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September 21, 2012

Art of Science images to be displayed at Liberty Science Center

(Image: Kwangseok Lee *07, Lynn Loo, and Philip Chew/ Courtesy Princeton Art of Science)

Selections from Princeton’s annual Art of Science competition are finding a new audience at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, N.J. Through March 17, 2013, visitors to the science center will be able to view 45 colorful and scientifically interesting photos from the campus contest, first held in 2005. Emeritus professor Emmet Gowin and Joel Smith *01, the former curator of photography at the Princeton University Art Museum, selected the images for the exhibition, which opened Sept. 15.

The photo at right, “Electric Pop Art,” was submitted for the 2010 competition by Kwangseok Lee *07, Professor Lynn Loo, and Philip Chew in the chemical and biological engineering department and shows a transistor in which the interlocking metal electrodes have been replaced with less expensive plastic. “This same material can be used to make electrical contacts in solar cells and electronic displays,” the researchers noted.

September 18, 2012

Humanities Colloquium looks at film studies in a digital world

The sixth annual Humanities Colloquium on Sept. 12 included a panel on "The State of Film Studies – at Princeton and in General." (Photo: ©iStockphoto.com/Barssé)

Princeton’s sixth annual Humanities Colloquium on Sept. 12 concluded with a lively discussion of the state of film studies at the University and at large. On the panel were four professors from the departments of German, visual arts, English, and comparative literature – a mix of academic fields that reflects Princeton’s multidisciplinary approach to film studies, in the absence of a dedicated program or department. An undergraduate certificate in film is offered by the visual arts program.

In P. Adams Sitney’s view, the deficiency in film studies is especially grim. A renowned scholar of avant-garde cinema, Sitney has taught film at Princeton for 32 years and fought tirelessly both for the recognition of film studies as an autonomous discipline and for the creation of a University film archive on par with those at peer institutions Harvard and Yale. Now Sitney admits that the “fight to maintain film has been lost” — derailed in no small measure by a generation “bred to think they had seen a film when they had looked at their furniture instead.”

His comment alluded to a cause celebre within the film community: the ongoing transition from photochemical to digital filmmaking. Today’s films are, almost without exception, produced and projected digitally, stripped of the rich color and grain of traditional celluloid stock. But perhaps more dire than the loss in image quality is the loss in cinematic experience, as films are increasingly seen on the small screen of a computer or smartphone. While digital technology has made filmmaking cheaper and more accessible, empowering the next generation of artists, it has also made filmgoing private and banal.

For those reasons, Keith Sanborn called the present “the best of times and the worst of times” for film. Sanborn is a filmmaker and video artist who teaches filmmaking at Princeton. He describes his pedagogical approach as “reinventing the wheel” — that is, “reinventing [students’] consciousness of their position as a historical subject.”

Continue reading Humanities Colloquium looks at film studies in a digital world…

September 13, 2012

Back to school

Photo by Sameer A. Khan

It’s official: Princeton’s 2012-13 academic year began this morning with the start of fall classes. Members of the Class of 2016 were welcomed to campus in a series of events that included the Pre-rade and the Freshman Step Sing, pictured above, Sept. 9. There are 1,357 students in the incoming class, representing 48 states plus Washington, D.C., and 57 countries.

August 21, 2012

New eLab program helps student startups prepare for launch

From left, Christine Baluvelt '12, Arielle Sandor '12, Luke Paulsen '14, and Eric Kuto '12 of the startup Duma present at the eLab demo program Aug. 15. (Photo: Gavin Schlissel '13)

The Princeton entrepreneurship lab (or eLab) hosted its inaugural demo day Aug. 15, showcasing startups founded by Princeton students. The presentations were the culmination of 10 weeks spent in the Keller Center’s new startup incubator, which grants summer fellowships for Princeton students to found companies under the guidance of professors and local entrepreneurs.

This summer’s startups included two social entrepreneurship ventures — one aimed at the Kenyan job market and another designed to incentivize academic achievement for at-risk children — as well as a new web library and a digital marketplace.

The eLab incubator funds students to stay at Princeton over the summer while they build businesses. Cornelia Huellstrunk, associate director of the Keller Center and administrator of the eLab program, explained that creating a community of entrepreneurs was critical to developing eLab’s first group of startups. Sharing work space, collaborating with peers, and participating in entrepreneurial training “gave students a unique opportunity to develop their ventures,” Huellstrunk said.

The summer eLab program is an offshoot of recent demand on campus for a stronger culture of entrepreneurism. For Duma, a text-message based job placement service in Kenya, the summer at eLab was the culmination of a plan that hatched at a Princeton hackathon — a kind of 24-hour jumpstart event designed to expose budding entrepreneurs to industry mentors.

Duma cofounder Arielle Sandor ’12 explained that the long-term, highly specialized mentorship eLab participants received distinguished it from the more informal hackathon setting. “Hackathons are short and you get the minimum viable product out, and don’t really focus on business model,” said Sandor. Over the summer, Sandor explained, eLab offered “a very different kind of mentorship — much more holistic.”

