Author: Jacob Canon

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Lefler Book tapped to win Prize

Melvyn P. Leffler, Professor of History at the University of Virginia, will receive the American Historical Association’s 2008 George Louis Beer Prize for his book “For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War.”

Leffler, named the Randolph Jennings Fellow at the United States Institution for Peace in 2004 and Henry A. Kissinger Fellow in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress in 2004 said he was surprised and deeply gratified by the award, which he will receive in January at the association’s annual meeting in New York City.

Leffler said he has a passion for the history of foreign relations because international diplomacy involves “some of the most important things — war and peace, life and death…”and he went on to say, “This is the best prize the American Historical Association gives to a writer of history of international relations. It is exhilarating to be able to step down from the deanship and revive one’s scholarly career.”

For more information about the show or to see the full text, visit the Oscar Show’s blog

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Childhood Obesity: Discussion with Amy Boitnott

In today’s show, based on a recent article by Jane Ford, Senior News officer for the Office of Public Affairs, we introduce and speak with UVa Graduate, and the Commonwealth’s first ever Doctor of Nursing Practice Degree recipient, Amy Drake Boitnott.

On November 14, 2008, the UVa Nursing School granted the Commonwealth’s first ever Doctor of Nursing Practice Degree to Amy Drake Boitnott. John Kirchgessner, assistant professor of nursing and chairman of Boitnott’s review committee said, the DNP differs from a Ph.D. mainly in the focus of the research. A Ph.D.’s primary interest is in pure research. A DNP is a clinical scholar who uses evidence-based research to develop interventions that may improve clinical practice.

Boitnott, an instructor at the School of Nursing since 2004, and a practicing nurse since 1991, recently sat down to discuss her main clinical focus, childhood obesity…

For more information about the show or to see the full text, visit the Oscar Show’s blog


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Napolitano Tapped by Obama for Homeland Security Secretary

In today’s show, adapted from an article written by Mary Wood, Director of Communications for the School of Law at the University of Virginia, we discuss UVa Graduate, Janet Napolitano, who was named as the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a Cabinet-level post, by President-elect Barack Obama.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, a 1983 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, has been nominated as the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Dean Paul G. Mahoney said, “Governor Napolitano has dedicated her career to public service, fulfilling an ideal that the University of Virginia Law School holds dear. The nation is fortunate that President-elect Obama has chosen to bring her wide-ranging talents to a vitally important position.”

For more information about the show or to see the full text, visit the Oscar Show’s blog


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UVa and the Obama Transition Team

In today’s show, adapted from an article written by Mary Wood, Director of Communications for the School of Law at the University of Virginia, we look at The University of Virginia’s connections to the transition team for President-Elect Barack Obama.

Over the past weeks, candidates for President -elect Obama’s cabinet and transition team have been vetted so that the president-elect can make them offers to be part of the new team that will lead our nation over the next 4 years, following the inauguration scheduled for January 20, 2009.

Since the Commonwealth of Virginia went “blue” for the first time since 1964, there names connected to the Commonwealth that have been considered for posts in the new administration.

For more information about the show or to see the full text, visit the Oscar Show’s blog



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Habeas Corpus and Ensuring Constitutional Protections

In today’s show, adapted from an article written by freelance writer Karen Doss Bowman, we discuss the work of UVa Professor Paul Halliday, and his research of Habeas Corpus, the only specific right enshrined in the US Constitution.

Habeas corpus, the judicial means by which prisoners may demand that their jailer show a valid reason for their detention, is considered a bedrock of personal liberty in U.S. law–and is the only specific right enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

For more information about the show or to see the full text, visit the Oscar Show’s blog


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Gitmo and “The Response”

In our previous show we reflected on several of the movies showcased at this year’s Virginia Film Festival. In today’s show, we will examine “The Response,” a short film about the Guantanamo Bay War Tribunals and the plight of Guantanamo detainees by Sig Libowitz, screened at this year’s Virginia Film Festival.

During the course of the seven years since 9-11, the United States and its elected representatives have made calculated moves to deal with the declared “War on Terror.” Because of the nature of this global war, which is based more in backrooms around the world than on battlefields, it has become increasingly difficult to have concrete ideas about whom and where we are, or should be fighting.

Because of the clandestine nature of the war, the measures to combat it have also taken a more covert form, including… Abu Ghraib… and more recently, Guantanamo Bay. These Prisoner Detentions Camps were set up in an effort to isolate suspected enemy combatants from battle regions and interrogate them so that the war in the Gulf, and on Terror could be mitigated.

For more information about the show or to see the full text, visit the Oscar Show’s blog


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Reflections from the 2008 Virginia Film Festival

In our previous show we previewed this year’s Virginia Film Festival, hosted by the University of Virginia. In today’s show, we will relive and reflect on the events of this year’s Virginia film festival.

This year’s Virginia Film Festival, hosted by the University of Virginia, kicked off Thursday Evening, Oct. 30, and featured some80 films and 100 guests exploring images of immigrants, outsiders and extraterrestrials.

