Current News

Faculty and staff are invited to the College's 14th annual Baccalaureate at 3:30 pm, Saturday, June 7, in 131 Hitchcock Hall. Alumna Donna M. Alvarado (B.A. Spanish/M.A., Romance Languages & Literatures) will give the Baccalaureate address. Ms. Alvarado is President of Aguila International. RSVP College of Humanities, 292-1882. Visit the COH Student Web page for more information.

The Department of History will offer a new course for autumn quarter 2008, History 594: History of Islam in West Africa. This course will explore the relationship between politics and Islamic movements in West Africa. Using the decline of the Songhai Empire in the sixteenth century as the starting point, the course will examine the following questions: how does the struggle over religious purity reconfigure West African Islamic cultural and political landscapes? How does the diversity of the conception of religious purity contribute to the construction of religious, social and political identities? In what ways did West African Muslims confront European colonialism and subsequently Western modernity? Contact: Professor Ousman Kobo, kobo.1@osu.edu.

The university’s Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award annually recognizes individuals or groups who have demonstrated a significant commitment to enhancing diversity at Ohio State and to exceeding expectations in implementing the Diversity Action Plan. Honorees for 2008 include Frederick Aldama, English; and the Faculty of Color Caucus in the Department of History, comprised of Leslie Alexander, Alcira Dueñas, Lilia Fernández, Derek Heng, Hasan Jeffries, Ousman Kobo, Ahmad Sikainga, Mytheli Sreenivas, and Judy Wu.

History Professor Kevin Boyle’s book Arc of Justice has been selected by the University of Michigan's honors program as its 2008 "honors book," to be read by UM's entering honors students.

Maureen Donovan, East Asian Languages and Literatures and Dorothy Noyes, English, have been selected for the Mid-Career & Senior Faculty Program of the Ohio State Teaching Enhancement Programs (OSTEP).

Harvey Graff, English and History, received word that the University of Linkoping, Sweden, received a grant from the Swedish Bicentennial Foundation (Stiftelsen Riksbankens Jubileumsfont) to support the publication of a book, coedited by him, on "Understanding Literacy in its Historical Contexts."

Timothy Gregory, History, received a grant from the Packard Humanities Institute in support of his excavations at Isthmia for 2008-2009.

Andrew Hudgins, English, judged the Mary C. Mohr Poetry Award, Southern Indiana Review, Spring 2008.

Rick Livingston, associate director of the Humanities Institute, and H. Lewis Ulman, English, were jointly awarded, in collaboration with several members of the OSU Extension School and the College of the Arts, an 2008 OSU CARES/OSU Extension Seed Grant for "Ways of Knowing Water," a project that will build capacity for environmental education on the Scioto River Watershed.

Claire Robertson, History, was awarded a Kirwan Institute Small Grant to support her Saint Lucia oral history project.

Encyclopedia of American Race Riots, edited by Walter Rucker and James Upton, African American and African Studies, received a Choice 2007 Outstanding Academic Title Award. This prestigious award recognizes the best in scholarly titles reviewed by Choice and brings with it the extraordinary recognition of the academic library community.

Philip Brown, History, "The Controlling Urge? Contours of a Study of Flood and Landslide Management in the Modernization of Japan," in: T.C. Smout, P. Holm, and T. Mizoguchi (eds.), The Environmental Histories of Europe and Japan: Proceedings, Nagoya: Graduate School of Environmental Studies (Nagoya University, 2008): 225-240.

Ray Cashman, English, review of Remembering the Year of the French: Social Memory and Irish Folk History by Guy Beiner, New Hibernia Review 12.1 (2008): 146-150; and review of The Stars of Ballymenone by Henry Glassie, Western Folklore 66.3-4 (2008): 389-392.

