The History Learning Project, a project developed by Indiana University faculty members to document and improve student learning in the discipline of history, is the subject of a feature article this week in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Christopher S. Peebles, Indiana University professor emeritus of anthropology, has been awarded the Thomas Hart Benton Mural Medallion by IU President Michael McRobbie. Recognized for his prominent achievement and dedicated service, Peebles is a distinguished expert on the ancient past whose contributions to IU's high tech present and future also are recognized with this honor.

Indiana University sociologist Stephen Benard is co-recipient of a new National Science Foundation award to study how dominant members of groups behave when a group is facing threats. The grant, which Benard shares with principal investigator Patrick Barclay of the University of Guelph, is part of a joint NSF/Department of Defense program supporting research that explores the social and behavioral dimensions of national security, conflict and cooperation.

A diverse panel of Indiana University professors will speak on the issue of health care reform Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. in the Whittenberger Auditorium at the Indiana Memorial Union. This free, open-to-the-public event is co-sponsored by the Indiana Memorial Union Board and the Teachable Moments Committee of the Commission on Multicultural Understanding.

A presentation on Saturday (Oct. 24) will examine how combining traditional arts and crafts such as embroidery with new technologies can spark creativity and learning for students. Leah Buechley, the "High-Low Tech Group" director at the Media Lab of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will give a free program called "How will Technological Artifacts Impact Society?" from 10-11 a.m. in room 102 of the School of Fine Arts, 1201 E. Seventh St., in Bloomington.

Indiana University Bloomington Professor Elinor Ostrom, who has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Science, will be available for interviews at a media availability to be held at 11:30 a.m. today (Oct. 12) at the Radio-TV Building, 1229 E. 7th St. in Bloomington, Ind..

Annunciation + Visitation, a unique musical performance exploring two vastly different expressions of female sexuality, stretches the boundaries of what defines opera.

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has named Gerald Campano, associate professor in the Department of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education of the Indiana University School of Education, as the 2009 recipient of the David H Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English, one of the most distinguished awards in English language education. The organization selected Campano for his 2007 book Immigrant Students and Literacy: Reading, Writing, and Remembering (Teachers College Press).

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded more than $140,000 through the prestigious Sawyer Seminars to Indiana University faculty members. The award supports a year-long seminar series titled "Rupture and Flow: The Circulation of Technoscientific Facts and Objects."

A new book by an Indiana University School of Education professor takes a comprehensive look at how Web technology is changing worldwide education. The World is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education, was written by Curt Bonk, professor of instructional systems technology. It documents the many ways in which he says innovations have made it possible so that "anyone can learn anything from anyone else at any time."

The Association for Institutional Research (AIR) has named Indiana University School of Education Executive Associate Dean Don Hossler the Sidney Suslow Award recipient for his distinguished scholarly contributions to institutional research. The award committee selects honorees "for their cumulative and on-going scholarly efforts to keep institutional research on the cutting edge of research, practice, policies and procedures in higher education."

Joseph Pomerening, a cell biologist at Indiana University Bloomington, is a 2009 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, the Pew Charitable Trusts announced today (June 16). The honor is accompanied by a four-year, $240,000 award to support research and is reserved for early career scientists.

Indiana University Bloomington biologist Mike Wade has been selected to receive the American Society of Naturalists' 2009 Sewall Wright Award. Named after the influential population geneticist, the award recognizes a "senior but still active investigator who is making fundamental contributions to ... promoting the conceptual unification the biological sciences," according to the society.

Indiana University political scientist Elinor Ostrom is one of two recipients of the 2009 Reimar Lüst Award for International Scholarly and Cultural Exchange, which recognizes humanities and social-science scholars for contributions to cultural and academic relations with Germany.

A professor from the Indiana University School of Education is heading to China for a month to provide input to Chinese educators who are reforming their English instruction system. Faridah Pawan will spend a month in China observing classrooms and working with teachers of "English as a Foreign Language" (EFL), as it's called there. Pawan is an assistant professor in the department of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education, and she is director of TACIT -- a program to prepare more English as a Second Language (ESL) instructors.

Seven Indiana University Bloomington faculty have received 2009 Summer Instructional Development Fellowships from the offices of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs to develop specialized and innovative courses. They are Sonya Atalay in anthropology; Colleen Ryan-Scheutz and Kelly Sax in French and Italian; Beth Samuelson in literacy, language and culture education; Kalpana Shankar in informatics; Kay Connelly in computer science; and Rex Sprouse in Germanic studies and second language studies.

Indiana University Bloomington Provost Karen Hansen and Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs Tom Gieryn have announced that two Indiana University Bloomington professors will receive prestigious university awards. David E. Clemmer, the Robert and Marjorie Mann Chair of Chemistry, will receive the 2009 Tracy M. Sonneborn Award, and Lisa Pratt, professor of geological sciences, will be named the inaugural Provost's Professor.

An Indiana University School of Optometry faculty member's company is nearing completion of a diagnostic camera that could aid in saving the vision of millions of people worldwide. Dr. Ann Elsner, director of IU's Borish Center for Ophthalmic Research, believes screening to prevent one of the most devastating aspects of diabetes -- vision loss and blindness from diabetic retinopathy -- could be expanded to millions of underserved people if a more affordable diagnostic camera were available.

Daniel J. Mindiola, associate professor of chemistry at Indiana University Bloomington, is the recipient of a 2009 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award. Mindiola will receive a 45,000-euro prize (US $56,600) from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He will also be given the opportunity to work with some of Germany's best chemists over 11 months.

The Office of the Vice Provost for Faculties and Academic Affairs announces the winners of this year's Fran Snygg arts awards. Two awards were established in honor of Snygg, professor of modern dance in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, associate dean of the faculties, and founder of Arts Week. In recognizing her contributions, an Endowment Fund was created in 1998 and an annual Grant for Artistic Collaboration was created in 2002.

Recipients of the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award this year are Marco Arnaudo, French and Italian; Beth Gazley, Public and Environmental Affairs; Scott Herring, English; Ted Striphas, Communication and Culture; and Haixu Tang, Informatics. Each has received $14,500 to support his or her research and creative activity.

Werner Sollors, one of the foremost Americanists today, will present two lectures at Indiana University Bloomington next week. The Henry B. and Anne M. Cabot Professor of English and professor of African and African American studies from Harvard University, Sollors will speak on "African American Intellectuals and Europe between the Two World Wars" on Jan. 20 (Tuesday) and "'Heil, Johnny': Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair or The Denazification of Erika von Schlütow" on Jan. 22 (Thursday). Both lectures are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in Chemistry 122.

Family and friends of a 75-year-old California grandmother beaten and kidnapped from her home last week might have known of the crime within moments if a device patented by an IU researcher had been in use. If Sandy Vinge had been using The Portal Monitor, developed by Indiana University professor L. Jean Camp, when kidnapped from her home, photographs taken at the victim's front door step would have been forwarded instantaneously to a pre-selected group of her closest friends and family members.

Indiana University folklore professor Richard Bauman has studied the acts of speaking and of silence as communicative modes among 16th century Quakers and Medieval Icelanders. He's also taken a keen ear to coon dog traders in East Texas and researching practical jokesters. Bauman recently was presented with the Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award by the American Folklore Society.