Columns Magazine Fall 2011

News from the college of

News

A r t s an d S c i e n c e s

from the

college of A r t s an d S c i e n c e s

going for gold health care champion enrollment surge

Fa l l

2011 Issue

Drawing on strengths

Chalking up an academic win in the Big Ten University of Nebraska–Lincoln

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From the Dean

Dean David Manderscheid

Every fall semester brings with it a certain amount of excitement and anticipation. We saw that again this year, but on a whole new level. We began the school year as a member of the Big Ten Conference and its academic component, the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. We’ve been able to say we are excited for more than a year now, but now the conversations have shifted to address what this move means.

As you’ll see in our cover story, opportunities are plentiful. We have positioned ourselves for enhancing our collaborations as well as expanding opportunities for students.

We are at what many people would call an inflection point. We are pursuing a new path — one that leads to higher levels of academic excellence and research breakthroughs. Nothing made that more evident than Chancellor Harvey Perlman’s State of the University address that was delivered this fall. He outlined ambitious goals to grow our enrollment, which we feature in this issue. He also called for a substantial increase in externally funded research dollars and recognition won by our faculty at the national level.

Don’t get me wrong. Meeting these enrollment and research targets will require hard work and thoughtful planning, but we have several things working in our favor to help us achieve success. We have faculty with immense talent as educators and researchers. We have staff members who contribute creative ideas and have a keen ability to augment our existing strengths. And we have accomplished alumni whose success stories help spread the message that our graduates make an impact in their communities and beyond in so many different ways.

It’s an exciting time here in the College of Arts and Sciences. I invite you to read this issue and visit our website, http://cas.unl.edu, to learn all about our exciting endeavors and the accomplishments of our people.

As always, I welcome your ideas. Give me a call, send me an e-mail or stop by when you are in Lincoln. I would love to hear from you.

Regards,

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Inside Columns

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Fall 2011

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Columns

P r o f i l e Scott Novack: Russian, international studies alumnus helps U.S. team win Olympic gold

S t ud e n t F e at u r e Emily Schlichting: communication studies, political science senior strives to make health care accessible

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Ac a d e m i c S ta r s Jodi Holt and Dodie Eveleth

8 C o v e r S t o r y

Arts and Sciences in the Big Ten

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P r o g r a m H i g hl i g h t s International Studies

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Recruitment Push Arts and Sciences joins university in effort to grow enrollment

13 F a c ult y F e at u r e

Kwame Dawes: Prairie Schooner has a new editor with a vision to build on the literary magazine’s strong tradition

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Research Briefs Bridget Goosby’s research on health disparities; Kenneth Price’s discovery of Walt Whitman papers; Virologist Shi-Hua Xiang wins Gates grant; Xiao Cheng Zeng honored for achievements in chemistry

NEWS FROM THE CO L L EGE OF ARTS a n d SCIENCES

Columns is published twice each year by the College of Arts and Sciences.

Story ideas, activities and achievements can be submitted by sending an email to jjones16@unl.edu. Receipt does not guarantee publication and the editor reserves the right to edit for space, clarity, grammar and style.

Editor: Jean Ortiz Jones Designers: Stephanie Severin and Quentin Lueninghoener Web Tech: Michael O’Connor Editorial Correspondence: Columns Magazine c/o University Communications University of Nebraska–Lincoln 321 Canfield Administration Building Lincoln, NE 68588-0424 phone: (402)-472-8320 Columns on the Web: cas.unl.edu/ achievements/columns.html

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Giving The Center for Digital Research in the Humanities makes strides toward fund-raising goal COVER Cover and center spread design by Quentin Lueninghoener.

(Photo below by Craig Chandler, University Communications.)

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln is an equal opportunity educator and employer. ©2011, The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska.

J04734.111024

®

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PRofile

Alumnus’ talents shine in Olympic spotlight

By Jean Ortiz Jones

The emotions came in a flood for Scott Novack in the moment he realized that the “Night Train” had done it.

Cheers rang out and fists pumped the cold Whistler air that day in February 2010 when Americans, including UNL alumnus Curt Tomasevicz, won the first four-man bobsled gold medal at an Olympic Scott Novack Games since 1948. And Novack, the team’s high-performance director and an Arts and Sciences alumnus, could take pride in knowing that his role in crafting the team’s strategy helped pave the way to victory.

