SAS In Focus is the only newsletter devoted to reporting what’s happening in the School of Arts & Sciences. In this edition . . .
- Books to help you celebrate Juneteenth.
- Getting “spooky” at CERN with physicist Regina Demina.
- Project for Peace alumnus wins $50,000 award.
And more . . .
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GENTLE REMINDERS . . .
DEAN’S SUITE CLOSURE
The Dean’s Suite in 317 Lattimore Hall will be closed for construction from June 24 until August. The conference room is unavailable. Please email your staff before meetings to verify correct meeting location. Thank you for your understanding.
PLANNED POWER OUTAGES COMING
Planned power outages will affect buildings across River Campus in the coming weeks. Electrical shutdowns will run from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the following days at the following locations:
June 24, 2024 — Building: Susan B. (Danforth affected)
July 1, 2024 — Building: Lattimore (Strong affected)
July 9, 2024 — Buildings: Alpha Delta Phi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Douglass Leadership, Drama, Psi Upsilon, Sigma Alpha Mu, Sigma Chi, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Theta Chi (Fraternity Quad)
July 17, 2024 — Building: Morey (Rettner affected)
July 22, 2024 — Building: Dewey
July 25, 2024 — Building: Harkness
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CELEBRATING JUNETEENTH
The University will be closed on Wednesday, June 19, in celebration of Juneteenth.
The Office of Equity and Inclusion is hosting several events to celebrate the holiday. But you could observe it on your own with a good book. There are plenty of them in the Juneteenth Collection Highlight on display on the first floor of the Rush Rhees Library through June 30.
The collection was curated by Lindsey Baker, the humanities librarian for the Department of Black Studies, and Dr. Philip V. McHarris, an assistant professor in the department. Each title reflects the multifaceted nature of Black freedom and liberation and traces the enduring struggle against enslavement to contemporary movements for justice.
“Each book has been chosen for its ability to illuminate aspects of this journey, whether through the lens of history, personal narratives, or exploration of Black experience and resistance,” McHarris says.
All the materials in the collection are available for borrowing.
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RESEARCH ROUNDUP
An experiment by a group of physicists led by University physics professor Regina Demina at the European Center for Nuclear Research has produced a significant result related to quantum entanglement — an effect that Albert Einstein called “spooky action at a distance.”
Entanglement concerns the coordinated behavior of a pair of miniscule particles no matter how far apart they are from each other. Tickle one of them, and the other instantaneously dances.
Demina explains her group’s result using the analogy of an indecisive king. Nobody knows what the king might be thinking or feeling at any moment — nobody, that is, except one subject of the kingdom with whom the king is entangled.
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AND THE WINNER IS . . .
Bienfait Mugenza ’21 has been awarded a $50,000 grant by the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Collaborative in Conflict Transformation at Middlebury College to support peacebuilding efforts he initiated in Rwanda through the Projects for Peace program.
His project, called “Peace Through Entrepreneurship,” was established in 2018 and brought together young people from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, two countries whose relations have been tense for decades.
The Projects for Peace Alumni Award recognizes people who have demonstrated innovation and commitment to their projects. After graduating from Rochester with a degree in political science, Mugenza returned to his native Congo to continue his work.
“We are deeply impressed with Bienfait’s creative work and dedication to lasting peace,” says Middlebury President Laurie L. Patton. “His efforts represent the best ideal of conflict transformation.”
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BOOK NOOK
It is obvious to almost everyone living in the United States that partisan hostility has reached a fever pitch. But how much does that matter to everyday life in the United States?
A new book by some of the foremost scholars on political polarization, including political scientist James Druckman, offers an answer to that question by distilling empirical evidence as to the consequences of partisan animus.
The upshot? Partisan hostility has a deleterious effect on democracy and could erode democratic institutions and functioning over time. How is detailed in Partisan Hostility and American Democracy: Explaining Political Divisions and When They Matter (published June 12 by University of Chicago Press).
Check it out.
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IN THE NEWS
Mical Raz, a professor of history and the Charles E. and Dale L. Phelps Professor in Public Health and Policy, co-wrote an opinion piece in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that drew contrasts between the freedom of faculty at institutions of higher learning in Israel and the United States to speak their minds.
She and her co-author Lior Sternfeld, an associate professor at Penn State University, wrote of what they called the “chilling atmosphere” of free speech being fostered by some Israeli students.
“As Israeli Jews we feel safe on our campuses in the United States,” they wrote. “Our colleagues in Israel deserve no less.”
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GOT NEWS TO SHARE?
Send your SAS In Focus news tips to SAS Senior Communications Officer David Andreatta at david.andreatta@rochester.edu. Be sure to put “SAS In Focus” in the subject heading, and tell him about research, awards, publications, and symposiums, and whatever other news you think is fit to print.
