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School Notes
A supplement to the Yale Alumni Magazine from the twelve schools of Yale.
November/December 2006
School of Architecture
Robert A. M. Stern, Dean
architecture.yale.edu
New endowments honor architecture faculty
Alumni have established two new funds this year in honor of School of
Architecture faculty. The Alexander Purves Fund, established by colleagues,
students, and friends of Professor Purves, supports the undergraduate major at
the School of Architecture and recognizes the professor’s dedication and years
of teaching at the school and at Yale College. Professor Emeritus Alexander
Purves '58, '65MArch, has taught at Yale since 1976.
Pei-Tse “Loli” Wu '89 and his wife Vivian Kuan have established the
Professor King-Lui Wu Teaching Fund, in memory of Loli’s father, to preserve
his spirit and his commitment to the school by recognizing and encouraging
outstanding teaching. Friends, colleagues, and former students have joined Loli
with their gifts to remember Professor Wu, who for more than 40 years was one
of our most distinguished and beloved teachers.
Talking about architecture
A symposium held at the school in October examined
how contemporary builders and designers are rethinking the design/construction
process, especially as it relates to fabrication, detailing, and, ultimately,
the organization of labor. “Building (in) the Future: Recasting Labor in
Architecture” brought together designers, engineers, fabricators, contractors,
construction managers, and technical consultants to discuss how those who
produce architecture today make different artifacts, have different contractual
relationships, and boast different claims to design authority from those in the
past. Six topics—such as Craft and Design, Information Sharing, and The
Big Picture: Architecture as an Expanded Field—were evaluated from each
aspect of the production/labor organization process while the discussion
tackled issues that are often unspoken in an industry trying to keep up with
rapid technological change. Symposium co-organizer Phil Bernstein '83, a
lecturer in architectural practice at Yale, is convinced that architecture will
either “grab onto and take control of new means of production, or see itself
become even more irrelevant than it currently is.”
Exhibition reveals trends in prefab homes
An exhibition organized by the Walker Center for the Arts, on view at
the school through February 2, 2007, shows how contemporary prefabricated homes
that incorporate a wide range of materials, processes, and scales have
challenged many of the preconceptions about prefab homes as cheap cookie-cutter
structures of last resort. From kit homes made of corrugated metal and glass,
to an environmentally sustainable model designed for Sunset magazine, to examples of mass customization that
offer material and layout choices, the exhibition demonstrates the variety and
design potential for prefabrication.
School of Art
Robert Storr, Dean
yale.edu/art
“Making Do”: process
and product
The first exhibition at the School of Art since the
arrival of dean Robert Storr, “Making Do,” offered visitors the opportunity not
only to view artists' finished products, but also to observe the artists at
work at the height of their creative process. The first part of “Making Do"
took place October 10-17, during which time artists Mark Borthwick, Karyn
Olivier, Luis Gispert '01MFA, and Geoff McFedridge set up studios in Green Hall
and created their art while onlookers watched. From October 27 to November 8
the art they produced was on view in the same space in which they had worked.
The participating artists were required to create their art using only the
materials that they chose beforehand, in effect “making do” with what was
available. What each artist produces in this exhibition, said Dean Storr, “can
be an art of 'muchness' or an 'ultra povera' art of extreme spareness; it can
be lasting or totally ephemeral. In essence, though, it consists of anything
the artist chooses to do while making do with a given material of his or her
choice.”
Fall art exhibitions
Visitors to the school's
Admissions Open House on November 16 will have a chance to view the MFA
First-Year Students Show, which includes works by all 63 students who have just
begun the two-year MFA program. The exhibition remains on view until November
30. Several hundred prospective students are expected to attend the open house.
The school receives about 1,100 applications for admission each year, for
approximately 60 places.
The final exhibition of the fall semester, on view through December, is
the Undergraduate Comprehensive Show, which comprises works by all
undergraduate art students, about 500 individual pieces.