“It was like this huge rush of all the years of hard work and preparation and then thankfully to win it and to see those guys win it,” he said. “And then to be there when they have the ceremony where the flag is raised just above the other countries’ and they’re playing our national anthem … it’s almost hard to put into words.”

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For Novack, the journey began in 1991. As he made his way from Colorado to Lincoln to begin his freshman year at UNL, he was captivated by radio reports about the Soviet coup attempt. He’d always had an interest in international issues, but he credits the developments surrounding the collapse of the Soviet Union for swaying his decision to major in international studies. Following an adviser’s suggestion, he also picked up a second major in Russian.

During the summer of 1993, he headed to St. Petersburg, Russia, with a group led by associate professor of modern languages and literature Mila Saskova-Pierce for a month-long languageimmersion program.

“Being amongst the natives and being in that environment really was a huge learning experience,” Novack said of his first overseas experience.

He returned to St. Petersburg less than a year later for a semester abroad. That was when he landed a summer job as a spotter, researcher and guide after meeting a logistics coordinator from Turner Broadcasting who was there for the Goodwill Games.

It changed everything.

The experience helped him realize he wanted to pursue a career in international sports.

After earning a master’s degree in sport management from the U.S. Sports Academy, he puts his skills as a strategist to work in various positions in the Olympic sports of rugby, taekwondo, and with the U.S. Olympic Committee and modern pentathlon.

In 2008, he was named high performance director for USA Bobsled and Skeleton.

The U.S. Olympic Committee requires that each Olympic sport write a four-year plan and update it annually that details how it will maximize their opportunities to bring home gold. Novack’s job is to work with coaches and the team’s chief executive officer to develop that strategy and implement it.

For the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, that meant confronting an exceptionally fast track in Whistler that was fraught with crashes, including one that killed a Georgian luger on the day of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies.

“We knew the track was fast and we knew it could be dangerous,” Novack said. “What we wanted to do was decrease the learning curve of the bobsled and skeleton pilots so they could handle that speed.”

He used video analysis to learn every inch of the track and a sports psychologist to help athletes combat fear and anxiety.

Members of the U.S. Olympic bobsled and skeleton team are pictured below and in action above and at bottom left. Members gain strategic insights with the help of high-performance director Scott Novack.

(Photos courtesy Charlie Booker/USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation)

success over the years. Learning Russian remains the most difficult thing he has ever done, he said.

Although he has questioned himself a few times since choosing international sports over foreign service, he knows he ended up where he was supposed to.

“I always come back to the point that I really like what I’m doing,” he said. “I’d rather be doing this than anything else.”

Novack will have plenty of opportunities to use his Russian at an upcoming Olympics. The 2014 Winter Games will be held in Sochi, Russia.

Novack’s adaptability and skills with communication, critical thinking, and knowing how to learn — all talents honed during his undergraduate years at UNL — have helped lead him to

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Student Feature

Emily Schlichting (Photo by Greg Nathan, University Communications)

Fighting for Americans’ access to health care

By Christine ScAlOra University Communications

As a freshman, a career in the health field wasn’t on Emily Schlichting’s radar.

Now a senior, the communication studies and political science major and honors student has her sights set on working with health policy and says her passion for such work grew out of a very personal experience.

During her freshman year at UNL, Schlichting was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder, Behcet’s disease. The experience spurred her to direct her time and talents to ensuring that all Americans have access to quality health care.

“Health care is so fundamental to living a fulfilling life,” she said. “Access to health care is not just critical at this time in our nation’s history, this is simply the time that we have decided to do something about it.”

Schlichting isn’t waiting until she graduates to take action.

She has gained experience through internships with Bold Nebraska, a progressive political website, and Campus Progress, which is part of the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. Showing no fear of the spotlight, Schlichting testified in early 2011 in favor of President Obama’s health care plan in front of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the U.S. Senate.

She spent the past summer working with that same committee as a health policy intern under Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin.

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Among her on-campus involvements, she is a driving force behind Employee +1, a campaign to allow University of Nebraska employees to claim a financially dependent family

member or domestic partner on their insurance plans.

