Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series - UMass Amherst Provost's Office

Provost's Office > Campus Honors > Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series

For more than thirty years, the campus has recognized the distinguished achievements through the series. The lectures honor individual faculty members and celebrate the value of academic excellence.

Faculty members chosen for the series receive the Chancellor's Medal following their lectures. The Chancellor's Medal is the highest honor bestowed on individuals for exemplary and extraordinary service to the University.

All lectures are held in the Massachusetts Room of the Mullins Center and begin at 4:00 p.m. A reception follows immediately after the lecture. Open to the public, the lectures for 2007 - 2008 are:

Monday, October 22, 2007

Ben S. Branch, Finance and Operations Management
"If Markets Aren't Efficient, Why Aren't You Getting Rich?"

Are markets efficient—in other words, are they able to incorporate the available information into prices quickly and effectively? Why do most professional investors only earn average returns? Where do the Warren Buffets fit in? Professor Branch will address these questions and discuss how investors tired of 5% CD rates could earn at least the historic market average of 9% to 11% and perhaps build on the little opportunities that would allow them to do somewhat better.

Professor Branch joined the faculty in 1975 and is a professor of Finance and Operations Management at the Isenberg School of Management. He was acting department chairman in the spring of 1999; doctoral program director for ISOM from 1989-91; associate chairman of the department of General Business and Finance from 1982-85 and acting chairman in the summer of 1981; and chairman of the ISOM management personnel committee from 1982-83 and 2005-present. Prior to coming to campus, Professor Branch was an assistant professor of economics at Dartmouth College from 1970-75.

In addition to his teaching and research interests in investment, corporate finance, bankruptcies, strategic planning, futures markets, corporate finance and industrial organizations, Professor Branch has served as a Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee for the Bank of New England Corporation from 1991 to the present. Professor Branch was a director of Proactive Technologies Corp. from 1997-99 and manager of VFBLLC from 2001-present. He was the chairman of the senior unsecured creditors committee of the First Republic Bank Corporation from 1989-91 and chairman of the board from 1991-94. He was an ex officio director of the BankEast Corporation from 1991-93. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Turnaround Management Association from 1999-present.

Professor Branch earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Emory University in 1965; a master's degree in economics from the University of Texas in 1968 and a master's degree and doctorate in economics from the University of Michigan in 1969 and 1970, respectively.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Stephen G. Sireci, Educational Policy, Research and Administration
"Are Educational Tests Inherently Evil?"

Hardly anyone likes taking tests—especially not the students, teachers, and schools that fall afoul of this major part of the educational accountability system. Professor Sireci, a 20-year psychometrician and parent concerned for his own children's education, will attempt to bridge the gap between testing opponents and proponents by arguing that, under appropriate conditions, educational tests are enormously useful in improving student learning.

A member of the faculty since 1995, Professor Sireci is a professor of Education, director of the Center for Educational Assessment in the School of Education, and an adjunct associate professor of Psychology. He teaches graduate courses in statistics, scaling methods, test development, educational assessment, validity theory, and research methods and supervises and serves as a mentor to doctoral students. Professor Sireci's research activities include evaluating a variety of test components, capabilities and assessment methods. He also seeks out, directs and coordinates research grant activities and contracts for the Center for Educational Assessment.

Professor Sireci currently serves on several advisory boards, including the Graduate Management Admissions Council Technical Advisory Committee, the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards Assessment Certification Advisory Panel, the Texas Technical Advisory Committee, and the New England Comprehensive Assessment Program Technical Advisory Committee. He is a fellow of Division 5 of the American Psychological Association, president of the Northeastern Educational Research Association, a senior scientist for the Gallup Organization and a member of the board of directors for the National Council on Measurement in Education.

In 2003 he received the School of Education's Outstanding Teacher Award. Professor Sireci reviews articles for more than a dozen professional journals and he is on the editorial boards of Applied Measurement in Education , Educational and Psychological Measurement , the European Journal of Psychological Assessment , and the International Journal of Testing . He is also co-editor of the Journal of Applied Testing Technology .

