american.edu/cas/connections | fall 2013
Hunting
for the
Truth
The Games
People
Play
Connecting
the Arts and
Sciences
Out
of
Africa
Going
Global
Letter
from
the
Dean
On the cover
Magazine production
Miriam Cabessa //
Untitled MC 139,
2001 // Oil on
masonite
Publisher: College of Arts and Sciences // Dean: Peter Starr //
Managing Editors: Emily Schmidt and Charles Spencer //
Writers: Maggie Barrett, Steven Dawson, Josh Halpren,
Stacy Meteer, Angela Modany, Charles Spencer // Editor:
Ali Kahn, UCM // Designer: Nicky Lehming // Webmaster:
Thomas Meal // Senior Advisor: Mary Schellinger //
Send news items and comments to casnews@american.edu.
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Outstanding scholars have a way of opening our eyes to novel possibilities. Take the new
faculty who join the College this fall:
Department of Anthropology chair Chap Kusimba, for instance, examines Africa’s ancient and
contemporary history by looking at trading communities and their artifacts to better understand
migration, urbanism, and the integration of traders into those communities.
Michael Treanor, video game design expert in the Department of Computer Science, believes that
dynamic, interactive games help us explore and express ideas about the systematic modeling of
social behavior.
And Cynthia Miller-Idriss, the new director of our School of Education, Teaching, and Health’s
International Training and Education Program, explores German cultural sensitivity to right-wing
symbols and brings expertise in comparative international schooling, civic education, and identity.
AU students Travis Volz, physics and math ’14, and Allie Martin, music ’13, explore the world
through a shared love: music. Martin, an award-winning violinist, was a finalist in the MTNA
National Young Artist Performance Competition for strings. Volz, a talented bass vocalist, toured
Russia with the AU Chamber Singers this spring before heading to the European Organization
for Nuclear Research (CERN) to conduct an experiment on the particle collider.
For Lily Sehn, a graduate student in art history, art is a way of understanding how creative
men and women absorb and express history. An organizer of AU’s annual Feminist Art
History Conference, she also delves into art’s social aspects and what they tell us about
gender and identity.
Alumni, too, keep coming up with new ways of looking at the world. Recent alumna Angela
Modany, history and journalism ’13, proves that you can go home again. Modany, who hails
from a rust-belt town in western Pennsylvania, returned there to conduct oral history interviews
with former workers at the local steel mill—and came away with a new sense of pride in and
connection with her hometown.
Finally, alumnus Rodolfo Tello, PhD anthropology ’10, has found a key to understanding the
Wachiperi, who have lived in the Peruvian rain forest for a thousand years, by studying the social,
ceremonial, and survival aspects of the community’s hunting practices.
Happy reading,
Peter Starr
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
american.edu/cas/connections | Fall 2013
Letter from the Dean
Connecting the Arts and Sciences 2
Department of Performing Arts incorporating science in this year’s programs
Out of Africa 4
Archaeologist Chap Kusimba studies ancient trade routes and connections
Rothfeld Collection of Contemporary Israeli Art 6
First display of works donated by Donald Rothfeld at AU Museum
Going Global 7
ITEP director Cynthia Miller-Idriss comparing global dimensions of education
The Games People Play 8
Computer science professor Michael Treanor explores the role of video games
Full Speed Ahead 10
Physics and math major Travis Volz finds his passion while working on a Swiss particle collider
Ode to Joy 11
Award-winning music student Allie Martin making her mark as a violinist
Hunting for the Truth 12
Anthropology alum Rodolfo Tello unravels a mystery about the Wachiperi of Peru
Arts and Minds 14
Art history graduate student Lily Sehn finds social meaning in art works
You Can Go Home Again 15
Oral history takes Angela Modany back to Ohioville, Pennsylvania
New Faculty 16
Donors 19
Achievements 21
arts & sciences
by
Stacy
Meteer
“[Art] allows us to think about ideas
and subjects in ways that we've never
thought about them before.”
—Fernando Benadon
What do the arts have
to do with the sciences?
More than you think.
American University’s
2013–2014 arts season
is filled with concerts,
theatre performances,
exhibitions, and lectures
that celebrate the multifaceted intersections
between the arts
and sciences.
Theatre program
faculty initially brought
to life the idea of the
“Science and the Arts”
season. Department of
Performing Arts (DPA)
chair Fernando Benadon
liked it so much, he
decided to expand
the theme beyond
theatre offerings.
“One of the things
that consistently comes
up in university theatre
programs is, how do we
build connections to other
university programs,”
says DPA professorial
lecturer Sybil Williams,
2
who worked with the
theatre faculty to develop
the theme. “We thought,
‘Why don’t we reach out
to our opposite?’ People
consider science and art
[to be] on two different
sides of the spectrum,
and I believe the arts’
job is to build bridges.
The theme allows us to
think about ideas and
subjects in ways that
we’ve never thought
about them before. If
we can do that with the
sciences, then we’ve
accomplished something
major—not just for art
students but for science
students and the university community as well.”
DPA faculty members
embraced the idea and
saw different opportunities through which they
could incorporate the sciences into programming.
“I think anyone in
music immediately starts
thinking about the limited
repertoire that is specifically science centered,”
says Daniel Abraham,
associate professor
in the Department of
Performing Arts and
director of choral activities. “I actually had to
take a step back and
think about some interesting parallels between
music as an extension of
the science of sound and
where the two fields have
intersected, maybe in
more of a historic way.”
Williams and the
theatre faculty had similar difficulties. What they
found was that there are
not a lot of plays that
deal with science-related
subjects­—and those that
do employ small casts
of two or three people.
While not all of this
season’s offerings are
science based, many
incorporate science in
unique and interesting
ways. The American
University Chamber
Singers, directed by
Abraham, will present
a choral and multimedia
program exploring the
intersection of great
scientific discoveries
and their musical
counterparts across
the last millennia.
“There’s certainly the
simple parallel of when
great discoveries were
made and what other
things were happening
in the arts at that time,
because they’re all
interconnected,” says
Abraham. “Either the
philosophical thought
can lean towards new
scientific discovery or
lean towards art, which
is just an interpretation of
society at any given time.
So with that in mind,
I thought we could very
easily pair up great discoveries, great figures,
great moments in science with the art of the
time and place. And
then, of course, there
are pieces that have
been proposed that
reflect ideas of different times even though
they may be contemporary pieces.”
All of this season’s
theatre department offerings are science related.
Moreover, each show
will be coupled with a
pre- or post-performance
discussion with faculty in
the arts and sciences.
“Steamystery is a
children’s play, so we’re
going to two elementary
schools and exploring
the importance of science, technology, engineering, and math,”
says Williams, running
through the season.
“I’m excited about
Rocky Horror because
I really want to talk about
transgender issues. Our
third play, Marat/Sade,
is about mental illness.
It’s a classical-style
piece, so we’re looking
at how mental illness
is portrayed, how we
understand it now as
opposed to in the nineteenth century, and
we’re planning a series
of seminars about the
evolution of the care
of the mentally ill.”
Looking ahead, the
spring season opens
with a production of
Rent. Its conversation,
says Williams, is around
epidemiology and AIDS
and how we need to look
at the evolution of an epidemic and its treatment.
And then there’s The
Alchemist. “We’re going
arts & sciences
to do some fun stuff
with that, she says.
“There’s a whole host
of seventeenth-century
ideas about alchemy
and chemistry.”
The last play is Inherit
the Wind, essentially an
argument about science
versus creationism. “So
we use that to end the
season,” says Williams.
“Fun stuff at the beginning and serious debate
at the end so that you get
the full arc of how we’re
moving scientifically.”
Many other programs
in the upcoming season
relate to the theme.
Some exhibitions at the
American University
Museum will focus on
sustainability, for example.
A music concert featuring
new works will explore
music-science connections. Another program
will present the neurophysiological impact of
music, and a multimedia
installation will feature
percussion with live
interactive electronics.
“I’m looking forward
to seeing these events
generate new ideas
about the role of the
performing arts in
radically different contexts,” says Benadon.
His main goal for the
season-long initiative
is to illustrate some of
the ways in which the
arts and the sciences
can come together
and to foster more
collaboration among
faculty and students
across disciplines.
Williams’s biggest hope
for the season: that it
will change how people
perceive theatre, inspire
them to look at science
and the world around
them differently, and give
them a new appreciation
for the arts. 
3
social sciences
Out of
Africa
Chap Kusimba is a
firm believer in climbing
down from the ivory
tower for the challenges
and excitement of discoveries in the field.
Kusimba joins the
College of Arts and
Sciences after 19 years
as curator of African
archaeology and ethnology at the Field Museum
of Natural History and
as professor of anthropology at the University
4
of Illinois–Chicago to
become chair of the
Department of Anthropology. A former research
scientist at the National
Museums of Kenya,
where his mentor was
famed anthropologist
Richard Leakey, he
directs an active archaeological and ethnological research program in
Kenya and Madagascar,
as well as collaborative
research programs in
Nigeria, India, the Czech
Republic, and China.
As an archaeologist,
Kusimba seeks to understand Africa’s ancient
and contemporary role in
global history by studying the complexities of
trade and its effects on
urbanism, migration,
and integration.
“I’m convinced it is
merchants who break
down traditional barriers,
because they are the
ones who risk going to
foreign countries, risk
being killed, learn ways
of making profit by
engaging with people
where they are a distinct
minority,” says Kusimba.
