Two new essays by Brenda Wineapple, Washington Irving Professor of Modern
Literary and Historical Studies, have recently appeared. “Women /Anger
/Literature,” a feminist reading of anger in literature by women, was published in
the fall issue of culturefront, the magazine of the New York Council for the
Humanities. The second, “I Loved Books, That Was All,” is the essay that
introduces The Very Rich Hours of Adrienne Monnier, the reprinted collection of
Monnier's autobiographical pieces originally published by Scribner's in 1976 to wide
acclaim. Wineapple, the author of Sister Brother Gertrude and Leo Stein, was quoted
in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article about Gertrude Stein's backing of
the Vichy government during World War II.
Mark Walker, associate professor of history, and two colleagues (Elisabeth
Crawford of Universite Louis Pasteur, and Lewin Sime of Sacramento City College) have
published “A Nobel Tale of Wartime Injustice” in Nature. They write that
newly-released documents reveal that, due to injustices in Nazi Germany, the 1944 Nobel
Prize in Chemistry was awarded unfairly to Germany's Otto Hahn alone. They claim credit
for the discovery of nuclear fission should also have gone to collaborator Lise Meitner, a
physicist of Jewish origin who had been forced to flee Germany in 1938.
Dan Lundquist, vice president for admissions and financial aid, was a source
(and photo subject) for a story in the Chronicle of Higher Education about
increasing enrollments at colleges in the Northeast. Union last year had a 20 percent
increase in its yield, and the largest freshmen class ever at 595.
Janet Anderson, professor of chemistry, received an honorable mention in the
U.S. Department of Energy's Undergraduate Computational Science Education Awards. She was
cited for her work incorporating a variety of computer applications into the undergraduate
quantum chemistry curriculum, using computers and scientific visualization to extend
traditional applications into more interesting and realistic problems. The judging panel
said her approach allows students to visualize complicated functions and structures, and
encourages the use of the computer as a tool, not a focal point.
Tim Porter, assistant manager of the Union College Bookstore, was one of two
members from the College Store Association of New York State to attend a leadership
conference of the National Association of College Stores recently. Porter is chair of the
education committee of CSA/NYS.
Jordan Smith, professor of English, is to publish poems in forthcoming issues of
Yale Review, Harvard Magazine, and Paris Review.
William Finlay, associate professor of theatre and director of the Yulman
Theater, is directing the 70th anniversary celebration of the Proctor's Theater. The
performance, on Nov. 30, will feature contemporary vaudevillian performers from all over
the United States.
Terry Weiner, professor of political science and sociology, delivered a paper,
“Disillusion with Inclusion,” at an international conference — Crisis in the
Human Services — at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University recently. The paper is a
critical analysis of the full inclusion movement for the disabled in public schools and
other service systems.
Teresa Meade, associate professor of history, recently participated in a panel,
“Gender and Nation in 20th Century Brazil,” at the Brazilian Studies Association
Meeting at Kings College, Cambridge University.
Peter Heinegg, professor of English, translated and edited His Holiness: John
Paul II and the Hidden History of Our Time by Marco Politi and Carl Bernstein. The
book has been published by Doubleday.
Robert Baker, professor of philosophy, has been awarded a Francis Wood
Fellowship by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in support of his research on the
history of American medical ethics. Baker was a Wood Fellow in residence last month
researching the archives and manuscripts in the College of Physicians library.
Joseph Board, Robert Porter Patterson Professor of Government, was co-author of
a paper on “The Judicialization of Politics” read at the annual meeting of the
Committee on Judicial Studies of the International Political Science Association. He was
author of an article, “The Joy (?) of Politics,” published in Scandinavian
Review (Spring 1996), and two op-ed articles published in Sydsvenska Daagbladet,
Malmö, Sweden. Board was elected chairman of the board of trustees of Schenectady County
Community College, and received the distinguished service award from the Association of
Boards of Community Colleges.
Pilar Moyano, associate professor of Spanish, has published “Gender,
Tradition and Nationalism in the Writings of Gioconda Belli” in Interventions:
Feminist Dialogues on Third World Women's Literature and Film edited by Bishnupriya
Ghosh and Brinda Bose (Garland Publishing).
James C. Adrian Jr., assistant professor of chemistry, has received a Cottrell
College Science Award of $30,500 from Research Corporation in support of his project,
“Biomimetic guest orientation in a charge separated macrolytic receptor.”
Research Corporation is a foundation for the advancement of science. The Cottrell College
Science Program supports projects in chemistry, physics and astronomy that encourage the
involvement of students in the research. Adrian has published a paper, “An Improved,
Two Step Synthesis of the Chiral Templating Reagent 2,6-Dihydroxy-9, 10-dihydro-11,
12-dicarbomethoxyeethenoanthracene” in the journal Tetrahedron: Asymmetry. The
paper is based on 1995 research of Tina Ovitt, a visiting Pew Summer Fellow from St.
Lawrence University.
Karen Brison and Stephen Leavitt, assistant professors of anthropology,
have been awarded a National Science Foundation grant to study gender differences in play
among Fijian children. The project is to take place in the summer of 1997.
Charlotte Eyerman, John D. MacArthur Assistant Professor, visual arts, presented
a paper, “Regarding the Musical Amateur in 19th Century French Culture” at a
recent meeting of the Western Society for French History. The paper was part of the
“Guises of the Amateur” panel, chaired by Prof. Bonnie Smith of Rutgers
University.
Hilary Tann, professor of music, has composed From Afar, a 20-minute
piece for orchestra, which is to receive its premiere on Nov. 14 by the Knoxville (Tenn.)
Symphony Orchestra, Kirk Trevor conducting. The work was a commission from the Meet the
Composer/Reader's Digest/National Endowment for the Arts Consortium Commissioning Program.
The piece, inspired by Tann's study of Japanese music with a Union Term Abroad, is to
receive performances by five other orchestras next year. Recent performances of Tann's
works include Of Erthe and Air (mixed trio) in Latvia; LLEF (flute and
cello) at Wellesley College and in Dublin, Ireland; Doppleganger (solo piano) at
Penn State; and The Open Field (full orchestra) by the Orchestra of the Southern
Finger Lakes, Elmira, N.Y. Meet the Composer/Arts Endowment Commissioning Music/USA
selected a new work by Tann for the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra. Here, the
Cliffs, a 15-minute work for violin and orchestra, will premiere next year with
soloist Corine Cook and the orchestra, Gerhardt Zimmermann conducting.