Bill Cosby Comes to QC CLICK HERE

Outstanding Graduates
2 . . . Democratic Mayoral Candidates
Make Their Case 3 . . . Massachusetts First Lady Diane Patrick
Returns to QC 6 . . . Three QC Grads Win NSF Grants
12
Bill Cosby Comes to QC CLICK HERE
Q U E E N S C O L L E G E FAC U LT Y
fyi
| S TA F F N E W S
College to Honor
Khalili and Ravitch at Its
89th Commencement
Photo: Vincent Aiello
As Stephanie Lilavois, Coordinator for the
Office of Events, approaches running her
first Queens College commencement (and
the college’s 89th) on Thursday, May 30, she
is trying not to think too much about the one
element that can dramatically determine the
quality of the experience: the weather.
“I’m not sure if ordering more ponchos
would be a jinx,” she says, referring to the
protective pullovers not needed since 2009
when Civil Rights icon Congressman John
Lewis delivered the main commencement
address as a steady downpour drenched a
crowd adorned in white plastic displaying
the college logo.
It is hoped that this
year’s commencement
speaker, NASSER
DAVID KHALILI,
who will be awarded
the Queens College
Medal, will fare better
weather-wise. Khalili
graduated from QC
in 1974 with a degree
Khalili
in computer science
and later received
his PhD from the
University of London’s
School of Oriental
and African Studies.
A Jew born in Iran,
Khalili is a renowned
art collector, scholar,
and philanthropist
who has dedicated
much of his adult life
to the reconciliation
of Muslims and Jews.
He is owner of one of
the world’s largest and
most comprehensive
collections of
Islamic art—about which he frequently
lectures, as he did at QC in 2005—and
has endowed positions in the study of
Islamic art and culture at the University
of London, the University of Oxford, and
Queens College. He is also the chairman
and founder of the London-based
M AY 2 0 1 3
Acceptances at
Drama MFA
Programs
Spotlight QC
Talent
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Yale Drama School, NYU Tisch School
of the Arts, American Conservatory
Theater in San Francisco, Juilliard,
Rutgers, the London Academy of
Music and Dramatic Arts—any
conservatory would be proud to
have some of its graduates admitted.
For among these elite schools, the
acceptance rate is only 1.5%.
So what to make of the fact
that all four undergraduate drama
students in QC’s MFA preparatory
class have gained admission to at
least one of these programs, and
some have multiple acceptances? For
a drama department in a liberal arts
college, the results are astonishing:
Thomas Stagnitta to San Francisco’s
American Conservatory Theater;
Gabrielle Georgescu to the London
Conservatory of Music and Dramatic
CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
QUEENS COLLEGE 89TH COMMENCEMENT- from page 1
Maimonides Foundation, which promotes
interfaith dialogue.
DIANE RAVITCH,
the renowned
education historian
and policy analyst
who served in the
administrations of
Presidents George
H. W. Bush and
Bill Clinton, will be
this year’s honorary
Ravitch
degree recipient. In
recent years she has emerged as a strong
voice in opposition to the education reform
movement as embodied in the policies
of Presidents George W. Bush and
Barack Obama.
In addition to all the speeches, there will
be music provided by the Wind Ensemble
conducted by Kristin Mozeiko (Music),
and Susan Babb (Music) will conduct
representatives of the Women’s Choir
in a performance of the QC alma mater
“Blue and Silver,” using the arrangement
created by Ed Smaldone (ACSM) that was
first performed at QC’s 75th Anniversary
Convocation last October.
“I love that arrangement,” says Lilavois.
“There’s a soprano part that reaches a high
note that’s just divine.”
As at past commencements, members
of previous graduating classes will be
in attendance. The alumni years being
celebrated this May are 1943, 1953,
and 1963.
Lilavois notes that, in addition to
her professional responsibilities, she
has a sentimental connection to QC’s
commencement ceremony: Her mother,
Liliane, graduated from QC in 1982.
And yes, Lilavois confirms for those
who may be wondering, New York Senator
Charles Schumer will again be among
the speakers.
Parking on Commencement Day
On Commencement
Day, Thursday,
May 30, the main
gate entrance and
the Schiller Road
entrance will be
PARKING
closed and restricted
to emergency traffic.
The only vehicles permitted to
enter through the main gate will
be people with parking decals
for Fields 11 and 12, and special
disabled parking passes.
P
FYI MAY 2013 | 2
If you have a decal for Field 1,
you may park in Fields 2/7 or 6.
Please enter these fields through
the Melbourne Avenue entrance.
Faculty and staff assigned to
Fields 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 14 must
enter through the Melbourne
Ave. entrance. To be sure of
on-campus parking, you should
arrive before 9 am; all entrance
gates will be closed when the
parking fields are full.
Outstanding Students
from the Class of 2013
NASHWA EL-SAYED
Due to her daring
flight to freedom
five years ago,
Nashwa El-Sayed
missed her highschool graduation
in Alexandria,
Egypt. At 17 she
achieved her
fervent desire
to return to the
United States,
from which she had been abducted at
the age of two. But she will also miss
her Queens College commencement
this May as this international relations/
political science major will be heading
for Oman, Dubai, Israel, Saudi Arabia,
and the Palestinian territories, traveling
as one of six high-achieving American
college students chosen for the twoweek Ibrahim Leadership and Dialogue
Project. “When I do my master’s,” she
notes, “I hope I can attend graduation.”
“Arab-Latina, future advocate for
abducted children around the world, a
woman interested in the Middle East,
belly dancer.” In describing herself,
El-Sayed could mention many dimensions.
Competitive fencer at QC (NCAA
regionals). Grew up with Arabic, taught
herself English and Spanish, and speaks a
little French. Organized an after-school
camp for Arab-American children.
“I owe all the progress to Queens
College,” El-Sayed believes. “This was
the perfect place for me. It was exactly
what I needed: people who were really
concerned for who I am.”
Who she is springs from a wrenching
saga that began after her Egyptian father
and Puerto Rican mother divorced. Her
mother, who has a PhD, gained custody.
“In 1993, on Father’s Day, I had the
day with my dad,” El-Sayed relates. “He
never brought me home. He kidnapped
me to Egypt. I had just some diapers
and the clothes on me.” Egypt does not
prosecute non-custodial parents who
bring their children there. Her father
and stepmothers were “very abusive,
physically, emotionally, everything,” she
continues.
When she was nine years old,
El-Sayed was shocked to find her
mother waiting outside her school—her
father had said she was dead. They spent
a few days together, and over the next
seven years her mother visited four
more times.
“I was obsessed with the idea
that she is American and I am too,”
El-Sayed recalls. She prepared for “a
better option” by gleaning English from
Backstreet Boys lyrics and “King of
Queens” subtitles.
