w h e n pa rt i c l e s c o l l i d e · w h y s pa n i s h i s n o t a f o r e i g n l a n g u a g e CASCADE U O C O L L E G E O F A R T S A N D S C I E N C E S SPRING 2009 OBAMA’S PROMISE MEETS REALITY UO Political Scientists Weigh the Perils and Possibilities Your Tour Guides to CAS The UO’s highly successful seven- year Campaign Oregon, which ended December 31, 2008, has enormously benefi ted the College of Arts and Sciences. Overall, the campaign brought in more than $850 million for the university. And it’s not just the dollar amount that’s signifi cant. According to UO President Dave Frohnmayer, “during this campaign, the amount of money the university receives annually from private gifts began to exceed the amount of revenue we receive from the state.” More than $160 million of the campaign total has benefi ted the College of Arts and Sciences — or more than double the original CAS campaign goal of $75 million. The pie chart shows how the dollars have been allocated. ■ Ask an economist about the economy. Or a sociologist about society. Maybe you’d like to see the renowned InfoGraphics Lab? We’re ready to connect you with faculty and facilities from any of the 14 departments and programs in Social Sciences. Contact Kat Walsch at (541) 346-0607 or kwalsch@cas.uoregon.edu. Campaign Oregon Brings in $160 Million for CAS “During this campaign, the amount of money the university receives annually from private gifts began to exceed the amount of revenue we receive from the state.” — UO President Dave Frohnmayer GIVING TO CAS Gifts to Campaign Oregon supported four key areas in CAS. How long has it been since you’ve been back to campus? The Development Offi ce invites all alumni back to campus for an individualized tour. Care to have coffee with a philosopher? Or a backstage tour of the renovated Robinson Theatre? Whether your interest is in Classics, Folklore, Linguistics, or any of the 16 departments and programs in Humanities, we can introduce you to faculty and tailor a tour just for you. Contact Katrina McGee at (541) 346-3903 or katrinaw@cas.uoregon.edu. Go underground — visit the nanotechnology lab. This is just one of dozens of UO science facilities you can personally tour. Here’s your opportunity to meet with research scientists from the nine departments in the Natural Sciences to learn about their latest work. Contact Sarah Cheesman, (541) 346-0044 or sec@cas.uoregon.edu. $19,000,000 $42,000,000 $51,000,000 $48,000,000 Student Access Faculty Support Programs, Centers and Institutes Capital Improvements Cover illustration: “Change Agent” badge courtesy of Metropolitan Group, a full-service social change agency specializing in marketing and fundraising for social purpose organizations — www.metgroup.com. Features 7 13 UO physicists are an integral part of an international team seeking answers to the biggest questions in science. Departments DEAN’S PAGE 2 Why a liberal arts education is more valuable than ever — even (especially) in a time of economic crisis. ASK THE EXPERT – SPANISH IS NOT A FOREIGN LANGUAGE 3 Leonardo García-Pabón explains how the UO is adapting to Oregon’s growing population of “heritage” speakers of Spanish. CAS NEWS 4 Darwin at 200, the new Northwest Review, a brain-hand neuroscience discovery, China’s product safety challenges and more… HUMANITIES 17 Science and literature come together in a new course, Theatre Arts turns 100, the mysteries of Islam and other highlights from the Humanities SOCIAL SCIENCES 20 China’s femininity makeover, Tim Duy in the news, the wisdom of wildfi res and other highlights from the Social Sciences NATURAL SCIENCES 23 Chemistry students go global, trauma archives go public, physiology goes virtual and other highlights from the Natural Sciences CAS ALUMNI 28 Mini-profi les of 11 alumni who studied theater at UO, in celebration of Theatre Arts’ centennial. __ 1 CONTENTS Marv Abeene Bruce Abrams Les Bergeron Jim Bernard Spencer Brush Judy Calkins Mike Couch Judi Davis Taylor Fithian Tom Hewkin Cascade is the biannual alumni magazine for the UO College of Arts and Sciences. Dean of Arts and Sciences Scott Coltrane Senior Associate Dean, Chief of Operations Marianne Nicols Associate Dean, Humanities Scott Pratt Associate Dean, Natural Sciences Dietrich Belitz Associate Dean, Social Sciences Larry Singell Executive Director for College Advancement Jane Gary Director of Communications, Cascade Editor Lisa Raleigh Writers Chrisanne Beckner Amanda Miles Graphics Editor Krysten Mayfair Copyediting Sarah Bungum Photography Jack Liu Krysten Mayfair Design and Production Beverly Soasey Web Design Ben Brinkley Ray Honerlah Dar Isensee Chris Kantrowitz John Kennedy Ed Kushner Jeff Loomis Ann Lyman David Lyon Tom Marriott Penny Martin Mike McCaslin Rob Melich John Natt Barbara Perry Phil Seeley George Slape Loren Sutherland Bill Swindells Penny Wilkes Carolyn Younger The University of Oregon is an equal opportunity, affi rmative action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This publication will be made available in accessible formats upon request. UO College of Arts and Sciences 1245 University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403-1245 Phone: (541) 346-3950 Email: cascade@uoregon.edu Web: cascade.uoregon.edu © 2009 University of Oregon OBAMA’S PROMISE MEETS REALITY UO Political Scientists Weigh the Perils and Possibilities CAS Advisory Council Contact us: Steve Forbes, CEO of Forbes, Inc., points to the classic promise of a liberal arts education when he says that, “The real source of wealth and capital in this new era is … the human mind, the human spirit, the human imagination and our faith in the future.” Less directly and more practically, Intel CEO Craig Barrett indicates the necessity of liberal arts skills when he declares, “Our whole product line turns over every year. About 80 to 90 percent of the revenue we have in December of each year comes from products that weren't there in January.” How can a future Intel employee be prepared for this reality? And this phenomenon is not restricted to a single high-tech company or its future workers and leaders. In the rapidly shifting job markets of the future, those most likely to succeed will be those who have learned how to learn, who have a strong multidis- ciplinary education and who have the skills and experience to adapt to changing conditions. A recent study reported that nearly 75 percent of employers say they want higher education to place more emphasis on liberal arts fundamentals such as critical thinking, analytical reasoning, global issues and communi- cations skills. With the distinction between education for work and education for life becoming increasingly obsolete, the College of Arts and Sciences is poised to offer the best of both worlds. The new Academic Plan for the UO reaffi rms the role of a liberal education and refocuses attention on one of our oldest and highest goals: helping the individual learn to question critically, think logically, communicate clearly, act creatively and live ethically. If we can accomplish this goal we will have fulfi lled our mission to prepare the next generation for the challenges we cannot yet imagine. ■ Scott Coltrane is the Tykeson Dean of Arts and Sciences. Scott Coltrane. In the midst of economic crisis, it might seem natural to question the value of a liberal arts education. Wouldn’t a “practical” education in one of the professions be more useful? In fact, a liberal education is more valuable than ever in a world undergoing transformative change. And it’s not an either/or choice — virtually every profession is adapting to the realities of the 21st century, making the fundamentals of a liberal arts education more essential than ever. DEAN'S PAGE __ 2 hen I fi rst arrived on the UO campus last summer, it was just two months before the economy took a dramatic turn for the worse — a down- turn that roughly coincided with the beginning of fall term. In the intervening months, I have heard many concerns from faculty, staff and administrators regarding our future directions. What is the best way forward given the uncertainties of the current times? What are our most pressing priorities? Crisis can often be an opportunity for soul-searching and refl ection, and this has been no exception. But it’s not just the current economic meltdown that has given us pause. Just as profound are the realities of the world at large in the fi rst decade of the 21st century. We are deep into an era of unprec- edented change and transformation. As former Secretary of Education Richard Riley has said, “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems that we don’t even know are problems yet.” Riley predicts that the top ten in-demand jobs in 2010 will be ones that did not exist in 2004. So we must ask ourselves what this means for the type of education that the College of Arts and Sciences provides. Liberal arts education has often been contrasted with business or technical education as impractical versus practical. But out in the “real world,” business leaders say they are looking for the exact attributes that liberal education provides. P h ot o: J ac k Li u W change implies a two-fold challenge: On the one hand, how to accommodate a growing number of students who come from a Hispanic culture background; on the other, how to promote in all students a sensibility and appreciation of language and cultural diversity. The expected increase of students of Hispanic origin also points to a social reality that is often not fully acknowl- edged: Because of the large Hispanic population in the U.S. (44 million) and in Oregon (almost half a million), Span- ish has ceased to be a foreign language. Spanish has become a de facto national language, regardless of its status as an offi cial language or not. The fact is that wherever you go in Oregon or the U.S., you will hear Spanish widely spoken. For the Department of Romance Languages, this means we must now consider how to provide instruction in Spanish to not only English-speaking students, but to students who come with a variety of levels of Spanish skills as well as a complex relationship to their own cultural heritage. Some students from Spanish- speaking homes speak Spanish pretty well, but do not have much knowledge of grammar or formal writing. Others understand the language but their speak- ing abilities are very limited. And there are always some who are monolingual, mainly English-speakers, who have very limited Spanish skills even though that is the language of their families. Faculty Expert: Leonardo García-Pabón is head of the UO Romance Languages Department and was Director of Latin American Studies from 1999 to 2003. He has been on the UO faculty since 1990. “Ask the Expert” is a regular feature of Cascade magazine. If you have a topical question you would like to pose to a faculty expert in the UO College of Arts and Sciences, send it to cascade@uoregon.edu. Spanish Is Not a Foreign Language In ten years, at least 25 percent of high school graduates in Oregon will be from Hispanic families — how will the UO attract and serve these students? This projection is not a surprise for us. The number of students coming from Hispanic families has been growing steadily at the UO. But while it has become a common situation for Spanish teachers of third- and fourth-year courses to have students who speak the language with near-native fl uency, it is also very common to realize that these students, who usually come from Hispanic families, do not have the writing and reading skills to be expected from such good speakers. This particular condition refl ects the complex and changing scenario of the student population at the UO cre- ated by the growing number of students coming from Hispanic families. In fact, Hispanic students’ applications to the UO for next year have increased by more than 30 percent! This change in demographics refl ects the linguistic reality of the 21st century — the growth of bilingual and multilingual societies. For the UO, this ASK THE EXPERT Continued on page 27 ➤ __ 3 OREGON’S DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSFORMATION — BY THE NUMBERS Between 1990 and 2000, the Hispanic/ Latino population grew by 100% in 21 of Oregon’s 36 counties. In the 2000 Census, there were approximately 275,000 Hispanic or Latino individuals living in Oregon, or 8% of the state’s population. By 2006, this number had grown to more than 396,000, and they comprised 10.7% of the state’s population. The population of Hispanic/Latino children in public schools has grown by more than 200% in the last ten years. Latinos/Hispanics accounted for nearly 17% of Oregon students enrolled in public schools in 2007-2008. The Oregon Department of Education projects that by 2020, 28% of student enrollment in the Oregon public schools will be Hispanic/Latino. Among Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants in Oregon, there are at least 14 different indigenous eth- nic groups and languages. Latinos/Hispanics comprise 4% of the UO’s current