Paul Slovic, a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon and founder of non-profit Decision Research in Eugene, is co-editor of “The Irrational Economist: Making Decisions in a Dangerous World.”

Paul Slovic

For the 352-page book, 30 top scholars, innovators and Nobel laureates were asked to write about decision-making and challenges amid financial crises, climate change, natural disasters and technological challenges. The result is a collection of chapters on behavioral economics, psychology, public policy, insurance and finance in the making of both rational and irrational decisions. The book notes that of the 20 most costly catastrophes since 1970, more than half have occurred since 2001.

Slovic, an internationally recognized expert on human judgment and risk analysis, also is a contributor of an article that appears in the book, published last month by PublicAffairs Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Slovic’s article expands on previously published research (link) on psychic numbing, in which a person’s reaction to genocide becomes number as body counts rise.

“Unfortunately, moral intuition fails us in the face of genocide and other disasters that threaten human lives and the environment on a large scale,” Slovic writes. “We cannot trust it. It depends upon attention and feelings that may be hard to arouse and sustain over time for large numbers of victims, not to mention numbers as small as two. Left to its own devices, moral intuition will likely favor individual victims and sensational stories that are close to home and easy to imagine.”

Co-editor of “The Irrational Economist” with Slovic is Erwann Michel-Kerjan, managing director of the Wharton Risk Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Stretched Thin Cover

A new book by three University of Oregon researchers raises questions about the so-called “success of welfare” reform when it comes to reducing poverty and economic hardship, especially in the context of high unemployment. The book will be featured as part of a broader public discussion on “Welfare Reform in a Time of Crisis” from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 9, in the Browsing Room of the Knight Library, 1501 Kincaid St.

As more Oregon families face growing economic insecurity, it is important to examine how well Oregon’s social safety net is serving struggling families, says co-author Sandra Morgen, professor of anthropology and associate dean of the UO’s graduate school.

The 256 page book — “Stretched Thin: Poor Families, Welfare Work, and Welfare Reform” — is based on extensive research from the late 1990s. Researchers interviewed and observed low-income families across the state, as well as welfare workers and administrators in Oregon. They then assessed the strengths and shortcoming of welfare reform and, in their conclusions, suggest policy directions that will promote economic security and family well-being.

In essence, welfare reform in Oregon generally failed to help breadwinners get other than low-wage jobs even when the economy was strong, conclude Morgen and co-authors Joan Acker, professor emeritus of sociology, and former UO graduate student Jill Weigt, now a sociologist at California State University-San Marcos. Those breadwinners, they noted, struggled to find affordable childcare and housing, and had to continue their reliance on state supports.

The Cornell University Press recently published the book in paperback.

The discussion at the Knight Library is being sponsored by the UO’s Center for the Study of Women in Society and sociology department.

Oregon Quarterly photo

Oregon Quarterly, the University of Oregon’s magazine, has won a bronze award for general interest periodicals from District VIII of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. The CASE district covers the northwestern United States and western Canada.

Named in the award was the entire Oregon Quarterly staff: Guy Maynard, editor; Ross West, managing editor; Susan Thelen, advertising director; Tim Jordan, art director; and Shelly Cooper, office manager.

Oregon Quarterly can be found at: http://www.oregonquarterly.com/

Lariviere and horse

UO President Richard Lariviere celebrated his birthday on Jan. 27 with a surprise gathering of colleagues in Johnson Hall.  The “Animal House” theme was in the works for nearly six months by Jan Lariviere.

Thomas R. Hart, professor emeritus of romance languages at the University of Oregon, died on Jan. 17, after a brief illness.

Tom was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Jan. 10, 1925. He attended Yale University, earning a B.A. in Spanish and Portuguese (summa cum laude, 1948) and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature (1952, with a dissertation entitled “A History of Spanish Literary History, 1800-1850”). Following instructorships at Amherst and Harvard, he was an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University (1955-60) and an associate at Emory University (1960-64) before moving, as full professor, to the University of Oregon, from which he retired in 1990.

Through his teaching, research and professional service, Tom epitomized and fostered the interdisciplinary aspirations of the humanities at Oregon. Apart from his own publications, the most visible sign of his commitment to comparatist approaches to Romance literary studies was his longstanding service to “Comparative Literature.” After six years as assistant editor (1966-72), he served as editor for 23 years (1972-1995), and the significance of this contribution is currently recognized in the title of Editor Emeritus.

