Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric F. Spina to deliver first faculty address on Oct. 24

Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric F. Spina to deliver first faculty address on Oct. 24October 19, 2007Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric F. Spina will address the Syracuse University faculty on Wednesday, Oct. 24, at 4:15 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel.

The University community is invited and encouraged to attend. A reception, which is open to all, will follow at 5:15 p.m. in the Public Events Room, Room 220 of Eggers Hall.

Spina was named vice chancellor and provost in January; he had served in an interim role from July 2006. This is his first address to the University community as provost.

The themes of Spina’s address will be advancing faculty excellence and scholarly distinction in the context of the University’s vision, Scholarship in Action.

Spina will also honor all University, distinguished, trustee and alumni professors. Special recognition will be extended to distinguished and endowed chair professors who have been appointed within the past two years. They include:

• Arthur C. Brooks, Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government Policy in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. Brooks is the author of six books and dozens of scholarly articles on philanthropy, social entrepreneurship and civic life in America. His latest book, on American charitable giving, is “Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism” (Basic Books, 2006). Brooks is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

• Jan Cohen-Cruz, University Professor. Cohen-Cruz, who joined the SU community this summer, is the new director of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, a national consortium of 75 colleges and universities committed to strengthening the public role and democratic purposes of the humanities, arts and design. SU serves as the host campus for IA. Cohen-Cruz was a professor in New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts for nearly 20 years. She is currently writing a book on performance and social justice.

• Christian C. Day, Bond, Schoeneck & King Distinguished Professor in the College of Law. Day is associate director of the Center on Property, Citizenship and Social Entrepreneurism, founding director of the Center for Law and Business Enterprise and director of the Corporate Counsel Program. He is also co-director of the Law in London Program. His current research focuses on real estate finance, corporate finance, taxation, foreign policy and national defense, legal literature and legal education.

• Hilary K. Josephs, Dean’s Distinguished Scholar in Asian Law in the College of Law. Josephs holds a Ph.D. in East Asian languages and civilizations with a specialization in Chinese history and literature. She has published articles on labor law, international law, foreign investment and comparative law. She was elected to membership in the International Academy of Comparative Law in 2000.

• Patrick T. Mather, Milton and Ann Stevenson Professor of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science. Mather joined the SU faculty this fall and will lead the launch of a new University-wide center on biomaterials. An expert in functional polymers, including shape memory polymers, he previously taught at the University of Connecticut and Case Western Reserve University, and was honored for his teaching at both universities. He received the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2001.

• Robert D. McClure, Chapple Family Professor of Citizenship and Democracy in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. McClure is a senior research associate in the Campbell Public Affairs Institute. A member of the Maxwell faculty since 1969, he served as director of the University Honors Program from 1986-89 and associate dean and senior associate dean of the Maxwell School from 1989-2004. His co-authored book, “The Unseeing Eye” (Perigee Trade, 1977), was cited by the American Association of Public Opinion Research as one of the field’s most influential works of the past 50 years.

• Don Mitchell, Distinguished Professor of Geography in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Mitchell is chair of the Department of Geography in the Maxwell School, founder and director of the People’s Geography Project and a member of the Syracuse Hunger Project. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and has held a Fulbright Fellowship. Mitchell is the author of numerous articles on the geography of homelessness, labor, urban public space and contemporary theories of culture.

• Devashish Mitra, Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Mitra is chair of the Department of Economics in the Maxwell School. He is a research fellow for the Institute for the Study of Labor and a faculty research fellow for the National Bureau of Economic Research. Mitra serves as an editor for several prestigious economics journals, and previously served as a consultant for The World Bank and the Institute of Policy Studies.

• Rosemary O’Leary, Maxwell Advisory Board Endowed Chair in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. O’Leary is a Distinguished Professor of Public Administration, with additional appointments in political science and law. She is co-director of the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts (PARC), which includes the Collaborative Governance Initiative. An elected member of the National Academy of Public Administration, O’Leary served on NASA’s Return to Flight Task Group from 2003-05. She was a senior Fulbright scholar in Malaysia and the Philippines.

• Timothy M. Smeeding, Distinguished Professor of Economics and Public Administration in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Smeeding is the founding director of the Center for Policy Research in the Maxwell School and founder and director emeritus of the Luxembourg Income Study Project, which he began in 1983. Smeeding’s primary research focuses on national and cross-national comparisons of income and wealth inequality, social mobility and poverty among vulnerable groups. He has written 15 books and more than 200 research articles on these topics. Smeeding is spending the 2007-08 academic year as a visiting fellow in residence at the Russell Sage Foundation.

• Joshua M. Smyth, Alumni Associate Professor in The College of Arts and Sciences. Smyth is an associate professor of psychology and an internationally recognized expert in psychosomatic medicine. He has made important contributions to the understanding of stress and coping, and health communications and behaviors, among other areas. He is director of SU’s Stress and Coping Laboratory and a senior scientist in the Center for Health and Behavior. Smyth has published more than 80 articles and chapters in a variety of medical and psychological journals or books.

• David C. Sutherland, Alexia Tsairis Endowed Chair in Documentary Photography in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Sutherland is an associate professor of photojournalism in the Newhouse School. As the Alexia Chair, Sutherland teaches, researches and promotes documentary photography and photojournalism, and chairs the annual Alexia International Photo Competition. Prior to joining the SU faculty, Sutherland was a staff photographer for the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Bowling Green (Ky.) Daily News. He also served as chapter chairman and Pictures of the Year competition judge for the National Press Photographers Association.

• Pramod K. Varshney, Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science. Varshney is one of the world’s foremost experts in the area of information and data fusion, Varshney serves as research director of the CASE Center, leads the information management and intelligent control efforts for the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems, and is an adjunct professor of radiology at SUNY Upstate Medical University. Varshney is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).