As in years past, the Festival included Stars and events that will be remembered for years to come. Thursday’s Opening of Lake City was no exception. The featured guests included the film’s writer/directors Perry Moore and Hunter Hill, producers Mark Johnson and Weiman Seid, Sissy Spacek, Lake City’s male lead Troy Garity and his mother, Jane Fonda…

For more information about the show or to see the full text, visit the Oscar Show’s blog

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2008 Virginia Film Festival

In today’s show, adapted from an article written by John Kelly, we will preview this year’s Virginia Film Festival, hosted by the University of Virginia.

This year’s Virginia Film Festival, hosted by the University of Virginia, will kick off tomorrow, Oct. 30, and will feature some 80 films and 100 guests exploring the fearful and alluring images of immigrants, outsiders and extraterrestrials alike.

One of the highlights will be a special 70th-anniversary rebroadcast of Orson Welles’ classic radio play, “The War of the Worlds, ” tomorrow at 7 p.m. in the McCormick Observatory. And at 10 p.m., the Culbreth Theatre will be screening George Pal’s film classic, “War of the Worlds.” Pal biographer and Charlottesville resident Justin Humphreys will introduce the film.

For more information about the show or to see the full text, visit the Oscar Show’s blog

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Road Trip: Professor’s book on bus travel reveals portrait of America

Author Kath Weston, an Anthropology PhD from Stanford University, grew up in a working-class family and attended college with the help of financial aid, took her first bus trip alone when she was 16, and that unforgettable trip showed her that traveling on the bus was much more than just a way to get somewhere.

Before joining the University of Virginia faculty this fall, she spent more than five years crisscrossing the nation on buses, chronicling the lives of Americans who travel via the least expensive mass transportation option. She refers to her new book, Traveling Light: On the Road with America’s Poor, as a journey full of unexpected richness. Her new book describes her fellow passengers’ colorful humanity and tackles issues of class, race and dubious access to America’s opportunities.

For more information about the show or to see the full text, visit the Oscar Show’s blog

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Eyeing the Biological Clock

In today’s show, adapted from an article written by Fariss Samarrai, Senior News Officer for the Office of Public Affairs, we will look at a team of UVa researchers who have discovered a switching mechanism in the eye that plays a key role in regulating the sleep/wake cycles in mammals.

Biologists at the University of Virginia have discovered a switching mechanism in the eye that plays a key role in regulating the sleep/wake cycles in mammals. The new finding demonstrates that light receptor cells in the eye are central to setting the rhythms of the brain’s primary timekeeper, the suprachiasmatic nuclei, which regulates activity and rest cycles. The finding appears in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Susan Doyle, a research scientist at U.Va. and the study’s lead investigator said, “The finding is significant because it changes our understanding of how light input from the eye can affect activity and sleep patterns.”

For more information about the show or to see the full text, visit the Oscar Show’s blog

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Large Hadron Collider Begins Operation in Geneva

In today’s show, adapted from an article written by Fariss Samarrai, Senior News Officer for the Office of Public Affairs, we will discuss the work of Brad Cox, professor of physics and a principal investigator with the University of Virginia’s High Energy Physics Group and his teams involvement with the new Large Hadron Collider near Geneva Switzerland.

In a recent show we discussed UVa researcher team’s attempt to verify or refute the existence of the Higgs Boson. On September 10, 2008, an international team of scientists circulated the first beam of protons at nearly the speed of light around the 17-mile Large Hadron Collider on the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. The $3.2 billion LHC, under construction for 15 years, is now the world’s most powerful particle accelerator.

For more information about the show or to see the full text, visit the Oscar Show’s blog


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Reflections on Race and Gender in Politics Forum

In today’s show, we share comments and reflections from the UVa Faculty Roundtable concerning Race and Gender in Politics.

Last Thursday, the Miller Center of Public Affairs hosted the UVa Faculty Round Table on Race and Gender in Politics. Sponsored by the University of Virginia’s Arts & Sciences Magazine, the forum was moderated by Douglas Blackmon, the Atlanta bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal. The panel included UVa faculty members, Paul Freedman, Brian Nosek, Lynn Sanders, Vesla Weaver and Nick Winter.

Moderator, Douglas Blackmon called this point in time “an extraordinary moment in American history and American discourse,” while Associate Politics Professor Paul Freedman referred to this time as “Christmas” for political scientists because of the multicultural base of the presidential candidates.

Freedman said the implicit message in political advertising is the important element of political ads. An example of this was a 2006 Republican ad run in Tennessee, concerning Democrat, Harold Ford, Jr. Freedman said, the ad included “a white woman who claimed to have had met Harold at the Playboy Party and she suggested that he call her, the ad concluded with the text on the screen, Harold Ford…’he’s just not right.’ And many people suggested that the implicit message was, ‘he’s just not white.'” Freedman added this year’s election has seen less of these types of messages.

For more information about the show or to see the full text, visit the Oscar Show’s blog