Faculty and Staff Notes

Steven Volk, emeritus professor of history, wrote an op-ed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer challenging the recent immigration raids in Northeast Ohio as contrary to both U.S. values and the national interest.

Associate Archivist Anne Salsich was invited to participate on the panel "Migration and Sanctuary Histories: Redrawing Lines in Troubled Times” at the April 2018 National Conference on Public History's annual meeting in Las Vegas. Her talk titled “Sanctuary Communities: Answering to a Higher Law" drew on the Archives' work on the Oberlin Sanctuary Project, a virtual exhibit on their website, and reported on Oberlin's participation in the Courage and Compassion traveling exhibit in the Baron Gallery in spring 2018. Salsich was joined by co-panelists from University of California Santa Barbara and University of California Riverside.

Assistant Professor of Economics Martin Saavedra both discussed and presented a paper at the annual American Society of Health Economists conference.

In her capacity as chair of the early music analysis interest group of the Society for Music Theory, Assistant Professor of Music Theory Megan Kaes Long organized a conference that took place at the beginning of June at Brandeis University. The conference celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the important volume Tonal Structures in Early Music, edited by Cristle Collins Judd, and it featured fifteen papers as well as a roundtable discussion among five authors from the Tonal Structures volume.

The Office of Communications was awarded two Circle of Excellence Awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). The Oberlin Conservatory Magazine (2017) received the silver design award in the periodicals category, and the Oberlin Alumni Magazine received the silver award for college and university general interest magazines with circulations of 30,000-74,999.

Professor of History Clayton Koppes was honored with the Distinguished Achievement Award from Bethel College. The award recognizes character and citizenship, achievement in a chosen profession or vocation, and work of benefit to humanity. More about Koppes and the award.

Professor of Mathematics Jim Walsh gave a talk at the International Conference on Advances in Nonsmooth Dynamics, from June 13-15, 2018 in Bristol, England. Jim spoke about his research in conceptual climate modeling, in which nonsmooth dynamical systems theory plays a major role.

Afia Ofori-Mensa, assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and assistant professor of comparative American studies and Africana studies, was a guest on NPR’s On Point where she discussed the “makeover” of the Miss America pageant.

Gina Perez, professor of comparative American studies, wrote an op-ed about immigration reform that was published in the Morning Journal.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager was quoted in a USA Today story on June 4, 2018 about the significance of major changes in North Korean top defense and military leadership as reported by various press in early June, fewer than two weeks before the unprecedented summit between the U.S. and North Korea in Singapore.