Continue reading New eLab program helps student startups prepare for launch…

August 20, 2012

Chen '14's Dale Award film project explores gender fluidity in Thailand

Vivienne Chen '14 (Photo: Courtesy Vivienne Chen)

For the fourth post in our summer series about Dale Award recipients, we asked PAW contributor Vivienne Chen ’14 to describe her own project, a filmmaking venture that took her to Thailand in June and July. The Martin A. Dale ’53 Summer Awards provide financial support for rising juniors pursuing independent creative projects.

Nothing seems more out of place in Bangkok than a 20-year-old Chinese American female toting a Canon 60D video camera and looking to make an artistic documentary about Thailand’s transgender individuals.

But two months later — with nearly 80 gigabytes of film footage, dozens of bilingual interviews, and a preview trailer on YouTube — I’m attempting to do precisely that.

I first became aware of the Thai community of “ladyboys,” who are born male but look like and live as females, when I visited Thailand last summer on vacation. I work closely with the LGBT community in America, including at Princeton’s LGBT Center, but until Thailand, I had never seen such open and prominent instances of Asian gender fluidity before, especially not in my native China. I wanted to explore whether our journeys through understanding our bodies and our place in the world were similar, and whether Thailand was really the safe haven for sexual diversity that it appeared to be.

Continue reading Chen '14's Dale Award film project explores gender fluidity in Thailand…

August 13, 2012

On tour in Edinburgh

Lily Gold ’14 and Izzy Kasdin ’14 (Photo Courtesy Izzy Kasdin ’14 and Lily Gold ’14)

A group of students from the student-run musical theater organization Princeton University Players is taking a show on the road – to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Edinburgh, Scotland. Izzy Kasdin ’14 and Lily Gold ’14 are co-directing Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s dark and witty musical Assassins Aug. 20-25. Assassins deals with nine individuals who either killed United States presidents or tried to and failed.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe attracted some 21,000 performers last year who staged about 2,500 productions in and around the city. Kasdin and Gold will travel to Scotland with a cast of 10, plus musical director Luke Massa ’13 and technical director Ariceli Alfaro ’13.

It took the co-directors months to decide which show to take on tour. “It had to be something that would play well internationally and also would fit the fringe idea of being able to be performed anywhere,” said Gold.

Continue reading On tour in Edinburgh…

August 3, 2012

Ai Weiwei sculpture begins year-long exhibition in Princeton

Photo: Marianne Nelson/PAW

The appointment of new dean Cecilia Rouse was the most newsworthy change at the Woodrow Wilson School this week, but the addition of “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads,” a sculpture by the Chinese artist and social activist Ai Weiwei, may be a close second. The installation will be on display in Scudder Plaza through Aug. 1, 2013, and according to Ai’s exhibit website, it was inspired by traditional sculptures “that once adorned the famed fountain-clock of the Yuanming Yuan, an imperial retreat in Beijing.” Ai helped to design Beijing’s Olympic National Stadium and also made headlines in 2011 when he was detained by Chinese authorities for 81 days.

July 30, 2012

Rouse named Wilson School dean

Cecilia Rouse (Photo: Jon Roemer/Office of Communications)

Economics and public affairs professor Cecilia Rouse has been named the new dean of the Woodrow Wilson School. Rouse, a faculty member for two decades, fills the post previously held by Christina Paxson, who resigned in June to become president of Brown University.

Rouse is a well-known scholar of the economics of education. She served as a member of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers from 2009 to 2011.

In an announcement of the appointment, President Tilghman said, “Her scholarly distinction in the fields of labor economics and education policy, coupled with her extensive experience in Washington, epitomize the best of the school’s tradition of applying rigorous social science research to inform public policy.”

“My goal will be to elevate even further the school’s stature and impact in the policy arena,” Rouse said. “It should be the go-to place for anyone interested in dynamic, insightful, timely domestic and international policy analysis and dialogue, and where a diverse set of undergraduate and graduate students are trained to become the policy leaders of the future."

Rouse joined the Princeton faculty in 1992 after earning her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. In 2001, she started the Education Research Section, an interdisciplinary unit at the Wilson School that promotes the use of research in education decision-making.

July 30, 2012

Social-media showdown: Princeton and the 'Alumpics'

As the world turns its attention to the London Olympics, alumni from Princeton and several peer institutions will have a chance to compete for gold of a different kind on Facebook. The Alumni Association of Princeton University is one of nine groups participating in Alumpics 2012, a friendly social media contest that aims to find out which college has the most spirited alumni.

The competition includes five Ivy League schools plus Stanford and MIT. Beginning July 30, each school will post a daily alumni-related photo (or “alumpic”) on Facebook and ask alumni fans to click the “like” button. Medals will be awarded to the top three schools at the end of each day (weekdays only, through Aug. 10). At the end of the competition, the leader in the medal count will be named the Alumpics champion.

