Faculty and Staff Notes

Assistant Professor of Theater Kari Barclay's newest article on asexuality in theater was recently published in March 2023's Theatre Topics. The article builds on their play, Can I Hold You?, which Kari wrote in 2018 and was one of the first plays to explore asexual identity.

Professor of Classics Kirk Ormand recently published an article, “Intertheatricality and Narrative Structure in the Electra Plays,” in A Companion to Aeschylus, eds. J.A. Bromberg and P. Burian. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell (2023), 145-157.  Ormand analyzes the use that Sophocles and Euripides make of Aeschylus' Oreseteia, often casting events from it as fictional or contrafactual narratives spoken by the characters in their own plays on the Electra myth.

Associate Professor Cynthia Taylor was a panelist for Meeting of the Minds: Inclusive Pedagogy, a panel on Peer Instruction organized by The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT).

CIO Marcel Mutsindashyaka was recognized by CDO Magazine as one of its "Under 40 Security Leaders 2023." This recognizes the world’s most influential and successful cybersecurity leaders under the age of 40 and honors their efforts to protect data — an organization's most valuable asset — and positions them as role models for others pursuing similar careers or considering joining the field.

Professor Emeritus of Religion Margaret Kamitsuka was a panelist at the "Religion and Reproductive Politics" event at the Martin Marty Center, University of Chicago Divinity School, April 20-21. This two-day collaborative conference brought together scholars, creatives, journalists, organizers, policy-makers, and religious leaders to discuss the relationship of religion to the politics of human reproduction.

Associate Professor of Art History Matthew Rarey's first book, Insignificant Things: Amulets and the Art of Survival in the Early Black Atlantic, has been published by Duke University Press. The book traces the history of African-associated amulets carried as tools of survival in the Black Atlantic world between the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Rarey argues that these visually benign objects demand new ways of writing the histories of art and Atlantic slavery.

Yveline Alexis was part of the National Council on Public History's conference opening plenary where she spoke about “Considering the [US American] Revolution: The Rhetoric of Freedom" in Atlanta, GA.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature Anna Levett published an essay, "Can Art Save Your Life?: On Revolution, Political Prisoners, Climate Activism, and Pink Floyd," in the Los Angeles Review of Books. The essay was inspired by discussions with Professor Levett's students in her CMPL 237 course, "Art of Revolution," as well as by Bakunin's Barricade, an installation by the Kurdish-Turkish artist Ahmet Öğüt that made its North American Premiere at Oberlin's Allen Memorial Art Museum last fall.

Associate Professor of Art History Matthew Rarey has been appointed to a new Ohio-based editorial consortium for African Arts, the flagship journal in his field. Headquartered at Miami University, the consortium brings together experts in African art at Miami, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Kent State, and Ohio State.

The Association for Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) accepted a proposal submitted by Assistant Dean and Director Rebecca Smith and Assistant Director Victoria Colella with the Office for Disability and Access to present at the AHEAD Excellence and Equity 2023 national conference in Portland, Oregon, July 19-21. The abstract, Home Sweet Home: Responding to the Rising Requests for Housing Accommodations, was submitted in collaboration with colleagues at the disability offices at the University of Wisconsin, Colorado College, and the University of Northern Colorado and was selected out of 250 submissions for just over 100 session times.