Faculty and Staff Notes

Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics Henrique Veras was invited to participate as a discussant on October 18, 2019 at the Liberal Arts Colleges Development Conference (LACDev).

Assistant Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies Paul Brehm's paper, "Natural Gas Prices, Electric Generation Investment, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions" has been accepted for publication in the November 2019 issue of the journal Resource and Energy Economics.

Cal Biruk was featured on the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research's blog. The in entry, the Foundation covers workshops Biruk organized during the summer of 2019.

Charles Peterson, associate professor of Africana studies, co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Art and Art Criticism: Aesthetics and Race, Vol. 77, No. 4, Fall 2019 and the introduction to the issue, "Exploring Truth and Beauty in Worlds of Color: An Introduction to the JAAC Special Issue on Race and Aesthetics."

Assistant Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies Paul Brehm was invited to present his paper, "Drill, Baby, Drill: Resource Shocks and Fertility in Indonesia," on September 13, 2019, at a seminar at Kent State University.

Assistant Professor of Physics Jillian Scudder participated in the Books By the Banks book fair in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her book Astroquizzical: A curious journey through our cosmic family tree.

Danforth-Lewis Professor of Economics John Duca gave a real estate presentation at the 28th European Real Estate Society (ERES) Industry Seminar, "New Trends in International Investment in Residential Property in Europe" at the Lisbon School of Economics and Management in Lisbon, Portugal, on Friday, October 25, 2019.  Professor Duca will give the keynote presentation, "Synchronization in Global Housing Prices" at the conference.

Professor of Hispanic Studies Sebastiaan Faber was interviewed on WBUR's Here & Now about what the exhumation of fomer Spanish dictator Gen. Francisco Franco's remains means for Spain and the politics of memory.

Harp professor Yolanda Kondonassis continues to receive rave reviews for her 2019  world premiere recording that appears on the Azica label album, American Rapture. This visceral, live-recording release features her performance of Jennifer Higdon's Harp Concerto, a work Kondonassis commissioned in partnership with numerous orchestras across the country, including the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra featured on this recording. Harp Column magazine writes, "This is unexpected in a harp concerto and presents Ms. Kondonassis with the opportunity to totally live in her virtuosic self without compromise." TheArtsDesk.com echoes praise published by numerous writers, "It's an immediately engaging piece, Higdon's transparent scoring allowing Kondonassis to shine: the rapid fingerwork in the second and fourth sections wonderfully secure. Though, for all the fireworks, the concerto's heart is its slow movement, the solo harp accompanied by a succession of solo instruments. There's nimble support from Ward Stare’s Rochester Philharmonic, dazzlingly secure in a live recording."

This October, musicology professor Steven Plank gave two solo organ recitals in northeast Ohio. The October 6th performance at Cleveland's Trinity Episcopal Cathedral included works by the late Renaissance and early Baroque era composer, Hassler, and the 20th century composers Ned Rorem and Olivier Messiaen. He presented an entirely separate program entitled “Organ Music of the Seventeeth Century” on October 19 during the month-long Ars Organi Festival at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights. His performance on the church's Hradetzky organ offered works by Samuel Scheidt, Dieterich Buxtehude, Girolamo Frescobaldi, and Louis Couperin. Plank also presented a paper at the graduate historical performance colloquium at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, entitled “Seeking the Historical Listener.”