Articles in Print
From Medicine to News Media, The Daily Targum – November 7, 2007
When working as a doctor opened her eyes to the downside of medicine, Dr. Pererna Mona Khanna decided to enter the media field instead.
The downside, she said, is although education is the most important part of any medical visit; doctors do not always have the communication skills necessary to educate their patients on what is wrong with them, and more importantly, how to live in order to prevent reoccurrences.
“I found myself with unique skills—ones that were in high demand. I am a physician with skills in broadcasting and with the ability to write. Both of which help me with my patients,” Khanna said.
When an opportunity to work in the media came Khanna’s way—one that also offered her the chance to maintain ties to her original medical career—she jumped on it.
“I took a 90 percent pay cut to go into the media in Palm Springs, Calif.,” she said.
Although Khanna had trouble convincing not only her parents and college about her move to journalism, she would later find her diligence in pursuing the vocation paid off.
She went on to work with CBS and Dr. Phil and won an Emmy award for an article on the health benefits of chocolate in the New York Times. She has found herself in high demand ever since.
Now, a health reporter for a CBS affiliate in Dallas, Khanna spoke to students about her career as a medical journalist in the Busch Campus Center Monday night.
Pathways to the Professions Series, a University program aimed at showcasing nontraditional careers, hosted Khanna for the event entitled “A Career Path to Healthcare and Journalism.”
Avani Rana, assistant director of leadership from Pathways to the Professions Series, said they picked Khanna as a speaker because she came highly from a listserv of public speakers.
“[Khanna is] really cool,” Rana said. “Her career choices made for a different combination. When choosing our speakers, we are looking for the diversity element.”
Khanna received her bachelor’s degree from the Madill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. From there, she went on to become a triple-board certified practicing medical doctor. She since has devoted her spare time to organizations, such as Doctors Without Borders, so her expertise can go where it is most needed.
Medical practitioners in Doctors Without Borders help people in areas riddled with armed conflict, places destroyed by natural disasters and other medical emergencies, according to the organization’s Web site.
Plangere Writing Center, The Daily Targum – Spring 2007
Expository writing is a class that is, for a majority of students, one of the most daunting. It is a hard course overall, and many students find themselves struggling through it. However, there is a place on campus that has been helping students in overcoming and doing well in expository writing.
In 2002, the College Avenue Writing Center received a donation from Jules Plangere, the former publisher for the Asbury Park Press, and his wife Jane. The donation enabled the University to remodel the third floor of Murray Hall and the center is now known as the Plangere Writing Center.
Along with allowing for the center to be remodeled, the donation has also given the staff the opportunity to purchase new printers and computers to allow students to work more comfortably as well as having easier access to different research tools.
“Over the past five years we have served over 5,000 students and have employed 451 tutors. This year alone we served 800 students in the Fall and 300 students in the Spring,” explained Sandra Lanman, director of Media Relations for the University.
Many of the students that have been helped, are first year students who are taking expository writing even though those being tutored do not have to be currently enrolled in the course to seek help. Students come from different grade levels, including graduate students, and from a variety of different courses of study. According to Heather Robinson who is both the coordinator of the center and the assistant director of the writing program, the writing center is what gets a lot of the students through expository writing, which she feels is a difficult, but necessary class for all undergraduates.
A good amount of students who have sought out help from the center, have maintained the center’s idea of giving back, by becoming tutors themselves, explained Robinson.
Now with the writing center fully refurbished and running nearly at capacity, the staff is planning to expand the program even further. “We are thinking big,” said Robinson, “We are breaking down the walls of the center and going digital.”
Robinson, for example, is working towards a digital multimedia lab– one where students could have access to film editing equipment with resources to interact projects such as an honor’s thesis.
While planning out new projects for the expansion, the center also is trying to stay in the big picture. Professor Richard Miller, the executive director of the center, who is currently in sabbatical in France, is working to bring the humanities together. Along with aiding students in mastering their writing skills, it is also serving as a center for events for not only for the writing program, but for the English department as well. There have been conferences with both high school teachers and students about what the center does for those who come in for help. “We are a hub of outreach. People come in and we take care of them,” said Robinson.
The writing center will be holding a celebration for their five-year anniversary on Wednesday May 2, 2007.
Opinion Piece – Spring 2007
Looking up into the galleries, the rich paintings from Diego Velazquez, Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, Goya, and El Greco brighten the stark walls. The crowds of people waiting for $18.00 tickets were overwhelming.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street held an innovative exhibition entitled “Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso: Time, Truth, and History.” The show ran from November 17,2006 until March 28, 2007.
Unlike other exhibitions on Spanish paintings, the curators at the Guggenheim chose not to put the paintings in chronological order, but rather to pair works from different movements under cohesive themes such as virgins and mothers, bodegones, crucifixions, the fallen and the flyers, and children– among many others.
The Guggenheim’s web site explains its exhibition as the following: “today we have sufficient historical perspective to see that, despite their revolutionary aesthetic leaps, the great artists of the early twentieth century were nourished by traditional models that were, furthermore, local in character.” As opposed to earlier shows, the Guggenheim has realized how Cubism, Surrealism, and other twentieth century movements are not a complete departure from the works of earlier centuries, but rather models for the more modernist view and more importantly, ones that originated in Spain.
The New York Times November 17, 2006 review by Michael Kimmelman, criticized the curators for breaking away from the chronological way of ordering works. However, Catherine R. Puglisi, a Professor in the Art History Department who has created a seminar around the exhibit at Rutgers University feels that the organization of the show was innovative saying, “I think that [the review] is somewhat unfair to the show’s curators. I would describe the show as more of a banquet or feast– with appetizers and a main course. The Hors d’Ouevres being the old masters, the main course are the works from the Golden Age, and the desert is the almost mini-show of Picasso.”
The show does do more than the review suggests. The exhibit was aimed at pulling from various Spanish paintings, the themes that were distinctive and overall Spanish. “Although the show is pleasing like a coffee table art book, you can not reduce it to one as the New York Times tried to do,” said Puglisi. The curators have tried to make the public look upon Spanish painting with fresh eyes through the provocative juxtaposition of Golden Age works with Modern ones.
However, the exhibit does have its weaknesses. There are some instances where the curators did not keep with the continuity of the themes. Some paintings are grouped together rather then paired next to a Modern work, which, for Puglisi, was confusing to some visitors. Moreover, there were themes that were not addressed at all such as the guitarist, nuns, and bull fights whose absence has been attributed to the fact that many promised loans did not come through.
Most strikingly there is no Latin American works presented– no colonial work whatsoever. What is shocking about this is not just their absence, but also that there is no explanation given for it either in the press releases or the exhibition catalog.
Puglisi further criticized the review by saying “[the article] attacks the for show for not being scholarly enough, but I think Michael Kimmelman’s review was just that. It undermines Spanish art by making it exotic, dark, and isolated, which is exactly what it was not. In the 1600’s it was a major world power. Kimmelman bought into that myth and went with it. The review is superficial.”
Museum goers have overlooked this review. Visitors have reacted positively to the show and have found it very interesting, according to Puglisi. Courtney Azur, 21, is an Art History undergraduate student who is taking Puglisi’s seminar, which required a trip to the Guggenheim for the exhibit. Azur commented that she “found students in the group to be more critical of the show than everyday visitors– we were looking for more pairings of works rather than the groups of portraiture that dominated sections of the exhibit, but I think we all were still fascinated by what was on display.”
