Aditi Bagchi,

associate professor of law, LAW,

“ESPN Accused in Dish Case of Giving Comcast Better Terms,” Bloomberg, February 11

Tom Beaudoin, Ph.D.,

associate professor of practical theology, GRE,

“Woodford and the Quest for Meaning,” ABC Radio, February 16

Mary Bly, Ph.D.,

professor of English, A&S,

“How do Bestselling Novelists Court Cupid on Valentine’s Day?,” Washington Post, February 14

James Brudney,

professor of law, LAW,

“Nutter Seeks High Court’s OK to Impose His Terms on City Workers,” Philly.com, March 1

Charles C. Camosy, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of theology, A&S,

“Drone Warfare Faces Barrage of Moral Questions,” Catholic San Francisco, February 20

Colin M. Cathcart, M.F.A.,

associate professor of architecture, A&S,

“New York City Traffic Ranked the Worst Among the Nation: Study,” AM New York, February 6

Saul Cornell, Ph.D.,

The Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History, A&S,

“After Newtown: Guns in America,” WNET-TV, February 19

Carole Cox, Ph.D.,

professor of social service, GSS,

“Boomer Stress,” Norwich Bulletin, February 19

George Demacopoulos, Ph.D.,

associate professor of theology, A&S,

“Pope Resignation,” ABC, World News Now, February 28

Christopher Dietrich, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of history, A&S,

“Bad Precedent: Obama’s Drone Doctrine is Nixon’s Cambodia Doctrine (Dietrich),” Informed Comment, February 11

John Entelis, Ph.D.,

professor of political science, A&S,

“John Brennan,” BBC Radio, February 9

Howard Erichson,

professor of law, LAW,

“High-Stakes Trial Begins for 2010 Gulf Oil Spill,” Amarillo Globe-News, February 25

Laura Gonzalez, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of finance, BUS,

“Recortes al Presupuesto Podrían Afectar el Seguro Social y Medicare,” Mundo Fox, February 8

Albert Greco, Ph.D.,

professor of marketing, BUS,

“Why Would Anyone Want to Buy a Bookstore?,” Marketplace, February 25

Karen J. Greenberg, Ph.D.,

director of the Center on National Security, LAW,

“Alleged Sept. 11 Plotters in Court, but Lawyers Do the Talking,” National Public Radio, February 11

Stephen R. Grimm, Ph.D.,

associate professor of philosophy, A&S,

“Grants from Foundations and Corporations of More Than $100,000 in 2013,” Chronicle of Philanthropy, February 28

Tanya Hernandez, Ph.D.,
professor of law, LAW,

“Brazil’s Affirmative Action Law Offers a Huge Hand Up,” Christian Science Monitor, February 12

J. Patrick Hornbeck, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of theology, A&S,

“Vatican Conclave,” Huffington Post, March 4

Robert Hume, Ph.D.,

associate professor of political science, A&S,

“USA: Supreme Court Case Update – DOMA/Prop 8 Briefs Streaming In,” Gay Marriage Watch, February 28

Clare Huntington,

associate professor of law, LAW,

“Sunday Dialogue: How to Give Families a Path Out of Poverty,” The New York Times, February 9

Nicholas Johnson,

professor of law, LAW,

“Neil Heslin, Father of Newtown Victim, Testifies at Senate Assault Weapons Ban Hearing,”Huffington Post, February 27

Michael E. Lee, Ph.D.,

associate professor of theology, A&S,

“Tiempo: Watch this Week’s Show,” WABC 7, February 17

Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J.,

professor of theology, A&S,

“Remembering Benedict — the Teacher, the Traditionalist,” The Saratogian, March 1

Dawn B. Lerman, Ph.D.,

director of the Center for Positive Marketing, marketing area chair, and professor of marketing, BUS,

“Study: Google, Facebook, Walmart Fill Consumer Needs,” Tech Investor News, February 12

Paul Levinson, Ph.D.,

professor of communication and media studies, A&S,

“Will Oscar Host Seth MacFarlane Be Asked Back? Probably Not,” Yahoo! News via Christian Science Monitor, February 26

Hector Lindo-Fuentes, Ph.D.,

professor of history and director of Latin American and Latino Studies, A&S,

“Escaping Gang Violence, Growing Number of Teens Cross Border,” WNYC, December 28