Yale College
Peter Salovey, Dean
yale.edu/yalecollege
Conference addresses
equity and access in college admissions
A two-day conference in October brought together students,
policymakers, school administrators, and others to discuss issues of access to
higher education. “A Seat at the Table: Socioeconomic Diversity and Access to
Selective Colleges and Universities” was sponsored by the Roosevelt
Institution, an organization founded by Yale and Stanford students and called by
them “the nation’s first student think tank.” President Levin gave the Friday
plenary along with William Bowen, former president of Princeton and of the
Mellon Foundation. Other panels and sessions featured Tony Marx, president of
Amherst College; William Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions at Harvard; Chaka
Fattah, U.S. representative from the 2nd district of Pennsylvania; and Jerome
Karabel '72, author of The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and
Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.
Scribble, Scribble, Scribble
The Writing Center at Yale continues to grow as a
resource for writing assistance on campus. One-on-one tutoring is available in
several forms and locations: the Bass writing tutors, most of them experienced
professional writers, are located in the residential colleges and provide
sustained, long-term help to students; and student Writing Partners are
available at the center on a drop-in basis five nights a week. These partners
have a “student's-eye view” of the challenges in writing papers and are
available to help with smaller problems in short sections of a paper. The
center’s website (www.yale.edu/writing) spells out requirements, lists faculty,
explains the tutoring program, discusses internships and jobs, describes
creative writing courses and courses for non-English speakers, offers tips for
writers and resources for faculty, and provides a comprehensive list of campus
student publications, as well as information about the new Yale Journalism
Initiative.
Paying it forward
Two recent Yale College grads are giving back in the same way that they
received help. Ruth DeGolia '03, who said financial aid was important in
attracting her to Yale, arrived on campus as an activist committed to social
change. She went to Guatemala after her sophomore year, and received a Yale
fellowship to do research in Guatemala during the summer of her senior year to
work on a thesis about the impact of globalization on political and economic
development in that country. Since graduation DeGolia and Benita Singh '04 have
created Mercado Global, a nonprofit fair-trade company that sells traditional
Guatemalan handicrafts made by women, with all profits going towards education
costs in the Guatemalan communities. DeGolia and Singh were featured in Newsweek magazine this past July in the article, “Fifteen
people who make America great: The Giving Back Awards.”
School Days for Faculty
A special orientation offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
brought together all new faculty, junior and senior, during their first days at
Yale to meet the provosts and deans of the college and graduate school and to
share in a general university orientation (complete with a song called “There
is Nothing Like a Dean”). Faculty learned about applying for grants, heard
presentations on the galleries, museums, and collections, and toured New Haven
by bus to become acquainted with the community and its attractions. During
lunch at the provost’s house each new faculty member was welcomed with a
specially chosen book written by another member of the faculty.
Divinity School
Harold W. Attridge, Dean
yale.edu/divinity
Ministry in a changing world: Christianity,
politics, and social justice.
The complex relationships at the intersection of
Christianity, politics, and social justice are the focal point of a Divinity
School project supported by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund. Under a 2006-07
planning grant from the fund, YDS will explore ways to prepare students for
ministry in a dramatically changing world—a world described in the grant
application as one in which graduates “will be called to serve struggling
parishes in struggling communities, where resources are few and questions of
economic and social justice loom large.” At the conclusion of the year-long
planning period, an assessment will be made about the feasibility of creating a
full-fledged Center for Christianity and Politics at Yale. Heading the
initiative is Harlon L. Dalton '73JD, professor of law at Yale Law School and
professor (adjunct) of law and religion at YDS.
