Faculty and Staff Notes

Assistant Professor of Economics Martin Saavedra presented a paper on November 3, 2018, at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. 

Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies Sergio Gutiérrez Negrón’s short story “People Who Go To The Beach Alone” was published in the Common as part of a dossier on contemporary Puerto Rican literature in the aftermath of Hurricane María. The story was translated by Hannah K. Cook '18.

Professor of Classics Kirk Ormand has recently delivered two public lectures. In September, he gave a paper titled “Women in and out of Time: Sappho and Atalanta” at Brown University. In October, Ormand participated in the 5th International Conference on Mythcriticism at the Universidad Autónoma in Madrid, Spain (Oct. 17-19), where he delivered “Verhoeven’s Robocop as Modern Oedipus.” 

Christopher Trinacty, associate professor of classics, gave an invited lecture titled “The End of the World: Catastrophic Flooding in Seneca’s Natural Questions” at George Washington University. The lecture suggests a new way of reading the flood narrative of the work as part of larger Stoic ideas about time and cyclical history. Trinacty also published a chapter in the volume Intratextuality and Latin Literature (DeGruyter, 2018). The chapter, “Nulla res est quae non eius quo nascitur notas reddat (Nat. 3.21.2): Intertext to Intratext in Senecan Prose and Poetry” analyzes the way that Seneca links his works to those of his predecessors. Trinacty also published a book review on P. Kragelund’s Roman Historical Drama: The Octavia in Antiquity and Beyond in the journal Gnomon 90 (2018) 660-62.

Sam Berrin Shonkoff, visiting assistant professor of Jewish studies and religion, gave an invited talk as a part of the symposium A German-Jewish Hermeneutics at Northwestern University.

Shelley Lee, associate professor of history and comparative American studies, wrote an op-ed "Why Voting for Immigration Reform Is Critical for Korean Americans" for Truthout.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Alice Blumenfeld, in collaboration with sculptor Paloma Izquierdo, presented Pellizco as part of the National YoungArts Foundation's In Process artist in residency series.

Matthew Wright, professor of theater, directed the world premiere of Everything is Okay (and other helpful lies), co-written and co-composed by Cleveland-based artists Melissa T. Crum and Caitlin Lewins. The musical runs October 26 through November 10, 2018, at Cleveland Public Theatre.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion and Jewish Studies Sam Shonkoff was a 2018 Shneer Fellow at University of Colorado, Boulder, from October 22 through 25, 2018. During his fellowship, Shonkoff presented a faculty and staff colloquium "From the Frankfurt Lehrhaus to Havurat Shalom: Fellowship, Renewal, Counterculture" about his archival work with the Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi Papers, which are held at the university.

Matthew Rarey, assistant professor of art history, is one of a select group of scholars invited to participate in "Black Modernisms," a two-part seminar series taking place in October 2018 and April 2019 at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts (CASVA) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The seminars are part of CASVA's new initiative to support research on African-American and African art.