Lunch Colloquiums -- the New Normal

Speakers scheduled. Equipment installed. Hybrid meetings are now in session.

As you can see from the photos below, taken on Monday, January 30, members of the Emeritus College are once again gathering for lunch in Room 130 of the Luce Center. And those attending the Lunch Colloquium from home continue to be part of the meeting, as well as participate in the question-and-answer period.

There are a few more tweaks to be made, but overall, the new AV system in the room allows us ALL to enjoy and participate in our wonderful programming,

Lunch Colloquium -- WEDNESDAY, February 15, 2023

“Implications of Dobbs on Reproductive Health Education.”

AnnaMaria Maples, MD

Obstetrics and Gynecology, Emory University



The recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade triggered laws across at least 13 states that will end access to abortion for 1 in 3 women. Dr Maples will examine how state laws that ban abortions will change postgraduate medical education in women’s reproductive health.



About AnnaMaria Maples:

AnnaMaria Maples, MD is currently the first year Fellow in the Emory University Department of Gyn/Ob Complex Family Planning. She received her Bachelors in Liberal Arts and MD degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City combined six-year B.A/M.D. program and then completed her Obstetrics and Gynecology residency in the University of Central Florida/HCA GME Consortium program in Gainesville, FL. She has received the Ryan Resident of the Year Award in recognition of her commitment to education of Ob/Gyn residents and is currently researching the impact of Georgia’s six-week abortion ban on people with high-risk pregnancies in the state.





Lunch Colloquium -- TUESDAY, February 28, 2023

“Creating a World Class African American Archive at Emory"

Curators Randall Burkett and Clinton Fluker

Moderated by Rosemary Magee

For twenty-one years, Dr. Randall K. Burkett served as a driving force in acquiring one of the most extensive archives of African American history and culture among major research universities. These include rare books, manuscripts, serials, photographs, and print ephemera for the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archies, and Rare Book Library. Burkett focused on building relationships with authors, artists, thought leaders, and their families—who were looking to place their papers with a library that would steward them and provide access to academic researchers and the public.



About Randall K. Burkett and Clinton Fluker:

Dr. Burkett holds a PhD from the University of Southern California where he concentrated on African American religion. Prior to his arrival at Emory, he served as the associate director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University. In 1997, he was hired as Emory’s first curator for African American collections. Burkett played a key role in securing many important acquisitions, including the papers of writers Alice Walker and Pearl Cleage, historian Carter G. Woodson, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Robert Langmuir African American Photograph collection, and the extraordinary gift by Camille Billops and James Hatch of their priceless collection of rare books, manuscripts, photographs, and oral histories documenting the African American experience.

Following in these footsteps, while developing a singular pathway of his own, the current curator for African American collections at the Rose Library is Dr. Clinton Fluker, an Emory alumnus who previously worked in the Rose Library as a curatorial assistant and in the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship. He has also served as assistant director of engagement and scholarship at the Atlanta University Center’s Robert W. Woodruff Library, where he supervised the Archives Research Center and the GLAM Center for Collaborative Teaching and Learning.

Fluker sees his curatorial role as developing dynamic archival collections and innovative programming about African American history and culture. Fluker is the co-editor of The Black Speculative Arts Movement: Black Futurity, Art + Design (2019), a collection that enters the global scholarly debate on the emerging field of Afrofuturism studies. As a visual artist, Fluker had his work included in the New York Live Arts 2020 exhibition, “Curating the End of the World”; his interdisciplinary pieces are presented as meditations on the themes of memory and fragmentation. He is also the co-founder of LiFT Art Salon, a community engagement organization that creatively activates historic venues by collaborating with emerging artists, professionals, and social activists.

Bianchi-Bugge Excellence Awards

The Bianchi-Bugge Excellence Awards are named in honor of Eugene Bianchi, Professor Emeritus of Religion (1930-2022) and John Bugge, Professor Emeritus of English (1941-2018), co-founders of the Emory University Emeritus College.

Applicants may request non-renewable, twelve-month grants up to $2,000 to cover expenses incurred in pursuit of a broad range of activities, including, among others, research and writing, lecturing, training, development of teaching materials, and presentations at academic conferences, as well as presentations at public and related events in the community.

Applications, which are due March 28, 2023, are open to all retired members of the Emory University Emeritus College. Recipients of the award, selected from among the applicants, will be made by the Emeritus College Honors and Awards Committee.

