Brandeis Magazine

Albert Schmidt, Ph.D.’00, the leader of a dissident faction inside Philadelphia’s Republican Party, won a hotly contested race for city commissioner, defeating four-term incumbent Joseph Duda, who was backed by the GOP’s longtime power structure. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Albert has been a leader of an organizing effort funded by the state Republican Party to recruit more GOP committeemen and ward leaders inside heavily Democratic Philadelphia. Albert formerly worked as a staff member at the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. Sara Libby Robinson, M.A.’02, Ph.D.’08, has written “Blood Will Tell: Vampires as Political Metaphors Before World War I,” which is based on her doctoral dissertation at Brandeis. In the book, Sara uses an impressive array of evidence to argue that Dracula in particular and vampires more generally represented late-19th- and early-20th-century anti-Semitic fears of invading outsiders, ravenous for money and Christian blood. Meron Langsner, M.F.A.’04, graduated from Tufts University in August 2011 with a Ph.D. in drama. His dissertation was titled “Impossible Bodies in Motion: The Representation of Martial Arts on the American Stage.” Joanne Foster, M.B.A.’08, was named executive director of Growing Places Garden Project in Clinton, Mass. She previously served as executive director for the House of Peace and Education. In her new role, Joanne will be responsible for advancing the mission of Growing Places and increasing community collaboration in order to bring vegetable gardens to an increasing number of families in need of fresh, healthy produce.