Ph.D. Candidate at Congressional Conference

Photo with First Lady Michelle Obama at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Public Policy Conference. Judith Perez (front row, third from right) is one of the Graduate Housing Fellows at the Institute for the 2010-2011 academic year.

Perez is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Fordham University, where she also obtained advanced certification in Latin American and Latino Studies. Her dissertation is a qualitative analysis on the residential outcomes and housing options of middle-class Caribbean Latino, non-Hispanic Black and ethnic White native New Yorkers. In her research, she examines racial and ethnic differences in the road to becoming middle class, exploring issues pertaining to residential mobility, segregation, discrimination, gentrification and homeownership.

Perez recently completed an Alumni Dissertation Writing Fellowship at Fordham and will soon defend her dissertation. She received additional fellowships that supported her research on housing and residence from Howard University's Summer Institute for Race and Wealth in Washington, D.C., funded by the Ford Foundation, and a dissertation fellowship provided by The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College-City University of New York. Other fellowships include her selection as a summer fellow for the Smithsonian Latino's Center's Museum Studies Program in Washington, D.C.

Publications related to housing include encyclopedia entries: "Segregation and Latino/as," "Residential
Segregation," and "Barrio" in two scholarly volumes: Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society (Russell Sage) and Latinos/as and Criminal Justice: An Encyclopedia (Greenwood Press). Perez also published an article in the Fall 2006 volume of The Bronx County Historical Society Journal, entitled: "Movin' on Up": Pioneer African-American Families Living in an Integrated Neighborhood in the Bronx, New York."

She is currently working on a chapter centering on migration and community/cultural formation in The Bronx for an edited volume, tentatively titled: Blacks and Puerto Ricans in the Bronx: Hidden Histories of Culture, Community and Politics in New York's Northern Borough, edited by Brian Purnell, Ph.D., Bowdoin College.

Perez has served as an assistant faculty member for the National Equity Center's Summer Civil Rights and Social Justice Training Institute, held at UCLA. She also taught as an adjunct lecturer in the Latino and Latin American Studies department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice-CUNY and Fordham University's College of Liberal Studies, teaching courses in both sociology and Latino/Ethnic Studies.

She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies from Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y., and her Master of Arts degree in College Student Personnel Administration from Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York. Perez says she is a proud native New Yorker, born and raised in The Bronx, New York.

Art in Small Spaces

Photos by Gina Vergel

The Fordham College at Lincoln Center community participated in Park(ing) Day NYC on Sept. 17. Park(ing) Day is an international event in which parking spots are reclaimed and turned into people-friendly spaces for one day.

Fordham students from the theater, architecture and urban studies departments collaborated to design a public park and outdoor theater in two parking spaces on the corner of Columbus Avenue and W 60th Street.

The set, made of cardboard, was built by Colin Cathcart's Architecture class. Students from Matthew Maguire's acting class performed a bit of Shakespeare in the park(ing) space.

—Gina Vergel

CBA Students Learn What It Takes to Be Leaders

A willingness to take risks. A keen understanding of a company’s culture. A true sense of ones’ own strengths and weaknesses.

These, said John P. Lionato (FCRH, ’85), are some of the traits that Fordham College of Business Administration (CBA) students need to learn to be successful in business.

Lionato, Global Leader of Operational Excellence at San Antonio, Texas-based Rackspace Hosting, Inc., spoke to undergraduate students at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus on Wednesday, Sept. 15. His hour-long lecture and Q&A session, “Being A Leader,” was one of six in Access Your Future, a week of programming for CBA students featuring industry leaders talking about life outside of academia.

To give a fuller sense of what it means to be an effective leader, Lionato went back to his own career, citing eight leaders who he’s been fortunate enough to work with. Just as they mentored him, students should seek out mentors too, and when the time comes, they should take others under their wing. One of the lessons he learned was to not fear occasional setbacks.

“More than anything else, it isn’t really whether the situation fails. It’s whether you did the best you could in the situation,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that you work so hard, and it didn’t do any good; it means that you worked smart and good, and made the best decisions you could, but the thing was just against you.”