“If you ask merchants,
they say making money
is in our blood. But I
think the secret of making
money, and keeping it,
is the ability to make
friends with people. So
those communities that
have been successful in
making friends survive
and flourish."
That, for Kusimba, is
the attraction of studying
trading communities,
whose artifacts can yield
an understanding of
everything from migration to the establishment
of diaspora communities.
His interdisciplinary
projects include a study
of ancient and modern
DNA among East African
a
Courtesy of Chap Kusimba
social sciences
“I’m convinced it is merchants who
break down traditional barriers.”
—Chap Kusimba
by
Charles
Spencer
coastal people, a study
of slavery and its effects
in East Africa, a land-use
and agriculture study in
Madagascar, an analysis
of Chinese trade ceramics to discover maritime
trade networks in China
and the Western Indian
Ocean, and a study of
ceramics to explore ethnogeography and ethnoarchaeology in Nigeria.
In Kenya’s Tsavo
National Park, an area
the size of Massachusetts, he has conducted
surveys that have resulted
in the recovery of 250
sites, where artifacts
have revealed a rich
history of regional trade
going back 2,000 years.
Recently, excavations
in Kenya yielded perhaps
the most significant
find of his career. On
Manda, an island off
Kenya’s northern coast,
Kusimba and his fellow
scientists made a discovery that grabbed
headlines around the
world: a 600-year-old
Chinese coin.
The coin was minted between 1403 and
1423, during the Ming
Dynasty, says Kusimba.
“This was the time of a
Chinese emperor called
Yongle. This emperor is
the one who was credited with having begun
building the Forbidden
City in Beijing, and he
sent the first Chinese
expedition to explore the
Western Indian Ocean,
which the Chinese used
to call Xiyang, or the
western ocean.”
The copper and silver
coin, which bears the
name of the emperor,
has a square hole in the
center that allows it to
be worn on a belt. The
emperor wanted China
to trade in the region.
To explore that possibility,
he sent Admiral Zheng
He, whom Kusimba
calls “the Christopher
Columbus of China.”
The admiral’s mission
occurred against a
backdrop of a declining
Roman Empire. But
China never exploited
the trade opening. Soon
after Admiral Zheng’s
mission, Chinese rulers would ban such
foreign expeditions.
As for his own journey
from Kenya to earn his
doctorate at Bryn Mawr,
Kusimba admits his path
was out of the ordinary.
“Well, it’s unusual
to think about going
to a women’s college,
but believe it or not,
I wanted to come to
the U.S. to become
an Arctic anthropologist,” Kusimba recalls.
"I wanted to study
the Inuit, or the Eskimo.
A young man coming
from Kenya to study the
Eskimo—this was very
unusual, but that’s what
I wanted, and Bryn Mawr
had one of the best
[Arctic anthropology]
programs in the country.”
Kusimba had learned
from a Bryn Mawr student
at a summer field school
in Kenya that her school
had a strong program
in Arctic anthropology.
“That piqued my interest
and I said I have to apply.”
But his interest in the
Inuit goes back further
still. In fifth grade, as
part of a film series on
world cultures that students in Kenya viewed,
Kusimba saw Nanook
of the North, the classic documentary on the
Inuit. “That stuck to my
brain. Even as a kid, I
thought there was absolutely no chance that I’ll
ever go to the Arctic.”
But it happened. He
spent a summer doing
research in the Arctic
before Bryn Mawr unexpectedly announced it
was phasing out its graduate program in anthropology. With key faculty
leaving because of the
change, Kusimba was
left looking for a plan B
to complete research for
his degree. And so he
returned to East Africa.
He still maintains a
close relationship with
the National Museums of
Kenya, where he worked
as a research scientist
before coming to the
United States to study.
And now American
University students will
benefit from that relationship. Kusimba plans to
establish a field school
in Kenya—with the help
of colleagues at the
National Museums and
from Uppsala University
in Sweden—that AU
anthropology students
will be able to experience six weeks a year.
“Anthropology at AU,
because of its focus
on public anthropology,
makes it particularly
relevant to the current
understanding of human
diversity,” Kusimba says.
“I think they’re doing it
just the right way.” 
5
arts
Cynthia Miller-Idriss
Tal Shochat. Crazy Tree (detail). 2005. Photograph
Sigalit Landau. Dead See (detail). 2005. Photograph
by
Maggie Barrett
The following was adapted from an article that appeared in the fall 2011 issue of Connections.
In 2011, Donald Rothfeld of
New York City donated his
collection of contemporary
Israeli art to the American
University Museum.
A virtual chronicle of Israel’s
history, the collection contains
151 pieces of contemporary,
mixed-media Israeli art by
both prominent and emerging
Israeli artists, including noted
painter Moshe Kupferman,
a Holocaust survivor and a
founder of Lohamei Hagetaot,
a kibbutz in northern Israel
that commemorates Jews who
resisted Nazism. Also represented are Sigalit Landau,
Yael Bartana, and Elad Lassry,
whose work was exhibited
at the Museum of Modern
Art; all three were featured
at the 2011 Venice Biennale.
Rothfeld gave the collection
to the museum, the largest
university-affiliated art museum
in the D.C. area, to inspire
dialogue about political
issues involving Israel.
“In its first eight years, the
American University Museum
has focused on international art,
and particularly on contemporary art from the Middle East,
already presenting major exhibitions from Syria, Lebanon, and
Israel,” says Jack Rasmussen,
the museum’s director and
curator. “The Rothfeld gift helps
us build a collection that will
encourage this continuing discussion of ideas, beliefs, and
values in the region—exactly what is needed today.”
AU is home to the Center
for Israel Studies (CIS),
whose mission is to present
the creative and intellectual
contributions of modern
Israel in the arts, sciences,
social sciences, and humanities. The university offers an
undergraduate minor in Israel
studies, one of the premier
programs of its kind in the
United States, focused on
Israel’s history, unique political democracy, multicultural
society, economic development, immigrant absorption,
and international contributions.
“When I decided to gift the
collection, I felt that the work
should be gifted to a nonJewish [or] -Israeli affiliated
institution. I wanted the artists’
work out there—to be seen,
discussed, and compared
with that of their peers across
the globe,” Rothfeld says.
“When I learned about AU’s
Israel studies program and met
the staff, I was convinced that
this was the right venue for
the work. The beauty of the
Katzen Arts Center and the
Washington, D.C., location
made it a slam dunk.”
The gift also honors Michael
Oren, Israel’s outgoing ambassador to the United States. 
The first exhibition of the collection runs through October 20 at the American University Museum at the
Katzen Arts Center. Join us for a panel discussion on October 19. Catalogue is available at the Museum Store.
american.edu/cas/museum
6
looks at education and
sees so much more than
textbooks and tests. For
this professor who joins
the College’s School
of Education, Teaching,
and Health this year
as director of the
International Training
and Education Program
(ITEP), it’s all about
societies as a whole.
Miller-Idriss comes
to AU after serving 10
years on the faculty of
New York University’s
Steinhardt School of
Culture, Education, and
Human Development,
where she most recently
was an associate professor of international education and educational
sociology. Her work
focuses on nationalism
and national identity,
right-wing extremism
and Neo-Nazism, and
the internationalization of higher education
in the United States.
“International education is truly a growing
and multidisciplinary
field,” says Miller-Idriss.
“Students in our master’s
program are studying
in order to, later, develop
and coordinate study
abroad programs;
improve education in
the developing world;
or understand the
global aspects of
education domestically.
We draw on a range of
disciplines, combining
education, sociology,
political science, history, and other fields
to help students better
understand the various
global dynamics related
to education today.”
A study abroad program first got MillerIdriss interested in
international education. As an undergraduate, she spent a year
studying sociology
and education at the
University of Hamburg
in Germany, where
she became hooked
on the country and on
comparing worldwide
educational systems.
“There is fascinating
variation in how educational systems are
structured and in the
kinds of content deemed
most important to teach
young people,” says
Miller-Idriss. “The way
a country approaches
education can tell us a
lot about that country’s
own national narratives
as well as their international concerns.”
Although she joins the
College’s faculty this
semester, Miller-Idriss,
true to her calling, won’t
be anywhere near the
AU campus. As a fellow at the University of
Cologne’s Morphomata
International Center for
Advanced Studies, MillerIdriss will be spending
her first year as ITEP
director in Germany,
where she plans to write
a book on right-wing
extremism in Germany.
“It’s definitely going
to be challenging,”
says Miller-Idriss. “But
whether I’m on campus
or across the world, I
am ready to get started
on the work of running this program.”
“Germany’s historical issues with rightwing extremism create
a unique sensitivity to
right-wing symbols in
Germany to this day,”
says Miller-Idriss. “Many
of these symbols have
been banned, just as
educators ban certain
symbols in the U.S., and
young people are working around the bans by
modifying and creating
new symbols. I am trying to better understand
what the symbols mean
to youth and whether the
bans are effective as a
deterrent to far right-wing
youth engagement.”
Joining an established program, MillerIdriss understands the
importance of listening
to students and faculty
about their experiences
to give them the guidance and leadership they
need to succeed. She
hopes to engage current
ITEP students, alumni, and faculty, as well
as experts in the field,
in discussions about
the program’s future.
“It is important for
programmatic changes
to be responsive to the
changing needs and
goals of our students
and of the work force
they will enter.”
