Faculty and Staff Notes

A Chinese translation of Visiting Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies and Creative Writing Joshua Sperling's book, The Life and Work of John Berger, was published by the China Times Publishing Company.

Professor of Philosophy Todd Ganson publishes a chapter titled "Aristotle on Perception as Representation" in the book Philosophical Problems in Sense Perception: Testing the Limits of Aristotelianism.

Associate Professor of Integrated Media and Chair of Studio Art Julia Christensen will participate in “No Such Place as ‘Away’— Creative Ways to Deal with Waste: NPR's Frances Anderton in Conversation with Julia Christensen" at 1 p.m. EST Wednesday, January 27. Hosted by University College London / Bartlett School of Architecture, the event will stream on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/bartlettarchucl.

The average person throws away around four pounds of trash daily. Except that there is no such place as "away." Everything has to go somewhere. There is an end-of-life cost to everything. “Away” can mean storm drains, oceans, the stomachs of marine animals, a giant floating island of trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and the landfill. Designers are waking up to the need to change this picture and create products and buildings that can be recycled, repurposed, biodegrade—or not exist at all. 

Frances Anderton spoke to many of them for a recent radio series called Wasted. She met scientists genetically modifying plants to capture carbon from the atmosphere; formerly-incarcerated individuals trained to recycle computers; people fighting for their right to repair their own stuff, and an artist who is creating a conceptual space rocket flying light years away, to raise consciousness about e-waste. 

Frances Anderton and Julia Christensen will share stories from the frontiers of waste.

Associate Professor of Comparative Literature Stiliana Milkova was selected as one of three judges for 2021 Italian Prose in Translation Prize awarded by the American Association of Literary Translators (ALTA). The other two judges are Oberlin alum Will Schutt and translator and writer Minna Zallman Proctor.

Professor of Classics Kirk Ormand has been awarded the Paul Rehak Prize by the Lambda Classical Caucus of the Society for Classical Studies. The award is given each year to an outstanding article from the past three years "relating to the LCC's mission, including, but not limited to, homosocial and homoerotic relationships and environments, ancient sexuality and gender roles, and representation of the gendered body."

Ormand received the prize for his essay, "Atalanta and Sappho: Women in and out of Time," in Narratives of Time and Gender in Antiquity, edited by Esther Eidenow and Lisa Maurizio (2020).

Professor of Biology Mike Moore was featured in the most recent episode of the "In Defense of Plants" podcast. He discussed his lab's ongoing collaborative research into understanding plant life on unusual soils.

Associate Professor of Music Theory Megan Kaes Long published an article, “What do Signatures Signify? The Curious Case of Seventeenth-Century English Key,” in the most recent issue of the Journal for Music Theory. The article traces how key signatures transformed from a feature of notation to an aspect of music theory in seventeenth-century England.

Chanda Feldman, assistant professor of Creative Writing, is interviewed with poet Erika Meitner by Sally Bliumus-Dunn in the latest issue of Plume Journal. Feldman discusses and reads her own poetry, talks about craft choices and race, and discusses her current writing project.Feldman discusses and reads her own poetry, talks about craft choices and race, and discusses her current writing project.

Roderic Knight, Professor Emeritus of Ethnomusicology at Oberlin College and Conservatory, presented an illustrated online program about Elisha Gray for the Oberlin Heritage Center in December 2020. Gray was an Ohio native who attended Oberlin College in the 1860s and who became a successful inventor and entrepreneur before returning to Oberlin College as a Professor of Dynamic Electricity from 1880-1900. Gray was also the inventor of the world's first electric musical instrument—the Electro-Harmonic Telegraph—in 1875. You can view Knight's entire 45-minute talk and presentation of Gray’s inventions on the Oberlin Heritage Center’s YouTube channel.

Assistant Professor of Economics Chris Cotter had two articles accepted for publication: "Electrification, Telecommunications, and the Finance-Growth Nexus: Evidence from Firm-level Data" in Energy Economics;  the second article, "Off the Rails: The Real Effects of Railroad Bond Defaults Following the Panic of 1873," will be published in the 2021 edition of AEA: Papers and Proceedings. Cotter is presenting this paper during the ASSA meetings on January 5, 2021.