The News Service
38 Brown Street / Box R
Providence RI 02912

401 863-2476
Fax 863-9595

Distributed April 28, 2005
Contact Wendy Lawton

Poet C.D. Wright, anthropologist David Kertzer, engineer Rodney Clifton and historian Omer Bartov have been elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a distinction of excellence in science, scholarship, business, public affairs and the arts.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences have elected four Brown University professors into the honorary society, which includes the world’s leading thinkers in scholarship and science, public affairs and business, and the arts and humanities.

The Academy announced this week that 213 men and women from around the world received the honor. The Academy’s 4,680 members nominate and elect new fellows and foreign honorary members known for intellectual achievement, leadership and creativity.

Brown faculty in the 225th Class of Fellows:

Omer Bartov, the John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History, Department of History. Bartov is a leading authority on genocide and the Holocaust and has written or edited nine books. One, Murder in Our Midst: The Holocaust, Industrial Killing and Representation, won the Fraenkel Prize for excellence in contemporary history.

Rodney Clifton, the Rush C. Hawkins University Professor, Division of Engineering. The former dean of engineering is an expert in solid mechanics and the mechanical behavior of materials, co-authoring more than 150 papers on these topics and winning numerous scientific awards, including the Prager Medal of the Society of Engineering Science.

David Kertzer, the Paul R. Dupee Jr. University Professor of Social Science, professor of anthropology and Italian studies, and chair, Department of Anthropology. Kertzer specializes in politics and religion and is an authority on Italian society and history. One of his books, The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, was a finalist for The National Book Award for Nonfiction.

C.D. Wright, the Israel J. Kapstein Professor of English, Program in Literary Arts. A poet known for her experimental style and Southern sensibility, Wright is the author of 11 books of poetry and prose, the most recent being Cooling Time: An American Poetry Vigil. Last year, Wright received a “genius” grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

“Election to fellowship in the AAAS is a singular honor for these distinguished members of our faculty and a source of great pride for the University,” said Rajiv Vohra, dean of the faculty. “The range of their achievements – from scientific research to social and historical scholarship to literature – illustrates the breadth and excellence of intellectual life at Brown.”

Other fellows elected this year include Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist; Nobel Prize-winning physicist Eric Cornell; sculptor and painter Jeff Koons; journalist Tom Brokaw; and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

######

News Service Home  |  Top of File  |  e-Subscribe  |  Brown Home Page