VOLUME 29, NUMBER 26 THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 1998
ReporterBriefly

Briefly

Bernstein named to MLA poetry committee
Charles Bernstein, David Gray Chair of Poetry and Letters, has been elected to the Executive Committee of the Poetry Division of the Modern Language Association of America (MLA).

Bernstein recently edited "Close Listening: Poetry and the Performed Word," which will be published this month by Oxford University Press.

"Close Listening" features 17 essays on the reading, sounds and visual performance of poetry. It explores new avenues for the critical discussion of the sound and performance of poetry and gives special attention to innovative work.

Class of '97 to be surveyed
The Office of Career Planning and Placement will conduct a survey of UB's 1997 graduates to gather information on employment rates, further graduate education, salaries and the usefulness of services offered by the office.

The survey will be mailed in May to the 3,200 undergraduate and 4,800 master's, doctoral and professional students who graduated in 1997. Information will be collected and tabulated throughout the summer, and shared with the university community in the fall.

Daniel J. Ryan, director of Career Planning and Placement, said "The last time a project of this magnitude was undertaken was 1976....This research will provide us with information, as well as some feedback on the quantity and quality of the services offered by Career Planning and Placement."

Armstrong edits book on measuring oxidative stress
Armstrong Donald Armstrong, a UB specialist in free-radical bioactivity, is editor of a new book of analytical protocols for measuring oxidative stress and antioxidant activity published by The Humana Press, Inc.

The book will be introduced this month to the scientific community at the annual meeting of the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology in San Francisco.

Developed for researchers in the field of free radicals and as a laboratory text for molecular biology or pathology, the book presents step-by-step instructions for 40 different measurement techniques. Each protocol includes warnings of potential pitfalls and notes when special precautions should be taken.

Work sought for IREWG poster session
Faculty and graduate students are invited to share their work in poster form as part of the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender's first annual Celebration of Women and Scholarship to be held April 17.

Posters will be expected to present current work-courses, research or scholarship-on topics related to women and gender. Presentation may represent a completed study, work in progress or proposals for future studies.

Poster format should include project title, thesis or hypothesis, necessary background information, methodology and results or conclusions. The information is to be mounted on a four-by-six-foot board and the title should be visible across a large room. Researcher and department names should be in small letters.

Members of the university community interested in participating are asked to call the IREWG at 829-3451 to register.

Brown Bag video on "Be Prepared to Speak" to be presented.
A video, "Be Prepared to Speak," geared to developing quality speeches and presentations, will be offered April 15 by the Professional Staff Senate and its Professional Development Committee.

The video and a discussion will be held in 106 Jacobs from noon to 1 p.m. as part of the Spring '98 Brown Bag Video Series. It will be co-sponsored by the Student Leadership Development Center, Office of Student Life. To attend the presentation, call 645-2003.

Web site provides data on bacterial drug resistance
A new site on the World Wide Web that provides immediate access to information about trends in antibiotic resistance has attracted major interest, recording more than 80,000 hits-40 percent of them from outside the U.S.-during its first month online.

Resistance Web includes a comprehensive database that allows physicians and medical researchers to construct customized queries on susceptibility patterns of different bacteria to specific antibiotics, both regionally and nationally. They can choose graphing options, and download graphs for use in professional presentations. Users, who must register as members, also may choose to receive site updates by e-mail.

The Web site draws on 10 years of drug-resistance tracking, drug-utilization data and demographic information compiled by its developers at the Clinical Pharmacokinetics Laboratory of Millard Fillmore Health System and the UB School of Pharmacy.

"Analyzing bacterial-resistance trends with antibiotic utilization may be the key to a better understanding of how we as researchers and clinicians can modify our antibiotic-prescribing habits to slow the increase in resistance to commonly prescribed antibiotics," said Jerome J. Schentag, professor of pharmaceutics and director of the laboratory.

Schentag said it's hoped that by sharing timely, useful data on bacterial resistance with other clinicians and researchers, the site will assist in the process of resistance awareness and encourage focused surveillance activities at a local level.

