Faculty and Staff Notes

Professor and Chair of History Annemarie Sammartino was interviewed as part of the documentary “Beethoven's Scowl” on the CBC's Ideas program, which investigated the way that Beethoven has functioned as a symbol over the past two centuries. 

Professor of Mathematics Jim Walsh published an article, “A window into the world of KAM theory,” that  was the cover article of the October issue of Mathematics Magazine. In this paper, a simple model is used to elucidate the theory that played a key and historic role in mathematical investigations into the stability of the solar system.

Professor and Chair of Psychology Nancy Darling developed and launched the 1step2life app to support people living with severe persistent pain. Based in cutting-edge developmental and rehabilitation science, the app helps people living with pain focus on their progress and functioning rather than their pain. Starting where they are now, it allows them to set goals, log emotions and daily activities, and visualize their progress. It has modes for both patients and caregivers, supporting effective coaching as well as rehabilitation. The app was funded by the college's LaunchU Entrepreneurship Pitch Competition. Darling worked with a team of psychology students on the research and development of the app. Now available on both the App Store and Google Play. 

Sergio Gutiérrez Negrón, assistant professor of Hispanic studies, published two scholarly articles. The first, SATIRE AND THE LIE OF POLITICS: EL MONO (MEXICO, 1833), studies the use of satire in 19th century Mexican conservative journalism. The second, LIBERTAD PARA LOS FEOS: LUCES ARTIFICIALES (2002) DE DANIEL SADA, theorizes the relationship between freedom, ugliness and embodiment through an engagement with a novel by Mexican writer, Daniel Sada (1953-2011).

Sevinç Türkkan, visiting assistant professor of comparative Literature, participated in a panel on “Activist Translation” at the virtual conference “Translating the Future” organized by CUNY-Graduate Center for the Humanities. She was invited to talk about her experience translating "The Stone Building and Other Places" (City Lights Books) by the writer, journalist, and human rights activist Aslı Erdoğan from Turkey. Erdoğan was arrested and imprisoned in Turkey in 2016 following the failed military coup and accused of supporting a terrorist organization. The panel has been recorded and archived on the platform for viewing.

Sonia Kruks, Danforth Professor of Politics Emerita, published a paper, "For a Modest Human Exceptionalism: Simone de Beauvoir and the 'New Materialisms'" in Vol. 30 of Simone de  Beauvoir Studies.

Campus Safety Supervisor Tyrone Wicks had been appointed to the office of President in the Ohio Chapter of the National Association of Campus Safety Administrators (NACA). The National Association of Campus Safety Administrators provides training and networking for campus safety professionals. It is the nation’s largest association of campus safety professionals. NACSA also operates a centralized dispatch center for campus law enforcement or campus security agencies that cannot afford to have their own 24/7 dispatch center.

Andrew Macomber published a book, Buddhist Healing in Medieval China and Japan, with co-editor C. Pierce Salguero (University of Hawai'i Press, August 2020). He also contributes a chapter to the volume, "Ritualizing Moxibustion in the Early Medieval Tendai-Jimon Lineage," which examines how Buddhists sought to treat "corpse-vector disease," a mysterious illness that began afflicting aristocrats and emperors in the late twelfth century, through a combination of ritual therapeutics and Chinese medicine.

Chie Sakakibara, assistant professor of environmental studies and East Asian studies, has published the book Whale Snow: Iñupiat, Climate Change, and Multispecies Resilience in Arctic Alaska (First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies) from the University of Arizona Press.

Whale Snow explores how Arctic climate change influences Indigenous society, and reflects upon Sakakibara’s ongoing collaborative endeavor with the Iñupiaq community of northern Alaska for nearly two decades. Sakakibara’s research and writing have been inspired and enabled by her collaboration and conversations with many Indigenous community partners, colleagues and students at Oberlin College & Conservatory as well as the support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Arctic Social Sciences Program, the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium, the Earth Institute and the Center for Ethnomusicology at Columbia University, in addition to Oberlin College Dean’s Office, Grants Office, Bonner Center, and Environmental Studies.    

As a mythical creature, the whale has been responsible for many transformations in the world. It is an enchanting being that humans have long felt a connection to. In the contemporary environmental imagination, whales are charismatic megafauna feeding our environmentalism and aspirations for a better and more sustainable future.

Using multispecies ethnography, Whale Snow explores how everyday the relatedness of the Iñupiat of Arctic Alaska and the bowhead whale forms and transforms “the human” through their encounters with modernity. Whale Snow shows how the people live in the world that intersects with other beings, how these connections came into being, and, most importantly, how such intimate and intense relations help humans survive the social challenges incurred by climate change. In this time of ecological transition, exploring multispecies relatedness is crucial as it keeps social capacities to adapt relational, elastic, and resilient.

In the Arctic, climate, culture, and human resilience are connected through bowhead whaling. In Whale Snow we see how climate change disrupts this ancient practice and, in the process, affects a vital expression of Indigenous sovereignty. Ultimately, though, this book offers a story of hope grounded in multispecies resilience.

All royalties from the sale of this book will go directly to the North Slope Borough Iñupiat History, Language and Culture Commission.

Clayton Koppes, professor emeritus of history, was quoted in the summer 2020 issue of HUMANITIES, the journal of the National Endowment for the Humanities, about the importance of the University of California at San Francisco Archives for the history of AIDS and queer history generally.