The University of New Mexico

Monthly Archives: August 2011

UNM Center to Host Forum on Electoral College

August 29, 2011 | By Benson Hendrix

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Cen­ter for the Study of Vot­ing, Elec­tions and Democ­racy (C-SVED) is pro­vid­ing a forum for the pub­lic dis­cus­sion of the elec­toral col­lege sys­tem and the national pop­u­lar vote on Wednes­day, Aug. 31, from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at the UNM Con­tin­u­ing Edu­ca­tion Building’s Room H.

In March 2011, the New Mex­ico State House passed House Memo­r­ial 056, which asked the Sec­re­tary of State to study and report on how the cur­rent Elec­toral Col­lege sys­tem and the national pop­u­lar vote sys­tem com­pare. Absent from the House Memo­r­ial is pub­lic dis­cus­sion and debate about the Elec­toral Col­lege and its effec­tive­ness in mod­ern soci­ety. This forum is one of a series of pre­sen­ta­tions over the next three months, dur­ing which the pub­lic will be given an oppor­tu­nity to pro­vide input on this topic.

This issue is becom­ing a crit­i­cally impor­tant topic as nine states total­ing 132 elec­toral votes – nearly half the total of 270 needed to win the pres­i­dency – have already passed laws to appor­tion their elec­toral col­lege votes to the win­ner of the national pop­u­lar vote. New Mex­ico and its cit­i­zens must have their voices heard in this impor­tant debate about how our nation will choose its President.

As the Sec­re­tary of State’s office pre­pares its report, C-SVED is pro­vid­ing the pub­lic with an oppor­tu­nity for input and dis­cus­sion of the pol­icy con­sid­er­a­tions that ought to be pre­sented to key pol­icy mak­ers in state government.

C-SVED has assem­bled a Cit­i­zen Panel to for­mu­late pol­icy con­sid­er­a­tions on this issue. The Cit­i­zen Panel is com­posed of inter­ested cit­i­zens, elec­tion admin­is­tra­tion prac­ti­tion­ers, leg­is­la­tors and oth­ers inter­ested in how elec­tions are con­ducted. The Cit­i­zen Panel will meet three times, once a month in August, Sep­tem­ber and Octo­ber. The point of each meet­ing will be for panel mem­bers to learn about the Elec­toral Col­lege and to dis­cuss the local and national impli­ca­tions of the cur­rent sys­tem and alter­na­tive systems.

From these meet­ings C-SVED will issue a report, which panel mem­bers will be encour­aged to sign in con­cur­rence, or in dis­sent, as a way to build some knowl­edge and inter­est around this issue. The report will be pub­licly released by the Center.

“As Thomas Jef­fer­son said while craft­ing this country’s found­ing doc­u­ments, it is impor­tant for us to re-examine insti­tu­tions of gov­er­nance in light of our chang­ing soci­ety and cir­cum­stances” said Pro­fes­sor Lonna Atke­son, Direc­tor of C-SVED. “We honor this guid­ing prin­ci­ple as we engage in the Cit­i­zen Panel discussions.”

The meet­ings will be held:

  • Albu­querque on Wed. Aug. 31 from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.
    Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Con­tin­u­ing Edu­ca­tion, Room H
  • Santa Fe on Wed. Sept. 28, from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.
    Loca­tion TBA
  • Las Cruces on Thurs. Oct. 13, from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.
    Loca­tion TBA

For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact UNM pro­fes­sor Lonna Atke­son at (505)-660‑8976, or atkeson@unm.edu)

Media Con­tact: Ben­son Hen­drix (505) 277‑1816. E-Mail: bhendrix@unm.edu

Posted in Events | |

LAII, University Libraries Present “Transnational Solidarity with Chile and Popular Culture, 1973–1987”

August 29, 2011 | By Mara Kerkez

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mexico’s Latin Amer­i­can & Iber­ian Insti­tute and Uni­ver­sity Libraries present, “Transna­tional Sol­i­dar­ity with Chile and Pop­u­lar Cul­ture, 1973–1978” fea­tur­ing Green­leaf Vis­it­ing Scholar Brenda Elsey, Thurs­day, Sept. 1 from 12 to 1 p.m. in the His­tory Com­mons room in Mesa Vista Hall on UNM’s main campus.  

The pre­sen­ta­tion exam­ines the sol­i­dar­ity move­ment through cul­tural prac­tices includ­ing needle­work, foot­ball, music and beauty pageants that arose from the rela­tion­ship between exile com­mu­ni­ties, inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions and oppo­si­tion groups in Chile.