Visit the Alumni Association of Princeton University Facebook page to see today’s alumpic and join the contest.

July 26, 2012

Shum '14 explores tradition and ritual of European coffee houses

This is the third post in our summer series about Dale Award recipients.

Greta Shum '14 takes notes at the Sacher café. (Photo: Courtesy Greta Shum)

While many Princeton students associate coffee with Dean’s Date and Friday-morning precepts, Greta Shum’ 14 is spending her summer studying the beverage across the Atlantic – not as an antidote to sleep deprivation, but as a rich tradition steeped in artistry and rituals.

Armed with a Martin A. Dale ’53 Summer Award and the German language proficiency she picked up in her first two years at Princeton, Shum left for Vienna June 7 to observe and write about the historic coffee house culture of Vienna. She has visited over 30 coffee houses so far, and hopes to profile each one.

“I brought three notebooks to Vienna and filled all of them in the first month,” she said, noting that she has talked to waiters, tourists, and other coffee lovers to get a stronger feel for the coffee-house culture. Coffee houses became something of a “salon culture” in the area after being brought by foreigners from Turkey and Italy, according to Shum. In Vienna, sitting down with a newspaper and a cup of coffee in a coffee house is standard practice for many. The establishments typically are very elegant, with newspapers available in holders and well-dressed waiters. “People here have developed a very interesting sort of ‘snobbery’ about it the way they have about wine,” said Shum, who is herself slowly learning the difference between “good” and “bad” coffee with the aid of a course at a barista school.

Continue reading Shum '14 explores tradition and ritual of European coffee houses…

July 23, 2012

Freelancer Satok '14 chronicles his Olympic adventures

This is the second post in our summer series about Dale Award recipients.

Ari Satok '14 poses in front of the Tower Bridge and its Olympic rings. (Photo: Courtesy Ari Satok)

Of the thousands of journalists covering the London Olympics, freelance blogger Ari Satok ’14 may have one of the most enviable assignments. Satok, a recipient of the Martin A. Dale ’53 Summer Award, goes where he wants to go, interviews anyone who is willing talk, and writes about the things that grab his interest on a website devoted to his project, arisolympicadventures.com.

There are a few drawbacks, of course. As a non-credentialed reporter, Satok will have limited opportunities to speak with the Olympics’ biggest stars – though he has been in touch with some of Princeton’s Olympians and other athletes from his native Canada. He also nabbed a brief interview with Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee sprinter who will represent South Africa in the Olympic track and field competition.

Being outside the press room “just means that I’m going to have to be more creative,” Satok said, covering stories and angles that other media outlets might overlook.

In his first two weeks in London, Satok has been writing stories, shooting photos and video, and recording brief radio-style news capsules about the buildup to the games. He’s spent part of his time in parks and public spaces, talking with the city’s residents – some who are excited and others who are dreading the impending congestion.

Continue reading Freelancer Satok '14 chronicles his Olympic adventures …

July 10, 2012

Aspire, Annual Giving break records

Princeton’s five-year Aspire campaign concluded June 30 after raising a record-breaking $1.88 billion and surpassing the goal of $1.75 billion. More than 65,000 donors contributed, including 77 percent of all undergraduate alumni.

The campaign was bolstered by contributions to Annual Giving in the final year, which also set a new record: $57.2 million contributed by more than 36,000 alumni. The Class of 1987 gave $11,001,987, an all-time high. Eight other classes raised more than $1 million: 1952, 1962, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1992, and 1997. Graduate alumni topped $1 million for the eighth consecutive year, and Princeton parents surpassed $3 million for the first time.

Contributions to Aspire helped fund several major projects, including the Lewis Center for the Arts, the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, the renovation of Butler College, and the construction of new athletic facilities and a bridge spanning Washington Road. They also support undergraduate financial aid, graduate fellowships, new professorships, and the bridge-year program for incoming freshmen.

President Tilghman said in a statement that the Aspire campaign “has reinforced our traditional strengths while allowing us to break new ground.”

Recently in Campus News

September 21, 2012

Art of Science images to be displayed at Liberty Science Center

September 18, 2012

Humanities Colloquium looks at film studies in a digital world

September 13, 2012

Back to school

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August 21, 2012

New eLab program helps student startups prepare for launch

August 20, 2012

Chen '14's Dale Award film project explores gender fluidity in Thailand

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August 13, 2012

On tour in Edinburgh

August 3, 2012

Ai Weiwei sculpture begins year-long exhibition in Princeton

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July 30, 2012

Rouse named Wilson School dean

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July 30, 2012

Social-media showdown: Princeton and the 'Alumpics'

July 26, 2012

Shum '14 explores tradition and ritual of European coffee houses

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July 23, 2012

Freelancer Satok '14 chronicles his Olympic adventures

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July 10, 2012

Aspire, Annual Giving break records

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