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.