Important News from the Wasserman Center for Career Development

• Be a Wasserblogger: We are launching our blog this semester, and want your career perspectives. For more information please e-mail career.blog@nyu.edu.
• Spring Job & Internship Fair: Thursday, Feb. 2, 11:00am to 3:00pm at the Kimmel Center. Meet with employers in all industries to explore part-time and full-time opportunities as well as internships.
• Government & Non-Profit Expo: Friday, Feb. 17, 10:00am to 3:00pm at Georgetown University. Travel to Washington, DC to meet employers hiring for full-time employment and internships in the government, non-profit, and public service sectors. To sign up for a bus to DC or learn about other travel options, go to the Wasserman website. Transportation is provided by the Wasserman Center on a first-come/first-served basis. Registration is required in advance. For more information, call 212.998.4730.
• Women's Foreign Policy Group Mentor Fair: Wednesday, Feb. 22, 6:30pm at the Kimmel Center. Network informally in round-table discussions with senior-level experts. Co-sponsored by the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. RSVP required.
• Class of 2012 Resume Book Collection: Through January 26, the Wasserman Center will collect resumes for the Class of 2012 Resume Books, which are distributed to hundreds of employers. Resume critique is required. Visit http://www.nyu.edu/careerdevelopment/students/recruitment/resume_book.php for details.
• Class of 2013: On-Campus Recruitment for Summer Internships: If you are thinking about finding a summer 2012 internship, the early stages of your job search should begin now -- many industries will start recruiting Class of 2013 graduates for summer internships in January. That means that it is time to register for the On-Campus Recruitment (OCR) program. Visit http://www.nyu.edu/careerdevelopment/students/stu_on_campus.php for details.
• Funded Internship Award Application: The Wasserman Center for Career Development is accepting spring semester applications for the Funded Internship Award. Students pursuing unpaid internships at non-profits, government agencies, arts organizations and other industries that do not traditionally pay their interns may apply for this selective $1,000 award. Details and application instructions available at www.nyu.edu/careerdevelopment/funded_internship.php; deadline is Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 2:00pm.

Introducing Theresa MacPhail, Draper's New Fellow in Science Studies

We're delighted to welcome Draper alumna Theresa MacPhail as our new faculty fellow in Science Studies. Professor MacPhail will be teaching Introduction to Science Studies in the fall, and more information on the class will be available shortly. Her bio is below; please join us in welcoming her to the program.

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Dr. MacPhail received her PhD in Medical Anthropology from UC-Berkeley/UC-San Francisco. Her first book, Siren Song: A Pathography of Influenza and Global Public Health, is based on her dissertation research on the science and epidemiology of influenza in Hong Kong, the United States, and Europe, and is currently under development at Cornell University Press as part of their new series on expertise. Dr. MacPhail received her MA at the Draper Program with a focus in STS and Global Histories, and has a BA in Journalism from the University of New Hampshire.

Her work and research interests center on: the historical, cultural and social aspects of infectious disease; the development and utilization of new technologies within epidemiology and medicine; the production and circulation of information and knowledge in bioscience and public health; politics and the emergence of “global” public health policies; the construction of scientific expertise; new media, public communication, and the construction of narratives in the biosciences and epidemiology; and the process of decision-making in relationship to uncertainty and risk. Both her research and methodology integrate ethnography and anthropology with the fields of journalism, science & technology studies, history, and political science.

She is the current recipient of a writing fellowship from the D. Kim Foundation for the History of Science in East Asia and is a former recipient of the multi-year Chancellor’s Fellowship at UC-Berkeley. Her field sites and areas of geographic interest are Hong Kong, China, and the United States. Her next research project will examine the resurgence of bed bugs and the threat of dengue fever in the United States and in Hong Kong, focusing on local and national public health response, information campaigns, and how disease and pestilence play into the recent fears over the United States’ financial turmoil and intellectual and cultural decline as a “world power.”

