Faculty and Staff Notes

Heidi Thomann Tewarson, professor emerita of German, published an article entitled, "From Terezin to Berlin: The Survivors' Return" in Literatur und Anthropologie: H.G. Adler, Elias Canetti, und Franz Baermann Steiner in London (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2014), pp. 109-137.

The bilingual volume contains essays on all three German-Jewish Intellectuals who came from Prague and Vienna and met again in London after the war. In their writing, they contributed equally to anthropology and to literature—as the title indicates—and also to poetry, philosophy, and history.

Nancy Darling, William and Jeannette Smith chair of psychology, has been appointed editor-in-chief of the Journal of Adolescence, a leading journal in developmental psychology that focuses on age-related change in the second decade of life.

The Journal is unique in its international perspective. It is operated by the Foundation for Professionals in Services to Adolescents, a UK based organization, and publishes research related in adolescent health and development from researchers in psychology, biology, sociology, epidemiology, economics, medicine, and related fields. Darling had served as an associate editor for the Journal for the past eight years.

"What's American About American Poetry," an essay by Kazim Ali, associate professor and director of creative writing, has been included in the new anthology A Sense of Regard: Essays on Poetry and Race. The essay is on the subject of contemporary Indigenous American writing.

Marc Blecher, professor of politics and East Asian studies, and Daniel Zipp '13, published their article entitled “Migrants and Mobilization: Sectoral Patterns in China, 2010-2013" in the Global Labour Journal (January, 2015). The article analyzes the differences in social protest among migrant workers in China’s apparel, automobile, construction, and electronics industries.

The article is based on research originally done for Zipp's honors thesis, which the pair adapted for a paper they presented at an international conference sponsored by several German and Chinese universities in Nanchang, China, in March 2014.

Kathy Abromeit, public services librarian in the Conservatory Library, has published a new book titled Spirituals: A Multidisciplinary Bibliography for Research and Performance. The volume was co-published by Music Library Association and A-R Editions, Inc.

African American spirituals transcend national, disciplinary, and linguistic boundaries as they connect music, theology, literature and poetry, history, society, and education. In doing so, they reach every aspect of human experience. To make sense of the immense impact spirituals have made on music, culture, and society, this bibliography cites writings from a multidisciplinary perspective, including music, literature and poetry, American history, religion, and African American Studies. The 1,000-item annotated bibliography documents articles, books, and dissertations published since 1920 and contains indices by author, subject, and spiritual title. Additionally, an appendix of spirituals by biblical reference, listing both spiritual title to scriptural reference as well as scripture to spiritual title, is included.

Professor of Computer Science Richard Salter was part of an international team from the USA (Oberlin, Berkeley, and San Francisco), France, and Sierra Leone that used an agent-based model to analyze the spread of Ebola viral disease (EVD) in West Africa. Salter and his colleagues used Salter’s NOVA modeling system to devise a simulation that modeled the effect of an early vaccine campaign or treatment as a defense against EVD spread. This work, which was completed in September, correctly predicted the course of the epidemic.

The journal Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine article "Tactics and Strategies for Managing Ebola Outbreaks and the Salience of Immunization" discusses the team's work and findings.

Patrick Simen, assistant professor of neuroscience, recently gave a series of talks in the U.K. and Turkey regarding a mathematical model of neural processing in perceptual decision making and interval timing. In the U.K., Simen spoke at the University of Warwick, the University of Oxford, and the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit of University College London. In Turkey, Simen spoke at Koç University in Istanbul.

Simen's travel was supported by a Powers Travel Grant, the funding from which also gave him an opportunity to spend time with and see the research facilities of his collaborators at the aforementioned institutions.

Sarah Hamill's book on David Smith's photography, David Smith in Two Dimensions: Photography and the Matter of Sculpture, has been published by the University of California Press (January 2015). The first in-depth, scholarly study of a sculptor's photography, Hamill’s book offers a close look at how Smith used the camera to stage and transform his sculpture, crafting a public display for his work. The book argues for a new understanding of media in modernism that destabilizes traditional notions of medium specificity and sculptural autonomy.

Coldfront Magazine has selected Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Shane McCrae's recent book of poetry, Forgiveness Forgiveness, as one of its Top 40 Poetry Books of 2014. Forgiveness Forgiveness is ranked third overall.

Meghan Riesterer, assistant vice president of energy management and sustainability, has been selected as a panelist for the opening panel of the upcoming International District Association's Campus Energy Conference. The panel, "Clean Energy for the Next Generation," will discuss emerging trends in clean energy deployment and optimization on campuses and communities in the context of a rapidly-changing utility and energy marketplace.