He also told students to not be afraid to try different jobs if those jobs give them a better understanding of the company as a whole, but not to settle on one that doesn’t speak to their strengths. When they learn to recognize this in others, they will earn the loyalty of their fellow workers.

“We call people at Rackspace, ‘Rackers.’ They will kill for the company. Time has no meaning,” he said. “Why? It is all wrapped in who you are. We look at people who want to come to work at Rackspace, and the first thing question is, do they fit culturally? We’ll figure out what job they can do next.”

—Patrick Verel

Bronx Youths Let the Beat Drop in Berlin

Fordham GSAS sudent Kathleen Adams, left, in Berlin with students from CUNY Prep
(Photo courtesy of GangwayBeatzBerlin)

Youths from the Bronx will experience hip-hop culture in Berlin as part of a trip organized by a Fordham professor.

Mark Naison, Ph.D., professor of African and African-American studies, and about 10 students from Bronx-based CUNY Prep are in Germany’s largest city this week for the final leg of Bronx-Berlin Connection—a transatlantic hip-hop project.

Hosted by GangwayBeatzBerlin, a music association in which young people experience hip-hop culture on the streets of Berlin, the Bronx-Berlin Connection engages young people from Bronx and Berlin in a year-round cross-cultural exchange program. They use music—particularly, rap and hip-hop—to explore and express the experiences of urban youths globally, the critical challenges they face and the solutions necessary to enact change in their communities.

The project will culminate in a full-length, multi-lingual, cross-cultural rap album to be released later this year.

An online diary by GangwayBeatzBerlin mentioned, “The crew from the hip-hop capitol of the world arrived today,” referring to Naison, Fordham Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) student Kathleen Adams, three CUNY Prep teachers and, of course, the students.

Likewise, Naison is reporting on the experience through the social media. In a Facebook message posted on Saturday, he wrote, “We are having an amazing time in Berlin! We met up with people from GangwayBeatzBerlin, who took us to dinner at a great Turkish restaurant and then took us to a community hip-hop jam in Wedding, an immigrant neighborhood in Berlin, where our kids produced a freestyle cipher. Great chemistry between GangwayBeatz and the CUNY Prep kids.”

A “cipher” occurs when two or more rappers freestyle together in an informal context. But hip-hop is not all Bronx youths have in common with their Berlin counterparts, Naison explained.

“Kids from the Bronx think that their situation is unique. When they get to Berlin, they’ll see lots of kids from immigrant families experiencing similar things—employment struggles, family problems, race issues—and who look at hip-hop as a way to express their feelings about the world they are in,” he said.

Immigrants in Berlin hail from Turkey, the Middle East and various parts of Eastern Europe, said Naison, who previously traveled to Berlin to lecture on the “Multicultural Roots of Bronx Hip-Hop.”

Thanks to GangwayBeatzBerlin, youths from Berlin visited Fordham and the New York City area in November 2008 and again a year later. Many of the young poets and rappers performed at Rose Hill.

“The students for CUNY Prep are going to think they are in the Bronx when they arrive in Berlin. They’ll see ethnic enclaves, graffiti, street food vendors and, of course, hip-hop music,” Naison said before he left.

The trip was subsidized by donations, many which came from Fordham alumni.

“We had an amazing outpouring of support from alumni. Without it, this trip wouldn’t be taking place,” he said.

The CUNY Prep students will perform on Sept. 13 at the United States Embassy in Berlin. They’ll visit and be interviewed at radio stations and a television news crew will be following them as they visit clubs and community centers, Naison said.

GSAS student Kathleen Adams is accompanying the group as a chaperone. A student in the urban studies master’s program, Adams said she hopes to teach youths in Berlin about women in hip-hop, which she researched for her thesis as an urban studies undergraduate at Fordham College at Rose Hill.

