Faculty and Staff Notes

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.

A new book, Perspectives on Contemporary Music Theory: Essays in Honor of Kevin Korsyn (Routledge), was released in July 2023 and edited by two University of Michigan alumni who studied with Professor Korsyn while completing graduate degrees—Bryan Parkhurst, associate professor of music theory and aural skills at Oberlin College and Conservatory, and Jeffrey Swinkin, associate professor of music theory at the University of Oklahoma School of Music. The volume consists of an introduction and interview with Korsyn and nine essays that pay tribute to Korsyn’s decades of scholarship by exploring a variety of topics important to Korsyn and the field. Parkhurst contributed to the introduction as well as the Chapter 8 essay, “Completing the Triad: Schenker and Kantian Practical Philosophy.” The editors invitation to readers of the book—“a kaleidoscopic array of perspectives”—“will find provocative lines of inquiry, genuine musical and humanistic curiosity, and exploratory, nondogmatic approaches to and attitudes toward theorizing music—challenges, not answers.”

Professor of Classics Kirk Ormand has published a new book, The Routledge Handbook of Classics and Queer Theory, coedited with Ella Haselswerdt and Sara Lindheim. The volume contains 32 essays by a group of scholars from the United States and Europe. Professor Ormand also wrote the introductory essay, titled "How Did We Get Here?" Available now from Routledge Press.

Emeritus Professor of History Steven Volk participated in a panel discussion of the lessons of Chile, 50 years after the coup, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, in Washington, DC, along with Chile's Ambassador to the United States, Juan Gabriel Valdés, and Senator Tom Harkin.

Emeritus Professor of Computer Science Richard Salter has been selected to present a talk entitled "A platform for simulating multi-behavioral mode animal movement over complex landscapes" at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences in November. Salter's participation is being underwritten by the Institute. The talk is part of the Institute's workshop "Modelling non-Markov Movement Processes".

The Isaac Newton Institute is a national and international visitor research institute in Cambridge, England. It runs research programmes on selected themes in mathematics and the mathematical sciences with applications over a wide range of science and technology. It attracts leading mathematical scientists from the UK and overseas to interact in research over an extended period.

Salter and Distinguished Professor Emeritus Wayne M. Getz of the University of California at Berkeley have been collaborating since 2011, continuing past Salter's retirement from Oberlin in 2016. Their work has resulted in more than 15 publications, several Websites, and workshops preented in Israel, South Africa and Hong Kong. It has been supported by several grants from the National Science Foundation, including one currently in collaboration with the University of Oklahoma to research the spread of bird flu.

EUDEBA (a leading Argentine academic publisher) has brought out a Spanish translation of Marc's Politics as a Science: A Prolegomenon (coauthored with Philippe Schmitter, Emeritus Professor at the European Universities Institute). Translations into Arabic and Chinese are in the works.

Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies Sergio Gutiérrez Negrón has published the article "La disposición censoria: las dos vidas de Fernández de Lizardi y las sensibilidades conservadoras en México” (“The Censorial Disposition: The Two Lives of Fernández de Lizardi and Conservative Sensibilities in Mexico”). The article offers a new account of the life of Mexico’s first novelist, José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi (1776-1827), and explores structurally conservative aspects and uses of the 19th century novel.

Professor of East Asian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager was cited and quoted by Korea JoongAng Daily in "Incheon landing was turning point for war, nation and world," a story marking the 73rd anniversary of the Inchon landing in the Korean War (September 15). Professor Jager is the author of Brothers At War: The Unending Conflict in Korea (Norton, 2013).