Current News

Cynthia Brokaw, History, will present "The Book Trade in Late Imperial China: Notes from the Field" in the College's seventh Inaugural Lecture of the year at 4:30 pm, April 19, OSU Faculty Club. From the late seventeenth through the late nineteenth century, Chinese book culture was transformed by two developments: the geographical spread of publishing, once concentrated in the great cities of the eastern coast, to the hinterlands of the Qing Empire; and the related social dissemination of texts downward to sectors of the population that had previously enjoyed little access to books. A case study of the Sibao publishing industry illustrates both of these developments. Despite their unfavorable location in an impoverished backwater, the Sibao publisher-booksellers took advantage of the simplicity and flexibility of woodblock printing technology and the demographic boom of the Qing to build a vigorous book trade in best-selling texts - cheap editions of textbooks, practical guides to daily life, and popular fiction -- with distribution routes and markets in almost all the provinces of south China. Drawing on materials collected on field work, she will describe the Sibao book trade and assess its place in late imperial book culture, focusing on the role that Sibao publishing played in cultural integration and the spread of literacy in the nineteenth century.

Stuart Lishan, English-Marion: "All the Marbles" (music by A. Perry; lyrics by S.D. Lishan), Life Is Marbleous (Austin, TX: Beef & Pie Productions, 2007); and "Three Sisters," The Bellingham Review XXIX.2 (Fall 2006): 76.

Stuart Lishan, English-Marion, and Terry Hermsen: "Later in the Early World: The Changing Role of Poetry and Creative Writing in the K-12 Classroom," International Handbook of Research in Arts Education, Part 1, ed. Liora Bresler, AA Dordrecht (The Netherlands: Springer, 2007): 623-637.

Doug Ramspeck [Sutton-Ramspeck], English-Lima: "Early Snow" and "The Myth of Regeneration," Poems & Plays 14 (Spring/Summer 2007): 37, 36; "The Five Stones of Memory" and "Horse Ruins," California Quarterly 33.1 (2007): 33, 34; "Magnolia" and "Talk of the World," Cider Press Review 8 (2007): 100, 101; and "Retirement Years," Cream City Review 31.1 (Spring 2007): 111.

Mytheli Sreenivas, History: "Teaching about Women and Islam after 9/11," Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy (Fall 2006/Winter 2007): 90-95.

Graduate student Ursula Gurney, History, received the College of Humanities Gordon P. K. Chu Memorial Scholarship for her doctoral research.

Graduate student Ryan Irwin, History, received a travel grant from the Small Grants Program of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity for travel in South Africa.

An article on the revival of Students for a Democratic Society (first published in The Nation), written by Christopher Phelps, History, was reproduced as an opinion column titled "Old School Student Protest Returns" on CBSNews.com (March 31).

"Family Reunion," a poem written by Jeredith Merrin, English, was read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer's Almanac on April 5, and on The Writer's Almanac Web site during the first week of April.

Hasan Jeffries, History, co-wrote an essay which examined how issues of race and class affected responses to Hurricane Katrina (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 17).

Peter Hahn, History, presented "Teaching the History of the U.S. Experience in the Middle East" as the keynote lecture to the Focus on Teaching luncheon and "Controversies in U.S.-Israeli Relations" as a contribution to a roundtable on the United States and the Middle East, both at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Minneapolis, March 30-April 1.

Wendy Hesford, English, presented "Vulnerable Agents: Human Rights through Children's Eyes," Conference on College Composition and Communication, New York City, March 23.

Graduate student Nancy Pine, English, presented "Compromising: Students' Making Connections Between Service and Classroom Literacy Practices," Conference on College Composition and Communication, New York City, March 24.

Sean O'Sullivan, English, presented "The Decalogue and the Remaking of American Television," Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Chicago, March 8; and "Three Transformations of Television Narrative," Society for the Study of Narrative Literature Conference, Washington, D.C., March 15.

Elizabeth Weiser, English, chaired the Kenneth Burke Society Special Interest Group's Walking Tour of Burke's Greenwich Village, March 23; presented "Rhetorical Communities: Who Do We Say We Are?" and chaired a session, "Pedagogic Violence and Emotions of (Self-)Assessment: Anger, Mortification, Shame," at the Conference on College Composition and Communication. New York City, March 25.

Lilia Fernández, History, presented "(Un)making the Barrio in Postwar Chicago: Race, Public Housing Policy, and Urban Renewal," Beyond the Barrio Symposium hosted by the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Department of History and "Understanding Latina/o Immigration in Historical Perspective" at the Sage Ridge History Symposium in Reno, Nevada.

Lucy Murphy, History-Newark, has been elected to the Executive Committee of the CIC American Indian Studies Consortium. She presented "After the Fur Trade: New Institutions," for the Newberry Library Fellows Seminar, Chicago, March 5.

David Staley, Goldberg Center, History, presented "A Heuristic for Visual Thinking in History" at the Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, April 1.

Dale Van Kley, History, presented "Factoring Religion into the Century of Enlightenment, or Refracting the Enlightenment into Lights?" in a session on "Locating Religion on the Map of Early-Modern Europe" for the American Society of Church History meeting with the American Historical Association, Atlanta, January 5. He also presented "Civic Humanism in Clerical Garb: Gallican Memories of the Early Church and the Project of Primitivist Reform" for the Chicago Group on Modern France, University of Chicago, February 9. Another paper entitled "Religion and the Age of Patriot Movements" formed the basis for a three-hour symposium on his work at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto, Ontario, March 16. He presented "Catholic Enlightenment and Reform Catholicism: A Distinction and Definitions," a comment in a session on "Enlightenment Catholicism-Reform Catholicism" in the annual convention of the Catholic Historical Association meeting, Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, March 29.

Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, History, presented "Women's Internationalism and Radical Orientalism: The Indochinese Women's Conferences of 1971" at the Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, March 31; and "Eldridge Cleaver goes to Pyongyang, Hanoi, and Peking: Third World Internationalism and Radical Orientalism during the Vietnam Era," Indiana University, Bloomington, April 6.

Linda Mizejewski, Women's Studies, presented "I'm Dreaming of a Straight, White Couple: White Christmas," Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago, March 10.

Ronald Rosbottom (Amherst College) will present "Hitler's Tour: Imagining Occupied Paris, 1940-44," 2:30 pm, April 13, Faculty Club Grand Lounge. Sponsored by the Departments of French and Italian, Germanic Languages and Literatures, and History. Contact: Department of French and Italian, 292-4938.

Ronald Hutton (Bristol University) will present "A General Framework for the Study of European Magic," 2:30 pm, April 13, 90 Science and Engineering Library, in The Marvelous Lecture Series. Contact: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 292-7495.

Wilfried Menninghaus (Free University of Berlin) will present "Functional Narratives of Art: Negotiating Transcendental and Evolutionary Aesthestics," 3:30 pm, April 16, Faculty Club, for the 2007 Lübeck Lecture (in English). Contact: Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, 292-6985.

Christopher Dunn (Tulane University) will present "Mr. Citizen and Defective Android: Tom Zé, Music, and Citizenship in Brazil," 3:30 pm, April 13, 046 Hagerty Hall, for the Lusophone Globalicities Working Group. Contact: Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities, 688-0265.

Rita Charon (Columbia University) will present "Who Listens for the Self-Telling Body?," 4:00 pm, April 16, Knight House, 104 East 15^th Avenue, for the Narrative and Cognition Working Group. Contact: Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities, 688-0265.

Donald Miller (University of Southern California) will present "Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement," 4:30 pm, April 17, Knight House, 104 East 15^th Avenue. Contact: Department of Comparative Studies, mcdorman.1@osu.edu.

Julian Markels, English, will present "Memoirs of a Marxist Professor: Beginning the Journey at Buchenwald," the Second Annual Emeriti Lecture, 4:00 pm, April 18, in 311 Denney. Contact: Department of English, 292-6065.

Gender and Ethnicity Across Divides, the CIRIT 5^th Annual Symposium: Gender & Women's Social Rights, will begin at 10:00 am, April 20, Knight House, 104 East 15^th Avenue. Contact: Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities, 688-0265.

Nie Zhenzhao (University of Chicago) will present "Hamlet and Literary Ethics," 4:00 pm, April 23, Knight House, 104 East 15^th Avenue, for the Narrative and Cognition Working Group. Contact: Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities, 688-0265.

Susan Schreiner (University of Chicago) will present "A Distant Mirror: The Tyranny of the Present," 4:30 pm, April 26, 090 Science & Engineering Library, in the Religion and the Academy: Enduring Issues, New Approaches Series. Contact: Program in the Study of Religions, 688-8010.

Graduate students Vera Dukaj, Shawn Casey, and Cormac Slevin, English, will present "Linking Literacies in Composition, Technology, and Copyright" 11:30 am, April 27, Knight House, 104 East 15^th Avenue, for the Graduate Student Interdisciplinary Seminar on Literacy Studies. Contact: Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities, 688-0265.

Faculty and staff are invited to the College's 13^th annual Baccalaureate at 3:30 pm, Saturday, June 9, in 131 Hitchcock Hall. Alumnus Craig Zimpher (B.A./M.A. History) will give the Baccalaureate address. Mr. Zimpher is vice president of government relations for Nationwide. RSVP College of Humanities, 292-1882. Please encourage graduating students to participate. Visit our COH student information pages.

Faculty and staff are invited to participate in the Humanities Alumni Society's 2^nd AnnualGolf Outing on May 19 at Westchester Golf Course in Canal Winchester. Proceeds from the event benefit the Humanities Alumni Scholarship Fund which supports Humanities undergraduate students. For details, visit our Alumni Web page. Contact: Shari Lorbach, 688-4532 or lorbach.1@osu.edu.

The Department of African American and African Studies Community Extension Center is currently accepting applications for its Summer Residential Program for High School Juniors and Seniors, June 17-23. The theme of this year's program is "Bookmarks: African Americans in a Cultural Revolution." During this week-long program students will engage in a focused study of the remarkable achievements of African American artists from Blacks in Vaudeville to the crossover into mainstream culture. Application deadline is, April 18. For more information, visit http://aaascec.osu.edu to download an application or contact Chauncey Beaty, 292-3922.

The 2007 Dean's Outstanding Staff Award Call for Nominations. Nominate a staff member who holds a regular appointment with 3+ years of continuous service within the College and who has demonstrated excellence in overall job performance, initiative, and creativity in the performance of duties, and sustained exemplary service to the unit and to the College. Details and nomination forms are available in the College Office and on the Web. Please submit the completed nomination form, the letter of nomination, and supporting letters as one packet to: Debbie Knicely, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, 398 Hagerty Hall, 1775 College Road by April 16.