Faculty and Staff Notes

Professor of Piano Peter Takács gave a lecture on Beethoven piano sonatas at the Music Teachers National Association 2020 virtual conference.

Associate Professor of Sociology Greggor Mattson published an essay about COVID-19's impact on gay bars for the Conversation. It was picked up by the AP Wire and republished on more than 40 news sites, including the Houston Chronicle, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Business Insider, and the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Associate Professor of Integrated Media Julia Christensen, a LACMA Art + Technology Lab grant recipient, will gave a multimedia presentation at on Wednesday, April 22 about her project and forthcoming book, Upgrade Available (Dancing Foxes Press, Spring 2020), which examines how “upgrade culture” fundamentally impacts our experience of time.

Professor of Jazz Studies and Double Bass Peter Dominguez was named artistic director of the Richard Davis Foundation for Young Bassists Inc annual conference. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the group could not meet in person for its 27th year, but instead created a Virtual Bass Orchestra. Listen to Dominguez's introduction and hear faculty and students play Duke Ellington's "Azure.” 

Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing and Communication Hal Sundt published an essay on quarantine, space, and one of his favorite shows, Frasier, for the American Scholar.

Associate Professor of Integrated Media Julia Christensen was interviewed in the Art Newspaper about her new book and solo exhibition, both titled Upgrade Available.

Professor of Classics Kirk Ormand has been awarded a fellowship at the Université de Strasbourg Institut d'Etudes Avancées / University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study (USIAS) for the fall of 2020, when he will be on leave. Ormand will use his time in Strasbourg to begin a book on archaic Greek invective poetry.

Professor of Hispanic Studies Sebastiaan Faber was interviewed on the Real News Network about efforts in Spain to alleviate the economic blow of COVID-19 with a form of permanent income for the lowest-earning segments of society. 

Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Chanda Feldman published a new poem, "First Winter," in the latest issue of the Image Journal.

Associate Professor of Music Theory Megan Kaes Long was awarded an American Council Of Learned Societies Fellowship for the 2020–2021 academic year to support her research on tonal structure in the music of William Byrd.