El-Sayed’s father encouraged his
energetic daughter to join a fencing
club—a family talent. When at 17 she
reminded him she wanted to study
CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
Democrats State Their Case
for Mayor at Campus Debate
But it was Liu who got the biggest applause
of the night when he said he would help
ease the financial burden for CUNY students
by giving them free Metrocards. This was
even more popular with the many students
in the audience than former Councilman Sal
Albanese’s declaration that as mayor he would
“legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana.”
All in all, the two-hour forum in Rosenthal
230 featuring four of the five Democratic
candidates for mayor (Council Speaker
Christine Quinn had a scheduling conflict)
was a spirited, seldom fractious affair with
the candidates comfortably fielding questions
about education, Hurricane Sandy recovery
efforts, police conduct, campaign finance
reform, and the economy posed by moderators
Errol Lewis of NY1 and Michael Krasner
(Political Science).
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio certainly got
the evening’s biggest laughs.
Arriving about 20 minutes late for Queens
College’s April 11 Democratic Mayoral
Candidates debate, he was asked to address
the issue of growing income inequality in New
York City.
“I’d like to address that question,” he said,
“but first I want to note very soberly that
there is a profound evil threatening New York
City, and it is the Long Island Expressway.”
Laughter erupted at his confession of tardiness
caused by a plight familiar to many in the
room: rush hour traffic on the LIE.
Later, when a loud buzzer mysteriously
sounded just as Comptroller John Liu was
answering a question about police stop-andfrisk policies, de Blasio again elicited laughs
as he said in a mock quiz-show-host voice,
“John, you were wrong on that question. You
have one more chance.”
FYI MAY 2013 | 3
SOME HIGHLIGHTS
Discussing the NYC Police Department’s
controversial stop-and-frisk policy, Liu said, “It
doesn’t have to be mended. It has to be ended.”
And both de Blasio and former Comptroller
Bill Thompson said they would fire Police
Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Remarking on the increasing economic
disparity during the Bloomberg years, de Blasio
described New York as “a tale of two cities,”
and Liu called for raising the minimum wage to
$11.50 an hour.
Education was a particularly voluble area,
with all the candidates agreeing that Mayor
Bloomberg’s oft-touted education reforms needed to be seriously reformed: A former Board of
Education president, Thompson said he would
put an educator in charge of public schools
and shift curriculum focus from memorization
to comprehension and critical thinking. Liu
declared the city should end high-stakes exams
and stop running public schools like businesses
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
QC TALENT- from page 1
Arts; Rosanny Zayas to Juilliard; and
Shaunette Wilson to the Yale School of
Drama. In the past four years, six other
grads also landed at prestigious graduate
drama programs, including Yale, the
American Repertory Theatre at Harvard,
NYU, the American Conservatory
Theater, and Rutgers.
“It’s a testament to our program,”
says Claudia Feldstein (Drama), a QC and
Yale Drama School alumna who has been
dedicated to this class for the past three
years. “The department offers enough
foundation to be a strong launching pad to
these very competitive theatre schools.
“One student told me that the head
of Juilliard said, ‘They’re doing something
very right at Queens,’” says Feldstein.
The prep course, which the
department provides at no cost, is “boot
camp for the audition,” she says. The
grueling process requires candidates to
demonstrate their talent by presenting
four monologues of both classical and
contemporary texts. Feldstein helps
students select monologues, and then
works with each one as coach, director,
and mentor.
Feldstein “helped me with the basics,
with notes, direction, character, text,
in a very clear and concise way,” says
Shaunette Wilson. “We would work
for hours.” Wilson hadn’t come to
Queens with acting ambitions. She
transferred from Marymount
Manhattanville, where she
had been a playwriting
major. Three drama classes
with Feldstein revealed the
path she needed to take.
L–r: Shaunette Wilson,
Rosanny Zayas, Claudia
Feldstein, Gabrielle
Georgescu, and Thomas
Stagnitta.
Feldstein also inspired Thomas
Stagnitta, who came to QC for
the “phenomenal math and physics
departments.” He hadn’t even done high
school drama—but when he happened to
take an introduction to acting class the
first day of college, he was hooked.
Working with Feldstein was indeed
life changing for Stagnitta. “Claudia has
a tremendously deep understanding of
acting that flows into life. I’m finding the
two not to be mutually exclusive,” he says.
Gabrielle Georgescu moved into acting
from dance. A double major in theatre
and media studies, Georgescu caught the
drama bug in high school, where she also
took up singing.
She treasures the time she’s worked
with Feldstein. “I’d email a lot,” says
Georgescu. “She was very gracious. She
pushes us all in ways that I didn’t know we
could be pushed in.”
Rosanny Zayas wasn’t sure about
pursuing acting and theatre when she
arrived at Queens. By the time she took
Acting 2 with Feldstein as a second-year
student, Zayas knew she had found her
vocation. “Claudia was the only one who
took an interest in what I had done. I tried
and tried to be better. It’s more than just
acting. The lessons I learned will carry
with me the rest of my life.”
OUTSTANDING STUDENTS - from page 2
political science in the U.S., “he said
political science is for men.” She should
study business, he told her, and she
would be getting engaged to a man he
had picked out. Alarmed, El-Sayed asked
her mother to contact the FBI and State
Department and secretly visited the U.S.
Embassy to plead her case. However, a
relative exposed her plans.
During a close-guarded visit to
Cairo, she gained a second chance. “A
State Department person asked me,
‘Can you leave today?’” She hesitated,
afraid of the dangers. An FBI agent
called, saying, “It’s now or never.”
So at 5 am she fled to a waiting van,
and soon was once more boarding an
international flight with “nothing”—just
the clothes she had on, her hijab, and
$100 from her mom.
Determined to go to college,
El-Sayed showed up at QC’s
Admissions Office. “I said, ‘Here’s all
the paperwork I have. Please let me
in.’” QC admitted her directly, even
without a diploma. To pay for college,
she worked in a mall and for two years
in QC’s Academic Advising office.
When relations at home became
strained last summer, El-Sayed withdrew
her $600 savings, moved into a shared
apartment, and took two jobs. Her
fencing coach arranged a full scholarship
to keep her on the team.
El-Sayed hopes one day to establish
a foundation to help abducted children.
The Ibrahim honor is taking her toward
another goal: bridging the distance
between the U.S. and the Middle
East. Guiding the six students will be
FYI MAY 2013 | 4
a history professor who has inspired
her: Mark Rosenblum, director of QC’s
Center for Jewish Studies. “The freedom
that I have as a woman here is like no
[Arab] female in the Middle East can
have,” El-Sayed has found: “to have a
simple choice in life.”
DAVID KIM
When David
Kim was in
sixth grade, he
came across
a book in
the library
on computer
programming.