enrollment. The number of Latino/Hispanic students enrolled at the UO had increased by almost 57% since 2000. UO admissions for Hispanic/Latino students are up more than 30% for the 2009 -10 academic year. Sources: Oregon Department of Education, UO Registrar, U.S. Census and Oregon Law Center through May, is sponsored by the Oregon Humanities Center, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Museum of Natural and Cultural History and a number of research centers and institutes in the life sciences. Other faculty speakers will include Joe Thornton, an evolutionary biolo- gist who recently received a Presiden- tial Early Career Award, and Frances White, a primatologist whose work with bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees) has been featured on the PBS NOVA series. The series will conclude in May with two special guest speakers, the acclaimed scientists and authors Sean B. Carroll from the University of Wisconsin and Kenneth Miller from Brown University. – LR ■ selection, sexual confl ict and the genetics of aging and longevity. The lecture drew an overfl ow crowd of more than 550 from both the UO campus and the wider Eugene community. The second lecture, presented by psychology professor Warren Holmes, focused on “The Evolution of Coop- eration and the Paradox of Altruism.” Holmes, who teaches courses in evolutionary psychology and animal behavior, drew on examples such as ground squirrels and honeybees to explore the tension between the centerpiece of Darwin’s theory of natural selection — the assertion that genetic selfi shness will prevail — and the occurrence of acts of altruism and unselfi shness in the natural world. “Darwin was well aware of the paradox that cooperative behavior posed for his theory of natural selection,” said Holmes, whose talk drew an audience of more than 400. The lecture series, which runs __ 4 harles Darwin and his most famous work — On the Origin of Species — have been the subject of tributes and accolades from all around the world in recent weeks — including a lecture series at the UO that has drawn crowds numbering in the hundreds. The occasion has been the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin. “Few scientists have had a larger impact on modern thinking than Charles Darwin,” said biology professor Patrick Phillips, a member of the UO's Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. “People have been trying to explain the amazing diversity of life on earth for centuries, but the root of all of our modern ideas on the topic really trace back to Darwin.” Phillips gave the fi rst lecture in the “150 Years Since Origin” campus lecture series, which began in January. His talk, entitled “Darwin’s Puzzles: The Evolu- tion of Sex and Death,” explored histori- cal and modern viewpoints on sexual CAS NEWS Darwin Rocks the House C Online Extras – View videos of the lectures, get the lecture series schedule and read an essay on Darwin’s legacy by John Donovan, who teaches a “Weird Science” freshman seminar, at cascade.uoregon.edu NOT YOUR AVERAGE BOOK GROUP On the Origin of Species will be the topic of a UO reading group this spring, which will bring together faculty and students from not only biology, but also other disciplines such as philosophy and English. They will read Darwin’s original work and also have the opportunity to learn from faculty experts, who will share historical perspectives on Darwin’s scientifi c predecessors and the factors that led to the development of evolutionary ideas. ■ Thus from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fi xed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. — the conclusion of On the Origin of Species Charles Darwin, c. 1855 __ 7 Barack Obama fashioned an image and persona for himself premised on “change we can believe in.” Hope was his signature byword, an electorate got behind it and now the time has come to translate hope into meaningful action. Since Inauguration Day several weeks ago, pundits have been arguing pro and con: Can President Obama make the sweeping changes he proposes? Where is he most likely to succeed? Which promises will he not be able to deliver upon? Just 17 days after Barack Obama took offi ce, Cascade magazine brought together fi ve faculty from the Department of Political Science to join the debate... OBAMA’S PROMISE MEETS REALITY UO Political Scientists Weigh the Perils and Possibilities Panelists: Jane Cramer, Assistant Professor of Political Science, teaches American foreign policy and international security. Her research focuses on the causes of state over-estimations of threats to security, including the causes and success of the threat infl ation before the Iraq War. She is a co-editor of a forthcoming volume, American Foreign Policy and the Politics of Fear: Threat Infl ation Since 9/11 and is also working on testing hypotheses about why the U.S. invaded Iraq. Dennis Galvan is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Head of the International Studies Department. His research centers on the comparative analysis of development, the politics of cultural identity, political legitimation, and the search for locally meaningful and sustainable models of social change in the “third world.” He is currently complet- ing a book entitled Everyday Nation Building, and co-organ- ized an international conference on HIV/AIDS in Africa that took place on the UO campus the fi rst week of April. Dan HoSang is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Ethnic Studies. He is completing a book on California electoral initiatives entitled Racial Propositions: Genteel Apartheid in Postwar California and is engaged in a project that examines how selected community organizations in Oregon and Washington participate in electoral politics. He is organizing a symposium on “Racial Formation in the Twenty-First Century,” which will take place April 17-19 on the UO campus. Joe Lowndes is an Assistant Professor of Political Science whose research interests include American political development, conservatism, discourse analysis, African- American politics, U.S. political culture and political identity. His book, From the New Deal to the New Right: Race and the Southern Origins of Modern Conservatism, examines the role of race in shaping contemporary politics. __ 8 Tichenor: So let me begin with our fi rst question: Looking back at Obama’s campaign and the way he conducted himself during the transition period, what does this say to you about the potential character of his presidency and his leadership? Joe Lowndes: I think that over the course of his campaign he often strove to appear kind of sober, grave and even fatherly. He expressed this in his politi- cal positions as well, a careful centrism across a great range of issues. Rarely did he lean leftward and only when pushed did he emerge with a major speech on race, which was quite extraordinary. What he wanted to offer in that time period was a cool-headed pragmatism, where pragmatics and technical solu- tions were seen to do more work for him than politics. I think he wanted to steer clear of ideological positioning and talk about what works. Like in his inaugura- tion speech: “The question isn’t bigger government or smaller government. It is: Does government work?” This served him well in the elec- tion season, but he may need to develop more combative chops now and he has Moderator: Dan Tichenor, Knight Professor of Political Science and Senior Faculty Fellow at the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Policy, is a scholar of American political thought and history, and has published extensively on immigration, the American presidency, public policy, organized interests and social movements, and inequality in the U.S. He is currently completing a book, Presidential Prerogatives, on executive power, civil liberties and democracy in times of crisis. OBAMA’S PROMISE MEETS REALITY Dan Tichenor: I want to set the table a little bit by thinking of Obama in comparative context. It strikes me that we could probably identify a president or two who has come into offi ce with more daunting economic circumstances to deal with. And we could probably do the same with regard to foreign policy and national security crises. But it is hard to think of someone who has faced P h ot os : J ac k Li u __ 9 begun to show it a little bit. For the most part he has bent over back- wards to serve cookies to Republicans in the White House and to negotiate all he can and appear to be someone who can be reasonable over differences — at a moment when he actually has war- rant for extraordinary action. And if you look at kind of the major transformative presidencies, they all had fights with major institutions early on. It’s hard to say now what is going to happen — he may not control events as much as events control him, to paraphrase Lincoln. We seem to still be in a freefall with the economy and the economy is probably going to shape much of what’s going on. Dan HoSang: If we speak to the question of what kind of warrant Obama in fact has, if we look back at his campaign, we would describe it as some sort of populist formation or assertion. Historically, populism is often framed in opposition to something else — religious elites, economic elites, Reagan’s “the government” as a kind of abstraction. But who is Obama’s popu- lism aligned against? Which is to say, can he marshal of a notion of an “us” and “them”? To the extent that he really only specified generic change and rising above “politics as usual,” that gives him some room to move, but it also seems to me that any time his opponents want to take on a specific agenda they simply can invoke the same rhetoric he did: “Your candidacy was premised on moving beyond politics as usual and that’s a partisan move.” And indeed with the stimulus package, that was how he was immediately confronted. Tichenor: In terms of the campaign and the transition itself, Jane and Dennis, did you detect how this was perceived globally and did you perceive any strengths or potential limitations with regard to security policy, foreign policy? Jane Cramer: From a foreign policy perspective things look really different, shockingly different. You said Obama has come in the midst of a foreign policy crisis, but he has actually come in the midst of a foreign policy consensus. It’s amazing and it's going to be radical, even transformative, especially because both sides really do want to get out of Iraq now. Obama had to say very tough things in the campaign about Afghanistan, that we are going to go there with boots on the ground — which he has just done. But I went to a conference right after the election and was amazed that everybody agreed: “Don’t go to Afghanistan. This is a quagmire. It won’t work, and we won’t be more secure. We can’t win in Afghanistan because of Pakistan.” And now Obama has taken it under review to look at his policy there. We are not going in a big way. This such profound domestic and interna- tional challenges at the same time. A second comparison that I would draw is the fact that we’ve had a handful of presidents who’ve come into office after the American public has grown exhausted with what they see as executive excesses, abuses in executive power. And we’ve usually expected very little from these presidents — in fact we’re happy to see contractions of that executive power, such as Warren Harding’s “return to normalcy” and Gerald Ford after Nixon. Other chief executives have come into office with great expectations, with huge warrants for power, with the American people wanting the president to right the ship during major crisis. Obama is in both of these situations, where he is asked to balance economic and foreign policy crises and likewise is expected to show executive restraint, respect for rule of law, transparency, constitutional fealty — and also be an energetic steward providing solutions to problems. I think these are very difficult and tricky balancing acts for him to deal with. Now, on a lighter note, we have this foolish tradition in this country of having as our milepost the first 100 days to see how a president is doing. It has always been an incredibly unrealistic period to focus on. You may recall that, with Bill Clinton, his first 100 days ranged the spectrum from disappointing to disastrous. He quipped to the White House correspondents after he hit his 100 days, “I’m not doing that bad, I mean, at this point in his administra- tion, William Henry Harrison had been dead for 68 days!” Well, I think (perhaps with the exception of some tax-evading nominees) Barack Obama is doing a lot better so far than both Bill Clinton and William Henry Harrison. Blackness now is re-signified in America in ways that reinterpret American history — because presidents are our most national symbol, our biggest symbol of our whole selves, of our national selves. — Joe Lowndes __ 10 is very helpful, even though many of us thought we had no choice but to go to Afghanistan after 9/11. But we can’t win now — not because Al-Qaida