Faculty and Staff Notes

Associate Professor of Creative Writing Emily Barton reviews Lina Wolff's new novel, The Devil's Grip, for the Times Literary Supplement (London).

Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Ghassan Abou-Zeineddine participated in a panel titled “Short Stories: A Slice of Life” at the L.A. Times Book Festival, where his story collection Dearborn was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Dearborn was recently selected as the New York Public Library’s Book of the Day and was also longlisted for the Story Prize and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. The story collection was awarded the 2023 Khayrallah Book Prize and included in Kirkus Reviews’ “20 Fiction Breakthroughs That Live Up to the Hype.” The book has been named a 2024 Michigan Notable Book, a 2024 American Library Association Notable Book, and a Best Fiction Book of 2023 by Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, the Chicago Public Library, Powell’s, and the Writer’s Bone, and a Good Housekeeping Best Book of Fall and a Washington Post Best Book of September, among other honors.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology Jessica Madison Pískatá was interviewed for an episode of the University of Toronto’s Buddhist Studies Footnotes podcast on the intersection of poetry, geology, Buddhism, and more-than-human sociality in Mongolia.

James F. Clark Professor of Mathematics Robert (Bob) Bosch ’85 was one of two plenary speakers at the 39th Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Conference. While there, Bob unveiled two pieces of mathematical artwork that had been commissioned by the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Mathematics Department.

On May 1, 2024, the Texas National Security Review, founded by University of Texas at Austin and War on the Rocks, published a roundtable review by four reviewers of Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager's recent book The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2023).

Emeritus Professor of Comparative American Studies Wendy Kozol’s new book, The War In-Between: Indexing a Visual Culture of Survival (Fordham UP, 2024), examines visual representations of banal and quotidian aspects of military violence. Artifacts ranging from photograms and videos to data visualizations and fabric art provide alternative ways of witnessing both the everyday experiences of militarism and the enduring impacts of physical and emotional trauma.

Chris Anderson, director of the Oberlin Jazz Ensemble Director and a performing jazz trombonist has been named a 2024 Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalists Association for his work as founder and executive director of Open Tone Music. The Akron-based nonprofit has provided access to free music education for young people throughout Northeast Ohio for 14 years. Anderson sees himself as an artist and an educator involved in the African diaspora that is global in scope. Open Tone Music connects Northeast Ohio students in grades K-12, most of whom are Black and brown, with other youth and teaching artists from Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico, Brazil, and Colombia.

Andrea McAlister, professor of piano pedagogy and director of the Division of Pedagogy, Advocacy, and Community Engagement, was honored at the 2024 Music Teachers National Association Conference in March for her leadership role as an Ohio Music Teachers Association Foundation Fellow. McAlister, a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM), served as Division Director for the East Central Division from 2022-24. At this conference, McAlister also presented in sessions including "Unlocking Music Magic: Teaching Preschoolers Through Musical Play," "Beethoven’s WoO 47 as Musical Muppet Babies: Composer Juvenilia as Indicators of Style," and "Plural of Me–A Narrative of Asian American Women Through Art and Music." 

Professor of Religion Cindy Chapman received a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support her research on a book titled Mother-born Nations: Maternal Markings of Ethnic Insiders and Outsiders in the Bible and Pseudepigrapha. The book will establish the biblical roots for the matrilineal principle in Judaism.

Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Jillian Scudder was a Showcase Author at the Ohioana Book Festival on Saturday, April 20, in support of her astronomy book The Milky Way Smells of Rum & Raspberries (Icon). Scudder was interviewed in advance of the festival by Doug Dangler of WCBE 90.5 FM.