College of Medicine, Miami Children’s Hospital sign affiliation agreement

The College of Medicine has signed an affiliation agreement with Miami Children’s Hospital (MCH), adding an undergraduate dimension to the new college's already existing educational program.

“We are delighted with the relationship we have developed with Miami Children’s Hospital over the past year,” said College of Medicine Dean John Rock. “Our students will benefit from the expanded learning opportunities offered by one of the leading pediatric facilities in the world.”

MCH is a world leader in pediatric health care, with a medical staff of more than 650 physicians in more than 40 pediatric specialties and subspecialties. It is home to Florida’s only free-standing pediatric trauma center and the largest pediatric teaching program in the southeastern United States. It provides training for 69 pediatric residents and 17 subspecialty fellows every year.

“We are proud to affiliate with FIU to further advance educational opportunities to serve the needs of the children of this community,” said Thomas M. Rozek, MCH president and CEO.

“The relationship with the College of Medicine provides us a link with a medical school that will expand the educational and research scope and advance MCH as a top-tiered children’s hospital,” added Christian Patrick, MCH chief medical officer and senior vice president for Medical & Academic Affairs.

MCH joins a growing family of clinical partners selected by the College of Medicine to help deliver innovative medical education. In the last few weeks, the college announced an operating agreement with Jackson Health Systems and an affiliation agreement with Mount Sinai Medical Center.

The first class of medical students is expected to be admitted in the fall of 2009 pending provisional accreditation by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education.

FIU receives $6.5 million NIH grant

FIU’s Center for Research on U.S. Latinos HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse received this fall a $6.5 million grant from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to continue research into HIV/AIDS and drug abuse among Latinos.

The center, known as CRUSADA, will use the five-year grant to expand its programs, which focus on prevention, treatment and studies of HIV/AIDS and substance abuse among Latinos.

“This prestigious grant allows us to continue making a difference in the community,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Ronald Berkman. “We are particularly proud of the CRUSADA research team because they are working on a key health issue for South Florida. Their work will significantly enhance our interdisciplinary research on HIV/AIDS.”

Among the programs benefiting from the award are studies for developing intervention strategies for migrant workers and the development of better drug abuse and HIV/AIDS treatments for Latinos. The grant also will strengthen partnerships between CRUSADA, SPECTRUM (a non-profit substance abuse rehabilitation agency) and Miami Behavioral Health Center, the largest provider of behavioral health care services to Latinos in Florida.

Architecture professor to design installation for MoMA

Congratulations go out to Eric Goldemberg, an assistant professor in the School of Architecture, and his partner at MONAD Architects, Veronica Zalcberg, who will be among the few invited to create a design for the ninth annual Young Architects Program presented by The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York.

This competition invites emerging architects to propose an installation for the courtyard of P.S.1 in Long Island City, Queens, N.Y. Designs are due in early February.

“This is a wonderful challenge for us at this time, since we were originally based in New York and now we can operate in that cultural milieu from the vibrant, exuberant and environmentally lush conditions of Miami,” Goldemberg said. “We expect the cultural transposition to have a profound effect in our work in general, in this and many projects to come.”

Goldemberg’s background includes designs for a performing arts center in Norway, an urban bridge park in Marco Island, Fla., and a tsunami memorial in Thailand.

“Professor Goldemberg is one of our most important faculty members dealing with our current initiative with digital design for architecture,” said Nathaniel Belcher, director and professor of the School of Architecture. “It should be no surprise to expect innovation and quality as Eric very well demonstrates to his students at FIU.”

Golden Panther receives Fulbright scholarship

Doctoral student Erika Denise Edwards has received a prestigious Fulbright scholarship to spend one year in Argentina studying the history or Argentines of African descent.

Edwards will travel to Argentina in February to begin her year-long research into how slaves and free people of color used the legal process in Córdoba, Argentina, as the country gained its independence and developed as a nation at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century.

“I hope my work will allow me to serve as an advocate for marginalized people whose contributions to the nation may be neglected or minimized,” Edwards said. “Fulbright’s commitment to cultural exchange will allow me to realize my interests and career goals.”

