Current News

James Phelan, English, has received the 2007 Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Elizabeth Hume, Linguistics, will present "Language, Experience, and the Mind," in the College’s sixth Inaugural Lecture of the year at 4:30 pm, March 5, OSU Faculty Club. Why are newborns often better at distinguishing sounds of a foreign language than their parents? Why do learners of a second language typically speak with an accent? Why do words that we use a lot tend to be pronounced differently than those that we use less often? In addressing these and other questions, it is evident that language experience plays a critical role: an individual's experience with a language's sound system not only influences how a person speaks and hears, it also shapes the knowledge of sound patterns stored in the brain. The goal of Professor Hume’s presentation is three-fold. The first is to illustrate the extent to which experience shapes language sound systems. The second is to consider why experience matters. Professor Hume will suggest that drawing on the cognitive concept expectation, relevant in visual and music perception, may provide us with a deeper understanding of the underpinnings of experience-based phenomena. Finally, she will turn to the theoretical implications of the role of experience in language. In this regard, she argues that the standard theory of language sound systems, an outgrowth of the influential work of Chomsky and Halle, is inadequate. Rather, a successful theory must not only take into account static categorical information, but also the dynamic nature of the knowledge of language.

Kathy Fagan, English: "James Kimbrell: My Psychic" (review) Pleiades 27.1 (Winter 2006-07): 174-76; "Retallack & Spahr: Poetry & Pedagogy: The Challenge of the Contemporary" (review) Ohioana Quarterly (Winter 2007); and "Migration" & "Tympani," (poem reprints) The Book of Irish American Poetry from the Eighteenth Century to the Present, ed. Daniel Tobin (Notre Dame, Indiana: Notre Dame University Press, 2007): 795-97.

Peter Hahn, History: "The United States and Israel: The Formative Years," in Controlling the Uncontrollable? The Great Powers in the Middle East, ed. Tore T. Petersen (Trondheim, Norway: Tapir Academic Press, 2007): 57-75.

Twelve Humanities faculty members were recognized at the 18th annual Sphinx/Mortar Board Faculty & Staff Reception. Honorees included: Mansel Blackford, Kevin Boyle, and Donna Guy (History); Lindsay Jones (Comparative Studies); Marlene Longenecker and Martha Sims (English); David Miller (Germanic Languages & Literatures); Jenny Fourman and Ana del Sarto (Spanish & Portuguese); Gregory Jusdanis (Greek & Latin); Heather Tanner (History-Mansfield); Heather Webb (French & Italian).

Graduate student Gunhan Borekci, History, was awarded a Junior Residential Fellowship at Koc University's Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations for the academic year 2007-08 to pursue the study of "Bringing the Ottoman Court Back In: Power, Patronage and Favoritism during the Reign of Ahmed I, 1603-1617." He was also awarded an American Research Institute in Turkey fellowship.

Timothy Gregory, History, received a residential fellowship from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Greece, and a grant from the Packard Humanities Institute for 2007-2008 for his Isthmia Excavation project.

Judson L. Jeffries, William E. Nelson, Jr., Walter Rucker, and James Upton, African American and African Studies, were honored by the Office of Minority Affairs at a reception recognizing their scholarly works published in 2006.

Hannibal Hamlin, English, has been awarded a Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellowship for Recently Tenured Faculty from the American Council of Learned Societies and an NEH/Folger Fellowship.

Graduate student Lauren Kulesza, English, has been awarded a travel award from the Popular Culture Association, to help offset costs for travel to this year's conference in Boston.

Nick Breyfogle, History, presented "Struggle for Baikal: Industrial Development, Environmentalism, and the Meanings of Nature in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia" at a joint meeting of the School of Environmental Science and the Departments of Geography and History, Queen’s University, Kingston, February 1.

Kathy Fagan, English, presented "Talk & Reading: Poems for a Small Stage," University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, February 9.

Alan Farmer, English, presented "Ephemera and History, Newsbooks and Playbooks in Caroline England," Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies Conference, Chicago, February 23.

Hannibal Hamlin, English was an invited panelist for special session on Donne's "Upon the Psalmes of Sir Philip Sydney, and the Countesse of Pembroke his Sister," John Donne Society Conference, Baton Rouge, Lousiana, February 18 (unable to attend due to weather, but materials submitted and paper read in absence).

Pranav Jani, English, presented "Recovering the Small: Arundhati Roy's Challenge to Postmodernism and Stalinism" for the Ethnic Studies Research and Working Group, Humanities Institute, February 23.

Glenn Kranking, History, presented in Swedish "Tidningen Sovjet-Estland och Sovjetisk Propaganda Till Estlandssvenskarna" [The Newspaper Sovjet-Estland and Soviet Propaganda against the Estonian-Swedes] at the Estonian-Swedish cultural organization, Svenska Odlingens Vänner, in Stockholm, Sweden, February 11.

Scopas Poggo, African American and African Studies-Mansfield, presented "The Politics of the Republic of Uganda and the Struggle for Control: The Case of the Lord's Resistance Army, 1986-2007," a Prelude to the film, "Invisible Children at Ashland University, Ashland, Ohio, February 12.

Judson L. Jeffries, African American and African Studies, spoke to the Black Law Students Association at Capital School of Law on February 19, about the role of African American Lawyers in the Civil Rights Movement.

Magbaily Fyle, African American and African Studies, and Scopas Poggo, African American and African Studies-Mansfield, will present "The Culture of Blacksmiths in Africa," noon, March 2, 347 University Hall. Contact: Department of African American and African Studies, 292-3700.

Nancy Easterlin (University of New Orleans) will present "Wayfinding, Narrative, Evolution, and Ontology," 3:30 pm, March 2, 104 East 15th Avenue, for the Narrative and Cognition Working Group. Contact: Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities, 688-0265.

John Martin Fischer (University of California, Riverside) will present "Source Incompatibilism," 3:30 pm, March 2, 350 University Hall, in the Philosophy Colloquium. Contact: Department of Philosophy, 292-7914.

Gerardo Cummings (Bowling Green State University) will present "Mexican Cinematic Narratives," 4:00 pm, March 5, 104 East 15th Avenue, for the Narrative and Cognition Working Group. Dr. Cummings will also host a Brown Bag Lunch for an informal discussion of Mexican Cinema at noon, March 5, 451 Hagerty Hall. Contact: Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities, 688-0265.

Author Mary Gaitskill will give a Reading at 7:00 pm, March 6, Wexner Film/Video Theatre. Contact: Creative Writing Program, 292-2242.

Jack Mulder (Hope College) will present "Nothingness and Religious Awakening: Points of Contact in Kierkegaard and Buddhism," 4:30, March 8, 10 Psychology Building. Contact: Department of Philosophy, 292-7914.

Rudolph Alexander, Jr., Social Work, will present "Modern Racism Against African Americans," 6:00 pm, March 8, 905 Mount Vernon Avenue. Contact: African American and African Studies Community Extension Center, 292-3922.

Russell Hamilton (Vanderbilt University) will present "The Lusophone World: Eight Countries Joined and Divided by the Same Language," 3:30 pm, March 9, 104 East 15th Avenue, for the Lusophone Globalicities Working Group. Contact: Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities, 688-0265.

Kieran Setiya (University of Pittsburgh) will present "Believing at Will," 3:30 pm, March 9, 350 University Hall. Contact: Department of Philosophy, 292-7914.

Journalist Randall Sullivan will discuss the murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., 5:00 pm, March 10, 905 Mount Vernon Avenue. Contact: African American and African Studies Community Extension Center, 292-3922, or the Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities, 688-0265.