Grad News Forum

Jeffrey Robinson, a fifth-year graduate student in the Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) program in the Department of Biological Sciences, is the founder and chairperson of the Dartmouth Graduate Outing Club (DGOC). DGOC organizes events throughout the academic year, including hikes, ski trips, canoe trips, and camping. Recently, Robinson organized a leadership series to promote the essentials of outdoor leadership so that other grad leaders would benefit from this perspective.

The leadership series ran from October 2012 through January 2013. Robinson planned several incrementally more complex sessions, beginning with short sessions on the basics of wilderness safety, clothing and equipment, group dynamics and risk management, and logistical organization for trips. Classroom knowledge was then put to practical use in an ascent of Mount Lafayette in November, during which participants practiced managing group safety in icy and snowy mountain conditions. The final event was a wilderness survival overnight to the Class of ’66 Lodge in January, where students learned how to start fires and build shelters in snowy and wet conditions, along with some basic avalanche safety. Participants in the course were considered officially qualified as graduate student outdoor leaders.

I met with Robinson for a question and answer session to learn more about his experiences as a leader and how these experiences have shaped his life.

Gilbert Rahme (GR): When and how did you get trained as a leader?

Jeffrey Robinson (JR): It takes a lot of experience to be a good leader. I was active in the Boy Scouts. Our troop focused on outdoor skills and fieldcraft, and I found that I excelled at this. In the Scouts, leadership is something that you learn by watching as a younger scout, and then start to put into practice as you advance in rank. I learned the fundamental skills in the Scouts, and I put them into a lot of informal practice post college by encouraging friends to go hiking, camping, backpacking, and rock climbing. In 2004, I took the National Outdoor Leadership School’s (NOLS) Pacific Northwest Mountaineering Course.  I learned technical mountain skills and wilderness expedition planning, group dynamics, and risk management. In particular, the NOLS course instilled a lot of confidence in my outdoor leadership capabilities and was a real turning point in my life; this experience was a major motivator for my decision to go for a PhD. Last, I volunteer with the Upper Valley Wilderness Response Team, a local wilderness search and rescue group. These guys are real professional wilderness rescuers and working with them has been the final step as far as taking my outdoor leadership knowledge to the level where I felt comfortable teaching others.

GR: What encouraged you to start the DGOC?

JR: A few different things. I went to a policy fellowship info session led by alumnus, David Lukofsky, who received his PhD from Thayer in 2009. Lukofsky mentioned that it is great professional experience to do some kind of community organizing activity or project, which got me thinking about what I could contribute. I had also been attending some Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) trips my first summer here. I met some exceptional individuals and made friends with some of the undergrad leaders, but I was always a little sad that grad students did not have some DOC equivalent. On a trailwork trip, Lauren Lesser ’10 suggested I start a graduate version of the DOC. I got some interested grad students together, and we became a recognized Graduate Student Council (GSC) organization. We also had some meetings with the Outdoor Programs Office and Graduate Studies Office to talk safety protocols. Dartmouth is small enough that, with a little effort, you can make a difference in the community.

GR: What do you think it takes to be a leader?

JR: Real leadership takes faith, vision, determination, and flexibility. Otherwise leadership will break down in times of hardship and difficulty. I admit feeling a little uncomfortable pronouncing on leadership when I still struggle in many areas not relating to outdoor leadership. Objective self-appraisal is very important; most of us prefer not to admit our weaknesses, especially to ourselves, but recognizing them is the only way to overcome them.

GR: You have graduation on the horizon. What advice do you want to give to future graduate student leaders at Dartmouth?

JR: People should find something they are good at and that they like to do. Remember that being successful at anything worthwhile does not happen overnight: it requires multiple iterations of planning, executing, evaluating, and trying again. Set short, intermediate, and long-term goals, and periodically re-evaluate them.

GR: Where do you see yourself in the future and how has being a graduate student leader helped you realize your future goals?

JR: I have considered science policy work with the government or in international development. I have also considered continuing in an academic setting because I really enjoy teaching at the college level and potentially would like to develop a research program. It would be great to combine biology (as well as earth and environmental sciences) and outdoor leadership into an integrated curriculum at an institute that has that sort of perspective.