Professor Sireci earned bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology from Loyola College in 1985 and 1987, and a doctorate in psychology from Fordham University in 1993.

Monday, March 3, 2008
H. Martin Wobst, Anthropology
"An Archaeological Look at Us"

Archeology arose to study our past. Yet, that artifacts help to constitute societies and shape individuals is as important for understanding our own society as it is in making sense of the past. Professor Wobst will show our campus and its surroundings to be rich field sites for a more encompassing archeology, a science to illuminate the present as much as the past.

Professor Wobst joined the faculty in 1971 and is a professor of Anthropology. He specializes in archaeology and its theory, indigenous archaeology, the social articulations of material cultures, egalitarian societies, computer simulations of social systems, Europe east and southeast of Germany, Australia and South Africa.

Professor Wobst served as chairman of the department from 1978-84 and was acting chairman in 1988. He was a guest professor at the Institute for Prehistory at the University of Tuebingen, Germany in 1985 and a guest professor at the Institute for Pre- and Protohistory at the University of Erlangen-Neurenberg, Germany in 1993. He spent the summer of 2004 as a visiting research fellow at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, and in 2006 was a founding member of the doctoral program in indigenous archaeology at the University of Caramarca, Argentina.

He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science from 1968-91 and a fellow since 1991. He has been a member of the World Archaeological Congress since 1996 and a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute in London since 1973 and the Society for American Anthropology since 1971. He has also been a member of the Prehistory Society in London since 1975. Professor Wobst has been a member of the Northeast Anthropological Association since 1979 and was president from 1990-92. He has been a member of the Archaeological Institute of America since 1971 and the American Ethnology Association since 1982.

Professor Wobst earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Michigan in 1966 and a master's degree in 1968. He earned a doctorate in anthropology from Michigan in 1971.

Monday, April 28, 2008
Sara Lennox, Languages, Literature and Cultures
"Claiming Blackness in Germany"

Though people of African origin have lived in Germany for centuries, they have often been denied their right to consider themselves Germans. In the twentieth century, Afro-Germans were given derogatory names like “Rhineland bastards” and “occupation babies.” But since 1986, Black Germans have created a vibrant community and identity in Germany by affirming their connections to the transnational African diaspora. Professor Lennox will describe what this means for both Germany and Europe, slow to embrace difference and quick to view Blacks as transient foreigners.

Professor Lennox, who joined the faculty in 1975, directs the Social Thought and Political Economy (STPEC) program and has been an adjunct professor of Comparative Literature since 1975. She has been an associated faculty member in Women's Studies since 1976; STPEC since 1977; and Labor Studies since 1999. Professor Lennox specializes in 20th century German literature, literary theory, comparative literature and women's studies.

Since 1981, she has served as director of the STPEC, an interdisciplinary undergraduate program in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences that encourages students to engage in a critical examination of society and to develop their own capacities for critical reading, writing, and thinking. STPEC courses deal with issues such as freedom and the state, structural inequality in the economy, work and work relations, the relationship of Western to non-Western cultures, the interrelationship of racism, sexism, and class oppression, the psychodynamics of politics, and theories of social change.

Professor Lennox was a visiting associate professor in the German studies department at Stanford University in the winter-spring of 1983; a visiting lecturer in the German department at Smith College in 1980; and a visiting part-time assisting professor in the School of Humanities and Arts at Hampshire College in the fall of 1978.

Professor Lennox served on the editorial board of German Quarterly from 1998 to 2003; the Massachusetts Review since 1976; Women in German Yearbook from 1992 to 2000; German Studies Review from 1996-99, Signs from 1992-95; and Thought and Action from 2005 to the present. She was a contributing editor to New German Critique from 1973 to 2000 and on the international advisory board of Transit since 2006.

