Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

Jennifer Clark, Assistant Professor in the Ivan Allen College School of Public Policy, and co-author Susan Christopherson (City and Regional Planning, Cornell) have won the 2009 Regional Studies Association Best Book Award for their work "Remaking Regional Economies: Power, Labor, and Firm Strategies in the Knowledge Economy" (Routledge, 2008).

What happens when technology runs amok? The "Too Smart City" exhibit at The Urban Center in Manhattan offers a humorous answer. The exhibit is by David Jimison, Ph.D. candidate in the Digital Media program at the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. The "smart bench" (at right) dumps 'loafers'. Videos of the 'smart bench' and "Too Smart City" in action accompany the story.

Professor Adam N. Stulberg of the Center for International Strategy, Technology & Policy at Georgia Tech and Professor William C. Potter of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) at the Monterey Institute of International Studies invite applications to participate in the newly formed Program on Strategic Stability Evaluation (POSSE). This joint initiative, generously supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY), seeks to promote international scholarship on issues of strategic stability under deeply reduced or eliminated nuclear arsenals. The objectives of the program are to: a) forge a global network of young scholars on strategic stability; b) increase interaction both between members of the network and between the network and policy practitioners; c) fill knowledge and methodological gaps concerning analysis of strategic stability; and d) identify the means to advance and sustain nuclear arms reductions and disarmament under changing strategic landscapes.

Why do Silicon Valley and Boston continue to thrive as high tech industry hubs while other promising areas stagnate? It’s a question long debated by researchers, but new findings by Dan Breznitz of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and School of Public Policy, identify localized business connections and funding as imperatives. In a case study focusing on Atlanta, Breznitz highlights critical changes needed for that city and provides a roadmap for other regions looking to grow high tech industry.

The President and the Provost of Georgia Tech have announced a nationwide search for a new dean of the Ivan Allen College who can lead the College to continued prominence and accomplishment. The new dean will be a successor to Dean Sue V. Rosser who departed the Ivan Allen College this summer to assume the position of Provost at San Francisco State University.

Fox Harrell, Assistant Professor, School of Literature, Communication, and Culture has received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for his project "Computing for Advanced Identity Representation (AIR)." The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is the National Science Foundation's most prestigious award in support of junior faculty. Harrell's award is accompanied by a five year $535,000 grant.

Angela Dalle Vacche, Professor in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture and an internationally renowned film scholar has been honored with the prestigious Choice award for her book, "Diva: Defiance and Passion in Early Italian Cinema" (University of Texas Press, 2008). Choice is the official publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries in the United States and bestows the award annually in recognition of an exceptional scholarly work.

David Jimison, Ph.D. candidate in the Digital Media program at the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, is exhibiting "Too Smart City" at The Urban Center in Manhattan. The exhibit asks the question, "what happens when technology runs amok?"

The Obama administration’s emphasis on research-based policy-making and human resources for science and engineering gives new import in the U.S. to the type of dialog that unfolded during the Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy Oct 2-3.

Economics professor Thomas "Danny" Boston has been tapped by U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu’s chief of staff to help the Small Business Administration (SBA) re-fashion federal guidelines for purchasing from minority businesses. Boston was asked to join a roundtable discussion convened September 24th by Landrieu who chairs the Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee.

A variety of scholars have weighed in on the current debate about American political civility, noting brutal fights on the floor of Congress in the 19th century, nasty mud-slinging of U.S. presidential campaigns throughout history, and other less than impressive aspects of our cultural past. And of course, they are correct that incivility is nothing new.

Professor Margaret E. Kosal presented two papers at the Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy (Oct 2-3, 2009). Both papers presented were co-authored by INTA Students.

(1) "Bioterrorism Deterrence: the Role of Public Health in Security" by Margaret E. Kosal, Ana Terron, and Katherine Lange.

(2) "Bionanoechnology and Iran" by Margaret E. Kosal and Nikita Basandra.

