12.17.08
Posted in Jacob Canon, The Oscar Show, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia, history at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
In today’s show, based on a recent article by Matt Kelly, News Writer with the Office of Public Affairs, we look at former dean of UVa’s College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Melvyn P. Leffler, who recently was named to 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.”
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.
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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.”
Published in 2007, Leffler’s book examines four crucial episodes during the Cold War when American and Soviet leaders considered modulating, avoiding or ending hostilities, and asks why they failed. He then illuminates how U.S. and Soviet leaders were able to reconfigure Soviet-American relations after decades of confrontation.”
Interested in why it lasted as long as it did and why it ended when it did, Leffler concluded that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, without losing his faith in communism, transformed many of his ideological views on what was necessary to improve the political and economic systems in Russia. Leffler also credited U.S. President Ronald Reagan with building up the U.S. military and then negotiating from that position of strength.
Leffler said, “The importance of Reagan was that he did want to negotiate with the men who ran the ‘Evil Empire.’”
Duane Osheim, chairman of U.Va.’s history department, said, “Mel is internationally recognized as a scholar of the Cold War and he richly deserves this prize. His book is an important work on United States foreign policy during the Cold War. It is instructive because of the thoughtfulness he gives to the values and the ideology of both sides…”
The Economist, a respected news magazine, praised the book as “a highly relevant and much-needed historical study, one of the best books on the period to have been written.”
Leffler is currently co-editing, with Norwegian scholar Odd Arne Westad, the three-volume Cambridge History of the Cold War, a project that has engaged the pair for the past eight years.
Ann Goldberg, associate professor of history at the University of California-Riverside, who chaired the award committee that selected Leffler’s book, said “The Soul of Mankind” is a “masterful treatment” that will become required reading. Using newly accessible archival sources, Leffler constructs a richly nuanced, empirically rigorous history of the Cold War that avoids the ideological blinkers of past Cold War scholarship”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. The College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia, WTJU and myself would like to thank you for joining us this past year as we have examined many different people and points of interest concerning UVa and its impact on the world.
Please tune in during the next semester to enjoy our new weekly show brought to you by UVA Today.
Did you miss a show? Then go to www.wtju.net and click on “blogs & pods” or just Google, “The Oscar Show.” Questions about this program; please call WTJU at 434-924-0885 or email at wtju@virginia.edu.
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12.10.08
Posted in Anthropology, Cognitive Science, Consumer Culture, Education, Jacob Canon, Kluge, Obesity, The Oscar Show, University of Virginia, biology, physical health at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
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.
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Asked about the focus of her work, Boitnott said, “As part of taking care of children, our patient is not just the child, our patient is the family. And I began to recognize and the see the interactions between parent and child, and responses that the children have to their disease process, based on their parents responses. So, it’s all intertwined, and that was very interesting to me, that my patient was not just this one person and one body, it was this entire dynamic of a family.”
Boitnott said her work was unique, “We’re doing something very different… than is currently being done… in this study …and in my intervention. We’re directly targeting the parent exclusively from their child.”
Concerning childhood obesity and some of the contributing factors, Boitnott said, “childhood obesity has increased by over 30 percent in the past 30 years. So there is a huge issue now. It’s considered a(n) epidemic now in our country and globally.”
“And there are so many factors which are thought to contribute to the increased incidence, anywhere from the comfort foods. Foods are now more easily accessible, they’re pre-packaged… they’re fast foods… fast foods are cheaper. So parents and families who are on the go, more than they are 30 years ago, can quickly go through those kinds of things. So that is one thing… Food availability.”
“Another thing is our children are having more sedentary time than they use to, and because of technology and all of these wonderful things that the internet and the TV provides our children. It is sedentary activity none the less, so that is another issue.”
“Urban Sprawl has a factor in it. Kids use to walk to friend’s houses and walk to school, and walk to the store. It doesn’t happen as much as it used to because our communities are farther from those places.”
