Faculty and Staff Notes

Leonard V. Smith has recently published two articles, “The Armistices of 1918,” Richerche Stroriche 52: 2 (2022): 9-25; and “The Politics of Recognition at the Paris Peace Conference,” in Postwar Continuity and New Challenges in Central Europe, 1918-1923: The War that Never Ended, Tomasz Pudłocki and Kamil Ruszała, eds., (Routledge, 2022), 9-34. Both are extrapolations from his most recent book, Sovereignty at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 (Oxford, 2018).

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen has recently published an article in ACS Catalysis, "Visible Light-Mediated, Diastereoselective Epimerization of Morpholines and Piperazines to More Stable Isomers." Co-authors include Elizabeth Rigby ’22 and collaborators from Yale University.

Alicia Smith-Tran published an article in the Journal of Autoethnography titled, "Expecting in Unexpected Times: Navigating a Pandemic Pregnancy."

Professor Emily Barton, along with seniors Dora Neiden and Helenor Harris-Evans, visited the Westlake fourth-grade classroom of Ms. Erin Vanek to observe and respond to student presentations on which element of storytelling is most important. Each student had chosen an element of craft (such as character, plot, or point of view) and prepared a PowerPoint presentation to argue their point, using specific examples from source texts. Professor Barton, Neiden, and Harris-Evans were amazed at the nuance of the students' arguments and their passion in arguing them.

Joshua Harrington Davidson's coauthored study "Identifying community-level disparities in access to driver education and training: Toward a definition of driver training deserts" has just appeared in Traffic Injury Prevention.

Professor of Hispanic Studies Sebastiaan Faber has published a short book about Spain's international image, Leyendas negras, marcas blancas. La malsana obsesión con la imagen de España en el mundo, in a series edited by the magazine Contexto. He has also contributed an article to a thematic issue of the Journal of Academic Freedom, published by the AAUP, on recent political challenges to academic freedom in history teaching and research. In October, he interviewed Astra Taylor about student debt relief in the United States and spoke in a podcast with Jacobin's Eoghan Gilmartin about the Spanish novelist Javier Marías, who died in September.   

Assistant Professor of Writing and Communication Cortney Smith's co-authored essay, "The Communication Discipline and Peace Education: A Valuable Intersection for Disrupting Violence in Communication Centers," was recently published in the Journal of Communication Pedagogy.

Associate Professor of Physics & Astronomy Jillian Scudder's new popular science book, The Milky Way Smells of Rum & Raspberries was published in the UK on November 3 by Icon Books. It will be released in the US/Global market on February 14, 2023.

Visiting Professor of French Nathan H. Dize was mentioned on NPR's All Things Considered for his translation of I Am Alive by Haitian writer Kettly Mars, which was released with the University of Virginia Press in September.

Associate Professor Ross Karre coproduced and performed in a concert featuring composers from the Iranian Female Composers Association. The works were performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble conducted by Steven Schick. Among the musicians were Oberlin alumni, Hannah Levinson, Rebekah Heller, and Joshua Rubin. The program included the world premiere performance of Inexorable Passage by Nina Barzegar, the US premiere of within the Hadal and Epi by Anahita Abbasi, the NYC premiere of Crystalline Trees by Aida Shirazi, and additional works by Golfam Khayam, Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi, Nasim Khorassani, and Bahar Royaee. Niloufar Shiri performed solo kamancheh interludes throughout the evening. (New York Times subscription needed to view article.)