Faculty and Staff Notes

Crystal Biruk, assistant professor of anthropology, delivered an invited talk at Yale University's Council on African Studies in January. The talk was titled "Cooking Data: Culture and Politics in a Malawian Research World."

An article co-authored by Sebastiaan Faber, professor of Hispanic studies and chair of Latin American studies, and Bécquer Seguín was published in the Nation. The article, "Can Podemos Win in Spain," explores the ascension of Podemos, a political party in Spain founded just one year ago. The Nation subscribers can read the article here.

An article by Professor of Mathematics Robert Bosch '85 and mathematics major Julia Olivieri '16 was recently published in the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts. The article, "Designing Game of Life Mosaics with Integer Programming," describes how Bosch and Olivieri used mathematical optimization techniques to construct sets of tiles that can be interpreted as still lifes (stable objects) or phoenix patterns (period-2 oscillators) in Conway's Game of Life. The tiles are modular and have various brightness levels, making them suitable for making mosaics. At the present time, the article is available for free.

Jason Haugen, assistant professor of anthropology, recently co-organized and moderated a special joint Symposium at the combined Annual Meetings of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) and the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA) in Portland, OR. The session, Uto-Aztecan Historical Linguistics at the Centennial, was co-organized with Bill Merrill of the Smithsonian Institution’s Department of Anthropology.

At this session, Haugen also co-presented a paper—“Lexicostatistics, Tubar, and ‘Sonoran’”—with alumnus Michael Everdell ’13 and Ben Kuperman, associate professor and chair, Department of Computer Science.

Assistant Dean of Studies Randal Doane’s recent book, Stealing All Transmissions: A Secret History of The Clash, was included on two best-of 2014 lists. Los Angeles Magazine called it one of the best “little” books of 2014, and on Counterfire, Mark Perryman said it was one of his top 10 books to buy to make somebody’s Christmas.

Doane will discuss the book at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archive on January 22 at 7 p.m.

Jason Haugen, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, was recently an invited participant at the workshop The State of the Art of Mesoamerican Linguistics, held at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. His presentation, “Uto-Aztecan,” will form the basis for a chapter in the forthcoming volume "The Languages and Linguistics of Middle and Central America: A Comprehensive Guide," which is to be published in the World of Linguistics series by Mouton de Gruyter.

Professor of Physics Yumi Ijiri recently published the article "Particle moment canting in CoFe2O4 Nanoparticles." The article appears in the journal Physical Review B (condensed matter and materials physics) as a Rapid Communication. Kathryn Hasz '14, now a graduate student at University of Pennsylvania, is the lead author, and the work was done in collaboration with scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Carnegie Mellon University.

The article "Beyond 'Self-Congratulatory Celebration': Complicating Civil Rights Anniversaries" by Renee Romano, Professor of History, Africana Studies and Comparative American Studies, appears in the November 2014 issue of the American Historian, the new magazine of the Organization of American Historians. Romano discussed Ferguson and the Eric Garner cases on the NPR program the Takeaway December 5. She was also quoted in a December 2 New York Times article about the "Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations" oral history project at the Brooklyn Historical Society, for which she serves as a consultant.

Ellis Tallman, department chair and Danforth-Lewis Professor of Economics, presented the paper "Federal Reserve System and World War I: Designing Policies without Precedent" at the International historical symposium, "Central Banks in the Great War" at the Banque de France, Paris, in November. Click here to access a PDF of the program and here to read the paper.

Oberlin College's Office of Environmental Sustainability (OES) internship program is featured in "Guide to Creating & Managing Sustainability Internship Programs," a new resource from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). Bridget Flynn, Sustainability Coordinator for the Office of Environmental Sustainability (OES), contributed to the guide.