Kongo Exhibition Brings New Dimension to Georgia Tech’s Global Engagement

President Jimmy Carter, President G.P. "Bud" Peterson, and distinguished guests from around the world joined Ivan Allen College Dean Jacqueline J. Royster on Thursday, May 17 to introduce a spectacular exhibition of African art and artifacts to Atlanta. The signature event of the College’s Africa Atlanta 2014 initiative, this exhibition is expanding perceptions of Georgia Tech as a catalyst for Atlanta’s global engagement and economic growth.

The exhibition, Kongo across the Waters, features more than 120 historic and contemporary pieces spanning more than five centuries. It is the first American museum exhibition to deeply explore the legacy of Africa’s Kongo culture and reveal cultural connections across multiple centuries and continents. The exhibition features loans from the Royal Museum for Central Africa that have never before been exhibited in the U.S., as well as significant archaeological discoveries from the Kongo diaspora, including colonoware pottery from a recent excavation at the Dean Hall Plantation in South Carolina. Also highlighted are recent works by Steve Bandoma, Edouard Duval Carrié, José Bedia, Renée Stout, and Radcliffe Bailey, contemporary artists who draw from the Kongo artistic tradition.

The inspiration and centerpiece for Africa Atlanta 2014, the cross-cultural perspectives evoked by the exhibition, by a companion international conference Africa Beyond Africa: The Future of Cultural, Social, and Scientific Research, and by an array of activities mounted by the College and nearly 50 partner organizations, are bringing a new dimension to the international profile of Atlanta and Georgia Tech.

In remarks to the more than 300 guests who attended the opening reception for the exhibition, Georgia Tech President Peterson highlighted the extraordinary collaboration of local, national, and international partners across four continents brought together by Dean Royster as part of the initiative.

“Africa Atlanta 2014 richly embodies Georgia Tech’s strategic commitment to support the economic development of our region and global engagement,” said President Peterson. “Through the work of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and that of the many distinguished partners and sponsors of this initiative, we are helping to increase understanding of contemporary Africa and global, cross-cultural innovation bridging liberal arts and technologies.”

With a burgeoning middle class, a collective GDP on par with that of Russia and Brazil, and the world’s fastest growing youth population, Africa is an emerging global sociopolitical force and marketplace. Dean Royster views the initiative and exhibition as gateway opportunities for Atlanta and the Institute to build contemporary bonds, not only in the realms of arts and culture, but also in business and innovation, education, and global affairs including health and human rights.

“Geopolitically, Atlanta is at a critical location within the trans-Atlantic triangle of Africa, Europe and the Americas,” said Royster, who brought the exhibition to Atlanta. “We have a chance to reinvent what it means to be Southern due to continuously evolving relationships within that space and the richness of the diasporic communities that call Atlanta home — to be a pacesetting 21st-century city and a trans-Atlantic beacon.”

Numerous attendees at the reception expressed a new awareness of the Ivan Allen College and liberal arts at Georgia Tech. In addition to a tour of the exhibition, the reception included remarks by President Jimmy Carter, His Excellency Johan Verbeke, ambassador of Belgium to the U.S; Alexander Cummings Jr., executive vice president and chief administrative officer of the Coca-Cola Company who is a native of Liberia; Guido Gryseels, director general of the Royal Museum for Central Africa. The Honorable Kwanza Hall also spoke, announcing on behalf of the Atlanta City Council a proclamation recognizing Africa Atlanta 2014 “for bringing a new dimension to the city’s profile and engagement as an international city.” 

President Peterson announced Beatrice Mtetwa as a recipient of the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage. The first woman to receive the prize, Mtetwa is a human rights attorney from Zimbabwe. The announcement of the prize during the premier event of Africa Atlanta 2014 highlighted the global affairs aspect of the initiative which includes upcoming activities focused on health and human rights. Mtetwa has fought against injustice and defended press freedom for more than 20 years. She has endured harassment and arrest as she has advocated for human rights, social justice and women’s equality and advancement.

Atlanta is the second leg of a four city tour for Kongo across the Waters. On view at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum from May 17 to September 21, public attendance on opening day this past Saturday was robust.  

Africa Atlanta 2014 and the Kongo exhibition were introduced by Dean Royster, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, and Belgian Consul Geneviève Verbeek during a press conference at City Hall in February which can be viewed here.

