Qiguang Zhao, Burton and Lily Levin Professor of Chinese, has been invited to talk weekly on Phoenix TV, an influential Chinese TV channel located in Hong Kong, about international affairs. Zhao comments on a range of topics from Obama’s election to North Korea’s nuclear tests, and the show is broadcasted to millions of Chinese viewers. Additionally, Zhao plans to begin hosting a series of documentary shows about the travel of Marco Polo from Venice to Xanadu with Phoenix TV, along with several other channels, which will air in 2014.

Laurence Cooper, professor of political science, recently gave a lecture, "Me, Myself – and Rousseau: The New American Spirituality and Its Origin," at Christopher Newport University on April 8. The discussion analyzed the increasing tendency in America to think that the proper way to live is to turn inward and get in touch with oneself. Cooper, however, discussed the importance of former belief, where people looked beyond themselves for guidance and validation. Previously, Rousseau had promoted these ideas, which urge for less rigorous self-examination and more spontaneity and sincerity. The source of these features is belief in the natural goodness of human beings and the idea of a perfect true self.

Hsianghui Liu-Spencer, cataloging and digital services librarian, and Tom Lamb, cataloging and metadata librarian, presented their study "A batch solution to the death date problem: a case study" at the Innovative Users Group 2013 Annual Conference held in San Francisco on April 25. The presentation discussed the impacts of recent policy changes on the library catalog and their ‘batch solutions’ to these new obstacles. They shared their experiences of what worked and what didn’t with other catalogers as they experimented with unique solutions to these challenges.

Al Montero, professor of political science, and Kathryn Hochstetler of the University of Waterloo (Canada), have had their article titled, “The Renewed Developmentalist State: The National Development Bank and the Brazil Model,” accepted for publication in the Journal of Development Studies. The study examines how Brazil operationalized a renewed developmentalist project during the country’s democratic period.

Steve Kelly, Dye Family Professor of Music, Emeritus, is set to give a present “Lipstick Traces” at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance. The lecture will discuss the pen name of one of the most fetching personalities of New York’s Jazz Age. Lipstick (who’s real name was Lois Long) worked as a nightlife columnist for The New Yorker in 1925. Writing more than 100 columns, Lipstick traced the late-night comings and goings of New York’s jazz scene. Kelly will discuss the racial segregation of the jazz industry, evidenced by Lipstick’s column, and explain how racial categorization was employed by the marketing strategists of the time. 

Chérif Keïta, professor of French, has two documentary films that have been invited for screening at an African Art Exhibit to be held in May in Yokohama City, Japan. The two films, “Cemetery Stories: A Rebel Missionary in South Africa" and "Oberlin-Inanda:  The Life and Times of John L. Dube" were selected for 2010 Cinema Africa of Tokyo and were the closing acts of a festival honoring the Centennial of Japan's official relations with South Africa.

Andrew Flory, assistant professor of music, organized and chaired a session called "Pop The Syllabus: Teaching Rock" as part of the Experience Music Project Pop Conference, which was hosted by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. The panel featured speakers who teach about rock music to a variety of student bodies using various disciplinary and methodological foci. The discussion looked to challenge the notion that there might be a single course on the topic and show that instructors must make difficult and targeted choices when teaching about the music, history, and culture surrounding rock music.

Martha-Elizabeth Baylor, assistant professor of physics, gave an invited talk entitled "A Random Walk into Optical Signal Processing and Integrated Optofluidics" on April 14 as part of the American Physical Society April Meeting session on "Doing Science, Improving Diversity: Strategies for Minority Physicists." Her discussion traced her career path from her dreams of being a paleontologist and to the pursuit of a career in applied physics. Baylor also discussed her research in the areas of opto-electronic blind source separation and holographic photopolymers, as well as the non-linear path that has gotten her to this point.

Danya Leebaw, reference and instruction librarian for social sciences, Kristin Partlo, reference and instruction librarian for social sciences and data, and Heather Tompkins, reference and instruction librarian for humanities and government publications, presented a paper at the Association of College and Research Libraries conference in Indianapolis on April 12. The paper, “'How is this different from critical thinking?': The risks and rewards of deepening faculty involvement in an information literacy rubric," discussed a library assessment project in which librarians and faculty used a rubric to evaluate students' information literacy habits of mind.

Ruth Weiner, Class of 1944 Professor of Theater and the Liberal Arts Professor of English, delivered a paper entitled, "The Oresteia in Production," at the Comparative Drama Conference on April 6 in Baltimore. Her paper was based on the production of Oresteia at Carleton in spring 2012 and discussed many of the themes incorporated into the performance. The production came out of a collaboration between several departments: Classics, Cinema and Media Studies, Theater, and Dance.  

Kara Sage, visiting assistant professor of psychology, received an APA Division 7 Early Career Research Grant to launch a new research project entitled "iLearn: Can utilizing tablet technology reduce the 2D deficit effect in children’s learning?" Studies have shown that children learn better from live people than most 2D media, but the learning potential from tablet technology has not been well investigated in terms of its learning potential. The grant will go towards launching a research study investigating tablet learning in children ages 2-6. The research hopes to shed light on the effectiveness of tablet learning and their incorporation into classrooms. Sage will conduct her research at Hamilton College.