Nine Days that Changed the World

Nine Days that Changed the World

A documentary film about Pope John Paul II's historic trip to Poland in June 1979, hosted by Newt and Callista Gingrich.

Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Keating First | Keating Hall
Rose Hill Campus | Fordham University
6-7 p.m. | Reception | Keating Rotunda
7-8:30 p.m. | Film Screening and Remarks by Executive
Producers and Hosts Newt and Callista Gingrich | Keating First
8:30-9 p.m. | Book and DVD Signing | Keating Rotunda

RSVP to the Office of Special Events
at specialevnts@fordham.edu or (212) 636-6575 by 7 February 2011.

Nine Days that Changed the World
Newt and Callista Gingrich’s newest documentary, Nine Days that Changed the World, is a powerful story of freedom through faith. This groundbreaking film recounts Pope John Paul II’s historic nine-day trip to Poland in June of 1979, and reveals why this visit was the turning point for defeating Communism in Eastern Europe.

During these nine days, Pope John Paul II reminded the Polish people that nothing—not even the seemingly all-powerful Communist state—could stand between them and God. The pope sparked a revolution of conscience in the Polish people that led to the success of Solidarity’s free-trade union movement, and ultimately the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the Soviet Union.

Be the Evidence You Want to See

Mahatma Ghandi famously said ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Eleanor Roosevelt, in her speech to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, said “Where do human rights begin? In small places, close to home . . . the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works.””

Tina Maschi, Ph.D., assistant professor of social work in the Graduate School of Social Service, is taking those concepts and applying them to a new lecture series at the Lincoln Center campus. Maschi, through her position as a 2010 Hartford Foundation scholar, has launched the Be The Evidence project at Fordham—a series of lectures and workshops designed to improve individual and community responses to today’s most critical social issues.

The first event on Feb. 8 features Thomas Larson, LSCW, a clinical social worker and federal probation officer, speaking on how to work with “involuntary” clients (i.e. persons who are forced into therapy, such as prisoners or juvenile offenders.) Several other events will follow over the course of the year.

Maschi said she was inspired to do the series by current debates in social work and other social service professions on how human rights and social justice can be realized. Whether in social work, medicine or psychology, whether a counselor, a scientist or a reformer, Maschi suggests we all ask ourselves whether we, ourselves, are “evidence” that the changes we’ve wanted to see have come about.

“We as humans tend to externalize problems as if they are outside of ourselves,” said Maschi. “In order to change these external problems or social ills, the change must start from within– if I want to combat oppression, have I carefully examined myself to eradicate any ways in which my actions oppress others?”

The inaugural lecture will be Feb. 8 at 7:30 in Room 713 of the Lowenstein Center on the Lincoln Center campus. The next event, on torture in U.S. prisons, will be March 17.

—Janet Sassi

WFUV's "Words & Music From Studio A" in February

Words & Music From Studio A
Monday through Thursday at 9 P.M. on WFUV (90.7 FM, wfuv.org)

(Take Five, a 5-minute version of each evening’s interview, airs every day at 7:40 A.M. and 4:45 P.M. and is available to download as podcast at www.wfuv.org/audio/podcast )

Tuesday, February 1st—The man with the giant voice known as The White Buffalo will join The Alternate Side’s Russ Borris to talk blues and rock & roll.

Wednesday February 2nd—Multi-talented singer-songwriter Sonya Kitchell joins Sunday Breakfast host John Platt in the studio before her Rockwood Music Hall show on February 9th.

Thursday, February 3rd—Former New Pornographer Neko Case talks to FUV Music Morning host Claudia Marshall before taking the stage at two NY-area concerts—Westha.m.pton Beach Performing Arts Center on February 5th and the Bell House on February 6th.

Friday, February 4th—Toronto’s Dia.m.ond Rings, aka John O, heads to the WFUV studios to chat with The Alternate Side’s Alisa Ali about his modern brand of gla.m. rock.

Monday February 7th—Texan, songwriter and constant performer Alejandro Escovedo sits down with Claudia Marshall before his big 60th birthday show at City Winery.