Introducing Mario A. Caro, Draper's New Faculty Fellow in Art Worlds

Draper is delighted to introduce Mario A. Caro as our new faculty fellow in Art Worlds. Dr. Caro will be teaching two courses for Draper in the fall--Introduction to Art Worlds I and Topics in Art Worlds--and more information on those classes will be available shortly. His bio is below; please join us in welcoming him to the program.

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Mario A. Caro is a researcher, curator, and instructor of contemporary Indigenous art. His research topics include the representation of Indigenous cultures within the museum; the visual production of an "aesthetics of nostalgia" within photographic practices; art historical methodologies and the production of colonial discourses; and, most recently, essentialism and Native art practices. He has also curated various national and international exhibitions and was the curator of exhibitions at Alaska House, New York in Soho.

Dr. Caro completed his doctorate at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam, and has taught at various institutions, including The Evergreen State College, Otis School of Art and Design, and Indiana University, where he held the post of Public Scholar for Civic Engagement. He has published widely on the history, theory, and criticism of contemporary art, and is the founding editor of Invisible Culture: An Electronic Journal for Visual Culture.

His work within the academy complements his endeavors to further global cultural exchange. He serves on the boards of various organizations focused on art residencies and is the current president of Res Artis, an international network of art residencies focused on promoting the worldwide mobility of artists. Dr. Caro is committed to combining his interdisciplinary scholarship with his community-oriented organizing and curating activities.

Draper Student Louis Gulino Published in Georgetown's gnovis Journal

Good news from a Draper student!

Louis Gullino published his essay "Tracing Apollo’s Descent: Nietzsche’s Aesthetic Ontology and the Myth of Safe Spectatorship In Post-9/11 America" was published in gnovis, Georgetown's peer-reviewed journal of communication, culture, and technology this spring.

You can read the piece online, here: http://gnovisjournal.org/journal/tracing-apollo-s-descent-nietzsche-s-aesthetic-ontology-and-myth-safe-spectatorship-post-911

Congrats, Louis!

Student & Alumni News!

It's been another big year for Draper students and alumni. If you have news to share, please email us at draper.program@nyu.edu and let us know!

Dinika Amaral (May 2011) was accepted to MFA programs at NYU, Queens College, and San Francisco State University. She received a fellowship to attend the program at NYU, where she'll start in the fall.

John Allen (Alumnus, 2010) has started teaching as an adjunct professor at the University of the Pacific. He will be teaching two undergraduate seminars this fall.

Brian Ballard (May 2011) was accepted to Philosophy doctoral programs at the University of Pittsburgh, UC Santa Barbara, CUNY, Purdue, the University of Rochester, and the University of Texas, Austin. He'll be starting at the University of Pittsburgh this fall.

Sarah Broderick (May 2011) was accepted to MFA programs in Creative Writing (fiction) at San Francisco State University, the University of San Francisco, and St. Mary's College (where she was also awarded a fiction scholarship). She will begin at San Francisco State in the fall.

Sarah also presented her thesis, under the condensed title "Puncturing the Skin of a Nation: The (Re)presentation of the Black Vampire in Popular Film," at Brooklyn College's Graduate English Conference in April 2011.

David Colosi (Alumnus, 2006) presented his narrative installation "The Superintendent's Keys" in Steinhardt's 'Broadway Windows' during March 2011. The piece depicted "six narrative vignettes in comic strip-like format" and also included a live performance on opening night.

Halah Darwazeh (May 2011) was accepted to the doctoral program for Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.

Richard Evans (Alumnus, 2008) is in his second year at the Institute for the Comparative Study of Literature, Arts and Culture at Carleton University in Canada.

Aylet Even-Nur (May 2011) was accepted to the doctoral program in Near Eastern Studies at Berkeley.

Russell Fehr (Alumnus, 2009) will complete his MA in History (in progress to his Ph.D) at the University of California, Riverside in June 2011. He anticipates advancing to Ph.D. candidacy in the spring of 2012.