doesn’t exist, but because it won’t help. The other thing that is really radical — and he is delivering on this because the conservatives want it, too — is that we are going to move toward nuclear disarmament. He has already had Bill Clinton talking to Putin in Russia. They’re discussing restarting the strategic arms reduction talks. Britain has said we’re moving toward zero nuclear weapons; their foreign secretary outlined the six steps toward disarma- ment that the arms control community has agreed on for 20 years. So we have a consensus on nuclear arms control and Obama can deliver it because he didn’t stake that he wouldn’t do treaties — he staked that he would. Dennis Galvan: I would agree that when we turn to foreign policy we see a very different situation right from the begin- ning. We are really looking at a simple return to multilateralism, to internation- al cooperation. So in some sense Obama has a lower mandate and a very easy mandate. The time is ripe, obviously, to return to multilateral cooperation on everything Jane mentioned — as well as global warming, as well as the fight against disease and poverty in various parts of the world. But we don’t want to lose sight of the fact that the quagmire in Iraq is not going away and the pull-out of U.S. troops is not going to ensure security in the country. We are going to need some kind of overarching security vision for Iraq. This is going to plague this admin- istration until we see the articulation of a very serious new kind of vision that is going to have to dovetail with multilat- eral cooperation. It would not be an overwhelming stroke of genius to combine the problem with Iraq with the problem of really reinvigorating the United Nations by putting money into training an all-Muslim peacekeeping force — from India, from Bangladesh, from Indone- sia, from Senegal, from Nigeria, from all sorts of Muslim countries around the world — that would be trained over three to five years to put two or three hundred thousand troops on the ground for an interim period in Iraq to really stabilize the country. Tichenor: I want to switch to a question that digs into the race dimension of both the campaign and Obama’s presidency: What does it mean to have our first African-American President of the United States? We can all recall the stirring pictures of John Lewis and Jesse Jackson crying [on election night] but we also had a kind of stampede to the microphone by a lot of Republicans, from President Bush to Condoleezza Rice, suggesting we have a post- racial moment in the U.S. What’s the meaning of this for racial politics in the United States? HoSang: While there’s some heightened expectations around it, there is no evidence of any large mandate in deal- ing with structures of race in the coun- try. It didn’t come up in the campaign. If you think about the crisis that we are now talking about and the worst-case scenario: 15-25 percent unemployment, the majority of households with almost no net worth, collapse of the basic safety net, environmental pollutants running rampant, a healthcare system in deep distress, massive incarceration — this actually describes, in aggregate terms, much of black America — certainly for the last generation. Were Obama to take that up, I think he would be accused of trading in a narrow kind of partisan politics. For that reason, I think we have to absolutely lower our expectations. But just two quick things on why we might think about some possibility Additional excerpts — Dennis Galvan on: The importance of Africa: You take very neutral countries like Niger or Mali or Chad — which are actually quite important when we look at the map of where Al-Qaida and its allies are moving, where there’s the most open space in terms of weak states — and since 2003 we’ve been losing support in those counties. We were alienating a generation or perhaps two. The Obama administration — if it just maintains a posture of dialogue — will make a difference in slowing down terrorist recruitment in places like Algeria or Chad. Yes, the proof is ultimately in the pudding. But it matters a lot in Africa whether the U.S. seems to stand for — just blatantly, nakedly stands for — the occupation of a central country in the Arab-Muslim world for reasons that are completely inscrutable and change ev- ery three months. Just signaling that the U.S. will really get out of Iraq will make a huge difference in parts of Africa that could otherwise breed extremism. Obama’s star quality: I’m waiting for the political deployment of this magic— his persona, his charm, what he means to us — in a way that’s going to help him win policy battles. I’m surprised we haven’t seen it yet, and I think it’s going to have to happen very, very soon. If he doesn’t figure out how to deploy it in an everyday way, bad things might happen. American boots on the ground: As much as I don’t like the Darfur genocide, if we put American boots on the ground in Sudan, it would be a major boost for recruitment for Al-Qaida and other groups. It’s not whether it’s a just war or not; it’s American troops on the ground in Arab and Muslim territories. Unacceptable. __ 11 for transformation: One, there has been this longstanding current — particularly against black candidates, but even to- ward liberal white candidates — within appeals to white voters: that “your whiteness is at stake in this election.” We saw it in Clinton’s comments about hard-working white Americans, Sarah Palin commenting, “He doesn’t see America the way you and I do,” attacks on Rev. Jeremiah Wright and so on. The fact that those ultimately didn’t stick suggests some kind of reorientation in terms of how appeals can be made to that identity. Second is the cultural symbolism of having a black president and first fam- ily. A lot of attention to race these days focuses on those kinds of very informal signifiers. I think those are two ways we might go in new directions. But we can’t think of the prospects for greater racial equity as an agenda-driven process. I would argue he has less room to address any of those issues than almost any other leading Democratic candidate. Lowndes: In fact, Obama himself has resisted addressing questions of racial stratification and its remedies, and has promoted instead culturally conser- vative responses, like his fatherhood speech where he used a cultural pathol- ogy language from the ’60s — where the problem with poverty and black com- munities has a lot to do with people not being married, with fathers not being in the household, with other behavioral kinds of problems — and not with structural inequality. He’s pushed that over and over, I think, as a way of flirt- ing with the conservative vote. I mean, he grew up without a father and he seems to have done okay for himself. Nevertheless, I think there are all kinds of disruptive things that will hap- pen when you have an African-Ameri- can president in a historically white supremacist nation. Blackness now is re-signified in America in ways that reinterpret American history — because presidents are our most national symbol, our biggest symbol of our whole selves, of our national selves. If it’s a black man in the White House, a black first family in the White House, suddenly things become different. Racial demonization will continue to happen, but it will look different, it won’t have the same kind of valence, and I think it opens up the territory for all kinds of things that we can’t quite guess at. Galvan: Blackness and its re-signification is pretty important both domestically and globally. Domestically, I think in a way it already was being re-signified in many realms of popular culture and ordinary life, particularly among young- er people. Think of The New York Times article right around the time of the inauguration about black lead characters in Hollywood films, which portrayed Will Smith as a kind of precursor to the Obama presidency and campaign, with the mainstreaming of a cool, hip, black figure. Globally, of course it’s a kind of truism to observe that the rest of the world was surprised that this guy whose middle name was Hussein, who argu- ably has some Muslim ancestry, became President of the United States. There’s a big wave of enthusiasm among the intellectuals I’ve talked to in places like France, West Africa and Southeast Asia, but there’s also a counter-wave that says, “Well, you know you can’t really change the United States. You can elect a black president, but the United States is a big battleship that is very hard to turn. We’re not going to see massive change.” You can see the imprints of every administration since the Great Society in the agenda. — Dan HoSang Additional excerpts — Jane Cramer on: North Korea as poster child: Jimmy Carter recently said about the North Korean nuclear threat, “We can solve that in half a day.” And he’s right. We could. That’s where it was left when Clinton left office. [Colin] Powell came into office and said, “Some very promis- ing things have been left on the table with North Korea. I’m going to get right on that.” And Bush said, “No you’re not.” The reason Bush did that is very interesting: It was not about North Korea, but about missile defenses. If you don’t have somebody building new mis- siles you don’t need missile defenses. They wanted to build missile defenses, so they needed a poster child to justify building missile defenses. I think North Korea wants to deal with us and, yes, we will solve that very quickly, in about half a day if we are serious — because North Korea is actually willing to stop and let us look in their closets, if we give them money so they don’t starve. Hearts and minds: The worst thing for terrorist recruitment is to go there and the best thing is to come home. If you bomb civilians, you get new Al-Qaida recruits. RAND Corporation, which is not a liberal think tank, just put out a new report saying, “the best thing in the war on terror to help stop recruitment is to get out of the region.” This is what the Europeans have argued since 9/11: “We know terrorism; we’ve been dealing with it for a long time. It’s an intelligence problem; it’s a police problem. It is not a military problem. This is just a few guys, so you need the hearts and minds of civilians, and cooperation from govern- ments all over the world.” That’s where Obama’s going. is someone who — in the true sense of the word “pragmatist” — has a tendency to take issues that have highly conten- tious and contradictory positions behind them and look for a way to take those positions apart, decompose them and recombine them as new positions. He does this often — for example, in the race speech. He did this on the question of gun control. Instead of hewing to a particular ideology he says, “Look, I am not going to take people’s guns away, but surely we can agree that there is no reason for people to own AK-47s and carry them around.” On the question of gay marriage: “I’m opposed to [gay] marriage, but surely we can agree that I should be able to visit my dying or sick partner in the hospital.” He is looking for this kind of middle ground and so it makes perfect sense that the entire slogan and rally banner of the transition into the early administra- tion is extremely amorphous, because he is going to pragmatically work out a pastiche of policies and initiatives on issues like energy and environment and healthcare and so forth. And it is going to be deeply unsatisfying along the way for ideologues on both sides. Cramer: I think that where he is being bold, and where it is really, really dan- gerous for him is with [special envoy] George Mitchell in the Middle East. Obama is very serious about a Middle East peace agreement; he has made that __ 12 Continued on page 26 ➤ That’s what intellectuals and elites say. In little villages in Senegal and little towns in Indonesia, there’s still a pretty amazing wave of raw enthusiasm and a pretty remarkable sea change from how these same people thought about the United States over the last eight years. The turnaround is really quite im- pressive and I think that will last. I think there’s a real reservoir of goodwill there that will last a while. Tichenor: We’ve talked about broad warrants for change, Obama’s mandate, lots of goodwill and so forth. It begs the question: What change does Obama really desire, what change can he actually accomplish, and what does he really not want to change? We have heard about smarter government, transparency, bipartisanship, getting rid of special interests. Is there a governing philosophy that you can articulate? Or is he an FDR experimenter and we will just kind of get there? Galvan: If you think about environmen- tal policy, if you think about global warming and energy policy and job creation, it seems like you get a nexus at which you can intervene and pull a lot of threads at once. I suspect we are going to see that because we have no choice on all of those: on job creation, on energy dependency, on global warming. HoSang: I think it is exactly right that we would think about the moment