Olivia DrakeMarch 3, 20141min
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”…

Olivia DrakeMarch 3, 20141min
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,…

Olivia DrakeFebruary 12, 20142min
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…

Olivia DrakeFebruary 12, 20142min
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…

Olivia DrakeJanuary 27, 20142min
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…

Olivia DrakeJanuary 23, 20141min
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…

Olivia DrakeJanuary 23, 20142min
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 LowJanuary 23, 20143min
Marc 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…

David LowJanuary 23, 20142min
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…

Olivia DrakeDecember 6, 20132min
A book written by Rick Elphick, professor of history, tutor in the College of Social Studies, received "honorable mention" for the Herskovits Prize, the most prestigious award for scholarship on Africa. This annual award is named in honor of Melville J. Herskovits, one of the African Studies Association's founders. Elphick is the author of The Equality of Believers: Protestant Missionaries and the Racial Politics of South Africa, published by the University of Virginia Press in September 2012. The Equality of Believers reconfigures the narrative of race in South Africa by exploring the pivotal role played by these missionaries and their teachings in…

Lauren RubensteinDecember 6, 20131min
Professor of Religion Peter Gottschalk recently authored a new book, American Heretics: Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and the History of Religious Intolerance, published by Palgrave Macmillan in November 2013. The book chronicles the history of religious intolerance in the U.S. – from persecution of Irish and German Catholics in the mid-19th century to today's discrimination against Muslims, Sikhs and other religious groups. Through the historical record it presents, the book challenges the notion that the U.S. is a stronghold of religious freedom. Gottschalk's book recently was featured in a holiday book round-up in the Chicago Tribune.

Olivia DrakeDecember 6, 20131min
Ethan Kleinberg, director of the Center for the Humanities, is the co-editor of Presence: Philosophy, History, and Cultural Theory for the Twenty-First Century, published by Cornell University Press  in November 2013. Kleinberg also is professor of history, professor of letters and executive editor of History and Theory. In this book, Kleinberg and co-editor Ranjan Ghosh bring together an interdisciplinary group of contributors to explore the possibilities and limitations of presence from a variety of perspectives—history, sociology, literature, cultural theory, media studies, photography, memory and political theory. The book features critical engagements with the presence paradigm within intellectual history, literary criticism, and…