Union in the Media

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.”

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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.