Faculty in the News
The Professional Achievements of our Faculty
Gregory Swedberg, Assistant Professor of Latin American History, has just had his review of Jürgen Buchenau’s book Plutarco Elías Calles and the Mexican Revolution published in the 89.2 (May) issue of The Hispanic American Historical Review. In January 2009, Professor Swedberg’s article, "Divorce and Marital Equality in Orizaba, Mexico, 1915-1940" was published in The Journal of Family History. Last October, he chaired a panel titled "Workers Fighting for Rights: A Comparative Approach" at the North American Labor History Conference at Wayne State in Detroit.
Professor Binita Mehta, chair of the French department presented a paper at an international conference on “India and the Indian Diasporic Imagination” held in Montpellier, France April 1-4, 2009. Her paper, Bhaji,Curry, and Masala: Food and/as Identity in South Asian Diasporic Cinema, discusses the variations in the representation of the identities of South Asians in South Asian diasporic films set in Europe (France and the UK) and North America (US and Canada). The paper also explores how “food and spices, as reflected in the films’ titles, is a form of commodification, an important link to ‘home’ for South Asian immigrants in the diaspora, and a potent metaphor to describe the mixtures, the ‘in-between-ness’ and the hybridization of the characters in those films.”
Assistant Professor of Art History Megan Cifarelli presented a paper at the inaugural MUSE (Measuring Unique Studies Effectively) Conference hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design from February 8-11 2009. The MUSE conference brought together art and design faculty who share an intellectual curiosity about student learning. Professor Cifarelli’s paper “Virtue from Necessity” discussed strategies for the assessment of student learning in Art History that benefit students and enrich programs without increasing faculty workload.
David Lugowski, Associate Professor of English and Director of Communication Studies, has joined the editorial board of Cinema Journal, which is the scholarly, refereed publication of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. In addition, Professor Lugowski has contributed an essay to Screening Genders, a Rutgers University Press publication that has been hailed as "the first comprehensive overview of the history of gender theory in film.” More about the book is available at: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/epromotions/Film08.html
Juliette Wells, Associate Professor of English, edited the Penguin Classics "enriched e-book" edition of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, released in May 2008. For the volume she coordinated a group of period illustrations, contributed a set of short essays and added a set of notes - partly derived from suggestions made by her students in her Spring 2008 "Jane Austen and Popular Culture" course. She co-edited The Brontës in the World of the Arts, which was published in September 2008 by Ashgate. Her contributions include: the introduction, a chapter on the visual arts in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, and (with Ruth Solie, a musicologist at Smith College) a chapter on music in Charlotte Brontë's novel Shirley. Last October, SUNY Press published The Oprah Affect: Critical Essays on Oprah's Book Club, edited by Cecilia Konchar Farr and Jaime Harker. Professor Wells penned the first chapter of this collection, titled "Oprah in the Public Library," with contributions from Virginia Wells, who is a public librarian (and her mother!). Professor Wells gave a presentation at the Annual General Meeting (October) of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA), held in Chicago. Her fourth AGM presentation since 2001, it was titled "Shades of Austen in Ian McEwan's Atonement,” and it focused on the influence of Austen's writings and life on McEwan's 2001 novel. A version of the presentation will be published as an article in JASNA's journal, Persuasions.
Jeff Bens, Professor of English and Director of the Creative and Professional Writing Program, was interviewed on Massify, a website for emerging filmmakers. It can be accessed at: http://blog.massify.com/2008/story-comes-from-a-well-conceived-character/ Professor Bens also chaired the International Film Jury at the 2008 Temecula International Film and Music Festival in Temecula, California in late September.
Associate Professor of Psychology Robin Cautin organized, for the August 2008 APA convention, a symposium titled “Worcester State Hospital: Landmark Institution in Clinical Psychology's History." At this event, she presented “Training Comes of Age: Shakow and the WSH Internship Program.” At that time, she joined the executive committee of APA's Division 1 (General Psychology) as Secretary, and received the 2008 APA's Division 26 (Society for the History of Psychology) Early Career Award. She also published "David Shakow and Schizophrenia Research at Worcester State Hospital: The Roots of the Scientist-Practitioner Model" in the August 2008 Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. This article was based on a talk she gave, on the same subject, at the May 2007 Association for Psychological Science (APS) convention. In June 2008 she was an invited participant in the National Conference on Undergraduate Education in Psychology, sponsored by the APA’s Board of Educational Affairs. The conference was convened to examine critical issues in undergraduate psychology education and make recommendations, in the form of a forthcoming APA handbook, to enhance instruction.
Ara Fitzgerald, Associate Professor and Associate Director of Dance and Theater, performed, on September 13, 2008, in “On Looking Back” at The American Dance Guild 2008 Performance Festival. The following evening, September 14, 2008, she performed in “Guinevere’s Reader” as part of “Mystic Paper Beasts/Dragon’s Egg presents Dragon’s Egg at The Construction Company.”
Associate Professor of Studio Art Jim Frank contributed the photography to Packaging Presidents: 200 Years Of Campaigns & Candidates, which was published by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation. The book is a review of the history of presidential campaigns and how they were marketed through the use of photography and graphics, including banners, ribbons, button, ferrotypes (photographs), and posters.