Grad News Forum

Award-winning playwright Katori Hall will deliver the keynote address on January 21 at Dartmouth’s 2013 Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. The celebration at Dartmouth dates back to the 1970s.

“I am not a politician. I am a playwright,” says Hall in a recent episode of American Voices on PBS. “I do not feign thinking that I can create policy that will change the world. But I can create stories that can move people, hopefully move people to action, but mostly move people to just having a more open heart, which I think is the first step towards action.”

This year’s theme is “The Art of Non-Conformity: Making the World Better.” The celebration features a slate of events from January 17 to February 1.

For full article see the Dartmouth Now.

Photo by Xanthe Elbrick

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the César Chávez Dissertation Fellowship. It was established in 1993 in honor of César Chávez, with the aim of providing support for underrepresented minorities in academia as they pursue their Ph.Ds. By providing our undergraduates with examples of successful Latino students, the fellowship also promotes diversity at Dartmouth and throughout higher education. Initially exclusively for minority students, the fellowship was recently expanded to include any graduate student committed to the wider field of Latino studies. The fellowship supports graduate students for a year-long residency at Dartmouth, from September through August. It provides them with a stipend of $25,000, office space, library privileges, and a research grant of $2,500.

César Chávez, the fellowship’s inspiration, was a Mexican-American labor activist who played a prominent role in the promotion of minority and workers’ rights in the US. Having experienced poverty and discrimination from a young age, Chávez became heavily involved with the Latino civil rights movement. He was key in organizing Mexican-American migrant laborers under the United Farm Workers. Here he worked with Dolores Huerta and other activists. The fellowship not only celebrates his life but also honors his close association with the Hitchcock Medical School.  With this Dartmouth School he examined the effects of pesticides in migrant workers. The César Chávez Fellowship is one of many tributes to his human embodiment of the struggle against discrimination and the fight for human dignity.

The fellowship has a strong tradition of supporting scholars that go on to excel in their fields. The very first Chávez fellow, Tiffany Ana López, has recently been named the Tomás Rivera Chair at the University of California Riverside. López herself is a poster child for the benefits of the program. The granddaughter of migrant farmworkers, López went to public school and community college. Whilst at community college she was advised to go to state college, then to the University of California (UC) for her Ph.D. López came to Dartmouth to finish writing her dissertation. The Chávez fellowship facilitated the development of a talented student and helped her transition into academia. Commenting on her experiences, López said:

“The time here at Dartmouth completely changed my life because I had rarely been out of the state of California. Having been a first generation college student, I barely understood what it meant to go forward in my education beyond high school. The Chávez Dissertation Fellowship changed my life.”

Silvia Spitta, a Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature at Dartmouth, has been involved with the Chávez fellowship from its inception. She also emphasizes the trajectory shaping of the fellowship’s effects on students. “It allows people to envision becoming a scholar—the fellowship provides an example to students of what they can achieve. Before coming to Dartmouth and becoming a member of this academic community Tiffany had not realized her own potential and had no models to inspire her to a life as an intellectual. Likewise, they then provide an example to minority students here of what they can achieve.”

The Fellowship cultivates a close-knit academic community. It is a beautiful example of how support for the arts can change lives and can have a domino effect in or on  the lives of others. This is a relatively inexpensive program that has a huge return not only in the careers of young scholars but that gives Dartmouth great visibility across the US. Lopez herself has had a prolific career. She has worked with multiple creative artists including Maria Irene Fornes, Cherríe Moraga and Culture Clash. As an academic she has published numerous essays, articles, chapters and reviews in books and journals, including Theatre Journal, Aztlan-A Journal of Chicano studies and Frontiers-A Journal of Feminist Studies. In Professor Spitta’s words: “It would be great to have more doctoral and postdoctoral fellows at Dartmouth. They would serve as models for our students and enrich the intellectual climate at Dartmouth in incalculable ways.” Twenty years after the death of César Chávez, the fellowship continues his work. It is a great tribute to the spirit of minority rights and the fight against poverty. Here, education acts in the same way as a picket line or a protest, it liberates the individual from their disadvantaged background, on their own terms. If you need proof, I will leave you with the words of Chávez and the example of Tiffany López: “Sí se puede!