Kongo across the Waters is co-organized by the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida and the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium, and is brought to Atlanta by the Georgia Tech Ivan Allan College of Liberal Arts with the support of sponsors including the Coca-Cola Company, the Georgia Tech Office of the Provost, the Consulate General of Belgium in Atlanta, AEC Trust, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the Payne Fund. 

New Chair Named for School of Public Policy

Kaye Husbands Fealing has been selected from a national pool of candidates as chair of the School of Public Policy. She will join the college on July 1, 2014.

Husbands Fealing is an economist who comes to the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts from the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. Over the course of her career, she has built an outstanding record of accomplishments in scholarship and education as well as in national and international leadership and service. Her areas of expertise include international trade policy; science, technology, and innovation policy in specific contexts; knowledge generation and the development of networks.

She has developed models to measure science innovation and to measure the impacts of market forces and policy on the access of women and minorities to employment and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) areas. She has held named professorships at two institutions and served as president of the National Economic Association. 

Husbands Fealing developed the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Science of Science and Innovation Policy program and co-chaired the Science of Science Policy Interagency Task Group. At NSF, she also served as an economics program director. She  was a visiting scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Technology Policy and Industrial Development, where she conducted research on NAFTA's impact on the Mexican and Canadian automotive industries and research on strategic alliances between aircraft contractors and their subcontractors.

We look forward to welcoming her to the School of Public Policy, the Ivan Allen College, and Georgia Tech.

Ewubare Funds Fellowship for Minority Graduate Students

Roland Ewubare, executive chairman of Madison Avenue Legal Resources, Inc., has made a generous donation to the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts supporting a new fellowship for underrepresented graduate students at Georgia Tech.

The fellowship is intended to support students whose master’s and doctoral work within IAC creates societal engagement and impact. Special consideration will be given to students who originate from African, Caribbean, or Latin American nations or who are of an underrepresented minority in the U.S.

Ewubare is an experienced transactional lawyer and public administrator with over 25 years of experience in the U.S., U.K., and Nigeria. He holds a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Ife in Nigeria, a master’s degree in international business law from the Queen Mary College of the University of London (where he was a British Council Chevening Scholar), and a master’s degree in law from Harvard Law School.

First Ph.D. in International Affairs, Science, and Technology Awarded to Murphree

In April, Michael Murphree, successfully defended his dissertation earning the first Ph.D. awarded by The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs in International Affairs, Science and Technology.  

Where are you from?

I was raised in Texas until I was 15 and moved to Singapore for three years before coming to Atlanta to start my undergrad at Georgia Tech in 2000.

What is your educational/professional background?

I am a Tech man through and through, having earned my B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. all here at Georgia Tech. In between finishing my bachelor’s and beginning my masters, I spent a year teaching English in China. After earning my M.S., I returned to China to conduct research with former Nunn School professor Dan Breznitz on high technology industry and innovation before beginning my Ph.D.

What did you learn from your experience teaching English in Guizhou Province, China?

Teaching in China was one of the best and most formative experiences of my life. My Chinese language skills improved immensely and I discovered that I enjoy teaching, although perhaps I lack the patience to work with younger students. The experience also instilled in me an interest in economic development, international business, and the role of the state in promoting industrial and economic growth. Guizhou at the time was just beginning its economic boom, so it was a fascinating time to be in China and observe decades of change compressed into a few short years.

Why did you choose The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs?

I chose The Nunn School because of its unique interdisciplinary approach to international affairs research and education. Few programs combine engineering, science, public policy, international business, and political science into such a well-organized package. Being at the intersection of multiple disciplines can be daunting, but it gives a lot of intellectual freedom to explore.

The program also allowed me to work with scholars pursuing a wide range of interests in comparative political economy, economic development, science and technology policy, as well as more esoteric concepts like using technology to develop new tools for studying or making policy predictions in these areas.

Describe your research.

My research looks at the comparative political economy of technology standards, specifically the role these standards play in the formation of markets for technology in different political economies. My dissertation compares the standardization process and market outcomes for technology in the U.S., Europe, and China. I find that the differences in our respective technology markets can be attributed to the historically-derived institutions of standardization—formal development organizations, as well as less formalized, but still consistent patterns of behavior—and the positions of different states and firms in fragmented global production chains.

Understanding the connection between standardization and market outcomes may help policy makers and firms better tailor their standardization and market strategies in different countries in order to improve their outcomes.

What led you down this research path?

