Faculty and Staff Notes

Yveline Alexis Delivers Talk at University of Buffalo

March 31, 2022

Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Comparative American Studies Yveline Alexis delivered a talk about Womyn Fighters during the U.S. invasion of Ayiti for the University of Buffalo. She also educated young scholars at a middle school about this heavy topic. Finally, she engaged with LatinX/Caribbean scholars for their Haiti Week program as a keynote speaker on the subject of resistance in the Americas.

Gerald Cannon appointed Associate Professor of Jazz Bass

March 29, 2022

Gerald Cannon has been appointed associate professor of jazz bass at Oberlin Conservatory after a two year stint as a visiting professor. The multi-talented sideman, leader, composer, recording artist, and painter has taught in master classes across the United States and Europe, and has served on the faculties of the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, the New School, Long Island University, the Conservatory of Maastricht in Holland, and the Juilliard School. He performed with the Oberlin Jazz Ensemble and Oberlin's complete roster of jazz faculty in a special performance at Finney Chapel on March 28.

 

James O'Leary Awarded Fellowship from Society for American Music

March 21, 2022

James O'Leary, Oberlin Conservatory’s Frederick R. Selch Associate Professor of Musicology has been awarded the 2022 Virgil Thomson Fellowship from the Society for American Music. This competitive award aids scholars whose research interest is focused on the history, creation, and analysis of American music on stage and screen, including opera. O’Leary will use the award to continue working on a book about Stephen Sondheim that he started during the pandemic. This summer, O’Leary will be speaking about Sondheim at the Transnational Opera Studies Conference in Bayreuth, Germany.

Allegra Hyde Receives High Praise for debut novel 'Eleutheria'

March 18, 2022

Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Allegra Hyde had her debut novel Eleutheria reviewed by the LA Times. “Allegra Hyde’s climate-fiction narrator is the post-cynical heroine we need,” reads the review. “This is cli-fi even when it turns intimate, with the first kiss between lovers or the failures of addict parents. Individual tensions generate unexpected crackle, but everyone’s caught in the same toxic knots, their environment collapsing around them.” Additionally, Town & Country highlighted Eleutheria, calling it “A climate change novel, yes, but also a tale of searching for hope in dark times.” And BookPage wrote, “Fast-paced and dramatic, Eleutheria is a love story that plays out against the backdrop of a planet in trouble.” Electric Literature published an excerpt of Eleutheria in their “Recommended Reading Series,” with an introduction from the writer Lydia Conklin.

New Poem by Chanda Feldman Published in Literary Journal

March 18, 2022

Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Chanda Feldman has a new poem, "Time for Open Air," in the latest issue (Spring 2022, Issue 34) of the University of Colorado Denver literary journal, Copper Nickel.

Screendance by Al Evangelista is Selected for Three Film Festivals

March 18, 2022

Assistant Professor of Dance Al Evangelista recently had his screendance "Dragon Fruit" selected for three film festival premieres. "Dragon Fruit" will make its Midwest premiere at RAD Fest, Pacific Northwest premiere at Disorient, and international premiere at Queerbee.

Allegra Hyde's Short Story is Published in The Missouri Review

March 1, 2022

Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Allegra Hyde had her short story "Bury" featured in PRIVATE LIVES, an anthology of select fiction published by The Missouri Review. "Bury Me" had previously appeared in the "Ultra-Violence" issue of The Missouri Review, as well as in The Pushcart Prize XL, and in Hyde's debut story collection: OF THIS NEW WORLD.

Entertainment Weekly Reviews Debut Novel by Allegra Hyde

March 1, 2022

The debut novel by Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Allegra Hyde, ELEUTHERIA, was reviewed in a recent print issue of Entertainment Weekly. Of the novel, EW said: "Allegra Hyde has a sharp eye for the culture-war chaos and breezy narcissism of modern American life. And enough hope to hint that the youth might (might!) save us from ourselves."

Jennifer Blaylock Publishes Article on Oberlin Alumnus Shirley Graham Du Bois

March 1, 2022

Visiting Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies Jennifer Blaylock recently published an article about Oberlin alumnus Shirley Graham Du Bois for a special issue of Feminist Media Histories on decolonial feminisms edited by Pavitra Sunar and Debashree Mukherjee. Shirley Graham Du Bois was the first director of Ghana Television and likely the first Black woman to head a national television station in the world. Blaylock's article, "The Mother, the Mistress, and the Cover Girls: Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and the Coloniality of Gender" analyzes Graham Du Bois' theorization of television as a tool for decolonization and shows that while Graham Du Bois' media practice rarely addressed gender inequality specifically, her work as a female broadcast leader in the mid-1960s set a precedent for decolonial feminist futures. 

March Blecher Coauthors, Publishes Two Books Dealing with Class and the Communist Party

March 1, 2022

On February 25, Routledge published Professor of Politics and of East Asian Studies Marc Blecher’s two newest books: Class and the Communist Party of China, 1921-1978; and Class and the Communist Party of China, 1978-2021.

Blecher coauthored the books with colleagues from Harvard, Sciences Po, the University of Sydney, and Xi’an Jiaotong Liwupu University (in Suzhou, China). To mark the Chinese Communist Party’s 100th anniversary, the scholars put together this project of research, writing, and conferences on its century-long encounter with the question of class. 

 

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