmeyer Chair in Marine
Studies and professor of earth sciences, Lon Yuki Kurashige, associate
professor of history and American studies and ethnicity, and Barry
Schein, associate professor of linguistics.
Microbiology Meeting
Steve Finkel, assistant professor of biology, presented new research on
possible mechanisms of mutation and evolution in bacteria at the 104th
meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in New Orleans. He
discussed his work on how and why mutation rates rise in E. coli
bacteria in stressful conditions.
Editing American Literature
Professor of English Carla Kaplan has been elected by the American
Literature Section of the Modern Language Association to a three-year
term on the board of editors of American Literature. As a member,
Kaplan will evaluate up to 50 manuscripts a year.
Detecting Earthquakes
Ta-liang Teng, professor of earth sciences, spoke at a December
American Geophysical Union meeting regarding earthquake early warning
systems. Teng researches theoretical and observational seismology,
earth’s strong ground motion and earthquake prediction and tectonic
mapping using seismological data.
A Career of Contribution
Professor of Earth Sciences Gregory Davis received the Geological
Society of America’s 2003 Structural Geology and Tectonics Division
Career Contribution Award for distinguished contributions that have
advanced structural geology or tectonics.
Hebrew Tales Anthology
Moshe Lazar, professor of comparative literature, French and Italian
and Spanish, wrote the foreword to Once Upon a Time... Maimonides,
Traditional Hebrew Tales: An Anthology, published by the Henry J. Leir
Library of Sephardica and collected by Tamar Alexander and Elena
Romano.
Aboriginal Paintings
Ronald Gottesman, professor emeritus of English, co-curated an
aboriginal painting exhibition at the L.A. Art Exchange in Santa Monica
in March. “Outback and Way Ahead: Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings
from Australia’s Central Desert,” consisted of more than 35 recently
completed paintings that represent several leading aboriginal art
communities in Central Australia.
Book on Life
Geobiologist Radu Popa, assistant professor of research in biological
sciences, recently published a new book, Between Necessity and
Probability: Searching for the Definition and Origin of Life. The book
explores the ways people have defined the phenomenon of life and the
fundamental principles of life emerging from modern research.
Speech Communication
Dani Byrd, associate professor of linguistics, spoke on the “Future of
Speech Communication Research” at the 75th Anniversary Meeting of the
Acoustical Society of America in New York. Byrd was one of nine “young
scholars” invited to present at the session.
Leibovitz Award
Gerald A. Larue received the Leibovitz Award for distinguished
volunteer service to seniors by a retired USC faculty member. Larue,
80, is an emeritus professor of religion. His most recent book is
Playing God: 50 Religions Views on Your Right to Die.
Studies of Aging
Associate Professor of Biology John Tower twice shared his views on the
oxidative theory of aging on the Science of Aging Knowledge Environment
Web site this winter.
The American West
William Deverell, who joins the College next fall as a professor of
history, edited a collection of 25 original essays by leading experts
in the history of the American West. The book, A Companion to the
American West, is a part of the Blackwell Companions to American
History series.
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