Posted on Apr 29, 2009

Brenda Wineapple, the Doris Zemurray Stone and Washington Irving Professor of Modern Literary and Historical Studies, is one of two winners of the third annual National Award for Arts Writing.

Sponsored by the Arts Club of Washington, the award recognizes an outstanding nonfiction book about the arts.

Wineapple was honored for “White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2008). Beginning in 1862, the poet and the Boston minister/essayist/abolitionist corresponded through letters for a quarter of a century.

Wineapple shares honors with Baltimore Sun film critic Michael Sragow, who wrote “Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master” (Pantheon Books, 2008).  The two will take part in an awards dinner and public readings in Washington, D.C., in May.

“The idea of the passionate but chaste Emily Dickinson on a blind date with Byronic, swashbuckling Victor Fleming, if only for one night, encompasses precisely the breadth of inspiration that these awards exist to honor,” said noted book and film critic David Kipen, one of three judges for the prestigious award.

The others were National Book Award winner and former Poet Laureate of Maryland Linda Pastan, and National Book Critics Circle Award winner Reynolds Price.

Earlier this year, Wineapple was named a National Book Critics Circle finalist in biography for “White Heat.”

On the Union faculty since 1976, she also is the author of “Genêt: A Biography of Janet Flanner," “Sister Brother: Gertrude and Leo Stein" and “Hawthorne: A Life,” which received the Ambassador Award of the English-speaking Union for the best biography of 2003 and the Julia Ward Howe Prize from the Boston Book Club.

Wineapple is teaching a junior seminar on Dickinson and a course on modern poetry this term.

Posted on Apr 29, 2009

Students who made Union’s recent national community service award possible will be recognized at the first Volunteer Appreciation Banquet on Monday, May 4 at 6 p.m. in Old Chapel.

In February, the College was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal recognition a school can receive for its commitment to service learning and civic engagement.

“When we compiled our report for the Community Service Honor Roll, we were astounded at what we saw, and we wanted to bring the students together so they could see how much they’ve really accomplished,” said Angela Tatem, Kenney Community Center director. “It’s important to do this because volunteering is often a thankless job, and we need our volunteers.”

In 2007-08, 762 Union students participated in a range of community service projects, representing more than 7,700 hours of service. Volunteers at the Kenney Center tutored and read to local children, acted as Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and participated in the state Volunteer Income Tax Assistant Program (VITA).

College President Stephen Ainlay will be the keynote speaker at the banquet. An award for outstanding volunteer of the year will also be given.

For more about the Honor Roll, click here.

Posted on Apr 28, 2009

Through May 4
Burns Arts Atrium
Visual Arts Building
Steinmetz Student Exhibition

Features 121 works in a variety of media by 57 studio arts students; installed by the department’s Frank Rapant. Faculty members sponsoring works are Martin Benjamin (traditional and digital photography), Chris Duncan (sculpture and 3-D design), Walter Hatke (painting), Fernando Orellana (digital and electronic art), and Sandy Wimer (2-D design, printmaking and drawing). 

Through May 10
Mandeville Gallery
Nott Memorial
Dynamic Equilibrium

Show explores the intersection of art and science and features artists who explore science and scientists who explore art.

Through May 10
Wikoff Student Gallery
Nott Memorial
LGBTQ: A Union Perspective

Show broadly explores issues that surround the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community at Union and beyond. 

Through June 14
Burns Arts Atrium
Visual Arts Building
Senior Shows

May 4-10: Jessie Korner, Tobias Leeger
May 11-17: Justin Blau, Russell Goldenberg
May 18-24: Sarah Mueller, Brace Thompson
May 25-31: Brandon McArdle, Ellie Hazelett
June 1-7: Alexandra Lindsey, Patrick Wilson
June 8-14: Megan Sesil, Katherine Cissel

Through September 2009
Schaffer Library Atrium
Union Notables

A rotating show of extraordinary people from the College; features U.S. President Chester Alan Arthur, Class of 1848; hospice leader and advocate Philip DiSorbo, Class of 1971; and Robert Holland Jr., Class of 1962, who has made valuable contributions to sustainability in businesses.

Posted on Apr 28, 2009

Hundreds of students will present research in all forms, from the artistic to the scientific, at the campus-wide Steinmetz Symposium Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2.

With classes cancelled, most sessions will be held Friday.

Among the research topics: The mainstream press in times of foreign conflict (Cara Gallivan ’09), medical memoirs (Randel Bleeker ’09) and snowflake analysis using a scanning electron microscope (Konstantin Avdashenko ’10).

Sixty-five students will take part in the Steinmetz dance concert at the Nott Memorial Friday at 4 p.m. They will perform scenes from the Winter Dance Concert, “Theatre of Worlds: The Voyage,” as well as new student choreography and music. Bhangra Union, the Ballroom Club and the Union College Dance Team also will present.

Student art in a variety of media will be on view in the Burns Arts Atrium Gallery in the Visual Arts Building.

The Becker Career Center will hold an open house 1-4 p.m., and AEPi and Golub House are sponsoring Cinco de Mayo festivities 5:30-8 p.m. at Golub House.

A concert featuring the Union College Choir and the Union College and Community Orchestra, with Victor Klimash conducting, is set for Friday, 8 p.m. in Memorial Chapel for student presenters, parents, guests and faculty sponsors.

Steinmetz Symposium coincides with Prize Day, which takes place Saturday, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in Memorial Chapel, with a reception following on the Reamer Campus Center patio. Students are honored for achievement in academics, research, service, governance and athletics.

Also on Saturday, the Union College Jazz Ensemble will perform 1-2 p.m. in the Fred L. Emerson Foundation Auditorium in the Taylor Music Center.

This is the 19^th year for Steinmetz Symposium, named for Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865-1923), who taught electrical engineering and applied physics at Union. Also chief consulting engineer for the General Electric Company, he was widely regarded as America’s leading electrical engineer.

For more information and the full symposium program, visit: http://www.union.edu/Academics/Steinmetz

Posted on Apr 28, 2009

The results of Henry Hanley's senior thesis, "Financial Literacy among Union College Faculty and Staff" was featured in the Times Union.

Hanley's thesis was written under the supervision of Tomas Dvorak, associate professor of economics.

To read about what Hanley discovered, click here (registration may be required).