Around the College
This article was originally printed in the December 1999 issue of CLASnotes.
Department News
African and Asian Languages and Literatures
Aida Bamia was invited to present a paper entitled "The Language of Literary Texts: Between Accessibility and Political Correctness" at Bridging Past, Present, and Future: Arabic as a Foreign Language in the New Millennium, a conference hosted by The American Association of Teachers of Arabic, October 15-16 in Detroit, Michigan.
Haig Der-Houssikian presented a paper entitled "Pluralization in Colloquial Western Armenian" at the Sixth International Conference on Armenian Linguistics held in Paris, July 5-9, 1999. At the 26th Annual Conference of the Linguistic Association of Canada and the US, held in Edmonton, Canada, August 3-7, 1999, he presented a paper entitled "The Role of Conceptual Structure in the Acquisition of Vocabulary in a Morphologically Over-Differentiated Language."
Anthropology
In August, Anita Spring chaired a session and presented a paper entitled "The Positive Effects of Agricultural Commercialization on Women Farmers" at the Women Farmers: Enhancing Productivity Conference, sponsored by the Universities of Bonn, Hohenheim, and Tufts (Boston), held in Bonn, Germany. She was also elected co-chair for the State of Florida for the National Summit on Africa and organized a session at the US-Africa Trade Symposium in Orlando on August 9.
Botany
In August, Walter S. Judd attended the XVII International Botanical Congress in St. Louis, Missouri to present a talk entitled "The Implications of Phylogenetic Nomenclature for Floristics and Teaching." Judd began his term as president-elect of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists in September.
George Bowes presented an invited talk and a poster entitled "Hydrilla: Inducible C4 Photosynthesis Without Kranz Anatomy" at the Gordon Research Conference on Photosynthetic Carbon Dioxide Assimilation held at Queen's College, Oxford University UK in September. Bowes was elected to serve as chair of the next Gordon Research Conference on Photosynthesis to be held in Europe.
English
In September, Marsha Bryant and Mary Ann Eaverly (Classics), along with two professors from Indiana University, led a workshop on "Teaching Myth through Modern Poetry" at the University of Maryland conference American Women and Classical Myths. At the workshop, they presented a talk on their collaborative teaching and research at UF and co-led a discussion on poems by Margaret Atwood, Adrienne Rich, Denise Levertov, and UF's Debora Greger.
On October 30, Carl Bredahl gave an invited lecture in Leiden, Holland to a gathering of Fulbright Program representatives. The topic was "The Oral Tradition and its Impact on Contemporary Native American Writing."
History
On October 12 and 14, 1999 Ron Formisano delivered lectures at Oxford and Cambridge universities to initiate the lecture series "American Political History, 1775 to the Present: Substance and Structure." Formisano is one of seven United States historians invited to participate in the series, which will eventually be published as a book by the University of Kansas Press.
Mathematics
Gerard Emch presented a paper at the Tenth International Conference on The Enlightenment in Dublin, Ireland, July 25-31. The title of his talk was "Is Mme. du Chatelet's a fair presentation of Newton's Principia?"
Yunmei Chen gave an hour lecture at the International Conference on Applied Partial Differential Equations in China during August 1999.
Sociology
Jay Gubrium was a member of an international panel of experts on aging invited to Helsinki November 1-3 to evaluate research proposals for the Finnish government.
Mathematics Hosts International Conference
An international conference on Symbolic Computation, q-Series, Number Theory, Physics, and Combinatorics was hosted by the Mathematics Department November 11-13. Organized by Frank Garvan (Math), the event attracted fifty of the top researchers in these areas from USA, Canada, England, Germany, Austria, China, Korea, and Singapore and was funded by the National Science Foundation, The National Security Agency, The Number Theory Foundation, The Institute for Fundamental Theory, CLAS and ORTGE.
Three CLAS Faculty Chosen For Top UF Administrative Positions
Kenneth Gerhardt (Communication Sciences and Disorders) was recently named associate dean of the Graduate School for academic programs and student affairs. His responsibilities will include leading the Graduate School and representing the university on graduate education issues, both on campus and externally. Chair of his department from 1985-1993, Gerhardt brings important experience to the position: he has participated on over 60 thesis and dissertation committees since he began his career at UF in 1978, and he was a key player in developing UF's new doctoral program in audiology. "It's an honor to be invited to serve in this capacity," Gerhardt said upon his appointment. "The Graduate School faces exciting and challenging academic issues in the coming years, including its role in positioning the University of Florida among the nation's top 10 public institutions."
Sheila Dickison (Classics) has been appointed associate provost for Undergraduate Education and will maintain her position as director of the Honors Program. Dickison was CLAS associate dean for academic affairs between 1989 and 1995. She is the current president of the American Classical League, a national organization of more than 6000 teachers of classical studies at all levels. The Florida Blue Key Distinguished Faculty Award winner (1997) claims she is excited about having the opportunity to make a contribution to undergraduate education at UF. "Our students are terrific, and I see my role as helping them have the best experience possible while they are here," she says.
Former CLAS associate dean Chuck Frazier (Sociology) was named vice provost and senior associate vice president for academic affairs. He will assist the provost by handling a range of duties including tenure and promotions issues, enrollment and space management, and performance evaluations. Frazier joined the UF faculty as an assistant professor in 1972. The author of more than 50 publications, he has served on the editorial boards of three professional journals and as an associate consultant editor for the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. Frazier said that as CLAS associate dean for administrative affairs from 1991-1998 he enjoyed having a hand in deciding issues important to faculty, students and staff. Accordingly, he looks forward to the "new and interesting challenges" his university-wide appointment will bring.
Gerhardt was appointed by Graduate School dean Win Phillips, while Frazier and Dickison were appointed by history professor David Colburn, interim provost and vice president for Academic Affairs since last month.
Author Visits Campus to Promote Collaboration with CLAS Program Director
Best-selling author and long-time syndicated columnist Carl Hiaasen (left) was on campus November 12 to promote Kick Ass, a new collection of his Miami Herald columns edited by CLAS program director Diane Stevenson (right) and published by the University Press of Florida. During his stay in Gainesville, Hiaasen, an alumnus of UF's College of Journalism, visited classes, attended several book-signings and spoke to students at the Florida Alligator.