AU’s array of programs
and faculty focused on
global education makes
Miller-Idriss’s goal of
creating partnerships
across the university’s
schools key to her plans.
Starting in spring 2014,
Miller-Idriss will launch a
regular Global Education
Forum, which will bring
speakers to campus to
discuss pressing issues
in education around the
world. She hopes that
Photo by Milas Smith
education
Going
Global
by
Josh
Halpren
“We draw on a range of disciplines,
combining education, sociology,
political science, history, and
other fields to help students better
understand the various global
dynamics related to education today.”
—Cynthia Miller-Idress
this forum will attract cosponsorships from other
schools and programs.
“It’s important for
students to hear from
leading experts in the
field,” says Miller-Idriss,
“so they can better
envision their role in it
and think about how to
take advantage of the
incredible opportunities to learn at AU.”
“Education is something that everyone can
relate to, but not everyone realizes how much
the global dimensions of
education are increasingly
a part of every individual’s
life experience,” she says.
“Whether it is understanding different cultures overseas or how
the increased pace of
globalization will affect
their everyday lives at
home, students will need
to grapple with these
issues in the world they
will enter. By working
across the university
and strengthening linkages between AU and
global experts outside
the university, I hope
to prepare our ITEP
students to be the next
leaders in the field.” 
7
sciences
by
Angela
Modany
“I think video games are special
because they are interactive and
dynamic . . . [This] makes them
well suited to explore and express
ideas about the systematic aspects
of our world.”
—Michael Treanor
Beginning this fall,
video games won’t just
be something AU students use to unwind
after a day of classes:
for many, they will be
class. Michael Treanor,
computer science
professor and a selfdescribed “child of the
Nintendo Entertainment
System era,” will be
teaching some of those
video game classes.
“I didn’t have a ton
of games growing
up, but the ones I did
have I played to death,”
Treanor says. He’s been
on a mission to make
video games about more
than sitting in front of a
television ever since he
learned there were no
8
game versions of English
classes. “Literally, from
that point on,” he says,
“I’ve been on a quest to
make games as art and
to pursue the scholarly
study of games.”
Treanor comes to
the College’s Department
of Computer Science
from the University of
California–Santa Cruz,
where he received his
master of fine arts in digital arts and new media.
“Building off of AU’s
strengths and [those]
of the incoming faculty,
I think AU is well poised
to be a top school in
this field,” he says.
Students in Treanor’s
classes can expect
to have a lot of hands-
on creative projects.
They can also expect to
have a say in shaping
their assignments.
“Personally,” says
Treanor, “I don’t learn
well without understanding why what
I’m being told is useful in some way.”
Treanor will also focus
on his own research
to understand how
games are uniquely
meaningful as an
expressive medium.
“I think the reason why
the game industry essentially only makes action
and horror-style games is
that we don’t understand
how to do anything different,” he says. “Part of the
problem is theoretical:
we don’t understand
ways in which interactivity and the procedural
aspects of games are
or can be meaningful.
The other part of the
problem is technical:
With computational
models that only model
running, jumping, and
shooting, it should
be no surprise that
all the games we see
involve running, jumping, and shooting.
My research seeks
to create theoretical
approaches, technical
tools, or design techniques to make games
Screen shot of Prom Week courtesy of Michael Treanor
sciences
that reflect more of the
human experience.”
As part of a creative
team, Treanor also
has created several of
his own video games.
One of his favorites
is Prom Week, the
development of which
was funded in part by
a National Science
Foundation award.
“Prom Week is a
social simulation game
with a sophisticated
artificial intelligence
system,” he says.
“The biggest challenge,
and what excited me
the most, was trying to
make the player recognize and care about
the system based on
a theory of how people
socially interact.”
All theories aside,
Treanor believes that
video games are just
another medium of
expression, akin to
paintings, literature,
and music—but that
they offer something
that other media don’t.
“I think video games
are special because
they are interactive
and dynamic,” Treanor
says. “[This] makes
them well suited to
explore and express
ideas about the systematic aspects of our
world. Understanding
games requires understanding how dynamic
processes are meaningful, and this is a very
valuable skill for living in
our complex world.” 
9
Photo by Michael.Hoch@cern.ch
sciences
by
Charles
Spencer
When Travis Volz ’14
was a student back home
in Whitehall, Montana, he
would sometimes hear
an abstract number—the
national debt, say—and
find himself calculating
how far that amount in
pennies would stretch
into the solar system.
Calculating the miles
that the physics and
math major has traveled
this year would yield
some pretty interesting
10
numbers as well. After
a trip home for spring
break, he flew from
D.C. to Russia as part
of a 14-day concert tour
with the AU Chambers
Singers. (He’s a baritone
who also plays piano
and the French horn.)
He then returned to D.C.
before embarking for
Switzerland for a nineweek National Science
Foundation-sponsored
summer research and
study trip to CERN, the
European Organization
for Nuclear Research,
organized by George
Mason University.
Not a bad itinerary
for a young man whose
only previous trip out of
the country had been a
jaunt across the border
to Canada when he and
his family lived on a dairy
farm in Michigan.
Chatting on campus
just before the trip to
“This experience is a
very important step in
my education and life.”
—Travis Volz
Russia—in fact moments
after he’d been inducted
into Phi Beta Kappa—
Volz acknowledged that
his family was proud of
his accomplishments
and his upcoming trip
to CERN.
“It’s funny,” he says.
“When they tell people,
either [people] know
what it is and say that’s
pretty cool, or they’ve not
heard of it and [my parents] have to explain—
and then, ‘Oh, it’s in
Switzerland, oh wow.’”
The CERN particle
collider—essentially a
huge series of magnets
and scientific gear
arrayed inside a 27-kilometer–circumference
underground ring, as
well as smaller rings
and a linear accelerator
—pushes beams of
particles to velocities
approaching that of the
speed of light. At key
sensor points the beams
collide, allowing scientists to study subatomic
particles in a quest to
solve important gaps
in the Standard Model
theory of physics, such
as the existence of dark
matter and the apparent
absence of antimatter
in the universe.
CERN made headlines
last year when scientists
there apparently ended a
long and costly investigation by identifying a
particle that is strongly
indicated to be a Higgs
boson, which would
indicate the Higgs field,
an explanation of how
particles gain their
mass. Confirming that
the particle was indeed
the Higgs boson of the
Standard Model would
go a long way toward
bolstering the model.
The huge collider
has six installed experiments. Volz worked
on one of them, the
Compact Muon Solenoid
(CMS), which employs
2,000 researchers from
some 180 institutes.
The CMS detector has
a huge superconducting solenoid that generates a magnetic field
100,000 times as great
as Earth’s. CMS has
several missions, among
them investigating the
Higgs boson; supersymmetry, which balances
bosons and fermions
(comprising elements
such as quarks); and
extra dimensions.
A few weeks after
arriving in Switzerland,
Volz described his life at
the scientific complex:
attending morning lectures on such topics as
arts
Ode to
Photo by Vanessa Robertson
CERN operations and
the Standard Model;
hanging with his supersmart roomy (he can
solve Rubik’s Cube in
about 30 seconds) and
other fellow students;
hiking and biking around
Lake Geneva; spicing
up picnics with Nutella,
salami, and Pop-Tarts;
learning a simulation
program called Garfield;
laboriously testing the
cables attached to the
CMS detectors; studying for the GRE. And
more hiking and biking.
The trip, as he explains,
also had another attraction: helping him figure
out what he wants to do
with his life. “So this
experience is a very
important step in my education and life,” he says.
After returning from
CERN in August, Volz
took still another plane
trip, this time back home
to Montana before the
start of fall semester to
spend a couple weeks
with his family, who share
his interests in science
and music. (Both sisters
excel in the subjects and
consistently stand out in
state music competitions;
his mother earned a master’s in mathematics at
the University of Texas;
and his father studied
dairy technology at
Michigan State.)
Asked whether he
considered himself a
cowboy, having grown
up in Montana from age
nine, he laughs. “I’ve
been on cattle drives
and ridden horses,”
he says, “but I like fourwheelers better. You can
control them more.” 
Allie Martin discovered the
joy of music early in life.
“I was five,” she explains,
“and they had these things
called ‘petting zoos’ for instruments, which is where they
have a bunch of people demo
instruments. I played the violin—and there it was. After that,
I started studying in the Suzuki
method. I’ve been playing
violin now for almost 16 years.”
After graduating from high
school in Bowie, Maryland,
at age 16, Martin attended
American University. “My
mother was not ready to
let me go far,” she jokes.
“The conductor we had at
AU two years ago was also
the conductor of the DC Youth
Orchestra, which I was part of.
So he sort of led me to AU.”
Currently studying under
Theresa Lazar, a musician in
residence, Martin says that
the collaboration and the new
music she has found at AU
have enriched her experience.
She recently was named
a Director’s Musician of
Accomplishment by program
director Nancy Snider. But her
accolades do not end there.
Last March she won the MTNA
by
Steven Dawson
“I plan to get a doctorate and
come back into the university
system and teach.”
—Allie Martin
Eastern Division Young Artist
String Competition and went
on to compete as a finalist
at the national competition
at Disneyland in Anaheim,
California. (The Music Teachers
National Association is the oldest professional music association in the United States.)