By Dan Durcan

Dear Graduate Community,

Greetings from Hanover!

As we approach the end of the calendar year I wanted to take a minute to write to you all about the exciting state of Graduate Studies.

I must say that it has been quite an exciting term. Back in August, I began my tenure as the Dean of Graduate Studies. I have spent much of the fall speaking with students, faculty, staff, and administrators, learning about the important issues that surround graduate education at Dartmouth. I have been afforded the opportunity to witness the incredible diversity of talent and drive in each of our graduate programs. I also cannot emphasize enough how impressive the staff of the Graduate Office is. They do an amazing job taking care of our students and programs!

Looking across the spectrum of Graduate Studies, I’ve been touched by the closeness and sense of community that exists inside of and between our programs. Our resolve was tested this fall, as our community suffered a tragic loss. Mikhail Lomakin, a first year graduate student in physics, died in a devastating accident back in October. Mike, as he liked to be called, came to us from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He was interested in space plasma physics, and was very excited to embark on his career in research here at Dartmouth. Mike’s passing rocked our small community. But our students found ways to come together, supporting each other during an enormously difficult time. This togetherness has made us all closer, impressing again upon me the value of our small size and our sense of collective strength. These virtues keep us moving forward, together, into the New Year that promises to be transformative.

I am proud to report that graduate programs in Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics and Astronomy have been awarded more than $2 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Education through the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) program, which will fund 17 three-year graduate fellowships. Dartmouth has received nearly $8 million in GAANN awards since 2004, an amazing success rate reflecting very highly on our graduate programs. Our students also continue to have success obtaining highly competitive funding, with six students receiving prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowships in 2012.

Our Graduate Student Council continues to be a strong student voice on campus, communicating with the administration about issues surrounding Dartmouth’s graduate community. The GSC Executive Board met with President Folt earlier in the fall to discuss a number of issues facing our students. The Council also took part in the 10^th annual Ivy Summit, held this year at the University of Pennsylvania. The Summit is a meeting of graduate student leaders from across the Ivies. There the GSC had the chance to share ideas and learn new strategies to advance our student resources and handle issues related to graduate student life.

In looking to further our alumni-student relations, we have developed an Externship Program, which will pair current graduate students with graduate alumni. During December, students will spend a day with an alumni host, discussing professional goals, engaging in career-oriented conversations with staff, receiving feedback on their resumes or CVs, and shadowing their host in their day-to-day activities. Most importantly, they will help to develop sustainable links between graduate alumni and graduate students. These links help to ensure that Dartmouth alumni find themselves still engaged with the College, and that students have the opportunity to benefit from our alums’ expertise. I’m delighted that so many graduate alumni have signed up for this experience.

Finally, I wanted to thank the graduate alumni for donating to the Dartmouth Graduate Studies Alumni Fund. Each year, contributions from our Graduate Alumni allow us to fund research grants. This year, the fund has allowed a number of talented students to do all kinds of great work, which you can read about on our online news-blog, The Graduate Forum. Your continued support is greatly appreciated, and I am really excited to see what our students will achieve during the coming year.

Have a wonderful Holiday Season, and all the best for 2013!

Sincerely,

F. Jon Kull

Dean of Graduate Studies at Dartmouth

Members of the GSC Exec Board at the Summit

A couple of weeks ago we wrote you an article on our upcoming trip to the University of Pennsylvania for the 10^th annual Ivy Summit. Well, we went, we had a great time, and we thought we’d share some of our experiences. Each fall, a different Ivy School (plus MIT) hosts the Ivy Summit. These are conferences dedicated to sharing experiences of student governance, as well as focusing on advocacy issues — this year’s focus was on building mental health resources.

In 2011, MIT hosted and, this year, six members of the GSC headed down to Philadelphia to the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). We arrived on the 2^nd of November and were immediately welcomed by a UPenn student delegate. Then we met our colleagues from the other Universities and promptly bonded over Japanese food.

