Faculty and Staff Notes

Associate Professor of Art History Matthew Rarey has been named a finalist for the 2024 Charles Rufus Morey Book Award from the College Art Association. Rarey's book Insignificant Things: Amulets and the Art of Survival in the Early Black Atlantic is one of five finalists for the prize, which will be announced in January. The award honors "an especially distinguished book in the history of art, published in the English language," and is among the highest recognitions for scholarship in art history.

Associate Professor of Percussion Ross Karre performed with his group, the International Contemporary Ensemble at the Kaufman Center's Merkin Concert Hall in NYC on November 1 in a concert curated by Oberlin honorary doctorate, George Lewis. Lewis commenced his newest curatorial series, "Composing While Black Volume 1," with a program of premieres by Courtney Bryan ’04 and Adegoke Steve Colson as well as works by Wendall Logan (creator of Oberlin's Jazz Department) and Brittany J. Green. Bryan's artistry has been celebrated by a recent MacArthur Award. Her piece was commissioned by Oberlin locals and Kendal Residents, Arlene and Larry Dunn.

Yveline Alexis was the keynote speaker on the origins of Haitian Vodou(n) at the Fet Gedé, Haiti Group in the United Kingdom. The talk combined history with live performances by acclaimed percussionist Ted Beaubrun.

Professor of Religion Cindy Chapman published “The Field Belonging to Boaz: Creating Kinship through Land, Labor, Food, and Feeding” in the Journal of Biblical Literature 142/3 (2023): 431-450.

The Korean edition of Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager's book, Narratives of Nation-Building in Korea: A Genealogy of Patriotism (M.E. Sharpe, 2003; Routledge, 2016), was published by Namu Yonpil publishers in October 2023.

Professor Ron Cheung, chair of the Department of Economics, was interviewed for an article on rising and declining cities that appeared on FinanceBuzz, a site that provides news on finance topics. Cheung teaches and conducts research in public finance and urban economics, and also teaches a seminar on the economics of housing and real estate.

Visiting Assistant Professor of History Victoria Broadus spoke at the Immigration Film Festival on October 20 in Washington, D.C., about the making of her documentary "Park Regent" (2022), which was featured in the festival program. The documentary captures the history and long-time community of an apartment building in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of Washington D.C.

Professor Christopher Trinacty presented the paper, "Seneca's Natural Questions: Three Perspectives" at the University of Athens. This paper offers a reading of Seneca's work that stresses its rhetorical, literary, and philosophical sophistication. In addition, Trinacty was a featured panelist at the University of Cincinnati's "An Evening with Seneca," where he discussed Seneca's tragedies and philosophical works as well as his complicated relationship with Nero.

Hal Sundt appeared on the podcast "The Greg Krino Show" to talk about his new book, Warplane: How the Military Reformers Birthed the A-10 Warthog.

Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Jillian Scudder published an article in Nautilus, explaining the recent discovery inferring the first observational evidence of a spinning black hole.