Ann Halbert-Brooks was accepted to the History doctoral program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where she will focus on Latin American history.

Eric Hodges (May 2011) was accepted to the East Asian Studies doctoral program at NYU.

Scott Kaplan started a media and communications internship at the Austrian Cultural Forum.

Elizabeth Kinsley was accepted to the doctoral program in Rhetoric and Public Culture at Northwestern.

Dani Limos (Alumna, 2010) has been accepted to the London School of Economics where she will begin a MSc in Social Policy and International Development this fall. She plans to focus on microloans in developing countries of Latin America and Africa. Over the summer, Dani will be working at Legacy International with an Indonesian youth exchange, and also complete an internship with the Grameen Foundation.

Mirelle Luecke (Alumna, 2011) was accepted to the the doctoral program in History at the University of Pittsburgh.

Luce Melendez-Robledo (May 2011) will be attending law school at the University of Puerto Rico this fall.

Ji Hyuck Moon (May 2011) will publish his first collection of short stories in Korea this summer.

April Pierce (May 2011) was accepted to D.Phil programs in English literature at Oxford and University College London. She will start at Oxford in the fall.

Shabnam Piryaei's poetry collection Ode to Fragile was published by Plain View Press in October 2010. She also wrote and directed three short films based on poetry from the book, which all screened in the U.S. at the Woodstock Film Festival, the Indie Spirit Film Festival, the Red Rock Film Festival, the Miami Short Film Festival and the Target Art Gallery, and internationally at the Portobello Film Festival, Canterbury Short Film Festival, and the Zebra Poetry Film Festival.

Alexander Ponomareff (May 2011) was accepted to the Comparative Literature doctoral program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Megan Schmidt has been interning at the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect since September 2010. She has been using her work at the Coalition to develop a course paper which comparatively examines the crises in Cote d'Ivoire and Libya, international responses, and what this means for the implementation of the Responsibility to Protect.

Megan also published her paper "Chinese and Indian Economic Practices with Africa: Fueling Growth or Undermining Development?" (which she wrote for Topics in Global Histories with Maia Ramnath in fall 2010) in the spring issue of NYU's human rights journal, Humanus.

Send Us Your Good News!

We're doing our annual round up of good news in the Draper community. If you are a current student or alum and have news to share--academic or not--about recent publications, exciting projects, conference participation, or any other exciting developments in your life, drop us a line!

We'll be compiling a post for the Draper blog with all the details soon, so please get in touch (draper.program@nyu.edu) by April 22nd.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Scholarship Recipients: Please Submit Your Award Info!

The Office of Academic and Student Life is currently assembling the list of students who are currently receiving fellowships and awards during this academic year (2010-2011) for the
Spring 2011 edition of On the Square, a newsletter produced to celebrate the accomplishments of GSAS students. If you have received a fellowship or award for the current academic year and would like to have your name included in the newsletter, please send me your full name, the name of the foundation or organization providing your scholarship, and the title of the scholarship (if there is one).

If you would rather not be included in the newsletter, but would be willing to share your scholarship information with me for Draper's annual report for the Deans' Office, that would also be greatly appreciated.

Please feel free to be in touch if you have questions or concerns.

NYU Has a New Bookstore

Dear Students:

As you may have seen from a recent university email, the NYU Bookstore has a new location on Broadway. A number of improvements and changes have been made to the new bookstore, including the addition of an in-store Think Coffee cafe. The bookstore is offering a number of promotions at this time--see their website for more details.

NYU Closing Early Due to Weather

We've just received word that NYU has canceled all classes that would convene 12:30pm or later today, Wednesday February 10th, due to inclement weather.

In addition, all NYU offices, including Draper, will be closed starting at 1:00pm.

Have a safe and enjoyable evening!