On Saturday morning, over a substantial breakfast spread, the State of the Nine addresses were delivered in a room overlooking the skyscrapers of Philadelphia. The State of the Nine is an annual feature of the Summit where each Student Council President delivers a fifteen-minute presentation designed give an overview of graduate life at their school. Topics covered include changes in student welfare, advocacy campaigns, and overviews of social life. Subsequently, the student delegates at Dartmouth were able to learn about the structures of other student governments, as well as what their counterparts at the other schools were doing. All of this will help the GSC facilitate the best possible student experience at Dartmouth.

Following the State of the Nine we split off into groups to discuss more specific topics related to student governance and mental health. Here each college led a tutorial to share expertise. Dartmouth presented on: “Enhancing Graduate Student Participation and Cultivating Agency around Student Initiatives and Activities.” Again, our president, Julia Bradley-Cook, took the lead for Dartmouth, during our tutorial. Here she focused on agency, engagement, and participation.

One of the ideas that surfaced in our discussion was having “student deputies”. These are people who stand on committees or take particular responsibilities advocating for an issue. The advantage of deputies is that it allows people to interact with student governance on their own terms, dedicating their time to what they feel is particularly important. We look forward to implementing these positions soon.

After the morning’s proceedings, we broke for lunch – again, we ate and socialized with other graduate students. Then we went back to tutorials where we continued to share experiences and knowledge with other schools. The other school’s tutorials were as follows:

• Yale: Methods for facilitating conversation/student feedback with administrators
• Columbia: Quality of Life Survey
• Cornell: Emphasizing the Importance of Graduate Student Programming and Space
• Penn: Building Institutional Memory
• Harvard: Tailoring Mental Health Services to Graduate Student Needs
• Princeton: Striving for Balance in an Unbalanced Life
• Brown: Mental Health as “Foreign” to International Students
• MIT: The Power of Student Advocates as Change Agents
• Penn: Self Care as a Means to Protect Mental Health

Speaking on the Summit, Vice President Justin Richardson said: “The Ivy Summit was an excellent opportunity to showcase the great events and programs the Graduate Student Council puts together. It was good to learn from the other schools, to see how they help their student bodies, and what problems they face. I am very thankful to University of Pennsylvania GAPSA for hosting the annual event and am currently in contact with many attendees of the summit.”

That evening, conference delegates proceeded to a Japanese Karaoke Bar. Here we dined and hung out with other students from the Summit. Your social chair, Gilbert Rahme, wowed everyone with his performance of the Backstreet Boy’s “Quit Playing Games with my Heart.” I doubt Philadelphia will ever forget us.”

On Sunday morning we reconvened for a breakfast (the most substantial French toast I have ever seen) and to recap the Summit. Bradley-Cook met with the other Student Body Presidents to give feedback and to strategize for future years. After a long productive couple of days we said our farewells. There was just time to pick up a Philly Cheesesteak before our long journey home.

by Dan Durcan

Photo by David Bendell

This year, two Dartmouth Graduate Students were selected as National Center for Environmental Research (NCER) Science To Achieve Results (STAR) Fellows by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The fellowship provides selected graduate students $25,000 dollars worth of research funding annually for three years. In addition, the NCER gives the administrative center of the STAR fellow’s institution $12,000 dollars annually for other expenses that may arise during the three-year research period.

 The NCER’s STAR Fellow Program selects graduate fellows from a number of environmental science and engineering disciplines whose research will improve the scientific basis for national environmental decisions. One of the NCER’s highest priorities is ensuring that the United States has an adequate and well-trained workforce that can address the complex environmental issues of the future. This year the EPA selected Samuel Fey, a fifth-year PhD candidate in Dartmouth’s Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (EEB) program, and Marcus Welker, a third-year PhD candidate in EEB.

Originally from Farmington, Connecticut, Samuel Fey studied biology as an undergraduate at Hamilton College, worked as a research fellow for a year at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Washington DC, and is currently a fifth year PhD candidate and an Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Fellow in Dartmouth’s EEB program. Sam is advised by Dr. Kathryn Cottingham, and his graduate research examines the community ecology of aquatic ecosystems. In addition, his studies focus on how both climate change and the spread of invasive species will change these ecosystems in the coming years.

