December 4, 2003
Etc.
SWEDISH SAVVY: The UW’s Swedish Studies Program is one of the two top programs in the world, according to the Swedish Institute, the federal agency in Stockholm responsible for evaluating university programs throughout the world (the other winner is in Europe). The program provides American students “the opportunity to pursue in-depth studies in Swedish society and culture within their (collegiate) majors” and interest areas, according to the institute. Particularly cited were UW Associate Professor Lotta Gavel Adams and Senior Lecturer Ia Dubois, both Swedish specialists on the Scandinavian Studies Department faculty.
The award for the UW Swedish Program includes a monetary prize of 10,000 Swedish Krone to support the work of the department. The Swedish Institute is a public, government-funded agency working closely with Swedish embassies and consulates throughout the world to encourage knowledge about Swedish history, cultural and political institutions.
WEB SITE WONDER: A UW news release was one of the 10 most frequently visited stories on EurekAlert!, a science news Web site for reporters and the public (www.eurekalert.org). The release, titled “Brief exposure to Mandarin can help American infants learn Chinese,” was written by News and Information staffer Joel Schwarz. It describes research by Pat Kuhl, co-director of the UW’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, that was presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The findings touted by the research indicate that infants can extract phonetic information from first-time foreign-language exposure in a relatively short period of time at 9 months of age, but only if the language is produced by a human, suggesting that social interaction is an important component of language learning, It has received 14,431 visits.
“Our best-selling stories in 2003 mostly reflect the wide range of topics and news sources available on our site,” said Catherine O’Malley, head of EurekAlert!. “But, beyond that, many of the top stories offer a slightly unexpected twist on a familiar tale — the ‘man-bites-dog’ angle that makes news. The top stories also tend to be peer-reviewed or otherwise validated in some way before being posted to EurekAlert!, and many of them attract traffic from other Web sites, which hyper-link directly to them.”
EurekAlert!, which is a free service of AAAS, released the list earlier this week.
ART DOWN UNDER: UW political scientist Margaret Levi received a mention in Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald recently, but it wasn’t for her professional research. Levi and her husband, lawyer Bob Kaplan, are collectors of Australian Aboriginal art. The couple owns 400 pieces and has encouraged the Seattle Art Museum to mount some serious Aboriginal art exhibitions.
Levi’s collection was mentioned as part of a story about how many Aboriginal artists still live in poverty while their artwork sells at auction for thousands of dollars. Levi and her husband, however, try hard to avoid being part of the problem. “Bob’s and my response is to pay fair value for paintings and to buy through art centers or dealers with reputations for paying their artists well,” she told the paper.
Do you know someone who deserves kudos for an outstanding achievement, award, appointment or book publication? If so, send that person’s name, title and achievement to uweek@u.washington.edu.