Lennox earned a bachelor's degree in German from DePauw University in 1965; a master's degree in German in 1966 and a doctorate in comparative literature in 1973 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

List of previous DFLS winners

		Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series
		Provost's Office > Campus Honors > Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series For more than thirty years, the campus has recognized the distinguished achievements through the series. The lectures honor individual faculty members and celebrate the value of academic excellence. Faculty members chosen for the series receive the Chancellor's Medal following their lectures. The Chancellor's Medal is the highest honor bestowed on individuals for exemplary and extraordinary service to the University. All lectures are held in the Massachusetts Room of the Mullins Center and begin at 4:00 p.m. A reception follows immediately after the lecture. Open to the public, the lectures for 2007 - 2008 are: Monday, October 22, 2007 Ben S. Branch, Finance and Operations Management "If Markets Aren't Efficient, Why Aren't You Getting Rich?" Are markets efficient—in other words, are they able to incorporate the available information into prices quickly and effectively? Why do most professional investors only earn average returns? Where do the Warren Buffets fit in? Professor Branch will address these questions and discuss how investors tired of 5% CD rates could earn at least the historic market average of 9% to 11% and perhaps build on the little opportunities that would allow them to do somewhat better. Professor Branch joined the faculty in 1975 and is a professor of Finance and Operations Management at the Isenberg School of Management. He was acting department chairman in the spring of 1999; doctoral program director for ISOM from 1989-91; associate chairman of the department of General Business and Finance from 1982-85 and acting chairman in the summer of 1981; and chairman of the ISOM management personnel committee from 1982-83 and 2005-present. Prior to coming to campus, Professor Branch was an assistant professor of economics at Dartmouth College from 1970-75. In addition to his teaching and research interests in investment, corporate finance, bankruptcies, strategic planning, futures markets, corporate finance and industrial organizations, Professor Branch has served as a Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee for the Bank of New England Corporation from 1991 to the present. Professor Branch was a director of Proactive Technologies Corp. from 1997-99 and manager of VFBLLC from 2001-present. He was the chairman of the senior unsecured creditors committee of the First Republic Bank Corporation from 1989-91 and chairman of the board from 1991-94. He was an ex officio director of the BankEast Corporation from 1991-93. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Turnaround Management Association from 1999-present. Professor Branch earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Emory University in 1965; a master's degree in economics from the University of Texas in 1968 and a master's degree and doctorate in economics from the University of Michigan in 1969 and 1970, respectively. Tuesday, December 11, 2007 Stephen G. Sireci, Educational Policy, Research and Administration "Are Educational Tests Inherently Evil?" Hardly anyone likes taking tests—especially not the students, teachers, and schools that fall afoul of this major part of the educational accountability system. Professor Sireci, a 20-year psychometrician and parent concerned for his own children's education, will attempt to bridge the gap between testing opponents and proponents by arguing that, under appropriate conditions, educational tests are enormously useful in improving student learning. A member of the faculty since 1995, Professor Sireci is a professor of Education, director of the Center for Educational Assessment in the School of Education, and an adjunct associate professor of Psychology. He teaches graduate courses in statistics, scaling methods, test development, educational assessment, validity theory, and research methods and supervises and serves as a mentor to doctoral students. Professor Sireci's research activities include evaluating a variety of test components, capabilities and assessment methods. He also seeks out, directs and coordinates research grant activities and contracts for the Center for Educational Assessment. Professor Sireci currently serves on several advisory boards, including the Graduate Management Admissions Council Technical Advisory Committee, the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards Assessment Certification Advisory Panel, the Texas Technical Advisory Committee, and the New England Comprehensive Assessment Program Technical Advisory Committee. He is a fellow of Division 5 of the American Psychological Association, president of the Northeastern Educational Research Association, a senior scientist for the Gallup Organization and a member of the board of directors for the National Council on Measurement in Education. In 2003 he received the School of Education's Outstanding Teacher Award. Professor Sireci reviews articles for more than a dozen professional journals and he is on the editorial