Faculty and Staff Notes
Yolanda Kondonassis Releases World Premiere Recording
August 18, 2021
Oberlin Conservatory's multiple Grammy-nominated harp professor Yolanda Kondonassis is releasing new music on Azica Records. She performed Aaron Jay Kernis’ Elegy . . . for those we lost with Michael Sachs, Principal Trumpet of The Cleveland Orchestra, for the orchestra's Adella.live In Focus Concert Series in June 2021. That concert video—Episode 12, Celestial Serenades—is still available to series subscribers through the summer at www.adella.live. The world premiere recording on Azica will be available as a digital single on September 17, 2021.
Allegra Hyde publishes short story
August 17, 2021
Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Allegra Hyde published a short story, Mercy, in the Spring/Summer issue of Crazyhorse.
Stiliana Milkova interviews Bulgarian author and English translator for article in Reading in Translation
August 17, 2021
Associate Professor of Comparative Literature Stiliana Milkova interviewed the Bulgarian-born writer Nataliya Deleva and her English translator, the Bulgarian-born Izidora Angel, about Deleva's novel Four Minutes (2021), and her forthcoming novel, written in English, Arrival (2022). In the interview, Milkova, Deleva, and Angel reflect on exophonic writing, literary translation, and the power of collaboration between women.
Detroit Symphony Orchestra premieres commissioned orchestral work by Jeff Scott
August 13, 2021
Recently appointed Associate Professor of French Horn Jeff Scott will have a newly commissioned orchestral work, "Paradise Valley Serenade" premiered by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Jader Bignamini, Music Director, over a three-concert series November 12-14. The work musically depicts the glorious histories of Paradise Valley and Black Bottom, Detroit. These cities were known for their significant African American entrepreneurialism and thriving cultural scene, including an unrivaled Jazz club district. By the 1960's all but a few edifices were razed to make way for highway projects and "urban renewal."
Jillian Scudder authors paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
August 13, 2021
Assistant Professor of Physics Jillian Scudder published a first author paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society comparing 11 different ways of assessing the fraction of non-hydrogen gas in nearby galaxies. She found variations in how well these methods convert into each other, and determined some of the properties which influence the quality of the conversion.
Associate Professor Charles Peterson Explores the State of Black Citizenship in New Book
August 11, 2021
Beyond Civil Disobedience: Social Nullification and Black Citizenship (African American Philosophy and the African Diaspora), by Associate Professor of Africana Studies Charles Peterson, was published in July by Palgrave Macmillan. The book interrogates the nature and state of African American citizenship through the prism of Social Contract Theory. Challenging the United States’ commitment to African American citizenship, the book explores the idea of Social Nullification, the decision to reject, revoke and re-define the social contract with a state and society.
David Forrest publishes essay
August 5, 2021
Assistant Professor of Politics David Forrest published an essay about Steven Lubet and urban ethnography in Politics, Groups, and Identities.
Paul Brehm presents at SEA Annual Conference
August 5, 2021
Assistant Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies Paul Brehm presented at the SEA Annual Conference (November 21-23, 2020, virtual). He presented joint work with Professor Margaret Brehm, "Drill, Baby, Drill: Resource Shocks and Fertility, Evidence from Indonesia” and chaired the session.
Robin Beth Schaer publishes in New Poetry from the Midwest
August 5, 2021
Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Robin Beth Schaer's poem "The Long Now" was just published in the anthology New Poetry from the Midwest from New American Press. The expansive collection brings together work by 171 poets across the Midwest. Schaer's poem is a dialogue between a mother and child about the night sky and mortality.
Dustin Evatt-Young coauthors article on anti-racist leadership in higher ed
August 4, 2021
Dustin Evatt-Young, interim director of the Career Development Center, co-authored an article in the Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity, a peer-reviewed journal published by the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE). The article titled "White Higher Education Leaders on the Complexities of Whiteness and Anti-Racist Leadership" examines the manifestations of whiteness in higher education and offers insight into the development of anti-racist policies, practices, and tools.