all Union in the Media Archive

Robert Hislope, associate professor of political science, presented his research "Musical Expression and Political Repression: Moral Panics in American History," to an African American Studies class at the University of Central Florida in Orlando this week via Skype. The professor of the UCF class is Donald Harrell ‘75.

The Daily Gazette published an editorial by Kenneth White ‘16 on Election Day. The piece examined why college students should vote. White is a political science and economics double major.

Daniel Mosquera, associate professor of Spanish, was invited to deliver two lectures in Tunisia. The first, “Trash, Latin America, and a Renewed Lumpenproletariat?” was delivered at the Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail (Tunisian General Labor Union), the largest workers coalition in the African country. Delivered at the Bibliothèque Nationale de Tunisie, the second lecture reviewed aspects of lost and regained humanisms in the Latin American context. The talk was titled, “Re-Thinking Trash in Latin America: The Renewal of Political Ecologies.” Mosquera also held discussions with students in Spanish undergraduate and graduate programs at the Université de la Manouba.

An article by Patricia Wareh, assistant professor of English, was published in Renaissance Papers. The piece was titled “Reading Women: Chastity and Fictionality in Cymbeline.” An article by Ruth Stevenson, professor emeritus of English, also appeared in that same edition. Stevenson’s piece was titled “The Speaker’s Depth of Character in Shakespeare’s The Rape of Lucrece.”

Peter Bedford, the John and Jane Wold Professor of Religious Studies and director of the Religious Studies program, was an invited speaker at “In the Crucible of Empire: Resistance, Revolt and Revolution in the Ancient World,” a conference held at Yale University last month. His paper, “Resisting Imperial Rule: Some Strategies of Subjugated Peoples in the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires,” is forthcoming in a conference volume.

Why is it important for young people to vote?

Kenneth White '16, a political science and economics double major, offers his take in an opinion piece in The Daily Gazette.

An essay by Lori Marso, professor of political science, was published in the August edition of Contemporary Political Theory. “Solidarity Sans Identity: Richard Wright and Simone de Beauvoir Theorize Political Subjectivity” grew out of discussions in Marso’s African-America Political Thought course. Also, Marso is co-organizing a conference and presenting a paper at “Breaking the Rules: Gender, Power and Politics in the Films of Lars Von Trier,” a conference being held Nov. 7-8 at Brown University. For more information on the event, click here.

Robert Baker, the William D. Williams Professor of Philosophy and director of Union's Ethics Across the Curriculum Initiative, chaired the History of Medical Ethics sessions at the 16th annual meeting of the American Society for Bioethics and the Humanities in San Diego. He was also inducted as a Hastings Center Fellow. As such, he joins an association of researchers from around the world whose distinguished contributions in their fields have been influential in bioethics.

Chad Orzel, associate professor and chair of the Physics and Astronomy department, took part in a recent screening and Q-and-A at Mass MoCA in North Adams, Mass. of the physics documentary “Particle Fever.” Secret Science Club, a Brooklyn-based group conducted science outreach, hosted the event.

“Irish Travelers: The Unsettled Life,” a new book by George Gmelch, the Roger Thayer Stone Professor of Anthropology, and Sharon Gmelch, professor of anthropology, was recently published by Indiana University Press. The Gmelches’ article, “Nomads No More,” appeared in the September issue of Natural History.

Chad Orzel, associate professor and chair of the Physis and Astronomy Department, is the author of four animated videos created by Ted-Ed, the online learning offshoot of TED, known for its popular TEDTalks series. The videos, designed to help viewers learn concepts in physics, have received tens of thousands of views on YouTube. The videos are:

• What is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle?
• Einstein’s brilliant mistake: Entangled states
• Particles and waves: The central mystery of quantum mechanics
• Schrodinger’s cat: A thought experiment in quantum mechanics

Andrew Morris, associate professor of history, is a featured panelist today at the Miller Center's Great Issues program on the politics of disaster. The event takes place as the U.S. grapples with the Ebola crisis, and also coincides with the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy’s devastation of areas of New York City and the New Jersey shore. The Miller Center is affiliated with the University of Virginia, where Morris earned his Ph.D. and was also a national fellow at the center. He is working on a book on the transformation of disaster relief in the U.S. during the 1960s and 1970s.

