Legacy of 'Brown v. Board of Education' to be discussed

The Eisenhower Library Diversity Committee will host Janet Sims-Wood at noon on Feb. 15 for a presentation titled "Separate But Equal Has No Place," a discussion of the context and legacy of Brown v. Board of Education. The talk will be held in the Sherwood Room of Levering Hall, Homewood campus.

Presented by the committee's Book/Video Discussion Group in celebration of Black History Month, this richly illustrated lecture will present a historical overview of the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision aimed at ending segregation in public schools.

Sims-Wood is the assistant chief librarian in the Reference/Reader Services Department at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University. She received a doctorate in Women's Studies/History/Oral History from Union Institute Graduate School and has taught at the University of Maryland in the Afro-American Studies Department.

The program is made possible with funds from the Maryland Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more information, contact Camelia Naranch at 410-516-7757.

 

Congressional delegation hears update on tsunami relief efforts

U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes last week sponsored a hearing for the Maryland congressional delegation in which eight NGOs headquartered in the state reported on tsunami relief and other international development efforts.

JHPIEGO, which works to improve health care for women and families in 38 countries, was among those to respond quickly to the disaster in Aceh Province, Indonesia. Leslie Mancuso, president and CEO, recently returned from 21 days in the region to help staff there conduct a health care needs assessment.

The organization, she said, was asked by the Indonesian Ministry of Health to look at the gaps in health care caused by the devastation. Ninety percent of maternal and child health care is provided by midwives in Indonesia, she said, but 30 percent of the midwives living and working in the tip of the island of Sumatra were killed.

"We are doing whatever it takes to help them rebuild and get equipment," said Mancuso, a nurse and educator. "We are working to get schools up and running. We will be working with hospitals doing obstetrics and gynecology and communicating with women and children to get them help in health care."

Sen. Barbara Mikulski and Reps. Steny Hoyer, Roscoe Bartlett, Wayne Gilchrest, Chris Van Hollen and Benjamin Cardin joined Sarbanes in acknowledging the work of the Maryland organizations and their efforts to make sure that tsunami relief was not diverting funds from established programs doing important work in other parts of the world.

 

Former CIA official joins Philip Merrill Center as visiting scholar

The Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at SAIS has appointed John E. McLaughlin as its first senior fellow.

McLaughlin, a 1966 graduate of SAIS, served as acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency from July to September 2004 and as the agency's deputy director since October 2000. Prior to that, he was deputy director for intelligence, vice chairman for estimates and acting chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

As a Merrill Center senior fellow, he will present seminars on intelligence and policy, participate in strategic studies courses involving intelligence analysis and regional issues and counsel students who wish to learn more about the intelligence career field.

McLaughlin's career at the CIA began in 1972 with a focus on European, Russian and Eurasian issues in the Directorate of Intelligence. He later became director of European Analysis and director of Slavic and Eurasian Analysis.

He also founded the Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis, an institution dedicated to teaching the history, mission and essential skills of the analytic profession to new CIA employees.

The Merrill Center's academic program in strategic studies deals with the relationship between politics and military power. Its outreach activities aim to improve the quality of teaching in strategic studies and promote dialogue on major issues of the national security agenda.

 

CER grants available for faculty-student projects using technology

The Center for Educational Resources is accepting applications for its annual Technology Fellowship Program, which allows faculty and students to work together on projects that incorporate technology into teaching.

This program is funded by the Provost's Office through the CER and awards grants to full-time faculty and student teams of all disciplines. Student fellows receive $4,000 for project implementation, and faculty members receive $1,000 for project design and oversight.

Examples of previously funded projects are The Evolution of Structures, an engineering simulation designed to replicate the effect that changes in forces, such as load and even wind speed, have on famous structures like the George Washington Bridge; An Interactive Introduction to Film, which helped a faculty member integrate online film clips into her Film Studies course; and Virtual Quantum Mechanics, which allows students to visualize and manipulate objects at the quantum level.

The deadline for applications is midnight on Friday, March 4.

For more information, and a complete list of past projects, go to www.cer.jhu.edu or contact Cheryl Wagner at 410-516-7181.

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