Faculty and Staff Notes

Frederick R. Selch Associate Professor of Musicology Jamie O'Leary's book, The Middlebrow Musical (OUP, 2025), was recently given an honorable mention for International Society for the Study of Musicals Best Book Award.

Emerita Danforth Professor of Politics Sonia Kruks presented the paper "Discrepant Voices in Simone de Beauvoir's 'Old Age'" at the annual meeting of the United Kingdom Sartre Society, held in Oxford in July.

Robert S. Danforth Professor of Politics Stephen Crowley wrote the article "Russia, Ukraine, and the Danger of Escalation," which appeared in The Nation. 

Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Uche Okonkwo was awarded a summer writing residency by the Vermont Studio Center and earned the Voices Rising Fellowship, established to honor women writers of color.

Professor of Music Theory Andrew Pau presented the paper “Expanded Continuations in Belle Époque Instrumental Music” at the Dublin Music Analysis Conference, organized by the Society for Music Analysis (U.K.) and hosted by Trinity College and the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin July 13-15. The paper explores phrase forms in music by Cécile Chaminade, Gabriel Fauré, César Franck, and Maurice Ravel.

Professor of History Annemarie Sammartino was appointed the next Chief Reader for AP European History.

Professor of Classics Christopher Trinacty recently published the book Seneca: The Basics (Routledge), which offers a comprehensive guide to the works of Seneca the Younger, who was the foremost rhetorician, tragedian, and philosopher of the Age of Nero. It also shows why Seneca is still powerfully relevant in our modern times.

The cover of Associate Professor of Creative Writing Ghassan Zeineddine’s forthcoming story collection, There’s Plenty of Sunshine Where You’re Headed (Tin House/Zando), was exclusively revealed by Electric Lit. The book will be published on March 16, 2027.

Professor of Comparative American Studies Gina Pérez discussed her book Sanctuary People: Faith-Based Organizing in Latina/o Communities on the podcast New Books in Latino Studies. Pérez also authored an essay on faith-based responses to U.S. immigration enforcement for the Conversation. She co-hosts the podcast The Confluence: Ethnic Studies and the Public Good with Shelley Lee of Brown University; its third episode, on public humanities and historical memory, features retired Oberlin history professor Renee Romano and Gaila Sims ’11.

Fairchild Professor Emeritus of Religion and East Asian Studies James Dobbins recently published the article "The Echo of William James in the Thought of D.T. Suzuki" in the journal the Eastern Buddhism based in Kyoto, Japan.