The Institute for Advanced Study has a staff opening for a student worker to assist with IAS public programming, web presence, and clerical tasks. More information.
Ann Waltner, Director (On leave through May 15, 2013)
Telephone: (612) 626-5149
E-mail: waltn001@umn.edu
Ann Waltner teaches Chinese history and world history at the University of Minnesota. Her research interests lie in the social history of sixteenth and seventeenth century China, comparative women’s history, and world history. She is a former editor of the Journal of Asian Studies. She and Mary Jo Maynes have just published a book entitled Family: A World History. Recent work includes an article on spatial impropriety and other transgressions in Shen Fu’s Six Records of a Floating Life,another on family scandal and political crisis in the domestic life of the sixteenth-century literatus Wang Shizhen, as shown in eulogies and letters, and another (with Mary Jo Maynes) on the ramifications of the ways historians and archaeologists periodize very early history.
Susannah L. Smith, Managing Director, Acting Director
Telephone: (612) 624-2921
E-mail: slsmith@umn.edu
Susannah L. Smith is a historian of Russia and modern Europe. Her research focuses on the intersection of national identity, official arts policy, and Russian folk music in the Soviet Union, 1917-1945. She studies and performs traditional Javanese music with the Sumunar Gamelan Ensemble. Before coming to the IAS, she was the managing editor of the Journal of Asian Studies, developed the Population Studies minor program and coordinated administration on the IPUMS-International projects at the Minnesota Population Center, and was assistant director of the Making of the Modern World/Writing Program at Eleanor Roosevelt College, University of California, San Diego. Susannah teaches an honors seminar based on the Thursdays at Four series every year.
Phyllis E. Messenger, Grants Consultant
Telephone: 612-625-8606
Email: pmessenger@umn.edu
Phyllis Mauch Messenger is an anthropologist whose scholarship has focused on archaeological ethics and the management and preservation of cultural heritage. She was the founding director of the Center for Anthropology and Cultural Heritage Education (CACHE) at Hamline University in St. Paul, MN and carried out archaeological research in Mexico, Honduras, and Minnesota. She has led study abroad programs for the University of Minnesota and Hamline University, taking students to Mexico, Peru, Thailand, and Cambodia. Publications include a biography of early Maya archaeologists and edited volumes on the ethics of collecting cultural property, cultural heritage management worldwide, and heritage values in contemporary society. Before returning to the U of M in 2008, she directed the Wesley Center at Hamline University, funded by a $2M grant from Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment.
Sharon H. Fischlowitz, Program Coordinator
Telephone: 612-624-6148
Email: fisc0199@umn.edu
Sharon Fischlowitz is a public interest lawyer whose scholarship has focused on early medieval legal texts. She works with the twin-cities based dance company Black Label Movement and teaches poverty law to law students and Jewish history to 5th and 6th graders. Before coming to the IAS she was staff to Congressman Bruce F. Vento and then served the public interest legal community through her work at the Minnesota Justice Foundation, from VISTA attorney to executive director.
Karen Kinoshita, Executive Office and Administrative Specialist
Telephone: (612) 626-5028
E-mail: karenk@umn.edu
Karen has been in the medical school and the deans’ office of the college of liberal arts before taking up the challenge at the institute. Karen shares her time between the institute and home and and uses her networking skills to knit students, faculty, and community together. Her interests are in arts, science, technology and diversity above special interests.
Efe Iyambe, Principal Office and Administrative Specialist
Telephone: (612) 626-5149
E-mail: iyamb001@umn.edu
Efe earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota ICP (Inter-College Program) where he studied Political Science & Psychology, with an emphasis in Rhetoric. He has been an employee at the university for fifteen years. Before joining the IAS staff in December 2012, he worked in the Department of Environmental Health and Safety with the Radiation Protection Division.
Amir Hussain, Graduate Assistant, Publicity and Outreach
E-Mail: huss0200@umn.edu
Amir is an MFA candidate in Creative Writing in the Department of English. He is working on a collection of poems about the environment and visiting natural places, including many of Minnesota’s impressive lakes, state parks and forests, for his primary material.
Aaron Victorin-Vangerud, Student support
E-mail victo045@umn.edu