Faculty and Staff Notes

Assistant Professor of Classics Christopher Trinacty recently published a chapter in the edited volume Roman Drama and its Contexts. The volume features many of the leading scholars in Roman comedy and tragedy. Trinacty's piece, "Tragic Translatio: Epistle 107 and Senecan Tragedy," examines Seneca's translation practices in his prose and poetic works. Trinacty argues for the importance of intratextual and intertextual clues for understanding Seneca's hermeneutics of translation in the piece.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology Christi M. Smith has published “From Vice to Virtue: Racial Boundaries and Redemption Narratives in Late 19th-Century Appalachian Feuds.” See a PDF of the article.

Smith shares her research on higher education access for African Americans in the 1870s with Aisha Tyler on TLC's Who Do You Think You Are? Smith and Oberlin College Archivist Ken Grossi researched Tyler's family ties to Oberlin College. The segment filmed in the Oberlin College Archives in December 2015 and airs at 9 p.m. on April 3.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies and Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow Alberto Zambenedetti was asked to join the 2016 Cleveland Arts Prize jury for the Visual Arts category.

Kathy Abromeit, public services librarian in the Conservatory Library, attended the annual meeting of the Music Library Association where she presented “Peer Instruction in the Oberlin Conservatory Library: Three Models of Engagement.” The meeting took place March 2-5, 2016, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Professor of Classics Kirk Ormand recently published the article “Peut-on parler de perversion dans l’Antiquité? Foucault et l’invention du raisonnement psychiatrique” in Foucault: la sexualité, l’Antiquité, a volume of collected essays edited by Sandra Boehringer and Daniele Lorenzini (Paris: Éditions Kimé 2015, pages 63-83).

Ormand’s article developed out of a paper he delivered at a conference last spring in Paris that deals with the effects of Foucault’s three-volume History of Sexuality 30 years after its publication. Building on the work of Arnold Davidson, Ormand argues that previous to the development of “psychiatric reasoning” in the late 19th century, it is anachronistic to speak of sexual “perversions” in the modern sense, even in the case of individuals who might strike modern readers as exhibiting what we might think of as “perverse” behaviors and inclinations. Ormand’s article was translated into French for the volume by Sandra Boehringer and Isabelle Châtelet.

The Let Down Reflex, an EFA Project Space exhibition that includes works by Professor of Studio Art Nanette Yannuzzi, has been reviewed by Gregory Sholette for the publication Hyperallergic. See the review on this webpage.

Managing Editor of Oberlin College Press Marco Wilkinson published the article "Self-Speaking World" in Assay: A Journal of Non-Fiction Studies in March.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Hispanic Stud​i​es Sergio Gutiérrez​-Negrón ​has published the article "The Estate Must Be Protected! Work and the Necessity of Restraint in Roa Bárcena’s La quinta modelo (1857)" in ​​Decimonónica: A Journal of Nineteenth Century Hispanic Cultural Production. The article studies the political​ and theological​ grammar of labor in​​ a serialized novel published by a conservative Catholic writer in the eve of the War of Reform in 19th Century Mexico.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Crystal Biruk gave an invited lecture on February 26 at Yale University's Symposium on Gender and Sexuality in Africa.

Professor Emerita of Music Education Peggy D. Bennett has written the chapter “Questioning the Unmusical Ways We Teach Children Music” in the book Teaching General Music: Approaches, Issues, and Viewpoints (Oxford University Press).

Bennett also presented “Vitality: Reviving the Life in Your Teaching” to 120 music educators in February at the Texas Music Educators Association state conference in San Antonio.

Finally, Bennett taught the first SongWorks Certification courses in summer and fall 2015. Oberlin graduates who are now SongWorks Certified Educators are Danielle Solan (Hong Kong), Alice Nordquist (Maryland), Samantha Smith (Ohio), Jake Harkins (Virginia), Max Mellman (New Jersey), and Ethan Updike (Florida).