Elsey is assis­tant pro­fes­sor of His­tory at Hof­s­tra Uni­ver­sity, New York, direc­tor of Women’s Stud­ies and co-director of Latin Amer­i­can and Caribbean Stud­ies at Hof­s­tra. She was awarded the Green­leaf Vis­it­ing Library Scholar travel grant funded by a gift to LAII from Richard E. Green­leaf and pro­vides fac­ulty and grad­u­ate stu­dents spe­cial­iz­ing in Latin Amer­i­can Stud­ies the oppor­tu­nity to work with one of the largest and most com­plete col­lec­tions on Latin Amer­ica in the United States.

The event is free and open to the pub­lic. Refresh­ments will be provided.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit LAII or call (505) 277‑2961.

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Events | |

UNM Biology Student Awarded ASM Undergraduate Research Fellowship

August 29, 2011 | By Steve Carr

The Amer­i­can Soci­ety for Micro­bi­ol­ogy (ASM) has selected Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico senior Lory Hen­der­son as a 2011 award recip­i­ent of the ASM Under­grad­u­ate Research Fellowship.

Hen­der­son, a stu­dent in the Ini­tia­tive to Max­i­mize Stu­dent Diver­sity (IMSD) pro­gram in the biol­ogy depart­ment, is study­ing how human vis­i­ta­tion and nutri­ent lev­els in caves affect the pro­duc­tion of antibi­otics by bac­te­ria that live in caves. The title of Henderson’s research project is “Eco­log­i­cal Con­di­tions and Their Role in Antibi­otic Pro­duc­tion in Cave Bacteria.”

She also recently received a research grant from the Cave Con­ser­vancy of the Vir­ginias, who said that her pro­posal “was head and shoul­ders” above all the other appli­ca­tions, accord­ing to Dr. Diana Northrup, Henderson’s mentor.

This year, 68 appli­ca­tions were received and 39 were awarded. Of the 39 awardees, 17 stu­dents were from doctoral/research universities—extensive insti­tu­tions, two stu­dents were from doctoral/research universities—intensive insti­tu­tions, 14 stu­dents were from a master’s col­lege and uni­ver­sity insti­tu­tions, four stu­dents were from bac­calau­re­ate col­leges, one stu­dent from bal­anced arts & sciences/professions, some grad­u­ate coex­is­tence, and one stu­dent from a com­pre­hen­sive doc­toral institution.

This fel­low­ship is aimed at highly com­pet­i­tive stu­dents who wish to pur­sue grad­u­ate careers (Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D.) in micro­bi­ol­ogy. Each fel­low receives up to a $4,000 stipend, a two-year ASM stu­dent mem­ber­ship, and fund­ing for travel expenses to the ASM Pre­sen­ta­tion Insti­tute and 112th ASM Gen­eral Meet­ing. Fel­lows have the oppor­tu­nity to con­duct full time sum­mer research at their insti­tu­tion with an ASM men­tor and present their research results at the 112th ASM Gen­eral Meet­ing in San Fran­cisco, Calif. if their abstract is accepted.

Head­quar­tered in Wash­ing­ton, DC, the Amer­i­can Soci­ety for Micro­bi­ol­ogy is the old­est and largest sin­gle bio­log­i­cal mem­ber­ship orga­ni­za­tion, with more than 40,000 mem­bers worldwide.

For more infor­ma­tion on the fel­low­ship, visit Amer­i­can Soci­ety for Micro­bi­ol­ogy.

Media Con­tact: Steve Carr (505) 277‑1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu

Posted in University News | |

Anthropology Colloquium Series presents “Cooperation Among Wild Chimpanzees”

August 29, 2011 | By Mara Kerkez

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Depart­ment of Anthro­pol­ogy Col­lo­quium Series presents “Coop­er­a­tion Among Wild Chim­panzees” Thurs­day, Sept. 15 at 4 p.m. in Hibben Hall, room 105, with John Mitani from the Depart­ment of Anthro­pol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michigan.

As our clos­est liv­ing rel­a­tives, chim­panzees pro­vide vital infor­ma­tion about the changes that have taken place dur­ing the course of human evo­lu­tion and the char­ac­ter­is­tics that make us uniquely human. Mitani will review find­ings from his long-term study of an unusu­ally large com­mu­nity of chim­panzees at Ngogo, Kibale National Park, Uganda. His obser­va­tions of coali­tionary behav­ior, meat shar­ing, and lethal ter­ri­to­ri­al­ity pro­vide new insights into the evo­lu­tion of cooperation.

