Faculty and Staff Notes

Associate Professor of East Asian Religions Andrew Macomber published his book Cadaverous: Postmortem Contagion and Ritual Immunity in Medieval Japanese Buddhism with the University of Hawai'i Press. Cadaverous offers an unprecedented tour of the therapeutic and ritual culture of Buddhism in early medieval Japan, illuminating how that culture linked disease with pathogenic manifestations of the reanimated dead.

Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Jillian Scudder's next popular science book, The Universe: A Graphic Guide, was published in the U.K. on September 10. New Scientist described the book as "Like a soothing cup of tea, The Universe is one of life’s instant small pleasures." It will be available in the U.S. on November 24.

Norman D. Henderson Professor of Psychology Nancy Darling presented a symposium on "Monitoring, Disclosure, and Privacy Violation in Medical Contexts" at the European Association for Research on Adolescence in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The work was coauthored by seven students in her lab: Amber Borofsky, Chloe Howes, Huyen Kim, Maille Kimble, Lorna Luo, Ariana Ofori, and Stella Sears-Bicknell.

The Arcadia of Jacobo Sannazaro: A New Translation with Commentary (University of Michigan Press, 2025), by retired English professor Nicholas Jones, has received the American Association of Italian Studies Book Award for English translation of a full-length Italian literary work.

The OpEd Project selected Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Comparative American Studies Yveline Alexis as an Ambassador for its Write to Change the World initiative. She will undergo training and help participants accomplish the initiative's titular mission. 

Professor of Dance Ann Cooper Albright, who authored the biography Simone Forti: Improvising a Life, was featured on the BBC obituary podcast Last Word to discuss the remarkable accomplishments and influence of the postmodern dancer, along with insights about her personal life beyond the spotlight.

An article by Special Collections and Preservation Librarian Ed Vermue was published in the latest issue of Artifact & Apparatus: the Journal of Media Archaeology. It relates to the building of Oberlin's Early Media Collection, which includes the Letterpress Studio and the Pre-Cinematic Collection.

Assistant Professor of Cinema and Media Grace Wilsey recently published an article in the journal Convergence titled "From the Mind of J.K. Rowling: How Harry Potter Fan Destinations Mediate a Tainted Authorship Brand."

Longman Professor of Physics Jason Stalnaker and four recent Oberlin students coauthored a paper on the development of a nuclear-spin oscillator as a possible detector for dark-matter searches. It was published in the journal Universe.

Assistant Professor of Data Science and Computer Science Joshua Davidson recently published a paper in the journal Applied Mobilities with Sophie Lee (Emory University) and Megan Ryerson (University of Pennsylvania). Titled "Navigating transit spaces: an assemblage approach to daily travel," the paper looks at the ways public transit users organize and think about their travel practices in diverse spatial environments.