Intrigued
by the fact
that it came
with a CD,
he checked the book out. “It was like,
Wow, I had never realized I could make
a computer do what I wanted!”
The moment was something of an
epiphany, setting this son of Korean
immigrants off on a bumpy path of
intellectual exploration that his teachers
consider close to brilliant.
As an adolescent, Kim became passionate about computer programming,
spending much of his time tinkering and
experimenting. Never very interested in
school, he often cut classes to work on
personal programming projects.
In high school, Kim applied to
join an AP computer class on Java
programming language. With his poor
grades, the teacher hesitated, but
then quickly noticed the depth of his
knowledge of the subject. “She told
me I had lots of potential and wrote me
recommendations,” recalls Kim. That year,
Kim and a classmate won first prize in the
ThinkQuest competition for grade school
students for their design of a webpage
that taught people how to use podcasts.
After high school, and not accepted
to his first choice college—Queens
College—Kim enrolled in a computer
science program at the New York City
College of Technology, but was bored
and dropped out. He transferred to
Queens and, after a year of classes,
took off two years to work on building
a Massively Multiplayer Online Game.
The game was not completed but, as in
his past, the hands-on experience was
immensely valuable—bringing him a
deeper understanding of such computer
development skills as graphic rendering
and scaling.
Kim returned to Queens to finish his
BS degree and is graduating this spring.
“David is one of these exceptional
students,” says Luat Vuong (Physics).
“He is a joy to work with and extremely
curious. He brings out the best” in the
education process.
Some of his professors have urged
Kim to continue in a PhD program. Kim
says he is not interested in pursuing an
academic track. Nor is he sure he wants
to accept any of the job offers he has
gotten from Web design companies. As
he considers his options, Kim continues
pursuing his various passions: breakdancing, photography, and his real love:
computer programming.
MADELINE YAP
After she
graduates with
a BA in East
Asian Studies,
Madeline
Yap heads to
South Korea
on a Fulbright
scholarship
this summer
for a year’s
stint as an
English teacher. “I like language and can
give back by teaching English,” she says.
The job should provide a perfect way
for Yap to learn more about Korea—a
place she has been fascinated with for
several years.
Yap’s interest in all things Korean
springs in part from her roots. She is the
daughter of ethnic Chinese who emigrated from Malaysia to NYC; the family
speaks a mixture of Cantonese and English at home. “There is a lot of overlap
between the Chinese and Korean cultures,” Yap says, especially “Confucianism
and the respect for elders.”
But it was her discovery of Korean
pop music—known as “K-Pop” and
made internationally famous with such
hits as Psy’s “Oppa Gangnam Style”—
that hooked her. She studied three
semesters of Korean at Queens (Yap
discovered she liked learning foreign
languages while taking Spanish in middle
and high school) and last year did a
semester abroad in Seoul. There she
soaked up the local culture, took lessons
in Taekwondo—the Korean martial arts
form—and discovered hiking, which is
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
New Twist to Class Gift
OUTSTANDING STUDENTS - from page 4
something of a national pastime on
the peninsula. She even developed a
liking for Korean cuisine (though she
concedes it is an acquired taste).
At Queens she is in the Macaulay
Honors College program and on the
dean’s list, and tutors primary and
middle school students in English and
math. She is thinking about a career as
a translator or interpreter, or maybe
as a language teacher.
When she arrives in Korea this
summer, Yap will start with six
weeks of intensive training in Korean
language and English language teaching.
And what about the current tensions
between North Korea and the U.S.allied South? Yap recently received
a letter from Fulbright, informing
her that her trip was expected to go
ahead as planned despite the rise in
tensions. “I’m a little nervous,” she
says, “but not too concerned.”
RACHELI WERCBERGER
Recruited by
Emory, Penn,
Rockefeller, and
other prestigious
universities,
Racheli
Wercberger
begins her
neuroscience
PhD next
September at
the University
of California, San Francisco. The
“coolest” part of these “very
extravagant” all-expense-paid
FYI MAY 2013 | 5
recruiting visits, observes the
Macaulay Honors College student,
was having leading neuroscientists ask
her about her research and probing
them about theirs.
As tutor, mentor, and protégée,
Wercberger knows the thrill of being
at the synapse where discoveries are
incubated and transmitted. Beginning
last year through the competitive
CUNY Summer Undergraduate
Research Program, the neuroscience
major has been investigating in the
lab of Joshua C. Brumberg, professor
and head of QC’s neuroscience PhD
subprogram. She explores at the
cellular level how lab mice “sense
their external world” via wiggling
their whiskers. “She has consistently
asked questions that have challenged
me,” Brumberg enthused in his letter
of recommendation. “Impressively,
Racheli was able to master every
technique needed and she did so
incredibly rapidly.”
In the lab, her patience, savvy, and
troubleshooting skills led to her own
project and to mentoring a Bronx
High School of Science student. “I just
like teaching,” Wercberger affirms,
for it makes her appreciate when
someone has taught her well. She
tutors through the Biology Honor
Society and privately in chemistry. “For
whatever reason, I’m able to pinpoint
what they’re not getting in class, and
help them get it,” she explains. “When
something clicks in someone else’s
head, that’s always satisfying.”
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
Members of the Class of 2013 contributing
toward the traditional class gift have an
opportunity to make their donations a
more personal experience via the new
Honor a Mentor program initiated by Laura
Abrams, Director of QC’s Annual Fund.
“Asking for a class gift is a typical
request made of graduating students. I felt
that it would be nice to add something
more meaningful to encourage giving and
create more good feeling on campus for
the people who will be receiving these
messages from students.”
Graduating students learned about
the program last month in a letter from
Student Association President Karamvir
Singh, who encouraged them to help
fund a combined class gift that would be
the equivalent of a year’s tuition for a
deserving student.
CAMPUS DEBATE - from page 3
reporting to a CEO. Emphasizing the importance of early childhood education, Albanese,
a one-time classroom teacher, said he’d create
a Department of Early Learning in conjunction
with pediatric wellness centers.
A question concerning CUNY provided
one of the evening’s more curious moments:
Asked by Krasner to comment on CUNY’s
new Pathways initiative, none of the
candidates appeared to know anything about
it, with Thompson acknowledging “I’m not
well-versed on Pathways; I’ll try to become
better-informed.”
Also curious was Liu, without prompting,
reminding everyone of the continuing federal
investigation into his campaign’s fundraising
practices. “It has angered and frustrated many
people,” he said. (In early May two of Liu’s
former associates were convicted of attempting
to funnel money to his campaign by means of
an illegal fundraising scheme.)
“When you make a gift of $20.13 or
more,” his letter explained, “you can also
Honor a Mentor. A card with your personal
message will be delivered to an administrator,
faculty, or staff member on campus who has
made an impact on your life.”
