Faculty and Staff Notes

Kathy Abromeit, public services librarian in the Conservatory Library, attended the annual meeting of the Music Library Association where she presented “Peer Instruction in the Oberlin Conservatory Library: Three Models of Engagement.” The meeting took place March 2-5, 2016, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Professor of Classics Kirk Ormand recently published the article “Peut-on parler de perversion dans l’Antiquité? Foucault et l’invention du raisonnement psychiatrique” in Foucault: la sexualité, l’Antiquité, a volume of collected essays edited by Sandra Boehringer and Daniele Lorenzini (Paris: Éditions Kimé 2015, pages 63-83).

Ormand’s article developed out of a paper he delivered at a conference last spring in Paris that deals with the effects of Foucault’s three-volume History of Sexuality 30 years after its publication. Building on the work of Arnold Davidson, Ormand argues that previous to the development of “psychiatric reasoning” in the late 19th century, it is anachronistic to speak of sexual “perversions” in the modern sense, even in the case of individuals who might strike modern readers as exhibiting what we might think of as “perverse” behaviors and inclinations. Ormand’s article was translated into French for the volume by Sandra Boehringer and Isabelle Châtelet.

The Let Down Reflex, an EFA Project Space exhibition that includes works by Professor of Studio Art Nanette Yannuzzi, has been reviewed by Gregory Sholette for the publication Hyperallergic. See the review on this webpage.

Managing Editor of Oberlin College Press Marco Wilkinson published the article "Self-Speaking World" in Assay: A Journal of Non-Fiction Studies in March.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Hispanic Stud​i​es Sergio Gutiérrez​-Negrón ​has published the article "The Estate Must Be Protected! Work and the Necessity of Restraint in Roa Bárcena’s La quinta modelo (1857)" in ​​Decimonónica: A Journal of Nineteenth Century Hispanic Cultural Production. The article studies the political​ and theological​ grammar of labor in​​ a serialized novel published by a conservative Catholic writer in the eve of the War of Reform in 19th Century Mexico.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Crystal Biruk gave an invited lecture on February 26 at Yale University's Symposium on Gender and Sexuality in Africa.

Professor Emerita of Music Education Peggy D. Bennett has written the chapter “Questioning the Unmusical Ways We Teach Children Music” in the book Teaching General Music: Approaches, Issues, and Viewpoints (Oxford University Press).

Bennett also presented “Vitality: Reviving the Life in Your Teaching” to 120 music educators in February at the Texas Music Educators Association state conference in San Antonio.

Finally, Bennett taught the first SongWorks Certification courses in summer and fall 2015. Oberlin graduates who are now SongWorks Certified Educators are Danielle Solan (Hong Kong), Alice Nordquist (Maryland), Samantha Smith (Ohio), Jake Harkins (Virginia), Max Mellman (New Jersey), and Ethan Updike (Florida).

Professor of Politics and East Asian Studies Marc Blecher, along with co-author Hengxuan Wu ’17, published the article "Workers' Politics in China."

Blecher also published “Working Class Re-formation and De-Formation in the People’s Republic of China” in the Handbook on Class and Social Stratification in China, edited by Yingjie Guo. This article compares the development of the Chinese working class in the three decades of Maoist state socialism with that in under the structural reforms that began in 1978. It tries to solve two major puzzles: Why, despite its much improved material life in the Maoist era compared with the despotic conditions of earlier decades, did the working class turn profoundly radical? And why, when the structural reforms knocked the working class off its very privileged Maoist-era perch, has it responded in far less radical ways?

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager published “Decoding North Korea's Bluster,” an op-ed on understanding North Korea's recent provocations involving a nuclear test and missile launch, in The Diplomat. The piece argues “seeing Pyongyang's provocations for what they really are could help avoid disaster" and explains how domestic—more than international factors—underlie North Korea's often perplexing actions. The Diplomat is a leading international current-affairs magazine for the Asia-Pacific region.

Assistant Professor of Classics Chris Trinacty has published the essay Imago Res Mortua Est: Senecan Intertextuality" in Brill's Companion to the Reception of Senecan Tragedy, an edited volume on the reception of Senecan tragedy. The essay establishes the importance of intertextuality for understanding Seneca's relationship to his literary, philosophical, and rhetorical predecessors.

Trinacty also published a book review on E.M. Young’s Translation as Muse: Poetic Translation in Catullus’s Rome in the Classical Journal online.