YDS mother/daughter
tandem ordained together
Last year, Jinny Smanik '05MDiv and her daughter
Kate '05MDiv made YDS history when they graduated together. This year, they capped
that with a rare double ordination at Westminster Presbyterian Church in West
Hartford, Connecticut. “For me, it is neat evidence of how God’s grace works in
the world,” said Kate Smanik Moyes, describing the series of seeming
coincidences that led to mother and daughter entering YDS in different years,
graduating at the same time, and, finally, taking part in each other’s August
20 ordination. “My mom is an incredible sounding board,” said Moyes. “It turned
out that I was a good sounding board for her, as well.” Moyes is chaplain at
Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and her mother is associate
pastor at Union Presbyterian Church in Schenectady, New York. Added Moyes, “We
still call each other two or three times a week to talk about worship services,
sermons, and lectionaries.”
Scaffolding? Again?
Just three years after completion of a major overhaul of YDS
facilities, construction crews descended once again in 2006 for a summer of
revamping, fine-tuning, and modernizing. The new $4 million project is dwarfed
by the 1998-2003 renovations, which cost $49 million. But the latest
restorations are especially significant since they included work on Marquand
Chapel, the school’s spiritual center of gravity. The chapel balcony was
expanded, and the distinctive winding marble stairs at the entrance—the
location of choice for many a wedding photo—were repaired. Some of the
most important aspects of the renovation will be heard but not seen. To improve
sound quality, an inch of plaster was applied to the balcony and the ceiling,
and holes were drilled in the walls and filled with foam. Shutters will be
fitted to all windows to contain sound. Work crews installed almost a mile of
electrical conduit beneath the floor and inside the walls to power the chapel's
updated audio system.
Prominent scholars
appointed to joint professorships at YDS, Institute of Sacred Music
Sally M. Promey '78MDiv, an art historian at the University of
Maryland, and Teresa Berger, a liturgical scholar at Duke Divinity School, have
accepted joint professorships at YDS and the Institute of Sacred Music,
effective January 2007. Promey will join the YDS and ISM faculties as professor
of religion and visual culture and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as
professor of American studies. Her scholarship explores relations between
visual culture and religion in the United States from the colonial period
onward. She is a recipient of the American Academy of Religion award for
excellence in the historical study of religion. Berger will serve as professor
of liturgical studies at ISM and YDS. Her scholarly interests lie at the
intersection of liturgical studies, gender theory, theology, and cultural
studies. In 2006 she received two Catholic Press awards for her writing.
School of Drama
James Bundy, Dean
drama.yale.edu
Seeing (and hearing) is believing
With audio-described and open-captioned performances of every
production, the Yale Repertory Theatre offers the most comprehensive
accessibility services program of any theater in the state of Connecticut.
Audio description, an initiative begun in 2002, is a live narration of the play's
action, sets, and costumes for patrons who are blind and low-vision. Yale Rep
is the only Connecticut theater offering this service on a regular basis, and
trains its own staff of describers. Open captioning offers a digital display of
the play’s dialogue as it is spoken, for patrons who are deaf and
hearing-impaired. C2 (Caption Coalition) Inc., the leading provider of
professional live performance captioning for theatrical and cultural
presentations, is Yale Rep’s official open captioning provider.
Theater for theater people
Mikhail Bulgakov’s comic novel Black Snow, the story of a young writer in post-revolutionary
Russia whose work is transformed beyond recognition by the most illustrious
theater company in Moscow, is considered required reading for anyone who works
in or loves the theater. Playwright and actor Keith Reddin '81MFA brings his
adaptation of the novel to the Yale Rep this season for a collaboration with
resident director Evan Yionoulis '82, '85MFA. Mr. Reddin’s adaptation debuted
at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and won the coveted Joseph Jefferson Award for
Best Production in 1993. It plays at the Yale Rep December 1–23.
Yale Rep playwright receives MacArthur “genius” grant
Sarah Ruhl, whose adaptation of Eurydice played at the Yale Rep in September and October of
this year, has been named a 2006 MacArthur Foundation Fellow for her “vivid and
adventurous theatrical works that poignantly juxtapose the mundane aspects of
daily life with mythic themes of love and war.” Ruhl’s play The Clean House, which had its world premiere at the
Yale Rep in 2004, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. The New
York Times called the Rep’s Eurydice “devastatingly lovely.”
