Current News

The Arc of Justice, written by Kevin Boyle, History, is now available as an audio-book from Recorded Books.

Christopher Phelps, History: "Herbert Aptheker: The Contradictions of History," The Chronicle of Higher Education (October 6, 2006).

David Stebenne, History: Modern Republican: Arthur Larson and the Eisenhower Years (Indiana University Press, 2006).

John Hellmann, English-Lima: "1967, Liverpool, London, San Francisco, Vietnam: 'We Hope You Will Enjoy the Show,'" The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century Literatures in English, eds. Brian McHale and Randall Stevenson (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006): 189-200.

David Herman, English: review of Cognitive Poetics: An Introduction, by Peter Stockwell, Language 82.3 (2006): 696; review of Cognitive Poetics in Practice, eds. Joanna Gavins and Gerard Steen, Language 82.3 (2006): 680-81.

Graduate student Kate Faber Oestreich, English: "Deviant Celibacy: Renouncing Dinah’s Little Fetish in Adam Bede." Straight Writ Queer: Non-normative Expressions of Heterosexuality in Literature, ed. Richard Fantina (Jefferson: McFarland, 2006): 82-93.

Sean O'Sullivan, English: "Old, New, Borrowed, Blue: Deadwood and Serial Fiction," Reading Deadwood: A Western to Swear By, ed. David Lavery (London: I. B. Tauris, 2006): 115-129.

Phoebe Spinrad, English: "The Sacralization of Revenge in Antonio’s Revenge," Comparative Drama 39.2 (2005): 169-85 [Publ. 2006].

Undergraduate Jenny Huff, History, was awarded the Nels Andrew Cleven Prize from Phi Alpha Theta for her senior undergraduate essay, "Work Together, Live Apart: Ford Workers and the Creation of Suburban Housing Segregation."

Brian Joseph, Linguistics and Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, was awarded an honorary doctorate by La Trobe University in Australia. He gave a public lecture after the ceremony entitled "Life Lessons from Historical Linguistics: On Language Change and the Time Dimension."

Tanya Erzen, Comparative Studies, author of the recently-published Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement (University of California Press), was Terry Gross's guest on Fresh Air, October 9: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6225399

David Brewer, English, presented "The Work of Attribution in the Atlantic World of Print," at "The Atlantic World of Print in the Age of Franklin," The McNeil Center for Early American Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, September 29.

Lisa Kiser, English, presented "Chaucer's Dream Visions," Chair and Session Organizer, New Chaucer Society, New York City, July 30; and "Margery Kempe and the Animalization of Christ," Texts and Contexts Conference, Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Studies, Columbus, September 29.

Graduate student Kate Faber Oestreich, English, presented "How Celibacy Becomes Chastity: (Re)dressing Dinah Morris in Adam Bede," Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies International Conference 2006, Durham University, United Kingdom, July 7; "The Sexual Politics of John Keats's ‘The Eve of St. Agnes,’" Poetry and Politics: A Conference at the University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland, July 15.

Christopher Phelps, History, presented "The Institution of Marriage and the Question of Interracial Marriage on the Anti-Stalinist Marxist Left in the United States" at a conference on marriage and socialism held at l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) in Paris, France, October 5.

Phoebe S. Spinrad, English, has been re-elected to a third term as Chair, Committee on Academic Misconduct.

Joseph Zeidan, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, presented "Modern Arabic Theater: The Formative Years," at Cleveland State University, October 2.

he Department of French and Italian will host the "Borders, Culture, and the Construction of Identity: The Case of Trieste" Symposium on October 13, Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture. Co-sponsors College of Humanities; Departments of English, Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, and Spanish and Portuguese; the Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities; Melton Center for Jewish Studies; Knowlton School of Architecture; Slavic and East European Studies Center; and the Office of International Affairs. Contact: Charles Klopp, klopp.2@osu,edu.

Trinidad Barrera (University of Seville, Spain) will present "Utopias y distopias en Bartolome de las Casas," 3:30 pm, October 13, 046 Hagerty Hall. Contact: Department of Spanish and Portuguese, 292-4958.

Thomas Shippey (St. Louis University) will present "Magic Comes Back: The Inklings and After," 3:30 pm, October 13, 100 Mendenhall Lab, in The Marvelous Lecture Series. Contact: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 292-7495.

The Global Impact of 1956 Conference takes place October 13-15. Co-sponsors include Departments of History and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. Contact: Ann Powers, Mershon Center, 292-8535.

The Newark Earthworks Center will host "Newark Earthworks Day," 9:00 am-5:00 pm, October 14, Reese Center on the OSU Newark Campus. The event is free and open to the public. A Native American Feast ($10 per adult; children under 12 free) will follow at 5:30 pm (reservations required). How often do you get a chance to eat buffalo? Contact: Richard Shiels, shiels.1@osu.edu; visit www.OctagonMoonrise.org.

The Humanities Alumni Society is hosting a Game Watch Party (OSU vs. Michigan State) at 2:30 pm on October 14. The party takes place at the Ravari Room, 2657 North High Street. All are welcome. RSVP: Todd Hills, tfh715@ameritech.net or (614) 261-7110.

Lewis Ulman, Humanities and English, Susan Metros, Industrial, Interior and Visual Communication Design; and Peter Shane, Law, will present a panel discussion on "Civic Literacy," 3:00 pm, October 17, George Wells Knight House, 104 East 15^th Avenue, for the Literacy Studies Working Group. Anne Fields, Library, will moderate. Contact: fields.179@osu.edu.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Frances Fitzgerald will present "The Christian Right and the Ohio Gubernatorial Election," 4:30 pm, October 18, 20 Page Hall. Sponsored by the College of Humanities' Program in the Study of Religions and the Department of Comparatives Studies, http://humanities.osu.edu/news/general/nws10-02-2006.cfm.

