From the President

Fall 2006

As always, this issue of Hofstra Horizons presents thought-provoking works of scholarship by our faculty that represent the range of disciplines studied at Hofstra University. These works bring current issues to life, link scholarly pursuits to our everyday concerns, and allow us to see how art and literature connect to our society and history.

Dr. Kimberly Gilbert's piece, "Reflections on the Autism Spectrum," illustrates in a personal way the struggle of families affected by autism, and explains how the Psychological Evaluation Research and Counseling Clinic at the Joan and Arnold Saltzman Community Services Center assists such families. Dr. Gregory Kershner looks at how Victorian bourgeois sensibility collides with eroticism in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Dr. Jenny Roberts, an assistant professor in the Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences Department, considers how the growing number of children adopted internationally may be at risk for language delays, while Law School Professor Janet Dolgin asks what it means to be a person in an essay titled "What's an Embryo?: The Debate About Human Embryonic Stem Cells."

The best scholarship investigates the past, examines the present and illuminates the future. These timely examples of faculty work allow us to glimpse the issues they study, and in turn, to better understand the issues of the day.

Our faculty are at the heart of Hofstra University, and their relationships with our students and our community are paramount to our success as a leading institution of higher education. I thank these four scholars for their contributions to Hofstra Horizons, and hope you gain insight from their work.

Sincerely,
Stuart Rabinowitz
President