Students can select one of four prepared
messages or one of their own to send to
their mentor, says Abrams. The message is
printed on the “thank you” card and the
mentor receives it, along with a short note
about the program so they know why they
have received it.
Students can continue to make
contributions through the summer until the
fall homecoming celebration, she says. And if
the equivalent of a year’s tuition is donated, a
large brick acknowledging the Class of 2013’s
gift will be placed in the Alumni Plaza across
from Jefferson Hall.
The event’s principal organizer, Ron
Hayduk (Political Science), was pleased with
the outcome of the first-ever political debate
at QC. It marked the fulfillment of a process
that began around the time of last November’s
QC Presidential Roundtable, at which he and
Krasner had offered a post-election analysis
of Obama’s reelection campaign. With
candidates for the 2013 New York mayor’s
race beginning to declare their intentions,
Hayduk pitched the idea of hosting a mayoral
debate to President James Muyskens, who
endorsed the idea. Hayduk then described the
efforts of several faculty, staff, and students in
tackling organizing issues, including securing
a co-sponsor and moderator. Of meeting these
and other challenges, he was particularly
effusive in his praise of Maria Matteo
(Communications). “She did a lot of the heavy
lifting . . . Maria was the one who really got us
NY1 and landed Errol Lewis,” he said. “The
debate wouldn’t have happened without her.”
OUTSTANDING STUDENTS - from page 5
Wercberger, who has a double minor
in chemistry and anthropology, spent
her junior winter intersession in South
Africa studying the human-primate
interface. Following Commencement
and the completion of her research,
she will coach swimmers back home in
Rockland County before moving to the
West Coast.
Humans depend on brain circuitry
to perceive their environment, which
leads her to reflect “that our perception
of that environment is very illusive.”
One future environment she envisions
is “being a young researcher running
my own lab.” Neuroscience, she
synthesizes, “is a really nice way to
blend the science and the philosophical
context of how we perceive.”
DEP Grant Funds
Another Campus
Rain Garden
When it rains on QC’s Dining
Hall Plaza, it pours . . .
everywhere. Each year, nearly
20,000 gallons of stormwater runs off
the impervious 18,000-square-foot
area. But a new grant from New York
City’s Department of Environmental
Protection will allow the college to
replace plaza materials with a system
that directs rainwater into the ground—
the latest such project built on campus.
“I am very happy to see that Queens
College will be one of the institutions
receiving awards as part of the city’s enormously vital Green
Infrastructure Grant Program,” says Queens Borough President Helen
Marshall. “The college will be using the grant to retrofit its Dining Hall
Plaza with rain gardens, permeable pavers, and trees.”
“Queens College is proud to do our part in minimizing the runoff of
stormwater into Flushing Creek,” adds Dave Gosine (Facilities Design,
Construction, and Management). “The grant allows us to once again
rise to the top of CUNY’s leadership in implementing sustainable and
innovative development on campus.”
FYI MAY 2013 | 6
First Lady of MA Visits Campus
Last month Diane Patrick ’72—former
New York City schoolteacher, successful
attorney, and now First Lady of
Massachusetts—returned to her alma
mater in a role for which she has gained
increasing recognition in recent years:
domestic abuse survivor.
After a tour of the campus where she
received her degree in early childhood
education, Patrick appeared at a special
event in the President’s Lounge where,
in an hour-long interview conducted by
Carmella Marrone, director of Women and
Work, she revealed to a packed room a
chapter of her life about which she retains
troubling memories: her first marriage.
When interviewed by QC’s alumni
magazine shortly after her second husband,
Deval, became governor in 2007, Patrick had
only recently begun acknowledging her “first
marriage from hell.” But on this occasion she
was ready to share considerably more.
Following a lively, mostly upbeat account
of her history beginning with a Brooklyn
childhood in a warm, supportive family as
the granddaughter of the borough’s first
black elected official, she spoke of her years
trapped in an emotionally and physically
abusive marriage.
Her path to liberation, she said, began
when a concerned friend arranged a meeting
between Patrick and a recent law school
graduate who became Patrick’s friend,
adviser, and emotional pillar, helping her to
break free of her increasingly threatening
husband. That friendship grew to something
more and the friend, said Patrick, “happens,
today, to be the governor of Massachusetts.”
“I didn’t talk about it for a long time,”
Patrick continued, explaining how now, every
time she speaks about this aspect of her
history, she receives cards, letters, and emails
from women who say she inspired them to
confront their own domestic abuse situations.
“If that’s the result of my giving up some of
Diane Patrick with President James Muyskens
before sitting for an interview with Woman and
Work Director Carmella Marrone.
my own privacy,” she said, “then I have found
it to be worth it.”
Later in the day, Patrick had a separate,
more intimate meeting with members of the
Women and Work program, where they were
given the opportunity to share with her their
experiences of domestic abuse.
That so much of her day was focused
on this single issue was the intent from the
outset, said David D’Amato, Director of
Development, who along with Senior Gift
Officer Anne Koestner met with Patrick in
the fall while visiting alumni in Boston. “We
knew that domestic violence was an important
issue for her and that Women and Work would
be a good fit,” said D’Amato.
QC People
NICHOLAS ALEXIOU (Sociology)
gave a presentation on March 16 at the
Festival of Greek Literature and Books,
held at Georgetown University . . .
JOSHUA BRUMBERG (Psychology)
Alexiou
Brumberg
had a rewarding April when several of his
past and present students co-authored
an article on “Organization of myelin in
the mouse somatosensory barrel cortex
and the effects of sensory deprivation,”
featured on the cover of Developmental
Neurobiology. It represents research
wholly conducted at QC, with the
first two authors equally credited and
Brumberg named final co-author. Kyrstle
Barrera is a former master’s student
in psychology (now finishing his PhD at
Loma Linda University and headed to
Stanford on a fellowship); Philip Chu is
a doctoral student in neuropsychology
who received a Sigma Xi Grant in Aid
of Research; Jason Abramowitz was a
neuroscience major who won a CUNY
Salk Award; Robert Steger is a doctoral
student in neuropsychology; and Raddy
Ramos, a former post-doc, is now an
assistant professor at NY College of
Osteopathic Medicine . . . MARIO
CARUSO (Graduate Admissions) was
a moderator at a conference on Italian
Americans and Discrimination in Higher
Education, held March 27 at St. John’s
University . . . NICHOLAS COCH
(EES) presented a paper on the effects
FYI MAY 2013 | 7
of Hurricane Sandy at the First National
Tropical Weather Conference in South Padre
Island, TX . . . ELENA FRANGAKISSYRETT (History) received a QC
Scholar Incentive Award to do research
in Istanbul in spring 2012. While there,
she gave a series of talks on her work
concerning the development of banking in
the Middle East in the 19th and early 20th
centuries. She also led seminars about
her research, notably a faculty seminar
for the Department of Economics at the
University of Economics of Izmir (in Izmir)
and a seminar at the Institut Français
des Études Anatoliennes (in Istanbul).
