Notables

David Brown, professor of rural sociology, has been elected president of the Rural Sociological Society for 2000-01. The Rural Sociological Society is the principal international association of sociologists who study the changing social and economic organization of rural life in both developed and developing societies.

Gavriel Shapiro, associate professor of Russian literature, was among 14 scholars, artists and professionals awarded the 1999-2000 Berlin Prize Fellowship to attend the American Academy in Berlin. Berlin Prize Fellows conduct advanced independent study in Berlin while residing at the academy's villa, the Hans Arnhold Center. Shapiro will spend the fall semester in Berlin working on a book project titled "Nabokov and the Pictorial," which explores the importance of visual art in Vladimir Nabokov's fictional universe. The academy was formed in 1996 and its first fellows were chosen in 1998.