New Faces on the Academy Staff
In recent months, several new members have joined the staff at the
House of the Academy. We are pleased to welcome James Miller, Editor of
Daedalus; Martin Malin, Program Director,
Committee on International Security Studies (CISS); James Buzard,
Program Officer, Humanities and Culture;
and Charles Rooney, Public Information Officer.
James Miller
Author and critic James Miller has been named the new Editor of Daedalus,
succeeding Stephen R. Graubard, who edited the Academy's quarterly journal for
over forty years. Mr. Miller was chosen by a selection committee consisting of
the Editor of the Academy, Steven Marcus (Columbia University); Bill Kovach
(Committee of Concerned Journalists); Sandra Scarr (Holualoa, Hawaii); Robert
Silvers (New York Review of Books); Neil Smelser (Center for Advanced
Study in the Behavioral Sciences); Patricia Meyer Spacks (University of
Virginia); President James O. Freedman (ex officio); and Chief Executive Officer
Leslie Berlowitz (ex officio).
Commenting on the appointment, President Freedman said, "Jim Miller
brings a wide range of intellectual interests and a long list of
accomplishments to his new role at Daedalus. We look forward to working
with him to continue Daedalus's tradition of publishing on emerging
topics of concern to the intellectual and policy-making communities. Executive
Officer Leslie Berlowitz added that "Mr. Miller's intellectual versatility
makes him a strong editor for a journal that brings cutting-edge scholarship
and multidisciplinary analysis to a broad audience."
Mr. Miller is currently professor of political science and director
of liberal studies at the New School for Social Research. Since receiving his
Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 1975, he has also taught at the University of
Texas, Boston University, Harvard, and Brown. In addition, he is the author of
five well-received books on topics ranging from rock and roll to Jean-Jacques
Rousseau. Two of his books - Democracy in the Streets: From Port Huron to the
Siege of Chicago and The Passion of Michel Foucault were
National Book Critics Circle finalists. His most recent book—Flowers in the
Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977—has received the
Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award and the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for Music
Writing.
Martin Malin
The Program Director of CISS, Martin Malin, is also Director of the
Academy's newly organized program on Science, Security, and International
Cooperation. The program establishes a coherent framework for long-standing
Academy projects - including CISS, the Midwest Consortium for International
Security Studies, the US Pugwash Committee, and the US Committee for the
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis—as well as a series
of scientific studies on topics ranging from the biological, social, and
environmental factors that shaped human origins to the social implications of
new technologies. Mr. Malin received his Ph.D. in political science from
Columbia University. Before joining the Academy staff, he taught international
relations at Columbia and worked as a consultant to the Social Science Research
Council MacArthur Program on International Peace and Security. His research
focuses on great-power relations with the Middle East and the sources of
conflict in that region.
James Buzard
James Buzard, associate professor of literature at MIT, has joined
the staff on a part-time basis this year as Program Officer for the Academy's
Humanities and Culture initiative. After earning his doctorate in English from
Columbia, he was a Junior Fellow at the Society of Fellows, Harvard University
(1990) and a Fellow at the National Humanities Center (1997). A specialist in
Victorian literature, he is the author of The Beaten Track: European Tourism,
Literature, and the Ways to Culture, 1800-1918 and is currently writing Anywhere's
Nowhere: Fictions of Autoethnography in the United Kingdom.
Charles Rooney
Charles Rooney has been named the Academy's first Public
Information Officer. To implement the Strategic Plan's recommendation to
increase the Academy's presence in the media, Mr. Rooney is developing press
materials, including a newsletter, and building an infrastructure to improve
dissemination of Academy publications, reports, and other documents to print
and broadcast journalists. Before coming to the Academy, he was a
communications and public relations consultant, directing public information
campaigns in education, public health, and economic development. He holds a
master's degree in public policy from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of
Government.
Reorganization of the Committee on Studies and the Committee on Publications
Committee on Studies
One of the key recommendations of the Strategic Plan was to provide
Academy members with greater opportunities to engage in analytic studies and
develop practical policy alternatives through its program of projects and
studies. To help achieve that goal, the Committee on Studies (COS) has been
separated from the Committee on Publications and given a larger role in the
development and evaluation of proposed studies as well as in the oversight of
those projects that have already received the Academy's imprimatur.