Tuesday. February 8th—Grammy-winning jazz great Kurt Elling joins WFUV Music Director Rita Houston to talk about the release of his new album, “The Gate," followed by an FUV Live concert from Avatar Studios.

Wednesday, February 9th—Lissie, the folk rocker Paste Magazine called the best new solo artist of 2010 talks to Alisa Ali. The interview is followed by Lissie’s recent Hiro Ballroom concert.

Thursday, February 10th—New Yorker and long-time FUV favorite Nellie McKay sits down with her early champion, Rita Houston, to talk about music and life before her show at Tilles Center for the Performing Arts on February 12th. Followed by FUV Live: Nellie McKay from City Winery.

Friday, February, 11th—Erland and The Carnival, the London folk rock supergroup comprised of Simon Tong, Gawain Erland Cooper and David Nock, join Alisa Ali for an interview and performance session.

Monday, February 14th—British-American folk prince Teddy Thompson talks to Claudia Marshall on Valentine’s Day.

Tuesday, February 15th—Mountain Man, which is actually three women, come to Studio A for a chat with Rita Houston.

Wednesday, February 16th—Philadelphia band Dr. Dog make it to New York to play Terminal 5 on February 18th, but first they talk to WFUV’s Claudia Marshall.

Thursday, February 17th—Alt-country forefathers The Jayhawks join longtime fan Rita Houston for an interview and performance session.

Friday, February 18th—Avant-pop disco experimenters The Hundreds In The Hands talk to the equally avant Alisa Ali.

WFUV (90.7 FM, wfuv.org) is a non-commercial, listener-supported public radio station, licensed to Fordham University for more than 60 years. Serving the New York area as well as an international audience on the web, and a leader in contemporary music radio, WFUV is Rock & Roots Radio, offering an eclectic mix of rock, singer-songwriters, blues, world and other music, plus headlines from National Public Radio and local news.

History Professor Wins Award For Textbook

Saul Cornell can now add another title to his resume: award-winning textbook author.

Cornell, the Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History, shared Pearson Higher Education's "Product Team of the Year" Award with his co-authors, Jennifer Keane of Chapman University and Edward T. O'Donnell of the College of the Holy Cross, for Visions of America: A History of the United States.

The award is given annually by Person Higher Education's social sciences and arts division. It recognizes the collaborative efforts of the authors, and the production, editorial and marketing teams responsible for making a book successful.

"The book is innovative in that it uses images to provide historical narrative," said Maureen E. Prado Roberts, Pearson Higher Education’s marketing manager for history.

Though Pearson does not release sales figures for its books, Prado Roberts said that "Visions of America" has been adopted by more than 200 institutions. A second edition is planned for 2011, she said.

-- Syd Steinhardt

Going with the Flow . . . in More Snow

Oh groan, not again! Yes, more January snow fell on the metropolitan area late Wednesday, forcing a delayed opening on the Fordham campuses.

Some undaunted students and faculty made the most of it.

(Photos by Nicholas Lombardi, S.J.)

Former Jailhouse Lawyer Shares Insights on Pro Se Litigation

As a young man, an armed Shon Hopwood robbed five banks in rural Nebraska, netting some $200,000.

Luckily for him, and a score of terrified bank tellers, he got caught.

Hopwood went to federal prison in 1999 with a 13-year sentence; it was there that Hopwood turned his life around.

He got a job in the prison law library because it paid more than working in the kitchen. He trained himself in Supreme Court litigation, and built a national reputation as a jailhouse lawyer before he was released in 2009.

During his eleven-year incarceration, Hopwood wrote more than 20 petitions for certorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, and helped on between 50 and 100 appeals, motions and other documents - enabling a number of inmates to win sentence reductions. One of his cases, Fellers v. United States, was even adopted by Seth P. Waxman, former United States solicitor general.

Hopwood is currently writing an article for the Fordham Law Review. He spoke at Fordham Law School on Jan. 25 about obstacles that pro se litigants face in trying to advance a case.

“The increase in pro se litigation during these difficult economic times is pretty well documented,” Hopwood said. “There is nothing that will place pro se claimants on an even level with attorney representation. But just because they do not have an attorney doesn’t mean they don’t have a claim.”