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Other related news from the announcement:

Library services will be available until 4:00 pm, and the library will be open until midnight. The study areas in the lower levels of the library will be open overnight, as usual.

The Kimmel Center will remain open until 11:00 pm; activities and events areexpected to carry forward as scheduled unless specifically cancelled. The Kimmel Market Place will remain open with full service until 8:00 pm and with limited service until 10:00 pm.

On-campus recruitment interviews scheduled at the Wasserman Center will
proceed as scheduled. Any students having difficulties making their scheduled
interviews should contact the Wasserman Center.

University Transportation will continue to operate on a normal weekday schedule consistent with weather conditions. Further updates will be posted at
www.nyu.edu/ride
The University will continue to monitor weather conditions. At this point, it
is our expectation to be fully open for all classes, activities, and operations
tomorrow, but we will make a final decision based on weather.
All updates will be posted to the University’s Information Alert page,
www.nyu.edu/info.alert . Please bookmark this page and check it regularly. Updates will also be available on the University’s hotline number, 212 998 1220.

Short Play festival featuring work by Draper alum Derek Lee McPhatter - 2/4-2/7

The Fire This Time Festival of Short Plays features a new show co-produced by Under the Spell Productions, Inc.

CITIZEN JANE
by Derek Lee McPhatter (Draper Alum)

directed by Rhonney Greene

starring tygerlily as Citizen Jane

with
LaJune
Dylan Kammerer
Darren Mallett
and
Sheree Renée Thomas

Thursday, February 04 8 PM
Friday, February 05 8 PM
Saturday, February 06 2 PM and 8 PM
Sunday February 07 2 PM

$15 ($12 students/seniors)

Part of the Horse Trade Theater Group’s Fire This Time Short Play Festival

All performances will be held at the Red Room Theater, located at 85 East 4th Street NYC (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues) on the third floor. (sorry no elevator)

About Citizen Jane

Welcome to the Future. Welcome to the Super-Network. The Universe’s most talented Archival-Architect brings our favorite super-hero, Citizen Jane, to vivid life tonight! Don’t worry if she seems fed-up or tired of saving the world. She had better give us another Happy Ending or else!

About The Fire this Time Festival

The Fire This Time Festival showcases new short plays as a special Black History Month offering by the Horse Trade Theater Group. Performances feature Citizen Jane alongside new works by Deborah Asiimwe, Rhada Blank, Kelley Girod, Katori Hall, Germono Toussaint and Pia Wilson. The Festival explores the diverse possibilities of contemporary American drama and challenging new directions for 21st century black theatre.

www.horsetrade.info

Ticket Link

Participating in The Fire This Time Festival is an exciting new addition to Under the Spell Productions’ plans for 2010 and beyond. Building on our ongoing success, we are preparing for a number of upcoming theater and cultural projects, and are actively expanding our network of supporters, collaborators, and mentors. Charitable donations help make all of this possible. Please contact Derek McPhatter at derek.mcphatter@gmail.com or 718-687-8588 for additional information or to make a contribution.

www.underthespell.org

Guest entry by Hilarie Ashton, Draper student

Draper student Hilarie Ashton gave a presentation last month at the NYU Colloquium in American Literature and Culture. Here are some of her thoughts about the experience:

I recently presented a paper at NYU's Colloquium in American Literature and Culture (CALC). The experience was illuminating in several ways, not in the least during the preparation process. The act of writing for the ear rather than the eye feels more different than I thought it would. I found myself having to consciously shorten my clauses as I wrote and revised, and to reduce long, in-text references and quotes. I continually had to remind myself that I was writing both in terms of verbal delivery and auditory comprehension rather than as a traditional class paper or journal article.

