Bryn Mawr Now

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May 15, 2008

photo: boy with robot

Bryn Mawr undergrads test robotics approach with a younger crowd of students
In the summer of 2006, Bryn Mawr computer-science professors Doug Blank and Deepak Kumar and colleagues at Georgia Tech formed the Institute for Personal Robots in Education and designed an innovative introductory computer-science course featuring tiny "Scribbler" robots that were given to each student in the class to help bring the course's concepts to life. The course has been such a hit since its introduction that a few of Blank and Kumar's students thought that robots might also be effective in getting younger students interested in computer science.

photo: Crannell, Good

Teacher, mother, daughter: a Bryn Mawr mathematical geneaology
When Annalisa Crannell '87 learned that she had been selected to receive the Mathematics Association of America's Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics, she knew that one of her Bryn Mawr mentors would have a special interest in the news: Professor of Mathematics Rhonda Hughes had won the same award a decade earlier. Luckily, Crannell had a handy conduit for communication with the Bryn Mawr Department of Mathematics. Her daughter, Iolanthe Good, was a first-year student at Bryn Mawr who was enrolled in Hughes' Calculus/Analytic Geometry II course. 

From Recent Issues

Anne Dalke

Center for Science in Society discussion groups publish special issues of academic journals
As Senior Lecturer in English Anne Dalke recalls it, she began talking with scientists on campus as part of an effort, over a dozen years ago, to integrate science into the work of students in the Gender Studies program. Eventually she found herself immersed in a series of conversations, hosted by the College's Center for Science in Society (CSIS), that constantly mirrored her own way of looking at the world. Dalke found that regular exposure to the perspectives of scholars in the natural sciences and social sciences was enormously fruitful both to her research and teaching.

Warren Liu

New faculty: Warren Liu explores the borders of literature, ethnicity, and genre
Despite the periodic warnings of cultural doomsayers, poetry is alive and kicking in the United States, says Assistant Professor of English Warren Liu, who is just finishing his first year on the Bryn Mawr faculty. "People have been talking about the decline or demise of poetry for decades," Liu says. "But I recently read a study saying that the audience for poetry is actually increasing. Slam poetry, performance poetry, and rap are clearly increasing in popularity. The problem isn't that students don't like poetry—it's that there's an unfortunate gap between the varieties of poetry that occur in our culture and the kind of poetry that tends to be studied."

LLC Director Chris Boyland named NITLE Technology Fellow
Language Learning Center Director Christine Boyland has become the third Bryn Mawr staff member to be selected as a Technology Fellow by the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE). The NITLE Technology Fellows are selected for their expertise in the pedagogical application of one of several technologies that are of interest to liberal-arts colleges. After receiving intensive advanced training in their chosen technologies, they bring their new knowledge back to their own institutions and also lead workshops at the 142 NITLE member institutions.

Academic awards announced on May Day
At May Day Convocation on Sunday, May 4, President Nancy J. Vickers announced the winners of a host of awards given to Bryn Mawr students. The list of more than 50 awards and scholarships includes honors bestowed by Bryn Mawr as well as those given by outside organizations.

Mans

Paula Mans '08 wins Fulbright for study in Brazil
Mans, a Spanish major who plans to pursue a Ph.D. in anthropology or African-American studies, will spend her Fulbright year researching a community-based supplementary education program for girls in a favela—the Brazilian equivalent of a shantytown—in Salvador. The program Mans will study, called Bahia Street, supplements the girls' education in public schools with tutoring in all basic subjects including math, science, and reading. In addition to this standard curriculum, Bahia Street provides programs in self-defense, health care, sexual education, art therapy, Afro-Brazilian culture, and a series of programs that focus on issues of violence and inequality.

Bryn Mawr in the News
pile of newspapers

Bryn Mawr Featured in Associated Press Article on the Posse Foundation

Bryn Mawr is featured prominently in "College students find support in campus 'posses,'" an Associated Press story about the Posse Foundation. Pos...

Creative Writing Program Director Karl Kirchwey Featured on Poetry Daily

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Director of Creative Writing Karl Kirchwey is the featured poet of the day on Poetry Daily for Tuesday, Nov. 17. The Web site will post a selection...

Yuh Min Chook ’88: Exploring the Gateway to the Cell Nucleus

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Biophysicist Yuh Min Chook ’88 studies the mechanisms of protein transport through the nuclear membrane by transporter proteins, or Karyopherin b...

Q&A Part Two with Alice Rivlin ’52: Health Care, Technology, and the Economy

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In Part Two of our interview with Alice Rivlin '52, the founding director of the Congressional Budget Office and former vice chair of the Federal R...

Would Mad Men’s Betty Draper Have Made it at Bryn Mawr?

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Widely lauded for its attention to period-specific details, the AMC television series Mad Men has had its slips. The show's "most egregious stumble...

Today's Calendar

From the Bi-Co to Wall Street: Being a Woman in Finance (Presented by BMC Alumnae with Goldman Sa...

Nov 23 2009 6:30PM, Dorothy Vernon Room

Owl Investment Group

Nov 23 2009 9:00PM, Dalton Hall 119

Harvest Christian Fellowship Family Group

Nov 24 2009 7:30AM, Quita Woodward Room

TLI Computing III

Nov 24 2009 9:00AM, Canaday Media Lab

Intermediate Excel Course-Staff

Nov 24 2009 9:30AM, Dalton Hall 20

French Table

Nov 24 2009 12:00PM, Haffner Dining Hall

TLI Computing II

Nov 24 2009 2:00PM, 315 Language Learning Center