Hopwood would know; today, he works at Cockle Printing in Omaha, which he says is the only printing house in the nation that works with pro se litigants. When a pro se brief comes in, he helps prepare it.

He also publishes A De Novo Review, a newsletter for inmates on the latest legal developments.

Hopwood outlined three remedies to help level the playing field for pro se litigants, especially for inmates:
-- modify the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (passed by Congress in 1996 as part of Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America) to allow non-capital offense prisoners more than just one year to file a legal challenge to their conviction;
-- modify the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which has added case restrictions on prisoners who sue for violations of their rights, including a controversial “exhaustion requirement” which prohibits inmates from suing unless they have used all “administrative remedies” available to them;
-- educate pro se litigants in their chances and their filing obligations, including setting up online tools to assist them and providing sample petitions. Most pro se litigants, said Hopwood, don’t understand the odds that are against them.

“There is much demagoguery around prisoner issues in this country,” said Hopwood. “You never hear politicians say, ‘let’s rethink these policies’ – because that talk doesn’t get you elected and labels you soft on crime.”

He also advocates more “ghost writing” of pro se legal briefs by paralegals. "That's a win-win situation in these economic times," he said.

Hopwood’s article will come out in the Law Review in December; in the meantime, Hopwood has applied to Fordham School of Law, hoping to practice prisoners’ rights law one day.

—Janet Sassi

Fordham Track Great to Be Honored at the New York Athletic Club

Fordham track great Tom Courtney (FCRH ’55) will be honored at “Millrose Olympians Night” on Thursday, Jan. 27, at the New York Athletic Club in Manhattan.

Courtney, who is among the greatest track athletes Fordham ever produced, will be honored along with eight other Olympic Gold medalists in track & field. All honorees have competed in the Millrose Games, which take place on Friday, Jan. 28, at Madison Square Garden.

While at Fordham, Courtney was on two-mile team, which set the World Record in California in 1954. The next year, he graced the cover of Sports Illustrated in his Fordham gear.

After graduating from Fordham, Courtney made the Olympic team and took first-place, winning the gold medal and setting an Olympic record in the 800 meter run at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. He also anchored the 4 X 400 relay for a second gold medal.

Courtney went on to set many other world records in 1956 and 1957 before retiring from competition. He later became assistant track coach at Harvard for one year before obtaining his M.B.A. from Harvard Business. Courtney was inducted into the Fordham Athletics Hall of Fame in 1971.

Fellow alumnus, Norbert Sander, M.D., (FCRH ’64), will host the reception along with officers from the New York Athletic Club. Sander, the 1974 winner of the New York City Marathon, is the architect of a modern initiative that brought running back to life at Manhattan’s 168th Street Armory, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2010.

A significant contingent of one of Fordham’s greatest Track & Field squads, Classes 1963-65, will hold a reunion at the 104th edition of the Millrose Games at the Garden on Friday night to celebrate Fordham’s rich history of success in these historic Games.

—Gina Vergel

Two Members of Fordham English Faculty Receive NEH Awards

Two members of Fordham’s English faculty have been awarded fellowships by the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH), an independent grant-making agency of the United States government dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation and public programs in the humanities.

John Bugg, Ph.D., assistant professor and director of placement and professional development in the department of English, is the recipient of a NEH Faculty Fellowship for research on “Five Long Winters: The Trials of British Romanticism.”

During the tenure of the fellowship, Bugg said he plans to "complete the research and writing of his study of the relationship between British literary culture and political repression in the decade after the French Revolution."

Edward Cahill, Ph.D., assistant professor of English and acting director of the American Studies program, was awarded a NEH Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Cahill will work on his project, "Colonial Rising: Narratives of Upward Mobility in British America," which argues that “cultures of social and economic self-transformation in 17th- and 18th-century anglophone colonial America were defined not by coherent visions of an ‘American Dream’ but rather by diverse expressions of aspiration, ambivalence, and hostility.

“By exploring stories and discourses of wealth acquisition and class mobility in colonial New England, the mid-Atlantic, the South, and the West Indies, I seek to shed historical light on the early representational forms of ambition, adventure, risk, movement, and change—values that, in the 21st century more than ever, shape and reflect our culture's ideological assumptions and social practices,” Cahill said.