“Your program must feature
two contrasting works but
cannot be over 30 minutes,”
Martin says. “I played the first
movement of the [Samuel]
Barber [Violin] Concerto
and two movements of Bach
with an accompanist.”
Nancy Snider is justifiably
proud of Martin and her
accomplishments. “This is a
highly competitive national
competition, and it is a great
honor and a great tribute to
Allie’s hard work and talent
that she has earned this
very impressive distinction,”
she says. “Congratulations
must also go to her wonderful teacher, Teri Lazar.”
Martin also helps other D.C.area youth discover the beauty
of violin music. “I teach at Sitar
Arts Center, which actually
has an instrument petting zoo,
too. I’ve been teaching there
for two years, and before that
I was their development intern.
I teach six kids now, 7 to 14
years old. Some of them are
beginners, but my two 14-yearolds have been playing for a
while, so we work on some
more advanced things.”
After she graduates in
December, Martin plans to
pursue graduate study in
music in the fall of 2014.
“The plan is to study some
sort of musicology,” she says.
“I plan to get a doctorate and
come back into the university
system and teach.” 
11
11
social sciences
Hunting
for the
Truth
The Wachiperi of
Queros have lived in
the Peruvian rain forest
for a thousand years.
For most of their history
they have had only limited contact with outside
groups, whether other
indigenous people or the
Incas and Spaniards.
That all changed in the
1950s. The often surprising ways the Wachiperi
dealt with that change
12
and how it altered their
relationship with the
forest that had nurtured
them for a millennium
is revealed in research
conducted by Rodolfo
Tello, anthropology ’10.
Tello, who works to
mitigate the impact of
development projects
on Latin Americans
through his job at
the Inter-American
Development Bank
in Washington, D.C.,
spent years studying
the Wachiperi, both
as a doctoral student
in anthropology at
American University’s
College of Arts and
Sciences and as coordinator of indigenous
affairs for a sustainable
development project.
He found that for the
Wachiperi, close contact
with members of Western
by
Charles
Spencer
society had immediate
benefits: machetes for
cutting brush, shotguns
for hunting. But that contact soon proved catastrophic. Communicable
disease, especially
smallpox, wiped out 65
percent of the population. The community now
numbers only about 60
members, Tello notes
in the book he adapted
from his dissertation,
Hunting Practices of the
Wachiperi: Demystifying
Indigenous Environmental
Behavior. The survivors
resettled in a Baptist
mission, forced for the
first time to live near
outsiders. Suddenly
people who had relied
primarily on subsistence hunting were
also trading, working
as hired labor, logging,
fishing, and farming.
Photos courtesy of Rodolfo Tello
social sciences
“[Their reality] contrasts
with traditional views
that provide a more
static view of the
environmental behavior
of indigenous people—
that similar causes
produce similar effects.
. . . In reality, it’s a
more dynamic process.”
—Rodolfo Tello
“That contrasts with
traditional views that
provide a more static
view of the environmental behavior of indigenous people—that
similar causes produce
similar effects,” says
Tello. “It’s not like that.
In reality, it’s a more
dynamic process.”
Hunting practices,
and how the Wachiperi
adapted to this new era,
provided Tello the key
to understanding their
community. Hunting
among the Wachiperi
has always been a
male-dominated activity
(although women do the
butchering and cooking).
And hunting has always
been more than a means
of survival; it is also a
social activity, a chance
for male bonding.
Hunting has ceremonial dimensions as well.
Feathers are gathered for
ceremonies, for instance.
And animal products
also have medicinal
properties. Their fat,
for example, can help
relieve stiff joints.
Especially postcontact, Tello notes,
the Wachiperi, so long
dependent on the bounty
of the land, have sometimes been poor stewards of the environment.
Having shotguns made
it easier to kill game,
and shining flashlights
to hunt at night created
more opportunities. But
animals soon became
scarce and hunters had
to trek for hours to find
prey. Pursuing other
economic options, such
as agriculture, proved
easier and more reliable.
Similarly, fishing
became more productive, at least temporarily,
through two means:
the use of poison and
dynamite. “The poison
also killed the small fish
and even the eggs sometimes,” Tello says, “so it
affected the reproduction
of the fish in the river.”
As the number of fish
subsequently dwindled,
the practice was limited.
“When they started
fishing with dynamite,
that was even more
intense because that
killed everything,” says
Tello. “Eventually they
realized that fish didn’t
replenish as they did
before. Slowly that created a greater awareness
of scarcity of resources
to the point that, today,
they even protect the
fishing areas. People
from nearby settlements,
nonindigenous, come to
the river to fish with
dynamite sometimes,
but the Wachiperi have
now taken a more defensive approach to fishing,”
proving again the dynamic nature of how indigenous people interact
with their environment.
In July 2008, the
Wachiperi community
began managing a government conservation
area in their region.
With funding and technical help from an environmental organization,
conservation efforts and
ecotourism became part
of their economic mix.
Other far-reaching
changes have come as
well. Some members
of the community have
earned college degrees
and returned as professionals and government
employees. Others operate twenty-first–century
businesses, such as an
Internet café. Indeed,
Tello communicates with
some members of the
Wachiperi via email.
But less hunting by
the Wachiperi as they
pursue other activities
has not meant more
local wildlife, Tello notes
in Hunting Practices
of the Wachiperi.
“On the contrary,
many species have
become scarcer over
time,” he writes. The
cause: more settlers,
more logging, more
commercial hunting by
the newcomers, and
agricultural expansion.
The Wachiperi face
other threats, Tello fears.
Greater dependence
on the outside world
in pursuit of consumergoods, chronic health
problems that come with
a changed diet, the loss
of their culture—all are
potential hazards.
Still, Tello remains optimistic. He concludes in
Hunting Practices, “In the
long term . . . the selfdetermined focus on
sustainability, education,
community organization,
and recovery of cultural
traditions is likely to place
the Wachiperi in a better
position than similar
groups lacking these
characteristics, especially if they create social
spaces to reflect on the
direction of their socioeconomic changes and
develop mechanisms
to mitigate their potentially harmful effects.” 
13
Photo courtesy of Lily Sehn
arts
and
Growing up in Northern
Virginia, Lily Sehn ’14 dreamed
of becoming a doctor and
an artist. The ambition to
become a physician like her
father faded over time. But
visiting art museums throughout Europe and the United
States with her family set her
on a course she has pursued with a singular focus.
Before coming to AU,
second-year AU art history
master’s student Sehn had
had a world of exposure to
the art field. She studied art
for a semester in Florence
and spent a summer in Rome
working for the Patrons of the
Arts in the Vatican Museums,
an office that funds restoration
projects and which allowed
her access to the museums’ extensive collection.
As an undergraduate at
Loyola University Maryland,
Sehn studied the history of
printmaking in a seminar at
the Baltimore Museum of
Art. She also spent a year
at the Walters Art Museum
in Baltimore facilitating
educational programs.
“I’ve always enjoyed making
things,” says Sehn, who does
printmaking, watercolor, and
digital media, “but I’ve also
always had an appreciation for
the biographies of artists and
understanding that they absorb
14
history and their own feelings
and emotions and are able to
bring that out in a visual plane.”
AU has not only sharpened
Sehn’s focus but also given
her a boost toward achieving her goals. As an intern
this summer at the Phillips
Collection in Washington
working with curator Elsa
Smithgall, she helped facilitate an exhibition demonstrating how the 1913 Armory
Show influenced the collection of Duncan Phillips. The
International Exhibition of
Modern Art, which opened in
February 1913 at New York
City’s 69th Regiment Armory,
was a hugely influential—and,
for many, shocking—show.
“The year after the exhibit,
Duncan Phillips wrote extensively on the Armory Show
and sort of railed on Cezanne,
Matisse, and Van Gogh and
some other artists he thought
were just awful,” Sehn says.
“About 10 years later, he
changed his mind about a lot
of them. And so he ended up
incorporating a lot of works
by these artists in his collection. We looked at the
Armory Show and its impact—
but mostly its impact on his
collection and on him.”
She also worked part-time
for a year as a museum assistant at the Phillips Collection.
by
Charles
Spencer
Sehn, who has a fellowship
in the Department of Art, is
a Graduate Student Council
representative. She also is a
big part of the operation of her
department’s annual Feminist
Art History Conference,
which will be held this year
from November 8 to 10.
“Lily contributed tremendously to the success of the
Third Annual Feminist Art
History Conference,” says
Kathe Hicks Albrecht, visual
resources curator at the
Katzen Arts Center’s Visual
Resources Center. “Lily
handled registrations,
created publicity, and
served as an invaluable
member of the team.”
Sehn is capping her final
year with the perfect experience. This fall, she began a
graduate-level internship for
the 2013–2014 academic
year working in the curatorial
department of the Smithsonian
American Art Museum.
“Museums make art accessible to everybody,” Sehn
says, summing up her love
of the institutions. “Whether
you know a lot about art or
nothing at all, you can appreciate something just by looking at it. Whether you like it
or it brings out some emotive
response, just looking at art
will do something to you.” 
Four years ago, I
left my hometown steel
community in western
Pennsylvania to attend
college. If you had told
me then that I’d return
to document the memories of the people who
knew the history of this
once thriving rust-belt
town, I would have told
you that you were crazy.
Certainly I didn’t expect
their stories to change
the way I thought about
my home. But that’s
exactly what happened.
When I graduated
from high school in
2009, all I wanted to do
was get out of Ohioville.
