Maurice Isserman, the Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History, is the keynote speaker at “What’s become of ‘The Other America’ - The War on Poverty Then and Now,” a forum examining poverty now and half a century ago. The afternoon program is hosted by Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD) on Thursday, May 24, from 3 to 6 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit news organization focused on producing in-depth education journalism, published an interview with Daniel Chambliss, the Eugene M. Tobin Distinguished Professor of Sociology, on May 17.  “Q&A with Dan Chambliss: A successful college education can come down to a single conversation” focused on the Mellon Foundation-funded longitudinal study initiated by Chambliss in 2001. The article reviewed some of the study results, which will be included in a forthcoming book titled How College Works, and what implications the results might have for U.S. higher education.

A Reuters article about the Federal Reserve’s recent efforts to provide greater transparency included comments by Henry Platt Bristol Professor of Economics Ann Owen. A former Federal Reserve Board of Governors economist, Owen said, "Often, opinions about the future course of the economy change quickly when it is at a turning point. Managing expectations about the future state of the economy can help it achieve its goals of full employment and price stability because expectations about the economy can be self-fulfilling.” The article, titled “Officials urge fuller Fed policy reports,” appeared on May 16 and appeared in many additional media outlets.

Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History Maurice Isserman has been elected to the Society of American Historians (SAH) in recognition of the literary and scholarly distinction of his historical writing.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Abhishek Amar co-edited Cross-disciplinary Perspectives on a Contested Buddhist Site: Bodh Gaya Jataka, a volume in the Routledge Press South Asian Religion Series.

An essay by Luce Junior Professor of Asian Studies and Anthropology Chris Vasantkumar titled, “What Is This 'Chinese' in Overseas Chinese? Sojourn Work and the Place of China's Minority Nationalities in Extraterritorial Chinese-ness,” has been published in this month's issue of The Journal of Asian Studies (vol. 71, no. 2).

Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies Joyce M. Barry was invited to participate in a workshop on “Environmental Displacement in a Global Context” on May 4-5 at York University in Toronto. Barry presented a paper titled “Dislocating Appalachia: Gender, Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining, and Climate Change.”

Papers by Professor of Anthropology Tom Jones, Professor of Archaeology Charolotte Beck and Professor of Geosciences David Bailey were published in the April issue of American Antiquity. The quarterly journal is published by the Society for American Archaeology.

Professor of History Douglas Ambrose has been awarded a Fulbright scholar grant to teach American studies in Croatia for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Alfred Kelly, the Edgar B. Graves Professor of History, has accepted an invitation to teach a summer course in the School of History at Renmin University of China in Beijing as part of their International Summer School.