Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

September 2009 Newsletter Newsletter Archives ›

Research

NSF Awards Rogers $200K to Assess Nanotechnology Science & Engineering Centers (NSEC)               

Public Policy Associate Professor Juan Rogers, with co-Principle Investigators Jan Youtie, Philip Shapira, and Alan Porter will work on Assessment of 15 Nanotechnology Science and Engineering Centers (NSEC) Outcomes and Impacts: their Contribution to NNI Objectives and Goals.

What Does Georgia Tech Think?

Selected Press for Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

Boston on CNN:  Assessment of August unemployment figures

September 4, 2009 CNN live interview with School of Economics Professor Danny Boston. Click here to view

Boston on CNN: Is the Recession Over?

August 14, 2009 CNN live interview with School of Economics Professor Danny Boston.  Click here to view 

Events

All events
September 11, 2009 - September 20, 2009
12:00 AM
September 16, 2009
12:30 PM
September 17, 2009
11:00 AM
September 17, 2009
2:30 PM
September 21, 2009 - September 23, 2009
8:00 AM
September 25, 2009
3:00 PM
September 25, 2009
7:00 PM

NEWS

All news

Benchmarks for a New Decade of Growth

The Ivan Allen College occupies a unique and pivotal role at Georgia Tech, the result of a decade of work under the outstanding leadership of former Dean Sue V. Rosser. We established a new national model for liberal arts research and curriculum – one that dissolves the boundaries that traditionally separate fields of study, that integrates the analytical and qualitative and the humanistic and technological/scientific, and that places us at the center of the future of this great institution.

The important work being done in the College will result in our being involved in many ways as Georgia Tech works to evolve our vision of the 21 st century technological university and the strategic plan to realize that. This is a perfect time to review where we have been. While numbers can’t convey the whole story, they do provide a benchmark for future growth. Following are key 2009 College statistics denoting our progress since the launch of the 2002 strategic plan.

Undergraduate Enrollment - Average annual increase - 5.7%

Graduate Enrollment - Average annual increase - 4.7%

Overall enrollment increase since 2002 is 31.4%, nearly double that of the Institute as a whole

Fall 2009 Enrollment – 1,229 students matriculating: 953 undergraduate and 276 graduate students

Sponsored Research funding totals $25 million in the past 5 years

Our published research continues to be recognized internationally

In the 2008-2009 school year, faculty published more 22 books

3 new PhD programs have been added bringing our total offering to 6

3 new MS or BS/MS degrees have been added bringing our total to 9

4 new joint BS degrees were created between schools or with other colleges bringing our total to 9 undergraduate degrees

In Summer 2009, Ivan Allen College offered the largest roster of summer coursework. We expect to repeat our expanded course offering for Summer 2010. Through this aggressive program and the planning and effort of faculty and staff, the College has become Georgia Tech’s test bed for the trimester system.

College Welcomes New Faculty Members

Atlanta (September 10, 2009) — Six new Associate Professors join the College this year in the School of Public Policy.

Paul Baer — PhD, UC Berkeley
Research Focus: equity and climate change

Justin Biddle — PhD, Notre Dame
Research Focus: philosophy of science

Shiri M. Breznitz — PhD, University of Cambridge
Research Focus: regional economic development especially the role of universities

Janelle Knox-Hayes — PhD, Oxford University
Research Focus: institutional networks and carbon market development

Dan Matisoff (Jan 2010) - PhD, Indiana University
Research Focus: climate change policy

Robert Rosenberger — PhD, Stony Brook University
Research Focus: philosophy of technology

Distinctive Language Studies Attract 1 in 5 GT Students

Atlanta (September 11, 2009) — Over 5,000 Georgia Tech students were enrolled in some aspect of the School of Modern Languages program in the 2008-2009 school year. That means 20 percent of Georgia Tech students gained foreign language skills, far surpassing the national average of 8.6 percent.

Georgia Tech students learning Chinese

The School’s faculty has attracted students with a distinctive applied language and intercultural studies approach that develops professional and social competence, as well as intercultural skills. Chair Phil McKnight has seen enrollment double since the School began reshaping the program in 2001.