The town is an hour
northwest of Pittsburgh
and in what I considered
the middle of nowhere.
I was tired of seeing the
same people everywhere
I went, of having no cell
phone reception at my
house, and going to the
same bar every Friday
night for fish salads
with my family. Ohioville
and Beaver County
would always be home,
but there was nothing
interesting enough to
make me want to stay.
I came to AU, where
I decided to double
major in journalism and
history, and went back
to Ohioville for breaks.
During my sophomore
year, I took an oral history class with Pam
Henson. Our final project was to conduct oral
history interviews on
a topic of our choice.
I immediately thought
of my hometown.
Ohioville is a rural “suburb” of the steel town of
Midland. Founded by the
Midland Steel Company
in the early 1900s, Midland became an industrial
hot spot that revolved
around a steel mill. During
its heyday in the 1950s
and ’60s, the mill, owned
by Colt Industries, went
by the name Crucible.
It seemed as though
everyone worked at
Crucible, including my
grandfather and uncle,
until it closed in 1982
and devastated the
surrounding area.
The mill reopened in
1983, but it employed
only a few hundred
people instead of a few
thousand. People left the
community in droves to
find work. The Midland
school district had to
close its high school
because of low enrollment. Virtually drained of
its former life, Midland
became an empty shell.
It was the perfect topic
for an oral history project.
Knowing next to nothing
about the Crucible mill,
I decided to interview former mill employees about
what it was like to work
in the mill and to be laid
off and have to search
for a job. I was also
interested in their reflections on the present.
Sitting at people’s
kitchen tables, I heard
stories about a Midland
that was clogged with
traffic and a main street
that was lined with businesses—certainly not
the case today. People
told me about the dangers of working in the
mill and also how they
enjoyed working there,
that it provided a good
living. And they told me
Photo by Angela Modany
humanities
You Can Go
Home
Again
why they had left and
why they had stayed.
As I listened to their
stories about how
prosperous the area
had been—and how
much everything had
changed—I found it
remarkable that they
could look back so positively on an industry that
virtually did them in.
Even 30 years later, how
could they not be bitter?
In those questions,
I found my thesis.
After my oral history
class project was over, I
continued to interview mill
workers, their wives, their
children, school board
members, church workers, and the current president of the steel workers
union. I poured through
microfilm of the Beaver
County Times from 1982
and looked through old
photos in local archives.
I toured the downsized
mill and felt the heat
of molten orange steel
as it poured in front of
me. I listened to 14 oral
history interviews over
and over, trying to find
answers to my questions.
Ironically, over the
past year I took every
opportunity to return to
the community I was
so eager to leave to
conduct interviews and
do research. During
my final semester, as
I wrote and thought
about how to present
my research on History
Day in April, I found
myself feeling homesick
for Ohioville after listening to these stories from
by
Angela
Modany
“[This project] has helped
me realize that every place
has a history that is just as
important as any history you
read about in a textbook.”
—Angela Modany
home. I thought about
what my life might have
been like if Crucible
had never closed, and I
wondered if I will return
to the Beaver Valley,
as some displaced
steel families did.
I don’t know whether
a senior thesis normally prompts such soul
searching. But through
the process I have
come to understand my
community better and
feel proud of it. It has
also helped me realize that every place has
a history that is just as
important as any history you read about in
a textbook—if not more
so. This little corner of
western Pennsylvania
is home, and its history is my history. 
15
new faculty
“I see D.C. as a place where
you can knock on someone’s
office door at NSF or NIH and
discuss your research agenda
and get ideas from colleagues
in the neighborhood.”
NATHAN LARSON
Courtesy of Nathan Larson
Courtesy of Naden Krogan
NADEN KROGAN
—Chap Kusimba
Areas of research: developmental biology
investigating fundamental aspects of growth and
pattern formation in multicellular organisms, relying
on genetics, molecular biology, and genomics to
look at these processes in plant model systems
“How a complex organism, with all its intricate
patterns, develops from a single cell is one
of the most fascinating questions in biology.
Exploring these aspects as a student, and
realizing how far we still are from a complete
understanding of development, initially piqued
my interest in this field.
While many developmental biologists study
animal systems, I have concentrated on plants as
model organisms. They offer numerous technical
advantages over animals, and what we learn from
plants can be applied to a diverse array of fields,
from agricultural improvement to understanding
different disease states.”
“How a complex organism,
with all its intricate patterns,
develops from a single cell is
one of the most fascinating
questions in biology.”
—Naden Krogen
Professor and chair, Department of
Anthropology
»» PhD anthropology, Bryn Mawr College
»» EdB African history and linguistics;
Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya
Areas of research: Africa’s ancient and
contemporary contributions to global history; the
development of social complexity, urbanism, and
inequality; the origins of urbanism as a result of
global trade, migration, and integration (see p. 4)
“Growing up in Kenya, we always knew about the
work the Leakeys were doing. And, of course,
they promoted the idea that to be a human being
is to be African because humankind basically
lived in Africa—and not very far from where we
were growing up in East Africa. That idea was
really attractive, especially in recently independent
African nations.
There are lots of attractions here in terms of
opportunities but also in terms of resources.
People see Washington as a political city—but as
a scientist, I see D.C. as a place where you can
knock on someone’s office door at NSF or NIH
and discuss your research agenda and get ideas
from colleagues in the neighborhood.”
“At its heart, an education in
economics is about learning to
think carefully about scarcity,
other people’s motivations,
and the law of unintended
consequences.”
—Nathan Larson
16
Assistant professor, Department of Economics
»» PhD economics, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology
»» BS physics, BA economics; Duke University
Areas of research: how people extract,
process, and disseminate (through social media)
information from environmental clues
“I have always been fascinated by the idea of
using mathematical models to understand the
behavior of large, complex systems. I started out
in physics with systems of particles but discovered
that systems of people could be just as intriguing.
At its heart, an education in economics is about
learning to think carefully about scarcity, other
people’s motivations, and the law of unintended
consequences—the type of thinking that is often
in short supply in public discourse today. My job
is to practice these habits of thought with the
generation that will be leading the world when I’m
retired, so I have a strong incentive to get it right.”
GABRIEL MATHY
Courtesy of Gabriel Mathy
CHAP KUSIMBA
Courtesy of Chap Kusimba
Assistant professor, Department of Biology
»» PhD botany and developmental biology,
University of Toronto, Canada
»» MS, BS biology; University of Regina, Canada
Assistant professor, Department of Economics
»» PhD, MA economics; University of
California–Davis
»» BA economics and international studies,
University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign
Areas of research: macroeconomics, economic
history, international economics, financial
economics, uncertainty
“My interest in the economics of the Great
Depression really began with the financial
crisis of 2008. After the economic tranquility
of the early 2000s, when a large economic
crisis seemed essentially impossible, the world
economy in 2008 seemed to be headed for a
Depression-style event.
new faculty
—Lauren McGrath
Courtesy of Lauren McGrath
LAUREN MCGRATH
Assistant professor, School of Education,
Teaching, and Health
»» Affiliate, Department of Psychology,
Center for Behavioral Neuroscience
»» PhD, MA child clinical psychology and
developmental cognitive neuroscience;
University of Denver
»» BS neuroscience and psychology,
Brandeis University
Areas of research: genetic, environmental,
and neuropsychological risk factors for learning
disabilities in children
“My parents were both schoolteachers, so there
was always an emphasis on learning in our
home. Later in my studies, I was captivated by
the neurosciences and became interested in the
actual brain mechanisms that facilitate learning.
I have focused my research on learning disabilities
because I believe there is tremendous potential
to improve early identification and intervention
strategies through strong collaborations between
educators and psychologists.”
“I love the fact that
American University is
very engaged with the D.C.
community at large.”
—Theresa Runstedtler
THERESA RUNSTEDTLER
Courtesy of Theresa Runstedtler
“I believe there is tremendous
potential to improve early
identification and intervention
strategies [of learning
disabilities] through strong
collaborations between
educators and psychologists.”
CYNTHIA MILLER-IDRISS
Photo by Milas Smith
I was taking courses in economic history and
macroeconomics, and I figured that studying
the Great Depression was the best way to be
informed about the Great Recession. I think there
is much more to be learned from the crisis of the
’30s, as we are still suffering the aftereffects many
years later. The current economic debates are
essentially the same as those that took place after
the Depression, and many issues relating to large
recessions and subsequent recoveries are still
fiercely debated today.”
Associate professor, School of Education,
Teaching, and Health
»» Director, International Training and Education
Program (ITEP)
»» PhD sociology, MPP public policy,
MA sociology; University of Michigan
»» BA German area studies, Cornell University
Areas of research: identity, nationalism,
right-wing extremism, citizenship, education in
international and comparative contexts (see p. 7)
“I first became interested in the German school
system when I was studying abroad as an
undergraduate and learned how radically different
school organization and structure can be from
country to country. This evolved into a broader
interest in schooling, civic education, and identity
in comparative and international contexts.
The first thing I want to do on campus is spend
a lot of time listening to students and colleagues
about what they want and need from the
International Education and Training Program and
build that feedback into any changes. I would like
to help build linkages between ITEP and related
programs across campus as well as in the D.C.
area and beyond. I will also run the new Global
Education Forum, which will bring speakers to
campus for discussions of the most pressing
global educational issues.”
“I would like to help build
linkages between ITEP and
related programs across
campus as well as in the D.C.
area and beyond.”