Among criteria for selection, special consideration, to the extent possible, will be given to proposals describing projects exemplifying Gene Bianchi’s dedication to human endeavors that “promote the public good,” a sentiment shared and encouraged equally by his longtime colleague John Bugge. To promote the public good, as a practical matter, Bianchi believed in our seeking work, professional and personal, that can help aid society in overcoming its sometime “negative tendencies” and lead “toward personal and collective peace,” shaped by commitment to caring, compassion, empathy, and selflessness.

Applicants should submit the following:

1) A letter of application (limited to two pages) that describes in some detail the project to be undertaken - its purpose, the means of achieving that purpose, and its relevance to the applicant's own personal and professional development

2) a simple budget (1 page) that estimates costs and explains how requested funding would be employed; and

3) an up-to-date curriculum vitae (limited to two pages) that specifically highlights activities undertaken since retirement. 

The criteria for selection will include:

• The potential the project shows for promoting the public good
• The relationship of the proposed project to the applicant's demonstrated qualifications
• The projected value of the project to the applicant's field or discipline
• The feasibility of completing the project within the term of the Award
• The pertinence of the project to resources readily available to the applicant
• The potential the project shows for promoting the public good

Grant recipients will be asked to agree to the following conditions: 

• Submission of a written report to the Awards and Honors Committee after completing the term of the Award, but no later than September 30^th of the year following the award
• Formal acknowledgment of the Bianchi-Bugge Award and the Emory University Emeritus College in any published work that results

Preference will be given to those who have not been previous recipients of the award.

Applications should be mailed to The Awards and Honors Committee of the Emory University Emeritus College at The Luce Center, 825 Houston Mill Road, Atlanta, GA 30329, or sent by email to emeriti@emory.edu. As noted above, applications must be received by March 28, 2023.



REMINDER -- EUEC Faculty and Service Awards

Each year, the Emory University Emeritus College (EUEC) offers two categories of awards: the EUEC Faculty Awards of Distinction and the Distinguished Service Award. Please know we are now beginning to accept nominations for 2023. 

For the 2023 awards, completed nominations must be submitted by no later than 5:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Please submit nominations by email to Dianne Becht, EUEC Program Coordinator, whose email address is Dianne.becht@emory.edu. 

Please consider nominating one or more of your colleagues. And please know that self-nominations are also permitted and encouraged. Too often, retired faculty are not fully aware of the achievements of their colleagues, and we must rely on self-disclosure. 

The eligibility requirements are as follows: 

 EUEC Faculty Award of Distinction (formerly Distinguished Emeritus/Emerita Award):  

• All retired Emory faculty who have been members of EUEC for at least two years. 
• Significant professional contributions since retirement to Emory University or its affiliated institutions, as well as contributions to local, state, regional, national, or international communities or professional organizations that reflect the “spirit of Emory.”   
• A maximum of four awards are given annually. 
• This award may be conferred only once. 

Distinguished Service Award:  

• All members of the EUEC, including those who have received the Distinguished Faculty Award of Distinction. 
• Membership in the EUEC for at least two years.
• Significant service to Emory University or its affiliated institutions, as well as to local, state, regional, national, or international communities or other organizations that reflect the “spirit of Emory.”  These contributions must have been made since retirement and are beyond those used to support a previous Distinguished Faculty Award. 
• No requirement that an award will be given each year. 

When you make your nomination, please include the following: 

• Name of nominee 
• Department or unit with which the nominee is associated. 
• Contact information (email, phone number, and mailing address of nominee). 
• Name of nominator 
• Department or unit with which the nominator is associated. 
• Contact information (email, phone number and mailing address of nominator). 
• Description of why the nominee should receive this honor, in no more than two pages. Please do not exceed this limit, but be certain to include enough information for the selection committee to make an informed decision. Please include a curriculum vitae if possible. 

Please let us know if you have questions about this process. Thank you in advance for your participation. 

Sincerely,  

Glenn Kellum 

Chair, EUEC Honors and Awards Committee  

Senior Associate Vice President, Retired, Foundation and Corporate Relations

Faculty Governance News

University Faculty Council President Alicia DeNicola welcomed members to the first meeting of Spring Semester 2023. This meeting was held on Zoom, as will the March meeting, with the February and April meetings to take place in person. The first subject of discussion was the operation of UFC committees and the need for regularizing reporting procedures, announcements of openings, and recruitment of new members. Any faculty member can apply for membership on a UFC committee. Next up was Carl Moreno, who gave a follow-up report on scholarly outputs directly related to funding by the University Research Committee. A key data point he provided was that for the three years from 2018-2020, the total external grant funding obtained as a result of the URC program was over $103M, for an investment of less than $3M.

