Union in the Media

Research Professor of Philosophy Raymond Martin will be an interviewed panelist in the New York Academy of Sciences’ six-part (December through May) interdisciplinary series: “Perspectives on the Self: Conversations on Identity and Consciousness.” On the panel with Martin will be historian Gerald Izenberg and sociologist Nobert Wiley. This session, titled “Me, Myself, and I: The Rise of the Modern Self,” will be held Jan. 27. For more on the series, go to www.nyas.org/self. On another front, Martin's review essay, "Let Many Flowers Bloom," on historian Allan Megill’s Historical Knowledge, Historical Error: A Contemporary Guide to Practice, has appeared in a recent issue of the journal History and Theory.

Michael Vineyard, the Frank and Marie Louise Bailey Professor of Physics, Colin Gleason ’11 and Chad Harrington ’11 attended the fall meeting of the Division of Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society in Santa Fe, N.M.. The students presented posters at the Conference Experience for Undergraduates Poster Session on research performed in the Union College Ion-Beam Analysis Laboratory (UCIBAL). Gleason’s poster was titled “Particle-Induced X-Ray Emission Analysis of Atmospheric Aerosols,” and Harrington presented “Ion-Beam Analysis of Airborne Pollution.” Other UCIBAL research team members that were co-authors on the posters are Scott LaBrake, senior lecturer of physics and accelerator manager, Katie Schuff ’12, Maria Battaglia ’12, Robert Moore ’12 and Colin Turley ’13. Gleason and Harrington received competitive awards for travel and lodging from the American Physical Society to attend the meeting.

Gretchel Hathaway, senior director of Campus Diversity and Affirmative Action, and Victoria Brooks, director of Religious and Spiritual Life, presented a workshop at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) fall conference on “Facing the Divides: Diversity, Learning and Pathways to Inclusive Excellence.” Their presentation, which centered on the theme, “Fostering Identity, Civility and Democratic Classrooms,” was titled “Conceptualizing Religion in Student Intellectual and Social Life.” Addressing the sensitive nature of dialogues around religion in student social and academic arenas, Hathaway and Brooks recommended strategies for developing intellectually stimulating dialogue around religious differences.

Hilary Tann’s saxophone quartet, “Some of the Silence,” is on tour in the UK, performed by the Lunar Saxophone Quartet. November saw the launch of the quartet on CD (“These Visions,” Signum Classics) at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff, Wales. “Some of the Silence” is inspired by a John Stevenson haiku: A deep gorge / some of the silence / is me. In addition, there will be an all-Tann concert March 2 at the Eastman School of Music Women in Music 2011 Festival (http://www.esm.rochester.edu/wmf/). Tann is the John Howard Payne Professor of Music.

William Finlay, chair of the Theater and Dance Department, choreographed the fights in “A Christmas Story,” which recently ended a six-week run at Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany. This stage adaptation of the modern movie classic, based on the book by Jean Shepherd, was by Philip Grecian.

Jennifer Matsue participated in the recent Society of Ethnomusicology conference in Los Angeles, where she organized and chaired the session, “Taiko: Transforming Tradition in Contemporary Japanese Performance at Home and Abroad,” and delivered the paper, “Beating to One's Own Drum: Establishing a Tradition of Taiko Drumming in Kyoto.” She was elected as incoming chair of the Popular Music Section of the society, the largest national organization devoted to the study of popular music.

Work by Christine Henseler, associate professor of Spanish and Hispanic studies, was recently referenced in The Washington Post’s “The Leadership Playlist” as a “must see.” In addition, Henseler’s article, “Spanish Mutant Fictioneers: Of Mutants, Mutant Fiction and Media Mutations,” is included in the December issue of CiberLetras.

A flash fiction work by Kimmo Rosenthal, professor of mathematics, was accepted for publication in the literary magazine decomP. The Old Topology consists of only one sentence.

Jennifer Matsue, professor of music, attended a retreat on “Music, Social Justice and Resistance” in Tiverton, R.I. Sponsored by Tufts University, the conference brought together musicians, activists and scholars to explore how to “leverage our research, teaching, performance and activism to develop and intensify social justice initiatives with local and global impact." Plans are underway to encourage voting through music performance and song ("Imagine Then Vote!"), and Matsue will continue to work with Tufts faculty as they develop a Music and Advocacy Center.

An article by Rudy Nydegger, professor emeritus, was published in the Journal of Applied Business Research. “The Psychology of Work: Changes in the 21st Century” was co-authored by his daughter Colby Enides.

Submit your news to gowanc@union.edu.

