Peter Heinegg, professor of English, authored a collection of essays published by Hamilton Books. The collection, Good God! (And Other Follies): Essays on Religion, takes a critical and satirical look at the wave of religiosity now sweeping the nation, from faith-based initiatives to attacks on evolution. Heinegg also published his review of Frederick Brown’s Flaubert: A Biography in America Magazine: The Catholic National Weekly.
Frank Wicks, associate professor of mechanical engineering, authored an article published in the November 2006 issue of Mechanical Engineering, a monthly magazine for the estimated 130,000 members of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Wicks is the only engineering professor in the United States classified as a frequent contributor to the publication. The article, “No Einstein: Overshadowed by a Legendary Mentor, Leo Szilard Switched on the Atomic Age,” describes the birth of the atomic age.
Cheikh M. Ndiaye, assistant professor of French, is the author of the preface to Septième Printemps/Seventh Springtime, published by Les Editions du Pangolin, Huy (Belgique). The book is a collection of poems by Ramonu Sanusi, who teaches French, African and Caribbean literatures at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. Cheikh also published “Remembrance and/or Oblivion: The Politics of Memory” in the West African Research Association Newsletter in spring 2006. The newsletter is published twice a year with the support of the Center for African Studies and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida. Ndiaye also chaired a panel on French language and culture at the 60th annual convention of the Rocky Mountain Modern Languages Association in Tucson, Ariz.
Lorraine Morales Cox, assistant professor of contemporary art and theory, organized and chaired a panel for the American Studies Association’s annual meeting in Oakland, Calif., titled “Neither Here nor There: (Re)presenting and (Re)constructing Transnational Identity in Contemporary American Art.” Artist Siona Benjamin, whose work is the subject of a new essay by Cox, was on the panel. The essay, “The Decorative Aesthetic as a Critical Painting Practice: The Art of Siona Benjamin,” has been accepted for publication as a chapter in a forthcoming book published by the German American Studies Association. A separate essay by Cox, “Kara Walker’s Performative Turn,” has been accepted for publication in the spring 2007 issue of Women and Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory. The essay focuses on Walker’s recent filmic and performance use of shadow puppets for her installation, “Song of the South,” exhibited in 2005 at the CalArts REDCAT Gallery in Los Angeles.
George Y. Bizer, assistant professor of psychology, who has conducted research in political psychology, was quoted in a Saturday, Nov. 4, Associated Press article about negative campaigning. The article was published in more than 100 newspapers, including The New York Times and Boston Globe. The article notes Bizer’s published research showing that when people conceptualize their opinions negatively—when they think in terms of whom they oppose instead of whom they support—they are more difficult to persuade. He was quoted as saying of negative ads, “Everyone says, ‘We hate them, they’re terrible.’” But, he added, “They seem to work.” Bizer also participated in a roundtable discussion of campaign ads on Northeast Public Radio in mid November. Bizer was also a presenter at a January meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.
Louisa Matthew, professor of art history, spoke on “Color in Renaissance Venice: Taste, Technology, Commerce and the Uses of Pigments” at Skidmore College as a Mellon Visiting Fellow. Her talk was based on recent research in the State Archives in Venice, Italy and her ongoing collaboration with Barbara Berrie, chemist and senior research scientist at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Linda Evers Cool, professor of anthropology, and her husband, Kenneth E. Cool, a former administrator at Vassar College, helped create The Mellon College Retirement Project. The project has led to the Emeriti Retirement Health Solutions, a nonprofit health care plan for higher education institutions. The new health plan was featured in an article titled, “For Retirees’ Health Care, a Balancing Act,” in the Sept. 29, 2006 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Hans-Friedrich Mueller, chairman of the Classics Department and interim chairman of Modern Languages and Literatures Department, read a paper titled, “The Manes at Night (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum and Visits from the Dead” in Baltimore, Md. at the annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Atlantic States. Mueller’s paper examines a funerary inscription in which a widow requests nocturnal visits from her deceased husband. Roman religious rituals associated with the hours between midnight and dawn and literary representations of ancestral spirits help explain why this seemingly odd request might reflect wider popular conceptions.
Deidre Hill Butler, assistant professor of sociology, is a contributor to the recently published African-American culture text, Legacy: Treasures of Black History. She is a guest editor for an upcoming issue on Africana mothering for the Journal of Pan African Studies, an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed scholarly journal devoted to a synthesis of African Diaspora studies and research.
Judith Lewin, assistant professor of English, authored a journal article and a book chapter that are set for publication in 2008. The article, “Diving into the Wreck: Binding Oneself to Judaism in Contemporary Jewish Women’s Fiction,” will appear the summer 2008 edition of Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies. For an upcoming book called Jewish Cultural Studies: Expression, Identity and Representation (2008), Lewin wrote a chapter titled, “The Sublimity of the Jewish Type: Balzac’s Belle Juive as Virgin Magdalene aux Camélias.”