The latter, conducted in English and
French, was videotaped . . . HERMANN
HALLER (ELL) gave a plenary address
on John Florio’s lexicographical work at
the 21st conference of the Associazione
Internazionale per gli Studi di Lingua e
Letteratura Italiana, held April 5 at the
University of Pennsylvania . . . JAMIE
HITTMAN (MFA Creative Writing) is
the first recipient of a fellowship offered
by Paper Lantern Lit, a literary incubator
that develops young adult literature and
markets it to publishers . . . ERGESH
IKRAMOV, a Russian native, is the
recipient of the Fourth Annual Margaret
Mehran Scholarship, awarded to a
student who is pursuing ELI studies . . .
ELAINE KLEIN (Linguistics, Emerita)
received three grants, totaling about
$500,000, from the
NYC Department
of Education,
NYS Education
Department, and
NY Community
Trust. She heads an
ongoing project on
Bridges to Academic
Success, and is senior
McHugh
research associate at
CONTINUED ON PAGE 9
Students Spend
Winter Break
Helping the Poor
in Nicaragua
When Darya Rubenstein, a senior
majoring in psychology, volunteered to
be part of the QC “Global Brigade” to
Nicaragua during winter break, she had
no idea what a life-changing trip it would be.
“The experience opened my eyes to how
people in poor parts of the world live,” says
Rubenstein, an Orthodox Jew originally from
Canada. “They have little food, old clothing,
no health care . . . most are illiterate. Yet they
are so positive, with a true understanding of
life.” The effect of the trip was so profound
that she has decided to pursue a master’s
degree in public health after graduation.
Global Brigades is the world’s largest
student-led global health and sustainable
development organization. Since 2004 it has
mobilized thousands of university students
through programs that work to improve the
quality of life for impoverished people in
Ghana, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.
QC’s second Global Brigades mission—
the first was in January 2012 to Honduras—
was made up of 28 student volunteers, 19
of whom were from the college. All the
students raised funds for their airfare,
food, and housing and solicited donations
from hospitals and businesses for medicine
and supplies, such as soap, toothpaste,
toothbrushes, and vitamins.
Led by Yassmin Simmonds, a pre-med
senior majoring in psychology who also
directed the Honduras brigade, the nineday mission began in San Gabriel, about 40
miles northwest of Managua, Nicaragua’s
capital. There the volunteers spent three days
helping local physicians and dentists examine
residents for illness and educate them on
proper hygiene and health issues.
C Fluoride treatments and instruction in oral
hygiene were among the services provided to
Nicaraguan school children by QC students
participating in a Global Brigades mission
during the winter break.
“We were able to provide basic medical
care to almost 1,000 patients in a local
elementary school that was set up as a
makeshift clinic,” says Simmonds. The
students rotated among the different medical
areas in the clinic. After being trained by
local doctors, they had the skills to take
patients’ vital signs in triage: checking their
temperature, pulse, breathing, and blood
pressure. In the pharmacy they sat in on
doctors’ consultations, observing them make
diagnoses and prescribe medications, which
they helped distribute. In the dental area, the
students showed children how to brush their
teeth and administered fluoride treatment
and vitamins. They also accompanied a
doctor and a translator into patients’ homes to
conduct surveys on their health, hygiene,
and lifestyle.
“It was humbling to see their living
conditions,” says Mamadou Sire Bah, a
pre-med junior majoring in anthropology.
“Most of the families live in homes with
livestock wandering around and don’t have
access to basic necessities like toilets or
clean water. But they were so welcoming and
appreciative that I felt a genuine connection
to them. I was more motivated than ever to
become a doctor.”
Scholars and Agents of Change
Funded by an alumna who credited QC
with turning her into an activist, the annual
Virginia Frese Palmer Conference addressed a
particularly apt topic at the Student Union on
March 11: Women’s Activism: From Queens
College to the World.
Opening the event, QC’s top female
administrator, Acting COO and VP Elizabeth
Hendrey, praised Women’s Studies and other
interdisciplinary programs for their ability to
examine subjects from multiple angles. Next,
Carol Giardina (History) supplied context
for the day’s talks. “Women led the Civil
Rights movement,” she said, naming, among
others, Rosa Parks, Mamie Till (mother of
lynching victim Emmett Till), and Daisy Bates
of the Little Rock Nine, six of whom were
female. Identifying herself as a resident of
an International Ladies’ Garment Workers’
Union co-op—“Thank you, Clara Lemlich and
Rose Schneiderman”—Giardina noted the role
women played in organized labor.
Then each panelist, introduced in
turn by Women’s Studies Director Joyce
Warren, addressed the audience. First to the
microphone was DIANA
DUARTE, who observed that
her job as communications
director of MADRE—an
international women’s human
rights organization that
collaborates with communityDuarte
based groups—allows her
to put her principles into action. MADRE
has grassroots partners in Africa, Asia, and
Latin America, tackling everything from
sexual violence to economic injustice. A
benefit of activism is that “the personal and
the political are connected,”
agreed GRACE DAVIE
(History), who teaches courses
on African history and social
movements. Strategic lessons
from her research have
influenced her work with
Davie
FYI MAY 2013 | 8
Occupy Wall Street. “Understand the system
you want to oppose and identify its breaking
points,” she recommended.
The next two speakers focused on ethnic
communities in the United States. “If labor is
how people access legal rights,
what about non-laborers?”
asked ALYSHIA GALVEZ,
director of the CUNY Institute
of Mexican Studies at Lehman
College, arguing that juridical
notions of citizenship are
Galvez
insufficient for immigrant
Mexican mothers. MILIANN
KANG, a University of
Massachusetts professor who
studies Asian-owned nail
salons, detailed the hazardous
fumes and repetitive stress
Kang
afflicting manicurists—many
of them recent arrivals from overseas. Her data
bolster the case for regulating toxic chemicals
and labor conditions in a $6 billion industry.
Domestic workers, even if
American-born, need advocates,
too. PREMILLA NADASEN
(History) explained that the
problems and solutions Betty
Friedan discussed in The
Feminine Mystique—published
Nadasen
50 years ago—reflected a white,
upper-class, suburban perspective. Nadasen’s
agenda for domestic workers’ rights calls for
standardized requirements from both employer
and employee. While acknowledging class differences among women, the following speaker,
CUNY Distinguished Political Science Professor
Frances FOX PIVEN, pointed
out that general deterioration in
the labor climate has weakened
income for men, too. “Women
are weapons in the race to the
bottom,” she said, concluding
that “a fight back has become
Piven
not only possible, but necessary.”