School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
James Gustave Speth, Dean
environment.yale.edu
Environmental risks
larger than profits of major electric utilities
Over 90 percent of publicly owned U.S. electric utilities have
environmental risks larger than their operating profits, according to
researchers who have developed a new financial measure. In a study published in
the July issue of Environmental Finance, Robert Repetto, professor in the practice of economics and sustainable
development, estimates the environmental financial risks companies face and
compares them with their ability to bear such risks, if they materialize.
Repetto’s new financial measure—TRUEVA, for “true value added”—compares
the operating profits companies make with their potential environmental costs.
The economic damages from the pollution and wastes a company generates in the
course of operations represent the extent of the company’s potential financial
risk, should it be forced to assume responsibility for those damages. The
operating profits the company makes, after subtracting taxes and the costs of
capital it employs in the business, represent the ability of the company to
finance such risks. Companies whose profits are large compared with the damages
they cause are less risky investments.
TRUEVA was applied to publicly owned U.S. electric utilities, which
have large emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. Of the 33
companies studied, all but three had environmental risks larger in financial
terms than their operating profits after taxes and capital costs. Two of the
largest companies, American Electric Power and the Southern Company, had
negative TRUEVA of $4.8 billion and $3.4 billion, respectively, indicating
large-scale risks to investors.
Environmental scientist receives NIH award to study ozone and
disease
Michelle Bell, assistant professor of environmental
health, is one of eight scientists to receive an Outstanding New Environmental
Scientist (ONES) award from the National Institutes of Health. She will receive
$500,000 to study the relationship between outdoor concentrations of ozone, a
reactive form of oxygen that is a primary component of urban smog, and the
incidence of respiratory disease and death in exposed populations.
Bell is one of two Yale University professors to receive a ONES award.
Sven-Eric Jordt, assistant professor of pharmacology in the School of Medicine,
will study the way in which certain airborne pollutants interact with sensory
nerve cells in order to produce eye, nose, and throat irritation.
Tropical ecology professor wins MacArthur “genius” award
Lisa Curran, professor of tropical ecology and director of the Tropical
Resources Institute at F&ES, has been awarded a five-year John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.
Like all MacArthur Fellows, the award came as a total surprise to
Curran, who was delighted by the news. “It’s like winning the lottery after 20
years of Survivor in Borneo.
Actually, this has been a tremendous team effort. I’ve worked with some of my
Indonesian colleagues for 18 years. I’m part of all the people I’ve met: the
villagers, the loggers, the scientists, and the students—both from the
U.S. and Indonesia.”
Curran has focused her research on the forests of Borneo and the
ecology of its most economically important family of tropical timber,
Philippine mahogany. She has worked to devise new strategies to address
deforestation and its devastating environmental consequences. Curran and her
research team study the structure and dynamics of tropical forests using
satellite remote sensing, field ecology, ground-based surveys, and analysis to
learn how the environment is altered by human activities and to improve the
management of these forests by integrating scientific knowledge with the
sociological, political, and economic realities on the ground. She has been
instrumental in the establishment of national parks in Indonesia and has worked
to counter illegal logging and the corruption that allowed it to take place.
Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Jon Butler, Dean
yale.edu/graduateschool
Celebrating Wilbur Cross medalists
Five distinguished alumni received the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal—the
Graduate School’s highest honor—on October 12. Since the first medal was
presented to Edgar Stephenson Furniss by the Graduate School Alumni Association
(GSAA) in 1966, these awards have generally been given at Commencement. This
year, the Graduate School and the GSAA decided to shift the celebration to
October, allowing the medalists to interact with students and faculty on a
substantial intellectual level. Each presented a talk or hosted a conversation
with current graduate students.
