Current News

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.

The 11th Annual College of Humanities Undergraduate Research Colloquium and Scholarships Reception takes place at 4:00 pm, May 3, Faculty Club. Humanities students will make oral and poster presentations of their research, and recipients of College of Humanities undergraduate scholarships will be honored. A reception follows the program and the event is open to the public. RSVP: 292-1882.

The 2006 College of Humanities Spring Forum "Seeing Ourselves as Others See Us: Whose Medium? Whose Message?" will be held 4:00-5:30 pm, May 5, 180 Hagerty Hall. A reception will follow. The Humanities Forum was established as a way to encourage dialogue and stimulate reflection on issues involving history, thought, languages, and literatures. This year’s Forum is designed to give a broad understanding of how the U.S. is portrayed in the media of other countries and conversely, how these countries and cultures are portrayed in the U.S. media. The keynote speaker and moderator is Stephen Hess, Senior FellowEmeritus, The Brookings Institution, Distinguished Research Professor of Media and Public Affairs, The George Washington University, and author of Through Their Eyes: Foreign Correspondents in the United States. Distinguished panelists are: Nadia Bilbassy Charters, Senior Correspondent, Al Arabiya Washington Bureau; Laura Bonilla, Latin Correspondent in Washington for Agence France-Presse (AFP); Piotr Krasko, U.S. Correspondent, Telewizja Polska (Polish Public TV); and Takashi Sakamoto, Washington Correspondent for The Yomiuri Shimbun, the most read newspaper in Japan. Co-sponsors are the Office of International Affairs, Center for Latin American Studies, Center for Slavic and East European Studies, East Asian Studies Center, Foreign Language Center, Middle East Studies Center, and the World Media and Culture Center. Contact: 292-1882.

David Brewer, English: review of Alex Woloch," The One vs. the Many: Minor Characters and the Space of the Protagonist in the Novel," Comparative Literature 58 (2006): 83-86.

Kathy Fagan, English: "Little Bad Dream Charm," (reprint) Poet's Choice, ed. Edward Hirsch (New York: Harcourt, 2006); "Little Bad Dream Charm," (reprint) National Public Radio Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, read by Edward Hirsch from his book Poet's Choice (Harcourt, 2006). Listen to the April 8, 2006 program on the NPR Web site.

Michelle Herman, English: "The Perfect Mother," O, the Oprah Magazine, May 2006: 284-286; and La Mia Vita con Phil (Italian edition of Dog) (Milan: Baldini & Castoldi, 2006).

Graduate student Elizabeth Lantz, English: "Baking Bread," Georgetown Review 7.1, (Spring 2006): 64-84.

Doug Ramspeck [Sutton-Ramspeck], English: "Desire," poem, Slant: A Journal of Poetry 20 (2006): 63; "Four Hooves and the Goat to Go With Them," poem, West Branch 58 (Spring/Summer 2006): 15; "Full Circle," poem, West Branch 58 (Spring/Summer 2006): 16; "July Drought as Harbinger of Plenty," poem, South Dakota Review 43.4 (Winter 2005): 36; and "Visiting Hours," poem, Rhino 2006 (2006): 77

James Bartholomew, History, received the 2006 Colleges of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award.

Graduate student Larissa Bondarchuk, Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, has been awarded the Heiligmann Scholarship by the Office of International Education.

Brenda Jo Brueggemann, English, has been chosen to receive the "Great Communicator of the Year" award, the highest honor given by the olumbus Speech & Hearing Center.

Graduate student Cheryl Hindrichs, English, won first place in the Humanities Section of the 20th Annual Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum.

The College English Association of Ohio has selected Calling Cards: Theory and Practice in the Study of Race, Gender and Culture edited by Jacqueline Jones Royster and AnnMarie Mann Simpkins for the Nancy Dasher Award. This year's Nancy Dasher Award recognizes outstanding publications in professional and pedagogical issues.

Through the Pillars of Herakles, written by Duane Roller, Greek and Latin-Lima, was reviewed in the "Briefly Noted" section of the most recent New Yorker. According to Routledge, the book’s publisher, this is the first time a Routledge classics book has been so reviewed.

Mansel Blackford, History, moderated a roundtable discussion on women in nineteenth-century American business at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Washington, D.C., April 19-22.