Marie Ponsot
Wins Poetry Prize
With six volumes of
poetry to her credit,
and numerous Frenchto-English translations,
Professor Emerita
MARIE PONSOT
(English) is not averse
to hard work. This
Ponsot
spring her efforts paid
off handsomely. She is the recipient
of the 2013 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize,
which at $100,000 is one of the biggest
literary awards in the United States.
Issued annually since 1986 by the
Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry
magazine, it salutes lifetime achievement
by a living poet; previous winners
include Adrienne Rich, W.S. Merwin,
and Maxine Kumin.
“I’m honored to be a recipient of
the Ruth Lilly Award and to be counted
amongst such august poets,” says
Ponsot. “The spirit of such a prize, as
given by Ruth Lilly, is a testament to
the power of poetry.” It also attests to
the strength of this year’s honoree, a
Past and present QC students filled
out the panel. Describing herself as an
activist since age 13 and a radical Muslim
feminist, MEHER MOHSIN
’12 recounted her success in
registering voters from the
city’s Arab and Southeast Asian
communities—and filming firsttime voters as they emerged
Mohsin
from the polls. “They felt they
belonged,” she reported. Dasi
Fruchter ’12, an Orthodox Jew studying to be a
rabbi, brought up the need for “change rooted
in tradition,” illustrating it with the story of
Late Spring as Usual
The green vine is moving.
The motion’s too slow to be
visible but it is racing,
racing feeling for a way
across the wall of fence
it’s scrawling on, inches added every day.
Forwarding, sunwarding, it claims
its place. Green states its claim. It writes
the lesson of the day: longing,
longing coming true while arcing
out and up according to the instruction
of desire. Sun-hungry its tip has tilted
toward sun-space. Already
it is speeding leaf-notes out of its root
all along the sprigless budless thread
still scribbling the deed of its location.
In two weeks or one or four
morning
glory.
(From the collection Easy: Poems, Knopf, 2009.
Reprinted with permission of the author.)
nonagenarian who continues to write—
and rewrite—in longhand on pads of
paper. In recognition of her achievement,
we reprint the above poem.
how her father offered a suitable blessing for
her transgendered sibling. Urban Studies major
Grace Magee ’13 reported how her “burning
disdain for wasting food” prompted her to
launch a food bank that collects donations
from supermarkets and distributes them to
the needy. Finally, freshman Melisa Tekin
talked about participating in numerous service
activities, from joining NYPIRG’s antifracking campaign to helping people apply
for citizenship—a mission rich in personal
meaning. “My parents just became citizens,”
she said.
CCO-FREE
TOBA
College Earns an A for
Anti-Tobacco Efforts
By prohibiting all tobacco products from campus, QC,
like its sister CUNY schools, has earned a top grade and
2013
congratulations from the American Cancer Society (ACS).
TE
STA
RK
YO
W
NE
T
“The vision and hard work of campuses like yours has
LIS
’S
DE AN
made New York State a national leader in the promotion
of healthier campus communities,” wrote Alvaro
Carrascal, a senior VP at ACS. Indeed, as the home
of 67 colleges that are either smoke- or tobacco-free,
the Empire State outperforms the rest of the nation,
according to ACS’s annual report, Tobacco-Free U: 2013
New York State Dean’s List.
Next year, when SUNY is expected to implement its own ban, the smoke will
clear from all of the state’s public colleges and universities—an encouraging trend.
“In addition to reducing exposure to secondhand smoke . . . evidence suggests that
smoke-free/tobacco-free policies reduce the initiation of tobacco use among young
people and assists those who are trying to quit smoking and avoid relapse,” reports
Tobacco-Free U, footnoting a study released by the New York State Department of
Health in February 2011.
If you’re trying to kick the habit, QC’s Health Services can help. Call the office
at 72760 or walk in to Frese Hall, Room 310, from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through
Thursday, when class is in session.
Corps of Knowledge
Seventeen colleges vied for first-year slots
in the CUNY Service Corps; QC was one of
seven schools selected for this fall’s launch
of the university-wide initiative modeled on
Americorps. As a result, 200 QC students will
spend 24 weeks in paid, part-time positions in
projects addressing public health, education,
the environment, or economically distressed
areas. In a twist on the QC motto, they’ll
be learning—and earning—as they serve.
Meanwhile, faculty and staff will get to apply
their expertise to real-world issues, and all
of New York City will benefit from their
collective knowledge.
“I’m excited for our college,” says Special
Assistant to the Provost Yasemin Jones, who
FYI MAY 2013 | 9
put together QC’s application and is meeting
with the Urban Studies Department and
Student Life to implement the program on
campus. “The CUNY Service Corps is an
opportunity to enhance our mission. Our
faculty members work with many community
organizations. We hope to leverage those
relationships and use what we’ve built.”
Jones’s immediate challenge is to evaluate
and interview Service Corps candidates;
students’ application deadline is June 1.
HR is conducting a search for a full-time
administrator who will manage QC’s
Service Corps contingent, interact with the
program’s central office staff at CUNY, and
establish and monitor placements. “CUNY’s
rapid assembly of this structure has been
impressive,” notes Jones. “Now we have to
hit the ground running.”
QC PEOPLE - from page 7
the Research Institute for the Study of
Language in Urban Society and the Center
for Advanced Study in Education at the
CUNY Graduate Center . . . CECILIA
McHUGH (EES) received a $22,415
grant from the NSF for a RAPID Grant:
Investigations of the Impact of Superstorm
Sandy on the South Shore of Long Island,”
a collaborative project with Adelphi
University and SUNY Stony Brook. In
addition, she has been working as a
visiting senior scientist for JAMSTEC (the
Japanese Marine and Science Agency),
studying the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake
and tsunami . . . The Overseas Korean
Journalists Association selected PYONG
GAP MIN (Sociology) to receive one
of its six Proud Koreans’ Awards. The
only one selected from the U.S. Korean
community, Min was chosen because of
his “immense contributions to research
on the formation and development of
overseas Korean communities” . . .
GREGORY O’MULLAN (EES) was
awarded a grant of $10,413 by the Hudson
River Foundation for his project on
Rapid Response: Post-Sandy Collection and
Preliminary Analysis of
Samples from FloodImpacted Areas. The
goal of his research
is to study microbial
and metal pollution
in flood water and
debris along the banks
of local waterways
like the Gowanus
Paulicelli
Canal and the Hudson
River . . . EUGENIA
PAULICELLI (ELL) moderated a panel
on Fashion, Hacked: Liberation through
Participation at the CUNY Graduate
Center on February 28. In March she was
awarded a fellowship as IAS Benjamin
Meaker Visiting Professor at the Institute
Rachal
Rotenberg
for Advanced Studies at the University of
Bristol . . . PATRICIA RACHAL (Pol.
Sci.) was awarded $575,000 by the U.S.
