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December 13, 2002
Quidnunc
It's All in
the System Deborah Strahman, visiting instructor in computer
science, has received a National Science Foundation subcontract
award of $40,644 through the University of Utah for a project
titled "A Grid for Research and Education in Distributed
Systems and Networks." The grant covers a two-year period
that began in September. Some years ago, researchers at the University
of Utah constructed a controlled system that is designed to simulate
the Internet. Others followed suit, and there are now a number
of such emulation systems around the country. Strahman seeks to
link all these simulations to a single federated entity on which
experiments on large-scale loosely coupled distributed systems
could be safely run. One could, for instance, simulate Internet
attacks and counterattacks. The grant will allow Mount Holyoke
students to learn to use the emulation system in computer science
classes at MHC and to work on research projects related to the
grant at the College, including building a local system that might
join the federation.
By the Numbers
Virginia Bastable, director of SummerMath for Teachers, and Jill
Lester, assistant director of SummerMath for Teachers, along with
Susan Jo Russell, Deborah Schifter, and Traci Higgins, have released
the fifth book, titled Statistics: Working with Data, in
their series Developing Mathematical Ideas. As in other parts
of the series, the "book" actually consists of two volumes,
a facilitator's guide, a casebook, and a video, which are
designed to serve as material for a seminar or course for inservice
or preservice teachers. The casebook presents twenty-eight cases
in which students in grades kindergarten through five develop
ideas about collecting, representing, and analyzing data. The
facilitator's guide offers suggestions about how a teacher
might elicit and develop students' ideas and further pursue
some of the issues raised in the cases. Says Donal O'Shea,
dean of faculty and Elizabeth T. Kennan Professor of Mathematics,
Statistics, and Computer Science, "Although these materials
are aimed at elementary school teachers, both parents and teachers
of students at other levels will find them fascinating. They provide
a real window into how children think and grapple with ideas."
No Substitute for
Experience Judaism in Practice: From the Middle Ages through
the Early Modern Period, an anthology edited by Lawrence Fine,
Irene Kaplan Leiwant Professor of Jewish Studies, was published
last fall by Princeton University Press. It focuses on the wide
range of Jewish religious practice and experience in the years
between 600 ce and 1800 ce. Fine contributed the introductory
essay, four others in different sections of the book, and numerous
translations. The essays are arranged under the following seven
headings: Rituals of Daily and Festival Practice; Rituals of the
Life Cycle; Torah, Learning, and Ethics; Religious Sectarianism
and Communities on the Margin; Art and Aesthetics; Magic and Mysticism;
and Remarkable Lives. Professor of History Jonathan Lipman contributed
an article titled "Living Judaism in Confucian Culture: Being
Jewish and Being Chinese" to the fourth section.
Grant Granted
Laurie Priest, senior lecturer in physical education and director
of athletics, and the physical education department have received
an award of $30,000 from the National Collegiate Athletic Association
to support a graduate internship for women and ethnic minorities
interested in athletic administration.
In Memoriam
Professor Emeritus of History Wilma J. Pugh, who taught at the
College between 1943 and 1971, died November 1 at her home in
Loomis Village. She was ninety-six. She is survived by four nephews
and one niece and by eighteen grandnephews and nieces and thirteen
great-grandnephews and nieces. The family will hold a memorial
service in Michigan. Says colleague, friend, and history professor
Robert Schwartz, "At Mount Holyoke, [Pugh] earned a lasting
reputation as an innovative, devoted, and imaginative teacher.
When lecture courses were the rule, she was the first in the history
department to introduce the seminar style of teaching. Anticipating
by several decades the interdisciplinary explorations so common
today, she initiated and chaired in 1958 an interdepartmental,
team-taught course on Religion and the Development of Scientific
Thought, founding thereby a program in the history of science.
Pugh's lasting impression on students was summarized at the
time of her retirement by Martha Ellis Francois, MA '55 (who
died in 1983), in a 1971 article that appeared in the Alumnae
Quarterly." "She will long be remembered by the
many students and colleagues who have known her as somewhat retiring
on the surface but quite the contrary when tackling a difficult
philosophical problem or the modern French party system. Then
she displays her excellent ability to penetrate to the very heart
of the matter and to explain so that others may follow her in
comprehending a difficult point or in making a synthesis. One
never came away from one of her classes without several exciting
ideas to think about and the feeling that Miss Pugh herself was
constantly taking a fresh approach to the history with which she
dealt so masterfully. Warm-hearted and deeply concerned about
everything which was going on around her, she always gave her
best to any situation despite whatever handicaps came along."
In 1966, Pugh endowed a fund to support the research expenses
of MHC students undertaking honors work in history. Notes Schwartz,
"Her intent [was] to honor excellence and to encourage research
in libraries and archives as far from campus as her own beloved
France. This exceptional generosity is further testimony to her
own exceptional character and achievements." Since 1966,
eight students majoring in history have received the Wilma J.
Pugh Award to help support their research in archives and sites
ranging from the Newberry Library in Chicago to field work in
Africa and archival research in Denmark, England, and France.
Good Sport
Competing in the Miss Massachusetts USA Pageant November 23 and
24 in Quincy, Massachusetts, Mamta Dass '06 was named a semifinalist
and received a special Spirit Award Promoting Friendship and Sportsmanship.
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