Current News

Abril Trigo, Spanish and Portuguese, will present "A Critique of the Political and Libidinal Economy of Contemporary Culture," in the ninth Inaugural Lecture of the year at 4:30 pm, May 24, OSU Faculty Club. Three main topics, in which Professor Trigo has been working separately for the last few years, coalesce in his current research: a critique of the main theoretical paradigms that have prevailed in the field of Latin American Cultural Studies in the last two decades, insofar they have failed in providing an adequate framework for the understanding of cultural processes in global times; a revision of the theory of transculturation, which he believes still offers the most appropriate critical apparatus for that comprehensive understanding; and an inquiry into the complex and paramount role that culture plays in global processes and everyday life. The convergence of these three thematic axes has led him to call for a critique of the political and libidinal economy of contemporary culture, that is to say, for a critical apparatus that is able to articulate a comprehensive and systematic interpretation of global processes which combines a critique of material production (economics), a critique of power (politics), and a critique of the production of desires and social meanings (the libidinal and the symbolic). Or, in other words, a theory of culture that brings together a critique of political economy, a critique of ideological hegemony and a critique of libidinal economy. This reflection has become not only necessary but also possible, thanks to the centrality that culture has acquiredas capital, as commodity and as a means of productionin the current phase of economic globalization. Contact: Melissa Soave, 292-1882.

David Adams, English-Lima: "A Bibliography of Lloyd Davis's Work," AUMLA: Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association 106 (2006): 163-71. (Memorial essay and bibliography, appeared 2007.)

Steven Fink, English: review of Call It English: The Languages of Jewish American Literature, by Hanna Wirth-Nesher, American Jewish History 92.4 (December 2004 [2007]): 524-27.

Sebastian Knowles, English: "Birkenau: The Place Where Irony Goes to Die," The Antioch Review 65.2 (Spring 2007): 373-83.

Doug Ramspeck [Sutton-Ramspeck], English-Lima: "Cemetery Crows," poem, The Midwest Quarterly 48.3 (Spring 2007): 401-2; "Epistemology in Cleveland," poem, The Evansville Review 17 (2007): 145; "Here Is What I Know about the Sky" and "Weed Song," poems, Lake Effect 11 (Spring 2007): 96-98, 9; and "Must This Be?," poem, The Eleventh Muse (2007): 29.

Graduate student Rachael Ball, History, received a month's extension from Fulbright Spain for her project, "Treating the Public: Public Health, Public Entertainment, and Public Opinion in Seventeenth-Century Madrid, London, and Mexico City."

Graduate student Mark Soderstrom, History, received a Phyllis Krumm Memorial International Scholarship from the Office of International Affairs to support a research trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, where he will be reading the papers of Siberia's first novelist this summer.

Wendy S. Hesford, English, will be a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University's Center for the Study of Human Rights from July 1 through December 31, 2007.

Marlene Longenecker, English, has been honored twice this year by her undergraduate students. She was selected for special recognition by one of them at the 18th Annual Faculty and Staff Recognition Reception hosted by Mortar Board National Senior Honorary and Sphinx Senior Honorary on February 27. And this quarter, she was invited as the guest of another student to the President's Salute to Undergraduate Academic Achievement, sponsored by the Honors and Scholars Office, on May 2.

Joe Oestreich, English, as been appointed Visiting Professor of English and Creative Writing at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington; he won an Honorable Mention in the 2007 Atlantic Monthly Student Writing Contest.

Graduate student Dawn Simmons Walts, English, has accepted a CIC Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Indiana University for 2007-08.

Greg Anderson, History, presented "The Personality of the Classical Greek State" at a symposium on "History, Political Culture, and Political Theory in Ancient Greece," University of Toronto, April 28.

Jared Gardner, English, presented "Greenway's Suitcase Cinema & New Media Archeology," European Cinema Research Forum, Columbus, April 28.

Valerie Lee, English, presented "Beyond Beyoncé: Irreplaceable Girls," the Keynote Address for Take Your Daughter to Work Day, Ohio State University, April 26.

Sean O'Sullivan, English, presented "Television Aesthetics: Between the Meaningless and the Constitutive," European Cinema Research Forum, Columbus, April 28.

Graduate student Glenn Kranking, History, gave a reprise of his lecture 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, May 1.

