Union in the Media

Sixty-four photographic works by Martin Benjamin, professor of visual arts, are on view at the Albany Institute of History and Art through Sept. 7 as part of the exhibition “Summer Exposure.” Benjamin’s selected photos represent different periods in his artistic career, from the documentary images of his American Road Trips series shot during the early 1970s to the more recent color diptychs of Vietnam and Italy that allow him to pair images and show “uniformity within diversity.” Also featured are photographs from his street photography, public events and Atomic Age series, as well as individual images set in China and Cuba. Most are vintage prints, and many are gelatin silver prints. “Summer Exposure” offers five uniquely different ventures into photographic vision, media and artistic conception, with works by Carolyn Blackwood, Tom Fels, Dana Hoey and William Jaeger, as well.

Eric McDowell, assistant athletic director for sports information, has been named president of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) for the 2014-15 academic year. He is a 2009 CoSIDA Hall of Fame Inductee and its 59th president. McDowell took over the leadership position at the organization’s annual convention in June.

Andrew Morris, associate professor of history, presented his paper, “Trailer Cities: The Truman Administration and Disaster Relief, 1947-52,” on a panel at the 2014 Policy History Conference in June in Columbus, Ohio. The paper is research from Morris’ larger project on Hurricane Camille and post-World War II disaster relief policy in the U.S. He also chaired a panel at the same conference on “Re-Evaluating the Place of the Federal Housing Administration in American History.”

Tina Lincer, associate director of Communications and Marketing, was a featured reader in a Bloomsday celebration at the Rensselaer County Historical Society in Troy last month. She joined six other writers, including Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Kennedy, in reading selections from James Joyce’s novel, "Ulysses."

This summer, Union again hosted the EDGE workshop, a two-week engineering camp for talented high school girls.

The Times Union stopped by for presentations made by the class.

To view a photo gallery, click here.

John Rieffel, assistant professor of computer science, talked about the College's new 3-D printer in an interview with U.S. News and World Report.

Housed in the Collaborative Design Studio in the basement of the Wold Center, the printer was purchased through a grant from the National Science Foundation.

To read the story, click here.

Mary O'Keeffe, a public policy economist who supervises the College's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, was recently honored with a Jefferson Medal, the "Nobel Prize of public service," at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the Jefferson Awards Foundation, the annual honors recognize "unsung heroes" from across the country for their community service.

A public policy economist who teaches the College’s service-learning class, “ Income Tax Policy and Practice,” O'Keeffe has helped Union students secure nearly $4 million in state and federal refunds for low-income working families and senior citizens.

To read an article in the Times Union, click here.

George Bizer, professor of psychology, and Erika Wells, visiting assistant professor of psychology, were mentioned in a recent article examining the popularity of the Disney blockbuster Frozen.

The article was among the most viewed on The New Yorker's website.

To read the article, click here.

Dr. Deborah L. Birx, a renowned international expert in the in the filed of HIV/AIDS, was the featured speaker at Union's 220th Commencement June 15.

Approximately 500 students in the Class of 2014 received their degrees during the ceremony on Hull Plaza.

To view a photo gallery in the Times Union, click here.

Elaine Houston from WNYT-Channel 13 visited campus recently to check out Union's new 3D printer.

Housed in the Collaborative Design Studio in the basement of the Wold Center, the printer was purchased through a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Michael Warrener '16 and Rebecca Koopmann '89, professor of physics and astronomy, recently observed at the WIYN 0.9m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Ariz. The observations of the star formation properties of nearby galaxies will clarify the role of a galaxy's environment on its evolution. Earlier in the year, Warrener observed with Koopmann and Lucas Viani '14 at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Both trips were funded by Koopmann's Undergraduate ALFALFA Team grant from the National Science Foundation. Warrener received a Hoffleit Undergraduate Astronomy Research Scholarship at Yale University for the summer to continue his study of galaxy evolution. Lucas Viani will begin graduate studies in astronomy at Yale this fall.

An article by Joyce Madancy, associate professor and chair of the History Department, was published in the winter edition of The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs: An Interdisciplinary Journal. The piece was titled, “Smoke and Mirrors: Gender, Colonialism and the Royal Commission on Opium.”

Daniel Mosquera, associate professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies, was invited to give a seminar in the Department of Portuguese at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. He presented “Between Ecology and Necropolitics: Of Trash and Self in Contemporary Brazilian Cinema." He also attended the two-day conference at Oxford, “The Tunisian Revolution: Origins, Process and Outcomes.”

An editorial piece by Eddie Summers, chief of staff, was published in the Poughkeepsie Journal. The article strategized how the city of Poughkeepsie could use its assets to remain viable in the global economy. Read his article here.

Christine Henseler, associate professor of Spanish and Hispanic Studies and chair of the department of Modern Languages, is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post on the arts and humanities.

She is involved in the advocacy of the arts and humanities through 4Humanities.org and "The Arts and Humanities in the 21st Century Workplace" campaigns about the arts and humanities.

To read the clip, click here.

Bunkong Tuon, assistant professor of English, recently published an article on the poetry of Chanrithy Him in Mosaic: a Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature. His poetry has also been anthologized in With Our Eyes Wide Open: Poems for the New American Century (West End Press, 2014), edited by Doug Valentine. As part of this publication, he read with four other poets at Smith College on April 1. To read more about this event, click here.

A review by Tim Olsen, associate professor of music, was published in the winter edition of "The Hymn," the journal of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. The article discusses jazz- and gospel-based recordings by pianist Dan Damon and saxophonist Kirk Whalum.

Nicholas Weidhaas ’15 was awarded the Northeastern Section of the Geological Society of America Stephen Pollock Undergraduate Research Program grant. His research involves Holocene climatic change in the Peruvian Andes where he will study the impacts of climate change on glaciers and lakes. The award includes $800 to fund analyses in Union’s new Stable Isotope Laboratory, and he will travel to the Peruvian Andes this summer to collect samples.

Chief Diversity Officer Gretchel Hathaway and Associate Professor of Sociology Deidre Hill Butler were speakers on a panel, “Powering Through Institutional Obstacles: The State of Women of Color in Higher Education.” The event was hosted by the Leadership Council on Inclusion at Excelsior College in Albany, N.Y., on April 17.