History Department Presents Fossieck Lecture March 22
The Janice D. and Theodore H. Fossieck Lecture on early American history, given annually by the University at Albany Department of History, will be presented by Fredrika Teute at 4 p.m. on March 22 in Humanities Room 354. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Teute’s lecture on “Turks, Turbans, Ladies, and Indian Chiefs” will include slides to illustrate her subject describing the larger political and cultural significance of self-presentation and claims to authority in early 19th-century Washington.

Teute earned her doctorate at Johns Hopkins (1988), an M.A. from the College of William and Mary and a B.A. (cum laude) from Radcliffe. She is a distinguished historian of late 18th- and early 19th-century American cultural history. She has written chapters for two books she co-edited, Contact Points: American Frontiers from the Mohawk Valley to the Mississippi, 1750-1830 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998) and Through A Glass Darkly: Reflections on Personal Identity in Early America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), as well as many other chapters and articles on a wide range of subjects. She has also co-edited several volumes of The Papers of James Madison (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973, 1975, 1977), and The Papers of John Marshall (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983, 1984). She was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1998, and has been awarded a number of fellowships, including an NEH and a Mellon.

Teute has chosen to make her career as an editor of other historian’s books, working in that capacity at the Institute of Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg, Va. (She also teaches at the College of William and Mary.) Thus, she has written articles and papers on the subject of history editing. Her current research is for a biography of Margaret Bayard Smith, an important figure in early Federal Washington, whose writings Teute is also editing and publishing.

UAlbany sociologist Thor Bjarnason was featured in The New York Times Feb. 21 as co-author of a major international study on teen tobacco, drug, and alcohol use. The study, called the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Drugs (ESPAD), was recently re-leased at a meeting of the World Health Organization in Stockholm.

The study compared the results of 1999 surveys answered anonymously by 14,000 10th graders in the U.S. and 95,000 10th graders in 30 European countries.

Bjarnason is also a research fellow at the Icelandic Centre for Social Research and Analysis in Reykjavik, Iceland.

David O. Carpenter, M.D., of UAlbany’s School of Public Health will be featured on a Discovery Health Channel broadcast late this spring.

“Toxic Legacies,” produced for Discovery and Canadian Broadcasting Corp. by Vancouver, British Columbia-based Force Four Entertainment, focuses on the work of anthropologist Elizabeth Guillette. Guillette, a friend of Carpenter, studied the effects of pesticides on the children of Yaqui Indian farmers in Mexico.

“I learned about Elizabeth’s study while researching an idea for a program on endocrine disruptors,” said Force Four Entertainment senior producer John Ritchie, who wrote the “Toxic Legacies” script and directed the program. “I heard about David from Elizabeth, and I had also read his comments in a journal.”

The program took more than a year to make, with Ritchie following Guillette to Mexico’s Yaqui Valley, one of the country’s largest agricultural areas, to document her research with two communities of children who “exhibit significant and disturbing neurological differences.” Pesticides have been used in the valley - which exports produce to the United States and Canada - since the early 1950s. Using simple tests with four- and five-year-olds, Guillette found that Yaqui children exposed to pesticides used in their farming community experienced more problems with memory and neuromuscular skills than did youngsters living 50 miles away in a non-agrarian community where pesticides were not used. “Toxic Legacies” concludes with Guillette traveling to Halifax, Nova Scotia, the first major North American city to ban the cosmetic use of pesticides, such as lawn-care chemicals.

Ritchie, who interviewed Carpenter at UAlbany, noted that the professor of environmental health and toxicology “plays a very important role in the documentary.” For “Toxic Legacies,” Carpenter, well known for researching the effects of lead and PCBs on children, comments on general problems related to contaminant exposure. In a CBC news release publicizing the program, he says, of Guillette’s work: “I have suspected for a long time that pesticides cause these effects, but no one has demonstrated it so convincingly.”

CBC will broadcast “Toxic Legacies” March 14 as part of the series “The Nature of Things.” In the United States, the program will air June 15 at 10 p.m. on Discovery Health Channel’s “Medical Mysteries” series.

Master Plan
Winter Progress
By Mary Fiess

Steinmetz Hall on State Quad: Bathrooms have been gutted, electrical panels, wiring, and receptacles have been removed, and a complete abatement of asbestos is ready to begin. A new fire alarm and fire sprinkler system is to be installed, along with new floors, doors, lights, additional power system and mechanical reoom equipment. Ninety percent of the first floor is being made fully accessible. The renovated hall is scheduled to be ready at the start of the next academic year.

