Current News

Earlier this week Columbia University announced the winners of the 90th Annual Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism, Letters, Drama, and Music. The Bright Forever (2005) by Lee Martin, English, was one of two finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. A list of all the winners and the finalists can be seen at: http://www.pulitzer.org/index.html

The Middle of Everything (2005), written by Michelle Herman, English, caught the eyes of the Oprah Magazine, prompting the editors to ask her to write an essay on "The Perfect Mother." The newly released May issue of O, the Oprah Magazine includes a picture of Michelle and daughter Grace reading at their dining room table.

Barry Shank, History, will present "Silence, Noise, and Beauty: Listening to Music in an Age of Permanent War" in the College of Humanities’ sixth Inaugural Lecture of the academic year, 4:30 pm, May 2, OSU Faculty Club. Theodor Adorno famously remarked "To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric." Is it possible that listening to music after Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib is barbaric? Is there a way to conceive of the value of musical beauty that is not stupefying? Can the experience of musical beauty be politically agentive? An attempt to address these questions will be made, using an analytical framework derived from the concepts of John Cage and Chantal Mouffe with reference to the music of the Velvet Underground and Yoko Ono. Contact: 292-1882.

Barbara Hanawalt, History: co-authored The Western Experience, 9^th edition (McGraw Hill, 2007).

Andrew Hudgins, English: "Unmentionable," The Oxford American, Winter 2006: 36-39; and "Praying Drunk," "Rezando ebrio," "Beatitudes," "Bienaventuranzas," Lienas conectadas: Neuva poesia de los Estados Unidos, translated by Zulai Marcela Fuentes (Louisville KY: Sarabande Books, 2006): 140-147.

Graduate student Mark Soderstrom, History, was awarded a Summer FLAS Fellowship from the Center for Slavic and East European Studies, and a Graduate Research Small Grant from the College of Humanities to support language training and preliminary dissertation research in the Siberian city of Irkutsk for summer 2006.

Greg Anderson, History, presented "Votive Behavior and Civic Order in Early Greece" at the Annual Conference of the Classical Association (United Kingdom) at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, April 8.

Alan Gallay, History, presented "Beachheads into Empires, Villages into Confederacies: Atlantic World Trade and the Transformation of the American South," Transformations: The Atlantic World in the Late Seventeenth Century Conference, Harvard University, March 30-April 1.

Chadwick Allen, English, presented "Many Voices, One Syllabus: A Workshop on Teaching Comparative Indigenous Literary Studies," and "Post-Screening Film Discussion of Maori Short Films," Native American Literature Symposium, Saginaw Chippewa Reservation, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, April 6.

Graduate student Kelly Bradbury, English, "Speak for Yourself: 19th-Century Women Reformers and the American Lyceum," Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, March 24.

David Herman, English, presented "Beyond Voice and Vision: Cognitive Grammar and Focalization Theory," Conference on Literature and the Cognitive Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, April 8.

Wendy Hesford, English, presented "The Familial Gaze: Teaching Critical Personal Writing," a pedagogy workshop at the University of Missouri, Center for the Arts and Humanities, April 6; "Vulnerable Agents: Human Rights Through Children's Eyes," a colloquium at the University of Missouri, Women and Gender Studies, April 7; and "Staging Terror: Human Rights and Humanitarian Appeals," a lecture at the University of Missouri, English Department and Peace Studies, April 7.

Lisa Kiser, English, presented "The Literary Ecology of Medieval Mice," The Medieval Academy, Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 2.

Graduate student Anne Langendorfer, English, presented "Happy Endings Are for White Girls: Argumentative and Emotive Systems at Work in Chicano Film," Literature and Cognitive Science Conference, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, April 6.

Graduate student Suhaan Mehta, English, presented "Shifting Narrative Prototypes in John Rechy's 'A Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez,'" Literature and Cognitive Science Conference, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, April 6.

Jeredith Merrin, English, gave a poetry reading at the Annual Bleasby Lecture/Presentation at Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, April 7.

Karitha Mitchell, English, presented "The Theater-Lynching Alliance," Mid America Theater Association Annual Conference, Theater History Symposium, Chicago, March 4.

Christopher Reed, History, served as discussant for the panel "Creating Baihua [vernacular literature], Contesting Baihua: Publishing and the Production of China's Vernacular Literature," at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies, San Francisco, April 7.

Elizabeth Weiser, English-Newark, presented "Teaching Pentadic Analysis in Composition," March 23; "Beyond a Rhetoric of Shame: The Comic Corrective in Critical Composition" and "Recovering the Lost Art of Copia," Half-Day Workshop, Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), Chicago, March 25.

Graduate student Edwin Williams, English, presented "Who is Julius Ceasar? Theatrical Representations of a Character, and How They Evolve, in Shakespeare, Shaw, Welles, and the Royal Shakespeare Company," Theatre and Drama Graduate Student Conference, University of Wisconsin-Madison, April 8.

