www.yale.edu/graduateschool
GSAS NEWS
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences – Yale University
novem b e r / d e c e m b e r 2 010
Volume 13, Number 2
Dean’s Reception 4
Atomic Physics 6
Life After Yale 8
Taking a study break at the Dean’s Fall Reception
EVENTS
Giving Something Back
Tuesday, Nove mber 2, 8 pm
On a crisp, sunny fall morning, about 200 students, along
Election Day Returns-Watching
Party, 119 HGS
Friday, November 5, 5 p m
F3: First Friday at Five with a New
England theme. HGS Common Room
Satu rday, Nove mber 13
Yale vs. Princeton football game
Tailgate parties, 11 am
Thursday, Nove mber 18, 4 pm
In the Company of Scholars Lecture.
Debra Fischer, professor of astronomy,
119 HGS. Reception, 5 pm
Friday, November 1 9
Fall recess begins, 5:20 pm
Blue Dog Cafe closes for the week.
monday, Nove mber 29, 8 pm
Classes resume
Wednesday, D ecem ber 1
World AIDS Day. Understanding
America: The New Poverty, 5:30 pm
OISS , 421 Temple Street
Friday, Dece mber 3, 5 pm
F 3: First Friday at Five
HGS Common Room
Satu rday, Dece mber 4, 7 p m
Grad Night @ the Rep
Bossa Nova, world premiere
Wednesday, D ecem ber 8, 5 pm
Dean’ s Winter Reception
HGS Common Room
F riday, Dece mber 10, 5 : 20 pm
Fall term ends. Winter recess begins.
Full information on events above:
http://calendar.yale.edu/cal/gsas
For volunteer programs: www.yale.edu/
graduateschool/studentLife/programs.html
with family members and friends, gathered in HGS before
heading to sites around New Haven, where they spent the
morning painting, gardening, sorting and providing
other useful services for 21 local community agencies.
The Yale Day of Service
(ydos), organized by
Public Service McDougal
Fellows Katherine (Kate)
Jackson (Divinity) and
Catherine Fontana (fes),
fell on the anniversary of
the founding of Yale 309
years ago. Associate Vice
President for New Haven and State
Affairs Michael Morand noted in his welcoming remarks that Yale was established
to prepare youth for public service in both
civic and religious spheres, according to its
original charter, and applauded the ydos as
a continuation of that tradition.
In a letter encouraging students,
faculty and staff members to participate,
Dean Thomas Pollard wrote, “At this year’s
matriculation ceremony, I spoke about the
new responsibilities students have as scholars and researchers. One of those responsibilities is in giving back to the community
in which we all live.” The Graduate School
encourages community
service all through the year.
Winter coats, food, books
and toys are collected for
donation, and blood drives
are held on a regular basis. To
further encourage the spirit
of community, the Graduate
School initiated two Public Service
awards earlier in 2010. The first Community
Service Award was given to Dana Asbury
(Sociology) in recognition of the hundreds
of hours she has devoted to Camp Antrum,
which offers underprivileged local children
programs that help them grow, play and
learn. The Public Scholar Award was given
to Christina Roberto (Psychology and eph)
for research that transforms social policy
and aids the community at large. Christina’s work on nutrition labeling and packaging has been cited in court decisions and in
the development of federal requirements.
Continued on page 2
Writing Like
A Scholar
Academic journals
allow scholars to
communicate and
share new ideas and
discoveries.
As the next generation of scholars evolves,
graduate students in the Humanities and
Social Sciences begin to take their strongest
seminar papers and research reports and
turn them into publishable articles.
Even highly capable writers can learn
new skills that strengthen their essays,
help them communicate better and make
their articles more likely to be accepted for
publication. The Graduate Writing Center
is ready to coach students as they edit and
submit articles to the journals in their field.
Continued on page 3
Top left: Students tended the New Haven Green
on the Yale Day of Service.
Bottom left, Julia von Bodelschwingh
(Religious Studies) and Shannon Santangelo (Divinity)
painted for Neighborhood Housing Services.
Middle, Wendell Smith (Physics) shelved
canned goods at Loaves and Fishes.
Above,Trini Truong (Medicine) sorted
shoes at Loaves and Fishes.
Below, left, Catherine Fontana and
Katherine Jackson organized the YDOS.
Giving Something Back, continued
ics) reports, where they weeded, removed
dead plants, replanted vegetables and painted
the wall, leaving the garden looking “a lot
friendlier than before.”
“I volunteer because I think that if you
have the ability to do something, then you have
a responsibility to help,” says Patricia Maloney
(Sociology). “That’s an attitude I brought with
me to Yale, but also something bolstered both
by my research (on teachers and their effects
on students) and by the opportunities fostered
by the McDougal Center. As an ethnographer,
my favorite thing to do is to
“I volunteer because I think that if you have the ability to do some- go out into the community
and observe what people are
doing and saying. Community
Patr
ic
ia
Mal
o
ney
thing, then you have a responsibility to help.”
service is a natural outgrowth
of that desire.” Her group worked at the New
Not-for-profit agencies assisted that
Haven Reads Book Bank. “I think we may have
day included the Diaper Bank, Neighborhood
sorted thousands of books for them, but the
Housing Services, Urban Resources Initiative
best part of the day was being educated about
and the Ronald McDonald House. At the Yale
all they do to help the community in terms of
Peabody Museum, science students served as
tutoring and giving books to local schools.”
docents for the newly opened “Black Holes”
Patricia was one of the organizers of last year’s
exhibition. At Edgerton Park, they gardened,
spread mulch and assisted in the greenhouse. ydos along with Daniel Eiler (Chemistry),
One team assembled educational kits at the Eli who gardened in Edgerton Park this year.