The University Senate opened with remarks by University President Gregory Fenves. President Fenves encouraged all members of the Emory community to attend a gathering at the Student Center on February 7, where he would set out plans for the OneEmory campaign. He also reported on the trip he and University Provost Ravi Bellamkonda made to Dharamsala for a conference and audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The leadership team of the University Employee Council, Katrina Shafer, Shervon Lewis, and Dawn Frances Chewning, reported on their organizational structure. Senate members discussed what elements of UEC’s system they might borrow to increase efficiency.

Bridget Guernsey Riordan, retiring Chair of the Campus Life Committee, reported on her committee’s efforts to build community, especially in light of the disruptions caused by limitations during the pandemic. Table Talks are a popular feature around campus and will resume as part of community building.

The Committee on the Environment team led by Carrie Keogh gave a detailed report on past and upcoming issues. The committee monitors land-disturbing projects in preserved land, such as the impact of work in Lullwater Preserve and Hahn Woods. The Forest Management Subcommittee noted that Emory possesses some of the most extraordinary hardwood forest land in the country. Efforts continue toward net zero energy use. The incoming Chair of the committee is Michael Martin of the Oxford Campus.

For those wishing more detailed information on either meeting, minutes will be posted and can be accessed with Emory login credentials at:

https://facultycouncil.emory.edu/meetings/2022-2023/index.html

https://www.senate.emory.edu/meetings/2022-2023/index.html

-- Holly York, EUEC Representative to the Faculty Council and University Senate (2021-2024)



Member Activities

Larry Riddle

Professor Emeritus of Mathematics - Agnes Scott College

I was invited by the organizers to submit two of my fractal cross-stitch embroidery pieces for a juried mathematical fiber arts exhibit at the January 2023 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Boston in conjunction with a special session on mathematics and the fiber arts. The selected artwork comes from a series of four related pieces that I recently finished. They are examples of the tiling of what are called Sierpinski Triangle Relatives. Each tiling consists of four copies of a particular Sierpinski Triangle relative rotated by 90 degrees around a common center. If only the design is considered but not the colors, then each tiling exhibits the symmetries of a square: rotations by 90, 180, and 270 degrees, and reflections across vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines through the center. The colors are meant to help illustrate the self-similarity of a fractal: the different colored sections are scaled versions of the larger fractal. The series of four pieces is actually a continuation of the very first cross-stitch fractal piece that I did for the Exhibition of Mathematical Art at the 2011 Joint Mathematics Meeting and which was featured in the 2012 Calendar of Mathematical Imagery from the American Mathematical Society. All of my fractal artwork can be seen at my website https://larryriddle.agnesscott.org/artwork/artwork.htm.

Ron Gould

Goodrich C. White Professor Emeritus

Ron is always busy! Another Zoom lecture on February 1, 2023 for the Virginia Commonwealth University Mathematics Seminar titled, Results on Saturation Spectrum.

Given a graph H, a graph G of order n is said to be H-saturated provided G contains no copy of H, but the addition of any missing edge to G creates a copy of H.

The maximum size (jE(G)j) of an H-saturated graph is called the extremal number of H, while the minimum size is called the saturation number. For graphs with chromatic number at least three the extremal number is known

to be quadratic in n, while the saturation number is known to be linear in n.

This opens the question of what sizes between the extremal number and the saturation number are possible for an H-saturated graph? The set of all possibles sizes of an H-saturated graph of order n is called the saturation spectrum of H. In this talk I will discuss some of the known results in this area.

In Memoriam

Don Shure

Professor Emeritus of Biology

Dr. Don Shure passed away January 23, 2023 after a long illness.

To view his obituary, please click here.





Our last walk put us at a place all too familiar for many of our members. The oddly shaped wall of granite can be found at the Luce Center, 825 Houston Mill Road and home for the Emeritus College. Our offices have been housed in this building for quite a few years and it has proven to be an ideal place for us!

Some information on the Luce Center:

Namesake: Henry Luce Foundation

Date: Construction in 1998

Purpose: Administration

The Henry Luce Foundation underwrote a significant portion of the cost of this building up the hill from the Miller-Ward Alumni House (MWAH). The building replaced the original Emory headquarters of Scholars Press, a brick Georgian-style building that was later incorporated into MWAH.

The Luce Center houses the Scholars Press founding organizations, the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature, as well as the Institute for the Study of Modern Israel, the Letters of Samuel Beckett, and, us, the Emory University Emeritus College (EUEC).

This next spot on our walk is located not too far from the Luce Center. It's one of the few houses on the Emory campus that someone actually lives in....aside from the dorms or frat/sorority houses -- and it's definitely not one of those!

Where will you find this on the Emory campus?