People, Papers, Presentations

People, Papers, Presentations

RICE NEWS
May 27, 1999

James G. Disch, associate professor and chair, Dept. of Human Performance &
Health Sciences, received the National Honor Award from the Measurement and
Evaluation Council of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education,
Recreation and Dance at their annual meeting in Boston on April 23. Disch has
been an active member of the council for more than 20 years and has served as
chair and secretary and on the advisory board. His primary work for the council
has been in the measurement of sport skills.

John W. Freeman, professor, Dept. of Space Physics & Astronomy, was the
1999 Gen. Leif J. Sverdrup Visiting Scientist at Augsburg College in Germany
on April 26 and 27. Freeman’s visit to Augsburg will entail several lectures
to students and faculty as well as an evening public lecture, titled "Storms
in Space." The annual Gen. Leif J. Sverdrup Visiting Scientist Program
is endowed by the Sverdrup family and by NASA through the Minnesota Space Grant
Consortium.

Steven W. Lewis, lecturer, Dept. of Political Science, gave a presentation
titled "Building Market Federalism: Corporations as Strategic Actors in
Central-Local Government Relations," at the annual meeting of the Public
Choice Society, New Orleans, on March 12.

Rafael M. Mérida-Jiménez, assistant professor, Dept. of Hispanic
& Classical Studies, delivered a paper titled "Milagros y encantamientos
en las letras castellanas medievales" at the Symposium on Spanish Medieval
Literature in Honor of John E. Keller, U. of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky., on April
24.

William B. Parsons, assistant professor, Dept. of Religious Studies, has published
a book titled "The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling" (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1999). He has also published an article, "Freud’s Encounter
with Hinduism: An Historical/Textual Overview," in T. Vaidyanathan and
J. Kripal, eds., "Vishnu on Freud’s Desk" (Delhi: Oxford University
Press, 1999). Parsons presented a paper on April 18 titled "Psychologia
Perennis: Developments in the Unchurched Mysticism," at the Third Annual
Conference in Comparative Religion: "Method as Path: Religious Experience
and Hermeneutical Discourse," sponsored by the New York U. Religious Studies
Program.

Edith Wyschogrod, the J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Philosophy and Religious
Thought, Dept. of Religious Studies, gave the keynote address titled "Texts
in Transit: From the Academy to Religious Experience and Back" at the New
York U. conference, "Text as Method" on April 16.