Faculty Spotlight

Radio Star
Lauded in Literature
Eduardo Lago (Spanish Literature) has been awarded a Chair of Excellence in literature at the University of Madrid, Carlos III. Along with international regard, the position comes with a grant of 120,000 euros (about $160,000).
Back at home, The Princeton Review named Joseph Lauinger one of the four best literature professors in the US. Lauinger says it was “pleasant to be recognized,” but was quick to point out that at Sarah Lawrence, all the teachers are good.
Notable Numbers
#1 Faculty
We’ve always known Sarah Lawrence has the best faculty. Now The Princeton Review agrees with us. In their Best 377 Colleges: 2013 Edition, SLC was ranked number one on the list of schools where “professors get high marks,” based on student surveys. We also made it into 11 other top 20 lists. To top it off, the publisher of the guide appeared on the Today show the day the rankings were released (August 21), calling our faculty “energetic and brilliant.” Well said.
Five Fantastic Titles
Chicken feet? Tiger mothers? We’re intrigued by these lectures and articles:
Chicken-footed Gods or Village Protectors?: Wartime Conscription and Community in Rural Sichuan’s Villages
A talk by Kevin Landdeck (Asian Studies) at the Association of Asian Studies’ annual conference in March
Sexual Misconduct: The Third Zen Precept
An essay by Nancy Baker (Philosophy) in Tricycle, the Buddhist review (summer 2012 issue)
Learning and Adaptation Among the Machines: The Biologically Inspired Path to Intelligent Robots
A talk by Jim Marshall (Computer Science) at the University of Lyon, France, where he was a visiting research fellow this spring and summer
Social Conscience in Modern Dance
A lecture by Rose Anne Thom (Dance) at Princeton this spring
Beyond Butterflies, Slumdogs, and Tiger Mothers: Writing Asian American Women’s Lives
A lecture by Sayantani DasGupta (Health Advocacy) at Wellesley College in May
Interdisciplinary Mash-ups
Scott Calvin (Physics) appeared in the new independent science fiction film Cat Scratch Fever, explaining quantum mechanics during the credits.
Fiona Wilson (Literature) spent the summer at the University of Edinburgh researching early 19th century Scottish poetry related to astronomy.
Ernest Abuba (Theatre) co-created Baudelaire: La Mort, a spring production by the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre that incorporated butoh dance, flamenco music, Japanese percussion, and dialogue in three languages. Paolo Irun MFA ’09 and Tiffany Chen ’12 performed too.