“Volunteering is a way to get your hands
Whitney Museum. Another improved nature
trails at Yale’s West Campus, where environ- dirty, learn about the New Haven area, meet
mental workshops are held for schoolchildren. new people, and for some, find a new hobby
or cause,” he says.
Participating students shared a sense of
Some Yale staff members came forward
satisfaction after they completed their assign- ments. Joyce Kua (International Development to help, too. One was Betty Jane Schiller, who
has been in the Yale College Student Affairs
Economics) worked at the Loaves and Fishes
Office for over 25 years. “I’ve worked with
Clothes Closet. “It took five of us a couple of
dedicated student leaders of undergraduate
hours to sort out the mountain of old clothes.
organizations for many years who, like me,
It really wasn’t much work compared to the
spend quality time volunteering in New Haven
immensity of the tasks the people there face
and in hometown communities. I wanted our
every week, and I’m definitely looking forteam to be ambassadors of care from Yale, in
ward to helping out on a more regular basis
our actions and volunteer efforts,” she says.
over the next year,” she says.
With Leah Kelley, associate director of Under
Thirteen people worked in the Fair
graduate Admissions, and graduate student
Haven community garden, Jing Wang
(Computational Biology and BioinformatLinette Bosques (Cell Biology), Schiller went
to the Ronald McDonald House, which hosts
the families of children being treated at nearby
hospitals. They cleaned both kitchens, top to
bottom, and tidied up the common areas as
well as the outdoor spaces.
ydos was hosted by the Graduate
School and sponsored by McDougal
Graduate Student Life, Dwight
Hall, the Graduate Student
Assembly, the Graduate and
“These inaugural Graduate School
Public Service Awards demonstrate that the
spirit of contributing to both the local community and to the world at large is flourishing among students in the Graduate School,”
said former Dean Jon Butler at the awards
ceremony last spring.
The recent Yale Day of Service was
the third to be coordinated through Graduate
Student Life at the McDougal Center, and
by all accounts, it was a great success.
Professional Student Senate, the University
Chaplain’s Office, the Office for Diversity
and Equal Opportunity, the Office of New
Haven and State Affairs, the Office
of the Vice President for Finance
and Business Operations, Locals
34 and 35 of unite here and the
United Way of Greater New Haven.
The one-day event gives volunteers a taste of public service, exposes
them to a range of available volunteer
options and “inspires them to recognize the
needs of the community,” Catherine says. To
build on its success, Kate and Catherine are
creating a McDougal Service Corps that will
spend the second Saturday of each month
assisting at a local non-profit agency.
Giving a few hours of her time feels
good, too, she says. “Graduate school can be
pretty insular, and I felt kind of strange
to be thinking only about myself
and my work, and not about others in my community. When I saw
an email about New Haven Reads,
I jumped at the chance. Plus I
love the little girls I tutor and have
fun with them! Even when I am
super-stressed, it all sort of melts
away when I am working with them. I am
always in a great mood when I leave.”
Jay Kerwin (Chemistry) has been a
mentor for the New Haven’s Citywide Science Fair since his second year of graduate
school. “I’m not sure why or what it is inside
me, but I get great fulfillment
“Yale students are experts at philosophizing, analyzing, annotating. from helping people. I find it
easier to motivate myself to
But sometimes the most important thing is simply to act.” kate jackso n help others than to do things
for myself. It gives me a sense
“As a Public Service Fellow, I’m reminded of community as well as accomplishment.
of the quote by Ghandi: ‘Be the change you
Given that I am a science student, the science
want to see in the world,’” Kate says. “Yale stufair was a natural area to get involved in. I
dents are experts at philosophizing, analyzing, received an email from my department about
annotating. But sometimes the most important the science fair and I got in touch with the
thing is simply to act.”
contact person and the rest is history. Interest
The impulse to make the world a better
ingly, in my third year of graduate school, I
place motivates many individual graduate
joined the Center for Research on Interface
students. On their own, they find a project
and Surface Phenomenon (crisp) at Yale
and carve out time to tutor city children,
and as a member, you are expected to do comcook at a soup kitchen or visit the residents
munity outreach and education. Since I was
of a homeless shelter.
already heavily involved, I had no problem
Esther Kim (Sociology) volunteers
fulfilling the expected 20 hours per semester.”
at Columbus House, a facility that serves
Jay is now a member of the steering
people who are homeless or at risk of becom- committee for the science fair and works
ing homeless. It makes her “feel connected to along with the person who coordinates the
the community I’m living in.” Spending time at
mentors.
Columbus House “makes me think about how
Graduate students are busy people,
fragile life can be. It also makes me think about
with course work, teaching obligations,
the importance of community. Some people
research and all the responsibilities of adult
end up at Columbus House because they
life. As Joyce Kua observes, “We’re usually so
didn’t have a supportive community to help
caught up with school that it’s easy to forget
them out during tough times.”
New Haven isn’t just made up of people
Nazanin Sullivan (History) tutors at
from Yale.” But once a year— and for many
the New Haven Reads Book Bank for an hour
students, more often— they do remember
or two every week because she believes “It’s
and reach out to make a difference.
important that kids learn core skills when
For more information on ways to
they are young. I want to inspire their love of
volunteer, subscribe to Public Service Notes
learning, so that they will value education for
at www.yale.edu/mcdougal/studentlife.
their whole lives. I like that I can help in some
To contact Public Service fellows,
small way.”
email [email protected].