“Where most higher education language programs prepare students to read literature and to eventually become teachers, our program, which has been cited by national organizations for its innovative approach, creates a new model for foreign language learning.” According to McKnight, “Educational needs in the 21st century reflect the challenges and opportunities of globalization and technological developments in international trade, computing, media and information exchange, and international relations that impact virtually every aspect of our lives. Consequently, we seek to graduate students who are effectively prepared to negotiate within and between the social, technological, and political contexts of other cultures and to understand the local impact of globalization, environmental issues, and other current and future change factors.”

Modern Languages has also attracted students through programs developed in collaboration with other units across the College and Georgia Tech. The International Affairs/Modern Languages joint major (IAML) is Ivan Allen College’s most popular with more than 180 students. Engineering, Computing, and other majors are attracted by courses of study in eight different languages. The School extends its applied language approach through intensive study abroad, work abroad, and internship programs in China, France, Germany, Korea, Japan, Latin America, and Spain that works with the Georgia Tech International Plan. The School’s signature Language for Business and Technology (LBAT) summer immersion program is one of Tech’s most successful study abroad programs.

“Our upper division and capstone courses,” said McKnight, “focus on the development of strong intercultural communication skills and on the analysis of multicultural perspectives on social, political, economic issues, and values systems of the countries where the languages we teach are spoken. We may look at themes of migration and integration, memory and heritage, property, space and environment, technology and commerce, perspectives of mass media or film, and at the scope of elements that figure in the construction and maintenance of cultural and national identities.”

See related story below on School of Modern Languages faculty member, Juan Carlos Rodriguez

Space Diplomacy: Krige Showcases NASA’s Influential Collaborations

Atlanta (September 11, 2009) — When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped on the moon in 1969, they not only made a “leap for all mankind,” they also conducted several scientific experiments. One of them, to measure solar wind, was from a Swiss university. By inviting foreign participation in that historic moon mission, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) signaled “a commitment to international relations that has become an extraordinarily important instrument for American diplomacy,” says John Krige.

The International Space Station

In a new book funded by NASA and due to be published in 2010, Krige and his team will showcase fifty years of international partnerships that demonstrates the diplomatic linkages, prestige, and influence achieved through America’s space program. Krige, a professor in the Ivan Allen College's School of History, Technology, and Society, was selected by NASA in 2007 to author the study.

Krige has presented his research on space history at major NASA conferences, including one celebrating the agency’s 50th anniversary last year. His project for NASA extends Georgia Tech’s partnership and contribution to the U.S. space program which is most prominent through research and the more than a dozen astronauts who graduated from the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering.

A History of NASA's International Relations will elucidate the intersection between scientific and technological collaboration and U.S. diplomatic relations, through highlights chosen from the more than 2,000 projects on which NASA has engaged with partners around the globe including major technical projects with Western Europe (Krige's specialty), Russia/USSR, India, Japan, and Brazil.

“This book will take readers beyond human space flight and help them understand how major technical projects such as the space station have consolidated diplomatic linkages with, for example, Russia. Can you imagine the impact if we extended such generosity in space collaboration to, say, Iran?”

Krige is joined in the work by PhD candidates Angel Long and Ashok Maharaj. The project makes extensive use of archival material in the NASA History Office, the U.S. State Department, various Presidential Libraries, the private collections of some NASA administrators, and other international organizations. It is supplemented by more than 30 oral history interviews with key historical actors that will be transcribed and placed in the NASA Historical Archives.

GTAAN Student Advising Leadership Welcomes "New Era"

Atlanta (September 11, 2009) — Academic advisors are the first point of contact for students newly enrolled at Georgia Tech. Students are strongly encouraged to maintain a relationship with their advisor and, for many, that relationship is crucial to their experience and success, at the Institute and beyond. Uniquely this year, four of the six members of the Executive Board that steers the Georgia Tech Academic Advisors Network (GTAAN) are from the Ivan Allen College. These leaders will be core contributors to the Institute’s new strategic planning process.

Stephanie Jackson, GTAAN Executive Board

“It’s a new era under President Peterson’s leadership and strategic planning initiative,” says Stephanie Jackson, academic advisor for the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and President of the GTAAN Executive Board. “I think that the College’s strong presence on GTAAN’s executive board can help ensure that the planning dialogue around student programs encompasses the needs of students in all of Georgia Tech’s colleges – Liberal Arts, Management, and Architecture, as well as the technical Colleges.”