Ana Terron and Katherine Lange are both International Affairs Modern Language (IAML) undergrads. Nikita Basandra is Biomedical Engineering undergrad.

Major General Robert E. Livingston, Jr., Director of the J5 Coalition Coordination Center, United States Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, addresses Professor Margaret E. Kosal's graduate seminar on Counterinsurgency and Small Wars on Wednesday, October 7.

Carl DiSalvo, assistant professor of Digital Media in Georgia Tech's Ivan Allen College, and David Holstius are debuting their work We Are Survival Machines at Le Flash 2009 on October 2.

Economics professor Danny Boston talks with Senate Small Business Committee about Minority Entrepreneurship: Evaluating Small Business Resources and Programs.

Nancy J. Nersessian, Regents' Professor with a joint appointment in the College of Computing and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech, was elected as a Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society this summer.

Professor Margaret E. Kosal is an invited speaker at the International Conference on Emerging and Disruptive Technologies (14-15 September 2009) in Singapore. Her presentation is "Bionanotechnology and Security: Is Small Scary?"

A conversation with Juan Carlos Rodríguez reflects the School of Modern Language’s distinctive applied language and intercultural studies approach to language learning. Rodríguez is particularly animated about the learning experiences he shared with students this summer while teaching Study Abroad classes in Argentina and Languages for Business and Technology (LBAT) courses in Spain.

One person is offered samples of six different kinds of chocolates, another person, 30 samples of different kinds. Who is more likely to make a decision to buy chocolate?

On July 31, 2009, at 12 noon EST, a huge lift apparatus ferried Karen Head to the top of the empty fourth plinth (statue base) in London’s Trafalgar Square. Once settled, Head twittered the opening lines of a poem which was then added to, one line at a time via Twitter, by other poets and the crowd. Head is likely the only American to be part of the One & Other “living monument” project created by British sculptor Antony Gormley. The project runs for 100 days between July 6 and October 14, 2009 and gives each of 2,400 people an hour atop the plinth to do whatever they want.

“The Big Mac would do wonders to effect regime change in North Korea,” grins Fei-Ling Wang. Alas, he adds that the irresistible balm of free trade with America is unlikely given the complex and multi-layered relations among the players in the North Korean situation and China’s role and interest.

The Obama administration has identified work and education in the STEM disciplines - science, technology, engineering, and math - as a “vital initiative” for American competitiveness. Georgia Tech continues to ramp up its efforts to attract and retain a diverse community of STEM students. Coinciding with these initiatives is newly funded research by School of Public Policy Associate Professor Julia Melkers, focused on researching the structure and resources of professional networks of academic women and minority faculty in STEM fields. The project is funded by a $1.18 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped on the moon in 1969, they not only made a “leap for all mankind,” they also conducted several scientific experiments. One of them, to measure solar wind, was from a Swiss university. By inviting foreign participation in that historic moon mission, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) signaled “a commitment to international relations that has become an extraordinarily important instrument for American diplomacy,” says John Krige.

Academic advisors are the first point of contact for students newly enrolled at Georgia Tech. Students are strongly encouraged to maintain a relationship with their advisor and, for many, that relationship is crucial to their experience and success, at the Institute and beyond. Uniquely this year, four of the six members of the Executive Board that steers the Georgia Tech Academic Advisors Network (GTAAN) are from the Ivan Allen College. These leaders will be core contributors to the Institute’s new strategic planning process.

Over 5,000 Georgia Tech students were enrolled in some aspect of the School of Modern Languages program in the 2008-2009 school year. That means 20 percent of Georgia Tech students gained foreign language skills, far surpassing the national average of 8.6 percent.

Six new Associate Professors join the College this year in the School of Public Policy.

The Ivan Allen College occupies a unique and pivotal role at Georgia Tech, the result of a decade of work under the outstanding leadership of former Dean Sue V. Rosser. We established a new national model for liberal arts research and curriculum — one that dissolves the boundaries that traditionally separate fields of study, that integrates the analytical and qualitative and the humanistic and technological/scientific, and that places us at the center of the future of this great institution.

