This newsletter, prepared monthly, provides highlights of the Performance Plan Updates developed by H&SS Department Heads for the monthly reports to President Jackson. Represented here are works accomplished: grant awards, program and curricular initiatives, appointments, publications, performances, conference papers, and the like.

AWARDS

Linnda Caporeal, Prof. in STS, authored one of four internal preliminary proposals selected by Rensselaer's Office of Research to move forward in the proposal process for submitting an IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) grant. Participants on the grant are from the Schools of HSS, Engineering, Science and Architecture.

Tomie Hahn, Assoc. Prof. in Arts, was awarded an RPI Career Campaign Award under the RAMP-UP Advance Initiative for Institutional Transformation.

Linda Layne, Prof. in STS,  won a Silver Davey Award , a Silver Telly, and the 2007 Gracie for “outstanding talk show” for  “Protecting the Environment and Preventing Pregnancy Loss: A Conversation with Lois Gibbs, Executive Director of the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice;” and her “Combating the Criminalization of Stillbirth and Miscarriage: A Conversation with Lynn Paltrow, J.D., Executive Director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women,” won  a Bronze Telly Award.

PUBLICATIONS, PERFORMANCE, & EXHIBITIONS

James D. Adams, Prof. in Economics, authored a paper for the journal of Economics of Innovation and New Technology.  The paper is coauthored with Mircea Marcu of the University of Florida and Andrew Wang of the Economic Assessment Office, Advanced Technology Program, U.S. Department of Commerce.

Sharon Anderson-Gold, Prof. in STS,  published “Cultural Identity and Human Rights: The Case for Multicultural Citizenship” in volume 23 of Social Philosophy Today, edited by John Rowan.

Nao Bustamante, Asst. Prof in Arts, presented a video installation titled, "Sparkler" in The 8th of March International Women's Day Art Show. The show was held in downtown Troy and included many local women artists. Her short film in collaboration with Matt Johnstone, titled, "The Perfect Ones," is screening in conjunction with Los Angles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), March 15-April 30. The Same film will also screen at the 21rst London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival on March 31rst. Bustamante's feature length multimedia performance, "Hero" will be presented at the 4th Annual Transmodern Festival in Baltimore on March 31rst as well. You can view Bustamante's short video work, "A Story" at Extensions: The Online Journal of Embodiment & Technology.

David Hess, Prof. in STS, published a new book, Alternative Pathways in Science and Industry: Activism, Innovation, and the Environment in an Era of Globalization with MIT Press, as well as "What is a Clean Bus? Object Conflicts in the Greening of Urban Transit" in the electronic journal, Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy.

John Koller, Prof. in Cognitive Science, has been invited to contribute  to the "Historical Perspectives" section to the New Routledge Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophy edited by Purushottama Bilimoria.

Shawn Lawson, Asst. Prof. of Arts, exhibits "Wu Wei" in the Re-Surfacing exhibition as part of the Technology Expanding the Horizon:  A Reinterpretation & Investigation of the Landscape symposium at The Ohio State University.

Neil Rolnick, Prof. in Arts, had a very good month with six of his compositions performed in six different locations by five different groups including: Ambos Mundos performed by The Quintet of the Americas; The Bridge performed by the Albany Symphony Orchestra at WMHT Studio; Shadow Quartet performed by Ethel at the Kappel Theater, Norwich, NY; Breathing Machine and Shadow Quartet performed again by Ethel at The Egg in Albany; Segal’s Billboard for solo harp performed by Jacqui Kerrod as part of the Albany Symphony Orchestra's Capital Heritage Project, commissioned with funding from the NEA; and Digits performed by Kathleen Supové at Cornell’s Barnes Hall.

Ron Sun, Prof. in Cognitive Science, with B. Sallas, R. Mathews, and S. Lane, authored “Synergy Between Memory and Model-Based Processing: Integration Facilitated by Animation,” Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Vancouver, Canada. pp. 709-714. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ. 2006.

LECTURES & PANELS

Ron Eglash, Assoc. Prof. in STS, and Audrey Bennett, Assoc. Prof. in LL&C, presented an invited paper titled, "Cultural Robotics: on the Intersections of Identity and Autonomy in People and Machines" for the conference "Science, Technology, and the Historical Influence of Race: An Interdisciplinary Conversation" at Drexel University, March 9-10, 2007.

Tomie Hahn, Assoc. Prof. in Arts, Visiting Professor for Spring 2007 at Harvard University, presented her paper "Dancing Biracial – A Case Study of Embodying Ethnic Multiplicity" at the National Association for Ethnic Studies annual conference held at SUNY, New Paltz, March 23rd. She delivered a lecture "Moving Culture" at Syracuse University on March 26th.

David Hess, Prof. in STS, presented the paper "Social Innovation at the Intersections of Justice and Sustainability:  Case Studies from the United States" at the annual meeting of the NCIIA (National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance).

Sal Restivo, Prof. in STS, delivered the keynote address, "Romancing the Machine and Dancing with Robots: Sociologists and the Coming of the Robosapiens," at the session on Multidisciplinary Collaboration for Socially Assistive Robotics, AAAI Spring Symposium, Stanford University, Stanford CA, March 26, and he also gave a special concluding lecture, "The Death of God Revisited: A Manifesto in Defiance of Platonism, Religionism, under Reine Vernûnft,”  at the University Foundation Perspectives on Mathematical Practice, International Conference, Free University of Brussels, March 28, and was an invited participant, STS Directors Retreat, Center for Science, Technology, and Society, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara and Saratoga CA, March 16-17.

Ron Sun, Prof. in Cognitive Science, spoke at the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Science. Beijing, China. December 18, 2006.  He is also a member of the program Committee, the Seventh International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Multimedia Applications (ICCIMA 2007), Sivakasi, India. December 13-15, 2007.

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