as a synthesis, rather than some kind of realignment — and certainly not a revolution or any kind of broad change. It’s a deep synthesis of the governing philosophy of the last 30 years and you can see the imprints of every administration since the Great Society in the agenda. Galvan: On this point about synthesis, I think it is an excellent point about Obama. What I think we are going to see Additional excerpts — Joe Lowndes on: The personal identification factor: Obama has a reserve of goodwill, and one of the interesting things about his approval ratings being so high is that not only do people hold him in very high regard, but they have decided to be patient with him. There’s a strong sense of personal identification with him as is evident in the famous Shepard Fairey lithograph – and its rendering in the FaceBook application that allowed peo- ple to digitally remake themselves in his image. There’s a devotion to him that we have not seen since Reagan. He also is adored around the world. Although, the polls actually show that love for Obama doesn't translate into love for America. Rethinking the Right: I think the GOP is schizophrenic at the moment. There has been a fight among Republicans since the election about why McCain lost and what this means to the party now. Many Republican strategists and pundits think that the country no longer wants to hear hard conservative rhetoric. But the institutions with the money claim that McCain lost because he didn’t go far enough to the right. So there are a lot of resources that will go that direc- tion through organizations like Heritage Foundation and through people like Rush Limbaugh, who has 20 million listeners a day. There was also this inter- esting fight over who was going to be- come the RNC chair. You had two black candidates and two white candidates. Michael Steele, who they ultimately went with, is more of a moderate on questions of abortion and other issues. I think it is unclear which direction the party will choose, although recent skirmishes in Congress would suggest that conserva- tives have the upper hand. He is going to pragmatically work out a pastiche of policies, and it is going to be deeply unsatisfying for idealogues on both sides. — Dennis Galvan __ 13 A pproximately 2,000 international scientists, including a team from the UO, recently took one giant collective leap for mankind when they launched a set of very large experiments that could ultimately answer science’s biggest questions: What happened immediately after the Big Bang? Are there more than three dimensions in space? Is there such a thing as the Higgs boson, otherwise known as the God Particle, which is thought to give everything its mass? And how can science explain the mysterious substance known as dark matter, which can be sensed only through its gravitational effects? Inside the world's most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, eight enormous magnets surround the calorimeter, which will measure the energies produced when protons collide. By Chrisanne Beckner __ 14 Dark matter “dominates the universe,” explained Jim Brau, a UO Knight Professor of Natural Science, “and we don’t know what it is.” Brau, a particle physicist, believes that a $10 billion lab built more than 100 meters underground will help us fi nd out. On the border of Switzerland and France, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was designed to launch the biggest scientifi c exploration since the moon landing. But while Neil Armstrong and the Apollo traveled outwards to explore space, the LHC will look inward to understand the still-mysterious forces that created our universe. CREATING MINI-BIG BANGS In a controlled environment, the LHC will create mini-Big Bangs, high energy particle collisions that could break apart matter fused together since the beginning of time, potentially revealing particles thus far undetectable. Anticipating the potential for these super high-energy collisions to rewrite the laws of physics, Brau’s UO colleagues have devised algorithms that will ensure that the lab’s computers capture and analyze the most relevant discoveries — even though hundreds of millions of collisions happen every second. Shaped like an enormous 17-mile ring, the LHC is designed to act like a giant racetrack, spinning beams of protons around and around until they reach their highest possible velocity. When two beams are sent around the loop from opposite directions, trav- eling at nearly the speed of light, their paths are guided toward contact points where detectors monitor the resulting proton collisions, each of which could potentially produce a Higgs boson, reveal dark matter or show scientists new dimensions in space. On September 10, 2008, science’s unanswerable questions were ready to fall like dominos as the European Orga- nization for Nuclear Research (CERN) powered up the LHC for the fi rst time. However, nine days later, scientists learned that they had controlled for every element of their new particle smasher but one — temperature. A PROMISING START The LHC performed better on the fi rst day than most scientists expected. David Strom, a UO physicist and a key player in the way the LHC stores and analyzes data, was there in a large CERN auditorium along with a breath- less coalition of elite scientists when the collider went live on September 10. The results were cause for optimism. As the scientifi c community watched a large video monitor, they were told to expect a quick fl ash. That would be the fi rst beam of protons racing around the collider’s 17-mile loop before their eyes. The fl ash came, said Strom, and the room erupted into cheers. This was the fi rst milestone. Scientists confi rmed that the collider could successfully loop particle beams continuously, in both directions, using a series of linked magnets. Those magnets were the key to the collider’s success — and its early breakdown. To create the high-energy colli- sions needed to produce a Higgs boson, the magnets within the collider were cooled to about 469 degrees below zero, where they become superconducting. This computer-generated image shows the location of the LHC tunnel (in blue) 100 meters underground on the Swiss-France border. Jim Brau, Knight Professor of Natural Science. “The questions we’re exploring are some of the deepest and most meaningful scientifi c questions that exist.” — Jim Brau __ 15 In a new linear collider, head-on collisions between positrons and electrons could create new particles never before detected. THE NEXT BIG THING UO physicist Jim Brau has long worked to educate the public on the possibili- ties of the new Large Hadron Collider (LHC). He’s also part of an international effort to bring the world’s next collider to the U.S. Through high-energy proton collisions, the LHC has the capacity to show how the building blocks of our universe function, explained Brau, a Knight Profes- sor of Natural Science. But physicists expect it to produce discoveries that will need further study in a different type of lab. The LHC can create millions of collisions resulting in millions of random results. A linear collider would be more precise, allowing scientists to achieve very particular results by shooting a beam of electrons head-on into a beam of positrons. The proposed Interna- tional Linear Collider (ILC) could therefore allow scientists to reproduce and study the most important results achieved by the LHC. The U.S. already hosts the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, a collider which operated throughout the 1990s and up until last year at Stanford, and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Chicago, which is currently the world’s highest energy collider. But when the LHC begins operations again this fall, Fermilab’s collider will be nearly obsolete; it can’t match LHC’s power. The U.S. Department of Energy chose Fermilab as a potential U.S. site for the new linear collider a couple years ago, but there are challenges to building another enormous, expensive, international lab. “The biggest hurdle is on the side of the fi nancing, and the whole interna- tional, political coordination,” said Brau, who is hopeful that the new Obama administration will see the importance of this research and fund as much as half of the new ILC lab. “I personally think that the questions we’re exploring are some of the deepest and most meaningful scientifi c questions that exist, so bringing the world community together on this is pretty exciting.” Brau says that designs for the new ILC could be available for funding consideration and construction as early as 2012. –CB ■ At that temperature, even colder than outer space, magnets have no resistance to electrical current, meaning that the current can be slammed from magnet to magnet, creating a magnetic fi eld that contains and guides the proton beams toward their collision points. But one of the connectors between the magnets was defective. Nine days after the LHC’s launch, the temperature built up at this connector, fi nally creat- ing an enormous arc that began boiling the helium that was meant to keep the magnets cool. “It basically burst, causing the violent mechanical failure of magnets in that region,” said Strom. According to CERN, the cause of the accident is now understood and steps have been taken to ensure that something like this won't occur again. TIMING “THE TRIGGER” Since then, the collider has been closed for repairs. It’s expected to be back online again this fall. In the meantime, UO’s team of particle-smashing physi- cists continues to work on one of the key elements of the collider’s eventual “Working in real time is really challenging. If the data’s gone, it’s gone.” — David Strom David Strom, UO professor of physics. Elaine Onursal ELECTRON (MATTER) POSITRON (ANTIMATTER) __ 16 Xx: Xxx Online Extras – Is the LHC safe? Link to the CERN study and a video of how the LHC works at cascade.uoregon.edu This huge detector is the largest of its type in the world; the people in the diagram are to scale. Proton beams will collide within the detector to produce particles that may solve the greatest mysteries in physics. success: choosing which of the billions of future collisions to study. UO physicists Brau and Strom are working with UO colleagues Ray Frey and Eric Torrence, along with UO’s theoretical physicists and a number of lucky grad students, on what’s called “the trigger,” a combination of hardware and software that manages LHC data. Strom explained that, with two beams of particles circulating nearly at the speed of light, the collider can gener- ate 600 million collisions per second. Each collision could potentially create a Higgs boson, but no data collection system could save and analyze that much information. If you went to a store, said Strom, and got a truckload of the largest storage disks you could fi nd, the collider could still fi ll 1,000 of them every second. To preserve data from only the most relevant collisions, Strom and his team have devised a set of algorithms the computers constantly apply to the data from ongoing collisions. The algorithms help the computers track and analyze only the results scientists most anticipate. For instance, the hypothetical Higgs boson, if it exists, meets a set of known characteristics related to its mass. If a particle matching its description results from any collision, the LHC will capture the data and store it for scientists to examine. It may discard the data from the other 599,999,999 collisions that happened in the same second. The challenge is making the trigger work at the same speed as the LHC. “Working in real time is really challeng- ing,” said Strom. “If the data’s gone, it’s gone.” ANGELS, DEMONS AND NONSENSE Because of the LHC’s great potential for discovery, some members of the public view the collider with a combination of awe and fear. For instance, fans of Dan Brown’s thriller, Angels & Demons, which is set at CERN’s laboratories, wonder if its experiments could get out of control, creating black holes or antimatter that could destroy us all. “No,” said Strom. “Just, no.” While scientists do expect the LHC to produce surprising results, maybe even micro- scopic, harmless black holes, CERN has published studies to prove the LHC is safe, along with supporting quotes from scientists like Steven Hawking, professor of mathematics at Cambridge: "Collisions releasing greater energy occur millions of times a day in the earth's atmosphere and nothing terrible happens." “Of course, this is nonsense,” said Strom. “Every day, millions of cosmic rays, some just like the ones in our experiments, strike the earth and the moon. As far as I can tell, the moon’s still there.” However, there’s no way to tell for sure what the world’s highest-powered particle collider might produce. The situation is similar, said Brau, to when U.S. scientists fi rst envisioned a particle collider many years ago. At that time, scientists were asked to explain to Congress precisely what a particle accelerator could accomplish. One