Draper 313: The design work for a new “smart classroom” in Draper 313 on the downtown campus is nearing completion. Construction is slated to begin in April and be completed by the start of the next academic year. As with the University’s other “smart classrooms,” Draper 313 will be equipped with such multimedia tools as an electronic podium with computer and touch screen controls which allows instructors to easily operate the classroom’s audiovisual equipment and lighting and shading systems.

CESTM II: The planned expansion of the Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management (CESTM) is now undergoing a State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR), and that process is expected to be completed in April. The Albany architectural firm of Camp Dresser & McKee is designing the expansion.

Albany Pro Musica to Perform in Texas
Albany Pro Musica, conducted by University at Albany music professor David Griggs-Janower, has won an audition to perform at the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) convention in San Antonio, Texas, later this month. Held every other year, the national convention is the most important event sponsored by the American Choral Directors Association. Albany Pro Musica will give three performances, the first of which is Friday, March 16, in the Scottish Rite Temple. The other two are Saturday, March 17, at San Antonio’s Municipal Auditorium and the Lila Cockrell Theatre in the city’s convention center.

Founded in 1959, the American Choral Directors Association is a nonprofit music-education organization whose central purpose is to promote excellence in choral music through performance, composition, publication, research and teaching. ACDA membership comprises some 20,000 choral directors from the United States and several thousand from around the world. Six thousand choral directors are expected to attend the convention.

“Because the number of choruses invited in each category is very small,” said Griggs-Janower, artistic director and conductor, “it is a great honor for Albany Pro Musica to be selected to represent the Capital Region at such a prestigious event. The fact that this invitation comes to us in Albany Pro Musica’s 20th anniversary season makes the whole experience all the more memorable.”

Albany Pro Musica previously performed for the national ACDA convention in 1993, also in San Antonio. The group has also appeared at four ACDA Eastern Division conventions: 1988 and 1996 in Philadelphia, 1992 in Boston, and most recently this past February in Baltimore.

Albany Pro Musica, founded in 1981, is a mixed chorus of selected volunteers from seven counties in the Capital Region and surrounding areas. The choral group, under founding conductor Griggs-Janower, presents professional quality performances of an a cappella and accompanied choral repertoire drawn from diverse traditions and styles ranging from the great masterworks to contemporary and less familiar compositions.

Heinz-Dieter Meyer received his Ph.D. in organizational behavior from Cornell University, and joined UAlbany’s Department of Educational Administration as a two-year visiting associate professor in the fall of 2000. He also works as an affiliate member in the Ph.D. Program in Organizational Studies, which is housed in the School of Business.

Meyer is teaching Introduction to Organizational Analysis and Advanced Study in Educational Administration and Policy, 600 and 700 level courses, respectively.

Raymond O’Connell, chair of the Department of Educational Administration and Policy Studies, said: “Dr. Meyer is in his first year with us, and he has already contributed in significant ways through his teaching. His particular area of expertise fills an important need for our students. In addition, Dr. Meyer continues his own research agenda on institutional and comparative perspectives on organizational administration.”

Prior to his professorship here, Meyer was an assistant professor in the University of Gottingen’s sociology department and at the Center for Europe and North America Studies from 1992-1999.

His research interests lie in organizational behavior, institutional analysis of education, and comparative and international education. Most recently, he co-edited Education between State, Markets, and Civil Society: Comparative Perspectives with Bill Boyd. The book is scheduled for publication with Lawrence Erlbaum Associates this spring. The purpose of the book is to point to civil society-based education policy alternatives to the long-standing “markets vs. government” controversy. Meyer is also completing a book-length study of cultural and political factors shaping the institutionalization of education.

George Kamberelis has joined the University’s faculty as associate professor in the Department of Reading. Prior to joining UAlbany, he was an associate professor of literacy and language education at Purdue University, where he received numerous awards for teaching and scholarship, including a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Post-doctoral Fellowship.

Peter Johnston, chair of the reading department, said Kamberelis “brings both extensive teaching experience and a strong sociocultural research background to Albany,” and “will help expand the qualitative research methods program in the School of Education and build the reading department’s interest in multicultural literacy and its relationship to school achievement.”