—Gina Vergel

Bridging The Christian-Muslim Divide on NPR

Patrick J. Ryan, S.J., Laurence J. McGinley, S.J. Professor of Religion and Society, was interviewed at length on National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation," on Monday, September 6, 2010. He and author Eliza Griswold spoke with host Jennifer Ludden about tensions between Christians and Muslims in light of the proposed Islamic Center in Manhattan. Listen here: "Bridging The Christian-Muslim Divide."

NPR on Move-In Day at Rose Hill

National Public Radio national correspondent Richard Gonzales aired a story on “All Things Considered” on Labor Day about dropping his son off at Fordham's Rose Hill campus last week.

Gonzales interviewed his son, Fordham upperclassmen, parents of other Freshmen, and Father McShane. Listen here: "When the Kids Go Away to School."

Center Gallery Presents Exhibition on Captivity

"Testimony" by Kara Walker

Fordham University’s Center Gallery kicks off the academic year with a two-part group exhibition on the theme of captivity.

“The Art of Captivity: Part One,” curated by Leonard Cassuto, Ph.D., professor of English, is on display from Sept. 22 to Oct. 28, in the Center Gallery, on the first floor of Lowenstein Center on the Lincoln Center campus. Gallery hours are Monday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

An opening reception will take place on Oct. 5, from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., followed by a panel discussion with the artists.

The exhibition features work by seven contemporary artists chosen by Cassuto for their approaches to the theme of captivity: Paul Karasik, Fernando Molero, Alyssa Pheobus, Anne Sherwood Pundyk, Peter Scott, Kara Walker and Karen Yama.

Using range of media, the works depict a variety of struggles set on different stages: physical, psychological, cognitive, sexual, racial and political.

This exhibition dovetails with Cassuto’s classes, “The Art of Captivity” and “Captivity and Conflict,” offered through the English Department at Fordham. His students respond to different depictions of captivity in poetry, fiction, and memoir by writers such as Art Spiegelman, Sylvia Plath and Oliver Sacks.

Selected writings from students inspired by the exhibition will be available to those visiting the exhibition. A catalogue of the exhibition featuring essays by Leonard Cassuto, Susan Eley and Anne Sherwood Pundyk and Casey Ruble will be available online and in print.

"The Art of Captivity: Part Two,” curated by Susan Eley, will be on display from Oct. 26 to Dec. 3, at Susan Eley Fine Art, 46 West 90th St., on the second floor. For more information on this part of the exhibition, call (917) 952-7641.

For information about the exhibition at Fordham, call (212) 636-7461.

—Gina Vergel

Junior Helps Analyze Spacecraft's High Speed 'Homecoming'

On June 13 of this year, the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa reentered the Earth’s atmosphere in a brilliant fireball of light, after a seven-year journey collecting samples from the asteroid Itokawa.

One lucky Fordham University junior was there to see it.

Erin Leidy, a physics major at the Rose Hill campus, was part of a team of international scientists aboard NASA’s DC-8 Airborne Observatory, a plane equipped specifically to observe and record reentry data. The team, which included scientists from the U.S., Germany, Japan, and the Netherlands, traveled to the Australian outback to witness the high-speed homecoming as the spaceship fell to the earth at a speed of 12.2 kilometers per second, or over 25,000 miles per hour.

As the only intern on board, participating through the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, Leidy not only witnessed the spectacle, but collaborated with NASA scientist Dr. Petrus Jenniskens on analyzing the ships’ re-entry spectra, or light waves, for the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.)

NASA’s flying laboratory has been used to study re-entry during the returns of the 2004 Genesis, the 2006 Stardust, and the 2008 ATV-1 missions. It is equipped with optical windows and an instrument known as ASTRO, a special spectrograph camera that can record high ranges of visible light spectra. That data is then analyzed to measure (through color and wavelength analysis) chemical elements present when the capsule streaks into the earth’s atmosphere, and ultimately to measure the effectiveness of the capsule’s heat shield and the conditions that ships are subjected to.

When a ship re-enters the earth’s atmosphere, its capsule typically separates from the main, larger “bus” of the spacecraft, which burns up in the atmosphere. A hot “shock wave” of energy is created on the capsule’s surface, compressing the free stream of air and resulting in tremendous heat buildup on the capsule’s shield.