In March 2011, Schlichting was selected for a highly competitive Truman Scholarship. She was one of about 60 college juniors nationwide to be awarded the $30,000 scholarship to use toward graduate or professional school in preparation for a career in government, nonprofit organization or other public sector position. The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation seeks candidates with long records of community and public service, who have exceptional leadership potential and communication skills, and are determined to have careers in public service.

Schlichting is still contemplating the direction she’ll take after graduation, including whether she’ll pursue a master’s degree in health policy or go after a law degree. Either way, she said she will be involved in some form of health policy work.

Her professors, advisers and other students at UNL have been a vital support network throughout her undergraduate years and integral to her winning the Truman Scholarship, she said.

“Obviously, it’s a university that opens doors,” she said.

The scholarship is a well-deserved honor for an exceptionally ambitious and articulate student who is poised to continue making waves well into the future, said Tyler White, Schlichting’s program adviser in political science.

“Emily is extremely passionate about solving problems and she has a much better grasp on how to go about solving problems than most people her age,” he said. “Her advocacy for health care reforms come from a very personal place, but she approaches problems that affect her in a way that will benefit everyone.”

Visit http://go.unl.edu/fall2011 to see a video of Schlichting as she learned she won the scholarship

Academic Stars

Eveleth helps Chemistry bring ‘A’ game to Big Ten Name: Dodie Eveleth Position: Business manager, Department of Chemistry, and building manager for Hamilton Hall How she makes a difference: She has coordinated several, complex lab renovation projects that aim to modernize work spaces and give UNL chemists an environment better suited for learning and making lifechanging discoveries. She works closely and effectively with researchers, contractors and others to implement the department chair’s long-term vision. Remade labs will boast Dodie Eveleth state-of-the-art features like high-speed data ports, energy-efficient fume hoods and dedicated space for graduate students’ offices and collaboration.

What others say about her: Department chair Jim Takacs calls Dodie the “goto person” whether working on renovations, in her work as business manager, or managing other projects across Hamilton Hall. She is organized, detail-oriented, and skilled at minimizing disruptions and managing day-to-day glitches.

The bottom line: She contributes to an effort that will help the department give students a more meaningful experience and offer researchers an edge.

Holt finds her stride as talent scout Name: Jodi Holt Position: Directed outreach initiatives for the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. She was recently named director of recruitment for the College

Jodi Holt

How she makes a difference: After joining the department in 2003, Holt developed recruitment materials and built strategy from the ground up. She expanded programs like CSE Day, helped launch new efforts to get more students — female students, in particular — interested in computing, and revamped the department’s Student Resource Center. She strives to connect with students, understand and meet their needs.

Who will be the next

Academic Star?

Here’s your chance to nominate a professor, student or staff member of the College of Arts and Sciences for recognition as an Academic Star. Tell us about a creative, engaging and innovative individual who is making a difference on campus...and beyond.

Visit cas.unl.edu to nominate someone and to read full stories of all our Academic Stars.

“ W e s t a r t e d t h i s c a mpa i g n in 2008 to shine a spotlight on exceptional a c a d e m i c a c h i e v e m e n t.

We’ve been able to do t h at a n d s o mu c h m o r e .

Th i s c a mpa i g n h a s g i v e n u s a w ay t o h i g hl i g h t t h e d i v e r s e w ay s i n wh i c h A r t s a n d S c i e n c e s s t ud e n t s , f a c ult y a n d s ta f f a r e u s i n g t h e i r ta l e n t s t o h av e a s i g n i f i c a n t i mpa c t o n U N L , N e b r a s k a a n d t h e w o r ld . ” — Dean David Manderscheid

What others say about her: Department chair Steve Goddard said Jodi has had a tremendous impact because she genuinely cares about the students.

Undergraduate enrollment is up 18.5 percent since fall 2007. In spring 2011, the department graduated 40 students — twice what it has in past years.

In her own words: “If they leave after first semester, that doesn’t do me any good.

I want them to be happy. I want to see smiles on students’ faces and to know that they’re getting what they wanted.” cas.unl.edu

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_ “Drawing “ Now we should be in a position to build new collaborations and tackle even more ambitious research projects.