The presentation itself worked well in part because of several levels on which my paper synched with the other one: I wrote on neighborhood, identity, and social interaction in Edgardo Vega's novel The Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow into the Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle, and Katie Levy, a PhD student from BU, wrote on combinations of those issues in Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude (which, completely coincidentally, I had come close to finishing earlier that week). The papers' dialogue became really clear during the rich and insightful discussion that followed our readings of our work: people's comments wove together really well, and I got some great ideas for future work. I'd definitely recommend the CALC events to Draper students, whether you'd be interested in presenting or participating as audience to a thought provoking discussion. 

Draper Alumni News: Elizabeth Streb's Streb Lab for Action Mechanics (SLAM) Receives Rockefeller Grant

Congratulations to Draper Alumna Elizabeth Streb, whose Streb Lab for Action Mechanics (SLAM) was one of 18 New York City cultural institutions to receive funding through the Rockefeller Foundation's annual New York City Cultural Innovation Fund competition. Streb was a recipient of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant in 1997. Her company is staging a new performance in Brooklyn this December.

(Via the SLAM mailing list):

Ringside Inc./STREB receives funding!

"The Rockefeller Foundation is pleased to continue our support of art and creativity right here in our home town of New York City," said Dr. Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation. "In today's economy, our artists and communities need support to continue to build an innovative creative sector that provokes us to react, question, and learn."

Many of this year's winners-selected from more than 500 diverse projects-focus on innovative survival strategies for the arts during a time of severe economic decline. Fresh business models, imaginative prototypes for public/private partnerships, entrepreneurial approaches to capital generation, artist peer loan programs, and new spins on marketing, especially to rapidly growing Latino communities, are strong themes among the winning entries.

These projects are infused with innovation in art itself as well-from the coupling of architecture with ballet and science with art to the use of 3D urban design and social networking technology.

STREB's grant was given to spark new dance forms by incorporating extreme action techniques such as high wire and skydiving."

Introducing Amber Musser: Draper's New Faculty Fellow in Gender Politics

This semester, Draper is delighted to welcome two new faculty fellow members to our program. Amber Musser joins us as the faculty fellow in Gender Politics and will be teaching two courses for us this year: 'Introduction to Gender Politics I: Melancholy, Politics, and Identity' and 'Topics in Gender Politics: Objects of Affection.' Please see below for her introduction.

Amber Musser joins the John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master’s Program as an Assistant Professor/ Faculty Fellow in gender politics. Dr. Musser received an A.B. in Biology and History of Science from Harvard (2002), a M.St. in Women’s Studies from Oxford (2003), and a Ph.D. in the History of Science from Harvard (2009).

My work focuses on psychoanalysis, queer affect, and theories of subjectivity. My dissertation, "On the Subject of Masochism," is a history of the various readings and re-readings that produced masochism's discursive shift from psychiatry to critical and queer theory. Portions of my dissertation have been published: “Masochism, a Queer Subjectivity” in Rhizomes and "Reading, Writing ,and the Whip" forthcoming in Literature and Medicine. All of my work is a dialogue between history and philosophy of science, critical theory, queer and feminist theory, and critical history. In addition to bringing science and gender and sexuality studies together in conversation, I believe that treating these areas together reveals a new space in which to situate and destabilize our prevailing notions of subjectivity and agency. This perspective allows me to focus on understanding race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, and class as critical dimensions of personal experience, which also extends to the realm of science. In keeping with this theme, I have published an article, “From Our Body to Yourselves,” which discusses the shift in concepts of Woman and community within the Women’s Health Movement in the 1970s. I have also been working on an article, “The Obscure Object of Desire,” that interrogates negotiations of intimacy and sexuality in relationships with inanimate objects. In addition to turning my dissertation into a book, I am currently researching queer attachments to objects and embodiments of multiple subjectivities.

Introducing Rebecca Colesworthy: Draper's New Faculty Fellow in Literary Cultures

This semester, Draper is delighted to welcome two new faculty fellow members to our program. Rebecca Colesworthy joins us as the faculty fellow in Literary Cultures and will be teaching one course for Draper this fall: 'Introduction to Literary Cultures I.' Please see below for her introduction.