Being a grad student outdoor leader has been among my most valuable experiences at Dartmouth. I have learned as much about myself as I have about working with other people. I look forward to applying those principles to my future career.

GR: Anything you want to add?

JR: Enjoy and value the outdoors for the challenges and benefits it can provide. When times have gotten hard, being outside has always provided perspective. Also, join the DGOC! It’s a great way to experience the outdoors around Hanover while hanging out with your friends. E-mail us at graduate.outing.club@Dartmouth.edu

Anyone is welcome to join!

by Gilbert Rahme

Few Dartmouth students will have escaped noticing we are in V-Week. From February 14^th to February 26^th, a slew of events have been organized drawing attention to ending violence against women and girls. This year’s focus, One Billion Rising, seeks to draw attention to the long overlooked issue of sexual abuse. The number one billion comes from the sobering statistic of the number of women, globally who have been or will be victims of sexual abuse or assault in their lifetimes. V-Week seeks to draw attention to the prevalence of these crimes and to provide support for organizations that help those affected. For the fourth year now, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) is a proud sponsor.

Photo by Rebel Roberts

The history of V-Week and V-Day goes back fifteen years. It was started by Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler as a way of using art to start conversations and raise awareness. The goal: to end violence against women and girls.  The movement is a grassroots one. It seeks to mobilize women of all classes and generations with the unified purpose of raising funds and drawing attention to violence against women and girls. The grassroots nature gives local networks control of ninety percent of funds raised. These funds will go to Wise, a nonprofit organization based in Lebanon, New Hampshire, that helps those affected by sexual and domestic violence in the Upper Valley. The other ten percent goes to a preselected international campaign. This year’s campaign is One Billion Rising, an internationally coordinated day of dancing, striking, and rising.

Dartmouth’s role in V-Day goes back to 1999. Initially an undergraduate-led initiative, the movement quickly spread to the local community; it began involving staff, faculty, alumni, and of course, the graduate community.

Active and passionate people led the way to graduate involvement. Megan Fallon, the former assistant director of the Center for Gender & Student Engagement at Dartmouth and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) student, took a pivotal role. Fallon’s position and her dedication allowed her to be active in making V-Day and V-Week an important time at Dartmouth.

Katie Kinnaird, a math PhD candidate, has continued Fallon’s work. Kinnaird had taken part in the Vagina Monologues as an undergraduate and wanted an opportunity to continue her activism. V-Week provided this opportunity. Through her hard work, graduates and undergraduates have been able to come together to make a difference for women in the community and beyond.

“It was a great way to meet really passionate women, real unabashed feminists” says Kinnaird, “I will be sad to leave the community and hope that someone in the graduate school takes my place.”

Kinnaird swiftly took control of making v-pops. V-pops are vagina-shaped lollipops. Their purpose is twofold. Firstly, they act as a way in which woman can create a cultural shift in the way in which vaginas are viewed. Secondly, making and selling v-pops is a great way to raise money, allowing people to socialize in the process. In taking on the role of making v-pops, Kinnaird has carved out a unique space for the graduate community.

The graduate community also takes on the role of organizing the Venefit for V-Day. Hosted with a local business, this event raises money for V-Day. Anyone who wants more information about the Venefit, the V-Pop­ Parties, or wants to get involved, can email Kinnaird at: Katherine.M.Kinnaird.GR@dartmouth.edu. For the full schedule of events go to the V-Week Website.

Speaking of her activism, Kinnaird said “I hope to be involved when I’m in a retirement community in my nineties.” She continued, “what could be more fabulous?!”

by Dan Durcan

This year’s “Leading Voices in Higher Education” lecture series kicks off with Jeffrey Selingo, author, leading authority on higher education, and award-winning journalist, speaking February 19.

“College campuses as we know them today will exist far into the future, but that future is full of risks and opportunities for many traditional institutions,” says Selingo. “I look forward to laying out one vision of the new higher-education ecosystem.”