Catherine Braun, Ben McCorkle, and Amie Wolfe, English, presented "Digital Media Composing and a Basic Writing Curriculum," Featured Virtual Poster Session, Ohio Higher Education Computing Council, Columbus, April 1.

Kathy Fagan, English, gave a Poetry Reading and Q&A at Ashland University, Ashland, Ohio, in February, and a Poetry Reading for the Gneiss Poetry Series, Palm Desert, California, in March.

Alan Farmer, English, presented "Peace, Perkin Warbeck, and Printed History Plays in Caroline England," Shakespeare Association of America, Philadelphia, April 15.

Harvey Graff, English and History, presented "Many Literacies? Reading Signs of the Times: Lessons from the History of Literacy," Miami University, Oxford, April 28.

Graduate student Julie O’Leary Green, English, presented "Theory of Minds: Focalization, Folk Psychology, and Ian McEwan's Atonement," Literature and the Cognitive Sciences Conference, Storrs, Connecticut, April 8.

Hannibal Hamlin, English, co-organized and co-chaired a seminar on "Spenser and Shakespeare" at the Annual Meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America, Philadelphia, April 13.

David Herman, English, presented "Developments in Narrative Analysis." Guest Speaker Series, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University; Washington, D.C., April 20.

Graduate student Cheryl Hindrichs , English, presented "Unfinished Business: Woolf and H.D. Writing for the Intervals," Hayes Research Forum, Columbus, April 22.

Graduate student Robyn Malo-Johnston, English, presented "Relics, Place and Power: 'Tactile Piety' in Winchester and London," Ohio Medieval Colloquium, Columbus State Community College, Columbus, April 8.

Erin McGraw, English, gave Fiction readings at Ashland University, Ashland, April 10; and Bluffton College, Bluffton, OH, April 17; and St. Clair Community College, Port Huron, Michigan, April 23.

Dorothy Noyes, English, presented "From Homeric Epic to Open-Source Software: Toward a Network Model of Invention," Con/texts of Invention: a Working Conference of the Society for Critical Exchange, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, April 22.

James Phelan, English, presented "Rhetorical Aesthetics: After Wayne C. Booth." International Conference on Narrative, Ottawa, April 7; and "Progression and Judgment in McEwan's Atonement; Or Life, Art, and the Problem of Other Minds," Benson Lecture in Twentieth-Century Literature, Auburn University, April 18.

Graduate student Mark Rankin, English, presented "The Politics of the Henrician - and Jacobean - Reformation in All is True," Shakespeare Association of America Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, April 15.

Dickie Selfe, Humanities Information Systems, presented "Information Ecology: Theorizing Techno-literate Sustainability," Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago. March 24.

Graduate student Mark Soderstrom presented "Russia: Past, Present, and Future," Defense Institute for Security Assistance Management, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, April 19.

Graduate student Nancy Yan, English, presented "Memory, Pan-Ethnicity, and the Erosion of Cultural Animosities in Oral History," European Social Science History Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands, March 24.

William E, Nelson, Jr.,James Upton and Carla Wilks, African American and African Studies, will discuss the upcoming History of Black Columbus Conference "Education: Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow" on the Black Studies Broadcast Journal at 4:00 pm, April 30, WOSU News 820AM.

Poet Elena Karina Byrne will give a Poetry Reading at 3:30 pm, May 2, 311 Denney Hall. Contact: Creative Writing Program, 292-2242.

Peter Trudgill (University of Fribourg, Switzerland) will present "Two New Nations, Four Languages: Liberation, Independence and Language Conflict in Greece and Norway," 3:30 pm, May 3, Faculty Club, for the 18^th Annual Thomas E. Leontis Memorial Lecture in Modern Greek Studies. Contact: Department of Greek and Latin, 292-2744.

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: 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.

The Third Annual History of Black Columbus Conference, "Education: Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow" convenes on May 13, at the African American and African Studies Community Extension Center, 905 Mount Vernon Avenue. The conference will feature photo exhibits, panel discussions and guest presentations. William E. Nelson, Jr., African American and African Studies, is a keynote speaker. Contact: African American and African Studies Community Extension Center, 292-3922 or visit aaascec.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.