College of the Liberal Arts Electronic Magazine, Issue 17, December, 2003

Issue 17, 12/18/03

Contents:

Savina Rendina, Fulbright Scholar

Q&A With Duane Alwin

Myles Brand, NCAA President

Peter McKay

Plum Brandy: Croatian Journeys

Trivia

Unsubscribe

Penn State

College of the Liberal Arts

Alumni Relations and Development

AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION COMMENDS PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT'S SCAN PROGRAM

   The Department of Psychology's Specialization in Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (SCAN) program is the co-recipient of the inaugural American Psychological Association’s Award for Innovative Practices in Graduate Education.
   Department head Kevin Murphy says, “The citation for SCAN makes a key point: they said, ‘There is much to commend this program . . . we were particularly struck by the manner in which this program maintains the unity of Psychology as a discipline along a dimension that is all too often a fault line.’”
   Penn State's winning program is a specialization in cognitive and affective neuroscience (SCAN) which is a department-wide effort to integrate the study of brain and behavior into all areas of graduate study by infusing neuroscience into the traditional areas of psychology. This approach recognizes the rapidly growing and wide-ranging connections between psychology and neuroscience, and is designed to train students to incorporate neuroscience into the traditional areas in which graduate students are trained.
   Students are admitted to one of the existing graduate training programs of the Psychology Department—clinical (child or adult), cognitive, developmental, industrial-organizational, or social psychology—and augment their work in that area with course work and research training in molecular, cellular, and/or systems-level neuroscience.
   Penn State’s department shares the 2003 award with a consortium created by the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology and Stanford University.
   For more on the Department of Psychology’s SCAN program, click here.

SAVINA RENDINA, FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR

Scene from St. Malo    Savina Rendina was an undergraduate student in comparative literature and international studies. Her Fulbright award has taken her to Saint Malo, France for the year. Earlier this semester, she wrote LAzine about her information.
   “In Saint Malo, the sun rises a bit after 8 a.m. and sets a bit before 8 p.m. Now, it is dusk. I am hidden behind a large concrete block overgrown with grass. This structure is at the end of runway that juts out into the water, kind of like the dock of a bay. The few cars that ever enter must turn around before the rock, which is why they never see me. Even more, the side that I sit on has two additional walls which, with the third, enclose a small space for me to face the sea.
   “I sit with my spine curved against a stone covered in blue graffiti, the backdrop of the set. In my hands I hold a cup of green tea, which I hesitate to drink as I do not want to miss anything. I’m here to spy on my neighbors.
   “I look out into the estuary and watch as the sky darkens. There are small fishing boats in the water whose sails clink and clank in harmony with the tide. Across the water, I see the Tour Solidor tower. Still standing firm and mighty after centuries, the floodlights on a nearby rock flicker on, illuminating it in gold which shines in the dark blue sky, reflecting back on the glimmering on the black water. Beyond all this, I can see Rocabey, the tall steeples of its churches and the orange lights from its streets. Farther in the distance, I watch the cars fly over the long bridge to Dinard, their red and white lights blinking and moving somewhat like Christmas lights.
   “Frantic, too, are the tiny bats whose wings flutter fast. Every five minutes or so one will fly by. They can’t see me, yet I pretend that they dance and loop through the air to steal my attention. They are different from the seagulls, which appear at least once each evening to grace the the scene. Slowly and skillfully flying through the air, they break the water in pursuit of their next meal.
   “Before I came here, I never liked animals. Now I find them to be pleasant acquaintances. There is no language barrier between us; our language is not one of words. They don’t mind it when I watch them, or if I take pictures of them. I never have to explain myself. They don’t care where I’m from or what I’m doing here or what I think of the war in Iraq. They never ask for directions; they know better than me where they are.”

