Faculty and Staff Notes

Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies Anna Lordan gave a talk on the dynamics of attention in the film The Earth is Blue as an Orange by Ukrainian film director and poet Iryna Tsilyk at the Dmytro Shtohryn International Ukrainian Studies Conference, held at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, October 5-7.

Assistant Professor Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers has published a long essay, "Ear Training," in the newest issue of West Branch. Among other subjects, the essay describes working with musical legend Meredith Monk when Rogers was a student at Oberlin in Rian Brown-Orso's Collaborations course in 2005, where Associate Professor Ross Karre was also a student. This essay will appear in Rogers's new essay collection, Miss Southeast, out from Northwestern University Press in 2024.

Professor of Classics Kirk Ormand has been elected to the post of President of the Society for Classical Studies, the largest professional organization in North American for the study of the ancient Mediterranean world.  The SCS has approximately 2,800 members, and is dedicated to the study of the literature, history, archaeology, politics, religion, art, philosophy, and cultures of “classical” Greece and Rome, as well as their interaction with the other cultures of the ancient Mediterranean.

Professor Ormand will serve a three-year term: in January of 2024 he will become President-Elect; in January of 2025 he will assume the role of President; and in January 2026 he will serve as immediate Past-President.  Among his duties Professor Ormand will organize a Presidential Panel and deliver the Presidential Address at the January 2026 meeting of the SCS.

Professor Ormand is the first member of the Oberlin faculty to be elected to the position of SCS President, and is the second professor from a small liberal-arts College to be elected in the last 50 years.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing and Communication Nathan DeProspo published an article in the June 2023 issue of College Composition and Communication, entitled “Post-Policy,” which offers a counter-history of composition studies as well as a critique of contemporary first-year composition programs and curricular policies.

DeProspo also traveled to Tübingen, Germany, in June for the Rhetoric Society of Europe conference, where he presented on Hegel and Nietzsche.

Stiliana Milkova was an invited participant in the first Festival of Italian and Irish Literature in Ireland, held in Dublin on September 29-30, 2023. As a writer in Italian, Professor Milkova presented her book of short fiction Storia delle prime volte and discussed language, identity, and place with two Irish authors, Barrry McCrea and William Wall.

Associate Professor of Organ Jonathan Moyer spent part of his summer in Europe on a concert tour that included recitals on three of the most prominent pipe organs in the north German cities of Lüneburg, Hamburg, and Schwerin. The organ of St. Johannis in Lüneburg originated in 1553 by Dutch organ builder Hendrik Niehoff and was enlarged over the ensuing centuries. The prominent organist Georg Böhm served the church from 1698 until his death in 1733 and likely mentored a young Johann Sebastian Bach between 1700-1702. Moyer’s second concert was on the new Flentrop organ (2013) in St. Katharinen, one of Hamburg’s largest churches. The new 4-manual and pedal organ with 61 stops is a replication of the historic organ that was destroyed during WWII. The church boasted some of the most prominent organists of the 17th century and was the site of J.S. Bach’s Hamburg audition in 1720. Moyer’s final concert was on the 1871 organ by Friederich Ladegast in Schwerin Cathedral. The organ was Ladegast’s largest and final instrument and includes an array of ventil pedals and pneumatic assists to aid in the rapid change of tonal registrations, a demand of the prevailing Romantic aesthetic taste. Franz Liszt was a prominent advocate for Ladegast’s instruments and premiered many of his organ works on Ladegast’s instrument in Merseburg Cathedral.

Assistant Professor of Theater Anjanette Hall will appear in the regional premiere of Make Believe by Bess Wohl at Dobama Theatre in Cleveland, October 6-29. The play was awarded "Best Off-Broadway Play" (2019 Outer Critics Circle) and "Top Ten Plays of 2019" (The New York Times). Make Believe also features scenic design by Laura Carlson-Tarantowski, Scenic Designer and Lecturer for the Theater department.

Hal Sundt's first nonfiction book, Warplane: How the Military Reformers Birthed the A-10 Warthog, was published on October 3, 2023. It chronicles the design, development, and service life of the A-10 Warthog attack airplane.

Assistant Professor of Theater Kari Barclay's new book Directing Desire explores the rise of consent-based and trauma-informed approaches to staging sexually and sensually charged scenes for theater in the contemporary U.S., known as intimacy choreography. The book comes out in print October 25 but is available now for pre-order from Barnes and Noble and the e-book is available online now.

In August, Danforth Professor of Politics Emerita Sonia Kruks presented a paper at the conference "Simone de Beauvoir and Post-Truth" at the University of Helsinki (Finland). Her paper, "Old Age and the Question of Bad Faith" examined the ways in which society's fear and denial of old age can injure those who are already old.