Tom’s dedication to comparative literary studies also underwrote his teaching, both in the Department of Romance Languages and in the Comparative Literature Program, where he offered a broad spectrum of undergraduate and graduate courses that consistently cut across the boundaries of national literary traditions. In short, Tom’s distinguished international reputation is grounded in his combined achievements as scholar, teacher, and editor. His was a career marked by prolific and wide-ranging, original publications and an enviable sequence of prestigious national and international research grants (American Philosophical Society, Fulbright, Gulbenkian, National Endowment for the Humanities) and fellowships (Camargo Foundation, Institute of Romance Studies, London), as well as invitations to teach and conduct research at the Universities of Oxford and Chicago.

For more than 55 years, Tom was a rigorous and demanding teacher, a consummate scholar, and a constructive and attentive reader of the academic prose of many colleagues. Indeed, through his careful and precise writing, his teaching, and his masterful editing, he engaged in a theoretically informed dialogue between languages, literatures, and cultures that was born of a deeply felt appreciation of a human creativity that transcends boundaries of place and time, even though artistic expression is inevitably determined by the specific conditions of particular cultural moments. Those fortunate enough to have studied with him will recall with affection his dry wit and exacting standards in every aspect of coursework—and the deep and abiding love of words that shone through every textual reading. They will also remember his eclectic tastes, the impressive breadth and depth of his reading, his love of music and of dogs, and his ability to unpack the complexities of Renaissance drama through the deconstruction of Road Runner cartoons.

After his retirement in 1990, Tom continued to pursue research in his field, publishing two additional books and a number of articles.  A few weeks before his death, he wrote, for Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt, a brilliant report on a new, 900-page novel by the distinguished Spanish writer Antonio Muñoz Molina.

He is survived by his wife Margaret (née Fulton), whom he married in 1945, their son John, and their daughter Kathy, as well as by four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Story contributed by Steven Rendall, UO Professor Emeritus of Romance Languages, Caroline Jewers, Professor of French at the University of Kansas, and Julian Weiss, Professor of Spanish at King’s College, London.

Note: Faculty members are encouraged to submit information about honors to Inside Oregon at uonews@uoregon.edu for inclusion in round-ups for upcoming editions.

Mike Russo, management department head, Lundquist College of Business, has been named the Fetner Visiting Sustainability Leader at Syracuse University.  Russo will visit Syracuse in February or March to present about his new book “Companies on a Mission: Entrepreneurial Strategies for Growing Sustainably, Responsibly, and Profitably.” Russo will also conduct a faculty workshop there on the topic of enhancing social and environmental performance in global supply chains. In August 2010, he will return to Syracuse to teach the “Strategic Management and the Natural Environment” seminar at the Whitman School of Management.

Dave Guenther and his co-author were named as the recipients of the 2009 American Tax Association Tax Manuscript Award for their paper “Fundamentals of Shareholder Tax Capitalization.”

Bill Starbuck, professor of management, was honored with a Distinguished Scholar Award at the Western Academy of Management, was the visiting Peter Moores Fellow at the University of Oxford, and was appointed as a member of the Council of the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies.

Eric Priest and Kyu Ho Youm were awarded a $5,000 Global Scholars Program grant for their project, “Mass Communication and Law in China and Korea.” Priest, who joined the Oregon Law faculty this fall, is an expert in the areas of intellectual property law, Chinese intellectual property and the Chinese entertainment industry. Youm, the Jonathan Marshall First Amendment Chair at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, has been widely published in the areas of media law and freedom of expression.

Michelle McKinley was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for her book manuscript, entitled “Fractional Freedoms, Slavery, Legal Activism, and Ecclesiastical Courts in Colonial Lima, 1593-1700.”  Professor McKinley is researching legal actions taken by female slaves to achieve freedom for themselves and their children in 17th-century Peru.

Joan Acker, professor emerita of sociology, has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Hanken College of Economics, Helsinki, Finland.

Phil Fisher, professor of psychology, has been invited to join the National Council on the Developing Child and the National Forum on Early Childhood Program Evaluation.

Lynn Fujiwara, associate professor of ethnic studies and women’s and gender studies, received the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award in Social Sciences for her book, “Mothers without Citizenship: Asian Immigrant Families and the Consequences of Welfare Reform” (U of Minnesota, 2008).