Timothy Malefyt, Ph.D.,

visiting associate professor of marketing, BUS,

“On TV, an Everyday Muslim as Everyday American,” The New York Times, February 8

Elizabeth Maresca,

clinical associate professor of law, LAW,

“Poll: 87 Percent Say Never OK to Cheat on Taxes,” KWQC, February 26

Carlos McCray, Ed.D.,

associate professor of education leadership, GRE,

“Cops Nab 5-Year-Old for Wearing Wrong Color Shoes to School,” Take Part, January 18

Micki McGee, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of sociology, A&S,

“Do Self-Help Books Work?,” Chicago Sun Times, February 21

Mark Naison, Ph.D.,

professor of African and African American Studies and history, and principal investigator of the Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP), A&S,

“Professor: Why Teach For America Can’t Recruit in my Classroom,” Washington Post, February 18

Costas Panagopoulos, Ph.D.,

associate professor of political science, A&S,

“Analysis: Obama to Republicans – Can We Just Move On?,” WHTC 1450, February 13

Kimani Paul-Emile,

associate professor of law, LAW,

“Some Patients Won’t See Nurses of Different Race,” Cleveland Plain Dealer via AP, February 22

Michael Peppard, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of theology, A&S,

“Big Man on Campus isn’t on Campus,” Commonweal, February 20

Francis Petit, Ed.D.,

associate dean and director of Executive Programs, BUS,

“Marissa Mayer Takes Flak for Gathering Her Troops,” E-Commerce Times, March 1

Rose Perez, Ph.D.,

assistant professor of social work, GSS,

“Education Segment,” Mundo Fox, January 21

Wullianallur “R.P.” Raghupathi, Ph.D.,

professor of information systems, BUS,

“¿Qué Tiene Silicon Valley para Producir ‘Frutos’ Como Steve Jobs?,” CNN, February 24

Joel Reidenberg, Ph.D.,

Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and professor of law and founding academic director of the Center on Law and Information Policy, LAW,

“Google App Store Policy Raises Privacy Concerns,” Reuters, February 14

Erick Rengifo-Minaya, Ph.D.,

associate professor of economics, BUS,

“Noticias MundoFOX 10PM Parte II,” Mundo Fox Noticias, February 8

Patrick J. Ryan, S.J.,

The Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society, A&S,

“Pope Resignation,” WNBC, Sunday “Today in NY,” March 13

Susan Scafidi,

professor of law, LAW,

“Diamonds: How $60B Industry Thrives on Symbolism,” CBS This Morning, February 21

Christine Janssen-Selvadurai, Ph.D.,director of the entrepreneurship program at the Gabelli School of Business and co-director of both Fordham’s Center for Entrepreneurship and the Fordham Foundry, BUS,

“NYC Embraces Silicon Valley’s Appetite for Risk,” Crain’s New York Business, February 6

Ellen Silber, Ph.D.,

director of Mentoring Latinas, GSS,

“Mentoring Program Serves Young Latinas Aiming Higher in New York City,” Fox News Latino, February 25

Janet Sternberg, Ph.D.,assistant professor of communication and media studies, A&S,

“What are You Supposed to Do When You Have, Like, 106,926 Unread Emails?,” Huffington Post, February 25

Maureen A. Tilley, Ph.D.,professor of theology, A&S,

“Pope Resignation: Interview with Maureen Tilley of Fordham University,” WPIX, February 17

Terrence W. Tilley, Ph.D.,

Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Professor of Catholic Theology and chair of the department, A&S,

“As Conclave to Select New Pope Begins, English-Speaking Cardinals Lead Charge to Reform Vatican,” Daily News, March 4

Peter Vaughan, Ph.D.,dean of the Graduate School of Social Service, GSS,

“Ceremony Held for NASW Foundation Award Recipients,” Social Work Blog, February 28

More features in this issue:

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Copyright © 2013, Fordham University.

Hector Lindo-Fuentes’ home may be in the United States, but in many ways, his heart is still in El Salvador. It is there that Lindo-Fuentes, Ph.D., professor of history and Latin American studies, was born and raised.

And it is there that he’s invested countless hours to help rebuild its educational system, after the country emerged from a 12-year-long civil war in 1992, as a past member and president of the seven-member national commission for accreditation of higher education institutions.

His most recent contribution is Modernizing Minds in El Salvador: Education Reform and the Cold War, 1960-1980(University of New Mexico Press, 2012). The book, which follows six other books that Lindo-Fuentes has written on El Salvador, details the spectacular failure of the country’s attempt to overhaul education and embrace modernity.