The research by Edwards, who already has written articles and made scholarly presentations on Afro-Argentines, is significant because few scholars have studied the subject. Her focus on Córdoba rather than capital city Buenos Aires also is noteworthy.

“Only in recent years has the history of Africans and Afro-Argentines attracted attention in a country that has long celebrated its European cultural heritage,” said Mark Szuchman, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a Latin American history professor and Argentina expert who is Edwards’ dissertation advisor.

“Erika’s project promises to uncover the important intersections of legal and social institutions with Afro-Argentines, a significant component of the country's 18th- and 19th-century population, but little seen today.”

BFA Fall 2007 Exhibition now on display

The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum currently is featuring the works of 14 bachelor of arts-seeking Golden Panthers from the School or Art and Art History in its BFA Fall 2007 Exhibition, which will be on display through Saturday, Jan. 19.

The artists are: Cristina Aballi, Karen E. Baquedano, Nanette Charles, Andrés G. Erazo, Ana Garcia, Kristy González, EJ Greaves, Ivania Guerrero, Cinthya Guillén, Chad Harris, Jillian Mayer, Javier Proenza, Diani Safdeye and Jaime Alberto Segui.

On Wednesday, Jan. 16, at 7 p.m., the students will conduct guided tours of the exhibition and will discuss the concepts, processes and inspirations behind their artwork.

For more information, call 305-348-2890 or visit www.frostartmuseum.org.

Wolfsonian-FIU presents propaganda-and-children exhibition

The Wolfsonian-FIU’s exhibition “Child’s Play: Propaganda Puzzles, War Games, and Children’s Books” will open on Thursday, Jan. 17, at 3 p.m., in the Green Library at University Park, where it will remain through January 2008.

The exhibition, organized by the museum’s chief librarian, Francis Luca, features children's propaganda books, magazines, board games, puppets and puzzles created as a means to enlist even the youngest members of a nation in the broader cause of the war effort.

The works on view represent the major conflicts of the 20th century: the South African (or “Boer”) War (1899-1902), World War I (1914-1918), the Italo-Ethiopian War (1935-1936), the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and World War II (1939-1945).

Virtually all of the participants in these struggles are represented, including Great Britain, Germany, France, Australia, the United States, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Japan and the Soviet Union.

Together, these works highlight the active role that graphic design plays as an instrument of political persuasion and invite viewers to compare shared imagery produced by countries with very different political systems.

Many of the children’s propaganda books on display recently were donated by Pamela K. Harer to The Wolfsonian-FIU.

The Harer collection comprises more than 100 children’s books primarily from World War I and World War II and the Cold War era. In addition, the exhibition also features works from the private collection of museum founder, Mitchell Wolfson, Jr., and The Wolfsonian Special Collections Library.

Theater Department presents Miracle Tomato

Actress and playwright Jessica Cerullo will star in her one-woman show, Miracle Tomato, on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 18-19, in the Wertheim Performing Arts Center Theater at University Park.

Performances are scheduled for 8 p.m. and run 70 minutes.

As an Italian-American waitress named Angelina, Cerullo opens the show with a tomato in the palm of her hand. The play reveals the tomato’s history, as it relates to the world at large and ultimately, Angelina’s own.

When Angelina is sent by her lover to travel the world and reveal the tomato’s miracle to anyone she meets, her history is paralleled when she employs the help of her two identical triplet sisters and her ancestor, Cristoforo Columbo.

Together, they take the audience on a journey that examines vulnerability, identity, cultivation, mass consumption, appropriation and the evolving dynamic of food and family in Angelina’s hometown and in all the towns across America.

With genuine comedy that engages all in a heart-warming experience, audiences will gain a newfound respect for the country’s most popular vegetable and, like Angelina, will leave the theater in search of home.

Tickets are $10 for general admission and $9 for Golden Panthers, alumni and senior citizens. For more information, call 305-348-3789 or 305-348-3365.