Q & A WITH DUANE ALWIN, MCCOURTNEY PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, DEMOGRAPHY, AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND FAMILY STUDIES

Duane Alwin photo    In 2002, Professor Duane Alwin came to Penn State from the University of Michigan to join the faculties of sociology, demography, and human development and family studies. He is also affiliated with the Population Research Institute and the Gerontology Center. His research interests encompass a range of topics related to families and children, the demography of aging and the life course, social change, religion, and social psychology.
    Alwin’s academic success has been recognized with Fulbright Research and Lecturing Awards as well as grants from the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Science Foundation. He has also been named the 2002-2004 Resident Scientist for the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging at the University of Michigan, and in 2003 he was elected a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.
    As well as holding the McCourtney Professorship, a position endowed with a gift from Ted H. and Tracy Winfree McCourtney, he serves on the Advisory Boards of the Center for Work and Family Research, the Population Research Institute, and the Children, Youth and Families Consortium at Penn State. He has published articles in a wide array of journals and edited collections, including the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Sociology, Population and Development Review, and the Journal of Gerontology. He is also the co-author of Political Attitudes over the Life Span: The Bennington Women after 50 Years, published by the University of Wisconsin Press, and he is completing a book on changes in child-rearing in American society over the past century, titled The Disciplined Self: Transformations of Child-Rearing in the Twentieth Century. In the following interview, he talks about his research concerning issues of work, family, aging, and retirement.

Q: What do you study particularly about families and children?

A. I look at how society’s change from generation to generation has affected how parents interact with their children. One of the key changes has been the proportion of working mothers in our society and I study how these and other normative changes are reflected in people’s attitudes and beliefs about women working outside the home and a range of other family issues. These changes all reflect a growing emphasis on the autonomy of individual family members.

Q: You recently received a large grant from the National Institute on Aging. How will those funds be used?

A: Part of the project is to examine factors involved in cognitive decline—issues like memory and other cognitive functions. We think we know how people are going to age, but we haven’t really figured out how cognitive aging impacts other aspects of work and family, like the decision to retire. As time passes, society changes and the way we live our lives also changes. Presently, because of medical and technological advances, people are living longer, but their minds and bodies aren’t always keeping pace. In other words, they may be living longer, but also living with the normal results of aging, like declining cognitive function and declining health.

Q: How might this influence the way we understand aging in the future?

A: What we know about a particular generation is often a good indicator of what will come. Several of us at the PRI (Population Research Institute) and the Gerontology Center are planning a study of retirement and how families and couples manage it. The average age of retirement used to be 65; but it is increasing and many people now in their 50s will probably continue working into their 70s.

Q: What sorts of questions does your research raise?

A: Will people want to continue working longer? How do historical events affect how we choose to age? How do lifestyle preferences acquired when one grew up affect how you age? How does the culture in which you grew up have a lasting impact on retirement preferences, as well as ideas about gender, lifestyle choices, etc.? These are just some of the complex and fascinating questions about issues related to families, work, and aging.

