In Brief

Nora Rubel, associate professor of religion, has been named director of the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies.

Named in honor of the 19th-century suffrage pioneer who helped women gain admission to the University, the institute was created to explore the role of women and gender throughout history and in contemporary society. The work is done through seminars, conferences, a public lecture series, an undergraduate major and minor in women’s studies, and a graduate certificate in gender and women’s studies.

In addition to strengthening signature programs like the institute’s “Two Icons” lecture on race and gender, and the “Rainbow” lecture on LGBTQI issues, Rubel is working to promote a research seminar where faculty can present work in progress.

The institute also supports ongoing research through grants in gender and women’s studies, graduate teaching fellowships, and awards.

Before joining the Rochester faculty, Rubel spent taught religion and Jewish studies at Connecticut College. Her first book, Doubting the Devout: The Ultra-Orthodox in the Jewish American Imagination (Columbia University Press, 2010), explores gender in literature and film. She is also coeditor of Religion, Food and Eating in North America (Columbia University Press, 2014).

New Student Residence Opens

Students in the College moved into a new residence option this fall. The Brooks Crossing Apartments—a 12-story privately developed building, of which the University is the main tenant—opened near the corner of Brooks Avenue and Genesee Street in an area west of the Genesee River. Located just across the river from the River Campus, the building houses 170 students in 70 one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom, furnished units. Each bedroom has a private bathroom. The building, developed by the Minneapolis-based Christenson Corporation, also features a 2,000 square-foot common area.

Neighborhood organizations—including the 19th Ward and Plymouth-Exchange neighborhood associations, along with the Sector 4 Community Development Corporation—have been involved with the development of the area for the past 25 years.

New History Celebrates the University’s Century-and-a-Half Transformation

A new history traces the growth of the University from a small undergraduate program in 1850 to a leading research university and engine for economic growth in 2005.

Our Work Is But Begun: A History of the University of Rochester, 1850–2005 by Janice Bullard Pieterse was published this fall.

The book chronicles the University’s ties to its hometown and places its evolution in the broader context of American higher education over the past century and a half.

University President Joel Seligman contributed the foreword and Paul Burgett, University vice president and senior advisor to the president, the afterword.

The history is available from the University of Rochester Press at www.urpress.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=14651.

University of Rochester Press Marks 25 Years

Under the collaboration, the University makes editorial selections for new books, while Boydell & Brewer provides production, marketing, and worldwide distribution.

In its quarter century, the press (www.urpress.com) has published more than 600 books in an array of fields, with a focus on selected areas of scholarship, including musicology, African studies, medical history, and European and American history. More recently, the press has added series in ethnomusicology, gender and race, and medieval political thought.

In addition to its more academic titles, it has published well-reviewed biographies and memoirs of important cultural figures, while other titles have become classroom staples in their fields. The Meliora Press publishes books on University-related topics.

Wilmot Cancer Institute Chosen to Help Lead National Network

The Wilmot Cancer Institute will have a leadership role in a nationwide clinical research network to investigate cancer-related side effects as part of an $18.6 million, five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute.

With the new funding, principal investigator Gary Morrow, the Benefactor Distinguished Professor in the Department of Surgery, and his team will represent one of only two hubs for the National Cancer Institute’s Community Oncology Research Program, or NCORP.

The team will design and manage clinical studies that will be implemented nationwide. The work, which includes preparing manuscripts for publication in medical journals, revolves around supportive care for patients coping with side effects during and following cancer treatment. The award is among the top five largest grants received by a Medical Center researcher in the past 10 years. Previously,

Morrow built the University’s Cancer Control program through the NCI’s Community Clinical Oncology Program, which the

new initiative replaced. The new program also includes cancer-care delivery research, which encompasses how social factors, financial systems, and health technologies affect care.

New Director Appointed for College’s Intercultural Center

Jessica Guzmán-Rea ’10W (PhD) is the new director of the College’s Intercultural Center. In that role, she promotes collaborative programming and initiatives that welcome students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds.

Guzmán-Rea first joined the Office of Minority Student Affairs in 2006, where she served as an academic program coordinator and counselor, and assisted in recruiting for the Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program. Most recently, she was an academic advisor in the Honors College at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she also served as an adjunct faculty member in the social work department.

The center promotes cultural awareness and engagement, and educates on issues of diversity. An important function of the center, she says, is to provide opportunities for collaboration among faculty, staff, and students and to advance awareness about international human rights both in theory and practice from academic, activist, and artistic perspectives.