Eva Brann '56PhD (classics) has inspired students at St. John’s College
in Annapolis, Maryland—known for its “great books” curriculum—as a
tutor since 1957 and as dean (1990-97). She is author of more than a dozen
books, including Homeric Moments: Clues to Delight in Reading the Odyssey
and the Iliad (2002), What Then,
Is Time? (1999), and Open
Secrets/Inward Prospects: Reflections on World and Soul (2004). In 2005, she was awarded a National
Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Richard Brodhead '68, '72PhD (English), became the ninth president of
Duke University in 2004 after 40 years at Yale as a student, faculty member,
and administrator. He was an extraordinarily effective and popular dean of Yale
College for 11 years. Author or editor of more than a dozen books on Hawthorne,
Melville, Faulkner, and other American writers, Brodhead is considered one of
the leading scholars of American literature of his generation.
Although the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) has some 23,000 objects in its
collections, Mimi G. Gates '81PhD (history of art) has been called the museum's
single “greatest treasure.” She was curator of Asian Art at Yale (1975–1986)
and director of the Yale University Art Gallery (1987-1994) before
becoming director at the SAM. At Yale and in Seattle, she reexamined and
expanded the collections, improved conservation and security, and developed
educational and social roles for the museum in the community.
Lewis E. Kay '88PhD (molecular biophysics and biochemistry) is
professor of medical genetics, biochemistry, and chemistry at the University of
Toronto. An innovator in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), he has
a rare understanding of both spin quantum mechanics and the capabilities of the
instrumentation. His research involves a new technique for identifying the
biochemical constituents of complex proteins—those with molecular weights
too high to be analyzed by conventional methods.
Richard A. Young '79PhD (molecular biophysics and biochemistry), a
member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, and professor of biology at MIT, is a leader in the study of
gene transcription, the process by which cells read and interpret the genetic
instructions embedded in DNA. He has helped develop new technologies, including
DNA arrays and state-of-the-art genomic tools, which his lab at the Whitehead
Institute has used to study infectious diseases and to map the circuitry of
living cells.
Law School
Harold Hongju Koh, Dean
law.yale.edu
Law School library receives rare book collection
The Association of the Bar of the City of New York recently transferred
approximately 1,400 books on Roman law from its rare book collection to the Law
School’s Lillian Goldman Library. With books bearing pigskin covers, stamped
arabesques, and original clasps, the collection includes books from medieval
authors and early works from Germany and Italy. The oldest of the books dates
to AD 1500. Highlights of the donated collection include a 30-volume set of the
decisions of the Roman Rota, the canon law court of Rome. According to
librarian Blair Kaufman, though the newly donated books are now being restored,
preserved, and catalogued by library staff, they soon will be made available to
interested researchers, students, and faculty members.
Judges gather for global constitutionalism seminar
Supreme Court and constitutional court judges from around the world
gathered at the Law School to take part in the tenth annual Global
Constitutionalism Seminar this fall. The judges met for four days in September
in a seminar-style setting to discuss topics such as national law and customary
international law, the role of judicial review, democratic constitutionalism,
and political parties and democratic pluralism. The Global Constitutionalism
Seminar is one of the Law School’s signature international programs and has
been heralded as an important forum in which leading jurists can confidentially
and freely discuss the most important current legal issues with leading
academic lawyers. This year’s participants included judges from Australia,
Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, South Africa, the
United Kingdom, and the United States.
Supreme Court advocacy clinic
This past semester marked the advent of the Yale Law School Supreme
Court Advocacy Clinic. The clinic’s goal is two-fold: it offers students
instruction in Supreme Court advocacy and supplies clients with legal
representation. The clinic combines classroom instruction about the court—its
history, role, practices, and rules—with hands-on involvement in
litigation projects. Working under the supervision of experienced Supreme Court
litigators, students have been drafting petitions for writs of certiorari,
writing merits briefs in granted cases, and representing amici curiae. At least
once during the year students will visit the court to watch an argument in a
case they have worked on or studied. In addition to representing clients, the
clinic is planning to host regular speakers at the Law School.
