Tommaso Gazzarri, professor of classics, has published a new special issue of LAS (Lucius Annaeus Seneca), the open-access international journal, dedicated to a systematic analysis of the first-century CE treatise De Otio (“On Leisure”). In addition to editing the volume, he contributed both the Introduction and a chapter titled "Seneca, De Otio 2: The Pursuit of Otium and the Vestals’ Exemplary Life."
Cameron S. Kay, visiting assistant professor in psychology, has a few recent publications and presentations of note. Kay published a paper titled "Assessing conspiracist ideation reliably, validly, and efficiently: A psychometric comparison of five short-form measures" in Assessment. He also presented the poster "How to detect careless survey responders using the Comprehensive Infrequency-Frequency Item Repository (CIFR),” and the flash talk "Assessing conspiracist ideation reliably, validly, and efficiently: A psychometric comparison of five short-form measures" at the annual convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Denver, CO.
Mai Tran '26 and Trishikha Kiran Rao '25, both psychology majors, presented posters at the annual convention of the Eastern Psychological Association in New York, NY. Tran’s poster, “Hikikomori and internet addiction in US college students,” details the results of a sophomore project. Kiran’s poster, "Ego & ethics: The association between narcissism, academic entitlement, and academic dishonesty,” details the results of a senior thesis. Both were advised by Cameron S. Kay, visiting assistant professor in psychology.
Stacie Raucci, Frank Bailey Professor of Classics, presented a paper at the Institute of Classical Studies in London as part of a conference titled “Wearing Antiquity: modern fashion and the past 2000 BCE - 1000 AD.” Her paper, “Fragmented Fashion: Rewriting the Ancient World in Text(ile)s,” addressed the role of fragments from ancient Greece and Rome in 21st-century fashion design.
Kurt Hollocher, professor emeritus and research professor in geosciences, presented an oral paper on big garnet (over 15 cm) amphibolite rocks on the north side of Gore Mountain in the Adirondacks. This paper was presented at the joint Northeastern/Southeastern Section meeting of the Geological Society of America in Erie, Pennsylvania, on March 28, 2025. Coauthors included former students, including Elizabeth Morgan '11. This paper provides a new interpretation of how the huge, red garnets grew to such remarkable size. The paper was well-received, and most of the analytical data it was based on was collected at Union College.
Francis Wilkin, senior lecturer in physics and astronomy and students Eduardo Castro '27, Abigail Ramsey '27 and Glauk Hizmo '27 have published "Observations of (617) Patroclus Mutual Events in Support of the Lucy Mission to the Trojan Asteroids" in the January 2025 Minor Planet Bulletin. A second paper "Additional Observations of (617) Patroclus-Menoetius Mutual Events" by Wilkin & Castro appeared in the April 2025 issue of the same journal. A third paper by Eduardo Castro & Prof. Wilkin "Composite Lightcurves of Three Main-Belt Asteroids" in the same issue appears on the volume cover. The NASA Lucy Mission will arrive at the Patroclus-Menoetius binary asteroid system in 2033 and the observations in these papers will be used to improve the spacecraft's encounter planning.
Claire Bracken, professor of English, has published the article "Laundering Complicity: Experimental Drama and the Temporalities of Shame" in the book "Irish Shame: A Literary Reckoning" (Edinburgh University Press, April 2025).
Artwork by Frank Rapant ’07, photography and exhibition technician, is included in “The call
is coming from inside the house,” the thesis exhibition by students in the MFA Art Practice ’25
of the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Rapant will present his mixed media
photographic and written word self-portraits that treat “fable as truth and truth as fable.” The
exhibition will take place at Art Cake Gallery in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, July 7-30. A reception is
set for July 11, 6-9 p.m. Rapant’s thesis is titled “Self-Portraits as Princess.” The photographs
retell parts of his life-in-trauma story using a small antique wooden doll called The Princess. The
MFA Art Practice is an interdisciplinary low residency master’s program that spans two years
and three summers. Rapant will complete the program this summer.
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