The cover story in the November issue of National Geographic focuses on the work of Salima Ikram ’86, a professor of archaeology at the University of Cairo and the co-director of the Animal Mummy Project at the Egyptian Museum.

“Specializing in zooarchaeology—the study of ancient animal remains—Ikram has helped launch a ... Read more»]]> The cover story in the November issue of National Geographic focuses on the work of Salima Ikram ’86, a professor of archaeology at the University of Cairo and the co-director of the Animal Mummy Project at the Egyptian Museum.

“Specializing in zooarchaeology—the study of ancient animal remains—Ikram has helped launch a new line of research into the cats and other creatures that were preserved with great skill and care,” National Geographic says. “As a professor at the American University in Cairo, she adopted the Egyptian Museum’s languishing collection of animal mummies as a research project … Today the animal mummies are one of the most popular exhibits in the whole treasure-filled museum.”

In addition to her work on animal mummies, Ikram is the co-director of a major excavation project at the North Kharga Oasis, a large area west of Luxor, Egypt, containing archaeological sites dating from the prehistoric period to the nineteenth century AD. She is the author of 14 books, including nine volumes about ancient Egypt for young readers.

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has recognized Juliet Goodfriend ’63 as a 2009 Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania.  “Women recognized as Distinguished Daughters are those whose achievements on a national and statewide scale have been so outstanding that they have brought honor and respect to the commonwealth,” says the Pennsylvania Commission for ... Read more»]]> Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has recognized Juliet Goodfriend ’63 as a 2009 Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania.  “Women recognized as Distinguished Daughters are those whose achievements on a national and statewide scale have been so outstanding that they have brought honor and respect to the commonwealth,” says the Pennsylvania Commission for Women on its Web site.

According to the commission, Goodfriend “is the retired founder and President of Strategic Marketing Corporation, a global custom marketing research and consulting firm to the pharmaceutical industry.  She created, and is president of Bryn Mawr Film Institute, the restored historic movie theater and film education center which serves 6000 members and provides a year-round program of movies and film courses for students of all ages. Her experience inspired her to help create NELI, the nonprofit executive leadership program at Bryn Mawr College.  Goodfriend continues to address national audiences and undergraduates around the country as a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow.”

The New York University Press recently published Boulevard of Dreams: Heady Times, Heartbreak, and Hope along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx by veteran New York Times writer and editor Constance Rosenblum ’65. The book traces the 100-year history of the four-mile-long Grand Boulevard and Concourse, a broad avenue that ... Read more»]]> The New York University Press recently published Boulevard of Dreams: Heady Times, Heartbreak, and Hope along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx by veteran New York Times writer and editor Constance Rosenblum ’65. The book traces the 100-year history of the four-mile-long Grand Boulevard and Concourse, a broad avenue that was designed to echo the grandeur of the Champs-Elysée of Paris. Serving as a road to prosperity for the upwardly mobile Jewish families who first populated the neighborhoods surrounding it, the Grand Concourse later became a case study urban decay before its current period of renewal.

Scott Silverman, who earned an M.A. in history from Bryn Mawr in 1990 and served on the College’s library staff for more than 20 years, was appointed library director and coordinator of information services at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., last spring. He began work at Earlham on Aug. 1.

According ... Read more»]]> Scott Silverman, who earned an M.A. in history from Bryn Mawr in 1990 and served on the College’s library staff for more than 20 years, was appointed library director and coordinator of information services at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., last spring. He began work at Earlham on Aug. 1.

According to Bryn Mawr Chief Information Officer Elliott Shore (Ph. D. ’84), Silverman began his library career “as a cataloger in Canaday Library in 1984 and progressively accepted more responsibility within the library, in the Tri-College consortium and within Information Services. He became head of cataloging in 1988, head of technical services in 1995, and the licensing agent for the entire Tri-College library system in 2000. With the merger of all of the departments in Information Services, he took on the task of setting up the nodes as well as taking over the responsibility for budgeting for the consortium and for IS.”

In 2004, Silverman was the Library Journal’s non-fiction book reviewer of the year; he served on the American Library Association’s Notable Council from 2004 to 2006. He has completed the Frye Leadership Institute, a program designed to develop the next generation of higher-education leaders emerging from IT and library backgrounds.

Classical archaeologist Leslie Preston Day ’66 has been named the Charles D. and Elizabeth S. LaFollette Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Wabash College. She is the first woman to hold the post.

