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Spencer R. Crew, Robinson Professor of American, African American, and Public History, with Lonnie G. Bunch and Clement A. Price, had a new publication, “Slave Culture: A Documentary Collection of the Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project,” published by Greenwood Publishing Group, 2014. He also lectured on the Underground Railroad to teachers from Fallsburg, N.Y., in April, and lectured and conducted a panel discussion on Henrietta Lacks at the New York Brooklyn Public Library in May. In addition, Crew lectured on the comparisons between the Civil Rights Movement and the Gay Rights Movement at the Depository Trust Company and the National Securities Clearing Corporation in Jersey City, N.J., in June.

Robert Hazen, Robinson Professor of Earth Sciences, presented the D. Foster Hewett Lecture at Lehigh University on origins of life. He also was named the 2014 Ingerson lecturer of the Geochemical Society, the 2015 Leibniz lecturer of the University of Pottsdam (Germany), and the 2015 Utrecht symposium lecturer at the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands).

Carma Hinton, Robinson Professor of Visual Culture and Chinese Studies, served as a judge on the second Washington, D.C., International Chinese Film Festival, in September.

John Paden, Robinson Professor of International Studies, in September briefed the United Nations’ Department of Political Affairs on the current situation in Nigeria; gave a presentation to senior U.S. government officials on violent extremism in northern Nigeria; gave a presentation to Nigerian higher education officials comparing U.S. and Nigerian approaches to higher education; gave a presentation to a U.S. State Department conference on future political projections in Nigeria; continued linkages with Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, regarding peace studies; and worked with the U.S. Institute of Peace on a report focusing on interfaith cooperation in Nigeria.

Laurie O. Robinson, Robinson Professor of Criminology, Law, and Society, presented “Importance and Impact of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994” (20 years after enactment) to policy makers, criminal justice constituent groups and federal agency representatives hosted by the Pew Charitable Trust Public Safety Performance Project. Also commemorating this crime legislation, she contributed to the Vera Institute of Justice’s multimedia initiative, Justice in Focus: Crime Bill@20, with a piece describing how appropriations under the act unexpectedly gave a big boost to science, supporting the greatest spending on crime-related research in the nation’s history.

James Trefil, Robinson Professor of Physics, presented “Scientific Methodology and Expert Testimony” at the Economics Institute for Judges, sponsored by the George Mason University School of Law’s Law and Economics Center in May and September.

Shaul Bakhash, Robinson Professor of History, wrote an article assessing the first year of President Hassan Rouhani’s administration in Iran, which was published in the Iran Primer under the title “Mixed Bag: One Year Later.” The article was republished in the Woodrow Wilson Center’s “Viewpoint” series, was excerpted in the Asia Times and circulated on the Gulf2000 website. He also helped edit and wrote the introduction to the book “Karim Emami on Modern Iranian Culture, Literature and Art,” which was published in August by the Persian Heritage Foundation. Over the summer, he appeared on a panel on Iran’s nuclear ambitions organized by the Woodrow Wilson Center and was quoted in news stories by the BBC and the InterPress news service.

Paul D’Andrea, Robinson Professor of Theater and English, was the keynote speaker at the Harvard Club of Washington on the occasion of a screening of the WETA/TV production of his play “Nathan the Wise.”

Robert Hazen, Robinson Professor of Earth Sciences, was the keynote speaker on mineral evolution at the Nordic Astrobiology conference in Bergen, Norway. He also presented lectures at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Geochemical Society’s Goldschmidt Conference in Vancouver, where he was awarded fellowship in the society. He was also named the 2014 Ingerson Lecturer of the Geochemical Society. Hazen also presented keynote lectures on the co-evolution of minerals and life at the Gordon Research Conference on Biomineralization in New London, N.H., and at the Dallas, Texas, Mineral Symposium. He engaged in field studies in the ancient Pilbara Complex of Western Australia, accompanied by a film crew from NOVA TV (WGBH, Boston). He also presented three talks at the International Mineralogical Association meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa.

John Paden, Robinson Professor of International Studies, in May presented “Countering Violent Extremists and Conflict Mitigation in Nigeria: Political Narratives and U.S. Options” at the State Department and “Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy” to senior U.S. officials. Also, he briefed the Department of Political Affairs of the United Nations on “The Current State of Affairs in Nigeria.” In August, Paden traveled to Nigeria to consolidate links with Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), especially its Center for Peace Studies, and also with the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, which has a memorandum of cooperation with Mason’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. In addition, he met with senior officials of the new Northwest University, Kano, to discuss future collaboration. In Sokoto, he gave a faculty seminar at the UDUS Center for Peace Studies on “graduate studies in conflict analysis and resolution.” He also gave a lecture to the UDUS faculty and graduate students on “Challenges Facing Northern Nigeria.” In Abuja, he presented a paper at the national conference, Interfaith Initiatives for Peace, on “Interfaith Relations in the 1st Republic.” Also in Abuja, he presented a paper and led a symposium on interfaith relations and conflict management in Nigeria.

Laurie O. Robinson, Robinson Professor of Criminology, Law, and Society, was appointed to the inaugural Faculty Advisory Board for the University of Maryland’s new Center for the Study of Business Ethics, Regulation and Crime, jointly sponsored by the Robert H. Smith School of Business and the College of Behavioral Sciences. She recently chaired panels at the 14th Jerry Lee Crime Policy Symposium on Mandatory Arrest Laws for Domestic Abuse and the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy annual symposium. She spoke at the launch of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency’s Washington Office and presented a national webinar with criminologist Al Blumstein on what’s next for crime and the justice system.