Writing Center, continued
form of human expression. A successful article
in the Social Sciences reports on data about an
aspect of human behavior and aims at conjecturing the general rule from the particular case.
These are the papers she urges students to edit,
polish and submit for publication.
Kallestinova advises students at the
outset that they need to
“Graduate students are constantly enjoined to ‘publish or perish,’ and answer some basic questions about how they
publication record is among the primary criteria for advancement in our work: at what time of
day are they most proprofession, so I was happy to see that the Writing Center was offering ductive? Do they work
best where there are no
distractions or in a place
a workshop on the details of the process. Elena’s program homes in that has background
noise? How much time
on specifics of preparation and publication of academic articles in the can they realistically
devote to the project
Humanities. Especially useful was the workshop’s focus on techniques every day? Designing a
workable plan and stickfor evaluating and revamping essay structure.” Nic ole W rig ht
ing to it are crucial to
success.
Each hour-and-a-half workshop session
fall’s workshop, which began September 23
begins with a progress report from the parand concluded October 21, drew more than
30 students. It will be offered again next fall. ticipants and sets specific, manageable tasks
for the week ahead. Kallestinova’s instruction
“Publishing is vitally important for
graduate students, but the idea of publishing is mixed with encouragement, warmth and
humor. The sessions are informal, and lunch
may seem daunting,” Kallestinova says. “In
this workshop, I try to demystify the nature is served along with advice.
Topics covered include how to compose
of publishing and make it accessible for all.” an abstract, select the appropriate journal,
Kallestinova, a linguist by training,
review existing literature without getting lost
takes a highly practical approach to the
in it, strengthen an essay’s main argument,
challenge. She walks students step-by-step
present evidence effectively and write an
through the process of turning an alreadyintroduction and conclusion. Kallestinova
written academic essay or conference paper
provides specifics on how to submit the article
into an article of publishable quality. She
and how to respond to a journal’s decision.
first reviews the kinds of papers that are
Rejections are the most frequent
likely to be accepted for publication, such
response, but Kallestinova knows that
as articles with particularly strong and
students should not be paralyzed by them.
unusual findings, texts that have been well
People who write inevitably get rejections.
researched or conference papers. Then she
Instead of becoming demoralized, students
discusses texts that offer challenges for
should take advantage of the criticism and
publication: broad surveys, for example,
feedback. During the workshop, Kallestinova
don’t often make the cut. Book reviews and
discusses different types of decision letters
translations count for little on a curriculum
and how to draft revision cover letters.
vitae and may not be worth the effort they
“The workshop provides strategies for
require. It’s untrue that only articles that
writing a paper as well as for conceptualare heavily theoretical or that make sweeping assumptions will get published, she says. izing the project,” says Awendela Grantham
(French, African American Studies), who is
A strong, publishable research article in the
Humanities presents original analysis of some currently taking the workshop. “I’ve learned,
Directed by Elena Kallestinova, the
Center offers many useful programs, from
focused workshops to peer writing groups
and individual consultations. One of those
offerings is the five-part workshop titled
“From a Final Paper to a Journal Article.” This
Elena Kallestinova confers with workshop members
Nicole Wright (English) and Junli Ping (Psychology).
for example, to think more like a lawyer
when writing a paper and less like a detective.
Approaching my writing like this has made it
easier. The tips about what to avoid when writing a journal article have been as useful as the
discussions of format, style and procedure.”
Nicole Wright (English) says, “Graduate
students are constantly enjoined to ‘publish or
perish,’ and publication record is among the
primary criteria for advancement in our profession, so I was happy to see that the Writing
Center was offering a workshop on the details
of the process. Elena’s program homes in on
specifics of preparation and publication of
academic articles in the Humanities. Especially
useful was the workshop’s focus on techniques
for evaluating and revamping essay structure. It certainly helped me as I prepared my
article, which is scheduled for publication in
Eighteenth-Century Fiction.”
Kallestinova became director of the
Graduate Writing Center in the spring of
2008. Since then, she has launched many
new initiatives and dramatically expanded
the individual consultations. In the year
before she took charge, only 64 students
made appointments for writing consultations. The following year, 274 consultations
were held; last year, 454 appointments were
scheduled. The staff now has six Graduate Writing Advisors and four McDougal
Graduate Writing Fellows.
The Graduate Writing Center’s
workshops and panels include “Writing a
Successful Research Paper in the Sciences,”
“Dissertation Prospectus Writing,” “nsf
Grant Writing,” “Writing Clearly” (for
non-native English Speakers), “Choosing a
Dissertation Topic”— with separate sessions
for the Humanities and the Social Sciences,
and more. In the fall and spring, Dissertation Support Groups are organized to help
advanced doctoral students understand the
dissertation-writing process. Peer-Review
Groups form, bringing together four or five
students from similar disciplines on a weekly
basis to discuss their writing.
And three times a year, the Writing
Center runs its wildly successful Dissertation Boot Camps, which immerse students
in their writing, free of distractions, for
intense and concentrated work.
seen on campus
Prize Teac hi ng Fello ws
This year’s Prize Teaching Fellows were honored at a dinner in October. Standing, left to right: Dean Thomas Pollard,
Stephen Eckel (Physics), Heather McGee (Immunobiology), Patricia Maloney (Sociology), Dean Mary Miller. Seated: Gwen
Bradford ( Philosophy), Jean Elyse Graham (English), Sarah Mahurin (English) and Joseph Zinter (Biomedical Engineering).
