Posted on Sep 29, 2009

With the Admissions season now in full motion, Union’s counselors are on the road for weeks at a time, traveling throughout the United States and to Belgium, Costa Rica, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Switzerland and other countries.

“This fall, we are visiting 25 states, 10 countries, 550 high schools and 100 college fairs,” said Matt Malatesta, director of Admissions, Financial Aid and Enrollment.

 In addition, Union recently joined Yale, Dartmouth, West Point and more than 200 other colleges in turning to the Web to promote their institutions through CollegeWeekLive.com, one of several sites offering prospective students a virtual way to interact with school officials. For more on the virtual college fair, click here.

For those who like to visit campus the old-fashioned way, the Office of Admissions will host fall Open Houses for prospective students on Monday, Oct. 12 and Monday, Oct. 26, beginning at 8:45 a.m. both days. For more information and a schedule of activities, click here.  

There will be a luncheon in Memorial Fieldhouse from 12:30-1:30 p.m., with academic receptions to follow, 1-1:30 p.m. Faculty who are able to attend luncheons and represent their department at the reception tables should contact Lilia Tiemann at tiemannl@union.edu.

In an e-mail letter this week, Malatesta thanked faculty and staff “for all you do to help in our efforts to recruit the best and brightest young women and men to Union.”

New to Union’s recruiting team this year is Susan Hanks, associate dean of Admissions, who spent many years at Lehigh University. She will be leading travel and outreach efforts for the office’s counselors as well as meeting prospective students in the Capital Region, Colorado, Long Island and Ohio.      

“While the economic downturn of last year posed a major challenge, we face the recruitment of the Class of 2014 with reasons for optimism,” Malatesta said. “As one indicator of good news, this summer we saw a greater than 10 percent increase in visitors over the previous year.”

Posted on Sep 29, 2009

Hans-Friedrich Mueller, the William D. Williams Professor of Classics, was one of the featured speakers who examined the historical impact of the three-day Battle of the Teutoburg Forest at a recent symposium at Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minn. The symposium was part of the Hermann Victory Celebration, which drew thousands of spectators to see an army of re-enactors led by Arminius, also known as “Hermann the German,” defeat the Roman legions of Quintilus Varus. The 2,000-year-old battle helped shape Europe for centuries to come.

Pilar Moyano, professor of Spanish, delivered two papers in Spain in June. These were: “Fantasía y memoria histórica de España en el cine de Guillermo del Toro,” at the V International Conference of the Sociedad Hispánica de Humanidades, in Seville, and “’Los niños de Morelia’ en la obra del dramaturgo mexicano Víctor Hugo Rascón Banda” at the Intercontinental Conference of the Instituto Universitario de Investigación y Estudios Norteamericanos de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, in Madrid.

A monograph artist book, “Atomic Age,” by Professor of Visual Arts Martin Benjamin, will be unveiled in conjunction with a solo exhibition of the same name during Atlanta Celebrates Photography (ACP) month. The exhibition at Pace Academy in Buckhead, Ga., continues throughout October. The body of work is about life in the atomic age, from people to locations to lyrical photographs about love and life. Published by Atomic Age/Digital Press and spanning images from 1978 to 2007, the book will debut at the Oct. 6 reception for Benjamin’s exhibition. The book’s development was supported by a CAPS Photography Fellowship from the New York State Council for the Arts and a Humanities Faculty Development Research Grant from the College. In summer 2007, Benjamin worked with summer research intern Nina Witschonke, a visiting international student from Aachen, Germany, to sequence and lay out the book’s 122 photographs with text. Upon return to her home university, Witschonke continued working on the project for her senior thesis, earning her art degree with an exhibition of her work relating to “Atomic Age” and three other potential book projects with Benjamin. Also instrumental in the book’s production was David Ogawa, professor of art history. “Atomic Age” contains images taken in such locations as Los Alamos, Colo., Oak Ridge, Tenn., Alamagordo, N.M., Hiroshima, Japan, Cuba, China and Vietnam as well as in Schenectady and the Capital Region. It will be available at the Union College Bookstore, among other outlets.

Samuel Amanuel, assistant professor of physics, recently presented a paper on “Reconciliation of the Apparent Delta H During the Phase Transition of Physically Confined System” at the North American Thermal Analysis Society Annual Conference in Lubbock Texas. The analysis and calculations showed that the behavior of molecules within 2.14 nano meters from a surface is different than molecules far away from a surface. The work involved summer research by Hillary Bauer ’11, Peter Bonventre ’11 and Dana Lasher ’08.      

Posted on Sep 28, 2009

Sophomore Will Mahony wasn’t sure what to expect when he enrolled in a new class, “The Business of Visual Art & Contemporary Entrepreneurship.” But what he’s discovered, three weeks into the term, has really impressed him.

“Not being an art history major, I questioned how valuable this class would be to me,” said Mahony, an American Studies major focusing on media and popular culture. “But this isn’t just about art, it’s about things like urban development and the role the creative sector plays in that.

“The class also fits nicely into my major because it deals heavily with American culture.”

This type of multifaceted applicability to various fields is exactly what Lorraine Morales Cox had in mind when she developed the course, with the support of private donors and a grant from Ethics Across the Curriculum.

“A liberal arts education is all about the connections between disciplines and how they complement each other,” said Cox, an associate professor of contemporary art and theory. “This is an art history class, but it’s also part of the American Studies program and the Entrepreneurial Thinking cluster headed by Professor Hal Fried.”

Blending art and entrepreneurship was logical for Cox, who also directs the American Studies program.

