Currently@Carleton

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Important date for your calender! Please join us for Beverlee DeCoux's retirement party.

Date: Thursday, January 27
Place: Alumni Guest House Meeting Room
Time: 3 to 5 p.m., Program at 3:45 p.m.

In addition to your presence, you are invited to bring something for Beverlee's Memory Book: a card, a story, a picture, or anything you would like to share with Beverlee.

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I am pleased to announce that Merry Hoekstra has been promoted to Special Events Associate/Administrative Assistant to College Relations, effective January 3. The move recognizes Merry’s outstanding contributions to Carleton, and is part of a restructuring plan to pick up the job responsibilities left behind by Nancy Lehman, who has retired after 42 years of service to the College.

In her revamped role, Merry will assist in planning, implementing, and hosting a variety of special and time specific events in the life of the College, including weekly convocations, Commencement, Employee Recognition, donor cultivation events, ground breaking ceremonies, building dedications, and other public events. Among other things, she will oversee weddings at Carleton and the operation of the Alumni Guest House. She also will set and monitor protocols for a variety of public and private events, which includes preparation of guest lists and invitations, tracking RSVPs and attendance, and on-site duties as needed to create high caliber events for Carleton.

Merry will continue to report to me and provide administrative support to College Relations. She works closely with Director of Events, Kerry Raadt, on events management, and will continue as a co-editor of Currently@Carleton.

Merry came to the College in 1997 as part-time secretary in Corporate and Foundation Relations and part-time in College Relations. She moved over to College Relations full-time in 2000 as Special Events Assistant and Secretary to the Director of College Relations, and has increasingly taken on more events responsibilities.

Please join me in congratulating Merry.

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On behalf of the Faculty Grants Committee, I am delighted to announce the following faculty development fellowship awards for 2005-06.

Term-long fellowship awards made by the committee on the basis of the exceptional quality of the proposals and of the intended “visible products” go to the following:

• Paula Arai, Religion, Mellon Faculty Fellowship to work on her book, Healing Buddhist Women.
• Nelson Christensen, Physics and Astronomy, Hewlett Fellowship to work with detecting gravitational radiation at the Italian/French collaboration detector in Pisa, Italy.
• Kathleen Galotti, Psychology, Eugster Fellowship to finish analyses and writing for publication the results of a four-year longitudinal study of people facing an important life decision: choosing an educational setting for first grade for their child.
• Deborah Gross, Chemistry, Bush Fellowship to expand her knowledge of measurement techniques.
• Fred Hagstrom, Art and Art History, Bush Fellowship to continue work on a group of traditional format prints that explore the theme of our connection to nature, and to complete one or two book format pieces.
• Baird Jarman, Art and Art History, Bush and Class of ’49 Fellowships to revisit, restructure, and rethink his dissertation, as well as draft three new chapters that draw upon the material not included in the final draft of his thesis.
• Kelly Kollman, Political Science, Roth Fellowship to work on a research project that seeks to explain the recent wave of adoption of same-sex union legislation by more than a dozen European governments over the past decade.
• George Shuffelton, English, Bush and Class of ’49 Fellowships to begin work on a scholarly monograph to be entitled, The Culture of Book Ownership in England, 1300-1500.
• Dana Strand, Romance Languages and Literatures, Smith-NEH Fellowship to complete a book of essays that explore the treatment of cultural and national identity in contemporary French fiction and film.
• Mija Van Der Wege, Psychology, Wallin Fellowship to develop a mathematical model that can be applied to the spread of words, apply the model to previously collected corpus data, and plan and conduct a series of controlled experiments to try to isolate factors that affect various parameters of the models.
• Harry Williams, History, Mellon and Smith Fellowship to work on an intellectual history monograph on the life and thought of African American journalist George S. Schuyler.

The Faculty Grants Committee also announces these awards from the Curriculum Development Fund:

• Michael Flynn, Linguistics, to study Japanese in Tokyo.
• Baird Jarman and Kathleen Ryor, Art and Art History, to redesign ARTH298, the required methodology seminar for art history majors.
• Nadja Kramer, German and Russian, to fund student work hours to develop Virtual Lab audio and written activities for the Can 8 software in the Language Center.
• Christine Lac, Romance Languages and Literatures, for development of a French 103 audio component and preparation of the Modern Languages Methods course for Educational Studies.
• Lance McCready, Educational Studies, to write and mount a web-based manual for the Digital Memoir projects for EDUC338 and to support travel to Chicago to explore the possibility of developing a new winter break seminar.
• John Schott, Cinema and Media Studies, to revise the Media Production curriculum.

I am also pleased to announce targeted opportunity awards to the following faculty for various projects:

• Laurence Cooper, Political Science, Wallin Fellowship to support a term of leave and travel to conduct research on the variety of general humanities programs at liberal arts institutions across the United States.
• Fernán Jaramillo, Biology, Eugster Fellowship to support a term of leave to explore the properties of outer hair cells in the mammalian cochlea at the Center for the Neurobiology of Hearing at the University of Salamanca in Spain.
• Julie Neiworth, Psychology, Wallin Fellowship to support a half-time summer research assistant to help complete a project previously funded by NIH.
• Mary Savina, Geology and the Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching, Smith Fellowship to support two faculty members and two student workers on her project to complete a comprehensive summary and review of the status of academic civic engagement at Carleton.