Road Race Winners
Graduate student teams took first place in both the 5K and 20K Labor Day New Haven Road Race. Pictured here, left
to right: Wenqing Xu (Engineering & Applied Science) Adele Plunkett (Astronomy), Heather McGee (Immunobiology),
Tom Holowka (Microbiology), Eric Weiskott (English), Jonathan LaRochelle (MCDB), David Henry (FES), Sarah Piazza
(Spanish & Portuguese), Eugene Douglass (Chemistry) and Ulrike Muench (Nursing).
Dean’s Reception !
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
S t u dent R esearc h : Comparative Literature
Literary Nationalism
and Linguistic Choices
Annette Lienau (Comparative Literature) is doing research
that takes her to the Middle East, Africa and Indonesia.
the Latin alphabet ] was a way of guarding
against the political threat of Islamic fundamentalism and accompanied the preliminary
assertion of a secular state apparatus in both
colonies. This is a process that is central to the
formation of official, national languages in the
post-independence context and to eventual
claims of ‘literary modernity’ in both countries.” The marginalization of Arabic occurred
subtly, she learned, and now Indonesians and
Senegalese overwhelmingly write in Latin
script, despite the continued use of Arabic as a
devotional language for the Muslim majority. This phenomenon “is generally taken
for granted and has never been methodically
examined. My project is a contribution to
changing this oversight,” she says.
Because the authors Annette studies wrote in multiple languages and were
influenced by many cultural traditions, she
has developed what she calls “a palimpsestic
method of reading” their texts. Layers overlap, two languages appear within a passage,
vernacular and formal threads interweave.
The authors she is studying evaluated the
“opportunity cost” of the language in which
they wrote and made choices according to
a complex equation that included religious
affiliation, political history, literary genre,
audience and local tradition.
A major challenge that faced her when
she undertook her project was the need to
learn Arabic quickly. She managed to fit three
years of training into 14 months, spending
two summers at Middlebury College and
a year at the Center for Arabic Studies in
Cairo. More recently, she spent close to a year
in Indonesia (funded by the Social Science
Research Council), with side trips to Kuala
Lumpur, Amsterdam and Egypt. Three
months in Senegal gave her some time to
do archival research and to study the Wolof
language, funded by the Macmillan Center
and an Enders Fellowship.
Although her work takes her far afield,
Annette is happy she came to Yale because
it is “one of the few institutions worldwide
that boasts a critical mass of scholars and
colleagues in every subfield of my project: Arabists, Indonesianists, Africanists,
scholars interested in sociolinguistics, leftist
internationalism and Indonesian Islamic
history. I chose Yale over other graduate
schools in part because of the breadth of
Yale’s programs and faculty expertise, and
because of the generous financial support
offered to graduate students— which has
improved annually since my arrival.” She
also cites Yale’s library as an exceptional
resource. It is “efficient, comprehensive
and well-equipped,” she says. “Conducting
research overseas made me appreciate this all
Her dissertation, provisionally titled “Terms
political subtext of the work gives the disof Exchange: on the Politics and Poetics of
sertation a compelling sense of urgency and
Linguistic Choice in the Comparative Litrelevance.”
eratures of Egypt, Indonesia and Senegal,”
Her work focuses on writers who
compares nine writers who lived and wrote
changed the cultural history of their counduring key historical moments “through
tries. One is Amadu Bamba, the Senegalese
which the contours of literary nationalism
Arabic-language poet who founded his counwere posited and challenged by ideologically try’s most influential Sufi order. Another,
informed transnational movements, namely
Sayyid Qutb, was the populist leader of
Communism and pan-Islamism,” she says.
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, who began
Most of the writers she is
studying share a religious “My dissertation is a means of contextualizing Indonesia’s embattled
heritage, “a common
Islamic and Arabic texcultural history and of accessing the complex narratives behind
tual tradition.”
Raised in Indonesia
movements historically antagonized in the United States.” annette li enau
under the Suharto regime
his career as a literary critic and a novelist.
at a time when open discussion of contemHe, in turn, strongly influenced Hamka, an
porary politics and historical controversy was
Indonesian author and the first chairman of
forbidden, Annette sees her research as “a
Indonesia’s Council of Islamic clerics under
form of recuperation from these omissions
the Suharto regime. Her work “bridges the
in my early education. The limited depiction
of current events (after 9/11) in mainstream, discrete literary histories of Senegal, Indonesia and Egypt as parallel case studies in the
English-language media further convinced
evolution of Asian-African literatures, in order
me that literacy in Arabic was paramount for
to test the limits and
understanding the dramatic changes of our
“Yale is one of the few institutions worldwide that boasts a critical mass
utility of a national
current cultural and political landscape, as
paradigm as a unit of
witnessed by my generation.”
literary analysis and to of scholars and colleagues in every subfield of my project: Arabists,
Annette left Indonesia for college
suggest an alternative
in the u.s. in 1998 as the Suharto regime
to the binary (colonial/ Indonesianists, Africanists, scholars interested in sociolinguistics, leftist
was crumbling, “when legitimate student
postcolonial) construcprotesters were being sniped in the streets,
tions” that traditionand ethnic and religious minorities were
internationalism and Indonesian Islamic history.” annette l ienau
ally have informed the
violently targeted. I graduated on the eve
the more. Yale would have, for example,
study of this literature.
of the Bali bombings, as America was
an original copy of an obscure mid
In examining twentieth century Arabic
invading Iraq and mired in Afghanistan.
nineteenth century French novel, its
writing in Indonesia and Senegal, “What I
Conceived in the wake of these events, my
unexpectedly found was evidence of the paral- turn-of-the-century Arabic transladissertation is a means of contextualizing
tion and its final Malay adaptation from
lel marginalization of an indigenous, Arabic
Indonesia’s embattled cultural history and
the 1930s—and I could request all three
textual tradition, advanced through colonial
of accessing the complex narratives behind
for consultation in an hour.”
