by Alice Bampton

Phylis Wright, manager of access desk services, announced that Vanvi Trieu was selected as student employee of the month for January, 2012.

Wright said, “Vanvi is a senior this year and he has worked for the Digital Library since he was a freshman. … Although he is quite busy as an engineering student, he has always made time to work a few hours a week for us because he enjoys the job. In addition to scanning, Vanvi also assists Bente [Polites, Special Collections librarian,] with Special Collections tasks.”

Laura Bang, the Special and Digital Collections curatorial assistant who supervises Vanvi in the Digital Library, commented, “Vanvi is a careful and efficient student worker (very important for the fragile materials we deal with) and a friendly person. He is a pleasure to work with!”

Vanvi, a senior civil engineering major from Philadelphia, has tutored underclassmen and volunteered for events hosted by the Campus Activities Team. He enjoys a variety of hobbies: making/editing videos, “PhotoShopping” pictures, creating paper craft art and modifying or making iconic items from video games.

He says, “I think being an engineering student changed my biological clock and turned me into a nocturnal person. …[N]othing beats having a full course of ‘breakfast’ with lots of bacon as a midnight meal.”

Look for the caricature of Vanvi created by Joanne Quinn, Falvey’s design specialist, to be displayed on the pillar behind the main service desk.

This prize is awarded to the best unpublished essay or monograph on the
philosophy of war and peace submitted for the competition.
Process: The winning entry is selected by a committee of 3-6 members, appointed
by the Chair of the APA’s Committee on Lectures, Publications, and Research, in
consultation with LPR committee members.

Frequency: Every 2 years (odd years)

Award Amount: $1,500

Last Award: 2011

Next Award: 2013

Background

The Frank Chapman Sharp Memorial Prize was established in 1990 with funds
donated by Eliot and Dorothy Sharp and several other members and friends of the
Sharp family to honor the memory of Eliot’s father. Frank Chapman Sharp was
President of the Western Division of the APA in 1907-08 and was a member of the
philosophy faculty at the University of Wisconsin from 1893 until his retirement
in 1936. Dr. Sharp was born in 1866 and died in 1943.

Submission Procedures

APA Members and student associates are eligible to submit unpublished essays or
monographs for the prize. Manuscripts should be between 7,500 to 75,000 words
(between 30 and 300 double-spaced typed pages), and not published OR committed
for publication at the time of the award. Undergraduate entrants must be
philosophy majors (or something close); graduate students must be enrolled in,
or on leave from, a graduate program in philosophy. Authors must be members in
good standing of the APA. Send the paper (electronically) with the title and
author’s name and affiliation on a separate page. Any identifying references in
the body and footnotes of the manuscript should be removed. Deadline for
submission: March 15, 2012. Submissions should be sent via email to: Linda
Nuoffer (lnuoffer@udel.edu) with the subject line: Sharp Memorial Prize.

Previous awardees:

2011 – Seth Lazar (University of Oxford), War and Associative Duties
2009 – No award given
2007 – Jeff McMahan, “The Morality and Law of War”
2005 – Larry May, “War Crimes and Just Wars”
2003 – James Bohman, “Punishment as an International Political Obligation:
Crimes Against Humanity and the Enforceable Right to Membership”
2001 – No award given
1999 – Brian Orend, “A Theory of War Termination”
1997 – David Rodin, “Self-Defense and War”
1995 – No award given
1993 – No award given
1991 – Barry Gan, “Anti-Warism: A New Pacifist Perspective”

From the APA webpage: http://www.apaonline.org/APAOnline/Profession/Prizes_and_Awards/Frank_Chapman_Sharp_Memorial_Prize.aspx

Visit the Writing Center’s NEW LOCATION

210 FALVEY, 2nd floor, Learning Commons in Falvey

SPRING 2012  30-MINUTE WORKSHOPS

Thursday, Feb. 2—Avoiding the Passive Voice

Tuesday, Feb. 7—The Debatable Thesis

Wednesday, Feb. 15—Constructing an Academic Voice

Monday, Feb. 20—The Comparison/Contrast Essay

Tuesday, Feb. 28—Crafting Conclusions

Thursday, Mar. 15—The Marvelous MLA

Tuesday, Mar. 20—Planning the Perfect Paragraph

Wednesday, Mar. 28—Integrating Quotations

Tuesday, Apr. 17—How to Be Your Own Writing Tutor

Monday, Apr. 23—How to Write a Successful Statement of Purpose

ALL WORKSHOPS ARE AT 7:30 p.m. IN 210 FALVEY LIBRARY, THE WRITING CENTER.  STUDENTS RECEIVE A CERTIFICATE OF ATTENDANCE AND A HANDOUT FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.

March 30-31st, 2012
Yale University, New Haven, CT
23rd annual Graduate Student Conference

“Media determine our situation.”  The dictum of Friedrich Kittler is
probably one of the most important and far-reaching coming out of the study
of German literature in the last decades. In the spirit and on the paths of
the late Friedrich Kittler we invite scholars of all fields to explore
mediatic practices and their constitutive value of the past and the
present.
 One guiding conundrum is the question of “textuality.” Text and
textual practices are the center around which humanities rotate. More than a
hundred years after print lost its monopoly as the guiding medium of
cultural production with the invention of audio/visual media we still use
“text” as our primary approach to media, that is, text retains its monopoly
as the medium of cultural interpretation. With Derrida’s claim that
“everything is a text,” the inflation or favoring of only one medium over
any other was ennobled.  Meanwhile those non-textual media that had already
taken over the mediatic practices of the everyday were dismissed.

