January 2002 University Reporter

Presentations, Conferences, and Lectures

On November 16, Joan Arches, associate professor in the Human Services and Community Planning Center, and Suzanne Allmendinger, director of the CPCS Community Outreach Office, jointly presented “Powerful Partnerships: Students United Around Issues of Youth Leadership and Diversity” at the second annual Massachusetts Service Alliance statewide conference,

“Strengthening Communities through Service and Volunteerism.”
Sandy Blanchette, assistant director of the McCormack Institute, participated in a two-day public government workshop hosted by the Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio.

James Bierstaker, professor of accounting and finance, will discuss the paper “Diagnostic Reasoning During Audit Judgment: An Alternative Cognitive Characterization” at the Auditing Section Midyear Conference in Orlando, Florida on January 18.

Caroline Brown, assistant professor of English, recently presented two papers: she presented research on Michelle Cliff’s New Telephone to Heaven at the Women’s Studies Conference at Southern Connecticut University and research on the films Daughters of the Dust and The Piano at the International Conference on Caribbean Literature in Martinique.

Donna Haig Friedman and Julia Tripp of the Center for Social Policy were invited presenters at the National Training Conference, “We Can Do This! Ending Homelessness for People with Mental Illness and/or Substance Abuse Disorders,” held in Washington, D.C., on December 7 and 8.

Ines Maturana, undergraduate program director in the College of Management, Polly Welsh, assistant director of the ESL Center in Academic Support Programs, and Marta Pena - Trujillo, a student in the College of Management presented “Language, Culture, and the Academy: Addressing the Needs of Immigrant Students in Higher Education” at the Massachusetts Council for International Education Conference in November.

Kevin Murphy, a post-residency Ph.D. student in the public policy program, presented the paper “The Impact of a Series of Writing Intensive Courses on Success on the Writing Proficiency Requirement” at the Northeast Association for Institutional Research annual conference, held in Cambridge in November.

On November 13, Elizabeth Sherman, senior fellow in the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, gave a speech, “The Difference She Makes: Women and Political Power in the United States,” to 300 participants of the Liftetime Learning Program sponsored by Newton Community Education.

Cindy Schuster of the Hispanic Studies Department discussed literary translation and read her translation of Mexican writer María Luisa Puga’s short story “Tight Spot” at Jamaicaway Books on November 14.

Computer science professor Dan Simovici and Ph.D. student Laurentiu Cristofor will present a paper at the Extraction et Gestion des Connaissances 2002 conference in Montpellier, France held January 21-23.

Co-authors ECOS doctoral candidate Ruey-Jing Tang and Professor Emeritus Joseph Cooney presented their paper “Interaction of Tributyltin-Sensitive and Resistant, Biofilm-Forming Bacteria Isolated from Boston Harbor, MA” at the 7th Annual Boston Bacterial Meeting and the American Society of Microbiology meeting in Orlando.

Gerontology faculty and graduate students presented numerous posters and papers at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, held in Chicago from November 15 through 18.

Publications

Arindam Bandopadhyaya and Kiran Verma, professors of accounting and finance in the College of Management, published a paper, “Management Incumbency and the Outcome of the Reorganization Process under Chapter 11: An Empirical Analysis,” in Advances in Quantitative Analysis of Finance and Accounting.

Sara Baron, Instructional Technology Center director and coordinator of Healey Library’s Library Instruction Program, and reference librarian, Janet DiPaolo, have co-authored book chapters which have been published in Teaching Information Literacy Concepts: Activities and Frameworks from the Field.

Lawrence Franko, professor of finance in the College of Management, will publish an article, “Global Corporate Competition in the 1990s: American Renewal, Japanese Resilience, and European Crosscurrents,” in Business Horizons in mid-2002.

Professor of Management Arthur A. Goldsmith and colleagues published their article “Restarting and Sustaining Growth and Development in Africa” in the Journal of African Finance and Economic Development.

Jean-Pierre Kuilboer, associate professor and chair of the Management Sciences and Information Systems Department, co-authored e-Business and e-Commerce Infrastructure: Technologies Supporting the e-Business Initiative with former CM faculty member Aby Chaudhury. This new textbook for upper level undergraduates and MBA students is also intended for practicing professionals in the areas of marketing, accounting, information systems, and operations.

Sarah Oktay of the Environmental, Coastal, and Ocean Sciences Department co-wrote the article “129I and 127I Transport in the Mississippi River,” which was published in the November 15 issue of Environmental Science and Technology.

Thomas O’Grady, professor of English and director of Irish studies, published the essay “The Art of Heaney’s Sonnets” in the current issue of Dalhousie Review.

A chapter first co-authored by two recent Dorchester High School graduates, Fredo Sanon and Maurice Baxter, appeared in the new book In Our Own Words: Students’ Perspectives on School. Their chapter, “Cutting class: Perspectives of Urban High School Students,” was co-authored with UMass Boston alumni Lydia Fortune and associate professor Susan Opotow in the Graduate Program in Dispute Resolution.

The most recent issue of the e-journal Conservation Perspectives featured work by biology students and faculty: Jennifer Forman, Ph.D. candidate, Robert Stevenson, professor, and Marsha Salett, Ph.D. candidate who helped found the journal.