Leidy’s part in the operation was to maintain ASTRO, keeping it in focus and saving images to a laptop. ASTRO was limited in what it could capture in a spectral photo of because it has a fixed mounting in the airplane and the Itokawa was traveling too fast to be in the field of view for long. But ASTRO was able to capture one image of the re-entry when it was at its “hottest,” that is, a spectral image of the capsule as it caused a shock wave and as material coming off the surface of the capsule penetrated that shock wave. It also got five separate spectral readings on the disintegrating bus as it plunged toward the earth.

The color photograph at the top of the page, taken by Leidy and Ron Dantowitz, shows the spectral images of the capsule (left) and bus fragments (right).

In addition to working on the research, Leidy was able to witness the event through a window on the plane: “It was spectacular – one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.

The preliminary results from the images showed the presence of sodium, lithium from batteries on the ship, oxygen, calcium and a carbon plus nitrogen compound which Leidy says helps analyze the heat from the re-entry. The data will eventually help researchers reconstruct how objects interact in the upper atmosphere and even help build better heat shields.

“I feel really lucky to have had the opportunity to work with an international team of established scientists, as well as being given the responsibility of the instrument like ASTRO,” said Leidy, who hopes for a career in astrophysics and planetary science. “It taught me so much more than an experiment in a laboratory could have.”

In fact, said Leidy, this type of re-entry research is hard to recreate in a laboratory because of the incredible speeds involved.

"These airborne observations are rare occurrences,” she said.

And as for the material collected inside the capsule during the seven-year journey to an asteroid that orbits somewhere between Earth and Mars? It’s back to Japan for analysis.

- Janet Sassi

Fordham Students Win Case Study Contest

Fordham College of Business Administration (CBA) seniors Chen Lina and Yujing (Eugena) Feng were among the members of a team of students who won an inaugural national case competition sponsored by Ascend and KPMG.

Ascend, the organization for accounting and finance professionals of Asian and Pacific Islander descent, and KPMG, a audit, tax and advisory firm picked the team, which also included students from Drexel University, Queens College and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, during its third annual conference in New York City.

Their team beat five others in a competition that pitted 30 students from 16 colleges and universities from around the country. They were tasked with analyzing technical accounting issues and addressing managerial, corporate, operating and sustainability concerns and developing an implementation strategy for a new retail store concept in China.

The teams presented their analysis and recommendations in a 20-minute presentation to the panel of judges. As part of their win, each student received a $500 prize.

—Patrick Verel

Fordham Westchester Offers Free Learning Series

Fordham University will offer series on learning, discovering and serving on the third Thursday of each month this fall at the Westchester campus.

The "Fordham Forum at Westchester" is open to the public and is free of charge.

"I am truly excited that Fordham Westchester is able to present our new Fordham Forum series to the communities we serve," said Ron Jacobson, Ph.D., associate vice president for academic affairs and executive director of the campus. "The programs are meaningful and very relevant to the challenges we face locally, nationally and globally. They support Fordham's ongoing mission is to engage the world and promote social justice."

Dale Williams, executive director of the Midnight Run, Inc, kicks off the series at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 16, with “Home is Where the Heart Is.” For this forum, Williams will describe the inspiration for Midnight Run, which he founded in 1984 by organizing volunteers to deliver food and supplies at the midnight gathering places of New York City’s homeless population.

Also at the Sept. 16 forum, Dale Lindquist, associate director of the Beck Institute on Religion and Poverty at Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service, will discuss model food pantry programs in New York City and will show clips from his documentary film.

The October 21 forum on “Haiti: How to Love Our Neighbor” will feature Maureen H. O’Connell, assistant professor of theology at Fordham, and other panelists who will discuss the crisis in Haiti and explore our responsibility as compassionate citizens of the world.

For a complete schedule of the Fordham Forum at Westchester or for more information, email eventswc@fordham.edu, call (914) 367-3202 or visit the Fordham website.

—Gina Vergel