But is this practice still valid? Is the “secondary orality” (Ong) that we
live in really still as text-based as we perceive it to be? In an age where
we have already thoroughly traced the alterative influence that the media
had on texts in the last 150+ years (cf. Kittler), in an age when the
presence of the author in the media is prevalent, that emphasizes the Oprah
book-club over the text of the novel itself, in an age of Kindle and iPads
that have changed media and text consumption practices, where performances
(be they political or artistic), film, TV and video games have replaced the
printed text as the media of the public imaginary, should “text” still be
our primary focus and approach?  And to what extent have disciplines already
opened themselves up to non-textual mediatic practices?

The keynote address will be given by Wolfgang Ernst [HU Berlin]
Wolfgang Ernst teaches media theory and media studies at the
Humboldt-University Berlin. His books include: Das Rumoren der Archive.
Ordnung aus Unordnung, Im Namen von Geschichte. Sammeln– Speichern –
(Er-)Zählen and Das Gesetz des Gedächtnisses. Medien und Archive am Ende
(des 20. Jahrhunderts).
Selected writings by Wolfgang Ernst in English:
http://www.medientheorien.hu-berlin.de/forschung/ernst-english

De Velling Willis Fellowships (2 posts)

University of Sheffield – Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Available to work in any area relevant to the disciplines covered by our constituent departments

Job Reference Number: UOS003892

Contract Type:  Fixed term for two years.

Salary: Grade 8 £37,012 – £44,166 per annum pro-rata.  .

Closing Date: 17 February 2012

Summary:

The Faculty of Arts and Humanities brings together internationally excellent research across a range of disciplines and provides an environment in which this research can flourish.  We have a strong commitment to sharing our research with those beyond our walls and take very seriously our status as a Civic University.  We are also committed to interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary working and are committed to the notion of arts and humanities research and innovation as a shared endeavour.  We performed very well in RAE 2008 and are working to achieve an even higher level of external recognition in REF2014.  Appointment to a De Velling Willis Fellowship means the opportunity to work in a vibrant, multi- and interdisciplinary research environment in a period of exciting growth.

The two post-doctoral fellows will work to develop their research beyond their doctoral studies, generating new publications and establishing the next stage of their career as researchers. Outreach and public engagement work will be encouraged, and, in line with the ethos of the Faculty, the fellows will also be encouraged to engage and work with new audiences, particularly in the local region.  This is an opportunity both for the fellows to make significant career strides in a research-intensive environment and for the faculty to benefit from the vision, dynamism and enthusiasm the fellows will bring to the role.

Fellows will already have an impressive track record in research, evidenced by high-quality publications.  They will be people who are clearly able to communicate their ideas to a range of audiences, from funding agencies to non-specialists.  They will be researchers with the capacity to motivate and inspire others and who are clearly destined to be research leaders of the future.

Applicants should possess (or be close to completion of) a PhD in a relevant discipline (or have equivalent experience) and specify their area of expertise/interest in their online application.

The post is fixed-term for two years.

To apply for this job please click here and search for the job using the reference number provided or to view current vacancies and apply online please go to: www.sheffield.ac.uk/jobs.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, “A protest against Elsevier, the world’s largest scientific journal publisher, is rapidly gaining momentum since it began as an irate blog post at the end of January. By Tuesday evening, about 2,400 scholars had put their names to an online pledge not to publish or do any editorial work for the company’s journals, including refereeing papers.” Scientists too are putting their name to the protest. One blogger on MetaFilter informed readers that “The Cost of Knowledge lets scientists register their support for a boycott of all Elsevier journals for their support of SOPA, PIPA and the Research Works Act. It appears the boycott was inspired by Field’s medalist Tim Gowers’ recent comments describing his personal boycott of Elsevier journals.” What are your opinions about the journal boycott? How about the recent efforts to impose restrictions on internet sites by way of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)? Tell us what you think.

By Alexandra Edwards

Schizophrenia is a dangerous disease — “like a death sentence,” as Bernard J. Gallagher III, professor of Psychiatric Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, explains. For over 20 years, Dr. Gallagher and his Villanova University research team have sought to uncover the hidden causes of schizophrenia.

The causes of the disease have traditionally been elusive, he says. But recent findings have uncovered intriguing patterns that change the way we understand schizophrenia’s origins.

Falvey Memorial Library kicks off its spring Scholarship@Villanova series on Monday, Feb. 6, at 1:00 p.m. with a lecture by Dr.  Gallagher entitled “Schizophrenia: Groups at Risk and Recently Discovered Causes.” The lecture will be held on the newly renovated second floor of Falvey, known as the Learning Commons, in Room 204.

Combing through the records of 2,000 schizophrenia patients, Dr. Gallagher and his team worked to put together patterns in the data. They found that patients with a certain subset of the disease were more likely to have been conceived in January and born into impoverished households. These two factors meant their mothers had a higher risk of contracting influenza while pregnant. (more…)