New master named for Jonathan Edwards College
Music professor Richard Lalli ’80MusAM, ’86MusAD,
will become the master of Jonathan Edwards College in January 2009, when
current master Gary L. Haller steps down after 11 years of service. (For the Yale
Alumni Magazine report, see page 20.) Lalli's partner, Michael Rigsby ’88MD, medical director
of the Yale University Health Services, will become associate master.
"Richard and Michael have served as freshman advisers in JE College for
many years," said Peter Salovey, dean of Yale College, "and they have
well-deserved reputations as great supporters of student creativity and
initiative."
Professor Lalli has taught in the Department of Music
since 1982. He has recently been named artistic director of the Yale Baroque
Opera Project, which introduces undergraduates to aesthetic, stylistic, and
performance aspects of seventeenth-century Italian opera. For the past
six years he conducted the Yale Collegium Musicum, an ensemble devoted to early
music and started by Paul Hindemith in the 1940s; the Collegium regularly
performs works from manuscript at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript
Library. Lalli also teaches courses related to vocal performance, oversees the
instruction of Fundamentals of Music, and coordinates the Shen Musical Theater Curriculum.
College honors young faculty
Yale College has recently honored the work of five
young professors with prizes that recognize the contributions and achievements
of faculty early in their careers.
The Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Prize for Outstanding
Scholarly Publication or Research by Junior Faculty Members in the Humanities
is given in recognition of work that has made a significant contribution to
scholarship in the particular field of endeavor of a junior member of the
faculty in the humanities. The Heyman Prize was awarded this year to Assistant
Professor Ian Quinn of the music department and Assistant Professor Stefanie
Markovits of the English department. Professor Quinn was honored for his
two-part article, "General Equal-Tempered Harmony," published in the
journal Perspectives of New Music; Professor Markovits was recognized for her first book, The
Crisis of Action in Nineteenth-Century English Literature, an analysis of action/inaction and
character in the era's prose and poetry.
The Poorvu Family Prize for Interdisciplinary
Teaching recognizes outstanding members of the junior faculty who have
demonstrated excellence in teaching in interdisciplinary programs in the
liberal arts. This year's Poorvu prize honors Corinne Pache, associate
professor of classics, whose research and teaching interests involve Greek
archaic poetry, Greek religion and myth, and the modern reception of ancient
epic; Vivek Sharma, assistant professor of political science, who studies the
relationship between social institutions and political order, including
alliances, warfare, and violence; and Erin Lavik, assistant professor of
biomedical engineering, whose research centers on developing new therapeutic
approaches for the treatment of spinal cord injury and retinal degeneration.
Environmental studies graduate breaks new ground
This May, the first environmental studies major to
concentrate in the field of sustainable food and agriculture will receive a
diploma. This concentration, formalized in the fall of 2007, allows students to
spend their four years at Yale exploring issues of food, agriculture, and the
environment through an academic lens. There are currently two environmental
studies majors concentrating in sustainable food and agriculture, with one
graduating this spring. The concentration was developed in partnership with the
Yale Sustainable Food Project; the partnership allows concentrators to take
full advantage of the Sustainable Food Project's resources, including the Yale
Farm.