Faculty and Staff Notes

Associate Professor of History Zeinab Abul-Magd was awarded the Roger Owen Book Award for her book Imagined Empires: A History of Revolt in Egypt at the 2015 Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Annual Meeting November 21-24 in Denver.

The Roger Owen book award is a biennial award and the highest recognition for books produced in Middle East studies with a special focus on economic history, economics, and political economy of the Middle East and North Africa. It is one of only two book awards presented by MESA.

Crystal Biruk, assistant professor of anthropology, presented her paper "Fixed categories, liminal selves: Becoming "MSM" and "WSW" in Malawi" at the American Anthropological Association Meetings in Denver, Colorado (November 18-22).

Assistant Professor of Economics Martin Saavedra presented his paper "Early-Life Disease Exposure and Occupational Status: The Impact of Yellow Fever during the 19th Century" November 23 at the Southern Economic Association 85th Annual Meetings in New Orleans. Saavedra also served as a discussant on the paper "Long-Term Effects of Access to Health Care: Medical Missions in Colonial India" by Rossella Calvi of Boston College.

See the program for the meetings on this webpage.

Evangeline Heiliger, visiting assistant professor of LGBT/queer studies in the comparative American studies program, presented her paper "Salvaging the Material: Feminist Science in the DIY Tiny House Movement" on November 14 at the 2015 National Women's Studies Association Annual Conference in Milwaukee.

Heiliger also recently published a chapter— "Queer Economies: Possibilities of Queer Desires and Economic Bodies (because "the economy" is not enough)”—in Global Justice and Desire: Queering Economy (Routledge Press 2015).

Associate Professor of Economics Ron Cheung presented his paper “Household Debt and Local Public Finances” November 19 at the National Tax Association’s 108th Annual Conference on Taxation in Boston.

See a PDF of the program from the event.

On October 3, Drew Wilburn, associate professor and chair of classics, chair of archaeological studies, and Irvin E. Houck associate professor in the humanities, presented an invited paper entitled "Ritual Personnel and the Curse Tablets from Cyprus" at the conference From Roman to Early Christian Cyprus, co-sponsored by the Harvard Divinity School, the A. G. Leventis Foundation and Princeton University.

Professor of Mathematics Bob Bosch delivered the banquet address on November 6 at the MD DC VA Fall Sectional Meeting of the Mathematics Association of America. The address, "Opt Art," was a survey of Bosch’s efforts to use mathematical and computer science-based optimization techniques to design visual artwork.

On November 9, Bosch participated in the opening of the exhibition In the Realm of Forms at the Pearl Conard Gallery at the Ohio State University, Mansfield. The exhibition is open through December 8.

Finally, Bosch’s 2006 continuous line drawing Knot?, an early example of his TSP Art, makes an appearance in art historian Lynn Gamwell's new book "mathematics + art: a cultural history".

Denise Birkhofer, Ellen Johnson ’33 curator of modern and contemporary art at the Allen Memorial Art Museum, contributed a text on Chilean artist Roberto Matta to the catalogue for the exhibition Superposiciones: Arte latinoamericano en colleciones mexicanas. The exhibition, curated by James Oles for the Museo Rufino Tamayo in Mexico City, was held from May 23 to October 4, 2015.

Donald R. Longman Professor of English Sandra Zagarell presented a paper on the connections between Alice Dunbar-Nelson and W. E. B. DuBois in a panel on “Recovering Alice Dunbar-Nelson for the 21st Century” at the 2015 conference of the Society for the Study of American Women Writers. Zagarell, Professor Kate Adams of Tulane University, and Professor Caroline Gebhard of Tuskegee University are co-editors of a special issue of Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers on Alice Dunbar-Nelson, to be published fall 2016.

Professor of Comparative American Studies Gina Perez’s new book “Citizen, Student, Soldier - Latina/o Youth, JROTC, and the American Dream” has been released by the New York University Press. Read more about the book on the NYU Press website.