Audrey Gray

This summer, Professor Lei Ping led a new summer study abroad program in Shanghai, China. A team of 14 students from The New School entered this intensive five-week program, in which they studied Mandarin Chinese, calligraphy, Chinese painting, and paper cutting.

Nearly 80 universities from 21 countries and regions took part in the Times Higher Education (THE) awards across five categories. RMIT Vietnam President Professor Gael McDonald said it was great to be recognised for positive changes in teaching and learning strategies over the past five years.

In recent years there has been a concerted effort to eradicate mù chữ (literally, blindness to letters) in Vietnam. Literacy rates in the country have been steadily increasing, with current estimates ranging from 94-97 per cent, depending on the source. Yet, there are other measures of literacy on which Vietnam may be falling short.

“Shivajinagar is not a slum…but it shall be treated as a slum,” said one colony officer. Dr. Lisa Björkman spoke at The New School this fall about her research on the water infrastructure challenges in Mumbai, India.

The Acolytes, by Rainer J. Hanshe, depicts an entangled coterie of actors and authors in contemporary New York City. The novel is an experiment in free indirect discourse, a panoply of tones and voices, and above all, an exploration of art and its concomitant culture, demands, and ramifications.

It’s Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn when I call up David Ulin in L.A. It’s 10:00 a.m. his time. There are dogs and yard sounds on his end of the line. Ulin’s new book is titled The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time (Sasquatch Books, 2010).