— Kenneth Price

on Strengths Chalking up an academic win in the Big Ten

not just about football. The University of Nebraska– Lincoln’s move to the Big Ten Conference has put added focus on academics and the College of Arts and Sciences is celebrating the chance to elevate the reputation of several programs, enhance collaborations outside the university, and share in other new opportunities that go along with joining an elite peer group.

“The College of Arts and Sciences plays an important role, or really I should say roles,” said Dean David Manderscheid. “In some cases we will lead, and in others we will learn. In all things, we’re eager to collaborate with some of the nation’s top educators and researchers.”

Work with the conference’s academic arm, the Committee on

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Institutional Cooperation, is already under way. Early on, UNL’s internationally recognized Center for Digital Research in the Humanities attracted the CIC’s attention.

The center — a joint initiative of the College and University Libraries — has established itself as a leader through its breadth of unique and often interdisciplinary digital projects, modeling of high standards, and ability to stay on top of trends in the growing field of digital humanities.

UNL’s Extreme Light Laboratory’s centerpiece, the Diocles Laser, with its research insights in areas from medicine to homeland security are among the strengths Arts and Sciences brings to the Big Ten Conference.

(Photo by Craig Chandler, University Communications)

“Nebraska will play a prominent role in this emerging arena, as CIC stakeholders including librarians, chief information officers, graduate deans, and deans of arts and sciences come together in the next year to envision collaborative opportunities in the digital humanities,” said Amber Marks, who leads academic collaboration with liberal arts colleges as an associate director at the CIC. Even before joining the Big Ten, the center’s faculty have established partnerships on grant-funded projects with various schools, including the University of Illinois, Michigan State University, the University of Iowa, and Northwestern, said center co-director Kenneth Price.

“Now we should be in a position to build new collaborations and tackle even more ambitious research projects,” he said.

The CIC also has expressed interest in UNL’s

language offerings, particularly in the Omaha language and Czech, which will help the committee’s ongoing effort to expand course access to students, Marks said. CIC universities collectively offer more than 120 languages that are less commonly taught. The CIC coordinates course sharing across universities via videoconference, as well as initiatives like summer language institutes and a travelingscholar program.

“This expansion of course offerings directly enhances our efforts to internationalize and diversify the curriculum and to emphasize experiential learning, which is another one of our strengths,” Manderscheid said.

Other strengths include UNL’s Strengths Continued on Page 12

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Program Highlights

Changes aim to connect students to world of possibilities

By Jean Ortiz Jones

The College of Arts and Sciences has launched an effort to remake and revitalize its International Studies Program to maximize opportunities for students and to build on longstanding strengths.

The program was brought into the Dean’s Office earlier this year to develop a new curriculum and to strengthen the program in other ways, with Associate Dean for Faculty Sunil Narumalani appointed as the program’s interim director and to lend his expertise in international matters.

“With our entry into the Big Ten, we saw this as an opportunity to enhance our offerings and to create a more contemporary, robust program that will make students more marketable in a wide range of career fields,” Narumalani said.

An advisory committee comprised of representatives from the departments of political science, history, modern languages and communication studies, and the Arts and Sciences Advising Center is offering input on the restructuring. Narumalani also has consulted with representatives of the Great Plains National Security Education Consortium, a partnership involving UNL, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Creighton University and Bellevue University. It was created with the help of a $3.5 million grant from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to provide academic, research, cultural immersion and outreach activities focused on national security-related topics to students with diverse interests and backgrounds.

Among other requirements, the existing program directed students to choose two of three thematic specializations: power and production, international relations and cultural encounters.

Some of the changes pursued by the committee include

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expanding the program’s thematic areas, to give greater focus to such topics as global security and foreign policy, human rights, and global resources and the environment.

Human rights represent a key interest area for UNL, which has an internationally recognized program that continues to evolve to address the issues of the 21st century.

The program changes are on track to take effect for all majors entering the program beginning in fall 2012.

Narumalani also is reaching out to other programs across the university to incorporate coursework from a variety of disciplines.

There’s also added emphasis on study abroad participation.

“Every international studies student should study abroad,” Narumalani said. “But not all students have that opportunity either because they don’t have access or simply can’t afford to go.