My interest in standards began while working with Professor Breznitz on our book Run of the Red Queen, which includes brief case studies looking at China’s standardization policies and practices in mobile telephony and optical storage media. This introduced me to the political world of standardization and the different avenues by which states seek to set and control standards.

Michael Murphree has accepted a tenure-track assistant professor position at the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina.

IAC Featured in Polish Newspaper as Example of How Liberal Arts Grads Can Be Prepared with Marketable Job Skills

An article in Polish national daily publication Gazeta Wyborcza featured the School of Literature, Media, and Communication (LMC) and Ivan Allen College as a positive example of how liberal arts can be successfully mixed with the technical sciences to endow students with marketable job skills and the promise of a decent salary.

The role and value of higher education in liberal arts are major topics of discussion in Poland, as humanities are currently depreciated and undervalued.

The article’s author, Piotr Toczyski of the Polish Academy of Sciences, introduces a report on wages of Polish alumni, comparing the minimum and maximum wages of graduates from technical and non-technical universities, along with an argument against the claim that only a technical education can provide a substantial salary. He suggests that American technical universities like Georgia Tech are becoming more interested in liberal arts and refers to the appointment of Professor Richard Utz as chair of LMC as an indication of Georgia Tech’s own rising interest in a liberal arts education.

Toczyski quotes a section of Utz’s comments on the School’s mission and program that identify his interest in building bridges between the technical sciences and liberal arts, saying that this is the only answer to the complex social and cultural challenges of the future. He notes the School’s willingness and interest in building creative and interdisciplinary collaboration with other disciples at Georgia Tech as a positive force in the academic community and one to be replicated.

Read a translated excerpt in English or the original artical in Polish.

Royster Named Rhetorical Society Fellow and Receives Horner Book Award

Jacqueline J. Royster, dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, has been named a fellow of the Rhetoric Society of America (RSA) in recognition of her sustained and distinguished scholarship, teaching, and service to the field of rhetoric studies.

RSA fellows have produced scholarship in rhetorical studies that is remarkable for its quality and quantity, participated in the work of the RSA, and worked to increase the visibility and influence of rhetorical studies through public lectures, teaching, advocacy, or other activities.

Dean Royster has also been awarded the 2014 Winifred Bryan Horner Outstanding Book Award for her co-authored book Feminist Rhetorical Practices: New Horizons for Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy Studies. Royster and co-author Gesa E. Kirsch were presented the award at the annual convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), the largest and most prestigious national gathering of scholars in rhetoric, composition, and literacy studies. The award is presented biannually for work in the field of composition and rhetoric to recognize outstanding scholarship and research in the areas of feminist pedagogy, practice, history, and theory. It is awarded by the Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition (CWSHRC).  

Royster Biography

Bankoff Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Joseph Bankoff, chair and professor of The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Awards as part of the 2014 Justice Robert Benham Awards for Community Service.

The Benham Awards for Community Service are co-sponsored by the State Bar of Georgia and the Chief Justices Commission on Professionalism, and are some of the highest recognitions given by the two professional organizations. Since 1998, these Lifetime Achievement Awards have honored lawyers and judges in Georgia who have made significant contributions to their communities and demonstrate the positive contributions of members of the bar beyond their legal or official work.

After entering law practice in 1972, Bankoff decided that he wanted to give back to his community in broader public interest activities, both as a lawyer and civic leader. Since then, his community service has been varied and broad and he has won several prestigious awards for his lifetime of service.

The award program noted that Bankoff’s name is synonymous with the arts and the Centennial Olympic Games in Atlanta. “He is widely known and respected as an arts advocate and leader to thousands of Alliance Theater goers, Atlanta Symphony lovers, art school students, and audiences at the National Black Arts Festival.”

Bankoff’s association with Georgia Tech spans more than a decade and has been primarily focused on his work as the head of the law firm’s Intellectual Property and Technology practice group. He currently serves as the chair of the nominating committee for the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage as well as chair of The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. His expertise ranges across law and policy, economic development, government legislation, fiscal planning, and global issues.

Bowman Featured on Istanbul Radio Show

Kirk Bowman, associate professor in The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was featured for a one hour show on Istanbul Radio Station Açik Radyo on March 21.  The show focused on soccer and politics, soccer fan clubs and political protest, and the role of soccer in contemporary societal revolutions. Bowman is currently in Turkey conducting fieldwork for his current book project on soccer and global politics.  The radio program was hosted by the distinguished Turkish sports sociologist and pubic intellectual Tan Morgül. 