French and Dutch policies (which considered
movements historically antagonized in the
United States. As an Indonesian-American
of both Muslim and Christian descent, the
the Arabic language a potential conduit for
Islamic radicalism). Romanization [use of
G S A U P D AT E
http://gsa.yale.edu
Greetings from the GSA!
Whatever your status—an enthusiastic first-year, a returning student,
an international graduate, or a tired
sixth year—GSA is there to represent
your needs and make your experience at
Yale as enjoyable as possible. In case you
have not heard about us yet, GSA is an
elected body representing all Graduate
School departments and degree-granting
programs. We discuss and implement
policies that improve the academic and
social experiences of graduate students
while at Yale. GSA’ s representatives
work within smaller internal and
external committees to resolve problems in such areas of graduate life as
professional development, mentoring,
transport, infrastructure and whatever
else needs improving.
This fall we introduced a new
position to the GSA called the Student
Advocate—a GSA representative who
will be available to talk to all graduate
students about student life and academic
concerns and will aid them by facilitating communication with appropriate
Graduate School and University administrators. To provide support and information for incoming graduate students,
we are working to set up peer mentoring
groups in individual departments.
Additionally, we are in the process
of collecting research about the availability of space for graduate students to
collaborate, study and hold office hours.
At the moment, the Humanities and
Social Science students have little or no
24-hour access to study space, which is
why we are looking into working with
departments to set up additional spaces
both for individuals and groups.
In an effort to simplify the confusion caused by the shopping period, the
Graduate School changed its procedures
for undergraduate registration and TF
assignments this fall. To assess which
of these changes worked, which had no
impact and which proved counterproductive, GSA is assembling a report of
any problems with registration, enrollment, and TF allocation, as well as any
anecdotes about peoples’ experience with
the new system.
Additionally, GSA has approval
to create a landlord rating site, and we
hope to have that live in the spring so
we can begin to populate the site.
As you can see, it’s another busy
year for GSA. If you wish to be a part
of this exciting process of improving
graduate life at Yale, both its organization and social life, we would be more
than happy if you drop by our regular
biweekly Wednesday meetings (the next
ones are November 3 and 17). Apart
from a fruitful discussion, you can count
on a tasty dinner!
Contributed by Jolanta Jasina
( European & Russian Studies)
S t u dent R esearc h : Physics
Atomic Physics And Some Very Cool Molecules
Using a variety of precision lasers, graduate student John Barry (Physics), postdoctoral fellow Edward Shuman and Professor David DeMille are able to cool molecules
down to temperatures just a fraction of a degree above what’s known as absolute
zero, about - 460 degrees Fahrenheit (-273 °C).
Left to right, Professor David DeMille, Edward Shuman
and John Barry. Photo by David Naylor
Left: Images of strontium fluoride molecules after
being heated by a laser (front), without manipulation
(middle), and after laser cooling (rear).
Below, right: The strontium fluoride molecules’ quantum
states interact with both the laser and an applied
magnetic field to produce substantial cooling.
Their new method, described in the online
edition of the journal Nature, is a substantial step toward using individual molecules
as information bits in quantum computing.
Till now, scientists have cooled either
individual atoms or “artificial atoms” in
their efforts to develop quantum processors.
But individual atoms often don’t communicate strongly enough with one another to
be very useful in quantum computing. Artificial atoms—which are actually circuit-like
devices made up of billions of atoms that
are designed to behave like a single atom—
communicate strongly with one another,
but tend to pick up interference from the
To function in a quantum computer,
molecules must
remain still for
long periods of
time,
Their new method, described in the online edition of the
but at
room
journal Nature, is a substantial step toward using individual temperature, molecules have
too much kinetic energy, causing them to rotate and vibrate.
molecules as information bits in quantum computing.
In order to still the molecules,
the Yale team pushes the molecules using
outside world. Ultra-cooled molecules,
a steady stream of photons, or particles of
however, might do the job. The Yale team
light, emitted by a laser. Using laser beams to
was the first to use lasers to successfully
hit the molecules from opposite directions,
cool molecules.
they are able to reduce the random velocities
of the molecules. The technique is known as
“laser cooling” because the temperature of
an object is a direct measurement of how fast
its atoms and molecules oscillate. Reducing
the molecules’ motions to almost nothing is
equivalent to driving their temperatures to
virtually absolute zero.
John’s experiment in DeMille’s
lab uses strontium monofluoride (SrF), a dipolar
molecule. Dipolar molecules can be thought of
as having a positively
charged end and a negatively charged
end. In an electric field the molecules align
either with or against the field, which
would serve as the “0” and “1” values in an
ordinary computer, John explains. “The
interaction between dipolar molecules is
both strong and long-range, which allows
for relatively easy entanglement of the molecules. By exploiting the entanglement of
many quantum particles, a quantum computer has a unique advantage over classical
computers in solving certain types of massively parallel problems. Consequently,
polar molecules are strong candidates for
quantum computation.”
