January 2017 Union in the Media Archive

One of Ireland’s foremost living writers, Colm Tóibín, reads from his work Thursday, Feb. 2, 8 p.m., in the Nott Memorial.

The reading is free and open to the public.

An award-winning fiction writer and journalist, Tóibín is author of the 2009 novel “Brooklyn,” which was adapted into the successful 2015 film of the same name. Brooklyn is about a young Irish immigrant in New York who must choose between two countries and her life in each.

“We invited Colm Tóibín because members of our department admire his writing, as a fiction writer and as an essayist for The New York Review of Books and The London Review of Books,” said Jordan Smith, the Edward Everett Hale Jr. Professor of English.

Smith and Claire Bracken, associate professor of English, helped organize Toibon’s campus visit. Tóibín’s recent study of Elizabeth Bishop and Thom Gunn, On Elizabeth Bishop, aligns with Smith’s new course examining the work of these 20th century poets. Tóibín’s works are examined in Bracken’s Irish Literature and Film course, as well.

In addition, the author will hold a talk and Q-&-A with students in classes taught by Bracken, Smith and Kara Doyle, associate professor of English, during the Common Hour Thursday in Reamer Auditorium.

Tóibin is no stranger to Union. The author has spent time on campus examining the collection of Yeats family material gathered by the late Lamont Professor of English William Murphy and to research material for his novel, The Master, about Henry James.

“He was particularly interested in the portrait of Henry James Sr. that is now hanging in the President’s House,” Smith said. “He will be continuing his work with Professor’s Murphy's collection while on campus.”

The Department of English has a long-standing interest in the study of Irish literature. Among the acclaimed Irish writers who have presented their work at Union are Anne Enright, Paula Meehan, John Montague, Tom Paulin and William Trevor.

Tóibín studied at University College Dublin and began his career as a journalist writing for In Dublin, Hibernia, Sunday Tribune and Dublin Sunday Independent. His experiences while living in Barcelona in the late 1970s influenced his first novel, “The South” (1980), which was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and won the Irish Times/Aer Lingus First Fiction Award. Since then he has published nine novels and numerous works of nonfiction, many of which have been bestsellers. The Blackwater Lightship (1999) and The Testament of Mary (2012) were both shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Tóibín was named one of Britain's Top 300 Intellectuals by The Observer and was hailed as a champion of minorities as he collected the 2011 Irish PEN Award. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.

His Union reading is co-sponsored by a Mellon “Our Shared Humanities” grant, Minerva Programs, the John and Winifred Smith Literary Activities Fund of the Department of English, and the Internal Education Fund.

Michael Saum '92, a captain in the U.S. Navy’s Construction Force (or Seabees), was recently profiled in the Observer. The story focused on his career. As a member of the a naval construction battalion center located in Port Hueneme, Calif., he builds and fights around the world.

During his time at Union, Saum was a member of Chi Psi.

Read the story here.

Carol Weisse, professor of psychology and director of the Health Professions program, presented at grand rounds at Ellis Hospital. Her talk, “Trends and Local Innovations in End of Life Care,” was given with Dr. George Giokas, regional medical director and palliative care director at the Community Hospice of Schenectady.

Valerie Barr, professor of computer science, gave two talks at Queens College in Flushing, N.Y. on Jan. 13. The first talk, “Diversity in Tech: Present and Future,” was primarily for students participating in the New York City Tech Talent Pipeline Program. The second talk, “Changing CS Demographics Through Curriculum,” was for faculty and was followed by a lengthy roundtable discussion.

A new album of choral compositions by Hilary Tann, the John Howard Payne Professor of Music, has been released by Parma Recordings. “Exultet Terra” is named after the five-movement piece for double chorus and double reed woodwind quintet. It was written when Tann was composer-in-residence at the Eastman School of Music in 2011. Other works include “Contemplations,” with words by America's first female poet, Anne Bradstreet, and THE MOOR, to words by contemporary Welsh poet, R.S. Thomas. Amelia LeClaire conducts the choral group, Cappella Clausura, featured on the album. Learn more and listen here.

Submit your news to gowanc@union.edu.

