From Brown University:

David Rohde, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, will join the Brown University faculty as an adjunct professor of English for the 2012 spring semester. Rohde will teach a course titled “Advanced Journalism: Investigative and Online Reporting.”

A 1990 graduate of Brown, Rohde covered the conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Israel-Palestine, and the Balkans.

As Providence Mayor Angel Taveras announces the city's designation as one of IBM's "Smarter Cities" and plans to develop a computerized land management system to help spur growth in the Jewelry District (or Knowledge District), it may be worth another look at a piece that appeared in last week's Phoenix on Brown University's Chris Bull.

Austerity is all the rage in Washington these days. See President Obama's State of the Union address and the GOP's response. Seemed like a good time to chat with Brown University political science professor Mark Blyth, who suggests the austerity push is not as virtuous as it may sound. So I've got a Q&A with him in this week's Phoenix

I've written a cover story for today's Phoenix on a topic that has fascinated me for years: the lifestyle center. It is a faux Main Street - essentially the mall, gone outdoors - that raises all sorts of interesting questions about public and private space.

With the real Main Street in decline, can we really form community in a place built around brand identity? Is there something odd about living in a condo above the Gap with a view of Cold Stone Creamery? Should we be concerned that the new public square doesn't allow for anti-war protest or, even, skateboarding? Or should we be embracing a walkable, green space in the heart of sprawling suburbia?

Brown political science professor, one-time Congressional candidate and fav Phoenix quote Jennifer Lawless has taken a new job as director of the Women and Politics Institute at American University. From a press release she sent along:

Women & Politics Institute Announces New Director

Brown Professor, Author, and Recent Congressional Candidate Dr.