pioneering researcher, Edward L. Ginzton, responded, “Senator, if I knew the answer to that question we would not be proposing to build this machine.” ■ __ 17 HUMANITIES Reading, Writing and ... Rocks? K 2009-10 school year to present to the university community. Lokey, the founder of Business Wire, has donated nearly $132 million to the UO in recent years, including $74.5 million for faculty, graduate student and program support in the sciences and other programs. Cashman and Rossi received a Lokey “Science and the Human Condition” grant, which supports interdisciplinary projects between the natural sciences and the social sciences and humanities. – AM ■ P h otos: M ark R eed an d K rysten M ayfair athy Cashman is a geology professor who specializes in volcanoes. William Rossi is a literature professor who specializes in Thoreau and literary history. This unlikely pair will co-teach a class next year entitled “Reading, Writing and Rocks” that will examine scientifi c writing, particularly in the earth sciences. The course is the latest example of the UO’s efforts to bring humanities and science together in creative ways. Rossi and Cashman will look at the ways in which scientifi c writing uses literary devices such as metaphor and rhetoric. The writing of Charles Darwin, for instance, provides rich examples. In his famous tome, On the Origin of Species, Darwin uses rhetorical methods of persuasion to propose his theory of natural selection. He starts with an analogy the readers of his time would have been familiar with: artifi cial selection, which refers to man-made efforts to breed desired traits into plants and animals, such as herding behavior in dogs or size in tomatoes. Darwin also uses metaphor to conjure an entity he calls “Nature,” which he personifi es as a being that has the good of each species in mind. Portrayed almost as a classical deity, Nature selects the desirable traits. Plants and animals equipped with these traits are able to survive to then pass those traits on to their offspring, while those less equipped don’t live long enough to do so. Students in the class will have the opportunity to apply a similar analy- sis to geologic writings, starting with Charles Lyell (1830s), whose work had a major impact on Darwin, through scientists writing about the plate tec- tonic revolution (1960s). Rossi and Cashman, who have co-taught two previous courses together, will use a Lorry Lokey grant during the spring 2009 term to prepare for this class. One of their goals will be to develop a list of practicing scientists and historians of science who examine issues of language, and to study their works. They also plan to invite some of these scholars to campus during the Kathy Cashman and Bill Rossi bridge humanities and science in their co-taught class. Darwin uses metaphor to conjure an entity he calls “Nature,” which he personifi es as a being that has the good of each species in mind. “Philosophy of Ecology: Knowledge of Nature and the Nature of Knowledge” This intriguing title is the name of a new course that, like “Reading, Writing and Rocks,” is the brainchild of two professors who cross over between science and humanities. Ted Toadvine (philosophy) and Brendan Bohannon (biology) will team-teach this course next year, which they will develop this summer with support from the Oregon Humanities Center. They are also recipients of the prestigious Robert F. Wulf and Evelyn Nelson Wulf Professorship in the Humanities for 2009-10. Their new course will investigate the role of ecology in environmental decision-making, the methods and assumptions that guide scientifi c work, and the ways in which scientifi c evidence should be weighed alongside other concerns in the decision-making process — with special attention to the essential role of ethical evaluations and judgments. THEATRE CELEBRATES 100 YEARS WITH MAJOR TRANSFORMATION Along with all the scene changes taking place on the Robinson Theatre stage this season, there’s also been a major external change in scenery. The renovation of the Robinson Theatre is now complete, just in time for the 100th anniversary of the UO theatre arts program in 2009. Around the World in 80 Days debuted on Jan. 23 to kick off the year-long centennial celebration, which will culminate in an alumni reunion in the fall. Besides the remodel of the venerable Robinson Theatre, the $8.6 million con- struction project included a new black box theatre called the Hope Theatre, plus an expansion of the scenery shop, an airy and naturally lit costume shop, a larger lobby and redesigned outdoor area. Together, these spaces are now known as the Miller Theatre Complex, in recognition of one of the major donors to the project. “It’s a transformation of the whole space,” said John Schmor, head of the theatre arts department. Discussions of an overhaul started in 1998, and the project kicked into high gear in 2001, when the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation of Portland donated a $1.5 million matching grant. Subsequent fundraising campaigns helped bring in the rest of the funding, The renovated Robinson Theatre features signifi cantly improved sightlines and acoustics. and construction began in the fall of 2007. Among the most noticeable changes are the improvements to the Robinson Theatre, which originally opened 60 years ago and had never been signifi - cantly updated. The seating area has been reconfi gured stadium-style, which has reduced the number of seats from around 375 to 300. However, the sightlines and acoustics are much improved, creating a better experience for the audience. The new 150-seat Hope Theatre replaces the old Arena Theatre as the venue for Second Season shows, which are usually more experimental. The old Arena Theatre will continue to be used for rehearsals, adding valuable extra room. Schmor said that students previously used every available space for practice — hallways, foyers and even the downstairs restroom of Villard Hall. As You Like It brought Shakespeare to the Hope Theatre Feb. 27-March 14. Two more shows will round out the season in the Robinson Theatre: Ovid’s Metamorphoses will run from May 1-16, and Earth Matters Onstage: EcoDrama Festival of New Plays from May 17-30. – AM ■ __ 18 Nickelodeon City Offers Glimpse into Bygone Era When Harry Davis and John P. Harris opened the fi rst Nickelodeon in downtown Pittsburgh in 1905, little did they know that they were starting a trend. Soon hundreds of these theaters, where admission cost just a nickel, sprang up in city neighborhoods. As if the price weren’t enticing enough, theater owners often used all manner of stunts to attract patrons, even live chicken give-aways. Audiences responded en masse: Going to the movies became a popular form of entertainment and leisure. These early days of movie-going are documented by fi lm studies professor Michael Aronson in his new book, Nickelodeon City: Pittsburgh at the Movies, 1905-1929 (University of Pittsburgh Press). Aronson chronicles the rich, vibrant history of these theaters in the Steel City, focusing on the players behind the screens. Another colorful example: When the state government censored “objectionable” material out of the fi lms, one distributor inserted slides in place of censored content to inform the audience that scenes like matrimonial smooching had been removed. At the Penn Theater, live actors sometimes performed forbidden scenes. Aronson writes about the city and its exhibitors, distributors and audiences, “about their desires, investments, and actions — some collective, many competing — to defi ne what the movies were and what they might become in this place and time.” –AM ■ P h oto: K rysten M ayfair Online Extras – Read an interview with theater student Patrick O’Driscoll on the new rehearsal and performance space cascade.uoregon.edu __ 19 More than 200 students have recently delved into the history of Islam with the UO’s new religious studies scholar, Frederick Colby. Colby, who joined the UO this year, expected to study physics or electrical engineering in college, but he also took a class in Islam, which ignited a passion. “I would be a very sad electrical engineer somewhere,” he said, “without a liberal arts education.” In his fi rst term teaching at the UO last fall, his “Introduction to Islam” class attracted a hundred students, leading to a second section this winter that proved equally popular. Soon, he looks forward to bringing UO students a more controversial class he taught at Miami University: “Religion and Violence.” Though Colby teaches in the Department of Religious Studies, he weaves geopolitical events like 9/11 into his class content. In the popular imagination, said Colby, Americans have come to envision Muslims as Arab men wearing long beards, espousing violence and collecting multiple shrouded wives. Colby strives to highlight the great diversity within the Islamic tradition, to teach the history of mysticism, to highlight the fact that Muslims also accept Jesus and Moses as prophets Exploring the Mysteries of Islam and to challenge a number of cultural myths Americans tend to hold. We need to get beyond the belief that Islam equals misogyny and/or vio- lence, said Colby, or that Muslim equals Arab. In fact, he said, only one in fi ve Muslims is Arab. Many live in India, Indonesia and Malaysia. The geographic center of Islam is in Lahore, Pakistan, he added. And there are Muslims all around the world living peaceful lives. At the UO, perhaps a quarter of Religious studies scholar Rick Colby dispels myths about the Muslim faith. WHAT IS KITSCH? While in Paris last September, Associate Professor Fabienne Moore toured the exhibition of American artist Jeff Koons’ work on display in the famous palace of Versailles. This sculpture, titled “Balloon Flower,” is one of many that provoked controversy throughout France due to the subject matter and agenda of the artist. Moore intends to share the photos with her advanced French students to discuss some of the issues raised — such as the parallels between the extravagance of Versailles and the aesthetics of today’s wealthy elite. – KM ■ Colby’s students come from a Muslim background, though there have also been those preparing for a deployment overseas. “If a student knows he’s going to Iraq, he’s encouraged to study Arabic and the Muslim religion as a survival tactic,” he said. In this way, religious studies serves diverse needs in the university community, and Colby looks forward to engaging a range of students in the study of Islam. – CB ■ P h ot o: F ab ie n n e M oo re Online Extras – View a slide show of Koons exhibit images at cascade.uoregon.edu __ 20 SOCIAL SCIENCES n China, under the regime of Mao Tse-Tung, conventional forms of femininity were considered bourgeois, according to UO sociologist Eileen Otis. “Sex neutrality” was the rule in the factory and the fi eld. But things are different in China’s 21st century economy, according to Otis. With economic reforms, services have mushroomed in China's cities and women are being channeled into low-wage service jobs at an unprecedented rate. Now, “being young, attractive and sexy is a service-career maker for young women — who are often fi red as they approach their late 20s, considered too old and unattractive,” Otis observed. Otis has studied young female service providers in China’s big city hotels. She notes that previous genera- tions, under Mao, were raised with the Communist ideal of “guaranteed work.” They labored in gender neutral work- places where market competition didn’t exist. Their daughters, on the other hand, are entering into markets defi ned by capitalist competition. Their employ- ers, in order to succeed, are adapting to Westernized styles of service, which include hiring young, nubile women. To understand the way service work has been evolving, Otis studied two hotels, one devoted to high-class international clients in Beijing, and the other in the smaller, less wealthy province of Kunming. She noted that both hotels expected women to wear make-up, address clients personally, and to smile, walk and talk like Ameri- cans. But in both locations, imported western femininity had been adapted to local context. In Beijing, Otis watched male supervisors pantomime Western femininity — showing their staff the right way to speak, and to look directly I China’s Femininity Makeover into the eyes of male customers and smile. The girls were encouraged to use such tactics to give a customer status or “face,” to show respect. Direct eye contact might seem to imply intimacy or even risqué behavior for young Chinese women. But because they see it as “giving face,” said Otis, this allows them to maintain a psycho- logical distance. The workers do not see themselves as providing intimate or authentic service (which is the attitude of workers in the U.S.). In Kunming, said Otis, where prostitution was common within the hotels themselves, the women still mimicked a western ideal, but a modifi ed version. They emphasized their personal virtue, using a These