Faculty and Staff Notes

Professor of Classics and Art History Drew Wilburn presented the paper "Architectural Magic and Family Protection in North African Domestic Spaces" at the Celtic Classical Conference in Maynooth, Ireland. Over the summer, Wilburn and student collaborators Emma Ciesla, Beatrice Fisher, and Elizabeth Weilandy released a new version of the Karanis Housing Project website, which showcases legacy archaeological data from the University of Michigan excavations at Karanis (1924-35).

Work by Assistant Professor of Studio Art Esteban Cabeza de Baca is featured in the catalog Several Eternities in a Day: Form in the Age of Living Materials (Delmonico Press). It accompanies an exhibition of artists united by their innovative use of natural materials, invoking all things with which we share the land. A painting by Cabeza de Baca featured in this traveling exhibition also appears in the Delmonico catalog Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way.

Senior Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and Associate Professor of English Laura Baudot published an essay on girls wrestling in Ohio in The Point Magazine.

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.