Andrew Hudgins, English, "Chemical Zen," Poets on Prozac: Mental Illness, Treatment, and the Creative Process, ed. Richard M. Berlin (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2008): 161-171; "The Secret Sister," Writes of Passage: Coming of Age Stories and Memoirs from The Hudson Review, ed. Paula Dietz (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2008): 358-372; "Southern Literature," "Arcadia," "Babylon in a Jar," "How to Stop," "Ashes," "Two Ember Days in Alabama," and "New Headstones at the Shelby Springs Confederate Cemetery," Gather Up Our Voices: Selected Writings from Recipients of the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer 1998-2007, ed. Jeanie Thompson (Montgomery: Alabama Writers’ Forum): 81-91; "The Imagined Copperhead" and "Blowfly," Poetry, 192.2 (May 2008): 118-119; and "Margaret and Her Puppy Ralph," "Spit Shine," "Accelerator," "The Boy," The Hopkins Review. 1.2 New Series (Spring 2008): 295-29.

Judson L. Jeffries, African American and African Studies, and Harlan Hahn published "Reconsidering the supposed Dangers of Mr. Robinson's Ecological Fallacy" McNeese Review 45 (2007): 70-90.

Erin McGraw, English, "Fortune Teller," review of Margot Livesey's The House on Fortune Street, Raleigh News & Observer, 8-D, May 11, 2008. Christopher Phelps published six entries in African American National Biography, eds. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (Oxford University Press, 2008). The entries he authored are on Mumia Abu-Jamal (vol. 1, 24-26), James Boggs (vol. 1, 459-460), C. L. R. James (vol. 4, 488-490), Julius Lester (vol. 5, 223-225), Ernest Rice McKinney (vol. 5, 523-524), and Cecil B. Moore (vol. 5, 671-672).

Doug Ramspeck [Sutton-Ramspeck], English, "Bottomlands Rapture," Poem, Ellipsis 44 (2008): 32; "Mad Creek" and "Ruined Empire," Poems, The Louisiana Review 6 (Spring 2008): 55-56; "Merlin in Chicago with Alzheimer’s" Poem, Plainsongs 28.3 (Spring 2008): 38; "Red Horse," Poem, Poet Lore 103.1/2 (Spring/Summer 2008): 31; "Swamp Lines," Poem, Willow Review 35 (spring 2008): 84; and "Waterborne," Poem, Valparaiso Poetry Review 9.2 (Spring/Summer 2008). www.valpo.edu/english/vpr/v9n2.html.

Greg Anderson, History, presented "The Art of Government in Classical Athens" at a symposium on "Politics in Ancient Greece: History, Ideas, and Ideology," Indiana University, April 26.

Philip Brown, History, delivered the welcoming lecture, "Historical Perspectives on the Echigo Plain's Confrontation with Natural Disasters? (in Japanese), to incoming students in the Faculty of Humanities, Niigata University, April 22.

David Cressy, History, currently a visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, presented "Scandalous and Seditious Words Against Charles I," University of Cambridge, May 8.

Donna Guy and Felice Knight, History, led two workshops on primary documents at the Arts and Humanities Day for 8th grade students in Columbus City Schools, The Ohio State University, May 16.

Judson L. Jeffries, African American and African Studies, facilitated a discussion entitled "The War in Iraq vs. The War at Home" at the 14th Annual National Conference on Diversity, Race and Learning, The Ohio State University, May 6.

Andrew Hudgins, English, Poetry Reading, Cedarville University, Cedarville, Ohio, April 28.

Lisa J. Kiser, English, "Literature and Medieval Environmental History," presented in the session entitled "Doing Environmental History of Medieval Europe: Problems and Paradigms," International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Mich., May 8.

Christopher Phelps, History, gave a talk on reform and radicalism in the Progressive Era to K-12 teachers as part of a professional development seminar in the "Hands on History" project of the Ohio Historical Society, Educational Service Center of Franklin County, May 10.

Sean O'Sullivan, English, presented "Mike Leigh's Shorts," Society for the Study of Narrative Literature Conference, Austin, Texas, May 3.