—Cynthia Miller-Idriss
Associate professor, Department of History
»» PhD African American studies and history,
Yale University
»» BA history and English; York University,
Toronto, Canada
Areas of research: race, gender, and resistance
in popular culture; black transnationalism and
anticolonialism; African Americans and U.S.
foreign relations; U.S. transnational and imperial
history; globalization and racial formations;
European racial and imperial culture and policy;
black Canada
“Back in Canada as an undergraduate, I took
a senior seminar on African American history.
Many students of color packed the room. We
were hungry to learn about the U.S. civil rights
movement and to explore its intersections with
our own experiences of racism. This was the
first space in which many of us had a frank,
crosscultural discussion about race. The professor
fostered an atmosphere that was challenging, yet
respectful, and historically rigorous, yet critically
engaged with the present. Every time I enter the
classroom, I bring this same spirit of discovery
with me.
I love the fact that American University is very
engaged with the D.C. community at large.
So many students are involved in political and
social activism, volunteer work, and internships.
Moreover, my new department has a public history
concentration that allows professors to reach out
beyond the campus.”
17
new faculty
“Chaucer, Dante, and
Boccaccio [attracted me to
my field]. I had never read
anything so rigorous,
so funny, and so politically
engaged before.”
BEI XIAO
Courtesy of Bei Xiao
Photo by Emily Schmidt
KATHLEEN SMITH
—Kathleen Smith
MICHAEL TREANOR
Photo by Emily Schmidt
Assistant professor, Department of Literature
»» PhD English and comparative literature,
MPhil English, MA English; Columbia University
»» BA English, BA classics; University of Illinois–
Urbana-Champaign
Areas of research: late medieval literature,
religion, law
“Chaucer, Dante, and Boccaccio [attracted me to
my field]. I had never read anything so rigorous,
so funny, and so politically engaged before.
I happened upon a surprising change in legal
history and realized how much it affected literary
history and other forms of expression. Criminal
intent did not exist in early medieval law; it had
to be invented, and it changed the way people
understood individual morality. I felt I had no
choice but to research it and write about it.”
Assistant professor, Department of Computer
Science
»» MS computer science, MFA digital arts and
new media, BA computer science; University
of California–Santa Cruz
ELKE STOCKREITER
Assistant professor, Department of History
»» PhD history, MA African studies;
University of London, U.K.
»» MPhil African studies and Arabic;
University of Vienna, Austria
“Growing up in a time where video games were
a regular part of life, I always wondered why
literature, music, and film were treated seriously
in academic contexts and games were not. My
career has focused on exploring games as an art
form and a serious area of study.
Areas of research: combining methods of and
insights into African social history and Islamic
studies to obtain a deeper understanding of
Muslim societies in sub-Saharan Africa
Once I got started trying to make expressive
games, I realized just how little we understand
about how to make meaningful, playable
experiences. My research has moved toward
exploring how both creators and players can
understand the dynamic and interactive aspects
of games.”
“My interest in Africa and its peoples was
sparked by media coverage, which focuses on
catastrophes on the continent. I was curious to
look behind this predominantly negative image.
For the same reason, I became interested in Islam
and the Muslim world.
I became a historian of Islamic Africa to help
us gain a better understanding of the role of
Islamic law, gender relations, and the roots of
contemporary conflicts. As a legal historian,
I’m particularly intrigued by the adaptability and
complexity of Islamic law, as well as Muslims’
and non-Muslims’ common misconceptions of
its historical role.”
Areas of research: video game design and
interpretation (see p. 9)
“As a legal historian, I’m
particularly intrigued by the
adaptability and complexity
of Islamic law, as well as
Muslims’ and non-Muslims’
common misconceptions of its
historical role.”
—Elke Stockreiter
18
Assistant professor, Department of Computer
Science
»» PhD neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania
»» BS physical chemistry; Tsinghua University,
Beijing, China
Areas of research: tactile and visual perception
of material properties, computational modeling of
perception, perception-driven computer graphics
“Material perception—perception of what an
object is made of—is a fundamental aspect of
human and machine intelligence. It provides an
excellent opportunity to understand how humans
make inferences of the environment. It also has
a lot of applications in the real world, such as
online shopping, automatic scene understanding,
robotics, and computer graphics.
I wish to build a vivid research lab on the
topics regarding human and computer
perception of material properties and
3-D scenes. I am also very interested in
collaborating with other researchers to
study exciting topics in the fields of cognitive
neuroscience, computer games and learning,
and education. In addition, I am looking forward
to teaching and designing interdisciplinary
courses in both computer science and
neuroscience and involving undergraduate
students in the research laboratory.”
“I wish to build a vivid
research lab on the topics
regarding human and
computer perception of
material properties and
3-D scenes.”
—Bei Xiao
donors
CAS 2012–2013 Honor Roll
Thank you to everyone who donated to the College of Arts and Sciences. Your commitment and generosity sustain our
mission to provide a challenging liberal arts education within a vibrant and diverse community. We are deeply moved
by the number of alumni, faculty, staff, parents, and friends who have invested in the College.
This list includes gifts made to the College of Arts and Sciences by individuals, estates, foundations, corporations, and
other organizations during the fiscal year ending April 30, 2013. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of
this list. Please report inadvertent errors or omissions to Amanda Riddle at riddle@american.edu or 202-885-6607.
$25,000 and
above
Estate of Maryada F.
Buell Ù ’49 ¿
Elizabeth L. Eisenstein and
Julian C. Eisenstein ¿ ê
Carol B. Goldberg AU and
Henry H. Goldberg ¿ ê
Susan Carmel Lehrman ¿
Robyn R. Mathias ’64,
JD ’92 P ¿ ê
Mark C. Medish
Marcia F. Newell
Gregory Pototsky
Galia D. Reiss P and
Ori M. Reiss P
Susan Rothfeld and
Donald Rothfeld ¿
Nuzhat Sultan-Khan and
Anil Revri
William M. Vincent ’95 and
Amy N. Vincent ê
Sharon A. Wolpoff ’74,
MFA ’81 ¿ ê
$10,000–$24,999
Lillian K. Abensohn ¿ ê
Gary M. Abramson ’68 P and
Pennie M. Abramson P ¿ ê
Carolyn S. Alper ’68 G ¿ ê
Carol Berman and
Gary C. Berman
Nur Calika
Laura K. Cutler AU and Michael
B. Cutler ê
Joanna M. Driggs ’60 and
John A. Driggs ¿
Debra Friedmann and
Peter Friedmann
Lynn C. Greenfield ’79 P and
Stephen E. Greenfield P
Gail P. Hartstein ’72 and
Gary Hartstein
Lynne M. Hensley ’74
William W. Jahnke
Blair Jones MS ’78, MA ’95
Lynn R. Katzen ’71 and
Jay E. Katzen
Alan L. Meltzer ’73 P and
Amy Meltzer P ¿ ê
Phyllis Peres AU and Rajat Sen
Amy G. Polinger ’78 and
David M. Polinger
Deborah M. Rappaport and
Adam J. Rappaport
Lynn Schusterman
Julie Bender Silver
Peter T. Starr AU and
Alice C. Hill
Dorothy L. Weintraub
$5,000–$9,999
Marilyn Armel ’63 ê
Robert L. Beisner AU ê
Stuart L. Bindeman ’70 and
Martha K. Bindeman
Edward C. Bou JD ’58 P ¿ ê
Roger H. Brown AU and
Nancy B. Brown
Marc N. Duber ’81 and
Nancy E. Duber ’82 ¿ ê
Joe B. Garza
Gisela B. Huberman JD ’80 and
Benjamin Huberman
C. Nicholas Keating Jr. ’63,
MA ’64 and Carleen Butler
Keating ’64 ¿ ê
Vivienne Lassman
Richard B. Nesson
John S. Patton PhD ’63 and
Mary Miller Patton AU ê
Angela P. Penay ’73, MA ’77
and Luciano J. Penay AU
’62, MA ’64, MS ’77
Shelley Singer and
Michael B. Gross ê
$2,500–$4,999
Darryl Atwell
Richard C. Barnett MA ’74 and
Caroline W. Barnett ê
Michael Brenner AU
George P. Chambers ’92
Rebecca Cooke ê
Arnold Danielson ’62 and
Vivian C. Danielson
Susan Feinberg
Charles Knapp
Robert P. Kogod ’62, H ’00 and
Arlene R. Kogod ¿ ê
Simki G. Kuznick ’01 P and
Peter J. Kuznick AU P ê
Peter L. Scher ’83, JD ’87 and
Kimberly H. Tilley AU
MA ’08 ¿
Wendelin A. White and
Paul M. Feinberg
$1,000–$2,499
Anonymous
Bonnie E. Aikman Ù ’55
Nana K. An AU MEd ’84,
MPA ’06 and Joe T. An ’90 ê
Christine B. Anderson ’71,
MS ’77 ê
Radoslav D. Antonov ’92
Joy H. Baxt and Leonard J. Baxt
Allan Berman
Adam K. Bernstein
Lisa M. Bernstein AU MAT ’01
and Joshua B. Bernstein
Stuart A. Bernstein ’60 and
Wilma E. Bernstein ’60 ¿ ê
Estate of Gladys Borrus
Kathy S. Borrus ê
Ivy E. Broder AU P and
John Morrall III P ê
Judith Brody and Tom Brody
Dean Carter Ù’47 and
Rosina Carter ê
Kimberly A. Cradock ’96
Sharon Doner-Feldman and
Israel Feldman
Deborah Dranove P and
David S. Dranove P
R. R. Edwards
Elisabeth French ê
Marisa Friedman ’68, MA ’70
and Ross S. Friedman
Charles Gurian ’72 ê
Haya Berman Hakim and
Jeffrey L. Hakim AU
Ruby J. Halperin and
Herbert Halperin
Helen M. Harkins ’67 ê
Daniel E. Hecker
Maria E. Henderson MS ’77
and William A. Vannortwick
ê
Albert J. Irion AU MS ’04
Maureen F. Irion AU
MEd ’76, P ê
Caleen Jennings AU and
Carl Jennings AU
Sally Katz
Martin Kelman
Cornelius M. Kerwin AU ’71 P
and Ann L. Kerwin ’71 P ¿ ê
Cookie Kerxton ê
Robert L. Koenig
Bernard Kossar
Stuart Kurlander
Howard Lee ’69, JD ’73
LaVonne Lela
Bruce D. Levenson JD ’76 and
Karen Levenson
David L. Martin ê
Alison Martyn and James T.