 

Shaul Bakhash, Robinson Professor of History, chaired and spoke on a panel organized by the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. His presentation, along with those of the other panelists, was published in April as one of the program’s Occasional Paper Series, under the title “Iran, the Next Five Years: Change or More of the Same?” He also participated in a panel discussion on Islamic Art, Culture and Politics: The Connections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, sponsored by the museum and the New York Review of Books. In addition, he met with groups of students interested in the Middle East and delivered a lecture at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, and delivered a lecture to faculty and students at La Salle College in Philadelphia.

Carma Hinton, Robinson Professor of Visual Culture and Chinese Studies, presented her film, “Gate of Heavenly Peace,” and as a panelist presented “Tiananmen 1989: Telling the Story to the World” and “Curriculum in Exile: Teaching Tiananmen” at the Tiananmen at 25 symposium at Saint Joseph’s University.

Steven Pearlstein, Robinson Professor of Public and International Affairs, presented an annual lecture at Radford University about the morality of capitalism. He also participated at the Young Leaders Forum of the World Economic Forum, organized by President Cabrera, at the Arlington Campus.

 

Spencer R. Crew, Robinson Professor of American, African American and Public History, gave a lecture at the Minnesota History Museum for its History Forum on African American Migration to the Twin Cities. He also gave a lecture on the Smithsonian’s African American Museum of History and Culture at the African American History Month Gala Dinner in San Francisco. In addition, Crew appeared on the Smithsonian Channel series on the Civil War and chaired a session of the Virginia Forum hosted by Mason titled “New Contexts and New Traffic at Historic Sites.”

Robert Hazen, Robinson Professor of Earth Sciences, conducted field work in the Anti-Atlas region of Morocco, accompanied by a film crew from “NOVA” (WGBH-TV, Boston). His book “The Story of Earth” will be the basis of a “NOVA” episode in 2015. He also presented lectures on the co-evolution of Earth and life at the Earth Life Sciences Institute in Tokyo, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. Hazen was named the keynote speaker for the 2014 annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology.

Hugh Heclo, Robinson Professor of Public Affairs, wrote a chapter, “George Bush and American Conservatism,” for the new book “41: Inside the Presidency of George H. W. Bush.”

Carma Hinton, Robinson Professor of Visual Culture and Chinese Studies, presented “Art, Politics and Money in Recent Chinese Cinema” at the Center for Chinese Studies, University of California at Berkeley.

John Paden, Robinson Professor of International Studies, briefed the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom on Christian-Muslim relations in Nigeria and participated in a roundtable discussion with the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on U.S. foreign policy in Nigeria. He also hosted the Nigerian delegation from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund to discuss Nigerian university faculty training at Mason. In addition, he participated in the United States Institute for Peace symposium with governors from northern Nigeria on issues of security and economic development. Paden hosted the governor of Kano and his delegation to discuss Mason links with the new state university in Kano and hosted the governor of Kebbi state and his delegation to discuss Mason links with the new federal university in Kebbi.

Laurie O. Robinson, Robinson Professor of Criminology, Law and Society, recently met with two National Academy of Sciences committees. In March, she spoke on a panel about perspectives on the federal role in reforming the nation’s juvenile justice system before the Committee on a Plan for a Developmental Approach in Juvenile Justice. In January, she participated in an expert planning meeting with the Committee on Law and Justice to discuss diffusion of innovation.

James Trefil, Robinson Professor of Physics, presented two lectures at the Economic Institute for Judges in Arlington, Va.: “Scientific Methodology” and “Expert Testimony.”

Shaul Bakhash, Robinson Professor of History, served on a panel assessing Iran’s revolution at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. His paper was published in the center’s Viewpoint series under the title “Iran’s Tumultuous Revolution: 35 Years Later.”

Robert Hazen, Robinson Professor of Earth Sciences, delivered the Carnegie Institution’s Capital Science Lecture on “The Story of Earth.”

John Paden, Robinson Professor of International Studies, participated in a high-level dialogue on Nigeria and Its 2015 National Elections at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He also presented a paper on “APEC Tipping Points in 2001: Issues of Dispute Settlement and Trade Security” at the Osaka University International Symposium on Interdisciplinary Perspectives for Asia-Pacific Region in Osaka, Japan.

Steven Pearlstein, Robinson Professor of Public and International Affairs, appeared on a panel on media coverage of business at the annual meeting of the Adam Smith Society in New York. He also appeared on the Charlie Rose show to speak about his paper on 21st-century capitalism and the tyranny of maximizing shareholder value. In addition, Pearlstein moderated a debate at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation about tax credits for research and development.

Robert Hazen, Robinson Professor of Earth Sciences, was elected Fellow of the Geochemical Society.

John Paden, Robinson Professor of International Studies, presented “Understanding and Mitigating the Drivers of Islamist Extremism in Northern Nigeria” at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University. He also gave a presentation on “Nigeria: Religious Conflict or Coexistence?” to senior U.S. government officials.

Steven Pearlstein, Robinson Professor of Public and International Affairs, gave a presentation about 21st-century capitalism at a conference of business leaders in New York. The conference was organized by the Brookings Institution and the Aspen Institute.

Laurie O. Robinson, Robinson Professor of Criminology, Law and Society, wrote the foreword for a recent book on justice reform, “Reducing Crime, Reducing Incarceration,” by Greg Berman, director of the Center for Court Innovation. She also spoke on two plenary panels at the American Society of Criminology’s November annual meeting. One panel discussed the potential for future federal spending for criminal justice research in an era of budget cutting, and the other described ways in which criminologists might play a more influential role in public policy in Washington.