Janet Sweeney, assistant director of the Kenney Community Center, was honored at the Leadership Council on Inclusion Awards ceremony recently held at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. The awards honor those who have demonstrated exceptional achievements in diversity and inclusion on college campuses.

This week, Fernando Orellana, associate professor of visual arts, was a speaker at the World Changing Ideas Summit hosted by BBC Future in New York City. The one-day event centered around bringing forward-thinking leaders together to discuss major challenges in science, technology and health. Orellana’s panel focused on the presence of robots in modern society.

Research by Megan Ferry, associate professor of Chinese and Asian Studies, was featured on NPR’s “The Academic Minute.” Ferry discussed her holistic approach to developing the high-level language learner by integrating communicative language tasks to help students develop interpersonal skills and to value cross-cultural understanding. Listen to the piece here.

Megan Ferry, associate professor of Chinese and Asian Studies, was recently featured on WAMC's Academic Minute.

The daily program features professors from colleges and universities around the world sharing their research. It airs on public radio stations across the country.

WAMC Northeast Public Radio is a member of National Public Radio, serving parts of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania

To listen to Ferry's segment, click here.

More than 500 members of the Union community, including Greek organizations and student clubs, helped spruce up the city and surrounding area Saturday, Oct. 18, for the 20th annual John Calvin Toll Day.

Marcus Rogers, assistant director of dance, has been chosen as one of 10 finalists for a national competition, “So, You Think You Can Choreograph,” sponsored by the professional modern dance company, Nacre. The contest will showcase the finalists’ choreography performed live at Spa Little Theatre in Saratoga Springs Nov. 1 at 8 p.m. Two winners will be chosen by audience vote. Each will receive a paid position to choreograph on Nacre’s dancers. The company is based in Saratoga. Rogers’s contemporary solo, “Euphoric Desolation,” will be danced at the showcase by Alexis Kuentzel. It will compete against works by choreographers from Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Lansing, Mich.

Francis Wilkin, lecturer in physics and manager of the College’s observatory, explained the significance and cause of a blood moon in a recent article in the Times Union. Read the story here.

Bunkong Tuon, associate professor of English, gave a reading at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City Sept. 15 for the NYQ Reading Series. Tuon recently published his poetry in Misfit Magazine and Silver Birch Press’s Mythic Poetry Series.

John Rieffel, assistant professor of computer science, talked about the College's new 3-D printer in an interview with Saratoga Living.

Housed in the Collaborative Design Studio in the basement of the Wold Center, the printer was purchased through a grant from the National Science Foundation.

David Breazzano ’78, Union trustee and president of DDJ Capital Management, was recently featured in the Wealth Matters column in The New York Times.

A generous benefactor of the College, Breazzano has been a scholarship donor, Trustee Annual Giving Chair and a member of the Arch Society. He helped fund the renovation of the fitness center, which bears his name, and Breazzano House, one of seven Minerva Houses.

Most recently, he endowed the new Dona and Marshall Robinson Professor of Science, Philosophy and Religion, in honor of his mother and stepfather.

To read the column, click here.

Congregation Gates of Heaven will honor Stephen Berk, the Henry and Sally Schaffer Professor of Holocaust and Jewish Studies with the Rabbi Michael M. Szenes Humanitarian Award at the 2014 Gates of Heaven Humanitarian Awards Gala at Glen Sanders Mansion Oct. 18. Also being honored that night are Ted Vinick ’43 and his late wife Raquel Vinick, who taught Spanish at Union for 25 years.

William Finlay, professor and chair of the Theater and Dance Department, has been named to a newly formed arts commission in Saratoga Springs. Appointed by the city’s mayor, Finlay and his colleagues are responsible for coordination and developing the city’s various arts organizations as well as promoting the arts in Saratoga Springs on a national level.

Deidre Hill Butler, associate professor of sociology and director of the Africana Studies Program, presented a paper at the 99th annual conference of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in Memphis. Her paper, “Womanist Community Revitalization in Nashville, TN: A Contemporary Civil Rights Movement,” is part of an ongoing research project sponsored by the Faculty Research Fund.

Tommaso Gazzarri, assistant professor of classics, will present a paper, “Truculentus and the Abrogation of the Lex Oppia,” at the Classical Association of the Atlantic States annual conference in Washington, D.C. Friday, Oct. 10.