Sanjay Subrahmanyam, UCLA’s Doshi Professor of Pre-Modern Indian History and director of the UCLA Center for India and South Asia, has been elected to the Collège de France, one of the world's most distinguished academic institutions (established in 1530).

 

Sanjay, who will begin to split his time between UCLA and the Collège beginning this fall, will become one of 52 permanent professors in the institution and will be responsible for covering the field of "histoire globale de la première modernité" (early  modern world history). Professor Subrahmanyam’s appointment was approved on April 19, 2013, by the president of France. 

 

The faculty of the Collège de France currently comprises 52 professors, elected by professors from among Francophone scholars in subjects, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, history, archaeology, linguistics, oriental studies, philosophy, the social sciences and other fields.

 

 

Monica L. Smith, professor of the UCLA Archaeology Interdepartmental Graduate Program and the UCLA Department of Anthropology, has been appointed to the Committee for Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society.

 

The committee evaluates grant proposals and makes funding allocations across all of the disciplines that the National Geographic Society funds, from biology and paleontology to anthropology, archaeology, and human geography.  She will oversee areas that include South, East and Southeast Asia, Africa, and other parts of the Old World. 

 

More information about the Committee for Research and Exploration can be found here.

 

 

Aurora P. Jackson, a professor of social welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, has been named to the Academic Advisory Board of the Arizona Department of Economic Security.

 

Jackson joins a group of board members who will assist in the transformaton of the Arizona safety net, advising the agency in an effort to overhaul the system of benefits, good and services that serves nearly 2 million people in the state.

 

Jackson's research examines the interrelationships among work, welfare, maternal psychological well-being, parenting in the home environment and child outcomes in families headed by low-income, single-parent mothers with young children. Her research on current and former welfare recipients has been funded by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the William T. Grant Foundation, the National Center on Minority Health Disparities and a visiting scholarship at the Russell Sage Foundation.

 

Virginia Steel, university librarian at UC Santa Cruz, has been appointed UCLA's University Librarian, effective July 15.

 

A library director for more than 11 years, Steel has significant leadership experience within the UC system and at Association of Research Libraries institutions. "She brings a wealth of knowledge, expertise and perspective to this critical role," wrote Scott Waugh, UCLA Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, in announcing her appointment today.

 

“I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to come to UCLA and to contribute to the library's role in supporting the campus's research, teaching, and service goals,” Steel said. “UCLA is one of the foremost educational institutions in the world, and its library supports every discipline, its students and faculty. Over its lifetime, the library has amassed rich and deep collections in numerous formats and languages, and it has established an impressive record of utilizing technology to build one of the best digital libraries in the world.”

 

Steel will succeed Gary Strong, who announced his retirement in March 2012. Strong has served as University Librarian at UCLA since 2003. 

 

“The university librarian position at UCLA is the highlight of my career,” she said, “and I look forward to building relationships and helping steward the library in its role as an essential information provider for students and faculty.”

 

Fore more details, go here.

Shideh Hanassab has been named the new director of Dashew Center for International Students and Scholars (DCISS) following a nationwide search. Hanssab has been serving as interim director of the center since the retirement of its former director, Bob Ericksen, last June.

 

Hanassab began her undergraduate work as an international student at UC San Diego before coming to UCLA for her master's degree and Ph.D. While still a graduate student, she served as an international student and scholar counselor and program coordinator at UCLA's Office of International Students and Scholars, as the Dashew center was known at the time. In 1999, she became assistant director, serving under two leaders in the field of international education, Larry Gower and, later, Ericksen. 

 

Renee Tajima-Peña, a professor of film and digital media at UC Santa Cruz, has been appointed a professor of Asian American Studies and the Alumni and Friends of Japanese American Ancestry Endowed Chair, effective July 1. She will direct the Center for EthnoCommunications at UCLA, housed in the Asian American Studies Center with a teaching component with the Asian American Studies Department.

 

Tajima-Peña is an Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on Asian American and immigrant communities, race, gender and social justice. Her directing credits include the documentaries, "Calavera Highway," "Skate Manzanar," "Labor Women," "My America...or Honk if You Love Buddha" and "Who Killed Vincent Chin?" Her films have premiered at the Cannes, Sundance and Toronto film festivals, and she has received the Peabody Award, Dupont-Columbia Award, Alpert Award in the Arts, USA Broad Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

 

At UC Santa Cruz, she has been instrumental in launching the Graduate Program in Social Documentation.

 

　  

Dr. Earl Freymiller, an eminent oral and maxillofacial surgeon and a professor at the

 

Kyndall Brown, a lecturer at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, has been appointed executive director of the California Mathematics Project (CMP).

 

CMP is a K-16 network dedicated to providing students a rich, rigorous, and coherent mathematics curriculum taught by competent and confident mathematics teachers who foster all students’ proficiency in mathematics—achieving equity in quality. The program provides many opportunities for teachers to hone their skills with the latest research on mathematics teaching and learning.

 

Brown worked as a faculty adviser and lecturer in the Teacher Education Program (TEP) and was former director of the UCLA Mathematics Project at Center X.

 

"We are truly delighted to welcome Herbie and Wayne to the faculty of the Herb Alpert School of Music," said Christopher Waterman, dean of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, which houses the school of music. "The arrival of these legends marks an important step in the growth of UCLA's distinguished jazz program, which provides students with the opportunity to study with the renowned guitarist and NEA Jazz Master Kenny Burrell, award-winning flutist and composer James Newton and leading Los Angeles–based jazz musicians such as Dr. Bobby Rodriguez, Charley Harrison, Barbara Morrison, Michelle Weir, George Bohanon, Tamir Hendelman and Justo Almario."

 

 

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