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The City College of New York will celebrate Black History Month 2012 with a rich array of cultural events throughout February that includes exhibits, film screenings, conferences, lectures, discussions and performances. Among the highlights are: a lecture by actor Ben Vereen, February 27; a concert by George Brandon and The Blue Unity Orchestra, February 24, the Third Annual “Is Hip Hop History” conference, February 24 – 25, and the “Confronting the Carceral State II,” symposium, February 14. Four City College units have organized Black History Month events: the Black Studies program, the

February 3 Spitzer School of Architecture Event Commences Design Studio Focused on Historical Kansas Community Established by Freed Slaves CCNY’s Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture is one of nine institutions chosen from a field of 41 to advance to the second round of the “Parks for the People” design studio competition. Graduate landscape architecture students comprise the CCNY team, which will develop plans and designs for the Nicodemus National Historic Site in Nicodemus, Kan., a Reconstruction-era settlement of emancipated slaves, and participate in a jury review this summer.

Quitting smoking is never easy. However, when you’re poor and uneducated, kicking the habit for good is doubly hard, according to a new study by a tobacco dependence researcher at The City College of New York (CCNY). Christine Sheffer, associate medical professor at CCNY’s Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, tracked smokers from different socioeconomic backgrounds after they had completed a statewide smoking cessation program in Arkansas. Whether rich or poor, participants managed to quit at about the same rate upon completing a program of cognitive behavioral therapy, either with or

A scientific innovator from The City College of New York (CCNY) whose research unites the divergent fields of medicine, biology and high-speed laser physics will be honored this month for his pioneering work in biomedical optics by SPIE , the international society for optics and photonics. SPIE will present Dr. Robert Alfano , CUNY Distinguished Professor of Science and Engineering at CCNY, with the first annual Britton Chance Biomedical Optics Award January 24 at the SPIE Photonics West Conference in San Francisco. The Britton Chance Biomedical Optics Award “honors contributions to optical

Dr. Gregory Downs, associate professor of history, and Dr. Emily Greble, assistant professor of history at The City College of New York are recipients of faculty research awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The grants, announced by NEH December 9, will support book projects currently in development. “The NEH fellowships are extremely competitive; only eight percent of applicants are successful. To have two early-career faculty members in the same department come up winners is remarkable,” said Dr. Geraldine Murphy, acting dean of humanities and the arts at CCNY, in

Patient Activation Interventions Help Raise Awareness for Role in Managing Health, Could Yield Better Outcomes For some patients, knowing how to ask questions in a doctor’s office could make a huge difference in their outcomes. A pilot program at The City College of New York’s Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education is teaching future physicians to help patients take charge of their health by querying their medical providers. “Some patients are good at effectively negotiating the healthcare system. They know what they want and how to partner with their doctor so they can take charge of

Eighty years after Mexican muralist Diego Rivera’s record-breaking exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the portable murals he created for that show are once again on display at the midtown Manhattan museum. City College of New York art historian Anna Indych-López co-authored with exhibit organizer Leah Dickerman, curator in MoMA’s department of painting and sculpture, the accompanying book commissioned by the museum. The exhibit from which the book takes its title, “ Diego Rivera: Murals for the Museum of Modern Art ,” runs through May 14, 2012. “The book casts Rivera as a

The flying fox is an adorable doe-eyed bat with a dark side – it is the perfect vector for emerging infectious diseases from Asia. Susan Tsang, a PhD student in ecology and evolutionary biology at The City College of New York and the CUNY Graduate Center, turned to a revolutionary way to help fund her research into how this species spreads disease. Ms. Tsang wants to track how viruses can spread from flying foxes to humans by tracing the evolution and movements of bat populations. She sampled the genes of wild-caught flying foxes and planned to fill in the gaps with samples from museum

Each summer, tens of thousands of people camp in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert to create the countercultural phenomenon famously known as Burning Man, an arts festival named after its spectacular bonfire of a forty-foot tall wooden and neon sculpture of the “Man.” More than 50,000 faithful attendees establish “Black Rock City,” a temporary metropolis dedicated to community, art, “radical self-expression,” and a gift economy. Campers depart seven days later, having left no trace whatsoever. Several books have examined the history of the event, which originally started as a summer solstice bonfire

Mother and Daughter duo to make NY debut at Aaron Davis Hall “My Mother and Me,” starring mother and daughter jazz stars Melba Joyce and Carmen Bradford, will perform together for the first time in New York 7 p.m. Friday, December 16, in Aaron Davis Hall at The City College of New York. “You won’t want to miss these two extraordinary singers as they celebrate the season with jazzy tunes and holiday favorites,” said Gregory Shanck, managing director of Aaron Davis Hall. “Carmen Bradford was the featured vocalist with the legendary Count Basie Orchestra and has since performed with many jazz