Day, who first taught at Wabash as a visiting assistant professor in 1977 and joined its permanent faculty ... Read more»]]> Classical archaeologist Leslie Preston Day ’66 has been named the Charles D. and Elizabeth S. LaFollette Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Wabash College. She is the first woman to hold the post.

Day, who first taught at Wabash as a visiting assistant professor in 1977 and joined its permanent faculty as an assistant professor in 1983, has employed about 40 Wabash students as interns at her excavation site at Kavousi, on the island of Crete. Her first student intern, Tom Brogan, graduated from Wabash in 1988 and later followed Day’s footsteps to Bryn Mawr’s Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, from which he earned his Ph.D. in 1999.

A prolific scholar, Day has published five books and has another five in progress. Her work in Kavousi has been funded by grants from the National Geographic Society, the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, the Packard Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society, and the Universities of Tennessee and Minnesota. In 2005, she was appointed to the the Whitehead Professorship at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.

Filmmaker Sarah Schenck ’87 has been selected as a 2009-10 Fellow of Bryn Mawr’s Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center. The Hepburn Fellows Program brings to Bryn Mawr’s campus individuals who bridge academics and practice in nontraditional or unconventional ways in any of the three broad areas the Hepburn Center supports: film ... Read more»]]> Filmmaker Sarah Schenck ’87 has been selected as a 2009-10 Fellow of Bryn Mawr’s Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center. The Hepburn Fellows Program brings to Bryn Mawr’s campus individuals who bridge academics and practice in nontraditional or unconventional ways in any of the three broad areas the Hepburn Center supports: film and theater, women’s health and civic engagement.

Schenck became a filmmaker after a career in public-education policy. In 2004, she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for producing Virgin, directed by Deborah Kampmeier and starring Robin Wright Penn and Elisabeth Moss; she made her directorial debut with Slippery Slope, a comedy about feminism and pornography that won the “Best Feature” award at the 2007 Broad Humor Film Festival in Los Angeles. Four other Bryn Mawr graduates—Kristen Coveleskie ’06, Kristy Fallica ’06, Sarah Melker ’06, and Andrea Piskora’ 04—worked with Schenck on Slippery Slope at various stages of its production, thanks to Schenck’s participation in the Bryn Mawr-Haverford Career Development Office’s extern program.

Schenck has made numerous documentaries for nonprofit organizations such as Amnesty International and Project Renewal and is member of Wide Iris, an alliance of filmmakers focused on issues of social justice, environmental sustainability, and arts advocacy.

The American Society for Cell Biology has announced that Toby Horn ’71, the co-director of the Carnegie Academy for Science Education in Washington, D.C., is the recipient of the 2009 Bruce Alberts Award for Excellence in Science Education. The award will be presented at the society’s December meeting.

Horn is a ... Read more»]]> The American Society for Cell Biology has announced that Toby Horn ’71, the co-director of the Carnegie Academy for Science Education in Washington, D.C., is the recipient of the 2009 Bruce Alberts Award for Excellence in Science Education. The award will be presented at the society’s December meeting.

Horn is a molecular and developmental biologist who began teaching after a postdoc at the Johns Hopkins University and a term as a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute. She established one of the first precollege biotechnology programs in the country at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia before serving as the outreach coordinator for the Fralin Biotechnology Center at Virginia Tech. Since 2001 she has been at CASE, where she works in the D.C. public schools to train teachers and students in the art of teaching and learning science. She is the principal investigator for a project called DCBiotech: Improving Opportunities for Urban Minority Students and a past president of the National Association of Biology Teachers

Reported by the Carnegie Institution for Science.

Jane Monnig Atkinson ’71, the vice president and provost of Lewis & Clark College, has been appointed interim president of Lewis & Clark. She will serve as interim president from Aug. 1 until the college’s board of trustees approves a new president to succeed Thomas Hochstettler, who announced his intention ... Read more»]]> Jane Monnig Atkinson ’71, the vice president and provost of Lewis & Clark College, has been appointed interim president of Lewis & Clark. She will serve as interim president from Aug. 1 until the college’s board of trustees approves a new president to succeed Thomas Hochstettler, who announced his intention to step down as Lewis & Clark’s president in March.

Atkiknson graduated from Bryn Mawr with an A.B. in anthropology and went on to earn her M.A. and Ph.D. in that discipline from Stanford University. She joined Lewis & Clark’s faculty as an assistant professor of anthropology in 1978 and has since served the college as chair of the department of sociology and anthropology, director of the gender studies program, dean of social sciences, and dean of the college of arts and sciences. She assumed her current position as vice president and provost in 2000.