The event is free and open to the pub­lic. Light refresh­ments will be served fol­low­ing the colloquium.

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Melissa Emery Thomp­son at (505)359‑4220; e-mail, memery@unm.edu

Posted in Events, Research | |

Newly Discovered Mineral in Meteorite Named after UNM Professor

August 29, 2011 | By Steve Carr

Adrian Brear­ley

Researchers at Cal­tech and sev­eral other insti­tu­tions have named a newly dis­cov­ered min­eral in a mete­orite, “brear­leyite,” in recog­ni­tion of Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Pro­fes­sor and Chair Adrian Brear­ley in the Depart­ment of Earth and Plan­e­tary Sci­ences for his con­tri­bu­tions to mete­orite mineralogy.

“I’m deeply hon­ored and hum­bled to say the least,” said Brear­ley. “It doesn’t hap­pen to too many people.”

Brear­leyite is an extremely rare, fine-grained min­eral that is a new mete­oritic Ca-Al (calcium-aluminum) and Cl-rich phase. The sam­ple was dis­cov­ered in a car­bona­ceous chon­drite mete­orite found in North­west Africa in 2003. It likely formed from a reac­tion of krotite with hot Cl-bearing gases or flu­ids on a small aster­oid, 4.56 bil­lion years ago. Krotite is another recently dis­cov­ered min­eral that is named after Dr. Alexan­dre Krot, a col­league and col­lab­o­ra­tor of Brearley’s at the Uni­ver­sity of Hawai’i, Manoa.

The min­eral and its name, “brear­leyite,” have been approved by the Com­mis­sion on New Min­er­als, Nomen­cla­ture and Clas­si­fi­ca­tion (CNMNC) of the Inter­na­tional Min­er­alog­i­cal Asso­ci­a­tion. Three round, thin sec­tions of one inch diam­e­ter con­tain the material.

The full research arti­cle describ­ing the new min­eral was pub­lished recently in the jour­nal, the Amer­i­can Min­er­al­o­gist, and can be found at: brear­leyite.

Media Con­tact: Steve Carr (505) 277‑1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu

Posted in University News | |

Social Science and Policymaking Focus of RWJF Center Lecture

August 29, 2011 | By Carolyn Gonzales

Ken­neth Prewitt

The RWJF Cen­ter for Health Pol­icy presents, “Why Does ‘Good’ Social Sci­ence Go Unused in Pol­i­cy­mak­ing? A Con­trar­ian Per­spec­tive,” fea­tur­ing Ken­neth Pre­witt, Carnegie pro­fes­sor of pub­lic affairs and vice pres­i­dent for Global Cen­ters, Colum­bia Uni­ver­sity, on Thurs­day, Sept. 8 from 2:15 – 3:45 p.m. in the George Pearl Hall audi­to­rium in the UNM School of Archi­tec­ture and Plan­ning. This event is free and open to the public.

The idea that social sci­ence should improve soci­ety and assist pol­i­cy­mak­ing dates to the early 19th cen­tury. Since then, schol­ars who believe they are doing policy-relevant research have com­plained of being ignored, say­ing that pol­i­tics and ide­ol­ogy too often trump sci­ence. Pol­i­cy­mak­ers, in turn, lament that research is equiv­o­cal, hard to under­stand, and not attuned to the prac­ti­cal real­i­ties of the pol­i­cy­mak­ing world. The way out of this conun­drum involves join­ing a “sci­ence of social con­se­quences” with a “sci­ence of pol­icy claims” as they appear in pol­icy argumentation.

This pre­sen­ta­tion will sum­ma­rize why a “pol­icy enter­prise” emerged in the sec­ond half of the 20th cen­tury; and will dis­cuss the impli­ca­tions for how we need to under­stand when and whether social sci­ence knowl­edge is use­ful to the pol­icy process.

Pre­witt he also has served as senior vice pres­i­dent of the Rock­e­feller Foun­da­tion; direc­tor of the National Opin­ion Research Cen­ter; pres­i­dent of the Social Sci­ence Research Coun­cil; and direc­tor of the United States Cen­sus Bureau (for the 2000 Census).

He taught Polit­i­cal Sci­ence at the Uni­ver­sity of Chicago from 1965 to 1982, and for shorter peri­ods was on the fac­ulty of sev­eral uni­ver­si­ties in the U.S. and Africa. Pre­witt is also a fel­low of sev­eral pres­ti­gious orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion for the Advance­ment of Science.