As an EPA STAR Fellow, Sam intends to conduct field work and develop mathematical models that predict how biological communities will change as the world’s climate becomes warmer. This project builds upon a previous study that Sam started conducting with Cristina Herren, a Dartmouth undergraduate who is now a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin. In addition to researching how climate change will affect the expansion of certain aquatic species, Sam is also examining how changes in lake temperatures will affect the frequency and severity of cyanobacterial, or blue green algae blooms.

“My research primarily focuses on how changes in temperature affect the ability of new organisms to enter an existing biological community,” explains Sam. “During my four years at Dartmouth, I’ve worked a lot with Daphnia lumholtzi, a crustacean native to African lakes which in the past few decades was introduced to the United States, and has gained traction in many lakes and reservoirs. As an EPA STAR Fellow I’m interested in using this non-native species as a model for exploring how climate change will affect the spread of non-native species through changing food web interactions.”

Originally from Anchorage, Alaska, Marcus Welker received his bachelors in Natural Sciences from the University of Alaska Anchorage and his masters of science in Aquatic Resource Management from King’s College London. Currently, Marcus is a third year PhD candidate in Dartmouth’s EEB program and is an Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Fellow. Marcus’s research examines the migratory patterns of Atlantic salmon, and focuses on how salmon use the distinctive patterns of amino acids found in rivers to return to the headwaters of their native streams to spawn.

As an EPA STAR Fellow, Marcus will research three aspects of the spawning patterns of Atlantic salmon. First, by sampling waters and testing them for amino acids, Marcus will examine how these amino acids change over time and over space. Secondly, Marcus will experiment with both juvenile and adult fish to understand how salmon use these amino acid signals. Finally, Marcus is examining the reception of these amino acid patterns by fish, and is researching whether the functions of these receptors change as a fish ages.

“I conduct the majority of my research in the rivers and hatcheries that surround Vermont’s Lake Champlain. Most of these hatcheries are funded by the US government, so it makes sense that I’m working with the EPA on this project,” explains Marcus. “I also work with Japanese scientists. This summer I had the opportunity to visit Japan on a National Science Foundation East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute Fellowship to analyze water samples collected in the Lake Champlain watershed.”

“The fact that the EPA selected two Dartmouth PhD candidates as STAR Fellows really speaks to the strength of the school’s graduate programs,” says Fey. “During my five years as a member of the graduate community, I’ve learned a tremendous amount from my peers and feel that these peer-to-peer interactions have helped strengthen the quality of my doctoral research.”

Graduate Students and Community:

As the term winds to a close, and winter begins to set in, I wanted to take a minute to address the graduate community. I’ve been settling in to my new position here at Graduate Studies, and I’m enjoying all of the opportunities to interact with and on behalf of our students and programs. To see the work that our students are doing, across the wide spectrum that is Graduate Arts and Sciences, is nothing but inspiring.

Here in the Graduate Office, we are working hard to develop new ways to support and strengthen our community. As the Dartmouth faculty expands, and the Geisel School follows suit, we know that there will be more opportunities for graduate students on campus. More faculty will create opportunities for new graduate research, and we will find ways to leverage those opportunities to improve our support networks for research and funding. We are also working to create a graduate student space on campus, to help attach the wonderful sense of community we have built to a physical location we can call our own. I am excited about the future of Graduate Studies, and our students should be as well.

On a personal note, I encourage everyone to get outside and enjoy the winter here in Hanover. As an undergraduate, I was a member of the Dartmouth Outing Club. We used to snowshoe up Gile Mountain, downhill and cross-country ski at the college facilities, and ice skate out on Occom Pond. Dartmouth provides lots of opportunities to take advantage of the endless recreational activities in the Hanover area. And though it might be cold, Hanover tends to be pretty sunny all winter long. So grab a good jacket and enjoy the sun and the snow!