To read about what other Fordham faculty members have been up to, check out the “People” section of Inside Fordham on the Fordham website. This section, which contains faculty awards, honors and more, is updated in every new issue of Inside Fordham.

—Gina Vergel

Fordham a Strong Presence in Presidential Management Fellowship Competition

Back in October, 2010, 9,100 graduate students from around the country applied to become Presidential Management Fellows. Of those, only 1,530 made it through the rigorous selection process to become semi-finalists, and ten of them hail from Fordham.

Henry Schwalbenberg, Ph.D., associate professor of Economics and Director of the Graduate Program in International Political Economy and Development (IPED), noted that the percentage of Fordham students who have made it this far (10 out of 39, or 26 percent) is much higher than the national average of 17 percent.

With five semi-finalists hailing from the School of Law, three from IPED, one from the Graduate School of Education (G.S.E.) and one from the Graduate School of Business Administration (G.B.A.), Fordham is well-positioned for one of the country’s most prestigious fellowships.

“The presidential management fellowship program is the flagship leadership development program for the federal government. It attracts and selects the best candidates coming out of America’s graduate schools,” he said. “It is designed to develop a cadre of potential government leaders for the future.”

The process of becoming a fellow is one that finishes in March, when 900 finalists are offered jobs within the federal government. Schwalbenberg noted that the final round of the process, which is taking place right now, involves a full day of interviews and observations in Washington D.C.

The payoff for such a grueling process is a two-year long fast track into the agencies that make the executive branch function. Former students who have completed the fellowship have gone on to work in the International Trade Administration, which is part of the Commerce Department, the Foreign Agricultural Service, which is part of the Department of Agriculture, the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“The aim is that towards the end of their career, these will be the leaders of the Civil Service,” Schwalbenberg said. “So they won’t be the political appointees, but they’ll be the people who actually run the bureaucracy for the different secretaries and political appointees.”

—Patrick Verel

Sargent Shriver’s Fordham Legacy

In February 1962, Sargent Shriver, the founding director of the Peace Corps visited Fordham’s Rose Hill campus and told more than 700 students that the function of the volunteer program is “to make a substantial contribution to humanity and to world peace,” The Ram reported. (Download the original article as a PDF.)

“We are in a struggle,” he said. “The traditional, ordinary, pedestrian way of doing things has got to be junked.”

While it’s impossible to know how many Fordham students Sargent inspired that day, or on subsequent visits, his words did make a lasting impression on at least one. Ann Sheehan, UGE ’65, executive director of Pennsylvania’s BCTV and a former Peace Corp volunteer, applied for the program immediately after Shriver’s address.

She posted about Shriver’s visit to Rose Hill on her station’s blog, two days after Shriver died at the age of 95.

“The idea of the Peace Corps had intrigued me since it was first talked about, and although I don't remember anything specific that he said, Sarge hooked me completely. There were applications available right there, in the gym, and I made my friend wait for me while I filled it out, never dreaming that I would be accepted.”

As director of the Peace Corps, Shriver capitalized on the new and exciting spirit of volunteerism President Kennedy inspired in the nation, especially its younger citizens. Within a few years, thousands of young Americans were working in poor countries around the world.

Shriver’s Rose Hill appearance was part of the University’s American Age Lecture Series, which strives to embody the spirit of the Fordham community through programs that educate, stimulate and enhance the college experience.

—Miles Doyle

Edited 1/24, 09:39: The date in the first sentence was changed from 1964 to 1962, thanks to a tip from "That Guy" (see comments below). BH

Nature's Back in Session

Fordham’s on-site photographer Nicholas Lombardi, S.J., glanced out his Rose Hill campus window today and spotted a lone member of Fordham’s renowned hawk family, sharp-sighted and back in attendance for the semester.

Fordham Professor Honored at Brooklyn Public School

Mark Naison (center, wearing all black) with P.S. 257's drum line.
The school's principal, Brian DeVale, is to Naison's right.
(Photo courtesy of Mark Naison)

Mark Naison, Ph.D., professor of African and African-American studies, was an honored guest at P.S. 257 in Bushwick, Brooklyn, on Jan. 20.