Jessica Green, assistant professor of biology, has been named a 2010 TED Fellow.

Marina Guenza, associate professor of chemistry, has been named to the editorial advisory board for “Macromolecules.”

Andrew Lovering, assistant professor of human physiology, has received the Giles F. Filley Memorial Award from the American Physiological Society.

Peggy Pascoe, Beekman Professor of Northwest and Pacific History and professor of ethnic studies, has received four national awards for her book, “What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America” (Oxford, 2009). From the American Historical Association, she received the John H. Dunning Prize and the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women’s History; from the Organization of American Historians, she received the Ellis W. Hawley Prize and the Lawrence W. Levine Award.

Mary Rothbart, professor emerita of psychology, was awarded the American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology.

Joe Thornton, associate professor of biology, has been named a recipient of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Early Career Scientist Award and has also been honored with the Oregon Medical Research Foundation, Richard T. Jones New Investigator Award.

Cynthia Vakareliyska, professor of linguistics, has received two awards for her book, “The Curzon Gospel. Vol. I and II: An Annotated Edition” (Oxford, 2008) — the Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, Slavic Linguistics Book Prize and the John D. Bell Memorial Book Prize of the Bulgarian Studies Association.

Stephen Wooten, assistant professor of international studies, has received an honorary invitation to present at the UNESCO International Year of Biodiversity policy conference.

Marilyn Nippold, HEDCO professor of communication disorders and sciences, has published a book entitled “Expository Discourse in Children, Adolescents, and Adults: Development and Disorders” (2009).

Dave Conley, professor of educational methodology, policy and leadership, will serve on the validation committee for the Common Core State Standards Initiative. National Governors Association (NGA) and Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and 47 states are developing a common core of state standards in English language arts and mathematics, first for college and career readiness, and then for grades K–12.

McKay Sohlberg, professor of communication disorders and sciences, was awarded the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation 2009 New Century Scholars Research Grant. This grant will help fund her project “Reading Comprehension Deficits in People with Acquired Brain Injury.” Sohlberg is also working with OVR in developing a treatment model for veterans experiencing cognitive disability post-service.

Three College of Education faculty members were selected to serve the Oregon Department of Education’s Race to the Top group developing Oregon’s application for federal funding: Rob Horner, professor of special education and director of Educational and Community Supports; Jerry Tindal, Castle-McIntosh-Knight professor and department head of educational methodology, policy and leadership; and Joe Stevens, associate dean for College of Education academic programs and professor of educational methodology, policy and leadership.

John Miller, assistant professor of couples and family therapy, was honored as Outstanding Alumnus of the University of Louisiana at Monroe College of Education and Human Development. Miller, alumnus of the ULM COE-HD’s marriage and family therapy program, is currently in China completing a Fulbright related scholarship.

Jeffrey Sprague, co-director of the Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior, contributed a chapter in the following publication: “New Strategies for Keeping Schools Safe: Evidence-based Approaches to Prevent Youth Violence”. American Educational Research Association (AERA) presents a Capitol Hill briefing on the report Thursday, Feb. 11.

Lauren Lindstrom, associate professor of family and human services and director of secondary special education and transition research unit, received notice that the Youth Transition Program (YTP) has just been selected to receive a Best Practices Award from the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP). YTP will receive the award at AMCHP’s 2010 annual conference, which will take place March 6-10.

Three University of Oregon scientists — James E. Brau, Victoria J. DeRose and David R. Tyler — have been chosen as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.

Fellows are chosen because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. They will formally be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin on Saturday, Feb. 20, during the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting in San Diego.

Brau, the UO’s Knight Professor of Natural Science, was selected for his “distinguished contributions to the field of elementary particle physics, particularly for developing and applying new technologies to facilitate precision tests of the Standard Model.”

DeRose, professor of chemistry, was chosen for her “significant achievements in developing spectroscopic methods towards understanding the metallobiochemistry of RNA, and for service to the interdisciplinary scientific community.”

Tyler, also a professor of chemistry, was picked for his “distinguished contributions to the fields of inorganic, organometallic, and polymer chemistry, particularly for our understanding of radical reactions and of polymer degradation.”

The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science, as well as Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals.

Five UO employees have been voted by their peers in the university community to receive the 2010 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award: John Hollan, University Housing; Janice Radcliffe, physical education and recreation; Larry Seno, Law School; Lynn Stephen, anthropology; and Melinda Von Reis-Iglesias, undergraduate studies.