Rebecca Colesworthy joins Draper as the new Faculty Fellow/Assistant Professor in Literary Cultures after having received her PhD in English from Cornell University. Her dissertation, entitled “Modernism’s Gifts,” explores the relationship between modernist ethics and poetics by juxtaposing the work of Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, Jean Rhys, and Stevie Smith with theories of the gift and exchange drawn from the fields of anthropology, psychoanalysis, and philosophy. In addition to completing articles on Jean Rhys and on the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, she looks forward to undertaking her next project, which considers the ways in which various 20th-century writers reimagine the traditionally exceptional position of the feminine subject with respect to moral laws.

Professor Colesworthy attributes much of her investment in interdisciplinarity to her longstanding interest and work in the field of feminist, gender, and sexuality studies. As an undergraduate concentrating in English and Women’s Studies at Brown University, she had the opportunity to develop a course of study at once variegated and specific to her intellectual concerns. After graduating, she worked as a research assistant for three Brown faculty members: Professor Carolyn Dean in History, Professor Mary Ann Doane in Modern Culture and Media, and Professor Elizabeth Weed at the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women. Before attending Cornell, she also worked for two years at the National Council for Research on Women – a nonprofit network of feminist research, advocacy, and policy centers – where she gained significant insight into the difficulties and rewards of bringing the humanities and the social sciences into dialogue.

Daniel Thurs: Debunking Myths in Galileo Goes to Jail

Daniel Thurs, Draper's Faculty Fellow in Science Studies, recently contributed to a collection of essays entitled Galileo Goes to Jail. In the collection, 25 scholars debunk commonly held myths about the relationship of science and religion. Below, Daniel writes in more detail about the collection, mythologies, and the idea that scholars should spend time 'debunking' myths at all.

I frequently think about a book I once read in a seminar on the American Revolution. It was written by a historian named Edmund Morgan and called Inventing the People. In the introduction, Morgan claimed that all political systems require certain fictions to work, and he went on to show how the founding fathers constructed the notion that an “American people” existed and could guarantee the legitimacy of democratic government. But it’s not just political systems that need fictions. Mythologies—sometimes even patently false ones—are common in almost all areas of human endeavor. In that sense, lots of truths are inconvenient.

There are few topics that have attracted so many myths as the relationship between science and religion (most typically Christianity, though not solely). This is especially true here-in the US—and now—in the early twenty-first century—when claims about science and religion frequently become entangled in political arguments between right and left. But such myths are also a part of popular culture. I was recently watching an episode of Torchwood—for those of you who don’t know, it’s a Dr. Who spin-off—in which one character reflected on the (fictional) growing awareness of extraterrestrials among the general population and the consequent increase in suicides. This was, he noted, especially among religious people who thought that the existence of aliens meant science had “won.” In fact, Christian theologians made peace with the possibility of life on other worlds several centuries ago.

A new collection of essays called Galileo Goes to Jail aims to debunk 25 myths about science and religion, including that the Medieval Christians believed that the earth was flat (no educated Christian believed this, and those that did didn’t do so because of their religious convictions), that Medieval Islam was unfriendly to science (there were some mixed feelings, but also significant official support for the study of nature), that the Church prohibited human dissection during the middle ages (they didn’t in any robust way, though norms discouraged it from pre-Christian times), that Copernicanism demoted humans from the center of the universe (it did not in any meaningful sense), that Galileo was tortured for advocating heliocentrism (he wasn’t), that Rene Descartes originated the mind-body distinction (he didn’t), and that science has secularized modern western culture (it hasn’t).