School of Management
Joel Podolny, Dean
mba.yale.edu
New MBA curriculum launched to very positive reviews
Yale SOM’s innovative new curriculum was launched in the fall. This was
a milestone for the school as well as the 208 students who embarked on the new
interdisciplinary core curriculum, and it received wide media coverage. The
changes garnered attention from Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, and Business Week Online. The Business
Week article features a Q&A
with Dean Joel Podolny titled “Breaking Down Silos at Yale,” in which the dean
explained that the curriculum needed to change because the needs of managers in
the workplace have changed: “Effective leaders need to be able to own and frame
problems and take real responsibility for solving those problems, and then work
across organizational boundaries in order to solve those problems. The
curriculum in the past was broken down by these disciplinary silos and because
of that, got in the way of effective management and leadership.” For more
information about the new curriculum, visit: www.mba.yale.edu/curriculum.
Mentoring students for future success
A new mentorship program, part of the revamped SOM curriculum, aims to
enable students to connect their professional education with their goals and
values. The initiative began at orientation when each first-year student was
grouped with 13 of his or her peers, a faculty member, a staff member, and a
second-year student mentor. The program’s objective is to increase student
success in three areas: academic performance, interactions with others in the
community, and meeting career goals. Heidi Brooks, a lecturer in organizational
behavior at SOM who has been instrumental in developing the initiative, says, “The
mentoring program is really about students being able to seek, understand,
connect to, and articulate their own meaningful aspirations. We are here to
inspire real inquiry and reflection about how each of our students can be
successful at SOM and beyond.” More about the mentorship program is online at
www.mba.yale.edu/mentorship.
New book takes historical view of Wall Street
William N. Goetzmann, the Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Finance and
Management Studies and director of the International Center for Finance, and
Roger G. Ibbotson, professor in the practice of finance, have published The
Equity Risk Premium: Essays and Explorations (Oxford University Press). The book examines the historical development
of the equity risk premium (the built-in reward for making riskier investments)
with a collection of the authors' research on the subject, which spans 30
years. Among the topics covered are vital issues to investors, such as whether
historical data should be used in equity investing. The book also updates the
authors' study of the New York Stock Exchange’s historical performance from
1792 to the present. A section of indices contains individual stock and
dividend data from more than a decade of research at SOM.
School of Medicine
Robert J. Alpern, Dean
med.yale.edu/ysm
Director named to lead new stem cell center
Haifan Lin, PhD, one of the country’s leading stem cell biologists, was
named director of the new Yale Stem Cell Program in August. Lin will oversee
six scientists who will explore fundamental aspects of stem cell biology,
including the properties and mechanisms of human embryonic stem cells, human
adult stem cells, and stem cells in model organisms such as mouse, fruit fly,
and nematode. Lin comes to Yale from Duke University, where he was cofounder
and codirector of the Duke Stem Cell Research Program. Diane Krause, MD, PhD,
associate professor of laboratory medicine and pathology and an expert in adult
stem cells, will be the program’s associate director. Over the next few years
the center will recruit four more faculty members as well as administrative and
technical staff. Three core facilities are planned: a human embryonic stem cell
culture core laboratory, a cell sorting core, and a confocal microscopy core.
NIH funds Yale’s magnetic resonance system
A $2 million High-End Instrumentation grant from the National Center
for Research Resources (NCRR) will fund Yale’s purchase of a 7-Tesla human magnetic
resonance (MR) system that will facilitate ultra-high-resolution studies
of diabetes, epilepsy, psychiatric disease, and learning disorders. Under this
program, the NCRR makes one-time awards to support the purchase of
sophisticated instruments costing more than $750,000 to advance biomedical
research and increase knowledge of the underlying causes of human disease.
“The new 7T system will provide Yale scientists with the capability of
imaging biochemistry and functional activity of the brain and limbs at
unprecedented levels of spatial resolution,” said Douglas L. Rothman, PhD,
professor of diagnostic radiology and biomedical engineering. “The research
will be unique among ultra-high-field MR systems in its focus on
developing and applying MR biochemical imaging for the understanding,
diagnosis, and treatment of disease.”