idealized images depict Mao-era female work roles. Much has changed since then for women in China’s new service economy. Images are from the collection of Stefan Landsberger. CHINESE HOTEL WORKERS ADOPT WESTERN FEMININITY professional bearing to defl ect unwanted attention, wearing light make-up and smiling rarely so as not to appear too available. When asked by a customer to join him at a karaoke bar, a 21st-century worker in Beijing might smile coyly and ask, “Can I bring my boyfriend?” In Kunming, she might point sternly at her name badge, reminding the customer of her function, and then continue to recite a list of delectable food and drink items available at the restaurant. Back in the days under Mao, young female workers might have rebuffed an ardent customer bluntly. But under the new rules, the customer must never be directly confronted. – CB ■ __ 21 THE ECONOMICS GO-TO GUY Tim Duy is everywhere these days. Especially in print. Duy, a UO macroeconomist, is one of the top experts in the state for a blazing-hot topic: the recession. In the months preceding the start of the economic crisis in September, and certainly in every month following, Duy’s name has been quoted in dozens of media stories in outlets both near — the Register-Guard and Oregonian — and far — like USA Today and the Washington Post. Duy is a “big picture guy” who follows cycle trends relevant to business and government decision-making, and then predicts when the economy is going to be strong or weak, expanding or contracting (and why). Tim Duy emcees the Oregon Economic Forum. Online Extras – For a link to Duy’s homepage and the latest Oregon economic indicators, visit cascade.uoregon.edu DUY’S SEVEN ECONOMIC INDICATORS ■ Oregon initial unemployment claims, seasonally adjusted ■ Oregon residential building permits, seasonally adjusted ■ Oregon employment services payrolls, seasonally adjusted ■ Oregon's weight-mile tax, in thousands of dollars, seasonally adjusted ■ The University of Michigan U.S. Consumer Confi dence rating ■ Real manufacturers’ new orders for non-defense, non-aircraft goods, in thousands of dollars, seasonally adjusted ■ Interest rate spread between 10-year Treasury bonds less the federal funds rate approximately 740 economics majors. He also teaches one class per year, which this year happens to be “Economic Forecasting.” – AM ■ Duy runs the Oregon Economic Index, a project he started in the fall of 2004 to follow state trends. He analyzes data from seven monthly economic indicators such as unemployment claims and building permits, and releas- es the results to the media and online. Two years ago, he also started the Central Oregon Business Index, specifi c to the Bend area, and has recently added indices for Portland and Eugene. Duy typically fi elds press calls all day when he releases new OEI fi gures. But even between cycles of releasing the index, he does a couple of 15-minute interviews or one half-hour call per day, on average. Duy also directs the annual Oregon Economic Forum, which convenes business, fi nance, government and university leaders to discuss economic issues. The most recent was held last October in Portland and focused on Oregon transporta- tion issues. He also gives frequent talks to civic and business-related groups across the state, with six speaking engagements last January alone. As if he weren’t busy enough, Duy is the program director of undergraduate studies in his department, which means he advises Abraham Lincoln and the Complex, Convoluted Path to Emancipation How did slavery actually end? According to UO historian Jim Mohr, the path to emancipation was complex and convoluted, with many proposals put forward before a defi nitive solution was achieved. Among them were schemes for recolonization — sending slaves back to their ancestral lands — and the possibility of offering slaveowners $400 in compensation per slave. In a talk honoring the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, Mohr detailed these and numerous other ways the Lincoln administration wrestled with the issue of slavery. Congressional, military and public pressures eventually set the stage for the President’s Emancipation Proclama- tion on New Year’s Day, 1863, and the constitutional amendment that followed, said Mohr, College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of History and Knight Professor of Social Science. Like many commemorations, Mohr’s lecture focused on Lincoln’s own role in ending slavery. Though the nation long revered Lincoln as “The Great Emancipator,” recent scholars have advanced competing views of Lincoln’s legacy — some going so far as to label him simply another “white racist” (because he did not end slavery as quickly as he might have). Mohr rejected the extremes and argued for an under- standing of Lincoln as “an institutionalist” — a man who genuinely abhorred slavery but insisted on constitutional procedures — especially the Thirteenth Amendment — that would ensure “a more perfect union” in the long run. – LR ■ If human activity is melting the arctic ice cap, how can it also be decreas- ing wildfi res? Conventional wisdom suggests that as the earth warms and population rises, the number of wildfi res should skyrocket. However, new research has recently found that humans haven’t had the devastating impact you might expect. Between 1870 and 1970, human behavior actually decreased the number of wildfi res worldwide, even as the earth warmed and population continued to rise. Jennifer Marlon, a doctoral student in geography, collaborated with researchers from seven universities in the study of charcoal records from lakebeds around the world. She found that levels of wildfi re activity soared with the rise of industry between roughly 1750 and 1870. __ 22 Heeding the Wisdom of Wildfi res Understanding the nuances of different cultures — whether across the globe or just around the corner — is increasingly a prerequisite for informed citizenship in the 21st century. To help students stay ahead of this curve, the College of Arts and Sciences has formally established the Depart- ment of Ethnic Studies and the Department of International Studies. Both were already “degree programs,” but elevating their status to department level will help the UO recruit and retain top-notch faculty whose cross-cultural expertise is in high demand. It’s safe to assume that pregnant women undergo signifi cant hormonal changes during pregnancy, but one UO scientist believes those changes do much more than increase the expectant mothers’ cravings for pickles and Cherry Garcia. Pregnancy raises estrogen levels, and female estrogens have been tied to increased cavity rates; male androgens, on the other hand, have not. and late summer fi re seasons became increasingly intense. The dust — or the charcoal ash — from this dramatic period has yet to settle. – CB ■ Professor John Lukacs shows a 250,000-year-old “Kabwe skull” from Africa, with obvious dental decay in 12 of its remaining 15 teeth. The trend then mysteriously began to reverse. The team determined that between 1870 and 1970, fi res decreased partly due to fi re suppression tactics, but also due to increasing land clearance for agriculture and development. That’s not necessarily good news. It was no longer a surge in wildfi res that was consuming trees and wild lands; it was us. Though the team attributes the decrease in wildfi res to human activity, Marlon also points out that we don’t yet have data from the last 38 years, when global climate change became obvious PREGNANCY AND CAVITY RATES In the October issue of Current Anthropology, UO anthropologist John R. Lukacs analyzed these hormon- al differences and presented further fi ndings related to the role gender plays in oral health. According to Lukacs, women also produce less saliva than men, and less saliva means less re- moval of food particles. Making matters worse, during pregnancy, a woman’s saliva actually loses antimicrobial capacity, leaving her teeth even more vulnerable to the high-energy, sweet foods she may crave. But that’s not all. Lukacs proposed a third reason for women’s compara- tively poor dental health: the develop- ment of agriculture. Farming led to more sedentary roles for women, and a corresponding rise in fertility, leaving women increasingly vulnerable to cavities. Lukacs found that increases in dental deterioration accompanied agricultural innovation across cultures and in pre-historic as well as living subjects. –CB ■ Continued on page 26➤ New World Order __ 23 NATURAL SCIENCES I t’s a given now that scientists collaborate with colleagues many time zones away — not just across the na- tion, but all across the globe. And now UO science undergraduates can gain real-world international experience that will prepare them for an increas- ingly globalized future. Starting in the 2009-10 academic year, the Trans-Atlantic Science Student Exchange Program (TASSEP) will place UO science students in a one-year study abroad program in one of 20 different universities in 11 Euro- pean countries. In its fi rst year, the TASSEP program at UO will be open only to chemistry majors, with openings for students in other disciplines in subsequent years. TASSEP is a consortium of member universities from the European Union, Canada and the United States. Through strong academic advising, TASSEP ensures that students are properly advised about course selection, which helps ease the problems of receiving credit for courses taken abroad — all The World is Our Laboratory while they are gaining invaluable experience overseas. Study abroad can be especially challenging for science majors because typically they must complete a large number of required courses in their curriculum, with many classes build- ing on each other and often taken in sequence. One of the advantages, however, is that taking science classes in a foreign language can be much easier than a class in philosophy or sociology because so much of the science vocabulary is the same in all languages. – LR ■ Conventional wisdom says that there’s no such thing as a sure thing. Except for earthquakes in California. A study released by the U.S. Geological Survey in April 2008 predicts that California has a 99.7 percent probability of experiencing a 6.7 magnitude earthquake sometime in the next 30 years. Ray Weldon, professor of geology, is on the executive committee of the Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities, a collection of scientists and engineers commissioned by the USGS to forecast the state’s quake risk. The team constructed the fi rst-ever statewide map of earthquake probabilities throughout California — the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast. So which areas are most likely to get rocked? The Southern California section of the famous San Andreas Fault has a 59 percent probability of a 6.7 magnitude quake (or higher), while the Hayward-Rogers Creek Fault leads the way for Northern California at 31 percent. The Pacifi c Northwest isn’t out of the woods either. The Cascadia Subduction Zone spans about 150 miles of Northern California coastline, with another 600 miles stretching from the Oregon/California border to Vancouver, BC. That area experiences a magnitude 8 or 9 earthquake every 500 years or so, and the chance that one might happen in the next 30 is estimated at 10 percent. The Working Group noted that earthquake probability is a fl uid concept that can fl uctuate over time due to the ever-changing condition of faults and stresses. Even in higher-probability areas, “the big one” might not happen for many decades, if at all. – AM ■ WHOLE LOTTA SHAKIN’ Online Extras — Parents, students and faculty can learn more about TASSEP at cascade.uoregon.edu __ 24 So, this athlete walks into a virtual clinic… It might sound like the beginning of a joke, but it’s really the beginning of a new way of teaching anatomy. Susan Verscheure, instructor of human physiology, recently paired up with animation experts from the university’s Interactive Media Group to create a virtual clinic full of virtual patients with virtual injuries. At their computers, real live anatomy students can listen to a patient’s story, walk through a series of diagnostic tests and learn to distinguish between muscle, nerve and ligament damage — without twisting the limb of a real patient. Verscheure’s virtual clinic allows these medical professionals- A perky animated instructor welcomes a patient to her virtual clinic. Milkshakes and MRIs Milkshakes have an interesting tale to tell: Overweight women may not enjoy their food as much as their leaner counterparts. A research team with UO ties used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine how the brain’s “reward circuitry” responds to chocolate milkshakes. They tested 76 females, ages 14-22, who had a range of body mass index (BMI) scores that were tracked across one year. The team found that after drinking a milkshake, the reward circuitry response in the overweight participants’ brains was not as strong, compared to the