December 2009 – Page 3

In Skyscraper: The Politics and Power of Building New York City in the Twentieth Century (University of Pennsyvania Press), Benjamin Flowers ’96 explores the role of culture and ideology in shaping the construction of skyscrapers, as well as the way wealth and power have operated to reshape the urban landscape. He studies closely the creation and reception of three major architectural sites: the Empire State Building, the Seagram Building, and the World Trade Center. Flowers wrote his new book using a broad array of archival sources, such as corporate records, architects' papers, newspaper ads, and political cartoons. He reveals how…

In Impurity of Blood: Defining Race in Spain, 1870–1930 (LSU Press), Joshua Goode ’91 traces the development of racial theories in Spain from 1870 to 1930 and explores the Spanish proposition that racial mixture, rather than racial purity, was the bulwark of national strength. He begins his study with a history of ethnic thought in Spain in the medieval and early modern era, and then details the formation of racial thought in Spain’s nascent human sciences. He examines the political, social and cultural manifestations of racial thought at the dawn of the Franco regime and, finally, discusses its ramifications in…

Jeffrey Richards ’69 continues to bring challenging and entertaining work to Broadway, having been a co-producer recently of the Tony Award-winning shows Spring Awakening, August: Osage County and Hair. This winter, he is one of the producers of Race by David Mamet (Speed-the-Plow, Oleanna), which opened on Broadway on December 6 at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. In this drama, a firm made up of three lawyers, two black and one white, is offered the chance to defend a white man charged with a crime against a young black woman. The cast includes James Spader (Boston Legal), Kerry Washington (Ray), David…

The new film, Songs of a Sorrowful Man, directed by Ákos Östör, professor of anthropology, emeritus, and edited by film major Joe Sousa ’03, began its journey debuting at the biennial Royal Anthropological Film Festival, held at Leeds University in July. The film was then shown at the the American Anthropological Association meeting in Philadelphia, Pa. Dec. 2-6. It also was screened recently at at Brown where it was featured as the lead event in Brown's "Year of India" celebrations (2009-10). The “sorrowful man,” Dukhushyam Chitrakar is a charismatic figure who encourages women to take up the traditional craft of scroll painting and musical composition pursued…

Karen Collins, chair and professor of mathematics, served as a judge in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology that awarded $100,000 to high school students. In a Dec. 7 New York Times article, Collins said, ''We never expected high school students to achieve such success in examining this upper-bound aspect of graph theory."

Gary Yohe, Woodhouse/Sysco Professor of Economics, and senior member of the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), discusses in a Dec. 6 issue of The Los Angeles Times the possibilities at the U.N.’s Climate Change Conference In Copenhagen, Denmark. In the article, Yohe says that "many nations would like to see a definitive agreement come out of the Copenhagen conference. But in the absence of climate legislation passed by the U.S. Congress, it is unlikely we will see anything like a binding treaty. Still, significant progress is possible. Copenhagen offers the prospect of agreement on a number of…

Manju Hingorani, associate professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, is the author of "S. cerevisiae Msh2-Msh6 DNA binding kinetics reveal a mechanism of targeting sites for DNA mismatch repair," published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences " Early Edition," December 2009. Dana Royer, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, is the author of "Fossil soils constrain ancient climate sensitivity," published in the same journal.