We want to do everything we can to break down those barriers.”

College administrators are hopeful the changes will boost participation in the program, which currently has about 200 majors, while giving students an advantage as they seek out careers working with intelligence agencies, environmental institutes, and international organizations like UNICEF, among many other possibilities.

“We are putting significant thought into these changes because the work these students will be doing is critically important,” Narumalani said. “They will contend with the complex global challenges facing the world well into the future, from terrorism and war to climate change, economic development and ethnic conflict. We are preparing them for public service, at the highest level.”

Recruitment Push

Move to Big Ten prompts big vision for campus growth

By Jean Ortiz Jones

In response to goals laid by UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman in his 2011 State of the University Address, the College of Arts and Sciences will push to increase enrollment and put added emphasis on ensuring more students graduate within six years.

Perlman has set targets of growing enrollment university-wide to 30,000 students by 2017 and to achieve a six-year graduation rate of 70 percent for undergraduates. The university currently has nearly 25,000 students and sees 64 percent of its undergraduates graduate within six years.

As of fall 2011, undergraduate enrollment in Arts and Sciences stood at 4,739, an increase of nearly 7.3 percent since 2007, according to data compiled by UNL’s Office of Institutional Research and Planning. The College’s graduate student enrollment numbered 1,053. That’s up 5.2 percent since 2007.

To meet the chancellor’s enrollment goal, Arts and Sciences will need to add about 1,200 total students, as well as make adjustments to provide the bulk of the general education for the 5,000 students added across the university, said David Manderscheid, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. The College teaches 50 percent of the total credit hours offered at the university.

Students are pictured on campus with Oldfather Hall in the background.

UNL is making a push to boost recruitment and retention numbers and Arts and Sciences plays a major role in the effort.

(Photo by Greg Nathan, University Communications)

The growth will add about 500 new class sections by 2017.

“It’s audacious, but the key word is realistic,” Manderscheid said.

“I believe that with everyone in Arts and Sciences pitching in, we can achieve these goals.”

Such growth will create new challenges, including increased need for more faculty and staff, as well as space for learning, living and research.

“We’ll work through those issues carefully with input from the affected departments, but we must keep in perspective that at a time when many other universities are cutting, we are growing,” Manderscheid said. “These are good problems to have.”

To properly manage the growth, the College will lean on strengths already in place, including its successful two-pronged advising system that offers students access to a professionally staffed advising center as well as to chief advisers within each program. Advisers also are incorporating new software tools to enhance services and to more efficiently identify and serve at-risk students, said Bill Watts, assistant dean for advising services.

“The College of Arts and Sciences is poised to meet the challenges of growth with faculty and staff dedicated to student success,” he said. “Our faculty and advising teams have been meeting to learn more about national retention models and adapt innovative programs to enhance our students’ experience and graduation rates.”

From its advising services and other student support tools like learning communities and resource centers, to its wide range of learning pathways to pursue, Arts and Sciences has many opportunities ahead to grow enrollment, said Jodi Holt, the College’s new director of recruitment. Joining the Big Ten Conference only helps expand those opportunities, she added.

“We’re a Big Ten school,” she said. “We’re in elite company and this gives us one more point to leverage to catch the attention of students who may not have known much about us before.”

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Cover Story Strengths Continued From Page 9

nationally acclaimed teacher-preparation programs built with the contributions of faculty in mathematics, science disciplines and English, and unique endeavors like the Weibling Project for the Psycholegal Treatment and Study of Discrimination. The latter project brings together UNL faculty and advanced students from psychology and the College of Law to examine discrimination and to learn how to reduce its psychological effects.

“We hope the momentum from the conference switch will help fuel our efforts to continue growing these signature programs,” Manderscheid said.

Opportunities for enhanced collaborations also are in store for researchers, whose groundbreaking work offers yet another asset to the Big Ten. The new collaborations also will create additional avenues of exploration for students involved in research.

World-renowned brain imaging expert Dennis Molfese continues to make advances on a proposed multidisciplinary center focused on understanding the brain, biology and behavior. Since joining the UNL faculty in October 2010, he already has trained dozens of faculty members and students, and has more workshops set for this fall to teach others how to use brain-imaging technologies in their research.