“The art world is rich in entrepreneurship, and the artist is the ultimate entrepreneur,” she explained. “Artists must find someone to fund their creative efforts, they must write grants, they must develop their work and showcase it. They must understand how integral business is to the art industry – how galleries work and gallery owners operate, and how to get their pieces into galleries to be sold.”

To foster this type of understanding in her pupils, Cox doesn’t stop at classroom lectures and readings. She is a firm believer that the benefits of cross-disciplinary education are exponentially increased with experiential learning.

For every subject students study in a book with Cox, there is a corresponding field trip or guest speaker to take that inanimate lesson and breathe life and first-hand experience into it.

“These field trips and speakers are extremely valuable components because everything we’re learning is real, not just material from a textbook you have to imagine,” Mahony said. “After reading about Richard Florida’s theories on urban culture and the creative arts of society, for example, our class was able to see him speak in Albany.

“We’ve also studied the most prominent auction houses, like Christie’s and Sotheby’s, and have been able to get the inside scoop from people who actually work in this industry,” he added. “And learning about art galleries in one thing, but going to Boston and meeting the directors of those galleries is something totally different and invaluable.”

In addition to a recent visit to Boston, students will travel to New York City and Cummington, Mass. They’ll also hear from a multitude of entrepreneurs and art world professionals, including Catherine Hedgeman '96 of Albany, an attorney and CEO of The Stakeholders Foundation, a young professionals networking group. Near the end of the term, David Steiner, a prominent Los Angeles art lawyer, will speak.

“Getting these young people out into the art world to give them real experiences in it creates comfort, awareness and familiarity with careers they may one day be part of,” Cox said. “By providing interdisciplinary instruction and experiential opportunities, we give them – and students of all majors – the confidence and adaptability to succeed in an increasingly diverse workforce where people and fields of all kinds intersect.”

Posted on Sep 28, 2009

On Monday, Oct. 19 at 8 p.m., Union will present a rare performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's monumental work, “The Art of Fugue,” by duo-pianists Jon Gillock and Dean Kauffman.

Admission to the concert, which is co-sponsored by Union’s Music Department and the Eastern New York Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, is $20. The show, to be held in Taylor Music Center, is part of the chapter's fall calendar of events.

“The Art of Fugue,” or “Die Kunst der Fuge,” is perhaps better known by its reputation than by its transcendent beauty. It’s not only Bach’s last work, it’s also incomplete and the great composer left no indications about the piece’s instrumentation. As a result, musicians and theorists have considered it a purely academic work that demonstrates ultimate mastery of the most complicated fugal techniques – from simple fugues and canons to double, triple, and quadruple fugues in mirror and inversion.

Gillock and Kauffman will present the work in a version for piano/four-hands (on two pianos). To purists, this may seem strange since the piano did not exist during Bach's lifetime. But to the performers, this seems like an ideal medium for purely musical reasons. They will employ an endless palette of colors to fit each fugue. In addition, because of the expanded tonal range that four hands give, they can even produce an organ-like effect that will give the work majesty and solemnity.

For tickets, call 462-2405. Seating is limited.

Posted on Sep 28, 2009

The Times Union recently talked with Ann Fleming Brown, Union's Director of Admissions, about the College's decision to join Yale, Dartmouth, West Point and more than 200 colleges nationally in turning to the Web to promote their institutions through CollegeWeekLive.com, one of a few sites that offers prospective students a virtual way to interact with school officials.

To read the article, click here (registration may be required).

Posted on Sep 24, 2009

A scholarly examination of the 50 years since the Cuban Revolution and its impact on Latin America is one of the featured topics for the annual meeting of the New England Council of Latin American Studies (NECLAS), to be held Saturday, Oct. 3, 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., at College Park Hall.

As many as 200 scholars from dozens of schools, including Bowdoin, Harvard, Brown, SUNY-Albany and Williams, are expected. Awards will be presented for best book, article and dissertation selected from among the 55 institutional members of NECLAS. 

“In a world where major changes in Latin American politics, economics and social life are of critical importance to the U.S., the value of producing graduates who are fluent in the history, politics, languages and cultures of Latin American countries is immeasurable,” said Teresa Meade, the Florence B. Sherwood Professor of History and Culture and director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program.

The conference comes during a critical time for relations between the United States and Latin America. President Barack Obama has adopted a more open stance toward Cuba, where Fidel Castro’s brother, Raul, is in charge. At the Summit of the Americas last spring, Obama met with traditional U.S. allies such as Mexico’s Felipe Calderon, as well as with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy.

Other important figures with whom the administration has conferred are Lula da Silva, of Brazil, Chile’s Michelle Bachelet and Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez de Kirchener, the latter two among the small number of elected female heads of state.

Meade, who will assume the presidency of NECLAS during the conference, will be joined by Guillermina Seri, assistant professor of political science, Robert Sharlet, the Chauncey Winters Research Professor of Political Science, and Larry Gutman ’00, who is working on his Ph.D. in Latin American history at the University of Texas, Austin, for a roundtable discussion marking the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.

Associate Professor of History Andrea Foroughi, Professor of Geology and Director of Environmental Studies Donald Rodbell, and Associate Professor of Spanish Victoria Martinez also are scheduled to participate in the conference, along with Ari Gandsmann, a former anthropology professor at Union who teaches at the University of Ottawa.

A number of Union students will serve as hosts for students from other schools who plan to attend.

The conference is open to the public, with funding provided by the Office of the President and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. For a schedule of events, click here.