“I was deeply moved by the hospitality shown by Principal Brian DeVale and his staff and tremendously impressed by the dedication and talent of the teachers at the school,” said Naison, who was invited to visit to school as a result of an article he wrote, “In Defense of Public School Teachers."

During his visit, Naison visited several classes and ate lunch with the School Leadership Team. He also attended a ballroom dancing class and a performance by the school's drum line.

“It was incredible,” he said. “The students made a tremendous impression on me. The school resembled many of the wonderful schools in the Bronx I visited when I was doing Oral History training for teachers. The children were happy, energetic, intellectually curious and quite astonished to see an old white man rap!”

Yes, Naison’s hip-hop alter ego, the Notorious Ph.D. gave a performance.

“What a great day this was,” he said. “It reinforced my determination to speak out on behalf of some of the most talented and dedicated public servants in our nation—our public school teachers.”

—Gina Vergel

Jesuits in Conversation: Nicholas Lombardi, S.J.

Episode 8 of "Jesuits in Conversation," and interview with Nicholas D. Lombardi, S.J., airs on channel 10 at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 20, and on the web at www.fordham.edu/jescom/Conversations.shtml. Father Lombardi, the associate director of online services for the Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies is interviewed by Patrick Ryan, S.J., the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham.

Fordham University’s Jesuit community aired the first in its 28-part Jesuits in Conversation series in November 2010, with a video interview of the late Charles Beirne, S.J.

Jesuits in Conversation introduces the Jesuits working at Fordham to the larger University community and the public. The interviews include Jesuit priests at Fordham, Jesuit visiting scholars, and young Jesuits-in-training (called scholastics). Joseph Koterski, S.J., and Father Lombardi coordinated the production with Matt Schottenfeld of Fordham’s television studio in the Walsh Family Library. Tim Valentine, S.J., wrote the original theme music.

Fordham Band Needs a Hand

The Fordham band, Penrose is up for an award for Emerging Artist of the Year in The Deli Magazine. The vote ends January 31 at midnight. Vote here philadelphia.thedelimagazine.com/snacks and vote now!

Penrose is brothers Tom Murphy, FCRH '10, Pat Murphy FCRH '11, and Dan Murphy FCRH '13. The band was voted to play Spring Weekend with MGMT last year.

WFUV Stars and DJs Tell Stories Behind The First Record They Bought

Back in the days of vinyl, buying your first record, whether it was a single or an album, was a rite of passage. (Do folks today feel the same way about their first MP3 download?)

Here are the recollections of some of our favorite artists – like Rickie Lee Jones, James Maddock, and Jeff Tweedy – and WFUV hosts about the first piece of music they owned. (Note how many mention Elvis and The Beatles!)

Have you told us yours? If so, you might hear it next week as we feature the stories behind The First Music I Bought from artists, hosts, and listeners during our winter membership drive. In the meantime, visit us online to support WFUV and share your story. Starting January 24, you'll be entered to win a brand new turntable and a stack of vinyl!

And if you can help us answer phones during the drive, please sign up here. We can promise you some food, a few laughs, and lots of camaraderie.

Fordham Seeking Volunteers for 2011 HOPE Count

Are you interested in giving up one night of your time to help the homeless?

Fordham University’s Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice is recruiting students, staff and faculty to participate in the annual Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE) count, to be held at the Rose Hill campus on Monday, Jan. 31.

The annual event attracts some 3000 volunteers citywide, who spend one night a year combing streets, subways, parks and public spaces to count the numbers of New Yorkers who live unsheltered in the city.

For the past six years, Fordham has been designated one of the volunteer training center sites for Bronx neighborhoods by the city’s Department of Homeless Services. Last year some 120 volunteers were trained at the Fordham site to participate in the count, which takes place in surrounding Bronx neighborhoods from midnight to 4 a.m. Groups travel on foot and are accompanied by New York City police patrolmen.

Information gathered on the 2011 HOPE count will be used to determine federal and state money to be allocated to New York and, more specifically, to each borough.