The talk, free and open to the public, will begin at 4:30 p.m. in Room 003 of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center.

For the full article go to Dartmouth Now.

Winter Carnival epitomizes the spirit of Dartmouth: longstanding and steeped in tradition. The Carnival promotes Dartmouth’s identity and brings the community together. It also provides a crucial break for students in the middle of the winter term.

This year marks the first in which Graduate Arts and Sciences hosts its own Carnival events. I met with the Graduate Activities Coordinator, Dan Durcan, and the North Park Activities Coordinator, Regina Salvat, over tea to learn about the scheduled events.

The Carnival tradition goes back over a hundred years. Founded as a showcase for Dartmouth’s athletes, it did not take long for the Carnival to add social events. These events included a beauty pageant and dances. Such was the fame of Winter Carnival that F. Scott Fitzgerald was hired to write a screenplay on the festivities. Carnival has always been about the nurturing of talented winter sports athletes. An example of these talents can be seen over the weekend with the skiing slalom and the nordic skiing events.

Every year, the student body comes together with administration and the local community to put on a show like no other. A theme is chosen and sculptures and events are based around it. This year’s carnival: A Very Grimm Winter Carnival promises to continue the tradition with style. The title refers to German writers, the Brothers Grimm, whose notable works include Rapunzel, Snow White, and Little Red Riding Hood. The Carnival comes in time for the two-hundredth anniversary of their first publication of fairy tales.

The Graduate Carnival kicks off on Thursday, February 7, with a pub night at 3 Guys Barbeque Basement. Each graduate student is entitled to a free drink, and appetizers will also be provided.

On Friday, the Skiway is offering ninety-nine cent lift tickets. The Graduate Carnival is also offering discounted skiing that evening. For ten dollars, anyone with a graduate ID can get a lift ticket or equipment rental. “Perfect for the person who is in lab during the day, wants to avoid the crowds of the Skiway, or just fancies something a bit different” notes Salvat.

Saturday brings another pub night, this time at Molly’s. Following the successful Carnival event there last year, the management at Molly’s actually approached Durcan about holding another similar event, and he thought it was a great idea.

The official opening ceremonies begin at 7 p.m. on February 7 on the Green.

For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit the Collis Center website.

The Hop’s year-long “Best In Show” series of weekend-long tributes to great film festivals continues with  the Pordenone (Italy) Silent Film Festival on February 1-3.

The program will feature two films accompanied by those hyperactive Pied Pipers of silent cinema soundscaping, the Alloy Orchestra; two accompanied by the Hop’s resident keyboard-film-accompaniment master Bob Merrill; and one by a score composed by Carlos Dominguez, a student in Dartmouth’s Masters Program in Digital Musics.

The weekend celebrates the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, from Italy, which since its creation in 1982 has established itself as the leading international event dedicated to the preservation, diffusion, and study of the first thirty years of cinema. Every year in October, upwards of 1,000 visitors from across the world, ranging from academics, archivists and critics to private enthusiasts and collectors, gather for a weekly marathon of screenings. At the Hop, Pordenone co-founder Paolo Cherchi Usai—a pioneer in film preservation and currently the Senior Curator of Motion Pictures and Director of the Rochester, NY, George Eastman House’s L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation—will present a curated selection from recent festivals.

For the full article see the Hopkins Center news.

Dartmouth 2012 digital musics grads Alexander Dupuis, Alison Mattek, and David Kant, outside Hallgarten Hall after defending their theses.

Greetings from Hallgarten Hall!

In 2012, our graduate students continued to present their research here and abroad. Jessica Thompson has shown that hemodynamic brain activity collected during music listening can predict lists of descriptive labels. She has presented this work at several conferences, including the Cognitively Based Music Information Retrieval (CogMIR) workshop, the conference of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval (ISMIR), and the Machine Learning and Interpretation in Neuroimaging (MLINI) workshop at the Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) conference. In December, Phillip Hermans presented a paper on goal-based music compositions in Lucca, Italy, at the 15th Generative Art Conference (GA2012). There were installations, paper sessions, live performances, lively discussion, and “lots of great Tuscan food.” In addition to live performance, Carlos Dominguez has been working on a soundtrack for the 1928 silent film, Beggars of Life, to be performed live alongside the film on February 2, 2013, at Dartmouth in conjunction with the Department of Film & Media Studies.

