Faculty-Staff Achievements, March 24, 2014
Activities
Dan Nathan, associate professor and chair, Department of American Studies, was co-leader (with Joseph Bruchac) of a discussion March 29 on the film Freedom Riders at the Saratoga Springs Public Library. The film was one of four presented during the library鈥檚 鈥淐reated Equal: America鈥檚 Civil Rights Struggle.鈥� The series is part of the Bridging Cultures initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History to encourage public conversations about the changing meanings of freedom and equality in America.
Gregory Spinner, visiting assistant professor of religion, was the featured speaker March 23 in a 鈥淭own and Gown鈥� program hosted by Saratoga Film Forum. He spoke following the screening of the film The Rabbi鈥檚 Cat (Le chat du rabbin), an animated movie based on the comic book series by Joann Sfar. Spinner called the film one of his favorites. He is also a co-curator of the current Tang Museum exhibition 鈥淕raphic Jews: Negotiating Identity in Sequential Art,鈥� open until April 13. The film forum鈥檚 鈥淭own and Gown鈥� series introduces moviegoers to film-savvy scholars from area colleges whose work has been profoundly shaped by the movies.
Gordon Thompson, professor and chair, Department of Music, lectured on 鈥淏eatlemania! The Rise of the Beatles, 1963鈥� Feb. 24 at Union College, Schenectady, as part of its Taylor Time series. This lecture focused on the cultural contexts of the band鈥檚 unprecedented emergence from a regional act to national celebrities. He was also a guest speaker for the symposium titled 鈥淭omorrow Never Knows: The Beatles in Text and Image鈥� on March 1 at the Kislak Center, the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. His paper, 鈥淩econstructing Abbey Road: History, Mnemohistory and Memories of Working with the Beatles,鈥� delved into the nature of collective memory and the recording of 鈥淲hile My Guitar Gently Weeps.鈥�
Publications
Jay Rogoff, visiting assistant professor of English, is the author of a fifth book of poems, titled Venera, published this month by Louisiana State University Press. According to the publisher, 鈥淭he poem鈥檚 in Venera explore varieties of love, both sacred and profane, by drawing from the natural world. Personal intimacy, and the human imagination as evoked in Biblical narratives and art.鈥� Read more .
Linda Simon, professor emerita of English, is the author of published in the Journal of American Culture, Vol. 37, Issue 1, March 2014.
Mary Zeiss Stange, professor of women鈥檚 studies and religion and director of the religion program, is one of two senior scholars aligned with the Center for Humans and Nature鈥攁 Chicago-based environmental think-tank鈥攁nd its newly launched essay series,
Under the rubric 鈥淓xpanding Our Natural and Civic Imagination,鈥� the center offers 鈥渜uestions for a resilient future鈥� designed to 鈥減robe assumptions about nature and humanity鈥檚 place within it.鈥� The first such question鈥斺�淒oes hunting make us human?鈥濃�攆eatures essays by Stange and fellow senior scholar Jan Dizard, Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of American Culture at Amherst College. Over the course of the next several months, twenty more responses to the question will appear from an array of writers and scholars, with online contributions from readers.
In the News
Ron Seyb, Joseph C. Palamountain Jr. Professor of Government, was interviewed March 20 on WNYT-TV
regarding the Obama Administration鈥檚 sanctions against Russia in retaliation for the
situation in Crimea.