Kamberelis’s research is largely informed by anthropological, discourse, and critical social theories. He conducts research in four related areas: teaching and learning genres in elementary schools; the relations between children’s language and literacy use and identity development; the effects of different kinds of classroom talk and social interaction on children’s learning; and collaborative action research among public school teachers and university professors. He has published many articles and book chapters on these topics, and is writing a book on the emergence and legitimation of qualitative research methods in literacy studies.

Prior to attending graduate school and launching his academic career, Kamberelis worked as an English teacher, an assistant principal, and a curriculum specialist in various Chicago schools. These experiences continue to influence how he views the relations among teaching, research, and service. For example, he is particularly interested in how theory and research can be used to effect reform in classrooms and schools, and he is committed to University-public school partnerships.

Kamberelis has taught a wide variety of courses, including Writing and the Teaching of Writing, Discourse and Identity, Classroom Discourse, Learning and Teaching Literacy in the Elementary Classroom, Media Literacy and Critical Literacy, and Qualitative Research Methods. In his first semester at UAlbany, he is teaching ERDG 632, Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Literacy, and ERDG 655, Emergent Literacy.

Rubén Arana-Downs is a new professor in the Department of Theatre. He teaches Introduction to Set Design and History of Ornamentation and Furnishing.

“Rubén Arana-Downs has the talented artist’s eye for color and line, texture, form, and mass that will translate drama into a visual reality for University audiences. He is an exciting young designer who is already in demand in professional venues such as the New York Public Theatre, and his work will open artistic and vocational doors for our students while bringing credit to the University at Albany,” said Langdon Brown, department chair.

Arana-Downs has a master’s degree in fine arts (MFA) from the North Carolina School of Arts in Winston-Salem, N.C. He was the set designer for “Hippolytus,” “The Accidental Death of an Anarchist,” and “Italian-American Reconciliation,” all of which were performed in the Performing Arts Center last semester. Last March, he worked as Spike Lee’s production assistant on “The Original Kings of Comedy.” Arana-Downs was also a production designer for the short film “Special Day,” a ShowTime Black Filmmakers Award winner.

He is currently working on Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler,” which will be on the Main Stage of the PAC in April, and “Hippolytus,” due out this month, also in the PAC. Arana-Downs most recently designed the set for the play “W.E.B. DuBois: Prophet In Limbo,” which opened in New York City’s Theater Row district on Feb. 23.

Effective Criminal Justice Action Research Focus of UAlbany Lecture Series
By Lisa James Goldsberry
Three leading criminal justice experts will address the topic Thinkers and Doers: Challenges for Effective Criminal Justice Action Research in a lecture series honoring a prominent UAlbany emeritus professor of criminal justice, Leslie T. Wilkins, who died a year ago.

The first lecture - Effective Correctional Assessment and Treatment: An Evidence-Based Approach - will be delivered by Carlton University professor of psychology Donald Andrews on Friday, March 16, at 1 p.m. in Milne 200 on the University’s downtown campus. (Each lecture in the series is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception.)

Internationally recognized for his innovative research and scholarship involving prisons and correctional reforms, Andrews has written several books and scholarly articles that address correctional programming, assessment, evaluation, criminology, addiction, treatment, and intervention strategies.

Other lectures in the series:
March 23: The Untapped Potential in Developing an Internal Research Capacity in Policing, with University of Wisconsin Emeritus Professor Herman Goldstein, 1 p.m. in the Page Hall lounge on the downtown campus. Goldstein has long been recognized as one of the country’s foremost authorities on policing and for his policy contributions to police research and practice.

March 30: Two (More) Models of the Criminal Process, with University of California at Berkeley professor Malcolm Feeley, 1 p.m. in the Page Hall lounge. Feeley is widely regarded as one of the leading authorities on courts and the judicial process. He is former director of the Center for the Study of Law and Society at Berkeley.

The lecture series honors Emeritus Professor Leslie Wilkins, who passed away last year in England at age 85. His groundbreaking work contributed to the development of the Federal Parole Guidelines and several variations of sentencing guidelines, among many other accomplishments. A member of the nationally renowned Criminal Justice faculty since 1969, he published 13 books and approximately 200 articles, book chapters and reports during his career.

“This series recognizes Leslie’s commitment to scholarship, bridging the divide between criminal justice theory and practice,” said James Acker, dean of the School of Criminal Justice. “A major theme of his work involved the application of rigorous social science research methodologies to practical problems in criminology and criminal justice.”