Research reported in the journal Nature Nanotechnology found that nanoscience and nanotechnology are highly multidisciplinary -- but not much more so than other modern disciplines that also draw on multiple areas of science and technology.

Professor Margaret Kosal participated in a by-invitation-only colloquia on August 10 on the future needs of the US Government and nation on education of the biodefense policy workforce. Experts in public policy and biodefense policy from academia, government, and the private sector were brought together to review current educational and training programs, identify challenges, and provide recommendations to address those challenges.

Georgia Institute of Technology sustained its top-ten ranking among public universities, according to the recently released U.S. News & World Report's Best Colleges for undergraduate rankings, maintaining its seventh place standing among national public universities and ranking 35th for all U.S. universities and colleges.

New work by School of History, Technology, and Society Assistant Professor, Laura Bier explores debates about the status of women in the modern Middle East and their implications for contemporary gender politics. Through an exploration of the secular modernization of Egypt during the 1950s and 1960s, Bier argues that what may appear to be a regression in the status of women under contemporary Islamitization are actually manifestations of a non-secular modernity.

The School of Modern Languages (ML) within the Ivan Allen College continues to break new ground in preparing Georgia Tech graduates to be effective in global social, business, and political contexts. Assistant Professor Stuart Goldberg has received $556,989 from the U.S. Department of Education to develop advanced/intermediate course materials using song-based content to teach Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Russian language and culture. The new course materials will enhance the impact of the School’s distinctive Applied Language and Intercultural Studies curriculum. It will also provide a teaching model for other universities.

Mary Frank Fox, Professor in the School of Public Policy, presented her research on "Women in Academic Science in the United States" at the in June 2009 Science Forum of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Fox was selected to present social science perspectives on women in science for the U.S.

A conversation with Anne Pollock ranges widely from how the American medical system came in to being and how it might have taken a different path, to why the first drug marketed by race failed; from the weakening business model for big pharmaceuticals, to why southerners are less healthy than northerners; and why we fear cancer when the odds of being killed by heart disease are much greater. These reveal the scope of her research on biomedicine and culture.

Misty Guard has been “in the trenches” and observed first-hand how policy can fall apart in the real world. Guard obtained a BS in biology with specialization in ecology, and a Minor in environmental science from Purdue University. She then spent four years as a biologist consultant for Terracon Consultants, Inc., a year as an environmental regulatory compliance specialist for The Home Depot, and is currently a freelance consultant for ERS Global working with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. She found herself and the businesses she has worked for dealing with regulatory requirements that were difficult to implement.

The pursuit of the minutely small — nanotechnology — is thriving in academia, in the private sector, and in global state science and technology programs. In her new book, Nanotechnology for Chemical and Biological Defense (Springer 2009), Margaret E. Kosal (Assistant Professor, Sam Nunn of International Affairs) focuses on the security implications of nanotechnology and emerging science.

Ian Bogost, Associate Professor in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture recently spoke before the Board of Regents (BOR) of the University System of Georgia about the rapidly expanding use of computer games. He told Board members that graduates who are trained in computer game development and design are poised for a variety of careers in many different sectors.

The Georgia Tech ROTC Navy and Army units welcome two new commanding officers this month; Captain Stephen H. Kirby assumes command of the ROTC Navy unit, and Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Fritchle heads the Army unit.

On August 1, 2009 the School of Economics began accepting applications for a new PhD in Economics, the only program of its kind in the country. The new PhD uniquely focuses on the globalization and innovation issues that interconnect three key fields of economics: environmental economics, industrial organization, and international economics. It is the sixth PhD program offered within the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Beginning this month, qualified U.S. veterans who currently attend or wish to attend the Georgia Institute of Technology can apply for the Yellow Ribbon GI Education Enhancement Program, according to the Institute’s Veterans Services office.

Iran Expert Yehuda Yaakov, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meets with faculty and students at The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs to discuss "Iran Nuclear Ambitions & Political Unrest".