The MR system will be a shared resource for several investigators who
are funded by the National Institutes of Health. Yale has recruited two new
faculty members to develop new methods of biochemical image-guided neurosurgery
using the system.
New director for Child Study Center
Fred R. Volkmar, MD, a longtime faculty member and world leader in the
field of autism, was named director of the Child Study Center and chief of
child psychiatry at Yale–New Haven Hospital for a three-year term
effective July 1. Volkmar, the Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry,
Pediatrics, and Psychology, came to Yale as a fellow in 1980 and joined the
medical school faculty two years later. He succeeds Alan Kazdin, who had served
as director since 2002.
Ophthalmologist hopes to expand department’s reputation
James C. Tsai, MD, MBA, was named chair of the Department of
Ophthalmology and Visual Science and chief of ophthalmology at Yale–New Haven Hospital, effective October 1. Tsai, who was associate professor of
ophthalmology and director of the glaucoma division at the Edward S. Harkness
Eye Institute at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons,
succeeds M. Bruce Shields, MD, who had served as chair since 1996. Tsai’s goal
for the department is to make it an internationally recognized leader in
patient care, vision research, and medical education.
School of Music
Robert Blocker, Dean
music.yale.edu
Jazz forever at Yale
Mitch Leigh '52MusM, best known as the Tony Award-winning
composer of Man of La Mancha, thrilled the audience at the School of Music’s annual convocation on September
7 with the announcement that he has endowed a professorship in jazz at the
school. The Willie Ruff Professorship in Jazz Studies honors Leigh’s classmate
and friend, who serves on the school’s faculty as professor of music and as
director of the Duke Ellington Fellowship Program. Leigh said that it gave him
pleasure not only to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of Willie
Ruff, but also to establish a chair in jazz at Yale, a goal he has had for many
years. “Willie and I go back a long way—we have a lot in common—and
I am proud to be among Willie’s friends and admirers. You’re so lucky to have
him here, and now you will have jazz at Yale in Willie’s name, deservedly so,
forever.”
Musical commemoration of the Hungarian Revolution
On October 15 in Carnegie Hall’s Stern auditorium, Yale School of Music
performers were an important part of a concert that commemorated the 50th
anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. The Philharmonia Orchestra under
Shinik Hahm appeared with renowned Hungarian soloists, including Viktoria
Vizin, mezzo-soprano; Andras Molnar, tenor; and Yale piano professor Peter
Frankl. Frankl, who performed Liszt’s second piano concerto, received the
Hungarian Order of Merit on his 70th birthday last year. On its own, the
orchestra played Kodaly’s Dances from Galanta.
Martin Bresnick’s 60th birthday celebrated at Carnegie Hall
The School of Music will honor the birthday of Martin Bresnick, who has
served on the composition faculty since 1981, with a concert on December 9 in
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. The Essential Martin Bresnick: A 60th Birthday
Retrospective will feature six of his pieces—played in chronological
order—that cover Bresnick’s work from 1973 to 2002. They range in scale
from his solo piano work with DVD projection, For the Sexes: The Gates of
Paradise, and his 1997 Trio for clarinet, viola, and piano, to pieces for
larger ensembles. Longer works on the program include Grace, his concerto for two marimbas and chamber
orchestra, and B.’s Garlands for eight cellos, which Bresnick will conduct.
Performers include his Yale faculty colleagues David Shifrin, Jesse Levine,
Robert Van Sice, Shinik Hahm, Marguerite Brooks, and Ransom Wilson; current
students; and his wife, the pianist Lisa Moore.
School of Nursing
Margaret Grey, Dean
nursing.yale.edu
Reunion draws Nursing alums back to campus
More than 165 YSN alumnae/i and family members returned to New Haven
October 6–7 to participate in the 2006 YSN reunion weekend. With the
theme “Modeling Practice, Modeling Research,” the program showcased the
cutting-edge work of the school’s alumnae/i and faculty in new forms of
practice and new arenas for research. The reunion also celebrated the 80th
anniversary of YSN’s first graduating class and the 50th anniversary of the
school’s nurse-midwifery program. Ada Sue Hinshaw '63, dean emerita and
professor of the University of Michigan School of Nursing and the first
director of the National Institute for Nursing Research, gave the keynote
address.
