Posted on Feb 27, 2008

Linda Patrik has received an ASIANetwork Freeman Foundation Student-Faculty Research Fellowship for joint summer research in Japan. Patrik and two students, Emily Brunelle ’10 and Jasmine Maldonado ’09, will research how gender is performed in Japan’s arts and popular culture. Patrik will focus on actresses performing in traditional Noh theater. Brunelle will study Japanese rock groups that emphasize gender bending, while Maldonado will look at Japanese street fashion and how gender is exaggerated or “acted out.” They will conduct their research in Kyoto and Tokyo for three weeks in August, with plans to develop a Web site and present their findings at the 2009 ASIANetwork conference in Chicago.

Lorraine Morales Cox, assistant professor of Contemporary Art & Theory, has had an essay published in n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal. Volume 21 (January 2008), a special issue on violence, was supported by a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Cox’s piece, “Transformed Bodies, Colonial Wounds and Ethnographic Tropes: Wangechi Mutu,” shows how the collages of Kenyan born, Brooklyn-based artist Mutu “reveal important figurative and conceptual strategies to invoke reflection on the articulation of power, the construction of femininity and societal racialization that inscribes and constructs the acculturated body.” Now in its 11th year, n.paradoxa is the only international feminist art journal dedicated to contemporary women artists and feminist theory around the world.

Robert Sharlet, the Chauncey Winters Research Professor of Political Science, has published his latest book, “Russia and its Constitution: Promise and Political Reality” (Martinus Nijhoff/Brill, 2007). Sharlet is co-editor of and contributor to a retrospective volume on the first decade of the post-Soviet Russian Constitution (1993-2003). The contributors, law professors and political scientists specializing in law, cover a range of topics, including the Constitutional Court, the judiciary, federal prosecutor, criminal procedure and jury trial.

Posted on Feb 27, 2008

The Sunday Gazette recently did a feature on the President's House. The newspaper recounted the history of the house from the first occupants, President Eliphalet Nott and his wife, Urania, in 1861, to the current residents, President Stephen C. Ainlay and his wife, Judith.

To read the story and view a photo gallery, click here (registration may be required).

Posted on Feb 27, 2008

Master pianist Emanuel Ax will perform a classical repertoire of Beethoven and Schumann selections Friday, Feb. 29 at 8 p.m. in Memorial Chapel as part of the Union College Chamber Concert Series.

Ax is on a solo recital tour in Europe and North America that will take him to London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and New York’s Carnegie Hall.

In his third performance at Union, Ax will perform Beethoven’s Sonata in A Major, Op. 2, No. 2 and Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57, “Appassionata.”

Selections from Schumann will include “Humoreske” in B-flat Major, Op. 20 and “Papillons,” Op. 2.

Ax is well-known to area audiences through his many appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood and the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Born in Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax was raised in Winnipeg, Canada, and studied at the Juilliard School. He captured public attention in 1974, at age 25, when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. Since then, he has garnered numerous coveted prizes, including the Avery Fisher Prize and six Grammy Awards.

He has been recording exclusively for Sony Classical since 1987. Last fall, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He resides in New York City with his wife, pianist Yoko Nozaki.

The concert is free for the Union College community, $25 for general admission and $10 for area students. For tickets, call 388-6080; for more information on the series, call 372-3651 or visit http://www.union.edu/ConcertSeries.

Posted on Feb 27, 2008

Friday, Feb. 29 – Monday, March. 3, 8 and 10 p.m. / Reamer Campus Center Auditorium / Film: Michael Clayton

Friday, Feb. 29, 8 p.m. / Memorial Chapel / Chamber Concert Series features Emanual Ax, pianist

Saturday, March 1, 1 p.m. / Frank Bailey Field / Men’s lacrosse vs. Utica

Saturday, March 1, 8 p.m. / Taylor Music Center, Emerson Auditorium / Musicians of Ma’alwyck presents “Moonstruck”

Sunday, March 2, 1 p.m. / Reamer Campus Center Auditorium / Speakers Forum presents “Invisible Children: Rough Cut”

Sunday, March 2, 7-9 p.m. and Monday, March 3, 8:30-10:30 a.m. / University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) Players will present “Conflict in the Classroom.” Sunday’s events begin with dinner at 5:30 p.m. Monday’s breakfast is at 7:30 a.m. Faculty members who wish to attend are urged to contact Judy Ludwig at ludwigj@union.edu   

Monday, March 3, 4 p.m. / Frank Bailey Field / Men’s lacrosse vs. Cazenovia

Wednesday, March 5, 10 p.m. / Old Chapel / Comedian DC Benny

Thursday March 6, 12:50 p.m. / SSCI 104 / Pizza & Politics presents Prof. Laurel Elder of Hartwick College on “The Politics of Parenthood: Causes and Consequences of the Politicization and Polarization of the American Family”

Thursday, March 6, 4:30 p.m. / Hale House, Everest Lounge / English Prof. Harry Marten in “If the Sun is Up, It’s the Day,” reading from his writings on memory loss, dementia and caregiving. Geared toward those who are caregivers for parents or relatives with dementia or age-related infirmities. Sponsored by the Catholic Chaplaincy and Human Resources Employee Wellness Program

Thursday, March 6, 4:30 p.m. / Schaffer Library, Phi Beta Kappa Room / Philosophy Speakers Series present Kati Balog of Yale University on “Zombies, Conceivability Arguments and the Phenomenal Concept Strategy”

Thursday, March 6, 6 p.m. / Taylor Music Center / Emerson Auditorium / Union College Taiko Ensemble in “A Celebration of Winter”

Thursday, March 6 and Friday, March 7, 8 p.m. / Yulman Theatre / Winter Dance Concert: “Whirled in Flux”

Friday, March 7 – Monday, March 10, 8 and 10 p.m. / Reamer Campus Center Auditorium / Film: No Country for Old Men

Saturday, March 8, 1 p.m. / Frank Bailey Field / Men’s lacrosse vs. RIT

Saturday, March 8, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. / Yulman Theatre / Winter Dance Concert: “Whirled in Flux”

Sunday, March 9, 3 p.m. / Memorial Chapel / Union College and Community Orchestra presents “Midnight in Moscow”

Posted on Feb 27, 2008

Engineering and computer science students at Berkshire Community College can transfer into Union under a new agreement between the two schools.

The articulation agreement guarantees admission to Union for students at the Pittsfield, Mass. school who graduate with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0. Qualified students would be admitted as juniors into the equivalent bachelor’s program at Union.

At a recent signing ceremony, President Stephen C. Ainlay praised BCC’s programs and said the College “was pleased to provide BCC graduates with an access point to a bachelor’s degree.”

BCC President Paul Raverta said the agreement will make it easier and more affordable for students to “continue their studies at this prestigious institution.”

Union has similar articulation agreements with other schools in the area, including Schenectady County Community College.

The agreement with BCC was encouraged by longtime Union benefactors Armand V. and Donald S. Feigenbaum of Pittsfield. The brothers received their undergraduate degrees from Union, Armand in 1942 and Donald in 1946. The Feigenbaums are founders of General Systems Company in Pittsfield.

Since 1996 the College has hosted the annual Feigenbaum Forum, which brings leaders from the academic and business worlds together at Union to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern. In 1997, the College's administration building was dedicated in honor of the Feigenbaums, who supported the extensive renovation of the building, which dates to 1871.