Initial funding for Resistance Web was provided by Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Pharmaceuticals Inc. The URL for the site is http://resistanceweb.mfhs.edu

The site is provided free of charge as a research-and-educational tool for science and medical professionals. Use of the information contained in the site is subject to a legal agreement between the user and the sponsor of the site contained in "terms and conditions" included in the site.

Lecture to examine link between women, shopping, space
Visiting shops, buying, purchasing, browsing, comparing, looking for bargains, finding sales, inspecting goods. Ever wonder why these activities are practically second nature to most women and may even reduce stress and lift spirits?

The origins and associations of women and shopping spaces, which can be traced back to Victorian times, will be explored in a lecture at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Harriman Hall on the South Campus.

Mona Domosh of Florida Atlantic University will discuss "A Feminine City: Women, Shopping and Space in 19th Century New York." The lecture, sponsored by the UB School of Architecture and Planning, will be free and open to the public.

Domosh will focus on the development of New York City's 19th-century consumer district, referred to as the "Ladies' Mile," and its relationship to Victorian notions of femininity and masculinity, whereby women were taught to value the home, family and religion while men were active in work, public life and politics.

She became interested in the subject when her research on the shaping of large American cities in the 19th century led her to question why the first retail areas looked different compared to other districts. She will argue that since women were assigned this Victorian set of values, the shopping spaces were constructed to conform to these qualities.

Psycholinguist to speak on child language acquisition
How do we acquire language as children? How do children attach meaning to language? Melissa Bowerman of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in The Netherlands will explore the subject of first-language acquisition during a lecture from 3:30-5:30 p.m. on April 9 in 121 Cooke Hall on the North Campus.

The lecture, "Form-meaning mapping in first language acquisition: Where do children's early meanings come from?" is sponsored by the Center for Cognitive Science and is part of the center's Distinguished Speakers in Cognitive Science Series.

The talk, which will be free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the departments of Psychology, Linguistics and Communicative Disorders and Sciences; the English Language Institute, and the School of Information and Library Studies.

Bowerman has researched and published widely on topics of first-language acquisition, ranging from syntax and morphology to word meaning and phonology.

For more information about the lecture, contact Len Talmy, director of the Center for Cognitive Science, via e-mail at .

Ballet Folklorico of Argentina has U.S. debut in CFA April 4
The International Artistic and Cultural Exchange Program of the Center for the Arts will present the U.S. debut of The Ballet Folklorico of Argentina at 8 p.m. on Saturday in the Center for the Arts Mainstage theater.

Ballet Folklorico's varied repertoire encompasses 200 years of Argentinean history. Since making its debut in 1992, the company has received critical acclaim throughout Argentina.

Tickets are $15, $10 and $5 for students and faculty; tickets for groups of 10 or more are $12 and $7. They are available at the Center for the Arts box office and all TicketMaster locations.

Theatre and Dance to present Oklahoma!
The Department of Theatre and Dance will present Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! at the Center for the Arts in the Drama Theatre. The production runs from April 16-19 and 23-26.

Oklahoma! is a landmark in the development of the musical theater-when it opened in 1943, it was revolutionary for its treatment of choreography. Choreographer Agnes de Mille broke new ground when she used dance elements to develop character and to advance the plot. Oklahoma! also represents the first collaboration of the legendary team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.

Director/choreographer for the UB production is Lynne Kurdziel-Formato, with music direction by Gary Burgess, costumes by Donna Massimo, set design by Lynn Chan Jiang and lights by Emma Schmminger.

Performances Thursday through Saturday begin at 8 p.m. and Sunday performances are at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10, general admission; $5, students and seniors. All tickets are one-half off on April 16, 19 and 23.

Tickets can be purchased at TicketMaster locations and the Center for the Arts box office.

Rogovin's works purchased by Getty Center in Los Angeles
Los Angeles' glitzy new Getty Center has purchased 83 photographs by Milton Rogovin, adjunct professor in the Department of American Studies, for its permanent collection.