“We’re going to be with UNL faculty looking at a host of issues that really cut across every discipline in the university,” Molfese

said. “No imaging center in the world is doing that.”

Molfese was recently selected to coordinate research across the 13 CIC institutions on the long-term effects of concussions.

Meanwhile, the Extreme Light Laboratory, home to the ultrapowerful Diocles Laser, continues to attract international attention for its research with applications ranging from medicine to homeland security.

Several universities in the Big Ten have materials research, science and engineering centers supported by the National Science Foundation, but UNL is making strides to better distinguish its center. The Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience, an initiative spearheaded by the colleges of Arts and Sciences and Engineering, will open its new nanoscience metrology facility in coming months that will offer state-ofthe-art research facilities for faculty from UNL and those from around the world.

This growth and the potential involved here as well as in many other Arts and Sciences programs underscore why the Big Ten is such a natural fit for UNL, Manderscheid said.

“Though the celebration of our entry into the conference has come and gone, we will continue to celebrate the fact that we are on a new trajectory,” he said.

Speech and debate team claims UNL’s first Big Ten title Winning isn’t foreign territory for UNL’s speech and debate team, which lays claim to several big victories, including five individual national championships since 2000. But the team recently garnered a new title that’s one for the record books.

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in prose interpretation, dramatic interpretation, and duo interpretation with partner sophomore Grace Kluck of Lincoln.

The team picked up UNL’s first Big Ten title with its victory at the Conference Challenge Tournament, Oct. 8-9 at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

Other students winning conference championships included senior Jimmy Simpson Jr. of Lyons in persuasive speaking, senior Eli Barts of Bellevue in informative speaking, junior Lauren Schaal of Omaha in after-dinner speaking and sophomore Josh Planos of Omaha in program oral interpretation.

UNL led the field with a two-day point total of 261 points, ahead of tournament host and second-place finisher Northwestern at 138 points.

“This confirms my view that in specific academic areas we will lead in the Big Ten and are certainly competitive with them,” said Harvey Perlman, UNL chancellor.

“Our students worked hard to be prepared for the tournament and it was exciting to see their efforts pay off,” said Aaron Duncan, team director.

The team is part of UNL’s Department of Communication Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. The department explores human communication as it shapes and is shaped by relationships, institutions and societies. Its main areas of expertise are interpersonal and family communication, organizational communication, and rhetoric and public culture.

For more information on the department or the speech and debate team, visit www.unl.edu/cs.

In addition to the team championship in a conference that has a long tradition of academic excellence and excellence in speech and debate, UNL students captured seven individual Big Ten titles.

Senior Nick Herink of Omaha won conference championships

Faculty Feature

Acclaimed author, poet takes the helm of Prairie Schooner

By Jean Ortiz Jones

Born in Ghana and raised in Jamaica, Kwame Dawes grew up with two homes and a split sensibility, as he tells the story.

It wasn’t traumatic. In fact, Dawes counts it as an asset. The experience helped him develop an ability to understand a place from the inside and the outside.

“In a sense, I think that is what writers try to do,” he said.

“Writers engage in active imagination called empathy, which involves the process of being within something emotionally and entirely in there and yet being critically outside to use form and to use the very practice of art to create something out of it.”

It has given him an ability to move from place to place and to see things as he wouldn’t have otherwise — from growing up in Ghana, Jamaica and a brief stay in England, to working in Canada, South Carolina and now Nebraska.

This fall, Dawes stepped into the role of Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner, UNL’s quarterly literary magazine that for the past 85 years has published the fiction, poetry, essays and reviews of talented writers of all levels. He also joins the faculty as a Chancellor’s Professor and professor of English.

The editorship is endowed thanks to a generous gift from Glenna Luschei, a UNL alumna and former Prairie Schooner editorial assistant. In 2001, Luschei endowed Prairie Schooner in perpetuity through the University of Nebraska Foundation. Besides the editorship, the gift supports special editorial projects and annual awards recognizing outstanding contributions to the magazine.

“I just thought this was a fantastic opportunity,” Dawes said of his new role. “To take over a journal of the prestige, tradition and reputation of Prairie Schooner was an exciting idea to me.”