Banks ê
Estate of Sarah M. Moore ¿
Lynne D. Myers and Donald J.
Myers
Sara C. Nieves-Grafals ’75,
MA ’79, PhD ’80 and
Al A. Getz ê
Satoko Norimatsu
Julian Orr and Willie Sue
Toni H. Paul ’71 and
Ronald A. Paul
Kathryn Peck and
Jerome N. Peck
Jesmin Rahman AU MA ’96,
PhD ’98 and Bernhard G.
Gunter AU PhD ’98 ê
Jack A. Rasmussen AU MFA
’75, MA ’83, PhD ’94 P
and Ana M. Rasmussen MA
’87 P
Anita O. Reiner ’69, MA ’76
and Burton J. Reiner ê
Julia T. Richie
Amy B. Rosoff P and
Charles T. Rosoff P
Samuel Sandler ê
Thyagaraja Sarada MS ’70,
PhD ’72 ê
Romeo A. Segnan AU
David Shapiro
Margaret A. Silver ’94 and
Sidney J. Silver
Myra W. Sklarew AU
Ulysses J. Sofia AU and
Heidi Sofia
Jean P. Soman
Richard Sussman
Patricia T. van der Vorm
MEd ’81, PhD ’95 and
Jacob van der Vorm ê
Helen Wachs and Martin Wachs
Leanne Young and
Frank E. Young
P. R. Zitelman
$500–$999
Anonymous
Judith M. Alembik ’60 and
Aaron I. Alembik
Sofia M. Ali ’87 and
David Caccamo
Fanta Aw AU ’90, MPA ’94,
PhD ’11 ê
Linda A. Bennett PhD ’76
Marguerite S. Berger ’78,
PhD ’89
David Blumenthal MBA ’69 and
Barbara Blumenthal
Lillian C. Borrone ’68 and
Edward J. Borrone
Christopher D. Breder ’85 and
Christina Chang
Alexander J. Breger
Carol R. Breitman P and
Richard D. Breitman P AU ê
Jan Brodhead P and
Charles Brodhead Jr. P
John F. Brougher MA ’73
Colette A. Christie P and
Gary D. Christie P
Garrett V. Coleman ’61
Carl E. Cook AU ’66
Dallas P. Dean ’62 ê
Kathleen M. Dowd JD ’85
Maureen L. Fittig AU and
Alan W. Fittig ê
Rainey W. Foster ’84
19
donors
Ted Gancayco
Eula George P
Nancy H. Gewirz ’75 and
Carl S. Gewirz MBA ’91
Lisa Gilotty and Philip Barlow
Jonah Gitlitz ’55 and
Sallie Gitlitz
Irene B. Glowinski ’75
Thomas A. Gottschalk and
Barbara J. Gottschalk ¿ ê
Milton Greenberg AU H ’91 and
Sonia B. Greenberg ¿ ê
Sandra L. Handleman ’69 P and
Aaron L. Handleman ê
Neil E. Heyden ’91 P and
Robin J. Heyden P ê
Laura J. Hillman ’88
Susanna L. Holsopple AUê
John H. Johns PhD ’79 and
Barbara A. Johns
Deborah R. Kennedy MA ’88 ê
Kathleen M. Kennedy-Corey AU
’73, MBA ’80 and Chadwick
E. Wyatt ê
Edith G. Kuhnle MFA ’79 and
John H. Kuhnle ê
Martha Lazarakis P and
Sam Lazarakis P
Philip G. Levy
Cynthia F. Lubin P and
David B. Lorsch P
Dalya Luttwak and
Edward Luttwak
Gerald S. Malitz ’72 and
Ruth L. Marcus
Phyllis G. Margolius ’83 P and
Philip N. Margolius AU P
Jo Ann S. Mason P and
John J. Mason P ¿
Alan O. Maurer MA ’66 and
Elayna N. Maurer
Marcia D. Moritz ’55
Annette G. Moshman and
Jack Moshman ê
Kay J. Mussell AU P and
Boris Weintraub P ê
Judith A. Nowak
Leslie L. Palmieri AU and
Peter E. Palmieri
Kathleen W. Parks ’69 ê
Rocky Piaggione
Adrienne Reutershan and
Christopher Reutershan
Lynda F. Sanders ’75 P and
Donald B. Sanders ê
Courtenay Slater MA ’65,
PhD ’68 and Whitney
S. Slater
Lila A. Snow
Jeff M. Soderberg ’85
Lois S. Spear MA ’62, MS ’85
and Moncreiff J. Spear
Virginia Lyn Stallings AU
Martin N. Stone ’69 and
Maritza L. Stone ê
Margaret W. Studt ’73 ê
Isaac W. Thweatt AU and
Jamaal A. French
Mary Weaver MS ’84 and
James H. Weaver AU ê
Richard L. Weil ’72 and
Carole R. Weil
20
$250–$499
Anita H. Allen MEd ’73 and
James R. Allen ê
Marie G. Barnard ’92, ’96
and Robert Barnard ’91,
MA ’94 ê
Suzanne L. Barron AU MAT ’05
and Keith E. Barron ê
Ruth D. Bartfeld MEd ’82 and
Charles I. Bartfeld AU ê
Gabriela Bebchick and
Leonard Bebchick
Ellen R. Berlow
Mary A. Bever and
Peter J. Bever
Suanne D. Beyda and
C. Richard Beyda
Mary W. Beyer ’70 and
Gordon Beyer Ù ê
Donald K. Bischoff ’69
Christopher W. Black ’96 ê
Faith Bobrow and Philip
Bobrow
Vera Borkovec AU MA ’66 ê
David A. Brown ’63 and
Carole A. Brown ê
Ann Burger ’59 and
Herbert Burger ê
Michele M. Certo ’93
Jackie A. Cohen and
Edward S. Cohen
Charles M. Cox ’67 ê
Delna K. Dastur MFA ’78 and
Kersy B. Dastur
Marta A. De la Torre MA ’83 ê
Amy L. Deutsch ’78 P and
Arnold E. Glickman P
Nathan K. Dolezal AU ’08
Linda E. Doman MS ’89 ê
Mary Ellen E. Duke MA ’85 ê
Gerald L. Ellison ’60 and
Naoma Ellison
Kathleen A. Feeney ’79,
MPA ’82 and Kurt
P. Jaeger ê
Sandra Fitzpatrick and
James F. Fitzpatrick
Benjamin I. Funk JD ’08 ê
Gina M. Gasdia P and
Russel J. Gasdia P ê
Catherine R. Gira PhD ’75 ê
James E. Girard AU P and
Constance T. Diamant AU
PhD ’91, P ê
Peter G. Glick ’86
Jean R. Glover MA ’89
Gail W. Gorlitzz and
Cris Smith
Deborah Greenspan and
Jerald B. Greenspan
Bruce R. Guthrie
Margaret R. Hahn and
Stephen R. Stern
Susan B. Haris ’69 ê
Philipp Hartmann ’68 and
Helga M. Hartmann ê
Joseph M. Henning PhD ’98
James M. Hope ’88 and
Katherine Hope
Anne C. Howes ’83 ê
Janet E. Hutner ’73
Barbara A. Jabr MA ’56 ê
Monica A. Jeffries Hazangeles
MA ’96
Jayson A. Johnson AU MA ’03
Johnny E. Kelly MEd ’77 and
Nell W. Kelly ê
Nicholas E. Komninos PhD ’94
John D. Koutsandreas ’50 and
Katherine Koutsandreas ê
Alisa S. Kramer AU PhD ’07 ê
Lillian Kremer and
Eugene Kremer
Anne L. Krueger P and
Anthony Corapi P
Eleanor D. Gomolinski Lally
MA ’70 and Thomas J. Lally
Jean Libutti ’72 and
Frank Libutti
Gerald L. Linstedt Ù MS ’71
Eric J. Lohr AU and
Anya Schmemann
Jack Luxemburg
Carl Menninger AU
Mary H. Mytryshyn MS ’72 and
John Mytryshyn ê
Daniel J. Olson ’66 and
Janet Olson ê
Glenna D. Osnos and
David M. Osnos
Jerome S. Paige MA ’74, PhD
’82 and Cynthia A. Paige ê
Lawley Paisley-Jones
Robert T. Pasquerella MA ’96 ê
Alan E. Paul ’90 and
Mary A. Paul
Jarrett B. Perlow AU ’00, JD
’04
Leta M. Petroff P and
George A. Petroff P
Shelly Porges
Diane E. Powell ’79, MEd ’75,
PhD ’79
Sondra G. Proctor ’62, MEd
’66 and David A. Van Epps
Joanne O. Reed MA ’88
Ruth Y. Richardson ’75 and
Marion Richardson
Robert A. Robbins ’71 ê
Stephen Rose ’67 and
Charlotte J. Word
David A. Rosenberg ’70 and
Deborah L. Rosenberg
Michael H. Schwartz
Andrew G. Ship ’81, MEd ’83
and Barbara B. Ship ê
Kevin G. Shollenberger
MEd ’89 ê
Linsey P. Silver AU ’00 and
Lee F. Berger AU ’99
Pamela H. Smith ê
Richard P. Solloway
Cathy Sulzberger
Michelle L. Tafel AU ’94
Ann E. Taylor-Green PhD ’87 ê
Mary L. Townshend ’62, MA ’66
and Richard L. Townshend ê
Peter F. Trapp ’70 and
Pamela F. Trapp ê
Andrea Tschemplik AU and
James H. Stam AU
Alan J. Turnbull MA ’70 and
Gwen S. Turnbull ê
Carl R. Tuvin
William L. Vest ’59 ê
Adam S. Warshavsky ’93,
MA ’94
Diane Wattenberg
Dorothy E. Waugh PhD ’62 and
Merle G. Waugh ê
Michael E. Weber ’85, MA ’89
and Leslie F. Weber AU
Philip C. Webre PhD ’83
David S. Weisman ’80 ê
John E. Westcott ’67 and
Susan L. Westcott
Brigette L. Willner P and
Marshall N. Willner P
Svetlana Xu AU
Utako Yokoyama AU ’84 ê
Ruth L. Zetlin ’79
Margot Zimmerman and
Paul Zimmerman ê
Richard Zitelman
Corporations,
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Organizations
Anonymous
Abramson Family Foundation
Ambient Digital Solutions
Apogee Productions
Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron
Foundation
Baxt Family Foundation
Bender Foundation
Berman Family Foundation
Gary and Carol Berman Family
Foundation
Bernstein Family Foundation
Bou Family Foundation
Capital Alliance
Center on Global Interests
Citydance Ensemble
Naomi and Nehemiah Cohen
Foundation
Ryna and Melvin Cohen