ROCK ETHICS INSTITUTE TO HOST NCAA PRESIDENT

Myles Brand    On Monday, January 26, 2004, the Rock Ethics Institute will host Dr. Myles Brand, the president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The visit is part of the Institute's efforts to support sports and ethics programs at Penn State. Nancy Tuana, director of the Rock Ethics Institute, says Brand's lecture is quite timely.
    “When there has been so much pressure to emphasize athletic success over academic success, the University has held firm on its commitment to support high quality sports, while at the same time ensuring that its athletes receive the first class educational opportunities available to students at Penn State,” Tuana says. “Myles Brand's visit to Penn State promises to provide the support and vision our coaches need to renew this important commitment and to maintain the Penn State tradition of fair play and sportsmanship.”
   In his talk, Brand will explore why the role and importance of intercollegiate athletics is undervalued in the academy. He discusses perceptions toward college sports and compares the remarkably similar relationships between music and athletics as activities and their dissimilar academic standing. While music has gained acceptance as performance art, athletics has been ostracized by a prejudice against the body within the American academy. He concludes that a balance between the mental and physical produces a harmonious relationship recognized by the ancient Greeks' approach to education.
   Brand’s nationally acclaimed January 2001 speech to the National Press Club, “Academics First: Reforming Intercollegiate Athletics,” focused on how the disconnect between intercollegiate athletics and education jeopardizes the essential mission of our universities. According to Brand, “Athletics provides unique opportunities for young women and men to internalize the values of hard work, fair competition, and cooperation toward a common goal. Intercollegiate athletics develops the virtues of loyalty, fairness, self-respect, respect for others and a quest for excellence. Undertaken in the right spirit, college sports promotes a sense of community and good citizenship.”
   Tuana points out that Brand’s vision of values-based intercollegiate sports is in line with the Rock Ethics Institute’s efforts to encourage moral literacy at Penn State.
   Myles Brand assumed his duties as president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association January 1, 2003. He is the fourth chief executive officer of the Association. Brand was president from 1994 through 2002 of Indiana University, an eight-campus institution of higher education with nearly 100,000 students, 17,000 employees and a budget of $3.4 billion. Brand also served as president at the University of Oregon from 1989 to 1994.
   Born May 17, 1942, Brand earned his BS in philosophy from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1964, and his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Rochester in 1967. Brand's academic research investigates the nature of human action. His work focuses on intention, desire, belief and other cognitive states, as well as deliberation and practical reasoning, planning and general goal-directed activity. He has also written extensively on various topics in higher education, such as tenure and undergraduate education. Brand has also served as chair of the board of directors of the Association of American Universities, as well as an officer and member of long standing in the American Council on Education (ACE). He was also a member of the board of directors of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC), 1995-98. He served too as a board member of the American Philosophical Association and of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development, the umbrella organization of Internet2.
   For more on Myles Brand’s visit, visit the Rock Ethics Institute Web site.

PETER MCKAY'S HOMEMAKING

   Reading even one of his articles makes it easy to understand why Peter McKay ‘82 English has a regular humor column. “HomeMaking” has appeared for years in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and it now appears nationally through the efforts of Creators Syndicate. His writing is self-deprecating; He describes himself as having teeth the size of Tic-Tacs. He is also insightful: “As I placed my family's pictures on the wall among my wife's, I realized that I had now reached the age where it becomes just as important to look back as it is to look forward”. And he is honest about his foibles—read his excerpt, “I Stalked Bob Vila,” for instance.
   After graduating from Penn State, Peter’s life took the following trajectory: he worked briefly for a banana company, traveled to Colombia, worked as a bureaucrat for a nameless government agency and continued to write “dark, depressing Hemingwayesque stories in which fragile heroes nursed inner turmoil while surviving in harsh locations with manly stoicism.” Along the way, he went to law school in the evenings and now is a self-employed attorney and trade consultant—not to mention a father of five and author of a spy thriller, as well as a second book currently in progress.
   Peter credits his days at Penn State with sparking his interest in becoming a writer. He took took a fiction writing class with Professor Thomas Rogers, Peter says, “and from that day on, I knew I wanted to write for a living. It just took me two decades to figure out what I wanted to write.”
   To read more about McKay and his work, visit his Web site at http://www.peter-mckay.com/.

