Faculty and Staff Notes

Renee Romano, the Robert S. Danforth Professor of history, gave interviews and presentations about her new co-edited collection, Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical is Restaging America’s Past. The book explores the musical’s historical accuracy, whether it’s revolutionary, and why it has been so incredibly popular. Romano did an interview about Hamilton for WCPN Ideastream’s The Sound of Applause on July 16, a day before the touring show of Hamilton opened in Cleveland. The collection has been featured in stories on Smithsonian.com and in the podcast, In the Past Lane. Romano and several of the volume’s contributors conducted a panel discussion at the Society of Cincinnati in Washington, D.C. on August 2, 2018.

Michael Parkin, professor of politics, co-authored an article in the Social Science Computer Review on how congressional campaign insiders viewed and used the web in 2016. The article, titled "Resisting the Opportunity for Change," shows that congressional campaigning on the web is largely driven by stable factors that transcend technological advancements and shifts in the political environment.

Cynthia Taylor published the paper "A Multi-Institution Exploration of Peer Instruction in Practice" in the proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE).

Clayton Koppes, professor of history, presented a paper titled "Hostility, Heroism, and Hope: How to Have History in an Epidemic" at the Australian History Association annual conference  on July 5 in Canberra. David Kelly, an independent scholar from Palm Springs, California, coauthored and co-presented. The paper covered the history of HIV/AIDS in the United States.

Jody Kerchner, professor of music education, was elected to serve as a board member of the International Society of Music Education (ISME).

Stephen Crowley, professor of politics, was interviewed for WCPN’s The Sound of Ideas and WVIZ’s Ideas to provide perspective on a summit between President Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Robert S. Danforth Professor of History Renee Romano’s editorial, “The Trauma of Internment,” appeared in the June 25, 2018 Washington Post. The editorial compares the impact of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans to the practice of separating migrant families at the U.S. border. Romano recounts the story of Alice, a Japanese-American teenager whose parents were arrested after Pearl Harbor, who is still now affected by the legacy of her separation from them and her imprisonment in the Jerome incarceration camp. Romano learned about Alice’s story while working on “Courage and Compassion,” a public history exhibit that focused on the Japanese American World War II experience and the stories of Japanese American students who studied at Oberlin during the war.

Jody Kerchner, professor of music education, presented a conference session at the international Music in the Schools & Teacher Education Commission Seminar in Prague, Czech Republic on July 12. The paper was "What I learned from prison: Practice teaching with community-based partners." 

Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary Donica Thomas Varner was a featured speaker for a webinar that explored how to manage the risks and liabilities of student organizations. Presented by the National Association of College and University Attorneys, the conversation co-facilitated by Varner examined how to best manage risk through formal recognition systems, conduct expectations and enforcement mechanisms, and strategies for managing financial, travel, reputational, and other risks.

Visiting Professor of Environmental Studies Carl McDaniel was a speaker for Natural History Week 2018 at Star Island Family Retreat and Conference Center in New Hampshire. The conference was based on McDaniel’s published works and other writings and was themed, Building Durable Communities: Lessons for a Livable Planet.