He also was drawn by the prospects of working with students pursuing doctorates in creative writing, and to continue teaching courses on subjects he loves.

He spent the last 19 years at the University of South Carolina, where he was a Distinguished Poet in Residence and professor of English.

Kwame Dawes (Photo by Greg Nathan, University Communications)

His long list of accomplishments includes an Emmy Award.

He received the honor in 2009 for LiveLoveHope.com, his multimedia documentary project on HIV/AIDS in Jamaica.

He also reported on the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and contributed poems and other writings to the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, which earlier this year won the National Press Club Joan Friedenberg Award for Online Journalism. His recent released poetry collection, “Wheels,” includes some of those poems. That work also has been featured on PBS’ “NewsHour” and in USA Today.

His extensive record of publication, diverse set of experiences and global perspective will aid him in his new role, said Susan Belasco, chair of UNL’s English Department.

“We are thrilled to welcome Kwame Dawes — a citizen of the world — who brings his extraordinary creativity and leadership to Prairie Schooner,” she said. “Professor Dawes will build on the success of Prairie Schooner and attract new and emerging writers from all over the globe.”

Beyond those steps to reenergize readers, Dawes also wants to increase the magazine’s online presence by revamping its website and blog system. Upholding the magazine’s tradition, integrity and strict code of ethics that guide judging for annual prizes also are paramount, he said.

“It’s a very exciting time, really, when all kinds of things are happening and I’m glad to be right in the middle of it,” he said.

Visit http://go.unl.edu/fall2011 to check out the Prairie Schooner blog

Dawes is the author of 19 poetry collections, three works of fiction, several books of literary criticism and aesthetics, four anthologies, and several produced plays. He also has several other forthcoming projects.

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Research Briefs

 S ociologist aims to find root of

 V irologist wins Gates Foundation grant

Americans have long turned to diet, exercise and lifestyle changes to take charge of their health. But for vulnerable populations, that might not be enough.

Shi-Hua Xiang, research associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences, has won a $611,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations grant.

Xiang is the first UNL researcher to receive the award.

health disparities

Sociologist Bridget Goosby is studying how social inequalities like racial discrimination affect human biology and contribute to health disparities. Her research examines whether the stress from such experiences can make someone susceptible to disease that’s then passed down through generations.

She has the support of a five-year, $562,000 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award, known as a K01 award, from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health. K01 awards help exceptional faculty develop as outstanding teacher-scholars and researchers.

Visit http://go.unl.edu/fall2011 to see a video interview with Bridget Goosby

The Grand Challenges Explorations initiative enables researchers worldwide to test unorthodox ideas that address persistent global health and development challenges. Xiang, a scientist in the Nebraska Center for Virology, explores the use of lactobacillus bacteria as an anti-HIV agent. He and his colleagues hypothesized that introducing the engineered bacteria into the gastrointestinal tract would allow the bacteria to colonize and provide long-lasting protection against the virus.

Since its launch in 2008, the Grand Challenges Explorations initiative has awarded grants to nearly 500 researchers from more than 40 countries.

 Z eng honored for contributions  D iscovery sheds light on legendary poet Kenneth Price, Hillegass University Professor of American Literature, has uncovered nearly 3,000 documents penned by the legendary poet Walt Whitman.

The documents discovered within the National Archives consist of Whitman’s handwritten clerical work from 1865 to 1873 when he was a scribe in the attorney general’s office in the nation’s capital. Those letters and papers and the weighty national issues they addressed, though not officially authored

by Whitman, likely affected him, said Price, who co-directs both the Walt Whitman Archive and UNL’s Center for Digital Research in the Humanities.

It has been said that the discovery will revolutionize the understanding of Whitman and his post-war work.

Visit http://go.unl.edu/fall2011 to see a video interview with Kenneth Price

Pictured below (L to R): Bridget Goosby, Kenneth Price, Shi-Hua Xiang, Xiao Cheng Zeng

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to chemistry

Ameritas Distinguished University Professor of chemistry, Xiao Cheng Zeng, has been awarded the prestigious Midwest Award from the American Chemical Society’s St. Louis section. The honor, given annually, recognizes meritorious contributions to the advancement of pure or applied chemistry, chemical education, and the profession of chemistry.

