uLinda Leavell, associate professor of English and official Marianne Moore biographer, rejects the popular perception that taking leave for research detracts from teaching. “I am taking two years away from the classroom for this project, but the work will add to OSU’s reputation and benefit students. Learning new information makes professors more dynamic and engaging,” she says. Exploring the Third Dimension tAlthough mathematics professor William Jaco had previously been invited to China, his visit to lecture to advanced mathematics students at The Institute of Mathematics at Peking University in summer 2004 was his first. “This was an honor and an opportunity I could not miss,” he says. “And it was a terrific experience.” After more than 20 years, Marianne Moore’s poetry still intrigues Linda Leavell. A ‘Moore’ Grounded Biography The OSU associate professor of English and official Moore biographer says she is drawn to Moore’s unexpected combinations of words and images. “I like the way she takes a reader’s expectations and playfully turns them on their heads,” she says. “I find her work to be funny, playful, surprising.” And difficult, which Leavell says may explain why the Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet has not received more attention — an oversight Leavell hopes to remedy with the first authorized Moore biography. Leavell received an American Philosophical Society grant to complete most of the archival research for the project in Philadelphia in 1999-2000. Most recently, she obtained a National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship that will enable her to spend the upcoming academic year completing secondary research and writing. Receipt of the very competitive NEH fellowship underscores the significance of Leavell’s work. Although she has written extensively about Moore’s poetry, including a book published in 1995, Leavell says the authorization she received from the poet’s estate in 1999 allows her to quote from Moore’s letters and other unpublished sources, an advantage the earlier unauthorized biographer lacked. Moore scholars will learn new information about this poet whose work was admired by contemporaries T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. But literary biographies are not written for scholars alone, Leavell says. “Biographies are widely read, not just by scholars but a broad general audience as well. This biography will reach a ‘real’ audience because of general interest in its historical content.” Leavell’s book will explore the culture of This past summer Jaco, the Grayce B. Kerr Professor of Mathematics at OSU, was among a handful of internationally renowned experts invited to Beijing to lecture to advanced mathematics students at The Institute of Mathematics at Peking University. “The organizers of the Summer School at China’s flagship university select individuals recognized as leaders in an area of specialization who are actively engaged in new research,” says Jaco. “The Chinese have quickly become a major force in mathematics,” he says. “Chinese students dominate the application pool of students applying for advanced study in mathematics, and many of the most highly regarded new doctorates in mathematics are Chinese.” Despite the language barrier and an auditorium lacking air-conditioning in 90-degree heat, the 70-plus Chinese students were attentive to Jaco’s lecture. Some have since applied to OSU’s Graduate College to study topology, and one was offered a graduate teaching assistantship at OSU. Early explorers discovered that the flat geometry of Euclid did not explain the shape of the earth, but it took another two millennia for mathematicians to explain the richness and the shape of 2-dimensional objects. Today, mathematics professor William Jaco is studying the geometry and shape of 3-dimensional objects, which includes the shape of our universe. Jaco’s area of expertise is topology, or the mathematical study of the properties of intangible objects that remain unchanged under special correspondences, which include stretching and shrinking but not tearing. “We ask questions such as, ‘What is the shape of space? Or, are two objects positioned the same in space?’” “We are in some sense where our ancestors were in wondering if the earth is flat,” Jaco says. “Is our universe flat? What is the shape of our universe?” Moore’s time, 1887–1972, and include such topics as women in higher education, osteopathic medicine and early kindergarten. “The nature of biography, because lives are complicated, grounds literature in the real world in a very concrete way,” she says. And it’s just that connection Leavell is striving for in this literary biography. “I want to draw readers to Moore and help create a better appreciation for her work. “I feel a great responsibility,” she says. “A biography has the power to shape a reputation.” Eileen Mustain Erika Contreras faculty excellence College of Arts and Sciences
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