May 12, 2022

Carol Weisse, the Ronald M. Obenzinger Professor of Psychology and director of Health Professions, was awarded a seed grant from the New York Six Liberal Arts Consortium to develop a new course with collaborators Kelly Melekis, chair of Social Work at Skidmore College, and Leah Rohlfsen, chair of Sociology from St. Lawrence University. The project, “Cross-Institutional Course Design: Teaching Mixed Methods Research to Explore Social Justice in End-of-Life Care,” will be developed with community-run residential homes for the dying that have trained students from all 3 institutions through the Community Action, Research, and Education (CARE) program.

An article by Daniel Mosquera, professor of Spanish, published an article in Literature, Democracy and Transitional Justice: Comparative World Perspectives. “The Irreverence of Bones: Reclaiming Trashed Lives in the Aftermath of Violence in Adios Ayacucho (1984) and Insensatez (2004)” explores the emblematic connection between the human as “waste” and violence in the context of transitional justice and memory retrieval by analyzing two fictional narratives: Julio Ortega’s Good Bye Ayacucho and Horacio Castellanos Moya’s Senselessness. Also, Mosquera’s article, “In Search of a New Ecology: Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent in the Age of Climate Crisis,” will be one of the new chapters added to the revised edition of Latin American History at the Movies edited by Donald Stevens.

Andrew Burkett, associate professor of English and director of the Science, Medicine, and Technology in Culture program, was recently named co-editor of Romantic Circles Pedagogies. Romantic Circles is the premiere digital journal and web resource in the field of Romantic studies.

Phanuel Mariano, assistant professor of mathematics, the and several other faculty members in the Mathematics Department were awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Conferences and Workshops in the Mathematical Sciences grant to support the participation and attendance of mathematicians who are from historically underrepresented groups in the mathematical sciences and/or are in the early stages of their careers at the 2022 Union College Mathematics Conference.

A personal essay on motherhood by Tina Lincer, associate director of Communications and Marketing, was published in the Perspectives section of the Albany Times Union on Mother‘s Day. In addition, Lincer is part of a four-person invitational at The Gallery at the Spencertown Academy and Arts Center in Columbia County. The exhibit is titled “Flowers. Fields. Forests. Abstracted.” An opening reception is set for 4-6 p.m. on May 21. The show runs through June 19 and includes 16 of Lincer’s oil paintings.

An article in the Albany Times Union highlighted the work of Laini Nemett, associate professor of drawing and painting, on display at the Berkshire Botanical Garden. Read the article here. (subscription may be required)

Eight Union College seniors presented their thesis research at the 14th Annual Eastern New York ACS Undergraduate Research Symposium, held virtually. Six of the students gave poster presentations including Alesandra Campedelli ’22 (“Investigation of the G-Quadruplex Confirmation in Precursor miRNA-92b”), Emma Devaney ’22 (“Small Molecules Ligands for G-quadruplex Stabilization in Pre-miRNA”) performed their research under the direction of Colleen Connelly, assistant professor of chemistry. Camille Parker ’22 (“Diisopinocampheylborane Trifluoromethanesulfonate-Mediated Aldol Reactions Using an Aldehyde and an Amide”) and Sophie Danziger ’22 (“Synthesis of a fatty acid synthase inhibitor enzyme to aid in the treatment of cancer”) were advised by Lee Pedzisa, visiting assistant professor of chemistry. Jacob Bowser ’22 (“Development of silica-xerogel-based optical humidity sensors”) was advised by Mary Carroll ’86, the Dwane W. Crichton Professor of Chemistry. Research by Amber Birt ’22 (“Measuring concentrations of acrylamide in brewed coffee”) was performed under the direction of Laura MacManus-Spencer, associate professor of chemistry, and Joanne Kehlbeck, professor of chemistry and chair of the Chemistry Department, with Emily Andrews ’20 as co-author. Two students, both from MacManus-Spencer’s research group, were selected to give oral presentations: Sabrina Rufrano ’22 spoke about “Investigating interactions of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances with human serum albumin using an equilibrium dialysis method.” Madison DiMauro ’22 presented on “Cytotoxic effects of octyldimethyl para-aminobenzoic acid (OD-PABA) and its Photoproducts,“ a collaborative project with William Duprey ’22 and Sudhir Khetan, assistant professor of biomedical engineering.