Midwifery text published in Spanish
Midwives in Spanish-speaking countries of the Caribbean and Latin
America now have access to a Spanish-language edition of the preeminent
midwifery textbook Varney’s Midwifery, authored by Helen Varney Burst '63, Jan M. Kriebs '83, and Carolyn L.
Gregor. First published in 1980, the volume is the first textbook for
nurse-midwives in the western hemisphere.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), in collaboration with the
Pan American Health and Education Foundation and the U.S. Agency for
International Development, has published the 4th edition of Varney's
Midwifery in Spanish, as Parteria
Profesional de Varney. “The book
will be made available to more than 500 educational centers in 20 countries of
Latin America and the Caribbean, in an effort to increase the proportion of
births that are attended by qualified personnel,” said Gina Tambini MD, who
heads the family and community health area of PAHO. Varney Burst, who was
professor in the YSN nurse-midwifery specialty until her retirement in 2004, is
a past president of the American College of Nurse-Midwives.
Nurses honored for creative writing
Award-winning journalist, author, and nursing advocate Suzanne Gordon
was the featured speaker at the third annual presentation of the School of
Nursing’s Creative Writing Awards. YSN encourages its students to write an account
of what they do so that others will have an opportunity to peer into the world
of nursing. For the past three years, the school has presented awards to the
best stories that have come out of this project. This year, from more than 30
entries, three winners were chosen: Laura Fitzgerald '06MSN, Sylvia Parker '08,
and first-year doctoral student Anna-leila Williams. The panel of judges
included surgeon and writer Richard Selzer; Anne Fadiman, writer, essayist,
editor, and teacher; Echo Heron, nurse and activist; and Donna Diers, former
YSN dean, author, and Annie W. Goodrich Professor of Nursing Emerita. Said YSN
assistant professor Linda Pellico, “It is time for nursing to find its voice
and speak it in every forum possible.”
Website will be resource on nursing policy issues
Cindy Connolly, an assistant professor at the School of Nursing and at
the medical school, is a member of a group of nursing historians who have
received a three-year grant from the National Library of Medicine to create a
website on nursing policy issues. The group, the American Academy of Nursing's
Expert Panel on Nursing History, received funding for their project “Nursing,
History, and Health Care Policy: A Web Resource.” The website will offer a
comprehensive review of nursing’s political and social issues as they are
debated in the legislative and executive branches of the federal government,
and place them in their historical context to serve as a primary source of
historical background information on critical issues regarding the nursing
profession.
Dorothy Sexton remembered
Professor Emeritus Dorothy Sexton, creator of YSN’s medical-surgical
nursing program and the graduate entry prespecialty in nursing (GEPN), died
September 29 at the age of 69. Dr. Sexton came to Yale in 1974, and within two
years created a curriculum in medical-surgical nursing in the master’s program
for college graduates with no prior nursing experience. This led to the
creation of the GEPN, the first of its kind in the United States. In 1994, Dr.
Sexton prepared the grant application that allowed YSN to launch its doctoral
program. Upon her retirement in 2001, YSN created a scholarship in her name.
Conference focuses on new treatments for Tourette Syndrome
Lawrence Scahill, acting associate dean for
scholarly affairs at the Nursing School and a professor of child psychiatry at
Yale, chaired a conference on Tourette Syndrome in Washington, D.C., September
10-12. The conference brought together leading scientists from both
inside and outside the TS field, to evaluate recent finds in neuroscience and
identify new treatments for Tourette Syndrome, a familial neurological disorder
that begins in childhood and is characterized by chronic motor and vocal tics.
TS affects an estimated six of every 1,000 school-age children. |
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