L&S News & Notes is a monthly blog and e-newsletter for faculty,
staff, graduate students and alumni and friends of the UW-Madison 
to expand. | 'Telling Our Stories' empowers high school students to write creatively |
On May 6, 2010, several Madison-area high school students presented their creative writing pieces at the UW Memorial Library as part of the Telling Our Stories project.
Telling Our Stories, coordinated by Sociology Ph.D. student Mytoan Nguyen, connects UW-Madison graduate students and community educators with high school students to empower the youth to creatively write about their families' histories.
The intention is to help the students of immigrant and refugee backgrounds to learn about and document how their families came to Madison, Wisconsin, and the daily challenges and rewards that they experienced.
For many youths, the journey toward uncovering their unique family history helped enrich their sense of place in the world and enhance their tools to critically construct their own version of history and events.
A printed anthology of the students' work will be released this summer.
The creative writing pieces were composed on seven Saturday morning workshops where youths learned the components of storytelling and about the different creative techniques they could use to present their stories.
Telling Our Stories is supported by the Humanities Exposed Program, and has partnered with after-school youth programs such as GEAR UP and the PEOPLE program as well as a Room of One’s Own Foundation, the Madison Children's Museum, the Mess Hall Press, and the UW Departments of Sociology, Educational Policy Studies, Asian American Studies, and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies.
Category: Humanities & the Arts
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 | L&S 'Forward Under Forty' are movers, shakers |
This year, 10 alumni of the College of Letters & Science were named Forward Under 40 honorees.
The award, given by the Wisconsin Alumni Association, honors UW grads under age 40 who are making an impact on the world by living the Wisconsin Idea.
The outstanding contributions by these young graduates are a reminder of the caliber of our alumni and a testament to the value of the liberal arts.
Of the twelve honorees this year, ten graduated with liberal arts degrees.
Congratulations to the L&S alumni!
Aaron Bishop ’94, ’95, MS’00
UW Major:
Bacteriology, Genetics and Social Work
An adviser
to Wyoming senator Michael Enzi, Bishop is a tireless advocate for
Americans with disabilities and has shaped several laws aiding disabled
people.
Phillip Chavez ’94, JD’98
UW Major:
Political Science and Sociology; Law
A former
Badger linebacker, Chavez is now the first elected Latino municipal
court judge in Milwaukee’s history.
Jerry Halverson ’94, MD’99
UW Major:
Psychology and Medicine
Now the
medical director for adult services at Rogers Memorial Hospital,
Halverson conducted research into new psychiatric therapies and
interventions at UW-Madison.
Britt Lintner ’92
UW Major:
Economics
Lintner, a London
clothing designer, creates functional and fashionable apparel for
professional women and has earned praise from Vogue and Marie Claire.
Brian Riedl ’98
UW Major:
Political Science and Economics
Riedl is the lead
federal budget analyst for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative
Washington think tank, and he’s recognized as a national leader on tax
and spending issues.
Elsworth Rockefeller MA’06
UW Major:
Library and Information Studies
As the
manager of children’s and teen services in the District of Columbia
library system, Rockefeller writes an influential column that informs
librarians around the country.
Angela Rose ’02
UW Major:
Sociology
A survivor of sexual
assault, Rose founded Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment (PAVE)
while an undergrad at UW-Madison. This grassroots organization now has
chapters combating sexual assault in 55 cities and three countries.
UW Major: Physical Anthropology
Rust was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for her work as an investigative reporter with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Her articles revealed the presence of toxic substances in food containers.
Ahna Skop PhD’00
UW Major:
Cellular and Molecular Biology
An assistant UW
professor of genetics, Skop leads a lab that has expanded our
understanding of cell division, and she’s an accomplished artist whose
exhibits adorn campus buildings.
Nelson Tansu ’98, PhD’03
UW Major:
Applied Math, Engineering and Physics
Tansu is the
youngest tenured professor at Pennsylvania’s Lehigh University, where
his research focuses on nanotechnology, energy efficiency, and renewable
energy sources.
Category: College Updates
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 | Havens Center honors Noam Chomsky with Lifetime Contribution to Critical Scholarship |
On April 8, 2010 noted linguist and public intellectual Noam Chomsky received the A.E. Havens Center’s Award for Lifetime Contribution to Critical Scholarship.
Approximately 1,500 people were on hand at Madison's Orpheum Theatre to see the award ceremony and hear Chomsky’s lecture, The Role of the Radical Intellectual: Some Personal Reflections.