Posted in Events | |

The 2011 Sacred Earth & Healing Arts Tour Comes to UNM

August 29, 2011 | By Mara Kerkez

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mexico’s Maxwell Museum of Anthro­pol­ogy is host­ing the Tibetan monks of the Gaden Shartse Monastery, Thursday-Sunday, Sept. 8–11 as part of the 2011 Sacred Earth & Heal­ing Arts Tour. The monks will present a series of pro­grams includ­ing the cre­ation and dis­so­lu­tion of the Green Tara sand man­dala, Tara Puja chant­ing and rit­ual, and Jour­ney to the Roof of the World: Sacred Dance and Chants of Tibet, a full pro­gram of chant and sacred dance.

The pur­pose of the tour is to be of ser­vice to the world com­mu­nity by nur­tur­ing the spread of peace, har­mony, com­pas­sion and tol­er­ance through edu­ca­tional and cul­tural exchange, and to raise funds needed to pre­serve Tibetan cul­ture and edu­ca­tion at Gaden Shartse Monastery, located in the Tibetan Refugee Set­tle­ment in Mund­god, India. The monastery, founded in 1409 CE, is con­sid­ered one of the three great monas­ter­ies of Tibet.

The four day schedule:

Open­ing Cer­e­mony 
Thurs­day, Sept. 8 at 10 a.m. 

“Green Tara Sand Man­dala”
Thurs­day – Sun­day, Sep. 8– 11
Maxwell Museum Hibben Cen­ter   
Man­dala Cre­ation daily from 9 a.m. — 5 p.m.

The monks cre­ate a two-dimensional sand man­dala; a cos­mic dia­gram that rep­re­sents the dwelling place or celes­tial man­sion of a deity. Man­dala means, “that which extracts the essence.” 

The Dis­so­lu­tion Cer­e­mony
Sun­day, Sept. 11 at noon

Upon com­ple­tion of the man­dala it is rit­u­ally dis­solved. As a les­son in imper­ma­nence, the blessed sand is swept up into a pile and small por­tions offered to those present. The rest of the sand will be taken to the Rio Grande where, after a short cer­e­mony, it will be poured into the river to bless and purify Albu­querque and all sen­tient beings. Free and Open to all.

“Tara Puja Chant­ing & Rit­ual”
Fri­day, Sept. 9 at 8 p.m.    
Anthro­pol­ogy, room 163   

The monks, in full rit­ual dress, per­form ancient Tibetan Bud­dhist chant­ing in front of an altar to Green Tara cre­ated specif­i­cally for this pro­gram. Ancient Tibetan multi-phonic chant­ing is a rare and unique expe­ri­ence cre­ated by monks singing a chord con­tain­ing two or three tones simul­ta­ne­ously. Tick­ets are $10 and can be pur­chased at the box office at the UNM book­store, online at UNM Tick­ets, or at the Maxwell.

“Jour­ney to the Roof of the World:

Sacred Dance and Chants of Tibet”
Sat­ur­day, Sept. 10 at 8 p.m.   
Kimo Theater

Expe­ri­ence the rare sounds and dra­matic imagery of Tibetan sacred dances, music and chants. This is a com­plete stage per­for­mance with ornate cos­tumes and set dec­o­ra­tion, pre­sent­ing eight dif­fer­ent per­for­mances in two 45 minute seg­ments sep­a­rated by a short inter­mis­sion. Tick­ets are $15, $20, $25 and can be pur­chased online at Kimo Tick­ets or at the Kimo box office

The Maxwell Museum is located at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico, just north of Mar­tin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Redondo Dr., on the west side of the cam­pus. Park­ing on cam­pus is free at all non-reserved “sur­face” spaces from 6 p.m. Fri­day, and noon on Sunday.

Thurs­day & Fri­day, paid park­ing is avail­able at Uni­ver­sity and Maple “You Park it” (next to the Church) or at UNM park­ing struc­tures at Pope­joy and at Lomas.

Posted in Arts & Humanities, Events | |

Game Day Fridays Return to UNM Bookstore

August 29, 2011 | By Mara Kerkez

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico main and north cam­pus book­stores is offer­ing 25 per­cent off reg­u­larly priced Lobowear or spirit items every Fri­day before a Lobo foot­ball game.

Game Day Fri­days begin Fri­day, Sept. 2 and end Fri­day, Dec. 2.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit: UNM Book­store or call (505) 277‑5451.

Posted in Campus Community, Events | |

UNM’s Denetdale Joins the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission

August 26, 2011 | By Carolyn Gonzales

Jen­nifer Nez Denetdale

Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Amer­i­can Stud­ies Jen­nifer Nez Denet­dale is fill­ing the posi­tion on the Navajo Nation Human Rights Com­mis­sion that requires an “exten­sive back­ground in edu­ca­tion,” accord­ing to the Commission.