Walter Burkert (University of Zurich) will present "East and West: Ancient Variations of a Eurasian Conflict," 8:00 pm, April 27, 20 Page Hall, the Annual Lecture in Memory of Professor Carl C. Schlam. Contact: Department of Greek and Latin, 292-2744.

The Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Studies and the American Society of Greek and Latin Epigraphy will host the Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: A Gold Tablet Conference, April 28-30. Contact: epig@osu.edu; 292-3280.

C. Magbaily Fyle, African American and African Studies, will present "African Diasporic Identity and Perceptions of Africa: A History Perspective," 11:00 am, April 28, Frank Hale Cultural Center. Contact: Department of African American and African Studies, 292-3700.

Wendy Hesford, English, will present "Staging Terror: Human Rights and Humanitarian Appeals," and Tanya Erzen, Comparative Studies, and Rebecca Wanzo, African American and African Studies, will respond, 1:00 pm, April 28, Knight House, 104 East 15^th Avenue, for the Cultural Difference and Democracy Working Group. Contact: Barry Shank, shank.46@osu.edu.

Tom Priestly (The University of Alberta) will present "From Phonological Analysis at My Desk to Linguistic Activism with Slovene in the Austrian Alps," 3:30 pm, April 28, Faculty Club, for the Ninth Annual Kenneth E. Naylor Memorial Lecture in South Slavic Linguistics. Contact: Karen Nielsen, Nielsen.57@osu.edu; Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, 292-6733; or Brian Joseph, 292-4981, joseph.1@osu.edu.

The Midwest Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology will host the Music, Memory and Migrancy Conference on April 28-30 in Hughes Hall at Ohio State. Visit: http://sem-midwest.osu.edu/midsemProgram.cfm Contact: Daniel Avorgbedor, avorgbedor.1@osu.edu.

Thomas Hurka (University of Toronto) will present "Asymmetries in Value," 3:30 pm, May 5, 347 University Hall, in the Philosophy Department Spring 2006 Colloquia. Contact: Department of Philosophy, 292-7914.

André Hajdu: Musical Visionary from Jerusalem takes place at 7:30 pm, May 8, Weigel Hall, in the Jewish Music, East & West series. Contact: Melton Center for Jewish Studies, 292-0967.

Lisa Zunshine (University of Kentucky) will present "How Jane Austen Learned to be Different; Or, Cognitive Science and Literary Explanations," 3:30 pm, May 9, Knight House, 104 East 15^th Avenue, co-sponsors include Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities and the Department of English and Project Narrative. Contact: James Phelan, phelan.1@osu.edu.

Michael Katz (University of Pennsylvania) will present "One Nation Divisible: What America Was and What It Is Becoming," 3:30 pm, May 10, Knight House, 104 East 15^th Avenue, for the Literacy Studies Working Group. Co-sponsors include Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities and the departments of History and Sociology. Contact: contact hanson.94@osu.edu.

Shirley Brice Heath (Stanford University and Brown University) will present "Vision, Language, and Learning: Why Literacy Depends on Much More Than We Can Ever Teach," 3:30 pm, May 11, Knight House, 104 East 15^th Avenue, for the Literacy Studies Working Group. Contact: hanson.94@osu.edu.

Barbara Rosenwein (Loyola University, Chicago) will present "Representing Peasant Wisdom: Folklore Genres in Late Medieval Literary Texts," 1:30 pm, May 12, 122 Main Library, in honor of Joseph Lynch (History) in the Anniversaries Lecture Series. Contact: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 292-7495.

John Hawthorn (Rutgers University) will present "Singular Thought," 3:30 pm, May 12, 347 University Hall, in the Philosophy Department Spring 2006 Colloquia. Contact: Department of Philosophy, 292-7914.

The Folklore Colloquium, "Colonization and Narrative Migrations: Legends of Occupation from the Mediterranean to the Americas," takes place 9:00 am - 4:00 pm, May 12, Knight House, 104 East 15^th Avenue. Co-sponsors are the Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities, the Center for Folklore Studies, CIRIT, and the Department of Greek and Latin. Contact: Dorothy Noyes, noyes.10@osu.edu.

Alexander Wendt, Political Sciences, will present "Sovereignty and the UFO," with responses by Nancy Ettlinger, Geography, and Eugene Holland, Comparative Studies, 1:00 pm, May 12, location TBA, for the Cultural Difference and Democracy Working Group. Contact: Barry Shank, shank.46@osu.edu.

Holly Near (singer/songwriter) and Amy Horowitz, International Studies, will present "Protest Music as Responsible Citizenship Pilot," 1:30 pm, May 15, location TBA, for the Cultured in Disputed Territory Working Group. Sponsored by the Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities and the Mershon Center. Contact: Amy Shuman, shuman.1@osu.edu