In addition to quantum computing,
this research has other potential applications. Near-absolute-zero temperatures
allow for a more detailed study of the large
role quantum tunneling plays in chemical
reactions. Large quantities of cold molecules will also prove useful for testing the
standard model of particle physics and the
search for new physics.
John was drawn to this field because
of its close connection to quantum mechanics, which, he says, “I find by far the most
interesting part of physics. Quantum
mechanics leads to many bizarre and
interesting results.” He also enjoys what
he calls the “clean and precise” nature of
atomic physics and its well-established
theoretical framework.
Since the research team is very small,
John has been able to make significant contributions to the project. A former electrical
engineering major at Princeton, he designed
and fabricated the lasers, the laser frequency
stabilization system and the vacuum apparatus inside which the experiment takes place,
among other things. “Because many parts
necessary for our research are not commercially available, they must be designed and
made in-house. As an engineer, this design
process is probably one of my favorite
tasks.” John works closely with the machinists in the Gibbs machine shop to fabricate
and assemble the parts.
Additionally, a significant portion
of the experiment involved aligning the
laser optics, optimizing parameters within
the experiment (setting the magnetic field
strength and direction, the power and
frequency of the lasers, the flow rate of
helium gas used to pre-cool the molecules)
and the constant assembly and disassembly of the vacuum apparatus. “I’ve learned,
in large part
from Edward,
that patience is
extremely important,”
John admits.
Having reached their
goal of demonstrating the cooling technique in one dimension,
the team is developing a similar
but modified technique which
will allow the molecules to be
cooled in all three dimensions.
S t u dent R esearc h : Political Science
his application might be able to get a card
without having to pay a bribe.
After failed attempts to set up the
experiment in the slums of Mumbai,
Bangalore and Kolkata, Leonid and Paul
moved on to New Delhi, where their efforts
were rewarded. Working with two graduate
students from Jawaharal Nehru University,
both named Aftab Alam, they identified 100
participants for the experiment. The slum
dwellers were randomly divided into four
groups—three experimental, and one that
served as a control.
The control group consisted of people
who applied for the ration card in the standard, officially prescribed manner.
The first experimental group submitted an information request under the rtia
shortly after filing their ration card applications. In the request, they asked the Public
Information Officer about the status of their
application and about the average processing time for applications in the district.
People in the second experimental
group presented a letter of support from a
local non-governmental organization along
with their application, to see if the recommendation from an ngo might speed up
the process.
“We hypothesized that the rtia treatment and the ngo intervention were two
different ‘voice’ options. Filing a request for
information under the rtia, the applicant
sends a direct signal to the civil servant that
he has some leverage over the bureaucracy.
A letter of support from a locally influential
ngo is an indirect signal that the applicant
has a certain amount of influence,” the article says. Before carrying out the experiment,
Paul and Leonid thought that the freedomof-information intervention and the ngo
of information statute in 2005 called the
Political science graduate students Leonid
letter would yield roughly equal results.
“Right to Information Act” (rtia). The law
Peisakhin and Paul Pinto spent six weeks
Those in the third experimental group
states that “democracy requires an informed
in the slums of India conducting a field
followed the conventional course and paid
citizenry and transparency of information
experiment to answer that question. The
a bribe equal to $20 to a local official via a
which are vital to its functioning and also to
surprising results were published in Regumiddleman.
contain corruption and to hold Governments
lation & Governance (2010).
The outcomes were dramatic and
and their instrumentalities accountable to the
In India, the government issues ration
unexpected: By the end of one year, 94
governed.” The rtia requires government
cards allowing card-holders to buy food at
percent of the applicants in the bribe and
agencies to maintain records and to prosubsidized prices and, in some cases, to get
rtia groups had received ration cards,
vide those records in a timely manner when
food for free. The ration cards are doubly
as opposed to 21 percent in the ngo and
requested. “An applicant making a request for control groups. “While those paying ‘speed
useful since they serve as legal identification
for people who have neither a passport nor a information shall not be required to give any
money’ predictably had the lowest median
reason for requesting the information or any
driver’s license.
processing times, approximately two and
“Provincial politicians regularly prom- other personal details except those that may
a half months, virtually all those who filed
be necessary for contacting him,” the law
ise to have ration cards issued to potential
an rtia request received a ration card in a
states. If information is not provided within
voters in exchange for their electoral supmedian time of approximately four months,”
the prescribed time, a Central Information
port,” Leonid says. “As a result, strict eligithe researchers found. The ngo letter
Commission can investigate and censure the
bility criteria are commonly disregarded.
proved to be of no help to applicants, while
local official who withholds the requested
Certain communities are oversupplied with
the rtia request (and the implicit threat of
document.
cards, whereas many individuals in dire
sanctions) produced excellent results.