We hope you can join us next week for Cupcake Wars – I’m looking forward to judging the event. For more information, and to stay up to date on all the goings-on at Graduate Studies, please visit the Graduate Studies website and connect with us through our Facebook page.

I hope you all enjoy the remainder of fall term, and have a wonderful holiday season!

Sincerely,

F. Jon Kull, Dean of Graduate Studies

Dartmouth Graduate Studies is a proud supporter of the Dartmouth Graduate Veterans Association’s Veterans Day Banquet, which will take place on Friday night. The Graduate Forum has highlighted the group’s commitment to community service and veterans affairs. This article comes to us from the Dartmouth Now. 

In recognition of Veterans Day on November 11, Dartmouth is hosting a slate of lectures, ceremonies, and celebrations to honor military service members over the next week. Among the events are a formal flag retreat ceremony on the Green and a Veterans Day Remembrance Breakfast, which features noted speakers and guests.

On November 2^nd members of the Graduate Student Council Executive Board are heading down to the University of Pennsylvania for the tenth annual Ivy Summit. There they will be interacting with student leaders from the Ivy League, hoping to learn and teach: to expand the skill sets of student governance at Dartmouth for the benefit of all.

The Ivy Summit is an annual event that brings together graduate and professional programs from the Ivy schools and MIT to discuss the issues of graduate life. This year the focus is on building mental health resources. During the summit, each Ivy school is required to lead a workshop to educate other schools on what they have learned from student government. We will therefore be able to share skill sets.

The workshops for the event are split into two groups, five will focus on the Pan-Ivy advocacy issue-Building Mental Health Resources- and five will focus on student government best practices. Dartmouth, under the leadership of GSC President Julia Bradley-Cook, is focusing on “Enhancing Graduate Student Participation and Cultivating Agency around Student Initiative and Activities”. With this we are presenting a workshop on graduate student participation and engagement around student initiatives contributing to the dialogue on best practice for governance. 

Speaking on the benefits of the conference Bradley-Cook said “In recent years, the GSC has learned a lot from this meeting, for instance it gave us ideas about how to diversify events in order to appeal to broader student group, and lead to the creation of the Academic Chair, which is responsible for awarding the conference travel grants.” Going to U-Penn will allow the Dartmouth graduate community to share information and learn from others, maximizing what we can all get out of our experiences here.

Reflecting on past experiences former GSC President Wesley Whitaker said: “I have been to two summits and returned from each with new perspectives on graduate education as well as new ideas for Dartmouth’s GSC… I think some of the ideas that the GSC implemented last year—for instance, small-scale social events focused on community building—came out of the Princeton Meeting.” Whitaker found that this experience really helped him with his position as President, giving him the knowledge necessary to carry out his duties effectively.

During our time at U-Penn we will also have the opportunity to spend a good amount of time with other graduate students, and will have the chance to talk at length about what they do to make their campuses more inviting for their communities. From past experiences of exec members we feel that we can learn a lot here.

This year the Graduate Studies Office will be giving you up-to-the-minute coverage of the event, letting you know what the GSC is doing and how we are helping improve grad studies at Dartmouth. Follow our twitter and facebook feeds for up to see how we’re doing. For more information about the Ivy Summit, please visit the official site. We hope you keep tuned in!

Early in the fall term, the Graduate Studies Office hosted a discussion panel on academic job searching, in preparation for the upcoming application season. Hosted by Kerry Landers, the Assistant Dean of Graduate Student Affairs, the presentation attempted to illuminate some of the details and nuances of searching for a position inside of academia. With Dean F. Jon Kull and Cindy Tobery from the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning adding insight, the event was informative and well received by the thirty students who attended.

Landers’ presentation cover a wide range of topics, from the writing and organization of a good curriculum vitae to the appropriate steps for negotiating the terms of a job offer. Focusing on clarity, professionalism, and staying “on” throughout the application process, she helped to guide the students through the cascading steps of academic career searching. Throughout the presentation, Dean Kull offered his personal insight – willing and wanting to be honest and truthful with students about the challenges of the application process. The back and forth discussion that resulted from his participation was engaging and personal.