GTAAN began in 2002 as a professional resource serving Georgia Tech undergraduate advisors. Today, the network includes graduate advisors and representatives from most of the units that influence virtually every aspect of students’ experience on campus from the Registrar’s Office to the Dean of Students Office, the Honors Program, Auxiliary Services, and many more. GTAAN compiles data that is a basis for program decisions. It has also become influential in Georgia Tech’s approach to advising.

“We encourage a developmental approach to advising,” says Jackson. “Our goal is to extend the dialog with students beyond course scheduling to encompass their life and work goals. Advisors can then make students aware of course work, extracurricular activities, internships, research, scholarships – the rich resources available to them through Georgia Tech. We also offer perspective so students can make decisions that best advance their objectives. Students and parents can experience a lot of stress. Through GTAAN, we help them find solutions to everything from housing to healthcare. “

The other members of this year’s GTAAN Executive Board are Dana Hartley, School of Earth and Atmospheric Science – Liaison to the Provost; Vince Pedicino, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs – Vice President of Assessment; Amy D’Unger, School of History, Technology, and Society – Vice President of Communications; Paul Fincannon, Department of Biomedical Engineering – Vice President of Programs; and JC Reilly, School of Literature, Communication, and Culture – Vice President of Records.

Poet Head Makes History in Trafalgar Square

Atlanta (September 11, 2009) — On July 31, 2009, at 12 noon EST, a huge lift apparatus ferried Karen Head to the top of the empty fourth plinth (statue base) in London’s Trafalgar Square. Once settled, Head twittered the opening lines of a poem which was then added to, one line at a time via Twitter, by other poets and the crowd. Head is likely the only American to be part of the One & Other “living monument” project created by British sculptor Antony Gormley. The project runs for 100 days between July 6 and October 14, 2009 and gives each of 2,400 people an hour atop the plinth to do whatever they want.

Karen Head

Head, who is adjunct faculty in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture and graduate communication coordinator, Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL), was teaching in England as part of the Georgia Tech at Oxford program when she learned that she was among those randomly accepted to participate in the plinth project. Her concept was a real-time digital version of exquisite corpse poetry in which a poem is built line by line with the poets able to view only a single previous line. At the end of her hour atop the plinth, Head read the completed poem through a megaphone to the crowd. The entire event was broadcast and captured via a live web stream.

This was Head’s third poetry project using digital media. She attributes her collaborative spirit to the environment within the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture and its James and Mary Wesley New Media Center.

“Too many people have come to think of art as something that happens when one artist creates something and then other people, in a very individualized way, experience that creation. This is especially true for something like poetry. But, it doesn't have to be this way. My hour on the plinth was a way to stand there with others standing (in the square and virtually) with me.”



Gormley’s One & Other Project

Wang on Big Mac Diplomacy & U.S-China Policy toward North Korea

Atlanta (September 11, 2009) — “The Big Mac would do wonders to effect regime change in North Korea,” grins Fei-Ling Wang. Alas, he adds that the irresistible balm of free trade with America is unlikely given the complex and multi-layered relations among the players in the North Korean situation and China’s role and interest.

Professor Fei-Ling Wang

Wang writes about China’s policy toward the Korean peninsula and its increasing clout in the balance of relations between North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, China, and the U.S. in a soon to be published book Engaging North Korea: A Viable Alternative (edited by David Kang and Sung Chull Kim, State University of New York Press).

A professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Wang has studied international relations within East Asia and with the U.S. for more than a decade. His new research highlights three priorities of Chinese policy toward North Korea: 1) no war, 2) no unification with South Korea and, 3) no nuclear weapons. Wang shows how goals one and three align with U.S. policy toward North Korea, though U.S. priorities are reversed (unification, especially on the South Korean terms, is not a major U.S. concern).

North Korean

Wang believes that the U.S. holds a trump card that could resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, but says that we are unlikely to use it because of the complex interests of China and also those of Japan and South Korea, both of which have long standing issues with North Korea. Though China is concerned about a nuclear arms race in the region as a result of North Korea having a nuclear weapon, China’s policies toward the Korean peninsula are intended to maintain the status quo. Not only does that serve their political and financial interests, but it has allowed China to take a seat among the world powers by supporting consensus around negotiating with North Korea to eliminate its nuclear weapons program and to be valued as an aid to peacekeeping. It is a key aspect of the shared strategic interest between Beijing and Washington these days.

