Faculty and Staff Notes

Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies Sergio Gutierrez Negron cofounded the small literary press La pequeña, proyecto editorial. The inaugural Fall 2024 catalog includes a memoir about Montserrat’s volcanic explosion in the 1990s written by author Yvonne Weekes; a novel by a 25 year-old Puerto Rican novelist, Daniel Rosa Hunter; and a literary travelogue by Mexican writer, Luis Felipe Lomelí. La pequeña will publish three books a year, spanning Puerto Rican, Caribbean, and Latin American literature.

Visiting Assistant Professor in English and Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Postcolonial World Literature Asif Iqbal’s article, entitled “The East Pakistan-West Pakistan Entanglement: Gender, Politics and Postcolonial Development in Shawkat Ali’s Dhakkhinayoner Din,” has been published in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. The article grew out of the British Academy Writing Workshop “Pakistan to Bangladesh, 1947–71.”

Assistant Professor of German Jessica Resvick gave a paper at the Atkins Goethe Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Her talk, "Goethe's Invisible Hands: Art, Craft, Chirognomy," analyzed the role of hand anatomy and manual gesture in Goethe's final novel, Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre, tracing out the religious, aesthetic, and medico-scientific significance of manuality within nineteenth-century thought.

Assistant Professor of Cinema and Media Joshua Sperling published "The Power of a Brand: Paramount, Heartland Narrowcasting, and Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone" in the Journal of Literary Studies. Sperling was interviewed on the topic by the French cultural magazine Télérama.

Professor of Politics Stephen Crowley's opinion article, "What Explains Trumpism? It's Capitalism, and it's Global," appeared in The Nation.

Associate Professor of Music Theory Andrew Pau presented two research papers on opposite sides of the Atlantic during the first week of November. The first presentation, "Expanded Continuation Phrases in Fauré's Piano Music," was given at the Institut de France in Paris, at a colloquium marking the centenaries of the deaths of French composers Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) and Théodore Dubois (1837–1924). The second presentation, "Fauréan Influences in Lili Boulanger's Clairières dans le ciel" was given at the annual conference of the Society for Music Theory in Jacksonville, Florida.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion Francesca Chubb-Confer recently published an essay, "Poetry on the Periphery: Language, Power, and Islam" as part of a scholarly forum in the journal Afghanistan.

Gender & Attraction Initiatives are presenting at Creating Change. NiK Peavy, Felicia Muhammad, and Al Herrera will be hosting the Queer Higher Education Professionals Caucus at one of the largest LGBTQ+ conferences in the United States.

Associate Professor of Physics & Astronomy Jillian Scudder presented her most recent book, The Milky Way Smells of Rum & Raspberries (Icon Books, 2023) at two book festivals in November; Books by the Banks in Cincinnati November 16, and the Buckeye Book Fair in Wooster on November 2.

Environmental Studies and Biology professor John Petersen and his company, Community Hub, were honored with the 2024 Civic Collaborator Award by MidTown Cleveland Inc., a community-development organization on the city’s near east side. Based on Petersen's Community Dashboard model of digital screens piloted in the city of Oberlin, the MidTown Community Dashboard promotes social, economic, and environmental aspects of sustainability, and includes a newly developed job board and community calendar. Community Hub content is created and maintained by Oberlin students.