AN EXCERPT FROM PLUM BRANDY: CROATIAN JOURNEYS, BY JOSIP NOVAKOVICH

   Josip Novakovich is an associate professor in the English department's Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing. His other book publications include two story collections, Yolk and Salvation and Other Disasters, and a book of essays, Apricots from Chernobyl. He has received the Whiting Writer's Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, three Pushcart prizes, an O. Henry Award, and a Cohen/Ploughshares Award.
   Nearly every evening, my family and I took walks along the shore to the central piazza and the marina in the town of Hvar. We marveled at the intensity of the blues of the sky and the sea and the greens of the cypresses. Many people in Croatia claim that the farther south in the Adriatic you go, the more beautiful the islands become; Hvar is one of the southernmost islands, the fifth in size, about 50 miles long and 2-4 miles wide. Especially the western part of the island where the town of Hvar is located is one of the sunniest spots in Europe, with 1722 sunny hours a year, and for that reason, as well as the relative purity of the sea and the unity of style of the old Venetian architecture, the town is one of the prime elite resorts in Croatia. Only 4,000 people live year-round in the town; in Croatia the town inhabitants are famous for their friendliness and joviality; all the sunshine apparently does improve one’s moods. Other than tourism, fishing, and wine-making, there’s little economy here, and people move at a slow, leisurely pace, as though they have no worry in the world. With plenty of fresh produce in the town market, the plentiful daily catch of fish, and the habit of drinking red-wine with water (bevanda) and strolling, the people here seem very healthy. In the evening groups of old men, and sometimes of old women, gather near the sea, and sing, in what is known as Dalmatinska Klapa, polyphonous songs about the beauty of the sea, old loves, youth. The cheerful atmosphere of this town of white-stone and palms attracts many connoisseurs. During our stay, Goran Ivanisevic, the Wimbledon champion, docked in the town marina, right near the center. Several British royal family members visited the town a few months before, and the largest luxury-liner in the world, Wind Surf, docked for a week half a mile outside the town. The current Croatian and Slovenian presidents relaxed in their summer homes here. The glamour of the place is obvious to so many people that the town grew crowded in mid-August, and therefore my family and I looked for beauty away from the shore (and other marvelous shore resort towns here, such as Jelsa, Vrboska, Stari Grad), in the inland parts of Hvar.
   Ten kilometers from Hvar, we visited an old ghost hamlet, Zarace, inlaid into a steep slope over the ever-changing shades of the sea. The air was fragrant with herbs, pines, and salty winds. We climbed the stone paths; the stone houses seemed to be an extension of the piled rock fences that prevented soil erosion. Hvar inhabitants claim the island used to be a lush forest and rich fields, but two forces stripped much of it down to the rocky bone: goats, which overgrazed it, and Venetians, who mercilessly logged it, like most of the eastern Adriatic. In Zarace one house looked nicely kept, its doors wide and open, and two tables sat outside under an arch of grapes, with wine-glasses next to barrels and old dried wine-skins.
   We found the host, Pero, the only inhabitant of the hamlet, stoking the fire in the open space of a former wine cellar, konoba. His hearth, which served mostly him and his friends, occasionally worked as a restaurant, provided you first gave him a call on his cell phone (which we did) several hours in advance for fish, and a day, for lamb.
   Pero brought out his homemade red wine, and mixed salad, made from his garden's yield—tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley. He told us the hamlet used to be completely abandoned. An Englishman wanted to buy it to turn it into an art colony, but several house-owners refused to sell even though they lived in Hvar and had no use for these houses. Pero thought other people might move in but he was in no rush to welcome them. I could see what he meant as we watched in quietude the last sunrays lick the sea, then the island tips.

DO YOU KNOW?

   In our last issue, we asked readers which department in Liberal Arts enrolls the largest number of majors. The answer, as Robert Yuskavage correctly stated, was the Department of Psychology. As of the spring semester 2003, the Department of Psychology had 1,128 total majors at University Park. This is the second time Mr. Yuskavage has been the first person to correctly answer the trivia question.
   Look for more news on our Department of Psychology in future issues of LAzine. The College is in the midst of planning a renovation of the department’s home, Moore Building. The renovation is a major University priority and will require some private support. If you would like details about possible support for the Moore Building renovation project, please click here.
   This issue’s edition of Do You Know? deals with another renovation. Recently, the dean’s suite of offices, in Sparks Building, underwent a renovation. Planners thought that since the offices were the “seat” of Liberal Arts, the plan should have some reflection of the College’s values. To that end, the suite will have a quotation on prominent display. Which of the following quotations was chosen to adorn the wall outside the dean’s office?

a) “They know enough who know how to learn.”—Henry Adams.

b) “A mind is a fire to be kindled, not a vessel to be filled.”—Plutarch.

c) “Instruction enlarges the natural powers of the mind.”—Horace.

d) “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
—Mark Twain.

As always, the first correct answer will receive a prize, and we will publish the answer in our next issue.

Good luck.

On behalf of the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State, the staff of LAzine wish you and your loved ones a safe and happy season.