Yale Bulletin and Calendar

May 3-17, 1999

Volume 27, Number 31

Campus Notes

Tyrus Miller, assistant professor of comparative literature, will sign copies of his new book, "Late Modernism," 4-5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 4, at Book Haven, 290 York St. The book is a consideration of the factors that led to the dissolution of the modernist movement in the arts between the world wars. The book-signing is free, and refreshments will be served.

Sterling Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature Roberto González Echevarría will discuss his new book, "The Pride of Havana," on Saturday, May 8, at 1:30 p.m. at the Yale Bookstore, 77 Broadway. The Cuban-born Yale professor, who became a semi-professional catcher in his native country, provides a political and social history of baseball in his book, for which he interviewed dozens of former Cuban baseball legends. His talk is free and open to the public.

Cellist Philip Ewell, a doctoral candidate in music theory at Yale, will team up with dancer and choreographer Sarah Franklin for a collaborative dance and music concert titled "Velocello" at the Educational Center for the Arts (ECA), 55 Audubon St. The concert, which will also feature other New Haven-area dancers and musicians, will be presented on Friday, May 14, at 8 p.m. and again on Sunday, May 16, at 3 p.m. "Velocello" features original music by Ewell, as well as works by other composers, and explores the relationship between music and movement. Ewell, who has performed as a cellist on three continents, teaches at the Neighborhood Music School, where Franklin is also on the faculty. Tickets for "Velocello" are $3 for adults and $2 for senior citizens, students and children. For further information, call Ewell at 562-9688.

The Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics will hold a conference June 6-7 in Tel Aviv in celebration of Benjamin Harshav's 70th birthday. The institute is holding an International Conference on Theory of Literature and Culture in honor of Harshav, the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature. The institute is also honoring the Yale professor by publishing a two-volume festschrift, which will include studies by Harshav's friends and former students; a special issue of Poetics Today; and a four-volume series, in Hebrew, of selected scholarly writings by Harshav. The first of these will be released near the date of the conference.

Robert Sternberg, the IBM Professor of Psychology and Education, has received an award from the Palmer O. Johnson Award Committee of the American Educational Research Association. The award is for Sternberg's 1998 article for Educational Researcher titled "Abilities are Forms of Developing Expertise." Sternberg has received international attention for his studies of human intelligence.

The Connecticut Commission on the Arts has awarded a grant to City-Wide Open Studios for its partnership efforts with Yale and with the Greater New Haven Convention & Visitors Bureau. Yale's Office of New Haven Affairs and University Properties makes vacant spaces it owns off campus available to undergraduate and graduate art students and working artists who don't have access to a studio, so they may show their work and share their ideas. City-Wide Open Studios was founded last year by Helen Kauder, director of University Licensing Programs, and Marianne Bernstein, a board member of the Yale Art Gallery Associates.

Dr. Ira Mellman, professor of cell biology and immunobiology and director of the Program in Biological & Biomedical Sciences, has been appointed editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cell Biology (JCB). The publication, which is issued by The Rockefeller Press, has long been considered the premier journal in the field of cell biology and is one of the few major journals that is run, reviewed and edited entirely by practicing scientists. Noting that the journal has played a major role in the development of cell biology worldwide, Mellman said, "I am privileged to have the chance to serve the scientific community in this way. I am also delighted that the epicenter of cell biology has returned to Yale." He will oversee such initiatives as enhanced access to the journal on the World Wide Web, including a system for on-line peer review, as well as video links and a new mini-reviews section.

Melody Lane, the executive assistant to the chair of the molecular biophysics and biochemistry department, was among the 120 artists whose work was on display in the recent 17th annual Smithsonian Craft Show, held April 15-18 at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Her work was chosen from some 1,600 applications across the country. Lane was one of only 20 artists working in ceramics whose work was featured in the show, which is considered the nation's most prestigious juried exhibition and sale of contemporary American crafts. Lane was a studio potter at the Creative Arts Workshop for many years and now works out of her studio at the Bittersweet Craft Village in Branford.

The New York State Archives Partnership Trust has announced that John Fabian Witt, a graduate student in law and history, is among 17 scholars selected for Larry J. Hackman Research Residency Program awards. The program provides grants to scholars who utilize state archival holdings to pursue research related to New York state history, government or public policy. Witt, who is a student in the Law School and in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, is doing research for his dissertation, titled "Accident and Design: Workmen's Compensation and the Making of Modern American Personal Injury Law, 1870-1940."

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Bulldogs name new coaches of basketball teams
Gift from Class of 1951 will help to strengthen libraries in four city schools
The homes of many older people are rife with easily eliminated hazards, says study
Gelatin gladiators
Three named to Endowed Professorships
Former Clinton counsel says Starr went 'beyond ethical pale'
Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project to perform on campus
A Conversation with an Acclaimed Actress
Talk by noted biochemist will highlight Student Research Day
Memorial service held for former trustee David C. Grimes
Lecture series will explore whether Yale and New Haven share a 'common vision'
Art Gallery expands its exhibit offerings on the theme of Asian art
Campus will be the site of the annual meeting of the American Law and . . .
Institute's first resident scholars to pursue projects on race and religion
Winks honored by Oxford, National Parks
Campus Notes