New York New Music Ensemble Performs
SAS and Penn Contemporary Music presented the New York New Music Ensemble in a performance of music for acoustic and electronic instruments and digital tape. The concert featured the Philadelphia premiere of "Sacre Conversazione" by James Primosch, SAS professor of music. Earlier this year, Primosch was one of 12 local artists to receive a $50,000 grant from the Pew Fellowship in the Arts for his work in music composition. These awards are the largest in the country for individual artists.
Oh! The Class of '00!
In September, the University welcomed the 2,350 members of the Class of 2000. This year's freshman class comes from all 50 U.S. states and 55 countries around the world. It is also the first Penn freshman class in history to have women in the majority.
Philadelphia Center Receives Gift
Robert L. McNeil, through the Robert L. McNeil Charitable Trust and the Barra Foundation, has endowed the directorship of SAS's Philadelphia Center for Early American Studies, which he has named in honor of Richard S. Dunn, emeritus professor of history and founder and director of the Center. The PCEAS was established to bring together the vast scholarly and archival resources of Philadelphia's libraries, museums, universities, and colleges to pursue interdisciplinary research focused on the history and culture of the American nation to 1850.
SAS Faculty are Honored for Teaching
Several members of the SAS faculty have been honored for their teaching skills in the past year. Drew Faust, Annenberg Professor of History, was awarded the Ira Abrams Award for Distinguished Teaching. Peter Conn, the Andrea Mitchell Professor of English, received the Mortarboard Alumni Society Award for Distinguished Teaching. E. Ann Matter, chair and professor of religious studies, and Alan E. Mann, professor of anthropology, were the recipients of the College Alumni Society Outstanding Teaching Awards.
Robert Lucid Retires in Style
The SAS Department of English marked the retirement of Professor Robert Lucid with a colloquium featuring writer Norman Mailer and former U.S. Poet Laureate Richard Wilbur. "American Writers in Paris Following World War II" included observations on the Left Bank from Mailer and Wilbur, who were just beginning their careers there after the Second World War.
Women Scientists Visit SAS
The Fund to Encourage Women (FEW), administered by the Trustees' Council of Penn Women, brought two prominent scientists to SAS this semester. Astronomer Vera Cooper Rubin, recipient of the 1993 National Medal of Science, lectured on "A Century of Galaxy Spectroscopy." Professor Jacqueline K. Barton, a 1991 MacArthur Foundation fellow, spoke on "Chemistry of Double-Helical DNA: Recognition and Reaction."