Department of Education for her New
York Deaf and Blind Collaborative . . .
SUSAN ROTENBERG (Chemistry)
was awarded $348,752 by the NIH for
research on Protein Kinase C Substrates
in Human Breast Cancer . . . On April 23
KENNETH RYESKY (Accounting)
testified at an IRS rulemaking hearing
on proposed new healthcare coverage
regulations under the
Patient Protection
and Affordable Care
Act . . . ROLF
SWENSEN (Library)
is associate editor of
the International Journal
of Religion and Spirituality
in Society, in which
he recently published
Swensen
“Eddy’s Immigrants:
Foreign-Born Christian
Scientists in the United States, 1880–
1925.” He also gave a paper on March
8 concerning “‘Israel’s Return to Zion’:
Jewish Christian Scientists in the United
States, 1880–1925,” presented at the 3rd
International Conference on Religion and
Spirituality in Society, held at Arizona
State University . . . AMY WINTER
(Godwin-Ternbach) was highlighted in the
Getty Iris for her research on Wolfgang
Paalen, a painter and leader of Mexico’s
postwar Dyn circle, which was the subject
of an exhibition by the Getty Research
Institute. Her book Wolfgang Paalen helped
to revive the artist’s reputation.
IN THE MEDIA IN THE MEDIA IN THE MEDIA IN THE MEDIA
IN MEMORIAM
MARIO D’AVANZO
Mario D’Avanzo (English), who taught at
the college from 1968 to 2006, died on
February 23.
A scholar of great range, D’Avanzo
worked in many fields, including Romantic
poetry, American literature from its
beginnings to the twentieth century,
seventeenth-century British poetry,
Victorian literature, and the Bible. His
books include Keats’s Metaphors for the
Poetic Imagination (1968), The Literary Art of
the Bible (1988), and A Cloud of Other Poets:
Robert Frost and the Romantics (1991), and
he published over 80 articles on such
authors as Sophocles, Virgil, Shelley,
Tennyson, Thoreau, Dickinson, Melville,
Yeats, and Faulkner.
Born in 1931, D’Avanzo attended
Dartmouth on a Naval ROTC scholarship;
he served for three years in the Navy
as a lieutenant and as an instructor in
amphibious warfare. He then received
his MA from Trinity College and his PhD
from Brown and taught for five years
at Providence College before coming
to Queens. In the department he was
a member of the P & B and chair of the
curriculum committee, among other
positions, and directed many MA theses.
He also taught a literature workshop to
women prisoners on Riker’s Island.
D’Avanzo was also an outstanding
athlete who played competitive ice
hockey until well into middle age, and
at Dartmouth he was a star catcher. At
Queens he founded and managed the
English Department softball team and was
its star shortstop and cleanup hitter, as
it took on the Chemistry Department,
the Writing Center, the Law School, and
other powerhouses.
He is survived by Barbara Horn, his
companion of many years and a professor
of English and Women’s Studies at Nassau
Community College, and by two children.
Bill Cosby
In an April 6 appearance at
Kupferberg Center, comic icon Bill
Cosby demonstrated that at 75
years young he hasn’t lost a step.
For nearly two hours he regaled the
packed house with his patented mix
of cultural commentary and tales
from his childhood. He also shared
a moment with two appreciative
audience members, Pres. James
Muyskens and his wife, Alda.
People in the Media
A story in the Daily News concerning a
new wave of Greek immigrants flocking
to Astoria to escape economic turmoil at
home quoted NICHOLAS ALEXIOU
(Sociology) . . . CLIVE BELFIELD
(Economics) published a
column at InsideHigherEd.com
about the flaws in economic
models of college efficiency
. . . The transient nature
of apartment dwellers in
Lower Manhattan was the
subject of a New York Times
Belfield
story that cited ANDREW
BEVERIDGE’S (Sociology)
Social Explorer project as
its source of data. His data
were also cited in New
York Times stories about
a proposed apartment
complex in Riverdale for
people over 65 and the
Beveridge
population explosion in city
neighborhoods deemed “family-friendly,” as
well as in a NorthJersey.com story describing
how young families are choosing to leave
the Jersey suburbs to raise their children
in New York City . . . NEIL CUMMINS
(Economics) co-authored a story in the
Economist about a study of surnames and
their relationship to the transmission
of wealth over generations . . . An
appearance by HARRIET DAVIS-KRAM
(History) at which she spoke on the topic
“A Peek at the Underside of Victorian
History: Murder Most
Foul” was reported
by HuntingtonPatch.
com . . . SUJATHA
FERNÁNDES
(Sociology) was cited,
quoted, or interviewed
by several media outlets
Fernándes
FYI MAY 2013 | 10
in connection with the death of Venezuelan
leader Hugo Chavez and the country’s
subsequent elections. These included the
Los Angeles Times, the Nation, Christian
Science Monitor, radio stations KPFA and
KALW and television network MSNBC. She
was also interviewed by the international
television programs "Russia Today TV,"
"Columbia New Tonight," and "NTN24."
Additionally, she was interviewed on
MSNBC’s “Melissa Harris-Perry Show” in
connection with the U.S. embargo against
Cuba . . . A story in the Chronicle of Higher
Education about adjunct orientations quoted
EVA FERNANDEZ (Center for Teaching
and Learning) . . . JOSHUA FREEMAN
(History) was quoted in a Daily News story
about the strike by New
York City school bus drivers
and matrons . . . A story
at Haretz.com concerning
the reluctance of UJAFederation funders to aid
Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox
community quoted
Freeman
SAMUEL HEILMAN
(Sociology) . . . MICHAEL
KRASNER (Political
Science) commented at
GothamGazette.com on
the political fallout from
the arrest of State Sen.
Malcolm Smith on charges
he was attempting to bribe
Heilman
his way onto the ballot to
run for mayor. Krasner
was also quoted in a Wall
Street Journal story about
how turnout for a special
election in Far Rockaway
had been substantially
lowered because so many
voters had been displaced
Krasner
by Hurricane Sandy . . . The
CONTINUED ON PAGE 11
IN THE MEDIA IN THE MEDIA IN THE MEDIA IN THE MEDIA
PEOPLE IN THE MEDIA - from page 10
Photo: Nathan Sternfeld
website GlobalGrind.com reported on
HARRY LEVINE’S (Sociology) study
finding the NYPD spent 1 million hours
making 440,000 low-level marijuana arrests
between 2001 and 2012 . . . CARMELLA
MARRONE (Women and
Work) was profiled as part
of MSNBC’s “Foot Soldier
of the Week” series. The
TimesLedger reported on the
Professionals on Campus
event she moderated that
featured Diane Patrick
Marrone
’72, the First Lady of
Massachusetts (see p. 6) . . . RICHARD
MAXWELL (Media Studies) co-authored
a piece for Psychology Today on how public
policy can be reformed to truly reflect
the aspirations of Earth Day, and another
for the Guardian on the environmental
consequences of digital technology . . .
