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Tom Cogill

U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno delivered the keynote address at the April 1 Law School conference marking the 40th anniversary of the Virginia Journal of International Law. The oldest student-edited international law journal in the world, it is recognized as one of the top scholarly publications in its field. Reno, responding to a student's question, appealed to Americans not to politicize the case of 6-year-old Cuban, Elian Gonzalez, and said that the boy should be returned to his father in Cuba.

Faculty Senate to continue research grants to students

By Anne Bromley

Pleased with the student response to its new Undergraduate Research Awards program, the Faculty Senate has decided to extend the program for three years, Faculty Senate chair David Gies reported at the group's meeting March 31.

Senators also heard reports from three of the four chairs of the Virginia 2020 commissions, from President John T. Casteen III on General Assembly activity and from the senate's academic affairs and research and scholarship committees.

The number of Undergraduate Research Awards will be increased from 25 to 40, and the offices of the president and provost will contribute funds to boost the pot up to $160,000 per year, Gies said. The awards this year, supported by a gift from David A. Harrison III, ranged from $1,880 to $3,000 each.

Biology professor Robert Grainger, who reported on activities of the research and scholarship committee, said the students who received the research awards this year were often eloquent in describing the relationship between research and teaching. His committee is preparing two position papers on the topic: one for an internal audience, in which they look at the barriers to finding a balance between the two areas, in terms of time, resources and incentives; and the second directed toward the larger, outside community to help people understand how research and teaching are vitally intertwined. Full story.

Professors Maus and Ramazani receive Guggenheim fellowships

By Robert Brickhouse

Two English professors have been chosen to receive prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships this year, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has announced. The awards, which provide a cash prize to allow recipients time to further their work, are given for unusually distinguished achievement and exceptional promise.

Professor Katharine Maus, an authority on the English Renaissance, will use her fellowship beginning next January to write a history of English literature for the period 1603-1660, to be published in Oxford University Press's English literary history series. Maus also has received an American Council of Learned Societies Senior Fellowship to help her pursue that project.

Professor Jahan Ramazani, a scholar of modern poetry, will use his Guggenheim Fellowship in the coming academic year to complete a book titled The Hybrid Muse: Postcolonial Poetry in English, to be published by the University of Chicago Press. He has also received a Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Fellowship for the spring semester. Full story.