Georgia Tech Faculty and Staff Awards Recipients

Three faculty members of the Ivan Allen College received awards at the 2014 Faculty and Staff Awards Luncheon on April 11 in the Student Center Ballroom. The annual honors luncheon recognizes faculty and staff (pictured above) who have received accolades and awards throughout the academic year.

Michael Best, associate professor in The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, received the Steven A. Denning Faculty Award for Global Engagement in recognition of his commitment to and excellence in the advancement of the Institute’s global engagement. The award comes with $5,000 for the faculty member’s discretionary use in their research and education pursuits to further promote international activity.

Margaret Kosal, assistant professor in The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, received the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Award for her achievement in mentoring the research activities of undergraduate students.

Criteria for this award and a $2,000 monetary prize included direct impact and involvement with undergraduates doing research, increasing their intellectual integrity and research scholarship and impact on their post graduate success.

Anne Pollock, assistant professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was presented the CETL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award and a $3,000 monetary prize.

The award allows the Institute to highlight excellent teaching and the educational innovation that faculty bring to campus through their research and teaching methods that make their knowledge accessible, applicable, and exciting to learners. (4th from right in photo)

We are proud to have these esteemed members of the Ivan Allen College community recognized by Georgia Tech for their outstanding efforts and accomplishments.

Two IAC Professors Awarded Teacher of the Year

From left to right: SAB member Hallie Willis, Michael Salomone, John Smith, SAB member Rose Anthony, and IAC Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies John Tone

Michael Salomone, professor in The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs (INTA), and John Smith, assistant professor in the School of History, Technology and Society (HTS), have been honored as Teacher of the Year, an award sponsored by the Ivan Allen College Undergraduate Student Advisory Board (SAB) with the support of the College office and schools.

New this year, the awards will be given annually in recognition of tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty members based on factors including teaching evaluations for courses taught during the previous year. Honorees receive a Distinguished Teaching Medal and $1,000 contributed by the College and its six schools. 

The awards were presented by two SAB students at the collegewide spring faculty meeting on April 22 in the G. Wayne Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons.

We are proud to have both of these outstanding teachers as part of the Ivan Allen College family.

Dr. Michael D. Salomone joined INTA as a professor in 1989. He has developed and currently teaches courses on great power relations, technology and military organization, simulation and war-gaming, and scenario writing and path gaming. His research focuses on the capabilities and vulnerabilities of military organizations.

John Matthew (Johnny) Smith came to HTS in fall 2012 as a postdoctoral fellow and was recently appointed Assistant Professor in Sports History. He teaches modern U.S. history and a variety of foundational courses in the Sports, Society, and Technology undergraduate program which he also coordinates.

Macrakis Unveils Hidden History of Invisible Ink

When Kristie Macrakis, professor in the School of History, Technology & Society, discovered a top-secret formula and method for invisible ink among previously classified Cold War archives, her heart started pounding like that of a kid who had just stolen a candy bar. 

Never before in the history of espionage had an intelligence agency released top-secret formulas and methods. The CIA even stubbornly refused to release obsolete World War I formulas, let alone modern ones.

It was that discovery, along with the frustration that there was no book on the long hidden history of invisible ink, that inspired her to write about the subject. The result is Prisoners, Lovers, and Spies:  the Story of Invisible Ink from Herodotus to al-Qaeda (Yale University Press, 2014).

After extensive research on the subject, Mackrakis developed the book into a global history of secret communication from the ancient Greeks to the present. Pitched toward a general audience, the book uses stories about prisoners, scientists, lovers, and spies to trace the evolution of invisible secret writing while evaluating its impact on history.

“People’s lives depended on effective secret communication, yet during World War I and II, the Germans, who possessed sophisticated chemical communities, used primitive methods like lemon juice to communicate. [This] led to more sophisticated methods through an arms race between secret writing makers and breakers.”

There were, of course, lighter and more uplifting stories about secret communication. The book opens with the famous ancient Roman advisor for lovers, Ovid, who recommends using milk to write secret love messages. John Gerard, a Jesuit priest successfully escaped the dreaded Tower of London by using orange juice to communicate.

Additional stories reveal spies who used bodily substances like blood, urine, and semen to communicate invisibly while hiding secret ink in places such as the rectum and a tooth.