He was drawn to education reform in part because he graduated from high school at the height of the debates surrounding it.

Lindo-Fuentes had originally believed that the educational reform centered around a drive by Walter Beneke, El Salvador’s former ambassador to Japan, to carry pre-recorded lessons into classrooms around the country via television. But when he began researching the topic through the archives of the U.S. Agency for International Development, he realized there was more to the story.

“It turns out the story was completely different,” he said. “It was very much tied to the Cold War, and to very different characters.”

In addition to Beneke, Lindo-Fuentes found that he needed to include in the story the contributions of Wilbur Schramm, an American advocate of televised education, who had connections with the United Nations, via UNESCO.

Schramm’s views were aligned with those of President Lyndon Johnson’s administration, which believed that an accelerated process of modernization through channels like educational television was necessary to prevent the rise of communism. At the time, the Soviet Union was promoting its ideology in South America, which made the U.S.-allied Salvadoran government wary.

But the education reforms failed. One reason was that although students found the televisions fascinating, the classroom teachers who were told to operate the televisions found the experience humiliating, because their students quickly deduced that they were less knowledgeable and charismatic than their television teachers.

Worse yet, Lindo-Fuentes noted that television was a poor substitute for real-life interaction.

“Because there was very little interaction, it was very easy to tune out. The broadcast class also had its own rhythm, so it didn’t matter if students were understanding the lesson or not. Some students were faster; others were slower. If you got lost, you got lost,” he said.

When the teachers’ unions started protesting the new system, the conflict mushroomed into something much bigger. Union leaders charged that the government was spending too much on technology at the expense of actual human capital.

“This is a very powerful political message, and this is the middle of the Cold War. It’s a United States-sponsored project, with a lot of money and a lot of technology. For the government, any teachers who opposed this fantastic, modernizing approach to education had to have nefarious reasons to do so,” Lindo-Fuentes said. “They had to be communists, and so they had to be repressed.”

Lindo-Fuentes does give the government at the time credit for putting resources into education, but notes that its unbridled faith in technology, along with the outside political and economic pressures, caused its demise.

“Any education reform is going to be part of some kind of tug-of-war. You see it in the United States as well; people care about what their kids are going to learn in school. It’s about their idea of what America should be like,” he said.

“So when people have different ideas of what the future will be like, they also have different ideas about the future of education. It’s never just about a curriculum, or what’s most effective. It’s also about some larger ideas about society, and that’s what makes it interesting.”

In addition to examining the past, Lindo-Fuentes is still very much involved in the present. He will be traveling to El Salvador in July to take part in a government-sponsored study group that will identify the challenges that face higher education in the country. It’s a process he was involved in from the start, and there’s still a long way to go toward building institutions and introducing practices that provide people with more opportunities to educate themselves.

At times, said Lindo-Fuentes, he feels guilty about not being there.

“But what I found is, being away and having a distant perspective, and living through the education system in the U.S., gives me the opportunity to see both realities and see how to bridge them,” he said.

“I’m not going there [with the]ambition to make something of myself in the system over there, so [I have] a little more freedom to talk to everyone . . . as long as it has to do with constructive things like education.”

At the May 25 award ceremony, Mei said of De Luca: “Given his academic achievements and enormous contributions to the School of Government, we are very pleased to appoint him as an honorary professor of government.”

This is the second time De Luca has been so honored by a major Chinese university. In 2008, he was appointed honorary professor of political science, 2008-2010, by China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) in Beijing, one of China’s most renowned law schools and academic centers for the study of political science.

De Luca has been actively engaged with Chinese universities since he first served as a senior Fulbright Lecturer at CUPL from 1999 to 2000. Since then, he has lectured and researched, and organized a conference on democracy, in China. With Fulbright and Fordham support, he also directs an academic exchange program through which Fordham professors have lectured in Beijing, and CUPL professors have reciprocated in New York.

In 2007, in collaboration with professors Thierry Meynard and Hector Lindo-Fuentes, then associate dean of Fordham’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, De Luca initiated the current study abroad course. In that course, students travel to Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, study in classes with Chinese students as Sun Yat-sen University, visit historic sites, travel to rural villages, tour factories, and meet with journalists and U.S. consular officials, among other activities.

“I look forward to leading Fordham students to China for the fifth time next year, and to continuing to collaborate with the two Chinese universities that have honored me,” said De Luca.