The rtia is a “regulatory tool that, at
need of subsidized food never receive theirs.” “We demonstrated that India’s recently
least on paper, seeks to make policymaking
India’s Public Distribution System,
adopted freedom of information law is
more efficient by giving the citizenry greater
which procures and delivers subsidized food
almost as effective as bribery in helping the
and core commodities to the public “is highly access to information about government activipoor to secure access to a basic public service,”
ties at all levels,” Paul explains. But “In develop- Leonid says. “We found support for the theocorrupt and functions more in the interest of
civil servants and affiliated business owners ing countries (and often in developed states
retical proposition that greater transparency
as well), there is a substantial gap between
than the poor,” according to Paul. Governand voice lowers corruption, even in highly
the theory and the reality of political life—an
ment contractors buy staples like wheat, rice,
hierarchical and unequal societies.”
sugar and cooking oil from farmers, ship
Leonid and Paul are pur“We found support for the theoretical proposition that
them to regional depots and from there to
suing other projects for their
some 500,000 fair-price shops. Along the
dissertations. The
way, up to 61 percent of all the subsidized
greater transparency and voice lowers corruption, even in corruption project
food “goes missing on its way to the conwas advised
sumer,” he reports.
by Professors
highly hierarchical and unequal societies.” le oni d peisak hin
Because the list of applicants for cards
Donald Green
excellent statute on paper might be completely
is long and because corruption is common,
and Susan Rose-Ackerman.
ignored in practice.”
the usual way to obtain a card in a timely
Leonid’s disserta
Their challenge was to find out if a
manner is to bribe the official in charge.
tion advisor is Green;
ration card applicant who used the rtia
To increase transparency in governPaul’s is James Scott.
to request information about the status of
mental matters, India adopted a freedom
Confronting Corruption
Can transparency be an effective strategy against corruption in a culture where corruption is endemic?
KUDOS
devin singh
Devin Singh (Religious Studies)
has been named a North American
Doctoral Fellow and was awarded
a grant by the Fund for Theological
Education, an ecumenical organization
dedicated to finding and supporting
outstanding future religious leaders and
educators. He is spending the 2010–11
academic year conducting research in
Tübingen, Germany, supported by
a grant from the Connecticut-Baden
Württemberg Exchange Scholar
program. Devin’s research examines
the theological aspects of money, with
attention to the ways money participates
in a political economy of sovereignty
through its connections with ideas of
divinity and transcendence. His most
recent peer-reviewed article, “Incarnating the Money-Sign: notes on an
implicit theopolitics,” has been accepted
for publication in the journal Implicit
Religion. His dissertation advisor
is Kathryn Tanner. Devin earned
his undergraduate degree at Pomona
College.
Sarah Novacich
An article by Sarah Novacich (English) has been accepted for publication in the quarterly Exemplaria, A
Journal of Theory in Medieval and
Renaissance Studies. Her paper,
“The Old English Exodus and the
Read Sea,” proposes that in the poem,
“Exodus,” Moses’ act of crossing the
Red Sea models an interpretive method
that the reader might apply to the
poem. She explains, “The poem hints
at ways in which waves of water might
be understood as layers of language.
Moses works through both, encountering literal and metaphorical depth as
he moves through the sea, delving for
hidden truth.” Sarah’s dissertation,
“Ark and Archive: Narrative Enclosures in Medieval and Early Modern
Texts,” follows the figures of Noah’s
ark, the human heart and the underworld through multiple centuries and
genres, examining the ways in which
medieval writers might have understood them as archival models. Her
advisors are Alastair Minnis and
Roberta Frank.
She earned her
B. A. in English from
Brandeis University.
Outstanding Alumni
For alumni news, see
www.aya.yale.edu/grad
M i ller t o lect u re at ca m br i dge
L at i n A m er i can S c h o lar at B rande i s
Mary Miller (ph.d. 1981, History of Art),
dean of Yale College and a leading authority on Mesoamerican art, presented the
A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts at
the National Gallery of Art in Washington,
d.c., and will deliver the Slade Lectures at
Cambridge University in 2014–15. These
two lecture series are considered the most
prestigious in the field of art history.
The Sterling Professor of Art History
at Yale, Miller is known for her scholarship
on Maya art and architecture and has published six major books and dozens of articles
on those subjects. Before her appointment
in 2008 to the Sterling Professorship, the
highest honor bestowed on members of the
Yale faculty, Miller was the Vincent J. Scully
Professor of the History of Art. She is the
author of Maya Art and Architecture (1999),
The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and
the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion (with Karl Taube, 1993),
The Art of Mesoamerica: From Olmec to Aztec
(1986), and The Blood of Kings: Dynasty
and Ritual in Maya Art (with Linda Schele,
1986). She is also the director of a project
to digitally reconstruct the ancient Maya
murals of Bonampak in Chiapas, Mexico,
which she has described as “the single most
important artifact—and source of information—of ancient Mesoamerica.”
Kirsten A. Weld (ph.d. 2010, History)
now holds the Florence Levy Kay Fellowship in Latin American History at Brandeis
University, where she is pursuing research
on Cold War-era refugees and exiles from
Latin America. Weld studies state terror
and popular resistance movements; forms
of post-conflict reckoning, including truth
commissions, human rights tribunals
and historical memory initiatives; Latin
American immigration and diaspora; and
ethnographic approaches to documents
and archives in historical research. Her dissertation, “Reading the Politics of History
in Guatemala’s National Police Archives,”
was awarded both the John Addison
Porter Prize and the Stephen Vella Prize
for combining scholarship with a commitment to social justice. While at Yale, she
received an Andrew W. Mellon Dissertation Writing Fellowship, the Social Science
Research Council’s International Dissertation Research Fellowship, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada’s Dissertation Research Fellowship.
She will serve as the Kay Fellow at Brandeis
from 2010–2012.
Mary Miller
Kirsten Weld
Frank M. Turner
t u rner N a m ed Y ale
Un i vers i ty L i brar i an
Frank M. Turner (ph.d. 1971, History) the
John Hay Whitney Professor of History at
Yale, became the Yale University Librarian on September 1. He served as interim
University Librarian since last January and
as director of the Beinecke Rare Book and
Manuscript Library since 2003. He was
Yale’s Provost from 1988 to 1992. A distinguished intellectual historian,
Turner has explored Victorian intellectual
life in his books and many of his articles.
