Olivia DrakeMary-Jane Rubenstein, associate professor of religion, is the author of Worlds Without End: The Many Lives of the Multiverse, published by Columbia University Press, 2014. “Multiverse” cosmologies imagine our universe as just one of a vast number of others. While this idea has captivated philosophy, religion and literature for millennia, it is now being considered as a scientific hypothesis—with different models emerging from cosmology, quantum mechanics and string theory. Beginning with ancient Atomist and Stoic philosophies, Rubenstein links contemporary models of the multiverse to their forerunners and explores the reasons for their recent appearance. One concerns the so-called fine-tuning of the…
Stewart Novick, chair and professor of chemistry, is the author or co-author of the following publications: "Probing the chemical nature of dihydrogen complexation to transition metals, a case study: H2—CuF," published in Inorganic Chemistry, 52, 816-822, 2013. "Detection of Nitrogen-protonated Nitrous oxide HNNO + by Rotational Spectroscopy," published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 117, 9968-9974, 2013. "Rotational spectrum and structure of cyclohexene oxide and the argon-cyclohexene oxide van der Waals Complex," published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A 117, 13691-13695, 2013. "Corrigendum to: “Microwave spectrum and structure of the polar N2O dimer” [Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy 251 (2008) 153-158],"…
Logan Dancey, assistant professor of government, is the co-author of "Heuristics Behaving Badly: Party Cues and Voter Knowledge," published in American Journal of Political Science 57 No. 2, 312-325, April 2013. Erika Franklin Fowler, assistant professor of government, is the co-author of "Political and News Media Factors Shaping Public Awareness of the HPV Vaccine," published in Women's Health Issues 23 No. 3, e143-e151, 2013. Giulio Gallarotti, professor of government, professor of environmental studies, tutor in the College of Social Studies, is the author of "The Enduring Importance of Hobbes in the Study of IR," published in e-International Relations, Jan. 10, 2013. Elvin Lim, associate professor of…
George Petersson, the Fisk Professor of Natural Science, professor of chemistry, and chemistry graduate student Duminda Ranasinghe, are the co-authors of “CCSD(T)/CBS Atomic and Molecular Benchmarks for H through Ar” published in the Journal of Chemical Physics, 138, 144104 in 2013. Petersson and chemistry graduate students Frank Dobek, Duminda Ranasinghe and Kyle Throssell, are the co-authors of “Evaluation of the Heats of Formation of Corannulene and C60 by Means of Inexpensive Theoretical Procedures” published in the Journal of Chemical Physics A, 117, 4726 in 2013. Petersson also is co-author of “Substituent Effects on O-H Bond Dissociation Enthalpies. A Computational Study”…
Rex Pratt, the Beach Professor of Chemistry, professor of chemistry, and chemistry graduate student Liudmila Dzhekieva are the co-authors of “Inhibition of DD-Peptidases by a Specific Trifluoroketone: Crystal Structure of a Complex with the Actinomadura R39 DD-Peptidase” published in Biochemistry 52, 2128 in 2013. Pratt and chemistry graduate students Venkatesh Nemmara and Kinjal Dave are the co-authors of “The Dual Substrate Specificity of Bacillus subtilis PBP4a” published in Biochemistry 52, 2627 in 2013. Rex Pratt and chemistry graduate student Ronak Tilvawala are the co-authors of “Covalent Inhibition of a Serine ß-Lactamases by Novel Hydroxamic Acid Derivatives” published in Biochemistry, 52,…
Paul Erickson, assistant professor of history, is the co-author of How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind: The Strange Career of Cold War Rationality," published by the University of Chicago Press in 2013. In the United States at the height of the Cold War, roughly between the end of World War II and the early 1980s, a new project of redefining rationality commanded the attention of sharp minds, powerful politicians, wealthy foundations, and top military brass. Its home was the human sciences—psychology, sociology, political science and economics, among others—and its participants enlisted in an intellectual campaign to figure out what rationality…
Magda Teter, the Jeremy Zwelling Professor of Jewish Studies, professor of history, professor of medieval studies, is the co-editor of a book titled, Jewish-Christian Relations in History, Memory, and Art: European contet for the paintings in the Sandomierz Cathedral, published in Polish by Wydawnictwo Diecezjalne, Sandomierz in 2013. A large painting known as Infanticidium on the western wall of the Cathedral church in Sandomierz, Poland depicting scenes of Jews killing Christian children, has been frequently viewed as an example of Polish anti-Semitism and a troubling symbol of Jewish-Catholic relations. The painting became a site of memory (lieu de mémoire), crystalizing…
A book written by Joe Siry was named a finalist for the 2013 National Jewish Book Award in the visual arts category. Siry is professor of art history, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of the Humanities and chair of the Art and Art History Department. The Jewish Book Council announced the winners of the 63rd Annual National Jewish Book Awards on Jan. 15. Beth Sholom Synagogue: Frank Lloyd Wright and Modern Religious Architecture was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2011. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 2007, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Beth Sholom Synagogue was one of Wright’s last…
Bill Craighead, assistant professor of economics, is the co-author of a paper titled, "As the Current Account Turns: Disaggregating the Effects of Current Account Reversals in Industrial Countries," published in the December issue of The World Economy. An abstract is available online here. In the paper, Craighead examines "current account reversals" which occur when a country significantly reduces its international borrowing and its trade deficit. "While there has been quite a bit of study of these episodes in economics, most of it has looked at the impact on the overall economy. What we did was look at how these episodes…
Ethnomusicologist Sumarsam, University Professor of Music, is the author of two new articles published in 2013. “Past and Present Issues of Javanese-European Musical Hybridity," was published in Recollecting Resonances: Indonesian-Dutch Musical Encounters by Leiden: Brill, pages 87-108. Soon after the introduction of European music in Java in the 18th century, Java-European musical hybrids emerged. In his article Sumarsam asks the following questions: how do we explain the incorporation of European sounds into the indigenous gamelan ensemble? Is this incorporation a kind of Javanese-European intercultural sonic dialogue, a subversive act of European authority, or the domestication of an exotic sound? Sumarsam addresses these…
David LowMarc Eisner, the Henry Merritt Wriston Chair in Public Policy, professor of government, professor of environmental studies, is the author of The American Political Economy: Institutional Evolution of Market and State, published by Routledge in 2014. Policy debates are often grounded within the conceptual confines of a state-market dichotomy, as though the two existed in complete isolation. In this innovative text, Eisner portrays the state and the market as inextricably linked, exploring the variety of institutions subsumed by the market and the role that the state plays in creating the institutional foundations of economic activity. Through a historical approach, Eisner situates the study of…
Tony Connor, professor of English, emeritus, is the author of The Empty Air, published by Anvil Press Poetry in 2013. Connor’s 10th collection is framed by military encounters. In the first poem a young man grapples with a malfunctioning machine-gun, while the author grapples with the poem he is making from this event, memory or fantasy. In the surrealistic sequence that ends the book, a strange army invades a country collapsing into societal and semantic dissolution. Connor’s abiding preoccupations continue into his eighties: his own life and the lives around him, passing time and its traps, poetry and its transfiguration…