lean- er women. Translation: They didn’t receive as much satisfaction from drinking the milkshake. Additionally, overweight participants with a particular gene variant, thought to decrease the number of dopamine receptors in the brain, were most likely of all to put on weight. Dopamine is a brain chemical released upon food consumption; the more dopamine that is released, the more pleasure someone feels while eating. What does all of this mean? Overweight people may not fi nd eating as gratifying as leaner individuals, so they may consume more to make up for it. Those who have the gene variant, which lessens the effectiveness of dopamine, face even greater risk of doing so. The fi ndings of the study were published last fall in Science. Lead author Eric Stice has a courtesy appointment in the psychology department and is senior researcher at Eugene’s Oregon Research Institute. Cara Bohon, a clinical psychology doctoral student, also participated in the research. – AM ■ in-training to interact with the virtual patient, fl exing and lengthening their muscles, while quizzes and lectures from the perky animated instructor prepare them to one day join their own three-dimensional clinics. The virtual clinic provides one exciting example of technology’s new prominence in the classroom, but the possibilities are infi nite. According to Kirstin Hierholzer, director of the UO Library's Interactive Media Group, the center and its staff are available to all UO professors interested in exploring technological solutions to real world educational challenges. If an instructor can dream it, they can make it happen — in two dimensions. – CB ■ LET’S GET PHYSIOLOGICAL SCIENCE COUNCIL CONVENES The UO Provost's Offi ce has convened a Science Council to advise the provost and UO president on issues related to science research, including national and international trends and developments in the sciences. The Science Council will also provide a forum for the discussion of multidisciplinary initiatives and even those that would involve collaboration with other institutions. The Council is comprised of faculty from numerous disciplines in the College of Arts and Sciences — biology, chemistry, geological sciences, math and physics — two of whom represent signature research institutes on campus. Among the key issues the Council will address are science faculty recruitment and retention, graduate student support and the setting of strategic research priorities. In the longer term, the Science Council hopes to facilitate the development of new collaborative research endeavors, building on some of the past successes such as ONAMI (the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute) and BBMI (the Brain Biology and Machine Initiative). – LR ■ __ 25 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, meet your real-life counterpart, "Louis." In January 1886, the same month Robert Louis Stevenson published his tale of a prominent London physician with a split personality, another British author wrote about Louis and his “multiplex personality.” But while Stevenson’s story is fi ction, the tale of Louis is true, and you can fi nd it documented in the “Trauma Archives” in the UO Library. The Trauma Archives are a unique collection of scientifi c and medical literature related to psychological trauma, with documents dating back to 1862. The literature is especially concerned with the phenomenon of “dissociation,” a term applied to people who disconnect from their memories and sense of identity. Examples of dissociation include amnesia and Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder). The case of Louis, for instance, was published by Frederic W. H. Myers, one of the founders of the 19th century Society for Psychical Research, in the Journal of Mental Science. Archives Delve Into History of Trauma The archives debuted in March 2008, giving readers access to the texts of papers published between 1862 and 1922, which offer a historical perspec- tive into the fi eld, and every issue of the journal Dissociation: Progress in the Dissociative Disorders, which was published from 1988 to 1997. – AM ■ DIVERSITY ON A MICRO SCALE know how microbial life varies across the surface of the Earth. “We had no idea whether or not this gradient of diversity from the tropics to the poles would hold for microbes,” she said. To fi nd out, scientists collected ocean-dwelling bacteria from 57 sites around the world and discovered that there were, in fact, twice as many microbial species at the equator than at the poles, but they still couldn’t say why. So the team tested a couple of popu- lar ecological theories. One claimed that higher levels of “primary productivity” (which is correlated with photosynthe- sis) in the tropical marine communities provides more energy, which in turn supports larger populations, leading to greater opportunities for variation over time. But a second theory suggested that temperature itself was more important for biodiversity. Green’s team provided the tiebreak- er: They found that temperature, not primary productivity, led to increased biodiversity in microbes. The equator’s comparative diver- sity sparked the imaginations of many great early explorers, including Charles Darwin. This preliminary study merely scratches the surface of a new era of exploration, one that aims to understand biological variation not just for plants and animals, but for all life's domains. – CB ■ After a frightening incident with a viper as a 14-year-old, the docile Louis experienced epileptic fi ts, bouts of paralysis and fantastical changes in personality. Eventually, doctors identifi ed at least six states marked by changes in personality, memory and physical condition. Stories like Louis’s have been collected together to create the Trauma Archives under the leadership of UO psychology professor Jennifer Freyd, a national expert in the fi eld. Freyd spearheaded the effort to collect and digitize trauma literature after a suggestion by colleague Frank Putnam, M.D. The UO Libraries provided much of the labor in assembling the collection, starting with resources already in the university libraries. Online Extras – For an online link to the Trauma Archives, visit cascade.uoregon.edu If you compare a lush Amazon rain forest full of orchids and ferns to the icy South Pole, it’s clear that not all ecosystems are created equal. One is full of diverse plant species; the other appears com- paratively barren. UO biologist Jessica Green and her colleagues wondered if the same patterns might appear on the microbial scale. Microbes, which are tiny, micro- scopic living bodies, are the most diverse family of organisms on the planet, said Green, but we still don’t __ 26 Continued from page 22 New World Order As the U.S. rapidly approaches a tipping point when whites will no longer be in the majority, the fi eld of ethnic studies is increasingly relevant. The Department of Ethnic Studies focus- es on race and ethnicity in the United States, with a primary focus on people of African, Asian, Latina/o and Native American descent. The department includes dedicated faculty specializing in each of these areas, plus a long list of affi liated faculty from fi elds such as anthropology, sociology, English, political science, history, philosophy and women’s and gender studies. The Department of International Studies also concentrates on transfor- mative trends in contemporary human interactions, but on a global scale. Its primary themes are international development, culture and globalization, environmental issues, cross-cultural communication and understanding. Dedicated and affi liated faculty contribute expertise on Africa, China, the Pacifi c Rim, the Middle East, Latin America, Europe and Southeast Asia, and look at international issues through interrelated lenses: geography, econom- ics, politics, language and policy. – LR ■ OBAMA’S PROMISE MEETS REALITY Additional excerpts — Dan HoSang on: The coming confrontation over healthcare: To provide universal healthcare, there has to be some taking on of the profi t mechanism and that would require a confrontation. What part of Obama have we seen that would suggest he’s ready for a confrontation like that? I think we should all keep our eyes open to see a confl ict take place that he might really be willing to pursue. Private vs. public sector: Obama went out of his way in the stimulus package to say most of the jobs that are going to be created are in the private sector. He still has to genufl ect before that. So, when a health plan is attacked as government-sponsored healthcare, where does the ideological energy come from to say, “Oh, indeed, the public sector is what we need to invigorate right now.” You have to lay some groundwork to have that be a recognizable claim, and my observa- tion is that none of that groundwork has been laid. You’re still operating within a framework that worships the mystical qualities of the private sector. Politics as consumption: Obama's whole political life rests on a proposition of a new approach, and that’s where he’s vulnerable. If he can be stigmatized and marginalized, the line would be “We were sold the false bill of goods,” right? But I actually think he’s quite astute about understanding, even symbolically, politics as consumption, and I don’t mean that in a dismissive way. He understands that we trade in symbols, and as long as the symbols keep coming and we’re in dialogue with him, the proposition will seem real enough. Continued from page 12 clear. It is bold. It is dangerous. And he might get eaten alive. I used to be afraid he was going to get eaten alive by the deepening quagmire of Afghanistan. Now I am afraid he is going to get eaten alive about this. I think that Mitchell is a brilliant choice, but in going for a peace agree- ment, you get chewed apart by extremists on both sides. I think he sincerely wants one. I think he’s going to try to be the most honest broker in history. But you have extremists who will take no prisoners. And yet it is possible that he will succeed because Northern Ireland [where George Mitch- ell brokered a peace agreement] at one point looked impossible as well. Galvan: This is where I think the con- crete dividend on the reserve capital of global goodwill could matter. America’s stature as an honest broker in this con- fl ict just changed dramatically. And the Israelis know it and are going to have to deal with it. The fact that Obama chose to have his fi rst interview with Al-Arabia [television] was a pretty striking little symbolic gesture at the same time that he is taking bold steps on the Israel-Palestine issue. Tichenor: I want to end with what might be a tough question: By what metric should we evaluate success or failure for Obama? Lowndes: That is a great question. There are any number of measures you could use. Presidents are at once head of their party, head of the nation itself, head of the executive branch, and so there are these different ways in which we put demands on them and want certain things out of them. Given that Bush was so historically unpopular, it seems like much of what’s expected of Obama is to undo a lot of damage that people think Bush has done. I think a lot of it is going to have to do with healing wounds, both internally and externally. The metric we often use is: What warrant for action does he have? What kind of power does he end up with? How much power does he have vis-à-vis the other branches? And we don’t know whether or not there will ultimately be a major showdown with the Republicans. Clearly the economy is going to drive a lot of this, and it is probably not going to get any better this next year. So it may be that he is going to fail no matter what. rather than to declassify them, which is totally different. Galvan: I would just add a couple of metrics: The value of the dollar against the euro will tell us a lot. The percent of Afghan territory controlled by the Taliban, which correlates with the stability of the Pakistani government — these are going to be really important. The degree to which we are having petty squabbles with Medvedev and Putin in Russia, or that we’re cooperating with __ 27 In Romance Languages, we are creating a set of courses oriented to these students, although not exclusively for them. These new courses will be open to any student interested in Spanish and issues of bilingualism and biculturalism. Because Spanish “heritage” speak- ers come with many different levels of language skills, they are not easy to place with the traditional tools we use for non-Spanish speakers. We are therefore starting by preparing our instructors to assess the language skills of these students. Once instructors are trained, we will begin to offer instruc- tion related to being an individual of Hispanic cultural heritage living in a different cultural environment. We are creating courses that address issues of bilingualism and biculturalism all over the Hispanic world, with the U.S. representing a particular case. Bilingualism and bicul- turalism are