Chomsky is the third recipient of the award, which is given to a scholar with a distinguished and extensive record of scholarly achievement in the critical tradition of social thought.
The first two went to Frances Fox Piven in 2004 and Howard Zinn in 2006.
Havens Center Director Erik Olin Write noted that Chomsky is almost certainly the best known and most widely read American public intellectual in the world.
Established in the Sociology Department in 1984, the A. E. Havens Center for the Study of Social Structure and Social Change is dedicated to promoting critical intellectual reflection and exchange, both within the academy as well as between it and the broader society.
The Center is named in honor of the late Professor of Rural Sociology, A. Eugene Havens, whose life and work embodied the combination of progressive political commitment and scholarly rigor that the Center encourages.
Category: Social Sciences
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| La Follette School to host discussion about modern-day slavery |
Ben Skinner
A prize-winning author known for his global research on modern-day
slavery will deliver a free public lecture this month at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison as part of a daylong symposium on human trafficking.
Madison
native E. Benjamin Skinner, author of "A Crime So Monstrous:
Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery," will speak at 4:30pm on Friday,
April 30, in Ebling Auditorium in the Microbial Sciences Building, 1550
Linden Drive.
Skinner, a fellow at the Carr Center for Human
Rights Policy of Harvard Kennedy School and a senior fellow at the
Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University,
went undercover, when necessary, to infiltrate trafficking networks,
slave quarries, urban child markets and illegal brothels.
His
work received the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for nonfiction, as
well as a citation from the Overseas Press Club in its book category for
2008.
"We are excited to host Ben to bring awareness to the
global issue of modern-day slavery," says professor Carolyn Heinrich,
director of UW-Madison's La Follette School of Public Affairs, which is
organizing the lecture and symposium.
"Modern-day slavery touches
on many public policy issues, including international trade, legal,
human rights, social welfare, labor, public health, economic and
education," she says. "Yet, due to legal, territorial and institutional
barriers-not to mention culturally ingrained practices -- it is a very
difficult problem to address and resolve."
Skinner will also be
part of the symposium, which will be held from 8:45 a.m.-4 p.m. in 8417
Sewell Social Sciences, 1180 Observatory Drive. Both events are free and
open to the public. No registration is required.
Category: Social Sciences
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 | CREECA celebrates Lithuanian Independence Day, legacy of Al Senn |
Emeritus History Professor Al Senn at the Lithuanian Independence Day in February 16, 2010.
On February 16, Madison-Vilnius Sister Cities and UW-Madison’s Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia (CREECA) sponsored a celebration of Lithuanian Independence Day.
The keynote speaker was Alfred E. Senn, UW-Madison Professor Emeritus of History.
His talk focused on the Independence Day experiences of three distinct groups of people: those who were in Lithuania when independence was declared in 1918, American diplomats who served in Kaunas, Lithuania in the 1920’s, and a Lithuanian woman who was imprisoned in a Siberian labor camp in the 1940s.
Prior to the keynote address, Ted Gerber, Professor of Sociology and Director of CREECA, read a proclamation from Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz declaring February 16, 2010 as Alfred Erich Senn Day in Madison.
To see more images from the event, please visit the Madison-Vilnius Sister Cities Web Site: http://madisonvilnius.org/
Related story:
- Doug Moe: A chance lunch, a diary and a spot on ‘Antiques Roadshow’ (Wisconsin State Journal)
Category: Area Studies
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| Four L&S faculty receive development grants |
Four L&S faculty have been awarded development grants from the Provost's office.
Congratulations to the recipients!
- Profsesor Mara Loveman (Sociology) who will use demographic methods on approaches to modeling racial and ethnic population changes
- Profsesor Basil Tikoff (Geoscience) who will develop syllabi for new courses designed for general science introduction for pre-service teachers
- Professor Gillermina De Farrari (Spanish and Portuguese) develop two new course on Caribbean literature, theory and visual culture
- Professor Stephen Kantrowitz (History) will retrain in Native American History in order to develop an undergrad research seminar
Category: College Updates
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| New year brings in awards, accolades |
Here's a round-up of all of the recent awards and honors to faculty, staff and students in L&S:
- Four L&S faculty receive development grants
- Bement wins Kellet Mid-Career Award
- Anderson receives National Ground Water Association Award
- Five classified staff members receive Excellence Awards
- Four from Hebrew Department receive Teaching Awards
- Schatzberg, Nyhart win scholarly publication awards
- Severn wins 2010 Presidential Honorary Membership for work with DARE
- Hall, von Schneidemessner named Fellows of Dictionary Society
Category: College Updates
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