Matthew Wolford '16 was recently featured in the West Onondaga County Journal. The story focused on his ongoing experiences in Uganda as a current Minerva Fellow.

At Union, Wolford was a member of Golub House, men's crew and Delta Kappa Epsilon.

Read more about him here.

Lewis Davis, professor of economics, co-authored an article, "Culture and the Regulation of Entry," in the Journal of Comparative Economics. The paper, available here, argues that individualism plays a key role in explaining the degree to which countries regulate the formation of new firms.

Andrew Morris, associate professor of history, reviewed Douglas Brinkley’s new book, “Rightful Heritage: Franklin Roosevelt and the Land of America,” at a recent event at the Schenectady County Public Library.

Megan Ferry, associate professor of Chinese and Asian Studies and chair of the Modern Languages Department, was elected to the executive committee to the Association of Departments of Foreign Language for a three-year term. The national organization informs institutions about issues confronting the field and developing policies and best practices.

Several letters to the editor to Mechanical Engineering were in praise of an article by Frank Wicks, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering. The piece, “Pipelines for War and Peace,” describes the crucial role of U.S. oil in winning World War II. German submarines off the coast were destroying oil tankers and this wartime emergency was solved by construction of oil and gas pipelines from Texas to the Northeast.

Submit your news to gowanc@union.edu.

Aurora Butera '16 was recently featured in the Sun Community News.

The story focused on the College for Every Student organization and the guidance its fellows -- like Butera -- give young people who are planning their futures. At Union, Butera spent a term abroad in Italy and was involved with Alpha Delta Lambda.

Bradley Hays, associate professor of political science, was a recent guest on "Congressional Corner" on WAMC, Northeast Public Radio. He discussed why it's too late for Merrick Garland to be nominated for the Supreme Court.

Northeast Public Radio is a member of National Public Radio serving parts of seven northeastern states. These include New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.

Eric McDowell, assistant athletic director and sports information director, was featured in the fall edition of NCAA Champion Magazine. “Take this Job and Love it” profiled a day in the life of a sports information director and chronicled his career.

Tomas Dvorak, chair of the Economics Department, wrote an op-ed on college retirement plans for The Chronicle of Higher Education. His research interests are in the design of retirement plans, performance measurement, financial literacy and conflicts of interest in financial markets. Dvorak serves as a fiduciary of Union College’s defined contribution retirement plan. Read the op-ed here.

Women’s basketball coach Mary Ellen Burt recently celebrated 300 wins with the College. She currently leads all Liberty League women’s coaches with the most wins. Burt also coaches the women’s golf team. Read more about the milestone here.

A chapter by Zoe Oxley, professor of political science, was included in The Political Psychology of Women in U.S. Politics. “Gender and the Socialization of Party Identification” explores whether children are more likely to adopt the partisan affiliation of their mothers or their fathers.

Research by Lewis Davis, professor of economics, about the links between rainfall patterns, collectivism and economic development was recently featured on WAMC's “The Academic Minute.” The segment can be heard here.

Inside Higher Ed published an op-ed by Christine Henseler, professor of Spanish. “Humanities and Diversity: A Tale of Two Crises” can be read here.

Teresa Meade, the Florence B. Sherwood Professor of History and Culture, is the recipient of a 2016 Hadassah-Brandeis Institute research grant. The award supports interdisciplinary topics concerning Jewish gender studies. Her project, “’We don’t become refugees by choice’: A Life from Poland to California, 1939 to 2014,” is a biography of Mia Truskier, a Jewish woman who escaped from Nazi-occupied Poland in 1940. Truskier lived clandestinely during World War II in Italy and eventually settled in California. She advocated for refugees from Central America and the Caribbean and was a member of the Board of Trustees of the East Bay Sanctuary in Oakland until her death at 94.

Daniel Mosquera, associate professor of Spanish, published an article, "What Does Trash have to do with Revolutions? Re-thinking Trash and the Renewal of Political Ecologies," in a collection titled University and Society within the Context of Arab Revolutions and New Humanism. The collection, which analyzes the Arab revolutions through an interdisciplinary and transnational lens, was published in English with introductions in English and Arabic.

Submit your news to gowanc@union.edu.