Faculty and Staff Notes

Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies Anna Lordan presented her current work on modes of knowledge in Ukrainian writer Lesia Ukrainka at the Association for Women in Slavic Studies.

Associate Professor of Creative Writing Emily Barton publishes a 2,500-word essay on Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur, the leader of Liberal Judaism in France, and on her book Living with Our Dead, newly translated into English.

Media Lecturer of Cinema Studies Joey Rizzolo's film Hot Idiot (featuring the work of alums Alba Robledo Diaz ’23, India Gray ’23, Shaina Lin Chung ’20, Olivia Bentley ’21, and Rachel Yee ’23) premiered at the Astoria Film Festival this week where it took the award for Best Comedy Short.

Professor of Mathematics Jim Walsh has accepted an invitation to participate in the Mathematics and Climate Research Network, a recently formed American Institute of Mathematics Research Community. This new research community provides intellectual support and mentoring to researchers at all career stages who are eager to identify and tackle mathematical questions raised by the urgent climate and sustainability challenges facing us.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen has recently published an article, "Intermolecular hydrogen bonding behavior of amino acid radical cations," in Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry. Her coauthors are two current Oberlin students, Isabella Moppel ’25 and Barbara Elliott ’26.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager's latest book The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013) was reviewed by the International Institute for Asian Studies (Leiden, the Netherlands).

Associate Professor of Comparative Literature Stiliana Milkova coedited a special issue of the journal Romance Studies (41.4, 2023) where her article “The Trauma of Language Learning and Self-Translation in Elena Ferrante and Jhumpa Lahiri” was published. Milkova also published a peer-reviewed personal essay in Zeal: A Journal for the Liberal Arts reflecting on student and faculty vulnerability post-Covid.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature Anna Levett reviewed Mark Polizzotti’s new book Why Surrealism Matters for the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Jillian Scudder contributed a talk on recent and upcoming work, “Conversions between gas-phase metallicities in the nearby Universe,” at the Chemical Abundances in Gaseous Nebulae workshop in São José dos Campos, Brazil. The workshop was hosted by Universidade do Vale do Paraiba.

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