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CUNY Faculty Honored for Scholarship & Service

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Distinguished Professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a faculty member of the Graduate Center of The City University of New York, Cathy Spatz Widom, was awarded the 2016 Stockholm Prize in Criminology, the most prestigious award in the field.
CUNY Chancellor James B. Milliken

Faculty of The City University of New York are leading national organizations, conducting groundbreaking research and being recognized for their scholarship with prestigious awards, according to campus reports of awards and grants.

Among the most recent honors include an international jury awarding the 2016 Stockholm Prize in Criminology, the most prestigious award in the field, to Cathy Spatz Widom, Distinguished Professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a faculty member of the Graduate Center of The City University of New York. She shares the prize with Travis Warren Hirschi, emeritus professor of sociology, University of Arizona, and Per-Olof Wikström, professor of ecological and developmental criminology, University of Cambridge. They jointly explore how parents and peers shape successes, or failures, in preventing adult violence and crime.

Other CUNY faculty members shine with equal brilliance in their fields. Their awards range from the $800,000 Balzan Prize for Mathematics, which recognizes a lifetime of achievement; to the leadership of prestigious organizations like Amnesty International USA, the American Sociological Association and the Society of American Historians; to international research and teaching sponsored by federally sponsored Fulbright grants; to research in the sciences and humanities sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Institutes of Health; to a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in poetry.

Chancellor James B. Milliken said: “The quality of a university is inextricably linked to the quality of its faculty. And CUNY is a global leader in education and scholarship because it has such outstanding faculty. The award winners we’re recognizing this year reflect the depth and breadth of the tremendous talent at CUNY. I could not be more proud of them.”

Here is a sampling of the faculty award winners, selected to show their wide diversity of accomplishment and inquiry.

International prizes

Balzan Prize for Mathematics — Dennis Sullivan, Distinguished Professor of mathematics, CUNY Graduate Center; the prize, worth $800,000 in 2014, specifies that the recipient must use half of it “to finance research projects that are preferably carried out by young scholars or scientists.” The International Balzan Foundation’s website says it recognized Sullivan “for his major contributions to topology and the theory of dynamical systems, opening new perspectives for generations to come. For his exceptional results in many fields of mathematics, such as geometry, the theory of Kleinian groups, analysis and number theory … Above and beyond his results and discoveries, Sullivan has a unique talent for animating research and inspiring enthusiasm in young people. Sullivan has discovered vast territories, most of which remain to be explored. His influence on the community of mathematicians has been enormous.”

Laboratoires d’Excellence International Chair — Juliette Blevins, professor of linguistics, CUNY Graduate Center; 2016 International Chair and visiting professor at the Laboratoires d’Excellence Empirical Foundations of Linguistics in France. Labex EFL is a nine-year project, funded by the French government, with 12 research teams drawn primarily from French universities. She will work with a team at the French National Center for Scientific Research that links linguistics and anthropology, especially the documentation of unwritten languages.

NordSud International Prize for Literature and Science — Andre Aciman, Distinguished Professor of comparative literature, CUNY Graduate Center. The Pescarabruzzo Foundation established the prize to create a scholars’ “hall of fame” that encourages dialogue between the cultures and economies of the global north and the global south.

Rome Academy Prize in Historic Preservation and Conservation — John Maciuika, assistant professor of fine and performing arts, Baruch College. The American Academy in Rome, chartered by Congress in 1905, allows scholars and emerging artists time to study in Rome, the source of so much of the West’s humanistic culture. Maciuika’s grant supports 11 months of research and writing in residence at the American Academy. He will work on the architecture of the baroque Berliner Stadtschloss, the Berlin City Palace, once the winter residence of Prussian kings and German emperors. Damaged in World War II, it is being rebuilt with private funds as a museum, hotel and commercial center.

Organizational Leadership

American Sociological Association — Ruth Milkman, Distinguished Professor of sociology, CUNY Graduate Center; president, 2015-2016.

Amnesty International USA — Reza Fakhari, assistant vice president for academic affairs, associate provost and professor of history, Kingsborough Community College; vice chairman, board of directors.

Eastern Sociological Society — John Torpey, Presidential Professor of Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center; president-elect 2015-16, president 2016-2017.

International Federation for Theatre Research — John Graham-Jones, professor of theatre, CUNY Graduate Center; president, 2015-2017.

Society of American Historians — David Nasaw, Arthur M. Schlesinger Professor of History, CUNY Graduate Center; president of the Society of American Historians, 2014-2015.

Fulbright Fellowships

Fulbright to Finland — Elizabeth Whitney, professor of speech, communications and theater arts, Borough of Manhattan Community College; Fulbright to University of Turku and the Finnish Fulbright Center in Helsinki; “Arts Funding, Shared Values, and Digital Storytelling: A Comparative Approach Between the United States and Finland.”

Fulbright to France — Howard A. Chernick, professor of economics, Hunter College; for lecture and research, Paris. “Collaboration on Project on Energy Policy and Federalism; Lecture on Public Finance.”

Fulbright to India — Simran Kaur, associate professor of biology, Queensborough Community College.

Fulbright to Italy — Martha Nadell, associate professor of children’s studies, Brooklyn College.

Fulbright to Norway — Irina A. Sekerina, professor of psychology, College of Staten Island; “Experimental Psycholinguistics and Bilingualism: Teaching and Research in Norway.”

Fulbright to Spain — Andrea Weiss, professor of media and communication arts, City College; to research a documentary film, “Bones of Contention.”

Fulbright to Taiwan — Anru Lee, associate professor of anthropology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice; “The Afterlife of Women Workers: How Postindustrial Taiwan Contributes to the Study of Gender and Global Capitalism.”

Fulbright Regent’s University (London) Scholar Award — Markus Bidell, associate professor of psychology, Hunter College.

Guggenheim Fellowship —Cate Marvin, professor of English, College of Staten Island; with the grant, she is pursuing a book of poems growing out of Willowbrook, the former state mental hospital that became synonymous with the warehousing and mistreatment of developmentally disabled patients; Willowbrook occupied the land now occupied by the College of Staten Island. The Guggenheim is a highly competitive midcareer award for people who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for scholarship or creativity in the arts.

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