The increased deepened financial ties between the U.S. and China further lessens the likelihood that Washington would disrupt the status quo to “solve” the North Korean nuclear issue unilaterally. “I expect that President Obama and his team have seen quickly that talking to this enemy is not that easy,” says Wang. “The U.S. occupies a pivotal role in this, but it is a complicated, multi-layer and multinational game.

And so with none of the players willing to rock the boat (except for the self-preserving moves by Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital), the balancing act continues with North Korea holding on to their weapon and blustering and threatening in attempts to goad the U.S. into action that would guarantee their security and the major powers maintaining status quo. None the less, North Korea remains a potentially explosive situation. Game changers could be a coup de etat in North Korea, Pyongyang’s move to share nuclear technology with terrorists, or the regime’s political collapse. There are also those in China increasingly arguing for it to reassert its historical power in the Korean peninsula, which can be another important factor to be reckoned with.

Wang’s Big Mac solution sounds better all the time.

Network Access: Key to Career Advancement for Women and Minorities?

Atlanta (September 11, 2009) — The Obama administration has identified work and education in the STEM disciplines - science, technology, engineering, and math - as a “vital initiative” for American competitiveness. Georgia Tech continues to ramp up its efforts to attract and retain a diverse community of STEM students. Coinciding with these initiatives is newly funded research by School of Public Policy Associate Professor Julia Melkers, focused on researching the structure and resources of professional networks of academic women and minority faculty in STEM fields. The project is funded by a $1.18 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Professor Julia Melkers

Melkers’ research specifically aims at understanding how career advancement and outcomes for women and minorities in academic science are affected by professional networks - which have been consistently recognized as crucial to career trajectories [See Beyond Bias and Barriers, National Academy of Science, 2006, p. 174]. Melkers’ project is distinctive, in part, because it will focus on scientists at non- Research I institutions.

“Studies in this area have given considerable attention to the most competitive scientists – those employed in Research I institutions,” says Melkers. “Yet, women and under-represented minority scientists are disproportionately employed in the less research intensive, Research II institutions and Comprehensive institutions.”

Melkers’ new project builds upon selected findings from her other soon to be completed study (also NSF-funded) of women and minorities at R1 institutions. “That first study brought conclusions with their own merit. But the data also raised very interesting questions: Are there minorities and women who have attempted careers in top R1 schools? Are their network structurally different from faculty in R1 institutions? Have they experienced barriers to becoming employed in higher ranked institutions? Have women and minority faculty opted for non-R1 institutions? Or have they been opted there? How do their network factors figure into this?”

Melkers and her colleagues’ new research will examine the network structural and resource determinants of career success, and satisfaction of women and underrepresented minorities PhDs who have faculty appointments in Research II and Comprehensive institutions. It will give particular attention to the role of mentorship in affecting network access, participation, productivity, and retention.

“The goal is to try to understand the broader characteristics of professional networks across the STEM workforce. These are the collaborative networks, but also the ones that provide career guidance and mentoring for purposes of career advancement. The results have the potential to inform structural aspects of both research and non-research academic environments, and the nature of interventions designed to attract, retain, and advance women and minorities in those institutions.”

Melker’s project is entitled Empirical Research: Breaking through the Reputational Ceiling: Professional Networks as a Determinant of Advancement, Mobility, and Career Outcomes for Women and Minorities in STEM. Her co-principle investigators are Eric Welch, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Monica Gaughan, University of Georgia.

From Chocolate to Healthcare: Behavorial Economics Helps us Choose

Atlanta (September 11, 2009) — One person is offered samples of six different kinds of chocolates, another person, 30 samples of different kinds. Who is more likely to make a decision to buy chocolate?

Assistant Professor Tibor Besedes

The answer is from a well-known study in behavorial economics: those offered fewer choices are more likely to buy than those presented with the chocolate cornucopia. That conclusion has been widely applied in business. AT&T, for example, has many phone plans, but sales representatives discuss only three or four because people are more likely to make a choice if presented fewer options.

