Author Michael Alexander will be at USC to discuss his book Jazz Age Jews. His lecture, entitled, “Mammy Don’t Ya Know Me?” focuses on Al Jolson (performer), Felix Frankfurter (lawyer) and Arnold Rothstein (gangster), and gives a theological explanation about these Jewish figures, who despite their success, thought of themselves as outsiders.
Tickets are free but parking is $8. Lecture begins at 7 p.m. on Jan. 30 at the University Park Campus Davis Conference Center Board Room and will be followed by a book signing and dessert reception.
PEPPERDINE MEN’S BASKETBALL COACH RESIGNS
On Jan. 17, men’s basketball coach Vance Walberg resigned from his position as coach for personal reasons, according to Athletic Director Dr. John Watson. Eric Bridgeland, in his second year as assistant coach, will take over as interim head coach.
Walberg joined Pepperdine in April 2006 after serving as head coach at Fresno City College.
UCLA COMPOSER NAMED CHAIR OF MUSIC DEPARTMENT
UCLA music professor Roger Bourland, an acclaimed composer and musician, has been named chair of the UCLA Department of Music. He joined the UCLA Department in 1983 teaching courses on composition, music theory and others.
He won the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award for the 2005-06 year. He served as chair of both the Academic Senate’s Committee on Committees and is a past president of the UCLA Faculty Center.
PEPPERDINE BIOLOGIST RECEIVES CHERRY AWARD
Dr. Stephen D. Davis, Professor of Biology has received the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching, which is the only national award presented to a professor for exceptional teaching. In honor of his achievement he will receive a $200,000 award, plus $25,000 for his home department at Pepperdine.
CALTECH PROF AWARDED FOR BLACK HOLE RESEARCH
Hirosi Ooguri, a professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech, is a co-recipient of the first ever Leonard Eisenbud Prize for Mathematics and Physics. The prize was created in 2006 by the American Mathematical Society and has gone to Ooguri and co-authors Andrew Strominger and Cumrun Vafa of Harvard University for their paper, “Black hole attractors and the topological string,” which was published in 2004. The $5,000 prize was awarded to Ooguri, Strominger and Vafa on Jan. 7.
USC RECEIVES NEH GRANT
Both the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute and the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West were awarded a grant of $350,000 by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The institutes will use the money for programs relating to the American experience, particularly on the issues of identity and citizenship.
EDWARD P. ROSKI NAMED NEW USC CHAIRMAN
Edward P. Roski, Jr. will succeed Stanley P. Gold in June as the new chairman of the USC Board of Trustees. Roski has been a USC trustee since 2000 and was elected vice chairman of the board in Dec. 2007.
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