Functions like this one are a large part of Landers’ position with Graduate Studies. Focused on preparing graduate students to realize their professional aspirations, she specializes in counseling from job search through job offer. Throughout the presentation, Landers pointed to the multitude of resources Dartmouth students have available to them in the job search. Her panels have proven to be enlightening for many students who have come through the programs. The Three Minute Thesis events, she notes, helps students to learn how to explain their research in a succinct and clear manner. And this winter she’ll be putting on the “Becoming Faculty” symposium, which will expand on many of the topics touched on in this presentation.

The next Three Minute Thesis event, which will be co-hosted by the Graduate Women in Science organization, will be tomorrow, October 17^th, at noon in 031 Haldeman. And watch for emails from the Graduate Studies office for more information about the Becoming Faculty Symposium.

The Grad Forum is pleased to announce the arrival of a new ESL specialist to the Dartmouth community. Michelle Cox is the Institute for Writing and Rhetoric’s new multilingual specialist. In her position Michelle will be splitting her time between the Institute for Writing and Rhetoric and graduate programs.

Michelle grew up in southern New Hampshire and took her undergraduate studies at U-Mass and the University of New Hampshire. There she majored in English. After completing her BA, Michelle decided to continue and enroll in an MA in English Studies, then a PhD program in Composition and Rhetoric. Interestingly enough, it was not until after she began her MA at UNH that Michelle really studied writing and rhetoric.

It was as a Masters student that Michelle first taught writing–and this wasn’t something she knew would be her career. She was given a one-day orientation, a stack of articles and was sent to work: “it was really a case of being thrown in the deep end, it was sink or swim.” For a while she felt like she was merely going through the motions. However that semester she fell in love with teaching writing and decided that  college teaching was what she wanted to do and after looking at her options, enrolled in a PhD program at the University of New Hampshire with a focus on Composition.

Michelle’s interest in ESL was equally unexpected. During the first year of her PhD Program, Michelle was a writing center consultant assigned to work with students enrolled in a summer bridge program run by the McNair Program. This program focuses on helping students from demographics underrepresented in academia gain skills to help them succeed in graduate school. Unsurprisingly, over half of the students there spoke English as a second language. However, there were no staff with ESL expertise.  As a consequence, many of the students were struggling directly from the problems caused by the lack of attention paid to language issues.

There was one particular student who was simply being neglected by the professor who had agreed to mentor him. Every time this student submitted work, the leading professor refused to read it because the language (not the content) wasn’t up to his standards. Michelle realized that without support this student would fail the program. So she took a bold step, one that writing center consultants are told never to do: she asked the student to tell her what he was trying to say and typed while he composed orally. Whilst there was an ethical dilemma, the support for ESL was so poor that writing with the student was the only tenable means of support. Michelle’s experience brought her to the conclusion that ESL support needed to be better researched and resourced.

It was this experience with the McNair Program that led Michelle to make ESL a major research focus and ultimately to her position at Dartmouth. And so far it looks like a good choice. Her recent list of publications includes the following:

“Reading an ESL Writer’s Text” with Paul Kei Matsuda. Reprinted in Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal. March 2011.

Special Issue of Across the Disciplines. Edited with Terry Myers Zawacki. “Writing across the Curriculum and Second Language Writers: Cross-Field Research, Theory, and Program Development.” 8(4): December, 2011. 

“WAC: Closing Doors or Opening Doors for Second Language Writers?” In ”Writing across the Curriculum and Second Language Writers: Cross-Field Research, Theory, and Program Development [Special Issue].” Across the Disciplines, 8(4): December, 2011.

 WAC and Second Language Writers: Research towards Developing Linguistically and Culturally Inclusive Programs and Practices. Edited with Terry Myers Zawacki.  Edited collection, forthcoming in December 2012.

Michelle strongly encourages any ESL graduate student to make an appointment with her. It will help you significantly with your academic studies and publications. She is friendly and extremely approachable. Most importantly, she is at Dartmouth for you.

by Dan Durcan

Photo courtesy of Michelle Cox