Boitnott said, “It’s very devastating to see the children and the families that we see in the clinic. They’ve been afflicted with this horrible thing of Obesity. And, I (just) think that what we can do in the clinic… that hopefully this intervention will go into the primary care arena. I am a primary care nurse practitioner, I see people where they come for that sore throat, and for those kinds of things. And if we can then add in education and knowledge about obesity patterns and trends and what we can do to avoid them, in every interaction we have with patients, I think that it is so very important to make this preventative.”
But added, “There’s not one simple answer, that’s the thing… There’s so many answers and so many things, and it’s going to a problem in our country for some time.”
When asked about the major behaviors that people could adopt to help fight this trend in their own lives Boitnott said, “I think that one major thing is the sedentary lifestyles… Just moving, and moving our bodies, and finding ways to move them with our family members…”
“And the other major thing is making wise decisions at the grocery store in what you’re going to bring into your home. Because a lot of my patients will say, “I got that bag of chips and he just wants a couple of them.” Well it’s really hard for a child when they see something they really want… so the parent controlling the nutrition habits and what is brought into the home… controlling that environment, because children still need help with making those decisions.”
For those families who would like more information, Boitnott referenced America on the Move.org for information on nutrition and activities for the family. For families to participate in the clinic, their child must be in the 85th percentile to be considered for the 6 month intervention. If they are, she directs them to call the Children’s Fitness Clinic at the Kluge Rehabilitation Center for more information. Their phone number is 434-982-1627.
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when we will look at former dean of UVa’s College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Melvyn P. Leffler, who recently was named to 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.”
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12.03.08
Posted in Government, Homeland Security, Jacob Canon, Obama, Politics, The Oscar Show, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia, War on Terror, elections at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
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.”
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Chosen by Time magazine in 2005 as one of America’s top five governors, Napolitano recently concluded her term as the first woman and first Arizonan chosen to chair the National Governors Association. Elected governor of Arizona in 2002 and re-elected in 2006, she is the first woman in the nation’s history to serve as U.S. attorney, state attorney general and governor in immediate succession.
In a 2007 interview with UVA Lawyer magazine, Napolitano stressed the importance of bipartisan governance and said neither party has a monopoly on good ideas.
Napolitano said, “It is necessary for us to reach across the aisle to build consensus. In the end, the voters don’t care whether you’re a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ — they want results… What did you do in education, in health care, on job development, to protect the environment? They want to know what you produced besides a fight. Excessive partisanship is troublesome because it’s an artificial limitation on thinking about what’s the best idea. And sometimes the best idea requires a compromise to get any of it done.”
After Napolitano took office, she erased a billion-dollar deficit without raising taxes or cutting funds for public schools. She made education one of the key issues in her administration, and started a voluntary full-day kindergarten program. She has also reformed the state’s Child Protective Services.
Napolitano helped create the Arizona Counter-Terrorism Information Center, a multi-agency intelligence fusion center that tracks and shares critical data. She created a prescription-discount plan for Arizona seniors and her administration expanded the state’s group health insurance plan to include more individuals and small businesses.
Prior to taking elected office, she served for four years as a U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona. Born in New York City and raised in Albuquerque, N.M., Napolitano is a graduate of Santa Clara University. She has lived in Arizona since 1983, when she moved to Phoenix to clerk for a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge and then practice law.
Napolitano joins several other Law School graduates with high-ranking national security posts. Kip Hawley, a 1980 alumnus, is the director of the Transportation Security Administration. Robert Mueller, a 1973 graduate, is the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and 1989 graduate Patrick Rowan is the assistant attorney general for national security.
Speaking at the Law School’s 2007 commencement, Napolitano challenged graduating students to make sense of the transformative nature of technology, international law and the rule of law.
Napolitano said, “Your job will be to sort out where to alter the law and where to leave it alone. To know the law is to know how to make this world better through its proper application and to practice law properly is to engage in public service of the highest order. Never forget that being an attorney is not just a job, it is a calling — it is a way of life.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when we will look at the Commonwealth’s first ever, Doctor of Nursing Practice Degree. The UVa Nursing School granted the historic first ever achievement, on November 14, 2008.
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