‘R&CA’ to mark 25th anniversary with new format, new Web site

By Jayne Spencer

Neal

First Issue

Anniversary cover

A quarter century later, Neal’s prediction has held true, and the publication has remained an historical record as well as a thoughtful depiction of the multidisciplinary research pursuits at one American university. It remains, too, according to one reader, “a feather in the cap” of the Office of Research and the University Graduate School.

R&CA is among the oldest continuously published institutional research magazines in America; Florida State has been publishing one for 30 plus years, the University of North Carolina’s for 29, Penn State for 22 and the University of Kentucky for 20.

The magazine has had a string of notable faculty members associated with it as editors, including Eugene Eoyang, Helen Nader, Sarita Soni, Ann Carmichael and Al Wertheim.

Neal, who went on to be chair of the Department of Physics at the University of Michigan and has served as an adviser to the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development in the development of Internet2, was an administrator at IU from 1976-81.

The autumn issue of R&CA in print will show a complete typographical make-over, with design and presentation features meant to update and improve information delivery, according to its editor, Lauren Bryant.

The issue’s introductory piece was written by Nan McEntire, an Indiana State University professor who received a doctoral degree in folklore from IU and served as an editor at the Office of Publications in Bloomington for several years. “Anniversaries: Who Needs Them?” will be a look at the tradition of anniversary celebrations from the perspective of folklorists on the IU faculty.

Look for a feature on “E-publish or Perish?” and another on undergraduate research programs. A photo spread will highlight the transitions of the Herron School of Art through its centennial year, and a feature on IU political scientist Elinor Ostrom, perhaps best known internationally for her analysis of environmental resources and what some consider “the modern classic” in the field, Governing the Commons (1990). What has kept Ostrom on the IU faculty for decades? The reasons may or may not be surprising.

In another R&CA piece, the revolutionary strides in biological research will be examined through the eyes of IU’s Rudolph Raff, Michael Conneally and Tom Kaufman. A conversation with Bruce Cole, IU Distinguished Professor of fine arts, who currently heads the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a column by George Walker, IU’s vice president for research and dean of the University Graduate School, are also in store, as well as a profile of Dana Johnson, who received her master of fine arts degree on the Bloomington campus and now teaches in the Department of English. She is the third IU-affiliated recipient of the Flannery O’Connor Prize for Short Fiction.

The new issue will be uploaded by Halloween, in a new Web presentation that Bryant and associates are certain will be more easily navigable, crisp and of interest to a broad cross-section of readers, both within and outside the university community. Keep an eye on this Web site:

http://www.indiana.edu/~rcapub/