Her appoint­ment was con­firmed on Mon­day, Aug. 1, at the Naabik’iyati’ Com­mit­tee of the Navajo Nation Coun­cil was unan­i­mous. She was rec­om­mended by the Navajo Nation Coun­cil Speaker Johnny Naize to the Naabik’iyati’ Committee.

Denet­dale joins Com­mis­sioner Chair­per­son Duane H. Yazzie, Com­mis­sioner Vice-Chairperson Clarence Chee, Com­mis­sioner Steve Dar­den, and Com­mis­sioner Irv­ing Glea­son; and direct seven staff mem­bers for the Com­mis­sion. Denet­dale will serve the remain­der of the term of the vacated posi­tion from the time of appoint­ment to July 2012.

Dur­ing her term, Denet­dale will guide staff at the Com­mis­sion involv­ing areas of civil and human rights, includ­ing but not lim­ited to, employ­ment, hous­ing, cul­tural and intel­lec­tual prop­erty, sacred sites, race dis­crim­i­na­tion, advis­ing accord­ingly as the edu­ca­tional rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the Commission.

As the first-ever Diné/Navajo to earn a Ph.D. in his­tory, Denet­dale is a strong advo­cate for Native peo­ples and strives to fos­ter aca­d­e­mic excel­lence in the next gen­er­a­tion of stu­dents inter­ested in Native Stud­ies. Denet­dale spe­cial­izes in Navajo his­tory and cul­ture; Native Amer­i­can women, gen­der, and fem­i­nisms; and Indige­nous nations, colo­nial­ism and decolonization.

Her book, Reclaim­ing Diné His­tory: The Lega­cies of Navajo Chief Manuelito and Juanita, was pub­lished by the Uni­ver­sity of Ari­zona Press in 2007, received pos­i­tive reviews. Her book for young adults, The Long Walk: The Forced Exile of the Navajo, was pub­lished by Chelsea House in 2007. Denet­dale recently pub­lished the arti­cle, “Secur­ing the Navajo National Bound­aries: War, Patri­o­tism, Tra­di­tion, and the Diné Mar­riage Act of 2005,” for a spe­cial issue on Native Fem­i­nisms in Wicazo Sa Review. She was the co-editor of the spe­cial issue. Last sum­mer she was guest cura­tor for the exhibit, “Hastiin Ch’ilhajíní dóó Diné bi naat’áanii Bahane’: Chief Manuelito & Navajo Lead­ers,” at the Navajo Nation Museum. Her cur­rent research project is a his­tory of Navajo women.

The Navajo Nation Human Rights Com­mis­sion is an autho­rized entity of the Navajo Nation leg­isla­tive branch to advo­cate for Navajo human rights and to address dis­crim­i­na­tory acts against Navajo citizens.

The Commission’s office is located in St. Michaels, where Com­mis­sion­ers meet reg­u­larly every first Fri­day of each month. Com­mis­sioner meet­ings are open to the public.

Media Con­tact: Car­olyn Gon­za­les (505) 277‑5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu

Posted in Academics & Faculty | |

UNM Prevention Research Center Hosts Medicine Residency Program

August 26, 2011 | By Mara Kerkez

The UNM Pre­ven­tion Research Cen­ter and the Rio Grande Insti­tute spon­sor a spe­cial research pre­sen­ta­tion of the “UNM Pre­ven­tive Med­i­cine Res­i­dency Pro­gram,” Tues­day, Aug. 30 from noon to 1 p.m. at the Research Incu­ba­tor Build­ing (RIB) Com­mons located on north Cam­pus, 2703 Fron­tier NE.

Denece Kesler, pro­fes­sor, Depart­ment of Inter­nal Med­i­cine and Pro­gram Direc­tor, UNM Pre­ven­tive Med­i­cine Res­i­dency Pro­gram will present.

The UNM Pub­lic Health and Gen­eral Pre­ven­tive Med­i­cine Res­i­dency Pro­gram is a newly ACGME-accredited physi­cian train­ing pro­gram. Physi­cian res­i­dents are trained to prac­tice pre­ven­tive med­i­cine and are eli­gi­ble to become board cer­ti­fied in pre­ven­tive med­i­cine upon com­ple­tion of the program.

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Shi­raz Mishra at (505) 272‑4462; email, smishra@salud.unm.edu

Posted in Events, Health Sciences | |