Phi Beta Delta international honor society to induct 140 new members

Phi Beta Delta international honor society to induct 140 new membersMarch 12, 2009Matthew R. Snydermrsnyder@syr.edu

Syracuse University will induct 140 new members into the Alpha Sigma chapter of the Phi Beta Delta international honor society on Wednesday, March 18. The ceremonial induction will take place at 4:30 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel.

Highlight of the event is a keynote address from international education advocate Beverly Allen, who is the Tolley Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities in The College of Arts and Sciences and a longtime Phi Beta Delta member. Ambassador Donald Planty, chair of the international relations department in the Maxwell School, will receive honorary Phi Beta Delta membership. A reception will be held immediately following the induction ceremony. All past and current members of the chapter are encouraged to attend, as is anyone interested in international scholarship and the activities of the organization.

Allen is a professor of Italian and comparative literature who studies how humans create meaning. Her work involves narrative, poetry, film, national identity, human rights, genocide and international law. “Rape Warfare” (University of Minnesota Press, 1996), her book of investigative journalism, influenced the United Nations Security Council to create a new law making rape a crime against humanity. She wrote “His Name Is Daniel,” a film produced in Sarajevo by Hallmark Entertainment. She has lived and taught in Bosnia, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy and Sweden, and traveled in Africa and Asia. She serves as chair of the Corridor Project on Visual Culture, a collaboration with Cornell University and the University of Rochester.

Planty was the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala from 1996-99. He was instrumental in facilitating the historic 1996 peace accords, which ended four decades of internal conflict in that country. He is a 30-year veteran of the U.S. diplomatic service and is an expert on Latin American affairs and European security issues. In addition to Guatemala, Planty has lived and worked in Chile, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Panama and Spain at key periods in the modern history of these nations. From 1981-83 and again from 1986-89, he helped negotiate the Treaty of Friendship, Defense and Cooperation between the United States and Spain, and was awarded the State Department’s Superior Honor Award for his work on the negotiations. Planty is considered one of the foremost experts on Spain and most experienced base rights negotiators.

Phi Beta Delta is the first honor society dedicated to recognizing scholarly achievement in international education. In addition to scholarly achievement, the society recognizes U.S. students who have studied abroad and faculty and staff who are involved in international activities. Current executive board members of the Alpha Sigma chapter have nominated this year’s inductees based on commitment to internationalization and academic performance. The cohort of new inductees includes outstanding American and international undergraduate and graduate students, SU faculty and staff members.

Elane Granger Carrasco, president of the Alpha Sigma chapter and associate director of the Slutzker Center for International Services, will preside over the ceremony, assisted by Patricia Burak, director of the Slutzker Center and the chapter coordinator. Other officers of the Alpha Sigma chapter will assist in the induction ceremony, including Jon Booth, executive director of SU Abroad; Susan Loevenguth, associate director of SU Abroad; Richard Breyer, professor of television-radio-film in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications; and Lynn A. Dunyk, administrative specialist in the Slutzker Center, and Betty L. Briggs of the English Language Institute, who share responsibilities as Phi Beta Delta secretary/treasurer.

The inductees are: Harrsion Abramowitz, Akshat Agarwal, Reshad Ahsan, Nasser Al Agil, Nilo AlCala, Faisal Alobaid, Rajaa AlQudah, Jennifer Anderson, Arun Assariathu, Brenda Austin, Marina Ayvazyan, Daniela Baban Hurrle, Jonathan Baluzy, Sumit Bansal, Nell Bartkowiak, Allison Baruck, Gregoey Batejan, Nikki Beppu, Nicolas Brancaleone, Madison Brown, Vasco Burgos, Marcelo Carrasco Guerra, Naji Chams, Hout Chou, Seung-Hyun Chun, Joseph Costa, Alexander Coulombe, Amanda Coyne, Kristen De Santi, Shivangi Dhir, Dingxiaozi Ding, Carolyn Dunlea, Olov Niklas Eriksson, Felipe Estefan, Benjamin Forer, Carolyn Gagnon, Bruno Geraci Yugovich, Amit Ghodke, Prasanta Ghosh, Katherine Gibas, Jasvinder Gill, Julia Goldstein, Katherine Greene, Nicole Guardiano, Tomas Gueglio- Saccon, Ashish Gulanikar, Amit Amit Gupta, Jennifer Ha and Morteza Haeri.

Also, Ying Vanessa Ho, Ruchika Israni, Onkar Jadhav, Nikhil Jawrani, Hae Won Jeong, Joshua Jessen, Brian Jones, Jocelyn Jones, Sungyun Jun, Fethi Keles, Abhay Ketkar, Prandnya Khadapkar, Akhila Khanna, Janjarang, Kijtikhun, Haeun Kim, Jung Eun Kim, Minjune Kim, Alexandria, Kimbrough, Wesley Kong, Mohammad Raji Koni, Carlos Lau Luin, Saskia Layden, Woojin Lee, Bijie Li, Lanlan Liang, Ronghong Lin, Kun Lu, Nivedita Manohar, Archana Manoharan, Maria Marceau, Jonathan Marshall, Endri Mataj, Joel Matthews, Caitlin McCarthy, Lyman Mower, Pranjal Niak, Ian Nicholson, Alexandra Nurthen, Yuka Ogam, Rosemary Ogugu, Brempong Osei-Tutu, Alexander Pabst and Mehul Palan.

Also, Anushree Palkar, Rohan Pandit, Darshan Parikh, Gabriela Paskova, Rebecca Peake, Jessica Pezdek, Arvind Rangarajan, Taryan Rosen, Mehul Rungta, Hamza Safouane, Carrie Schmelkin, Hyunjin Seo, Hirav Shah, Xiang Sheng, Seung-Hoon Shin, David Silberstein, Atul Singh, Shreyahsh Singh, Lamis Sleiman, Amy Sloanegarris, Aditya Sridhar, Nicole Stanek, Jayanthi Subramanian, Ryan Sullivan, Ratul Suman, Deepak Suresh, Hanggang Tan, Rishnachaitanya Tata, Jamie Thopson, James Tiedemann, Aman Tiwari, Claire Townsend, Vivienne Valledor, Anne Van Houten, Ankita Verma, Archellis Villena, Yohanes Wahyudi, Deborah Walcott, Lewis Wheelwright, Mei Wu, Diana Zarick, Yuan Zhang and Terri Zollo.