Faculty and Staff Notes
Matthew Rarey Finalist for 2024 Outstanding First Book Prize
Associate Professor of Art History Matthew Rarey's book Insignificant Things: Amulets and the Art of Survival in the Early Black Atlantic (Duke University Press, 2023), was named one of three finalists for the 2024 Outstanding First Book Prize from the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora. The prize "honors a single-authored book focused on Africa and/or the African diaspora submitted by or on behalf of a scholar, activist, and/or artist who has not previously published a single-authored monograph."
Melanie Hawkins and Rebecca Morrow Cohost Roundtable at Ohio College Personnel Association Conference
Student Affairs staff Melanie Hawkins and Rebecca Morrow cohosted a roundtable discussion on learning and development at the on February 10. Discussion points among the approximately 50 attendees included the incorporation of the as a framework for the development and delivery of ongoing training among student affairs practitioners.
Olesya Ivantsova Presents Paper at Modern Language Association Annual Convention
Lecturer in German and Russian Olesya Ivantsova presented her paper 鈥淪ubmerging into the Shadows: Joseph Roth鈥檚 Travelogues from Post-Revolutionary Russia鈥 at the 2025 Modern Language Association Annual Convention in New Orleans focusing on the notion of the subterranean in Roth鈥檚 travelogues and analyzing how the Austrian author鈥檚 travel accounts from the 1920s Soviet Union became crucial for his development as a writer.
Amanda Hodes Wins National Poetry Prize
Lecturer of Creative Writing Amanda Hodes won the for her debut poetry collection, Into the Into of Earth Itself (forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press in 2026). The national award is sponsored by Fresno State University鈥檚 Master of Fine Arts Program.
Ann Cooper Albright Teaches, Presents Book in Mexico City
Over the first two weeks in January, Professor of Dance Ann Cooper Albright taught contact improvisation in Mexico City. While there, she participated in the presentation of her newest book, Resistance and Support: Contact Improvisation @ 50, a collection of writings coming out of the five-day international celebration of Contact鈥檚 50th anniversary in 2022. The book includes an essay by the Mexican feminist collective EPIICO.
Anna Lordan Leads Workshop with Kyiv鈥檚 Center for Civil Liberties
Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Anna Lordan led an online workshop with the Nobel Prize-winning Center for Civil Liberties in Kyiv, Ukraine, on the poetry of Victoria Amelina, the writer and war crimes researcher who was killed by a Russian missile attack in June 2023.
Chris Jenkins Posts on Radical Transformation, Releases Viola Works
Through the University of Michigan鈥檚 National Center for Institutional Diversity, Associate Dean for Academic Support, Chris Jenkins published a blog post titled 鈥溾 on Medium, part of a larger set of works focused on . For the American Viola Society, he released a recording of Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson鈥檚 Blue/s Forms on solo viola, available on and .
David Dorsey Authors Article on Barefoot Dialogue
An by Multifaith Chaplain and Director of Sustained Dialogue David Dorsey on 91直播鈥檚 Barefoot Dialogue was published in . Conceived by Dorsey 12 years ago, Barefoot teaches each individual to hold dignity for all in what is said, heard, experienced, and all that surrounds.
Jessica Resvick Contributes to Volume on 19th-Century Writer
Assistant Professor of German Jessica Resvick published a chapter in the edited volume A Companion to the Works of Adalbert Stifter. Her chapter focuses on the first two versions of the novel My Great-Grandfather鈥檚 Notebook and traces out a particular orientation to the past that lies at the heart of the great 19th-century writer鈥檚 works.
Suzanne Denneen and Students Present at College Personnel Conference
Assistant Director in the Office for Institutional Equity Suzanne Denneen and PRSM members Calliope Lissak 鈥25 and Charlotte Sturm 鈥25 presented at the annual on February 11 about 91直播鈥檚 unique three-part, peer-led, in-person consent training program that meets and exceeds Title IX training requirements.