In addition to research examining recently released secret material from archives in England, Germany, and the U.S., Macrakis also experimented with invisible ink formulas and methods collaborating with chemistry colleagues. After reproducing the complicated Stasi invisible ink formula that uses a catalyst to speed up the reaction, she worked with Atlanta color chemist Jason Lye to experiment with some household items.

Lye and Macrakis are developing a series of videos about various inks and stories, the first two of which can be found here.

Announcing the 2014 Graduate Student Paper Competition Winners at GTRIC

Four students were awarded prizes in the second annual Ivan Allen College paper competition, part of the annual Georgia Tech Research and Innovation Conference (GTRIC) sponsored by the Georgia Tech Graduate Student Association. The prizes included monetary stipends for travel funded by the dean's office.

First Place:  Kelechi Uzochukwu (Public Policy)—“The Effects of Neighborhood Constructs on Childhood Obesity: Understanding Racial and Spatial Disparities”

Second Place:  Johann Weber (Public Policy)—“Policy Analysis of Open Streets Programs as Policy Tools.”

Third Place (tie):  Gloria Ross (History, Technology, and Society)—“Mapping the Development of Atlanta’s Food Deserts from 1980 to 2010” and Matt Cox (Public Policy)—“Too Rich to Care? Following Carbon Emissions in 100 US Metropolitan Areas”

"Congratulations to these outstanding graduate students on their success in this endeavor!" said Professor Carol Colatrella, IAC associate dean for graduate studies. "This competition would not have been possible without the many IAC faculty members who volunteered to review the submitted papers and the Student Advisory Board members who organized the paper presentations."

Urban Ag Swag Wins Spring Expo Award

The 2014 Capstone Design Expo, held in McCamish Pavilion on April 24, was the largest Spring Expo ever!  More than 900 students on 170 teams from eight schools and three colleges demonstrated how they've tackled real-world problems. The IAC School of Public Policy joined the expo for the first time this year, continuing the trend of new Tech schools participating each semester. 

Choosing the best of the bunch was no easy task for the judges who came from a range of professional and academic backgrounds. In an address at the awards ceremony, Gary May, dean of the College of Engineering, said, "“It is clear that innovation and entrepreneurship are hallmark traits of our students. Industry will be impressed by how well-prepared you are to contribute right away.”

Having a record number of schools and colleges participating in the competition resulted in a record number of awards being handed out. Included were awards for each major, as well as two People's Choice awards, a Sponsor Award from Seelio, and the Best Overall Project Award.

School of Public Policy students were part of numerous teams working on solutions to wide-ranging problems. The winner from the Public Policy category was a project for the Atlanta Local Food Initiative entitled Urban Ag Swag.  Team members were Sahra Jabbehdari, Ryan Hedrich, Jonathan Vallecillo, and Tim Lin. Part of their senior design project, the team researched initiatives in other cities in order to help the Atlanta Local Food Initiative devise a path to boost local urban agriculture once the required zoning ordinance goes through.

Other projects originating from the School of Public Policy included:

• MJ—development of a policy approach for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to minimize the harmful impact of marijuana on youth in states where recreational use is legalized.
• E-cigs—development of a policy approach for the CDC to reduce the chance that cigarette smoking will re-enter society as a result of broad acceptance of e-cigarettes.
• Marcus— a project done for the Marcus Autism Center to identify the best approach for convincing Georgia to reimburse care management via telemedicine for autism via Medicaid.
• Healthy Cities—a project done for the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness to recommend a path to engage the cities of Fulton County in working to enhance the health of their residents.

Georgia Tech’s Capstone Design Expo showcases projects from the undergraduate senior design courses in which students work together to design products or tackle real-world problems, sometimes at the behest of sponsors.

Congratulations 2014 Graduates!

Congratulations to the 191 Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts students who graduated during ceremonies May 3 and 4. Four Ph.D. students, sixty-seven master's students, and one hundred and twenty undergraduates received degrees from programs in our six schools. 

These graduates join a thriving and respected community of Ivan Allen College alums who are distinguished by their science and technology savvy and their ability to bridge technological and non-technological realms to solve complex problems. The singular education gained from studying technology from a liberal arts perspective at Georgia Tech has equipped these graduates to be competitive in the workplace and encouraged a passion for lifelong learning.

HTS graduate Dante' Zanders celebrates after receiving his diploma.