Karen Bennett (Princeton University) will present "Composition, Colocation, and Metaontology," 3:30 pm, October 20, 347 University Hall. Contact: Department of Philosophy, 292-7914.

Deborah Madsen (University of Geneva) will present "From Trauma to Narrative: Temporalizing Experience in Ethnic Literatures," 3:30 pm, October 23, George Wells Knight House, 104 East 15^th Avenue, for the Narrative and Cognition Working Group. Contact: aldama.1@osu.edu.

The Dean’s Student Advisory Group invites everyone to Halloween with Humanities: The Folklore of Dracula and the Ghosts of OSU, 7:00 pm, October 24, R191 Mendenhall Lab. Daniel Collins, Chair, Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, will present "Things That Go Bump in the Slavic Night: East European Tales of Encounters with Supernatural Evil," which will be followed by a ghost tour of OSU. An RSVP to 292-1882 would be gravely appreciated. Contact: Shari Lorbach, lorbach.1@osu.edu.

The College of Humanities is hosting the Faculty Recognition Reception at 5:00 pm, October 25, The Blackwell Inn. Contact: Kelli Fickle, 292-1772; fickle.7@osu.edu.

Theresa Delgadillo (University of Notre Dame) will present "’Seeing’ Transfrontera Feminist Spiritual Identities in Chicana Prose, Photographic, and Cinematic Narratives," 3:30 pm, October 26, George Wells Knight House, 104 East 15^th Avenue, for the Narrative and Cognition Working Group. Contact: aldama.1@osu.edu.

Nancy Tomes (Stony Brook University) will present "Medicine and Madison Avenue," 4:00 pm, October 26, Prior Health Sciences Library, in The Fourth John C. Burnham Lecture in the History of Medicine/Science. The Department of History and the Medical Heritage Center are co-sponsors. The event is open to the public. Contact: Judith Wiener, 293-9273, or Gail Summerhill, 292-3001.

Singer, songwriter and activist Holly Near will present "Protest Music as Responsible Citizenship," noon, October 27, 120 Mershon Center, for the Cultures in Disputed Territories Working Group. Contact: horowitz.36@osu.edu.

Michelle Herman, English, will present "Still Here: Repetition & Reinvention: A Writer's Life Cycle" in the College’s first Inaugural Lecture of the year at 4:30 pm, October 30, OSU Faculty Club. The novelist Philip Roth once famously remarked on the great good luck of writers, claiming that "nothing truly bad can happen to us; it's all material." As usual, he was exaggerating. Of course plenty that's bad can and does happen, all the time--but it is still material, the stuff of life, which (while not making the bad less bad, or even more bearable) does gives us writers an endless supply of what it takes to make literature. A writer lives two lives at once: the life of experience itself, and the life spent turning experience into stories. Professor Herman has been mining "the stuff of life" to make stories for as long as she can remember, and more recently she has begun to write "true stories" (or as nearly true as her memory will allow) as well. She will talk about the process of life-into-art, both fictional and non-, and read from new work in progress. Free and open to the public. Contact: College of Humanities, 292-1882.

Lee K. Abbott, Pablo Tanguay, and Jesse Quillian will give a Student/Faculty Reading, 7:00 pm, November 1, 311 Denney Hall. Contact: Creative Writing Program, 292-2242.

Frederick Aldama, English, will present "Your Brain on Latino Comics," 11:30 am, November 2, George Wells Knight House, 104 East 15^th Avenue, for the Horizons Lecture Series. Lunch by reservation only. Contact: zacher.1@osu.edu, Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities.

Peter Platt (Barnard College) will present "Wondering About the ‘Wondrer’: Paradox, the Marvelous, and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale," 3:30 pm, November 3, 090 Science and Engineering Library, in The Marvelous Lecture Series. Contact: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 292-7495.

Neil G. Jacobs, Germanic Languages and Literatures, will present "Jews, Ethnicity, and Languages, in the College’s second Inaugural Lecture of the year at 4:30 pm, November 6, OSU Faculty Club. The past two-plus centuries have witnessed numerous and ongoing attempts at the transformation of traditional Ashkenazic society into constituencies of emancipated (full) citizens of Jewish religion within the paradigm of the modern nation state. However, the continued presence of a distinct Jewish ethnicity remained a thorny issue to be dealt with - conceptually, and as played out in everyday life. While precise definitions of ethnicity can evolve or shift - often reflecting the needs or agendas of time, place, and ideology - attempts to define modern Ashkenazic Jews in western society solely in terms of religion (whether by non-Jews or Jews) have always come up short. The present talk examines some of the ways in which insights from linguistics can shed new and different light on Jewish ethnicity. Data will be drawn from post-Yiddish Jewish ethnolects (e.g., Jewish English, Jewish Dutch, Jewish German), and from examination of Jewish speech in American popular culture (film, television). We will look at a number of seeming paradoxes. For example, in post-World War II American popular culture, Jews were typically described in de-ethnicized terms, while at the same time, a watered-down version of stereotypical Jewishness served as a place-holder for generic American immigrant ethnicity. Free and open to the public. Contact: College of Humanities, 292-1882.

William Labov (University of Pennsylvania) will present "Sociolinguistics and Education," 4:40 pm, November 8, 1180 Postle Hall. The Literacy Studies Working Group of the Humanities Institute and the Gladys Foster Anderson Fund in Teaching & Learning are co-sponsors. Contact: Marcia Farr,farr.18@osu.edu, or Lisya Seloni, seloni.1@osu.edu