The recipients will be honored by President Lariviere during a reception from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 21, in the Gerlinger Alumni Lounge.  All members of the university community are welcome to attend.

The University of Oregon Martin Luther King, Jr. Award was established to honor often under-recognized classified staff whose various activities and achievements represent consistent efforts to make campus a welcoming place for all to live, work and learn. The award has since been expanded to include recognition of university faculty and officers of administration whose contributions to the campus community go beyond typical job expectations. Recipients uphold and exemplify ideals supported by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., such as demonstrating moral courage and embodying a humanitarian spirit.

This year’s recipients are particularly outstanding as, collectively, their reach ranges from campus to local and international communities. Their work embodies social justice, promotion of diversity among students and faculty, and advocacy for under-represented groups.

The awards are given by the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, in collaboration with the Human Resources Department.

In the song “Roadhouse Blues”, Jim Morrison, The Door vocalist, wrote “The future’s uncertain/the end is always near.” The lyrics send a grim reminder that the world can be a dangerous place.

In the past decade, the world has witnessed firsthand the catastrophic forces of nature in earthquakes and hurricanes, as well as the devastation generated by human cause in campus shootings and terrorism.

However, the first UO director of risk management doesn’t view risk as gloom and doom. Rebecca Adair joined UO in October 2009 from Iowa State University, where she served as director of risk management and insurance since 1997. She previously worked in student affairs and environmental health and safety at ISU, her alma mater where she earned degrees in English and Speech Communication.

Adair understands the very nature of higher education is to take risks and believes that risk management shouldn’t be viewed as a deterrent. “The role of risk management is to identify risks that might negatively impact the institution and then collaboratively work to find solutions to mitigate or eliminate the exposure that can keep the university from reaching its goals,” she said.

A strong risk management philosophy and program are critical components to the success of an organization – a concept recognized by the collaboration of UO academic, administrative and student affairs units to establish the new position. The newly created Office of Risk Management oversees risk management and insurance issues on campus, serves as a central risk management resource, and is the liaison to the Oregon Department of Administrative Services and the Oregon University System.

“Effective risk management not only recognizes the risks, but proactively develops and implements solutions on what to do about them,” said Adair.

The Office of Risk Management is located in Johnson Hall. Adair can be reached at 6-8316.

Paul Courant, university librarian and dean of libraries at the University of Michigan, will present a talk entitled “The Book—Not Just Another Gadget” on Thursday, Jan. 21, at 4 p.m. in the Knight Library’s browsing room.

Courant’s talk, which is part of the UO’s Year of the Book event series, will focus on how books have historically been produced and used as all-in-one instruments, or “gadgets,” for recording, distributing and storing information.

According to Courant, the advent of new book-like technological gadgets, such as Kindles, computer screens and digitized archives of text, has begun to redefine the way we perceive, produce and use books. Courant will explore the changes in our relationship with books and other forms of published material, especially as it relates to scholarly communication within academic environments.

In addition to his library positions at the University of Michigan, Courant is Harold T. Shapiro Collegiate Professor of Public Policy, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, and professor of economics and of information. His widely read blog, Au Courant, covers topics such as libraries, economics and public policy.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the University of Oregon Libraries and the Oregon Humanities Center.

With the Ducks flying high to Pasadena to face the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, the UO’s Office of Communications has created a website, “Celebrating Champions: In Academics and Athletics.”

The site goes beyond the football field, providing information (some that may surprise you) about academics, UO professors and UO students. You also can get updates from Pasadena (once our UO contributors are there), and interesting facts about the University of Oregon.

Visit the site’s interactive sections to participate in a memory blog about UO football and to view an ever-changing abundance of photos related to the Ducks. You can also see what people are tweeting about the Ducks by way of a live feed from Twitter using the #goducks hashtag. That’s not all. Share your photos on the University of Oregon’s official Facebook page and you might just see them on the UO Champions site.

Go Ducks.

Cai Emmons, Ehud Havazelet (son Coby), David Bradley, Laurie Lynn Drummond, Garrett Hongo, Geri Doran

The UO’s MFA program in creative writing was ranked 10th in the nation by Poets & Writers Magazine, in an analysis of the top 50 programs in the U.S. The UO program also rated fifth in the magazine’s postgraduate placement category, which ranks schools based on fellowships and awards.

