Dr. Nathan Katz Dr. Nathan Katz, SIPA Distinguished Professor (Religious Studies Department), has published “Buddhist-Jewish Relations” from Ch.25 in The Wiley -Blackwell Companion to Inter-Religious Dialogue, edited by Catherine Cornille, 2013 (pp. 394-409); and “South Asian Judaisms: Practicing tradition today” in South Asian Religions: Tradition and Today, edited by Karen Pechelis (NY: Routldge, 2013), pp. 143-158. In addition, Dr. Katz organized and participated in a conference on “Neuroscience and Spirituality” – Sivananda Yoga Ashram Bahamas, with Daniel Drubach (Mayo Clinic and Medical School), James Austin (Univ. of Colorado Medical School), and Stephen Kaplan (Manhattan Coll), during March 17-21, 2013.
Naoko Komura Naoko Komura, Japanese Instructor and President of the Association for Florida Teachers of Japanese (AFTJ), recently attended the Florida Foreign Languages Association's annual conference in October 2012 and gave two presentations. One of the presentations was titled, "The Pedagogical Importance of Warm-Up Activities" and the other was, "Shadowing – Connecting Listening to Speaking." Komura was also nominated for the "Most Valuable Teacher" award at that conference. For several years now, Naoko has led the Summer Study Abroad program to Kyoto, Japan. This past summer she travelled with twelve FIU students to Ritsumeikan University. She is also involved in organizing the annual Japanese Speech & Skit Contest. 37