For the Record, March 13, 2015
University community reports recent books, presentations, publications
9:07 a.m., March 13, 2015--For the Record provides information about recent professional activities of University of Delaware faculty, staff, students and alumni.
Recent books, international agreements, newsletters, presentations and publications include the following:
People Stories
'Resilience Engineering'
Reviresco June run
Alumni
Kyle Hackett, who earned his bachelor's degree in fine arts from UD in 2011, has had his artwork featured on billboards in Baltimore as part of an "LED Art Billboard" series publicizing various events and artists in that city. Hackett is resident artist at the Downtown Cultural Art Center in Baltimore, where he had a solo exhibition titled "Portraits of Progress" in the fall.
Books
Matthew Weinert, associate professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Political Science and International Relations, has published his second book, Making Human: World Order and the Global Governance of Human Dignity, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2015). While innumerable scholars have attempted to understand dehumanization, meaning the process by which entire categories of people are stripped of their claim to humanity and dignity and subjected to a range of degrading, exclusionary, and sometimes murderous practices, Weinert takes the opposite tack. Recognizing that the “human” as a category is a social construct, he examines five interlocking processes that make human: reflection on the moral worth of others, recognition of the individuality of the other, resistance to marginalization and oppression, replication of prevailing norms and social mores, and responsibility to self and others. Based on extensive research in primary documents, Weinert examines these processes in four empirical chapters. In the arena of security, he charts changes in the UN Security Council’s understanding of the dehumanized victim and the development of the UN’s human security agenda to protect and empower individuals and the communities in which they live. In the arena of law, he examines international tribunal treatments of violations of human dignity, before honing in on the International Court of Justice’s grappling with the self-determination of peoples most recently evidenced in the Kosovo advisory opinion.
International agreements
On Feb. 9, representatives from UD were joined by four guests from Xiamen University for the renewal of the Confucius Institute agreement and to discuss new and expanding opportunities for partnership. The delegation from Xiamen University included Daguang Wu, vice president and professor; Chenlong Xue, deputy chief of the Office of Cultivation and Management of the Graduate School; Xiaohong Li, professor and deputy dean of the School of Humanities; and Lin Tengju, from the Office of International Cooperation and Exchange.
Representing UD were Nancy Brickhouse, deputy provost for academic affairs; Peggy Bottorff, associate provost and chief of staff; George Watson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; Nancy Guerra, associate provost for international programs; Rick Andrews, deputy dean of the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics; Xiaohan Yan, director of the Center for Remote Sensing; Jianguo Chen, director of the Confucius Institute; and Amy Greenwald Foley, associate director for global outreach.
Since 2010, the Confucius Institute has provided a multitude of educational programming on Chinese culture, heritage, and language in order to promote cross-cultural understanding and cooperation throughout the University and the state of Delaware. Some of the institute’s most notable programs include the NSLI-Y Program, the Chinese Immersion Program, and the China Forum Lecture Series. The institute is run collaboratively by UD and Xiamen University, with support from Hanban/Confucius Headquarters.
Newsletters
The winter edition of the national Jump$tart Coalition newsletter has featured the Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship Keys to Financial Success high school personal finance curriculum, citing research conducted by curriculum authors supporting the curriculum’s effectiveness. The authors are Carlos Asarta, associate professor of economics and center director, Bonnie Meszaros, associate professor of economics and center associate director, and alumnus Andrew Hill.
The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy is a non-profit organization promoting personal finance education nationally among pre-school through college-age youth. Both the University’s Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship and the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank -- the two featured organizations conducting the collaborative work -- are recognized as professional partner organizations of Jump$tart because of their shared commitment to furthering financial literacy.
Presentations
Abby Donovan, associate professor of art, was co-leader of a Dance/Light Lateral Studio project on Feb. 21 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Architecture and Planning, where she will return next year for a longer workshop and a public performance. The project, a collaboration with Richard Colton, Tom Hughes and Jared Green, focuses on movement, light and dance as an extension of drawing. For a slideshow from MIT, visit this website.
Publications
An essay by Margaret D. Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies and professor of humanities, has been published in the volume Neo-Victorian Cities: Reassessing Urban Politics and Poetics, edited by Marie-Luise Kohlke and Christian Gutleben (Leiden and Boston: Briil/Rodopi, 2015. 283-306). In "Steampunking New York City in Kate and Leopold," Stetz looks at the intersecting critiques of gender and capitalism in a 2001 Hollywood film comedy involving time travel to and from the 19th century.
Troy D. Mix, policy scientist with the Institute for Public Administration, contributed to Appalachia Then and Now: Examining Changes to the Appalachian Region since 1965. Commissioned by the Appalachian Regional Commission as part of the ongoing reflection on their 50th anniversary, this study analyzes 50 years of socioeconomic trends in the Appalachian Region and evaluates impacts accruing to the Region through ARC’s investments. Mix conducted a review of past program evaluations assessing ARC’s impacts and contributed to the report along with colleagues from the Arlington, Virginia-based Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness.
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