CHARLES MOLESWORTH (English,
emeritus) wrote a column for TheRoot.
com on poet Countee Cullen . . . President
JAMES MUYSKENS’ testimony at the
annual Queens Borough Board Meeting
was reported in the Queens Gazette. He
also appeared in a photo in the Queens
Courier of honorees at the Queens
Chamber of Commerce’s annual Business
Persons of the Year event . . . The Chronicle
of Higher Education reported KENNETH
RYESKY’S (Accounting and Information
Systems) testimony before an IRS panel
examining the Affordable Care Act’s affect
on health insurance for college adjuncts.
. . Blues.Gr featured an interview with
JOHN TYTELL (English) . . . JOHN
WALDMAN (EES) authored a story
for Yale’s Environment 360 about a study
he undertook with six colleagues that
determined that fish ladders constructed
on U.S. dams are largely ineffective in
allowing migrating fish to pass. He was
FYI MAY 2013 | 11
Gala Gathering
also quoted in a story in Scientific American
describing the findings of the study.
The gilded Gotham Hall was the setting
May 1 for this year’s Queens College
Gala. The evening’s honorees were Jerry
Cohen ’73 (top left), Partner, Deloitte &
Touche LLP, who received the Lifetime
Achievement Award, and Rony Zarom
’92 (top right), Founder and Chairman
of Decima Ventures, who received
the Alumni Award. (Center, l-r): Ruth
Hollander ’77 and Harry Kent ’64
congratulate Charles Hennekens ’63,
the Sir Richard Doll Research Professor
of Medicine at Florida Atlantic
University, who received the President’s
Award. Olympic Silver Medalist Gail
Marquis ’80 (bottom) was host for the event
that raised money for scholarships.
Events in the Media
The Queens Tribune featured a story about
Re-forming the Image in Northern Europe
in the Golden Age, the Godwin-Ternbach
Museum exhibit curated by QC Art
History students . . . The QC Year of India
series, Representing South Asia on Film, was
featured in the TimesLedger . . . The Queens
Gazette had a story about QC’s School of
Inquiry program for high school students.
. . QC’s 17th Chamber Music Live concert
series was the subject of a Queens Tribune
story . . . The Queens Gazette reported
on a project with Con Edison in which
QC students help to improve immigrant
participation in civic life . . . April’s QC
forum for the Democratic hopefuls for
mayor was broadcast live by NY1 and
reported in the Queens Chronicle, Queens
Tribune, Queens Courier, TimesLedger,
and at NewYorkTrue.com
. . . The Queens Chronicle,
TimesLedger, and
QueensNYC.com reported
author STEPHEN
MAITLAND-LEWIS
reading at QC from his
novel Emeralds Never
Maitland-Lewis Fade and speaking
about his correspondence with Louis
Armstrong . . . The
Louis Armstrong
House Museum
event presenting a
newly discovered
1961 recording of
Armstrong playing
at the Freedomland
amusement park
in the Bronx was
covered by NY1.
QC Author
One of the most prominent linguists
and educators in Elizabethan England
was John Florio (1553–1625), the son of
an exiled Italian Protestant. Florio grew
up on the Continent, where he received
a university education, then moved to
Elizabethan England. There he taught
at Oxford, tutored prominent patrons
from the nobility and royalty, and was a
friend and colleague to intellectuals and
writers. To promote what he considered
the greater refinement of Renaissance
Italy’s literary and scientific culture,
he published several works on the
Italian language.
Foremost among these was A Worlde
of Wordes, an Italian-English dictionary
consisting of 46,000 entries that was printed
in England in 1598.
Now HERMANN
HALLER (ELL)
has published
the first critical
edition of this
work, in which
he reveals Florio
to have been a
brilliant translator,
exuberant collector
of words and proverbs, and accomplished
writer and grammarian. A Worlde of
Wordes features a wide variety of social
registers, from medical and scientific
terminology to dialect forms, erotic
terminology, colloquialisms, and proverbs.
Three QC Graduates Receive National
Science Foundation Fellowships
The National Science Foundation
Graduate Research fellowships are
among the most prestigious and highly
competitive grants in the country. This
year three QC graduates—JASMINE
HATCHER, ’09 CHRISTOPHER
PARISANO ’08, and JAMAR
WHALEY ’11—received these awards
to continue their research. Their projects
include finding a safer way to store
technetium, a radioactive by-product of
nuclear fission (Hatcher); investigating the
relationship that people in Lima, Peru,
have with archaeological sites, which
often are the only places they can dispose
of garbage (Parisano); and exploring the
neurological adaptations that occur within
individuals suffering from behavioral
addiction to the Internet (Whaley).
The NSF fellowships, which provide
$126,000 over three years, support
graduate students in science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
disciplines who are pursuing researchbased master’s and doctoral degrees
at accredited U.S. institutions. About
2,000 awards from a pool of over 13,000
applicants were given nationwide.
From left to right: Christopher Parisano, Jasmine Hatcher, and Jamar Whaley
“I am proud and delighted that
the National Science Foundation has
recognized the achievements and potential
of these exceptional young scientists,” said
QC President James Muyskens. “They
join the ranks of past recipients who have
gone on to become prominent visionaries,
inventors, and Nobel Prize winners.”
STUDENTS IN THE MEDIA
Remembering Marvin Hamlisch
Celebrating “one singular sensation,” Donna McKechnie (l.), Cassie of the original cast
of A Chorus Line, was among the many friends, family, and creative collaborators who
performed and reminisced at a May 5 concert at Kupferberg Center honoring the memory
of stellar composer, performer, and QC graduate Marvin Hamlisch. Above (l.–r.) are
conductor J. Ernest Green, tenor J. Mark McVey, Hamlisch’s widow, Terre Blair Hamlisch,
and ACSM Director Ed Smaldone. McVey also performed (above, right) with his children,
Grace and Kyle, and wife, Christy-Tarr McVey. Preempted by Hurricane Sandy, the concert
had originally been scheduled for November 4.
FYI MAY 2013 | 12
The winter break trip by several
QC students to Nicaragua to assist
Global Brigades in providing health
care to the poor was reported in
the Queens Chronicle, Queens Gazette,
Queens Courier, El Correo, El Diario/La
Prensa, and at LatinTrends.com (see p.
7) . . . The New York Times featured
a story about the Mellow Pages
Library in Brooklyn of which QC
student MATT NELSON is one of
the co-founders . . . The naming of a
street in Bayside to commemorate
QC alum MOHAMMED SALMAN
HAMDANI, who died in the 9/11
attack on the World Trade Center
while volunteering as a paramedic, was
reported by the Queens Courier.