David Staley, Goldberg Center, History, presented "Visual Composition in History" at the Faculty and TA Development workshop "Drawing to Learn: Visual Composition Across the Curriculum," May 8.

Wendy Chrisman, English, presented "Getting Some Fresh A.I.R.: Southeast, Inc., and the Rhetorics of Recovery in Downtown Columbus," ADA Multiple Perspectives on Access, Inclusion, & Disability: Rights, Responsibilities & Social Change, Columbus, April 4.

David Herman, English, presented "Word-Image/Utterance-Gesture: Case Studies in Multimodal Storytelling," Keynote address for the Poetics and Linguistics Association's Symposium on Narrative and Multimodality: Language, Theory, Contexts, Birmingham, England, April 28.

Robert Hughes, English-Newark, presented "Not at Home: Heidegger on the Uncanny in Antigone," Conference of the American Comparative Literature Association, Puebla, Mexico, April 2007.

Alan Farmer, English, presented "Newsbooks and History Plays in Caroline England," OSU Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Faculty Colloquium, Columbus, April 20.

Sebastian Knowles, English, presented "Philatelic Joyce," Joyce Society of New York, Ireland House, New York City, April 27.

Koritha Mitchell, English, was invited to teach a Pennsylvania college class on Charles Chesnutt via videoconference, April 24

The Fourth Annual History of Black Columbus Conference will convene on May 19 at the African American and African Studies Community Extension Center, 905 Mount Vernon Ave. This year's focus is "The Black Church." The conference will feature panel discussions and guest presentations. Contact: African American and African Studies Community Extension Center, 292-3922.

Chidiebere Nwaubani (University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth) will present "The Gold Coast Protests of February 1948: A Turning Point in African History," 1:00 pm, May 23, 347 University Hall. Contact: Department of African American and African Studies, 292-3700.

Kostis Kourelis (Clemson University) will present "Byzantium and Modernity: Corinth's Archaeological Avant-Garde Circa 1930," 3:00 pm, May 24, 056 University Hall. Contact: The Department of Greek and Latin, 292-2744, or Yiorgos Anagnostou, anagnostu.1@osu.edu.

David Brakke (Indiana University) will present "Gnostics and Other 'Heretics': Imagining the Diversity of Early Christianity," 4:30 pm, May 24, 090 Science & Engineering Library, in the Religion and the Academy: Enduring Issues, New Approaches Series. Contact: Program in the Study of Religions, 688-8010.

The Graduate Student Interdisciplinary Seminar on Literacy Studies will have a discussion of Deborah Brandt's recent work -- "Drafting U.S. Literacy," "Sponsors of Literacy," and "Ghostwriting and Shifting Values in Literacy" -- 11:30 am, May 25, Knight House. Contact white.1142@osu.edu.

Wendy Doniger (University of Chicago) will present "Putting Women, Low Castes, & History Back into the History of Hinduism," 4:30 pm, May 31, 010 Page Hall, in the Religion and the Academy: Enduring Issues, New Approaches Series. Contact: Program in the Study of Religions, 688-8010.

Faculty and staff are invited to the College's 13th 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: http://humanities.osu.edu/studentinfo/default.cfm.

The Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing needs volunteer-tutors for 5th graders at Africentric Elementary School. Tutors work with student-tutees as they complete writing assignments using laptops. Tutoring sessions convene every Wednesday from, 3:45 - 5:15 p.m. at the Africentric School, 300 E. Livingston Avenue (614) 365-6517. Contact: Nancy Hill McClary, 688-5357 or fette.8@osu.edu if you want to share your wealth with our youth!!

The Next Chapter Book Club is recruiting volunteer facilitators again and needs your help! Have you been looking for a way to give back to your community? Do you have about one hour to spare each week? The Next Chapter Book Club is for you! The Next Chapter Book Club is an exciting program of the OSU Nisonger Center that promotes literacy, social connectedness, and community inclusion for adolescents and adults with intellectual disabilities. Book clubs meet weekly for one hour in bookstores and coffee shops such as Borders and Panera Bread. We are looking for volunteers to serve as group facilitators. A previous facilitator reports, "We have all become real friends and to a great extent, have positively changed each other's lives." As a volunteer facilitator, you will be provided with training and ongoing support. If you would like to volunteer or learn more about the Next Chapter Book Club, please contact Program Coordinator Jillian Ober at ober.7@osu.edu or visit our Web site.