We are most delighted to welcome winter and spring term visiting professor, Dr. Tara Rodgers, a University of Maryland assistant professor of Women’s Studies, a distinguished faculty fellow in Digital Cultures & Creativity, and an affiliate faculty of American Studies and Musicology & Ethnomusicology. She is also the coordinator of the Women’s Studies Multimedia Studio and was a Canada-US Fulbright Scholar (2006-2007) and a visiting faculty in sound at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2004-2005). Her book, Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound, received the 2011 Pauline Alderman Book Award for outstanding scholarship on women in music from the International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM). Rodgers’ current project is a feminist history of synthesized sound.

Professor Spencer Topel began 2013 in Copenhagen for a winter 2013 Danish International Visiting Artist (DIVA) residency to collaborate on a performance and sound installation series with the acclaimed Figura Ensemble. Digital musics faculty, Professor Larry Polansky and Professor Kui Dong, along with Professor Christian Wolff (former faculty), released a CD on Henceforth Records.

Professor Spencer Topel collaborated with studio art Professor Soo Sunny Park at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Massachusetts to create this mesmerizing light-based sculpture and soundscape entitled Capturing Resonance.

In fall 2012, Nathan Davis, director of the Performance Laboratory in Contemporary Music, appeared as a concerto soloist with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ludovic Morlot, giving the world premiere of Dai Fujikura’s concerto, “Mina.”  As a percussionist in the International Contemporary Ensemble, he also performed at the Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna, inaugurated a new hall in Sonoma with John Adams, and premiered a new work by John Zorn in Berlin.  Also an active composer, Davis wrote music for Morningside Lights (commissioned by Columbia University’s Miller Theatre) and performed it in New York City, together with Dartmouth Contemporary Music Lab graduate students Ryan Maguire, Phillip Hermans, and Carlos Dominguez. Davis was also awarded a 2012 commission by the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University and a recording grant from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music.

In January, Andrew Sarroff, technical director of the Bregman Music and Audio Research Studio (BMARS) received funding from the Neukom Institute for Computational Science for Dartmouth to host the two-day Northeast Music Informatics Special Interest Group (NEMESIG) 2012. Dozens of music information researchers attended and presented, and Frank Russo of Ryerson University in Toronto was the keynote speaker.

Alumni notes:

Paul Osetinsky is the chief technology officer of his new web company, Treatings, where he handles all of the coding. Treatings is a professional networking platform that makes it easy to propose informational meetings with people in local coffee shops and bars.

Beau Sievers’ (PhD student in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences) recent study about the uniquely human capacity to feel emotion through music was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study found our cognitive connection to music may have evolved from an older skill, the ability to glean emotion from motion. People will choose the same combination of spatiotemporal features—a certain speed, rhythm, and smoothness—whether pairing a particular emotion with a melody or with a cartoon animation. But most surprising, the results held true in people from two starkly different cultures: a rural village in Cambodia and a college campus in New England.

Bruno Ruviaro has just started a new job as assistant professor of music at Santa Clara University in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he is in charge of developing a new electronic music program and also teaching composition and music theory. Starting in the spring of 2013, he will be directing the newly-formed Santa Clara University Laptop Orchestra.

Christian Jaksjø works as a trombonist in the Frankfurt Radio Jazz Orchestra in Germany, as well as serving as the chief editor of Lydskrift, a Norwegian periodical on art music. Recent compositions include a work for ring modulated electromechanically amplified piano and electronic sound, commissioned by the pianist Ellen Ugelvik and released on her recent CD, Serynade (catalog number, ACD5061).

Iroro Orife is a staff engineer at Dolby Laboratories in San Francisco, working on perceptual audio codecs and audio processing for mobile devices, while continuing to run his label, de’fchild productions, releasing underground dub, techno, and experimental vibes on 12-inch vinyl with parity in the online spaces.