See the rankings: http://www.pw.org/content/2010_mfa_rankings_top_fifty_0 or read the full story: http://www.pw.org/content/top_fifty_mfa_programs_united_states_comprehensive_guide.

G.Z. Brown, the Knight Professor of Architecture at the University of Oregon, has earned a lifetime achievement award from the Oregon Chapter of the Association of Professional Energy Managers. Brown received the award Thursday, Dec. 10, in Portland.

The award recognizes his years of service, including his innovative daylighting solution for an energy-efficient educational classroom at Oregon’s Mt. Angel Abbey and his work at the UO’s Energy Studies in Buildings Lab.

Daylighting is an important strategy for reducing a building’s electrical energy use. Brown’s concept for the Mt. Angel Abbey started with data drawn from a study funded by Portland-based BetterBricks for a high-performance classroom project with BOORA Architects of Portland and SOLARC Architecture and Engineering of Eugene. The resulting daylighting device, called a reguflector, redirects light levels, using photo-controlled louvers from within a central skylight, to maintain lighting within desired limits and eliminate excess heat gain. The reflector component redirects light to the sides of the room, effectively removing brightness directly under the skylight.

The project with BetterBricks, the commercial building initiative of the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, was further developed in partnership with Mt. Angel Abbey, SRG Partnership (Portland office), SOLARC and the UO. Brown credits the success of the project to “the willingness of the designers and owners to do the research and testing of multiple options to find the best, most cost-effective solution.”

The UO’s architecture program ranks first for sustainable design education, according to the journal DesignIntelligence in its 2010 issue of America’s Best Architecture and Design Schools.

John Evans may be the executive director of the Oregon Bach Festival, but he’s an academic specialist in the life of another composer, Benjamin Britten. Evans is the editor of the new volume “Journeying Boy: The Diaries of the Young Benjamin Britten,” released in the United Kingdom last week by Faber & Faber.

“Journeying Boy” is currently available in hardback at faber.co.uk and Amazon.com.

The Literary Review calls it a “refreshing and enlightening” picture of the artist. The book has also been featured in the UK Guardian and on the BBC radio 4’s Front Row program.

Leader of the UO’s Oregon Bach Festival since September of 2007, Evans studied at the University of Wales, completing his doctoral thesis on Britten in 1984. He has lectured extensively on Britten throughout Europe and North America. Evans’ many publications include “Benjamin Britten: Pictures from a Life 1913–1976, A Britten Source Book,” contributions to The Britten Companion, and opera handbooks on “Peter Grimes, Gloriana, The Turn of the Screw and Death in Venice.”

Following the premiere of “Peter Grimes,” Britten was hailed as the greatest arrival in English music since Henry Purcell in the 17th century.

But how did a man from a modest, middle-class Suffolk family, the son of a rural dentist and an amateur musician, acquire a reputation as one of the most significant artists of his generation?

Evans says the answers are to be found in Britten’s childhood and adolescence, and not least in the adoring relationship he enjoyed with his mother, whose faith in her son’s talent new no bounds – every step in this extraordinary progress documented by Britten himself in his daily journal.

Britten’s diaries have previously been seen by academics, but never published. Shortly before his death in 1976, Britten gave them in a shoebox to scholar Donald Mitchell. “What you get from the diaries, read as a narrative,” said Evans, “is the man emerging, sometimes reluctantly, from boyhood: the tastes, the issues, the tensions and the sheer brilliance.”

The diaries follow his arrival as a reluctant boarder at school and the intense yet inspiring private lessons in London with his great mentor and teacher, Frank Bridge. They record the many frustrations of his student days at the Royal College of Music and the brilliance of his subsequent apprenticeship in London with the GPO Film Unit, the Group Theatre and at the BBC.

His journeys through the turbulent 1930s, and collaborations with W.H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, Louis MacNeice, Montagu Slater, William Coldstream, Alberto Cavalcanti and John Grierson, helped define Britten as a creative artist, and international acclaim at home and abroad very soon followed.

“But these were difficult times, not least for Britten himself,” Evans concludes. “He lost both parents within three years, and began to feel (in his own words) orphaned, in search of love and an outsider—a young man struggling with his homosexuality and a pacifist at a time of imminent war throughout Europe. The self-portrait offers a fuller understanding of the man and the artist Britten was to become, and of the age in which he lived.”