For more information or to volunteer, contact Caitlin Becker associate coordinator of Community Service at the Day Center or register on line.

--Janet Sassi

Fordham Employees Enjoy Winter Wonderland Lunch

Fordham staff and faculty came together for the annual Winter Wonderland luncheon organized by the Fordham University Association (FUA) on Jan. 14 at the Rose Hill campus. Nearly 100 staff members shared holiday stories and lunch while preparing for the return of the student population.

Patrick Ryan, S.J., the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society, opened the afternoon with a prayer of thanksgiving.

Francoisline Joy Freeman, the chair of the Winter Wonderland Luncheon and senior assistant director of Student Financial Services, and Grant Grastorf, the academic operational administrator at Fordham Westchester, handed out prizes at the post-luncheon raffle, which included tickets to the New York Philharmonic and Fordham sporting events, a lovely afghan and a basket of wine. One lucky employee won $250 in the 50/50 raffle.

Sodexho, the university’s food service provider, helped to offset the cost of the meal and ice cream dessert. John Burns, Sodexho’s catering manager, was presented with a certificate of thanks.

Also honored was Aida Napolitano, a longtime senior secretary for the Chemistry Department who retired this past December. Napolitano was actively involved with the Fordham University Association for many years before she retired.

Sister Regina DeVitto, C.N.D., coordinator of faith formation and sacraments at Campus Ministry, provided the musical entertainment. She played the guitar and sang classics such as “Do Re Mi.”

The Fordham University Association is comprised of members of the faculty, administrative, clerical and maintenance staff of the University. The Office of the President sponsors the group. FUA’s goal is to sponsor events and activities that bring the Fordham community together for fun and fellowship.

-Gina Vergel

Poets Out Loud kicks off spring semester with readings by Gregerson, Phillips

Poets Linda Gregerson and Rowan Ricardo Phillips read from their work on Jan. 24 at Fordham University’s Lowenstein Center, 12th-Floor Lounge, 113 W. 60th St., in Manhattan, as part of the Poets Out Loud series.

Video clips of the readings appear below.

A 2007 National Book Award finalist and a recent Guggenheim Fellow, Gregerson (top photo) is the Caroline Walker Bynum Distinguished University Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan, where she teaches creative writing and Renaissance literature.

Of her poems, The New Yorker has written, “Gregerson’s rich aesthetic allows her best poems to resonate metaphysically.” Her poems have appeared in The Best American Poetry as well as in the Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, Ploughshares, The Yale Review, TriQuarterly and other publications.

Rowan Ricardo Phillips is a poet, scholar and translator and associate professor of English at Stony Brook University. His poems have appeared in Granta, The Kenyon Review, The New Republic, The New Yorker, Harvard Review, The Iowa Review and Callalo, among other venues. He is the author of When Blackness Rhymes with Blackness (Dalkey Archive, 2010) and a forthcoming collection of poems entitled The Ground.

-Gina Vergel

Psychology Researcher Gets APA Recognition

Fordham's Monica Rivera Mindt, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology, has been selected as the American Psychological Association’s Division 40 Early Career Award recipient for 2011.

The award is given annually to one APA member psychologist that is no more than ten years post doctoral degree, who has made a distinguished contribution to neuropsychology in research, scholarship, and clinical work.

Rivera Mindt is co-investigator of a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to gauge the cognitive functions in HIV-positive Latinos in New York who are on anti-retroviral therapies. The $1 million study will help identify cognitive and sociocultural barriers that may interfere with the ability of the cohort to adhere to their medication regimens.

As an award recipient, Rivera Mindt has been invited to present her research at the 119th Annual APA convention, to be held in Washington D.C. on Aug. 4 to 7.

Rivera Mindt teaches in the graduate program in clinical psychology and at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She has been a member of the Fordham faculty since 2002.

This is Rivera Mindt’s second national award; last October she received the 2010 Early Career Service Award from the National Academy of Neuropsychology. That award was given to her for her professional service, her service to the community, and her outstanding teaching/mentoring of her students.

—Janet Sassi

Fordham University Press joins Oxford UP ebook Distribution Platform

Fordham University Press has joined a groundbreaking new online platform developed by Oxford University Press.

