Three Arts and Sciences Faculty Named to Endowed Chairs

Dean Steven J. Fluharty is pleased to announce the naming of three faculty members to endowed chairs in the School of Arts and Sciences.

Rahul Mukherjee has been appointed the Dick Wolf Assistant Professor of Television and New Media Studies in the Department of English. He is also affiliated with the Cinema Studies program. Mukherjee joins Penn from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he recently completed his Ph.D. In his research, Mukherjee examines the role of media in debates surrounding technological development, disasters and dangers, and modernization in a rapidly globalizing world. He has analyzed discussions over chronic toxicity, emissions from cell phone towers, debates surrounding genetically modified crops, and construction of nuclear reactors. Central to his work are the roles that media, technology, and networks play in the creation of a contested public sphere composed of experts, activists, affected communities, and the wider audience.

Dick Wolf, C’69, is the creator and executive producer of the Law & Order television franchises. His company, Wolf Films Inc., has produced such films as School Ties, No Man’s Land, and the 2003 Academy Award-winning documentary Twin Towers.

Vanessa Ogle has been appointed the Julie and Martin Franklin Assistant Professor of History. Specializing in modern European and global history, Ogle researches themes of globalization, capitalism, and the circulation of knowledge. Her first book, Contesting Time: The Global Struggle for Uniformity and its Unintended Consequences, 1870s-1950s, investigates the paradoxical effects of standardizing time reckonings across cultures and will be published by Harvard University Press in the fall. It has received the President’s Best Book Award from the Social Science History Association. Ogle’s current project, on Western nations’ use of decolonized and non-Western territories to expand free-market capitalism from the 1930s to the 1980s, promises to have a significant impact on the study of European history, international political economy, and neoliberalism and deregulation.

Ardent supporters of Penn, Julie and Martin Franklin established this chair in 2008 to recognize and retain eminent scholars and professors who demonstrate outstanding performance in their field. Martin Franklin, C’86, is the Founder and Executive Chairman of the Jarden Corporation and has recently served on the public boards of Promotora de Informaciones S.A., Kenneth Cole Productions, and GLG Inc. Julie Franklin, C’87, currently serves on Penn’s Social Policy and Practice Overseers Board and the Trustees’ Council of Penn Women.

Mallesh Pai, Assistant Professor of Economics, has been appointed the Janice and Julian Bers Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences. Pai is an economic theorist specializing in mechanism design, which addresses problems of how mechanisms such as auctions, school lotteries, and political institutions can better achieve desired outcomes. His work has called into question long-held assumptions about fairness and predictability of outcomes in auctions. He has demonstrated that it is possible to develop auctions in which even anonymous bidders with certain characteristics can be favored. Additionally, he has shown that competition among sellers may lead to inefficiency; that is, the buyers with the highest valuations may not win the goods on sale. Pai is also collaborating with colleagues in Engineering and Wharton to examine privacy issues raised by the growth of the digital economy.

Janice and Julian Bers established this chair in 1972 to recognize assistant professors who demonstrate outstanding promise as teachers and scholars in the social sciences. Janice Bers received her education degree from Penn in 1939. The late Julian Bers graduated from Wharton in 1931 and was chairman of Imperial Metal and Chemical Company. He served as a trustee of the University and received Penn’s Alumni Award of Merit in 1968, while Janice Bers served as president of her class and on the 50th reunion gift committee.