John Ramsay, the Hollis L. Caswell Professor of Educational Studies, published an essay titled “Savor the Slump” in Education Week. The commentary highlights the contributions of Vivian Paley, a 1989 MacArthur Foundation “genius” fellowship recipient and her contributions to the field of education.

Shahzad Bashir, assistant professor of religion, and Adeeb Khalid, associate professor of history, were presenters at “Iraq: Anatomy of a Crisis: Causes and Implications of the War,” a Macalester College teach-in. Bashir and Khalid presented on “History, politics and religion: How much is this war really about the Middle East?”

Valerie Weiss ’92 is the recipient of the 2002-2003 Outstanding Senior Award for the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine (VMRCVM). Weiss received her B.A. from Carleton and her M.A. from the College of William and Mary. Weiss’ research experience includes a study of field ecology and conservation of brown-headed nuthatches and aviary study of effects of color brands on nuthatch behavior. Weiss has received numerous grants and awards at VMCVM including the Dr. J.D. Carter Award and the Pamela M. Slack Memorial Award. She will graduate from VMCVM in May 2003. Weiss majored in biology at Carleton.

During the past few months, Anne Mayer, the Dye Family Professor Emerita of Music, has appeared in a Carleton visiting composer’s concert, performed Beethoven and Schubert in a Minneapolis recital, accompanied 10 Saint Olaf students in recitals and auditions, judged music competitions in Northfield and Rochester, attended the Music teachers National association convention in Salt Lake City and served as an outside reviewer for the music department of Skidmore College.

Carolyn Sanford, head of reference and instruction at Gould Library, and Paula Lackie, academic computing coordinator for the social sciences and humanities, led a panel presentation titled “Focusing Support on the Disciplines: Effective Models of Collaboration and Assessment” at the EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional Conference.

The Organization of American Historians (OAH) recently awarded Sharla Fett ’83 their James A. Rawley Prize for a book dealing with the history of race relations in the United States. Fett’s book, “Working Cures: Healing, Health, and Power on Southern Slave Plantations” is an examination of the difference between the ways slaveholders and enslaved African Americans viewed health and healing on antebellum plantations. The OAH said Fett’s book is “skillfully researched, charts a new course in the human relations of healing and health and will surely alter the direction of future antebellum medical studies and the historiography of slavery.” Fett is currently visiting assistant professor of history at Occidental College. Fett majored in biology at Carleton.

Arjendu Pattanayak, assistant professor of physics, gave a panel presentation titled “Time-management and other survival techniques” at the New Faculty Workshop/Reunion of the American Physical Society and American Association of Physics Teachers. Pattanayak also gave the R.G. Herb Materials physics seminar at the University of Wisconsin, Madison on “Coherence and decoherence in nonlinear Hamiltonian systems.”

W. Parker Wheatley, visiting instructor in economics, published an article titled “The natural and organic pork market: A sustainable niche for small-scale producers? A review and analysis of the evidence” in the American Journal of Alternative Agriculture.

Andrew Fink ’04 has been awarded a highly competitive Linguistic Society of America Fellowship to attend the 2003 Linguistic Institute at Michigan State University in summer 2003. At the Institute, Fink will participate in seminars led by some of the most prominent linguists in the field. Fink majored in physics at Carleton.

Robert E. Bonner, the Marjorie Crabb Garbisch Professor Emeritus of History and the Liberal Arts, has been awarded a Research Fellowship at the Beinecke Library at Yale University next fall term. Bonner will be in residence there the month of October 2003, finishing research on his book on Buffalo Bill Cody in Wyoming.