The overarching myth that many of these essays deal with is that science and religion are (and have always been) necessarily in conflict. Several of the faculty members of the graduate program I went to were major figures in the history of science and religion—-one, Ron Numbers, was both my advisor and editor of Galileo Goes to Jail (you’d have to ask him which was more of an honor)—and I learned from them that the two main culprits in creating this master-myth during the late 1800s were Andrew Dickson White (who co-founded Cornell) and John William Draper (for whom the Draper Program is named). Both wrote and spoke extensively about the “warfare” between science and religion. It’s an ironic aside that my two major post-Ph.D. jobs were at Cornell and here at Draper.

My own contribution to Galileo was not directly about what is often called “the warfare thesis.” Rather, like a handful of other essays in the book, it’s more concerned with the alternative belief in a deep-seated harmony between scientific and religious conceptions. I wrote about the claim that quantum mechanics supported the notion of human free will in particular, and, in general, what might be called mysticism, typically derived from western interpretations of Buddhism (though it’s worth pointing out that the current Dalai Lama is a big fan of QM). Taking that claim apart turns out to be a complicated task, actually, and less about debunking a myth than taking an opportunity to tell an interesting story about the subtle interactions between scientific ideas (such as the mathematical nature of wave equations) and mystical ones (such as the interconnectedness of all things or the ability of the human mind to determine reality). I leave the legitimacy of such interactions to other people to hash out.

Of course, while the relationship of science and religion has attracted more than its share of myths, it’s not the only science-related topic that has done so. Over the past couple of years, my own interests have shifted toward the misunderstandings that cluster around the interface between another pair of categories: science and the public. There are some similarities with the case of science and religion, including a frequent sense of conflict in the past and the present. The upcoming special topics seminar in Science Studies this fall will look in particular at the idea of public fear of science and technology, which is itself sometimes supposedly rooted in traditional religious beliefs. It’s a truism now that the masses will panic if extraterrestrial life is ever discovered—something like the dark side of “the people.” Part II of the Science Studies Intro in the spring will look more generally at ways in which science and the public have been in harmony, in conflict, and even ignored one another.

One final thought that I think about as much as Morgan’s claim. Debunking myths is a particularly attractive exercise for scholars insofar as it draws on their expertise, but there may also be a certain note of arrogance in it. I haven’t as yet figured out the best way of dealing with this quandary or the larger questions it raises about what sort of role experts and intellectuals ought to play in the world. I suspect the answer is ultimately about approach—using one’s scholarly training as a resource rather than a weapon. Whether the authors of Galileo Goes to Jail managed to do that, you’ll have to judge for yourself. I think we did.

Daniel Thurs

Alumni News: Patrick Grenier's Light Installation: "It's always darkest before the dawn"

In a spirit of hope following the 2008 presidential election, artist Patrick Grenier (Draper Alumnus, 2004) created the site-specific "It's always darkest before the dawn," a 24/7 light installation which sought to "explor[e] those moments when we find ourselves literally and metaphorically moving away from our darkest hour."

Over the past 15 years, Grenier has "created an interdisciplinary body of work that ranges from film/video, sculptural installations and performance to writing, curating, and public tours." For more information on his current and past projects and exhibitions, see http://patrickgrenier.net/.

Summer is supposed to be a quiet time at a university, yes? Not at Draper! We're reading admissions files, finalizing new faculty hires, developing courses for the fall, and taking care of various other responsibilities that must happen between now and September. We're busier than ever, which means that the coming academic year may be one of the most dynamic and exciting we've had in a long time. More on that as the autumn term nears.

And there are also, always, other tasks. I'm working on my book with feverish intensity. Called Picking Up, it asks a simple question: What is it like to be a sanitation worker in the city of New York today? The answer is fascinating (which surprises many people; go figure!). It lets me tell stories about history, about work, about time, and about how challenging it is to draw a boundary around a subject (that is, garbage and its labors) that always resists containment.

To see if the writing makes sense, I've given a few talks in recent weeks. It's a good way to test-drive new ideas (does the audience think I'm crazy or wise? or something in between? How do I squeeze 300 years of history into a 45-minute presentation, anyway?) and meet people interested in the themes I'm playing with.