Elizabeth Sherman, senior fellow at the McCormack Institute, published the article “Women in Political Leadership: Reflections on Larger Social Issues” in the fall 2001 issue of Leadership, the magazine of the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School of Government.

Cindy Schuster of the Hispanic Studies Department will publish the article, “Keeping the Poetry in Prose: Sound and Style in Translation,” in the February 2002 ATA Chronicle.

Bold Words: A Century of Asian American Writing, edited by Rajini Srikanth, assistant professor of English, and Esther Yae Iwanaga, lecturer in English, has been published by Rutgers University Press.

“A Touch of Greene, Much Nashe, and All Shakespeare,” an essay by John Tobin, professor of English, appears in a new volume of Critical Essays on Shakespeare’s Henry VI published by Routledge Press.

Professors Eben Weitzman and Darren Kew, faculty of the Graduate Programs in Dispute Resolution, have published the article “Responding to September 11: A Conflict Resolution Perspective” in the electronic journal Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, which is sponsored by the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.

James Willis, assistant professor of sociology, published a review of Andrew Skotnicki’s Religion and the Development of the American Penal System in the December issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Exhibits, Readings, Performances

Lloyd Schwartz, director of the Creative Writing Program, participated on November 19 in a reading of Frank O’Hara’s poetry which was sponsored by the Blacksmith House Poetry Series at the Harvard School of Education Library. Schwartz joined other readers including former poet-laureate Robert Pinsky and former UMass Boston professor Frank Bidart.

Music professor Jon Mitchell guest-conducted the Metropolitan Wind Symphony in concert on December 16 for which his department colleague Linnea Bardarson was the featured soloist in a performance of Gershwin’s A Rhapsody in Blue.

Research and Grants

Frank Caro, director of the Gerontology Institute, is working with Elderly Services Inc. (ESI) of Middlebury, Vermont, to find out what makes its adult day program, Project Independence, a leader in the field. The agency gained national recognition from the Robert Wood Foundation and a statewide independent living award.

Nina Greenwald of the Graduate College of Education is writing a book on teaching science through constructivist and other problem-solving models using critical and creative thinking that she has developed.

The New England Resource Center for Higher Education received a grant from the Ford Foundation to work with the Institute for Higher Education Policy and examine how changing remediation policies have affected the organization and delivery of remedial education, admissions practices, and the allocation of financial aid on campuses, particularly for low-income and minority students in the New England region.

Appointments and Honors

Associate Professor Steven Ackerman has been elected director of the Biochemistry Program by his peers.

Jennifer Arnold, a graduate biology student, won the prize for best student poster for her work “Albatross Populations in Peril?…”at the November meeting of the Waterbird Society, held in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The poster can be seen in the hallway near the Biology Department.
Phil Granberry, a first-year student in the Ph.D. in public policy program, was honored with the Hidden Heroes Award by the Codman Square Neighborhood Council for his history of fundraising efforts which have benefited youth activities.

John McGah of the Center for Social Policy has just been named as an International Eisenhower Fellow. This prestigious award will enable McGah to live in Europe for a short period of time next year and study local responses to homelessness.

William Robinson, professor in the Environmental, Coastal, and Ocean Sciences Department, has been appointed associate provost.

Louise Smith, professor of English, has been appointed dean of the liberal arts faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences. She assumed the post on December 31.

Julia Tripp of the Center for Social Policy has been named as one of only six 2002 Boston Neighborhood Fellows. This award, sponsored by the Philanthropic Initiative, recognizes persons who have made a significant contribution to the Boston community. The award ceremony will take place on February 5.

Gordon Webb, professor in the Exercise Science and Physical Education Department, was inducted into the New England Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Webb played lacrosse as an undergraduate at UMass Boston, has coached lacrosse for twenty-years, and originated and co-directs the New England Premier Lacrosse Recruiting Showcase.

The Center for Social Policy (CSP) is the recent recipient of a “Geeks for America” award from the Cambridge-based TechFoundation. As a result of this award, Jason Wilson, who is a computer technology expert, will contribute his time and skills to CSP projects for the next 12 months.

Sherry Penney reports that the Center for Collaborative Leadership in the College of Management had 48 applicants for its “emerging leaders” program and was able to admit 30 to the program which begins in January 2002.

Visiting Lecturer

On November 14, Rita Arditti, author of Searching for Life: The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Disappeared Children of Argentina, spoke to a standing-room-only audience of UMass Boston students about recent developments in human rights in Argentina.

Obituary

Synnöve Kekkonen-Moneta, visiting assistant professor of management sciences and information systems in the College of Management, passed away suddenly on November 30. A memorial in her honor was held on December 13 at the University Chapel and donations in her memory can be made to the College of Management’s Dean’s Fund for Excellence in support of distance learning activities.

In the News

Sandy Blanchette, assistant director of the McCormack Institute, was quoted on managing town government in Mashpee in the Cape Cod Times on December 12.

Carol Hardy-Fanta, director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, was quoted in an article on Latinas in public office that was published on www.womensnews.com. The site distributes news to media outlets, journalists, policymakers, and others on issues of concern to women.

Chancellor Gora was profiled in the November 8 issue of the Dorchester Reporter on her goals and leadership at the university.

Campus Notes