New research by School of Economics Assistant Professor Tibor Besedes takes the question to the next level. “We know that people are more likely to make a choice when offered fewer alternatives, but is the quality of their decision better when made based upon smaller or larger sets of alternatives?”

The context for Besedes work is healthcare, specifically Medicare D – the federal government’s prescription drug plan which offers seniors a choice of more than 30 plans. Funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) National Institute on Aging, Besedes is among economists at Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Louisiana State University, and the University of Arkansas who were selected to study this aspect of ‘retirement economics.’

“Our study’s findings show that as the number of options increase, people do worse,” says Besedes. “With just four options, the optimal plan is selected 50 percent of the time. With 13 options, the optimal plan is selected 1/3 of the time. Given this data, one approach would be to reduce the number of options so that people will examine details and increase the chance of their making a better choice, but Besedes says that reducing the number of choices isn’t necessarily desirable: “In the case of healthcare, people don’t want the government limiting choice.”

A better answer may lie in the second major finding from Besedes study which indicates that the rate at which the optimal plan is chosen significantly differs by age with subjects under forty more successful in choosing the optimal plan. Besedes is working on ways to make the decision process more manageable for seniors. He is testing evaluative methods that help seniors identify the optimal plan by comparing a few alternatives at a time, moving through successive comparisons until all plans have been evaluated. The work could be used to develop software for the Medicare D website.

“The main contribution of this work is to develop tools or strategies to help people make better choices rather than restricting the choices that are available,” says Besedes. His work may be particularly timely with the nation considering government health insurance and it could ultimately be applied to assist purchasing decisions for everything from retirement savings plans to phone plans.

Profile – Rodríguez - Expanding the Text for Teaching Modern Languages

Atlanta (September 11, 2009) — A conversation with Juan Carlos Rodríguez reflects the School of Modern Language’s distinctive applied language and intercultural studies approach to language learning. Rodríguez is particularly animated about the learning experiences he shared with students this summer while teaching Study Abroad classes in Argentina and Languages for Business and Technology (LBAT) courses in Spain.

Assistant Professor Juan Carlos Rodriguez

Whether experiencing the stadium traditions, the chants, and national passion during a soccer game in Argentina, or exploring the Spanish civil war through cinema, a historical propaganda exhibit, or Picasso’s massive painting, Guernica, Rodriguez found his students stimulated to exchange views about war, violence, art, and similarities and distinctions between their own culture and that of the country they were visiting.

“It is interesting, for example, to share with students the idea that we have to think of the history of the Americas in an integral way. Argentineans have some hostility to the United States; we supported a dictatorship and the imposition of damaging economic policies there. How do we build bridges in environments where there could be a claim for the wrong decisions we made in the past? As our students were engaged in these conversations, they became obliged to go back to history and think about it, respond to it. Based on my two study abroad experiences, I consider that our students are becoming creative global citizens with the capacity to go beyond the superficiality of self-compensatory apologies, with the will to create new ways of engaging with different societies in order to assume the challenges of the 21st century.”

Originally from Puerto Rico, Rodríguez holds a PhD in literature from Duke University. He has taught Spanish at the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras and at Rice University. Rodríguez brings to his teaching of Spanish perspectives from his research on cinema and documentary. In recent work, he has interviewed film directors who have created what Rodríguez calls “urban imaginaries”—Latin American documentaries, such as Ignacio Agüero’s Aquí se construye, that capture the transformation of urban landscapes, city histories, or the way in which city dwellers imagine their relationships to a city.

In another project, Rodríguez is interviewing documentary filmmakers in Argentina, Chile, and Spain who have worked in post-dictatorship societies and documented the cultural manifestations of such transformations. The interviews will form the basis of a collection that captures elements of socio-political issues, culture, history, memories of cities, urban fear and crime, and environmental issues.

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Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts forms a vanguard for 21st century liberal arts interdisciplinary research, education, and innovation. Working at a crossroads of engineering, science, and computing, and the humanities and social sciences, faculty and students consider the human implications of technologies, policies, and actions, and create sustainable solutions for a better world. Comprised of six schools, we offer ten undergraduate degrees, thirteen master's degrees, and six doctoral degrees. Learn More

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