A talk I gave in early May, for instance, was in a venue new to me. The GEL Conference (GEL stands for Good Experience Live) collects thinkers, shakers, doers, inspirers (it should be a word) from various walks of life and asks each to speak on his or her expertise for no more than 20 minutes. I was honored to be included, and the event was a marvelous opportunity to learn from scholars, entrepreneurs, designers, artists, and educators whom I otherwise might never have met. There will be a link to a video eventually, but for now there are pictures of yours truly and all the other speakers on Flickr, here.

In early June I spoke at the New York Public Library, which is always a pleasure. I tried to jam a few centuries of history into less than an hour, in a discussion about the parallels between public health and trash management. It worked, sort of... The audience was attentive, patient, and asked many good questions, which helped me immensely.

Then last Saturday (June 20), I gave a talk at Freshkills Park on Staten Island (that's Freshkills at the top of this post; I took the picture last March). It truly is one of the most extraordinary geographies in the world. I've visited many times, though knew it better when it was an active landfill. I loved it then and love it now. If you ever have the chance to take one of the tours run by the Parks Department, don't hesitate. You will be dazzled and amazed...!

Draper Student News, 08 - 09

Both current Draper students and alumni had a great deal of exciting news during the 2008 - 2009 academic year. Here are the accomplishments, scholarships, and acceptances that students shared with us this year:

Andrei Boutyline was accepted to Berkeley's doctoral program in Sociology. His initial goal is to pursue a computational/mathematical study of culture.

Katherine Carlson (Alumna, 2008) was accepted to NYU's MFA Program in Creative Writing. Katherine will start the program in fall 2009 and will be studying fiction.

Myong Yee Chin, a dual degree student at Draper and the Palmer School of Library and Information Science, was awarded the LCU Foundation Scholarship for women in Palmer's Rare Books and Special Collections concentration. Myong was awarded $8000 award for the 2008 - 2009 academic year.

Russell MacKenzie Fehr (Alumnus 2009) was accepted to doctoral programs in History at the University of California, Riverside, the CUNY Graduate Center, and SUNY Binghamton, with fellowship offers from Riverside and CUNY. Russell is currently interning at the Sacramento City Clerk's office and will be starting at UC Riverside in fall 2009.

Shayne Figueroa (Alumna, 2009) presented her paper, "Selling the Casual Dining Franchise to Housewives in Postwar America," at the 2009 Association for the Study of Food & Society conference in May 2009. Her paper was presented as part of the panel "Marjorie DeVault's Feeding the Family -- 20 years of Research on Gender and Domestic Food Labor."

Jennifer Kelly (Alumna, 2008) has been accepted to the University of Texas, Austin's doctoral program in American Studies, where she will be funded through Teaching Assistant and Assistant Instructor positions in both American Studies and the Department of Rhetoric. She will start her coursework and Assistant Instructor position in the Department of Rhetoric in the fall of 2009.

Elena Landriscina (Alumna, 2009) has been accepted into the Juris Doctorate programs at American University, Northeastern University, and George Washington University.

Pei Palmgren (Alumnus, 2008) has moved to Bangkok, Thailand and is working as the International Development Officer for the People's Empowerment Foundation. This independent Thai NGO works to strengthen civil society networks throughout the country and Southeast Asia.

Susan Rosenfeld is giving a lecture entitled "A Culture of Letters: David F. Dorr's and Frederick Douglass' Travel Narratives as Early Pan-African Texts," this summer in Ghana for the Association of the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD) conference.

Kate Simpkins (Alumna 2008) was accepted to the English doctoral program at Northeastern University, where she will begin in fall 2009.

Alana Smith presented her paper, "Citizen/Terrorist: Security Problems of the Biopolitical State" at NYU's Poetics and Theory Conference "On Security" on March 7, 2009.

Claire Sommers (Alumna, 2009) was accepted to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst's doctoral program in Comparative Literature.