Ann Anderson, professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Mary Carroll, professor of Chemistry and director of undergraduate research, recently presented four papers at the XIVth International Sol-Gel Conference in Montpellier, France. Union students and recent alumni co-authored the papers. Anderson was the only faculty member from an undergraduate institution to give an oral presentation at the conference. She spoke on “Understanding and Modeling the Relationship Between Pressure and Temperature in the Rapid Supercritical Extraction Aerogel Fabrication Process.” Co-authors are Carroll and former mechanical engineering students Tim Roth ’06 and Matthew Ernst ’07, now engineering graduate students at, respectively, UCLA and the University of Vermont. Anderson and Carroll, directors of Union’s Aerogel Lab, co-presented three poster papers at the conference. Their student co-authors included Shazia Baig ’09, Amanda Barrow ’08, John Ferrarone ’07, Sadie Gorman ’08, Emily Green ’08, Jason Melville ’07, Aaron Philips ’06, Adam Reeve ’07 and Caleb Wattley ’08.
Robert Baker, the William D. Williams Professor of Philosophy and chair of Union’s Ethics Across the Curriculum Initiative, gave a presentation this week titled, “Jüdisches Krankenhaus Berlin, The Holocaust, and the Moral Imagination of Medicine” in conjunction with an exhibit at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, “From Heqdesh to Hightech – The 250- Year History of the Jewish Hospital Berlin.” The Jewish Hospital, which functioned throughout World War II, was the only Berlin Jewish institution to survive the Holocaust.
Writer-in-Residence Binyavanga Wainaina spoke at TEd Global 2007 in Arusha Tanzania, in June with Bono, Chris Abani and some 50 accomplished Africans from all walks of life. Wainaina also was a guest speaker at PEN International's 73rd International Congress in Dakar, Senegal, where he hosted "“Freedomsâ€," a night of African literature. The evening celebrated some of the established and emerging voices in Africa, including Jack Mapanje (Malawi), Maliya Mzyece-Sililo (Zambia) and Ekbal Baraka (Egypt). In July, Wainaina took part in the Sable Litfest in Gambia and a 10-day international creative writing workshop in Lagos with Orange Prize winner Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Granta Editor Jason Cowley. Go to http://www.nigerians-abroad.com/news/headlines/binyavanga-chimamanda-others-for-workshop/
Daniel Mosquera, associate professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies, was invited to give a presentation about his documentary, Sanpachando, at the Alegría Latino Art Festival in St. Louis. The documentary also was recently selected to be part of the Africa World Documentary Film Festival in St. Louis and Lagos, Nigeria in November, and to screen at the 15th Annual African Diaspora Film Festival in New York City, Nov. 23-Dec 9.
Charlie Steckler, professor of Theater, will interview Arlene Baker, former Union College Artist-in-Residence (and wife of Prof. Robert Baker), about an exhibition of her work at the Albany Center Gallery, 39 Columbia St., this evening, Oct. 5, 7-8 p.m. as part of Albany’s First Friday events. “WEAVING MEANING: Works by Arlene Baker and Ralph Caparulo” runs through Saturday. Baker’s silk series paintings explore horizons, color and veils. See http://www.albanycentergallery.org/