Faculty and Staff Notes

Associate Professor of Music Theory Andrew Pau published "Fauréan Correspondences: Motivic Practice and Octatonicism in Lili Boulanger's Clairières dans le ciel" in Gabriel Fauré: Influences and Influence, an essay collection edited by James William Sobaskie (Boydell Press, 2026). Pau's chapter examines intertextual correspondences between song cycles by Fauré and Boulanger.

Professor of Theater and Africana Studies Caroline Jackson Smith directed Queens Girl at Karamu House in Cleveland. The one-woman show follows the journey of a young African American woman who moves from high school in Nigeria to Bennington College from 1968 to 1972, during which she experiences powerful personal, cultural, artistic, and political awakenings.

Associate Professor of Physics & Astronomy Jillian Scudder gave a public talk for the Richland Astronomical Society at its monthly meeting on March 7. The talk focused on her recent book, The Milky Way Smells of Rum & Raspberries.

Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Jillian Scudder was interviewed live on WWL radio, discussing the hunt for alien life in the universe and its practical challenges, on February 25.

Poems by Lecturer of Creative Writing Jon Conley were published in Bruiser Mag.

Assistant Professor of Cinema and Media Joshua Sperling published "Capsules of Dismay: On A.S. Hamrah’s Anti-Criticism" in the Cleveland Review of Books. Sperling and Hamrah participated in a Cinema Talk at the Cleveland Cinematheque, hosted by Bilgesu Sisman.

Head of the Conservatory Library Kathleen Abromeit presented “Three Decades of Documenting African American Spirituals: A Reference Question that Changed Everything” at the 2026 meeting of the Music Library Association.

Professor of Classics Kirk Ormand delivered the John and Mary McDiarmid Lecture in Classics at the University of Washington on January 23. Ormand's talk was titled "Bodies and Social Class in Archaic Greek Invective." The McDiarmid lecturer is chosen each year by graduate students in the U-W Department of Classics.

On February 17, Frederick B. Artz Professor of History Leonard Smith delivered the annual Senior Fellow Lecture at the Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The topic was "The Law of the Land: The Public Domain in Texas and French Algeria in the 19th Century."

Circulation Coordinator Gwendolyn Oeseburg, Librarian for Learning and Access Services in the Conservatory Library Krista Mitchell, and Stacks Manager Kyler Decker presented at the 2026 Music Library Association annual meeting. Their talk, titled "Navigating an ILS Migration: A Public Services Perspective," covered support and training of student workers as Oberlin transitioned to a new library system last summer.