phenomena that happen Continued from page 3 ask the expert in many countries of the Hispanic world, such as Bolivia (Quechua and Spanish) and Spain (Basque and Spanish). At the UO, there has been an ex- ceptional social response to the bilin- gual/bicultural trend, with students showing a strong interest in learning Spanish. The demand for Spanish at the UO is overwhelming, and the De- partment of Romance Languages has grown over the years to accommodate students’ interest. We have 60 teach- ers of Spanish, approximately 700 majors and minors, and over 6,800 students taking Spanish courses every year. As a consequence, we are one of the largest departments in the College of Arts and Sciences. There is no doubt that students realize that the knowledge of Spanish and of the cultures of the Hispanic world are crucial to their professional development — as well as to their daily life — in an America that is more and more bilingual. They may Online Extras – For additional excerpts and audio downloads, visit cascade.uoregon.edu In the Middle East, he’s going to try to be the most honest broker in history. But you have extremists who will take no prisoners. — Jane Cramer HoSang: I would like to say something — and this is certainly over the long term — about the question of much broader popular engagement. If the narrative that he invoked again and again — about the kind of cynicism of ordinary people and the rhetoric of “it’s not about me, it’s about us” — if there is some truth here we have acknowledged, it’s going to take certain kinds of ongo- ing mobilizations to break apart the kind of paralysis that he was noting. So that would be one metric of transformation. Cramer: One little thing that builds on that, and that could help him, is open- ness in government, putting everything on the web. We just went through the most secretive administration in the history of the country and Obama has already revamped all the openness rules — you now have to ask to classify things even sense that Spanish and Hispanic cultures are part of their own cultural identity and therefore they feel the need to access this linguistic and cultural universe. Our efforts to address the new wave of students of Hispanic origins — as well as the permanent increase of students interested in the Spanish language and cultures — have to be part of a general strategy at the university level. The UO has to present itself as an educational space that embraces and promotes bilingualism and bicultural- ism. Study abroad programs have to be developed to allow heritage students (not only from Hispanic origins) to discover and learn about their cultural roots. For the UO, this change in demo- graphics is an opportunity to enhance its participation in the education of global citizens interacting in a world of bilingual and multilingual people, and belonging to bicultural and multi- cultural societies. n them (which can be measured). One that we haven’t talked about at all: Keep an eye on Hugo Chavez — not because he’s important in and of himself, because he’s not, or because Venezuela is important — but because he’s an indicator. The spread of Latin America leftist populism is very important as a sign of anti-Americanism; it’s the canary in the coal mine. And, if Obama is doing well, if there’s any dividend to this reservoir of goodwill, what you’ll see is something that looks a little more like the president of Brazil, Lula, who is a left populist and a good socialist, but plays ball and doesn’t throw grenades at the U.S. n — edited by Chrisanne Beckner and Lisa Raleigh __ 28 CAS ALUMNI In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Department of Theatre Arts — and in anticipation of their alumni reunion this fall — we share some notable successes of former theater students. HARMONY ARNOLD Class Year: 2004, MFA in Theatre Arts What She’s Known For: Arnold is a Seattle-based freelance costume designer and fashion stylist. She has designed more than 30 professional productions, including one off-Broadway, 10 world premieres and 10 West Coast premieres. Seattle-area productions in 2008 included: Seattle Repertory Theatre’s Boom, Hand2Mouth Theatre’s Project X: You Are Here, Onward Ho! Productions’ WAKE and also Undine, which kicked off the 25th anniversary of the NW New Works Festival held by On the Boards. Currently: Arnold works as a professor of costume history and design at Seattle University, where she also manages the costume shop located in the award-winning Lee Center for the Arts. GREG BEHRENDT Class Year: 1991, BA in Theatre Arts What He’s Known For: Behrendt coined the phrase “He’s just not that into you” as a consultant for Sex and the City, which he parlayed into the 2004 New York Times best-selling book with co-author Liz Tuccillo. He also wrote It’s Called a Break-Up Because It’s Broken with his wife, Amiira Ruotola- Behrendt, and is currently doing stand- up on the Greg Behrendt Is Totally Into You Comedy Tour. Recently: His new relationship advice show, Greg Behrendt’s Wake Up Call, completed its fi rst season in February on SOAPnet, a cable television channel. The feature fi lm He’s Just Not That Into You, starring Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affl eck and Scarlett Johansson, premiered on Feb. 6 and was based on his book. JEFFREY COOK Class Year: 1995, MFA in Theatre Arts What He’s Known For: Cook does set design in Seattle, for productions including Rain City Rollers for House of Dames Productions (2000), Free Will and Wanton Lust for Printer’s Devil Theater (2000), Waxwings for Book-It Repertory Theatre (2004), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum for The 5th Avenue Theatre (2004), Wild Oats for the Seattle Shake- speare Company (2005) and A Terrible Price For Whimsy for Printer’s Devil Theater (2008). He also designed the holiday décor for “Winterfest,” an annual month-long festival at the Seattle Center and has worked in the scenic de- partment of Seattle Children’s Theatre. MARGIE KMENT Class Year: 2006, BA in Theatre Arts What She’s Known For: Kment performs stand-up comedy at various New York City venues. She also produces and hosts Hold For The Laughs, a monthly comedy benefi t show. Kment has worked at Richard Frankel Productions (The Producers, Hairspray, Gypsy) and Broadway Asia Entertainment. Currently: Kment is producing in- die theater as an associate producer for Small Pond Entertainment. KAITLIN OLSON Class Year: 1997, BS in Theatre Arts What She’s Known For: Olson has played the role of Deandra “Sweet Dee” Reynolds on FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia since 2005 and has had guest stints on Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Drew Carey Show and The Riches. She started her show business career in Los Angeles with The Groundlings, an improv school, and eventually advanced to their prestigious Sunday Company comedy troupe. Currently: Olson plays the role of Sherry in the independent fi lm Weather Girl, which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in January. ED RAGOZZINO Class Year: 1953, BS in Speech; 1957, MS in Speech What He’s Known For: Ragozzino has been a drama teacher at South Eugene High School, performing arts depart- ment head at Lane Community College and executive director of the Eugene Festival of Musical Theatre. He was given the UO Pioneer Award in 1991, a distinction for individuals who are leaders and innovators in business, philanthropy, communications, government, education and the arts. Ragozzino was an appointee to the Oregon Arts Commission from 1990-94 and a board member for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre. Notable: He has done voice work for PBS, National Geographic, Discovery Channel and national radio and TV commercials. Former students include John Kitzhaber. Greg Behrendt co-authored the best-selling book He's Just Not That Into You, which is now a major motion picture. Online Extras – Many of our featured theater alums, and/or their creative productions, have their own web sites. For direct links, visit cascade.uoregon.edu __ 29 HEIDI SCHRECK Class Year: 1994, Theatre Arts What She’s Known For: Schreck won an Obie Award in May 2008 for her performance in Drum of the Waves of Horikawa, which ran in the fall of 2007. Obies, called “off-Broadway’s highest honor,” are given out annually by the newspaper The Village Voice to members of the off-Broadway theater community in New York City. Schreck also played the title character in the 2004 fi lm Hedda Gabler. Up Next: Schreck will write a play this year based on her experiences as a reporter in Siberia and St. Petersburg from 1994-96, using a P73 Playwriting Fellowship. The organization, which assists playwrights in the early stages of their careers, is also co-producing Schrek’s play CREATURE in September 2009, along with New Georges, a non- profi t theater company. JON STEINGART Class Year: 1990, BA in English What He’s Known For: Steingart produced the 1998 movie Thick as Thieves, with Alec Baldwin, Andre Braugher and Rebecca De Mornay, and the solo play Julia Sweeney’s God Said “Ha!” He is the co-founder and executive director of Ars Nova, a non- profi t theater that focuses on emerging artists in New York City. Up Next: Steingart served as producer of Black Dynamite, an homage to blaxploitation fi lms starring Michael Jai White and directed by Scott Sand- ers. Black Dynamite premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, where Sony purchased it for $2 million. It should be released this year. ROB URBINATI Class Year: 1994, PhD in Theatre Arts What He’s Known For: Urbinati is a director and playwright in New York City. Most recently, he directed Villa Diodati for the New York Music Theatre Festival in September 2008. He has authored numerous plays and adapta- tions, including West Moon Street, Go! (with Go Takeuchi), Hazelwood Jr. High, Miss Julie in Hollywood, Shangri La and Karaoke Night at the Suicide Shack. Urbinati also is the director of new play development at Queens Theatre in the Park. WANG CHI-MEI Class Year: 1975, MA in Theatre Arts What She’s Known For: Wang has had a rich and varied career as an academic, director, playwright and actress. She retired in 2005 from the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan City, Taiwan, where she taught dramatic literature and playwriting. She spent the bulk of her career, from 1982-1999, at the Taipei National University of the Arts, where she taught acting, directing, and Chinese and Western theater history. Wang has directed a number of her own plays, including Orphan of the World (1987), The Bride and Her Double (1998) — which she translated from Chinese to English with Jeannie Woods — and One Year, Three Seasons (2000), and classical operas such as Red Top Master Merchant Hu Xyue-Yan at the Peking Opera (2006). Recently: Since her retirement, Wang has continued to work in the theater and write for underprivileged groups. She has continued her 30 years- plus work with the deaf in theater by founding the Seeing Smiling Theatre of the Deaf in 2008, for which she also serves as artistic director. JEFF WHITTY Class Year: 1993, BA in English What He’s Known For: Whitty co-wrote the Broadway hit musical Avenue Q, for which he won a 2004 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. He wrote The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler, which was included in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 2008 season in Ashland. Other plays include The Plank Project, The Hiding Place, Balls and Suicide Weather. As an actor, he has appeared on stage in New York in The Beard of Avon and Freedomland. Up Next: Upcoming projects in- clude a musical of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City novels with music by Jake Shears and John Garden of the Scissor Sisters, and a musical version of the fi lm Bring It On, with a score written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tom Kitt and Amanda Green. ■ Jon Steingart served as producer for Black Dynamite, an homage to the blaxploitation movies of the 1970s, like Shaft. Jeff Whitty won a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical in 2004 for Avenue Q, an adult-themed Sesame Street-style musical. Alumni profi les compiled by Amanda Miles. Search the UOAA Online Directory to connect with fellow alumni. Sign up today and register as a member of the UO Alumni Association Online Community. http://www.uoalumni.com/ service/directory/ __ 5 Neuroscientists examine the brain's response to a hand transplant and fi nd that "brain plasticity" can occur well beyond childhood. __ 28 Jeff Whitty, who co-wrote the Tony Award-winning Avenue Q, is one of 11 alumni profi led in celebration of Theatre Arts' centennial. __ 19 A provocative sculpture exhibit at Versailles raises questions about aesthetics and extravagance. Nonprofit Organization US Postage PAID Portland, OR Permit No. 2160 CASCADE U O C O L L E G E O F A R T S A N D S C I E N C E S College of Arts and Sciences 1296 University of Oregon Eugene OR 97403-1296