Faculty Notes

(Published in @John Jay on August 27, 2008)

Faculty Notes ON BOARD LAURA DRAZDOWSKI (Physical Education and Athletics) was appointed head coach of the John Jay women's softball team. Drazdowski, the College's Assistant Director of Athletics for Marketing and Promotion, served as interim softball coach for the 2008 season, leading the team to a 12-23 record and a fourth place finish in conference play. Over the summer, John Jay added two other new head coaches. CARL NEDELL was named women's tennis coach, succeeding AMY ROWLAND, who resigned earlier this year. Nedell had previously coached the John Jay men's tennis team during the 2000 season, and has also coached for Hunter College, James Monroe High School and Forest Hills High School. JESSICA KOLACKOVSKY will serve as interim coach of the women's swimming team for the 2008-09 season, filling in for JANE KATZ, who will be on sabbatical. Kolackovsky served as a volunteer assistant under Katz last season, and also serves as the College's head lifeguard. She was a Big East Conference Academic All-Star as an undergraduate swimmer at Seton Hall University.

BETWEEN THE COVERS ANDREW SIDMAN (Government) has an article, "Forecasting Non-Incumbent Presidential Elections: Lessons Learned from the 2000 Election," due out in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Forecasting. Sidman also has 12 entries in the recently published Encyclopedia of U.S. Campaigns, Election, and Electoral Behavior (Sage, 2008). MARY GIBSON (History) received a Senior Fulbright Research Grant and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to finish a book on the history of prisons in modern Italy. Her article "Ai margini della cittadinanza: le detenute dopo I'Unità italiana (1860-1915) [At the Margins of Citizenship: Women Prisoners after Italian Unification]" has been published in the journal Storia delle Donne [Women's History]. NATHAN LENTS (Sciences) had his manuscript "Identification and Characterization of a Novel Mdm2 Splice Variant Acutely Induced by the Chemotherapeutic Agents Adriamycin and Actinomycin D" published in the journal Cell Cycle in June. DANIELLE SAPSE (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration), ELISE CHAMPEIL and ANNE-MARIE SAPSE (Sciences), working in collaboration with two professors from the University of Rouen, France, had their paper "Interaction of DNA Fragments with Methyl Lithium" accepted for publication in the journal Comptes Rendus des Sèances de L'Academie FranÇaise. The paper applies theoretical methods to the study of DNA fragments interaction with methyl lithium and its possible use for criminal investigation.

PRESENTING... EDGARDO DIAZ DIAZ (Foreign Languages) addressed a full house of doctoral students and faculty members at the University of Padova, Italy, on April 22. Diaz, an ethnomusicologist, spoke about the meaning and influence of Italian opera in the Caribbean.

(Published in @John Jay on August 27, 2008)

JANICE BOCKMEYER (Government) moderated the roundtable "Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding at 40: The Midlife Crisis of Community Participation?" at the annual meeting of the Urban Affairs Association in Philadelphia in late April. The roundtable explored the impacts of federal community development policies in the 40 years since the War on Poverty urban initiatives. MARGARET WALLACE (Sciences) was an invited speaker at the Fourth Annual Conference of the Korean Academy of Scientific Criminal Investigation. Wallace's presentation on "Forensic Science: The Interface between Scientific and the Law" discussed the role of forensic biology in human identification and genotyping botanical and entomological samples. Wallace was also named Foreign Editor of the Journal of the Korean Academy of Scientific Criminal Investigation. KIMORA (Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration) spoke to the Correctional Services Division of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on May 23, about the educational needs of adult offenders and the programs funded by the National Institute of Corrections. M. VICTORIA PEREZ-RIOS (Government) presented a paper on "Western Bias in International Law: Francisco de Vitoria's Writings and the Third World School" at the International Studies Association Annual Conference in San Francisco, CA, in late March.

PEER REVIEW MARIA HARTWIG (Psychology) received the "Early Career Award" from the European Association of Psychology and Law, for her "excellent track-record in peer-reviewed papers in international journals and chapters in national and international volumes, and for being an inspiring example showing how a young researcher from a small place can find her way to a top position in the international arena." PETER DODENHOFF (Institutional Advancement) recently earned his U.S. Coast Guard merchant captain's certification. The license, awarded on the basis of experience, test scores, fitness, character references and other criteria, allows the for-hire operation of merchant and recreational vessels in U.S. coastal waters, including charters and yacht deliveries.