The COS has also adopted a two-tiered organizational structure to
facilitate more frequent meetings of an executive group and, at the same time,
to broaden the expertise needed to evaluate a wide range of studies. The
executive committee, which includes representatives of each of the five
classes, consists of seven members: Robert McCormick Adams (chair), Henry
Ehrenreich (Harvard University, Class I), Lincoln Chen (Rockefeller Foundation,
Class II), Robert C. Post (Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California,
Berkeley, Class III), Wendy Doniger (University of Chicago, Class IV), Victor
Rabinowitch (Washington, DC, Class V), and Chief Executive Officer Leslie C.
Berlowitz. The executive committee will call upon individual members of an
advisory group, composed of one Fellow from each of the twenty-three membership
sections, to review projects relating to their specific areas of interest. The
new structure should enable the COS to respond more effectively to proposed
ideas for Academy projects.
The COS is also drawing up a set of guidelines to assist Fellows in
developing projects to be undertaken in the name of the Academy. All such
projects must be multidisciplinary in nature, drawing on the resources of
Fellows and non-Fellows from more than one institution and, preferably, from
throughout the country. They must also serve the intellectual community - and,
more broadly, the larger society - by drawing on the strengths of the Academy.
Investigators proposing a new project should first contact the Executive
Officer or the Director of Programs to determine if their project meets these
general criteria. If it does, the proposal will then be forwarded to the chair
and members of the COS executive committee for preliminary review. After their
initial approval, the executive committee will recommend the most appropriate
members of the advisory group to review the proposal in depth. In deciding
whether to grant the Academy's imprimatur, the COS will be guided by the
intellectual quality of the study, the clarity of its focus, and the relevant
expertise of the principal investigator and colleagues involved in the study.
The COS has limited funds to provide small start-up grants to
support the preliminary planning stages of some projects. If such funds are
requested, the COS must also take into account the relative quality of the
proposals under consideration in a given fiscal year. When Academy staff or
financial resources are used to launch a project, the Academy has the right of
first refusal on future sponsorship of the full-scale project. Copies of the
guidelines for Academy projects are available, upon request.
Committee on Publications and Public Relations
The now-separate Publications Committee has been given an expanded
mandate to oversee all aspects of the Academy's publication program, including
its website, and to guide the development of a new Public Information Office.
The Academy's current printed publications include its quarterly journal,
Daedalus; books, monographs, and working papers resulting from its studies; its
internal publications, the Bulletin and the Records; and an occasional
newsletter that has recently been launched to provide Fellows, foundations, and
the media with information on current programs and events.
The public website, which includes information on the Academy's
history, membership, programs, and publications, is being redesigned and will
be supplemented with a "members-only" site. The proprietary site is currently
being tested on working databases and web servers. The Academy's goal is to
furnish log-in names and passwords to Fellows next spring.
The overall objective of the new Public Information Office will be
to coordinate the Academy's efforts to secure greater media coverage of its
activities and the achievements of its members. In addition to producing a
newsletter, it will help coordinate media strategies and develop targeted press
materials for projects and studies.
In carrying out its work, the Committee on Publications will ensure
that the Academy's publication programs reflect its mission of public
engagement and broad intellectual inquiry. A new design will be developed to
give a coherent look to the Academy's printed matter and to promote wider
recognition of the institution. Whenever possible, and as resources allow,
Academy publications, in whole or in part, will be made available on the
website as a means of increasing dissemination of the results of the Academy's
work.
The Committee on Publications is chaired by the Editor of the
Academy, Steven Marcus, with a Subcommittee on Public Relations led by Sandra
Scarr. Other members of the Committee include Bill Kovach, Malvin Ruderman,
Robert Silvers, Neil Smelser, Patricia Meyer Spacks, and Torsten Wiesel.
Back to the Fall 2000 Bulletin
|