His John Henry Newman: The Challenge to
Evangelical Religion (Yale University Press
2002) describes Newman’s career in the
Church of England and the motivations
and circumstances leading to his conversion to Roman Catholicism. Turner has also
edited Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua and
his Idea of a University for Yale Press. His
earlier contributions to the history of Victorian thought include Between Science and
Religion: The Reaction to Scientific Naturalism
in Late Victorian England (1974) and The
Greek Heritage in Victorian Britain (1981),
both published by Yale, and Contesting
Cultural Authority: Essays in Victorian Intellectual Life (1993), published by Cambridge
University Press. The Western Heritage, coauthored with Donald Kagan and Steven
Ozment, is in its tenth edition and has
long been regarded as one of the leading
textbooks on Western Civilization.
As a graduate student, Turner was
awarded the John Addison Porter Prize for
original scholarship in 1972. He served as
Graduate President of the Alpha Chapter of
Phi Beta Kappa of Connecticut at Yale from
1995–2001. William and Mary College
awarded him an honorary degree in 1991,
as did Quinnipiac University in 2003 and
Wilmington College in 2007.
Vol. 13, n umber 2, nove mber / dece m ber 2010
Yale Graduate School News is a publication of
the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
LIFE
AFTER
YALE
Bobbi Sutherland
PH.D. 2009, Medieval Studies
When I left New Haven 16 short months
ago, nothing (and I mean nothing)
prepared me for what I would encounter.
I was hired by a small Christian college in northwest Iowa to teach history.
Though I did teach Medieval Europe in
my first semester, my teaching responsibilities also include Ancient History,
Early Modern Europe, Muslim World and
the two halves of the Western Civilization sequence.
These last courses are by far my greatest challenge. In addition to taking me far
afield of my area of expertise, they are quite large and contain a widely diverse
student population: some could hold their own at Yale, others are much less prepared; some really enjoy history, others do not want to be in college. Almost all of
them are freshmen and many come from very small, homogeneous towns.
Needless to say, these classes provide a significant challenge, but it seems
worth it when I see the “aha moment” when a student says, “I never thought of that
that way.” Happily, I also get to teach an upper-level seminar each year, and this allows me
to focus on areas more closely related to my dissertation and work with excited, motivated
students. However, adjusting to teaching a 3–4 load was the easiest part of the transition
to my new life.
The town I now live in is a relatively rural community of 7,000 people about half an
hour from the Minnesota and South Dakota borders. From the moment I arrived, I felt like
I’d stepped back into the past—a past that existed before my own birth. The gas station is
full service. The grocery store has a “pick-up” door and loads your groceries for you. You
aren’t allowed to take them out yourself. The car dealer gave me his business card, which
included his “watts line,” and the grocery has an aisle marked “oriental food.” No one gives
you addresses here. Everything is described as “just “From the moment I arrived, I felt like I’d stepped back into the
south of the Smiths” or
past — a past that existed before my own birth.” B o bbi S uth erland
“next to the elevator.” Part
of this comes, no doubt, from the reticence in naming streets anything but numbers. The
town is divided east-west by Main Street (us-75) and north-south by 1st Street. 1st Street
is then divided by 1st Avenue nw/sw and 1st Avenue ne/se. The streets and avenues then
count outward from those points. Thus, for every number there are four possible roads! I
live at 2nd and 2nd se. You can imagine what fun the pizza guy has.
Another thing I’ve had to get used to is the siren. They use the civil defense siren for
more than indicating severe weather. It sounds three times a day: at noon, 6 pm and 9 pm
to tell the farmers to come home for lunch, dinner and for the evening.
People here have immaculate lawns; some of them even wash their edging stones
each year. Except, one cannot mow on Sunday. I was warned about this several times
even before I moved in.
Aside from yard work, though, there isn’t much to do. Boredom is a constant problem. A colleague recounts—in his very Chicagoan accent—that he went to the local bar,
Doc’s (I kid you not, it’s called Doc’s), “tryin’ to get my a** kicked.” He relates “So, I walk
in there. And I sit at the bar and I start runnin’ my mouth, tryin’ to start a fight, but all
them farm boys just look at me like I’m crazy and go back to drinkin’ their beer. I thought,
‘Dammit! I can’t even get my a** kicked around here!’”
As you might well guess, with boredom reaching these levels in the adult population,
it takes even more drastic shape among the students. Every Sunday night, the teenagers
engage in the ancient ritual of “cruising.” This mating custom involves boys driving up and
down Main Street repeatedly in loud trucks and fast cars. The girls are driving their own
cars, in the boys’ cars (or all in the back of a pick-up) or gazing admiringly through the
windows. I gaze fumingly through the windows, since the ritual involves a great deal of
revving engines, squealing tires and screeching breaks.
Thankfully, the lack of activity does mean that I have plenty of time to write!
This is the first in a series of personal essays from alumni of the Graduate School. If you are an alumnus/a
with a story to tell about your life after Yale, please send it to us. Email to gila.reinstein @ yale.edu
Thomas Pollard, dean; Gila Reinstein, editor;
Bjorn Akselsen, design/production; Yale P&P,
production supervision; Michael Marsland,
Harold Shapiro; JoAnne Wilcox, photography.
Send news and notification
of upcoming events to
[email protected].