An essay by Anastasia Pease, senior lecturer in English, was published in Quintessential Wilde. “Two Mysterious Portraits: Gogol and Wilde on Art and Artists,” is a comparative literature project that focuses on two stories of haunted portraits — Oscar Wilde’s “Picture of Dorian Gray” and Nikolai Gogol’s “The Mysterious Portrait.” Through a close textual analysis, the essay explores how Gogol’s and Wilde’s stories reflect on the power of art, the role of artists, the relationship between art and money, and the mysteries of talent and inspiration. Pease will also give a talk, “The Many Words for Love: A Literary Journey,” at the Torch Club in Schenectady on Feb. 9.

Angela Committo, visiting assistant professor of classics, presented a paper, “Extensive Survey in the Region Around Vani,” at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Toronto. She detailed the results of an archaeological survey of the landscape around Vani, one of the most important ancient sites in the western Republic of Georgia.

An article by Stacie Raucci, associate professor of classics, was published in the volume, “Starz Spartacus: Reimagining an Icon on Screen.” The piece was titled “Social Dynamics and Liminal Spaces.”

Jillmarie Murphy, associate professor of English, was recently awarded a Maine Women Writers Collection Research Grant. She will travel to the University of New England's Josephine S. Abplanalp Library, where she will conduct archival research on her project, "Gendered Place Attachments and Nature as a Restorative Environment in Celia Thaxter's Among the Isles of Shoals." During her stay, Murphy will also visit Thaxter's childhood home on Appledore Island, the largest of the Isles of Shoals, located off the Maine/New Hampshire coast.

Scott Kirkton, associate professor of biology, was an author on a poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in New Orleans. “The Secret Societies Living Within an Acorn: Temnothorax Ant Colonies Visualized with X-ray Microtomography" was a collaborative project with researchers from Providence College, using Union’s new micro-CT machine.

Two faculty from the Department of Physics and Astronomy presented at the January 2017 American Astronomical Society meeting in Grapevine, Texas. Rebecca Koopmann '89, professor and chair of the department, presented, "Star Formation in Undergraduate ALFALFA Team Galaxy Groups and Clusters," and Gregory Hallenbeck, visiting assistant professor, presented, "The Gas in Virgo’s 'Red and Dead' Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies."

Submit your news to gowanc@union.edu.

Saad Akhtar '18 and Carol Weisse, professor of psychology, gave a workshop at the Annual Meeting of the Hospice and Palliative Care Association of New York State. The session was titled “The Challenges of Tracking Performance Outcomes in a Home-Based Palliative Care Program.” Weisse also recently gave a talk, “Insights and Performance Outcomes from a Home-Based Palliative Care Study: Where Do We Go From Here?” at the Home Care Association of New York State Hospice and Palliative Care Forum. She also presented, “Preparing Future Healthcare Professionals to Provide Patient and Family-Centered Palliative Care,” at grand rounds at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany.

An article by Kristin Bidoshi, associate professor of Russian, was published in the volume, Десять шагов по «Степи » (Ten Steps along the ‘Steppe”). The article is titled “‘And little by little one recalls the legends of the steppe, travelers’ stories, and nanny’s folk tales…’: Folk Motifs and Rituals in Chekhov’s ‘Steppe.’”

Lori Marso, the Doris Zemurray Stone Professor of Literary and Historical Studies, has been invited to deliver two lectures in April. The first is at Bard’s Hannah Arendt Center for a symposium titled “Is the Private Political?” The second is at Northwestern University at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art for a symposium titled “The Cinema of Chantal Akerman: Time, Border, Politics.”

Submit your news to gowanc@union.edu.

Lewis Davis, professor of economics, co-authored an article, "Culture and the Regulation of Entry," in the Journal of Comparative Economics. The paper, available here, argues that individualism plays a key role in explaining the degree to which countries regulate the formation of new firms.

Andrew Morris, associate professor of history, reviewed Douglas Brinkley’s new book, “Rightful Heritage: Franklin Roosevelt and the Land of America,” at a recent event at the Schenectady County Public Library.

Megan Ferry, associate professor of Chinese and Asian Studies and chair of the Modern Languages Department, was elected to the executive committee to the Association of Departments of Foreign Language for a three-year term. The national organization informs institutions about issues confronting the field and developing policies and best practices.

Several letters to the editor to Mechanical Engineering were in praise of an article by Frank Wicks, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering. The piece, “Pipelines for War and Peace,” describes the crucial role of U.S. oil in winning World War II. German submarines off the coast were destroying oil tankers and this wartime emergency was solved by construction of oil and gas pipelines from Texas to the Northeast.

Submit your news to gowanc@union.edu.