Zeng is internationally known for his computational studies of new phases of ice, gold, and silicon clusters, and nanostructured materials.

He is the fourth chemist from UNL to receive the honor, which has been awarded annually since 1944. Reuben Rieke received the honor in 1997. Norman Cromwell and Cliff Hamilton also were recipients in 1984 and 1955, respectively.

Giving

The Center for Digital Research in the Humanities makes strides toward fund-raising goal

By Robb Crouch University of Nebraska Foundation

Generous donors have given nearly $430,000 to support the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Center for Digital Research in the Humanities as part of an ongoing effort to raise $1.5 million by 2015, the University of Nebraska Foundation announced recently.

Earlier this year, the National Endowment for the Humanities pledged to provide UNL a five-year, $500,000 challenge grant if the university secures $1.5 million in private support from alumni and friends.

Leadership gifts have been especially helpful in the success of the fundraising so far, including support from Helen and Richard Kelley of Omaha; Mable Musgrave of Denver; Katherine Walter of Lincoln and Sue and Larry Wood of Lincoln.

Once completed, the NEH grant and private donations will provide a $2 million permanently endowed fund to support some of the center’s key programs. An internationally recognized leader in digital humanities research, the center is a joint initiative of the College of Arts and Sciences and UNL Libraries. It is a UNL Program of Excellence.

“We’re incredibly thankful to these alumni and friends for their gifts, which signal a belief in Nebraska’s leadership in the area of digital research and scholarship,” said Kenneth Price, co-director of the center and the Hillegass Professor of 19th-century American literature. “Their support provides momentum as we move forward with the challenge grant initiative.”

Walter, chair of UNL Libraries’ digital initiatives and collections, is co-director of the center and co-leader of the challenge grant initiative with Price.

NEH challenge grants help universities secure long-term improvements and support for humanities programs and often require a three-to-one match from the university. Over the next five years, the University of Nebraska Foundation, UNL Libraries and the College of Arts and Sciences will work together to raise the $1.5 million needed to receive the full $500,000.

The grant will support two graduate student assistantships annually, an ongoing two-year postdoctoral fellowship and the Nebraska Digital Workshop, the center’s signature event. The workshop brings the nation’s top early career digital humanities scholars to UNL to showcase their research, get feedback from senior faculty, and network with potential research partners and employers.

The center currently offers internships and fellowships as funding allows. A permanent endowment will enable the center to better serve and recruit promising scholars, Walter said.

Pictured above top (L to R): Chancellor Harvey Perlman; Katherine Walter, co-director of the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities and supporter; supporters Sue Wood, Larry Wood, Helen Kelley, Dick Kelley and NU Foundation President Clarey Castner.

Pictured above bottom (L to R): English Department Chair Susan Belasco, history professor Carole Levin, and longtime UNL benefactor Catherine Angle, who established a permanently endowed chair for the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities.

When the challenge grant was announced in February, Chancellor Harvey Perlman said the university is determined to raise the private donations needed for the matching components. “UNL is a widely recognized leader in digital research and scholarship,” he said. “This challenge grant represents an excellent opportunity to secure future funding to support the center’s important work.”

To learn more and to make a gift toward the challenge grant, contact Amber Antholz, Sunny Bellows or Josh Egley at the University of Nebraska Foundation at (402) 458-1100 or (800) 432-3216.

The University of Nebraska Foundation is an independent, nonprofit organization that has connected the dreams and passions of donors to the mission of the university for the past 75 years. In 2010, donors designated more than $136 million in gifts to scholarships, academic programs, medical research and other priorities at the university. The foundation’s current $1.2 billion fundraising initiative, the Campaign for Nebraska: Unlimited Possibilities, concludes in 2014. For more information, visit http://nufoundation.org.

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COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 1223 Oldfather Hall P.O. Box 880312 Lincoln, NE 68588-0312

(Photo by Craig Chandler, University Communications)

Nancy Keegan, chair of the University of Nebraska Foundation’s board of directors, and her husband, Don Voelte, stand in front of the under-construction Nanoscience Metrology Facility. Keegan and Voelte donated a $5 million campaign gift to UNL to support the project.

The building, located at 16th and W streets, will be named in their honor. It is set to open in early 2012.