In fall 2012, Tae Hong Park started his new, tenured post as associate professor at New York University. He also received the 2012 Regional International Computer Music Association (ICMA) Award at the 2012 International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) and survived Hurricane Sandy in New York City this year, after surviving Hurricane Katrina at Tulane University in New Orleans in 2005!

by Rebecca Fawcett 

Dartmouth will present the 2013 Social Justice Awards, which honor Dartmouth community members who have contributed significantly to social justice, on February 1.

The awards ceremony serves as the culminating event for Dartmouth’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration and will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the Hayward Room at the Hanover Inn. The ceremony, free and open to the public, will feature a panel discussion with honorees followed by a reception.

President Carol L. Folt, Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson, Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Equity Evelynn Ellis, and Elise Smith ’13 will make remarks.

“These honorees embody the ideals and carry on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. with their relentless pursuit of social justice,” says Gabrielle Lucke, director of diversity training and educational programs and chair of the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration committee.

This year’s honorees are listed below. For more information on the Social Justice Awards, visit the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration website.

For full article see the Dartmouth Now

This video highlights just a few of the academic achievements and social happenings from the fall term at Dartmouth Graduate Studies.

Special thanks to:

Ron Bucca, Idan Ginsburg, Sam Beal, Laura Levy, Gifford Wong, John Gartner, Julia Bradley-Cook, Lisa Jackson, Geneva Trotter, and Dean F. Jon Kull. Dartmouth Graduate Studies: Highlights of Fall Term

On Saturday 12^th January President Elect Philip Hanlon, ’77, met with graduate students over coffee and doughnuts. Hanlon comes to Dartmouth from the University of Michigan, where he serves as Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. Michigan is one of the world’s top research universities, and his experiences bring great opportunities to Dartmouth Graduate Studies. Hanlon earned his Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth, and has been connected to the college ever since. His commitment to the institution brings great promise to inspire, administer, and realize Dartmouth’s strategic plan for the 21^st century.

Dean Kull introduced the President-Elect to a large group of our community, noting that he was  “someone who really gets what a research university is like. The search committee found the perfect person. I am enthusiastically looking forward to working with President Hanlon.” The President Elect then addressed the graduate students assembled, saying he was “excited to be back in the Dartmouth community and to help develop graduate programs here.” Hanlon then spent the better part of an hour taking the time to introduce himself and meet with graduate students.

The meeting was particularly fruitful for members of the Graduate Student Council, who were able to chat to the president about the issues they feel are important to our community. Hanlon expressed his desire to work with the GSC and the graduate community to make the Dartmouth an even more impressive place for research and study.

Speaking on meeting the President-Elect, MALS GSC representative Laurie Laker noted:

“It was a thrill to meet President-Elect Hanlon this past weekend at the graduate student reception. As a relatively new member of the Dartmouth community, I was pleased to see the President-Elect making the time to meet with members of the graduate student community. Despite having done his undergraduate study here, it was clear to me from our conversation that President-Elect Hanlon intends to put energy and time into the graduate student body, and he made it clear to us that we’re a valuable and vital part of this college. I’m eager to see the changes and choices that he makes during his tenure as President of the College.”

We look forward to working with President-Elect Hanlon in the future, and we’re excited about the possibilities for his time as President.

Society is “in desperate need of maladjusted men and women,” Professor N. Bruce Duthu ’80 told Dartmouth employees gathered to mark Martin Luther King Day.

Duthu, the Samson Occom Professor of Native American Studies and chair of Native American Studies Program, invoked the words of King in remarks at the annual employee breakfast celebration January 21, 2013.

King spoke those words at Dartmouth in 1962, saying it is the maladjusted of society who reject racism and injustice. Duthu, an enrolled member of the United Houma Nation of Louisiana, recalled the segregated church of his parish as a child and the visiting priest who tore down the rail that separated the Native American parishioners from the white parishioners. This was the act of a maladjusted man, Duthu said.

For the full article go to Dartmouth Now.

Photo by Joe Mehling ’69