The following small grants from the Faculty Development Endowment have also been awarded (on a discretionary basis by the Dean):

• José Cerna-Bazán, Romance Languages and Literatures, to travel to Peru and Chile to gather materials for two projects: “Contemporary Trends in Latin American poetry,” and Tríptico de San Juan de Lurigancho.
• Cameron Davidson, Geology, to help defray expenses for a trip to southeast Alaska to lay the groundwork for a proposal for an undergraduate research project.
• Roy Elveton, Philosophy, to support presenting a paper at the Special Conference of the UK Society for Sartrean Studies.
• Michael Flynn, Linguistics, to help defray expenses for his intensive study of Japanese in Tokyo.
• Humberto Huergo, Romance Languages and Literatures, to write a new piece on Gongora’s admiration for his fellow countryman and contemporary, the famous Spanish painter El Greco.
• Heidi Jaynes, Physical Education, Athletics, and Recreation, to visit other campuses and study under the head and assistant volleyball coaches.
• Mark Kanazawa, Economics, to travel to California for a two-week field research trip to the Tuolumne County Court Archives to collect information on water disputes involving the Tuolumne County Water Company.
• Silvia López, Romance Languages and Literatures, to travel to San Salvador to work on her book manuscript.
• Stephen Mohring, Art and Art History, to support a student research assistant to help complete new work including a large scale installation for the Franconia Sculpture Park.
• Anne Patrick, Religion, to support participation in a conference in Barcelona, Spain.
• John Schott, to sustain and expand “Camera/Iraq,” a Web site that serves as an international knowledge portal for image practices in the Middle East.

Congratulations to all these colleagues, and best wishes for completion of these exciting projects.

Faculty Grants Committee Members:
President Rob Oden
Dean Shelby Boardman
Professor Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg
Professor Roger Jackson
Professor Sigi Leonhard
Professor Sam Patterson

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What is The Forum? The new name for the group of employees on campus formerly known as The Exempt Staff Forum. The Forum gathers several times each term as a voluntary meeting of all exempt employees. Members represent nearly every office and division on campus.

The purpose of The Forum is two-fold. First, we offer the opportunity to get together with other exempt staff to share ideas, discuss issues of common interest, and socialize. Second, we serve as an advocate for exempt staff participation in discussions that affect our roles in the Carleton community. Topics vary, and we are always open to suggestions. To learn more about The Forum, visit our Web page at http://apps.carleton.edu/campus/staff/esf/.

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The Carleton Bookstore is pleased to sponsor the Northfield Reads program along with River City Books, the Northfield Public Library, and the St. Olaf Bookstore. All members of the community are invited to read the same book and then spend an evening with the author discussing the work. Previous selections have included such authors as Leif Enger with Peace Like a River and Kate DiCamillo with The Tale of Despereaux.

We hope you will plan ahead for the next two Northfield Reads events. Robert Alexander will be in Northfield on February 11 at 7 p.m. at the First United Church of Christ to discuss his book The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar. This fictional account of the last days of the Imperial Family explores such questions as why the bodies of two Romanov children are missing from the secret grave discovered in 1991. On February 25, also at the church at 7 p.m., Julie Schumacher will be discussing her young adult novel Grass Angel. An honest, lyrical, and wise book, Grass Angel is the story of Frances Cressen’s eleventh summer in a small town. Refreshments and a booksigning will conclude each evening. Please join us for these wonderful opportunities.

Current Recommendations
We have some excellent titles on our January Browser’s Dozen (25% off). Alexander McCall Smith, the author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, has another very different series involving the insane and rarified world of Professor Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld. Portuguese Irregular Verbs takes the Professor to Ireland and then on two ill-fated sojourns to Italy.

The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty is a Browser’s Dozen title and a staff favorite. In the beginning of the novel, Smithy Ide is an overweight, friendless, chain-smoking forty-three-year-old drunk. After a tragedy he discovers his old Raleigh and sets off across America on the bike. Sad, sweet, and funny, his quest makes a very fine read.

Another Browser’s Dozen title is The Art of Teaching by Jay Parini. A poet, novelist, biographer and editor, Parini is also a seasoned teacher who reflects on the dynamic relationship between teachers and students, academic colleagues old and young and the important community created as they come together in a college classroom.

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Last Call for Winter Reading Groups for the Campus Community:
There is still room in the two book discussion groups for the campus community during Winter Term. Both book groups are open to interested faculty and staff. Please sign up with Jennifer Cox Johnson in the LTC, x4192 or jcoxjohn@carleton.edu.

A Hidden Wholeness, by Parker Palmer: Meets two Thursdays, February 17 and March 3, 4:30 to 6 p.m. at Headley House with light refreshments, plus one date (to be announced) with Parker Palmer in Spring Term. This group will also refer to Parker Palmer's book The Courage to Teach. Complimentary copies of the books are provided to faculty members by the Dean of the College Office. Human Resources has provided funds for complimentary copies to be available to staff participating in the book group. To become part of the group, contact Jennifer Cox Johnson (x4192 or jcoxjohn@carleton.edu). Please indicate whether you own either of these books when you make your reservation. Discounted copies of the books are available for those not able to participate in the group. Co-sponsored by the Mellon Faculty Lifecycles Grant, the Program for Ethical Reflection at Carleton (PERC), the Career Center, Human Resources, and the Dean of the College Office.

How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, John Bransford, et al, editors: Meets three Mondays, January 31, February 21, and March 7, 4:30 to 6 p.m., at Headley House with light refreshments. Complimentary copies of the book are provided to faculty members through the Mellon Faculty Lifecycles Grant. Staff members may read the book on the Web site or purchase discounted copies through the Bookstore. To become part of the book group contact Jennifer Cox Johnson (x4192 or jcoxjohn@carleton.edu). See also the January 18 LTC noon presentation.

(URL for online access http://www.nap.edu/books/0309070368/html/)

Co-sponsored by Carleton Integrated Science and Math Initiative (CISMI) and the Science Education Resource Center (SERC).