boards of Applied Measurement in Education , Educational and Psychological Measurement , the European Journal of Psychological Assessment , and the International Journal of Testing . He is also co-editor of the Journal of Applied Testing Technology . Professor Sireci earned bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology from Loyola College in 1985 and 1987, and a doctorate in psychology from Fordham University in 1993. Monday, March 3, 2008 H. Martin Wobst, Anthropology "An Archaeological Look at Us" Archeology arose to study our past. Yet, that artifacts help to constitute societies and shape individuals is as important for understanding our own society as it is in making sense of the past. Professor Wobst will show our campus and its surroundings to be rich field sites for a more encompassing archeology, a science to illuminate the present as much as the past. Professor Wobst joined the faculty in 1971 and is a professor of Anthropology. He specializes in archaeology and its theory, indigenous archaeology, the social articulations of material cultures, egalitarian societies, computer simulations of social systems, Europe east and southeast of Germany, Australia and South Africa. Professor Wobst served as chairman of the department from 1978-84 and was acting chairman in 1988. He was a guest professor at the Institute for Prehistory at the University of Tuebingen, Germany in 1985 and a guest professor at the Institute for Pre- and Protohistory at the University of Erlangen-Neurenberg, Germany in 1993. He spent the summer of 2004 as a visiting research fellow at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, and in 2006 was a founding member of the doctoral program in indigenous archaeology at the University of Caramarca, Argentina. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science from 1968-91 and a fellow since 1991. He has been a member of the World Archaeological Congress since 1996 and a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute in London since 1973 and the Society for American Anthropology since 1971. He has also been a member of the Prehistory Society in London since 1975. Professor Wobst has been a member of the Northeast Anthropological Association since 1979 and was president from 1990-92. He has been a member of the Archaeological Institute of America since 1971 and the American Ethnology Association since 1982. Professor Wobst earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Michigan in 1966 and a master's degree in 1968. He earned a doctorate in anthropology from Michigan in 1971. Monday, April 28, 2008 Sara Lennox, Languages, Literature and Cultures "Claiming Blackness in Germany" Though people of African origin have lived in Germany for centuries, they have often been denied their right to consider themselves Germans. In the twentieth century, Afro-Germans were given derogatory names like “Rhineland bastards” and “occupation babies.” But since 1986, Black Germans have created a vibrant community and identity in Germany by affirming their connections to the transnational African diaspora. Professor Lennox will describe what this means for both Germany and Europe, slow to embrace difference and quick to view Blacks as transient foreigners. Professor Lennox, who joined the faculty in 1975, directs the Social Thought and Political Economy (STPEC) program and has been an adjunct professor of Comparative Literature since 1975. She has been an associated faculty member in Women's Studies since 1976; STPEC since 1977; and Labor Studies since 1999. Professor Lennox specializes in 20th century German literature, literary theory, comparative literature and women's studies. Since 1981, she has served as director of the STPEC, an interdisciplinary undergraduate program in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences that encourages students to engage in a critical examination of society and to develop their own capacities for critical reading, writing, and thinking. STPEC courses deal with issues such as freedom and the state, structural inequality in the economy, work and work relations, the relationship of Western to non-Western cultures, the interrelationship of racism, sexism, and class oppression, the psychodynamics of politics, and theories of social change. Professor Lennox was a visiting associate professor in the German studies department at Stanford University in the winter-spring of 1983; a visiting lecturer in the German department at Smith College in 1980; and a visiting part-time assisting professor in the School of Humanities and Arts at Hampshire College in the fall of 1978. Professor Lennox served on the editorial board of German Quarterly from 1998 to 2003; the Massachusetts Review since 1976; Women in German Yearbook from 1992 to 2000; German Studies Review from 1996-99, Signs from 1992-95; and Thought and Action from 2005 to the present. She was a contributing editor to New German Critique from 1973 to 2000 and on the international advisory board of Transit since 2006. Lennox earned a bachelor's degree in German from DePauw University in 1965; a master's degree in German in 1966 and a doctorate in comparative literature in 1973 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. List of previous DFLS winners
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