Family Foundation
Community Foundation of the
National Capital Region
Cora and John H. Davis
Foundation
Elsie and Marvin Dekelboum
Foundation
Driggs Foundation
Einhorn Yaffee Prescott
Ernst and Young LLP
Agustin Fernandez Foundation
Fitzpatrick Charitable
Foundation
Samuel and Grace Gorlitz
Foundation
Harris Family Foundation
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield
Israel Institute
Eleanor M. and Herbert D. Katz
Family Foundation
Cyrus Katzen Foundation
Robert P. and Arlene R. Kogod
Family Foundation
Bernard and Carol Kossar
Foundation
McGraw-Hill Companies
Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff
Fund
Jack and Annette Moshman
Charitable Foundation
Nikos G. and Anastasia Photias
Educational Foundation
Howard and Geraldine Polinger
Family Foundation
Charles and Lynn Schusterman
Family Foundation
Curt C. and Else Silberman
Foundation
Silver Family Foundation
State Farm Companies
Foundation
United Jewish Endowment Fund
of Washington
University of Munich
Uran LLC
Washington DC Jewish
Community Center
Wells Fargo
Wolpoff Family Foundation
ê The 1893 Society recognizes the commitment
of loyal donors with five or more consecutive
years of giving and the significant role they play in
sustaining university life.
¿ Individuals who have made cumulative
contributions totaling $100,000 or more are
lifetime members of the President’s Circle.
Ù Deceased
AU Current or former faculty or staff
P
AU parent
G
AU grandparent
H
Honorary degree recipient
achievements
Grants
& Research
Jeffrey Kaplan (biology) transferred a fouryear project totaling $466,562 from the University
of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The
project is titled “Biofilm matrix-degrading enzymes
for the treatment and prevention of S. aureus-as.”
John Nolan (mathematics and statistics)
received a three-year subcontract, estimated at
$306,452, from Cornell University for an ARO
MURI project, “Multivariate Heavy Tail Phenomena:
Modeling and Diagnostics,” funded by the U.S.
Army Research Office.
Anastasia Snelling (education) received
a $72,621 award from Kaiser Permanente of the
mid-Atlantic region to fund her project “The D.C.
Healthy Schools Act in the District of Columbia:
Measuring Its Impact–II.”
Appointments
& Honors
Mary Gray (mathematics and statistics)
was named a 2013 American Mathematical
Society fellow.
Since December 2010, Caren Grown
(economics) has served as USAID’s senior gender
advisor in the Bureau of Policy, Planning, and
Learning. She became acting senior coordinator
for gender equality and women’s empowerment
in May 2013. Grown held both positions until the
beginning of September.
At MathFest 2013, Dan Kalman (mathematics
and statistics) received a Mathematical Association of America Lester R. Ford Award for his
paper “Another Way to Sum a Series: Generating
Functions, Euler, and the Dilog Function.”
Kiho Kim (environmental science) was
appointed to the Group of Experts of the Regular
Process for Global Reporting and Assessment
of the State of the Marine Environment for the
United Nations.
Marianne Noble (literature) was elected
to the editorial board of American Literature, the
journal sponsored by the American Literature
Section of the Modern Language Association.
Adrienne Pine (anthropology) received a
Fulbright award in support of her research project
“Nursing, Health, and Democracy in Honduras.”
In recognition of her excellent scholarship and
administrative leadership, Naomi Baron
(world languages and cultures) was the
third College faculty member to receive the
Betty T. Bennett Award.
In April, Alan M. Kraut (history) became
president of the Organization of American
Historians. He was also awarded an OAH
China Residency this year.
Matt Boerum (audio technology) was
presented the Excellence in Advising award at
the Student Activities’ student leader reception.
Gail Humphries Mardirosian
(performing arts) was invested into the
College of Fellows of the American Theatre at the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
A painting by Tim Doud (art) was included
in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition,
the National Portrait Gallery’s triennial. One
of 50 selected from among more than 3,000
submissions, Doud’s work was featured on the
catalogue cover.
Deborah Payne Fisk (literature) received
a Fulbright fellowship to lecture on early modern
English drama at the Universidad de Sevilla in
spring 2014. She will work with Spanish faculty
members on a publication related to the Restoration Comedy Project, an ongoing effort funded by
the European Union.
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Foundation awarded a 2013 fellowship to
Max Paul Friedman (history) in the 89th
annual competition for the United States and
Canada. The fellowship will support Friedman’s
current research project, “The Containment of
the United States: The Latin American Diplomatic
Tradition and the Limits of Principle.” He is one
of 175 scholars, artists, and scientists to win the
fellowship this year.
Randa Serhan (sociology) and
Mary Mintz (library) were recognized
by the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf program,
part of the Bridging Cultures initiative sponsored
by the National Endowment for the Humanities
and the American Library Association. Among the
gifts were 25 books and three documentary films
for the university library and three hosted events
on Muslim-American issues.
Books
& Productions
Daniel Abraham (performing arts) led 29
members of the AU Chamber Singers on a tour
of Russia, performing May 18–30 at venues
across the country.
Bette J. Dickerson (sociology) coedited
Notions of Family: Intersectional Perspectives
(Emerald Group, 2013). Her coeditors were
Marla H. Kohlman and Dana B. Krieg of
Kenyon College.
Melanie George and Sandra Atkinson
(both performing arts) traveled with 10 students
during spring break to the mid-Atlantic regional
American College Dance Festival, held this year
at the University of North Carolina–Greensboro.
A piece choreographed by an AU student titled
This Is Not a Show was among 10 works by
guest artists, faculty, and students performed in
the closing gala concert.
Promotions &
Appointments
Professor
MAX PAUL FRIEDMAN history
ERIC LOHR history
WALTER PARK economics
CELINE-MARIE PASCALE sociology
PAUL WINTERS economics
Associate Professor and Tenure
ALIDA ANDERSON SETH
ERIK DUSSERE literature
KATE HAULMAN history
DESPINA KAKOUDAKI literature
SHUBHA PATHAK philosophy
and religion
DAVID VINE anthropology
Associate Professor
ANDREA PEARSON art
Senior Professorial Lecturer
(Performing Arts)
SHERBURNE LAUGHLIN
NANCY SNIDER
Senior Professorial Lecturer
(World Languages and Cultures)
JORGE ATA
GEORGE BERG
RANIERI MOORE CAVACEPPI
USASI CHATTERJEE
ESTHER HOLTERMANN
ELIZABETH LANG
KRISTIN VELLEMAN MALONEY
SVETLANA XU
Professorial Lecturer
MARY SWITALSKI literature
Professorial Lecturer
(World Languages and Cultures)
LILIAN BAEZA-MENDOZA
CARMEN CACHO
SHAGHAF HAZIMEH GLUECK
KARINA ROBERTA JERONIMIDES
WILLIAM QUIRK
SADIBOU SOW
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