Bruce E. Altschuler, professor emeritus of political science, is the author of “Is the Pentagon Papers Case Relevant in the Age of Wikileaks?” which was published in the fall issue of Political Science Quarterly. In the article, Altschuler argues that the emergence of independent leakers with access to the Internet has shifted greater responsibility on to the mainstream media to practice self-restraint in what to publish. He also notes that the emergence of independent leakers has also accelerated prosecutions by the Obama Administration. (See related research by Jason Zenor, below.)
Alfred Frederick, distinguished service professor of curriculum and instruction, and Tania Ramalho, professor of curriculum and instruction, took part in the Third International Seminar on Educational Research, Theory and Practice, held from July 15 to 17 at the State University of Piaui in Brazil, with Frederick in a leadership role. The United States scholars Frederick brought to present at the conference included Ramalho, who gave a presentation and workshops on critical pedagogy; Geneva Gay of the University of Washington, who gave a presentation and workshops on culturally responsive teaching; and Mark Muhammad of the Syracuse City School District board of education and Onondaga Community College, who gave a presentation on the purpose of education and a workshop on communication. They visited one of the area’s quilombos—settlements founded by runaway slaves—and area schools, including the Escola Municipal in Teresina, where Frederick and Gay are pictured with pupils. Before the seminar, Frederick taught an extension course, “Education of Diverse Populations Utilizing an Interdisciplinary Approach: Theory and Practice,” which dealt with curriculum development and evaluation, culturally relevant teaching and multicultural education.
Shashi Kanbur, professor of physics, is a member of an international group that has produced a paper accepted in the Astrophysical Journal, one of the top peer-reviewed journals in astrophysics. Titled “Updated 24-Micron Period-Luminosity Relation Derived from Galactic Cepheids,” the article is by Chow-Choong Ngeow of Taiwan’s National Central University; Saurjya Sarkar, a summer research fellow at that university; Kanbur; and H.P. Singh of the University of Delhi. They are involved in the Indo-U.S. Joint Center for the Analysis of Variable Star Data, which Kanbur initiated.
Alok Kumar, professor of physics, was a panelist in two sessions of the Global Dharma Conference 2015, held at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center from Sept. 11 to 13. The first panel, “Unearthing Hindu Contributions to Science,” also included professors in mathematics, physics and electrical engineering from Princeton University, the University of Notre Dame and Oklahoma State University. It appeared widely in the media, distributed by Reuters and Business Wire, because panelist Manjul Bhargava of Princeton is a recipient of the Fermat Prize and the Fields Medal, the highest honor in mathematics. The second panel, “Decolonizing Perceptions of Dharma in Academia,” also included the president of the Sanatan Dharma Foundation and representatives from the University of Trinidad, Georgia State University and the University of Massachusetts. In addition, Kumar is the author of a chapter, titled “Ancient Indian Science: A European Account from the Muslim Spain,” in the book “Chronology of Hinduism,” published recently by Desh-Videsh Media Group. His contribution shows the migration of knowledge from one culture to another. He also wrote, in Hindi, “Dr. Ram Das Chaudhari: Affectionate and Inspirational Figure,” which was published in August in the Hindi magazine Garbhanal. Chaudhari was an emeritus professor of physics who died in June. Kumar is co-author (with professor emeritus of physics Ronald A. Brown) of a letter, headlined “Response to Learning from Starry Message,” in a recent issue of The Physics Teacher, the journal of the American Association of Physics Teachers.
Jason Zenor of the communication studies faculty has completed two publications and a conference presentation that examine the regulation of government information and its dissemination. “Damming the Leaks: Balancing National Security, Whistleblowing and the Public Interest” was published in the Lincoln Memorial Law Review. It examines the rise of national security whistleblowers during the Obama Administration and argues for a new whistleblower system for those working in national security. “Shielding Acts of Journalism: Open Leak Sites, National Security and the Free Flow of Information” was published in Nova Southeastern Law Review. The article examines online sites that allow for massive data dumps and argues that such sites deserve statutory protection when they act as surrogates for corporate media. Zenor presented a paper to the Law and Policy Division of the 2015 conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication titled “This Is Just Not Working for Us: After Ten Years on the Job, It Is Time to Fire Garcetti.” It reviewed the recent U.S. Supreme Court case on the speech rights of public employees and argued that the legal test should be amended to protect any employee speech that enhances the public trust.