University Press Scholarship Online (UPSO) is a fully enabled XML environment for university press monograph content that features cutting edge search and discovery functionality.

“The expansion of Oxford Scholarship Online to include the research and scholarship of other university presses, creating a single platform searchable across many high-quality programs, represents a step forward in ensuring that academic content is increasingly accessible—and conveniently so,” said Tim Barton, Managing Director of Global Academic Business for Oxford University Press.

Responding to increased demand for online scholarly content, UPSO streamlines the research process by making disparately published monographs easily accessible, highly discoverable and fully cross-searchable via one online platform. Research that previously would have required users to jump between a variety of books, and disconnected websites can now be concentrated through a single search engine.

For more information, visit Fordham ImPRESSions, the Fordham University Press blog.

—Gina Vergel

Rose Hill in the Snow

Fordham University was closed on Wednesday, Jan. 12, because of predictions for heavy snow. That didn't stop intrepid correspondent Nicholas D. Lombardi, S.J., from capturing these images of Rose Hill beneath a white mantle. The University will reopen Thursday, Jan. 13.

(Click on Images to Enlarge)

Fordham Senior to Receive Ethics Award at White House

Joseph Vignone, a Fordham College at Lincoln Center senior, is going to the White House to meet President Barack Obama.

The Fordham theology and history double major won the nationally renowned 2010 Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics last summer. He is slated to receive the award at an upcoming ceremony, date pending, with the President and the handful of other student runners-up and honorable mentions.

Also present at the awards ceremony will be 82-year-old Elie Wiesel, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor, whose Foundation for Humanity created the prize in 1989.

The prize is given to a college junior or senior annually for an essay that articulates an ethical issue, often of a religious or political nature. Vignone, who is also earning a minor in Middle Eastern Studies, won for his essay examining the choices of good vs. evil, as illustrated through the story of Iblis, an angelic figure in Islamic theology.

The Staten Island native was mentored by his advisor Aristotle Papanikolaou, Ph.D., associate professor of theology and associate chair for undergraduate studies and co-founding director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Program, and by Kathryn Kueny, Ph.D., clinical associate professor of theology.

While Vignone is in Washington, he will also meet fellow Fordhamite John O. Brennan (FCRH ‘77), chief counterterrorism advisor to President Obama.

Brennan, who spent 25 years in the CIA before receiving his White House appointment, meets with the President for a daily intelligence briefing.

—Janet Sassi

Forum to Discuss Online Threats

The hazards that threaten private citizens online also present challenges for government agencies, corporations and academic institutions. On Wednesday, a panel of experts will discuss the strategies and technology they’ve employed behind the scenes over the years to protect data.

What: Dangers Lurking on the Cyber Highway: Threats in Academia, Business and Crime

When: Wednesday, Jan. 5 at 6:30 p.m.

Where: The Princeton Club of New York, 15 West 43rd St.

Who:
Anthony Ferrante, (FCRH ’01, GSAS ’04) Special Agent, Cyber Division, FBI, New York

Frank Hsu, Ph.D., Calvius Distinguished Professor of Science, Fordham University

John Pignataro, director of SIRT Investigations, CITI Group

Cost: $10 (Includes one drink)

Reservations: (212) 596-1255 or humanresources@princetonclub.com

—Patrick Verel

Fordham Senior To Present Research at Biophysical Society

Congratulations to Stacey Barnaby, a Fordham University at Rose Hill senior and chemistry major, who has received The Biophysical Society student travel award to attend the Biophysical Society's 55th Annual Meeting at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland, March 5 through 9.

Barnaby is one of 48 students worldwide to receive the award, which is based on scientific merit, with priority given to those who will present a paper at the conference. Her paper, "Ellagic Acid Nanotubular and Poly-Cationic Conjugates as Nano-Carriers for Delivery into Mammalian Cells," will be presented in poster format at the convention.

Barnaby has been doing research in the laboratory of Ipsita Banerjee, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry and her mentor, for more than a year. She and the other winners will also be recognized at a reception on Saturday, March 5.

—Janet Sassi