Faculty and Staff Notes

Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and Anthropology Jennifer Fraser will deliver the talk “Playing with Men: Female Singers, Porno Lyrics, and the Male Gaze in a Sumatran Vocal Genre” on Wednesday, August 10, at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Fraser has been conducting research in Sumatra, Indonesia, for approximately five weeks.

More information about her talk can be found on the Gadja Mada University website.

The paper “Navigating ‘Multiple Choice’ to ‘Research as a Process’: the Neuroscience of Teaching the First-year Music Student” by Kathy Abromeit, public services librarian in the Conservatory Library, was selected as the winner of the "best of chapter" competition at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Chapter of the Music Library Association (MLA). Abromeit presented the paper at the meeting, which took place October 15-17 in Louisville, Kentucky.

The paper is now in the running for the national "best of" competition between all MLA chapters.

Associate Professor of Integrated Media Julia Christensen has published two articles on Hyperallergic: “During the RNC, Two Art Projects Amplify the Voices of Ohio’s Citizens” and “Before Protesting at the Republican National Convention, Learn to Protect your Phone.” Both articles discuss artwork on view in Cleveland throughout the Republican National Convention.

Roderic Knight, emeritus professor of ethnomusicology, has published the article “A new look at classification and terminology for musical instruments” in the Galpin Society Journal. Published in England, the Galpin Society Journal is the principal outlet for the scientific study of musical instruments. Knight takes on the venerable Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, published in German in 1914, with an English translation in this same journal in 1961, and proposes improvements and additions to it. A special appeal for Oberlinians is the inclusion of two color photos of the electro-mechanical siren on Oberlin Fire Truck #42, which is, in the jargon, a pulsating blown aerophone. Emeritus professor of Physics Bruce Richards was Knight’s consultant on technical matters.

The courses Theologies of Abortion (taught by Margaret Kamitsuka, Francis W. and Lydia L. Davis associate professor of religion) and Women In/and Bollywood (taught by Anu Needham, Donald R. Longman professor of English) were included in the Elle magazine article “63 College Classes That Give Us Hope for the Next Generation.” See the article on this web page.

Michael Lynn, professor of recorder and Baroque flute, has published the article “The Development of the Flute in 19th-Century France” in the summer 2016 issue of The Flutist Quarterly, the official magazine of the National Flute Association (NFA). In the article, Lynn shares a great deal about Oberlin, his flute project and the Selch Collection of American Music History, which was donated by Frederick and Patricia Selch.

NFA members can access the magazine online on this web page.

Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology Erika Hoffmann-Dilloway has published the book Signing and Belonging in Nepal (Gallaudet University Press).

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Crystal Biruk participated in an invited roundtable on Global Health Trials and Technologies at the joint African Studies Association and American Anthropological Association conference Innovation, Transformation, and Sustainable Futures in Africa held June 1-4 in Dakar, Senegal.

Associate Professor of Economics Ron Cheung was included in a panel of leading economics and public-policy experts for the WalletHub article “2016’s States with the Best & Worst Taxpayer ROI.”

Associate Professor of Chemistry Jason Belitsky was interviewed about the benefits of OHIOLink for the article “Oberlin professor shares melanin research with undergraduate students” published on the OhioLINK website.