Rogovin is a nationally recognized documentary photographer whose lens usually focuses on the lives of working men and women and their families. Although he has found subjects around the world, he is perhaps best known locally for his portraits of everyday Western New Yorkers, members of Lackawanna's Yemeni community, storefront evangelical churchgoers on Buffalo's East Side, steelworkers (a series of grand-scale photographs is on view in one of Buffalo's subway stations) and residents of several of the city's West Side neighborhoods.

Three of Rogovin's triptychs (three photographs, designed to be viewed together) were featured at the Getty Center's Dec. 15 opening. He has been invited to lecture there in the spring on "the making of a social documentary photographer."

Rogovin, 87, is the recipient of the W. Eugene Smith Award for humanistic photography and received a 1994 honorary degree from UB.

Earthquake hazards news is on Internet
Internet users can have customized earthquake engineering hazards news delivered directly to their desktops. Express News, a monthly on-line news service, will provide subscribers with earthquake engineering information.

Express News was developed by the Information Service of the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (NCEER), headquarted at UB. To subscribe to Express News, visit the NCEER Web site at http://nceer.eng.buffalo.edu/news

Awards honor Saul Elkin, WBFO for support of the arts
Saul Elkin, Distinguished Service Professor and former chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, has been selected as the 1998 individual artist honoree at the 12th Annual Arts Awards celebration of the Arts Council of Buffalo and Erie County and the Buffalo Niagara Partnership. Elkin was honored at a luncheon held March 18 in the Hyatt Regency Buffalo. The Council also selected WBFO 88.7FM, UB's National Public Radio station, for an award as outstanding media supporter of the arts. The awards recognize those who create and support the arts in Western New York.

Elkin, an actor, director, teacher and producer of theater for more than 30 years, is the founder of Shakespeare in Delaware Park and has been the company's artistic director for 23 years. Currently, Elkin is teaching theater history and acting at UB.

Honors were given to WBFO 88.7FM for its strong contributions to the Erie County arts scene, its cultural programming and its efforts to enhance appreciation of the arts.

Dental Alumni Association names new officers for 1998
The School of Dental Medicine Alumni Association has elected officers for the 1998 term.

Paul R. DiBenedetto, a 1979 graduate of the dental school, was chosen president. A former president and current member of the Fonzi Dental Study Club, DiBenedetto also is a co-chair for the annual Greater Niagara Frontier Dental Meeting.

A graduate of Niagara University, DiBenedetto is member of the American Dental Association, Dental Society of the State of New York, the Eighth District Dental Society and the Erie County Dental Society. He maintains a private practice in Cheektowaga.

Michael D. Ehlers, who graduated from the dental school in 1985, will serve as president-elect. A clinical instructor of restorative dentistry at UB, he practices in Boston.

Richard J. Lynch, a 1983 dental-school graduate and former president of the dental alumni association, was elected treasurer. Lynch received his bachelor's degree in biology and psychology from UB in 1979. Since 1987, he has chaired the Education Committee of the UB Alumni Association. He is a member of the Association of General Dentistry, Erie County Dental Society and the American Dental Association. A partner in the Western New York Dental Group, P.C., Lynch practices in Williamsville.

Roundtable grants to help Department of Art faculty implement new technologies
Four faculty members of the Department of Art have been granted funding from the Dean of Arts and Letters for individual projects by the UB Teaching and Learning Technology Roundtable Committee.

- Department Chair Paul McKenna, associate professor of art, received $2,200 to digitize images and for use in a local and telematic course in the history of graphic design. He also will use the money to attend a national multimedia conference.

- David Schirm, associate professor of art, received $5,000 to support a Telematic Curatorial Process to digitize student paintings so they can be put on the Internet, develop a digital art bank and initiate and promote an exhibition of UB student work at Carnegie Mellon University and the New York City School for the Visual Arts.

- Tyrone Georgiou, professor of art, received $4,000 to purchase digital cameras for a course in digital imaging

- Adele Henderson, associate professor of art, received $5,000 to develop a print-technology course initiative and to support in-class print production and a Web site for the course. The course will be offered through the experimental Print Imaging Center (ePIC), operated by the department's Printmaking Program.

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