Fall 2015 Faculty Updates

Assistant Professor of Psychology Laura Been gave a presentation on teaching neuroscience to undergraduates, particularly to non-science majors, at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in October in Chicago.

Ruth Marshall Magill Professor of Music Curt Cacioppo performed a retrospective concert of his music at the Centro Incontri Umani in Ascona, Switzerland.  The program included three recent multimedia works, among them his Synaesthesis I, written in collaboration with Professor of Fine Arts Ying Li and filmmaker John Thornton. He repeated the program at the Villa Sagredo in Padova, Italy. He composed a solo violin Elegy for the 2015 Abbiati prize winner, Italian virtuoso Francesco D’Orazio, two piano pieces—Fuga meteo and Paean—and a tone poem, Of Shacklers & Heroes, fulfilling a commission for the Orquesta Sinfónica de Heredia of Costa Rica. His Ostinato-Fantasia on “All Creatures of Our God and King” received airplay over WRTI-FM Philadelphia. The Florentine critic Alessandro Michelucci described Cacioppo's music as "intense, refined, constructed with taste and measure," and his Trilogia dantesca as "monumental," adding that as a pianist he "is endowed with an elegant technique, and the ability to arouse strong emotions."

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Lou Charkoudian published an article, "Evolution of chemical diversity by coordinated gene swaps in type II polyketide gene clusters," in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. This work was conducted in part by Erin Berlew '15 in collaboration with Maureen Hillenmeyer at Stanford University. Charkoudian and Professor of Biology Rob Fairman published an article, "Probing the Selectivity of Beta-hydroxylation Reactions in Non-ribosomal Peptide Synthesis using Analytical Ultracentrifugation" in Analytical Biochemistry. The work was inspired by experiments conducted by students in the inaugural "Biochemistry Superlab" course, which was introduced last spring on the 50th anniversary of Haverford's Superlabs. The paper's co-authors include Bashkim Kokona (Fairman Lab research assistant), Emily Winesett '16, Niki von Krusenstiern '15, and Max Cryle (of the Max Plank Institute). The team plans to submit a follow-up paper, on which all 2015 Biochemistry Superlab students will be co-authors. 

Associate Professor of History Andrew Friedman gave an invited lecture, "U.S. Military Bases, Colonial Labor and the Five Highways of World War II," at the October conference on "U.S Bases and the Construction of Hegemony" at Temple University in Philadelphia.                           

Margaret Gest Professor of Global Philosophy Ashok Gangadean has released a two-disc audio book, ((Awakening)) Global Enlightenment: The Maturation of our Species. It is a "trailer" of sorts for his forthcoming book, which is a culmination of 50 years of research, scholarship, teaching, and writing in the quest to uncover the missing Source Code of Logos. To learn more:  http://hav.to/1ox

Associate Professor of History Darin Hayton published his book, The Crown and the Cosmos. Astrology and the Politics of Maximilian I, via University of Pittsburgh Press. It examines the complex ways that political practice and astrological discourse interacted at the Habsburg court, a key center of political and cultural power in early modern Europe. Hayton also gave an invited lecture, "Precision and Expertise in 14th-Century Constantinople," at the University of Chicago.

The work of Associate Professor of Fine Arts Hee Sook Kim was part of several group exhibitions: Wow at Art Mora Gallery in New York; American Color Print Society at the Plastic Club in Philadelphia; Enter into Art at Kulturbunker Cultural Center in Cologne, Germany; and American Color Print Society at AFA Gallery in Scranton. She had a solo exhibit, Encounter, at the Black Box Gallery, Johnson State College in Vermont, and she gave an artist's talk about her collaborative work. Kim's artwork was published in International Contemporary Artists Vol. X, included in the Berlin Contemporary Art Fair, "Berliner Liste,"and presented by Gallery Boehner in Mannheim. Oneiro, her collaboration with Christopher Shultis for percussion trio and video, was presented by Crossing 32nd Street at the Phoenix Art Museum. She gave a talk about her work "Paradise Between," as part of the "International Seminar on Hanji" held at the School of Visual Arts in New York City on Oct. 9. Currently, Hee Sook Kim's prints are on view at Philadelphia's City Hall as part of A Print In Time, a juried exhibit celebrating The Print Center's centennial

Professor of Philosophy Emeritus Aryeh Kosman presented an invited lecture, "Aristotle on the Divinity of a Human Life," at the Yale University Department of Philosophy on Nov. 11. Kosman was one of eight participants at the "Revolutions in the Concept of Form" public conference at the University of Chicago, where he gave a lecture. He was also invited to give four seminars at the University of Chicago in October on his recent book, The Activity of Being: An Essay on Aristotle's Ontology (Harvard University Press).

Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing and English Nimisha Ladva received a fall 2015 Leeway Foundation "Art for Change" grant to support the revision and performance of her one-woman show, When Sita's Daughters Cross the Line.

Professor of Fine Arts Ying Li is the McMillan Stewart Endowed Chair Visiting Critic 2015/2016 at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Li's paintings were shown in two solo exhibits: Wanderlust at the Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia, and Ying Li, Landscape Paintings at the John Davis Gallery in Hudson, N.Y. She also conducted a painting workshop at the Telluride Painting School and gave a public lecture, "From Youngzi River to Lago Maggiorie" Telluride Public Library, both in in Telluride, Colo.

Assistant Professor of Linguistics Brook Lillehaugen presented "Ticha: a digital text explorer for Colonial Zapotec" at the Conference on Indigenous Languages of Latin America VII in Austin, Texas. Lillehaugen also presented "Archives, morphological analysis, & XML encoding: interdisciplinary methods in the creation of a digital text explorer for Colonial Zapotec manuscripts" at the conference "Humanidades Digitales Hispánicas II: Congreso Internacional. Innovación, globalización e impacto" in Madrid. Both talks were coauthored with George Aaron Broadwell, Haverford Coordinator for Digital Scholarship and Services Laurie Allen, and Michel R. Oudijk.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing and Director of the Writing Center Kristin Lindgren published a paper, "Looking at Difference: Laura Swanson's Anti-Self-Portraits, Diane Arbus's Portraits, and the Viewer's Gaze," in the fall 2015 issue of Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies. She also gave a talk, "Ethical Conundrums, Aesthetic Choices," at a conference on "The Ethics of Representation," sponsored by the Society for Disability Studies, in Atlanta, Ga.

Professor of Music Thomas Lloyd's concert-length choral-theater work Bonhoeffer was performed at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City and the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral on Sept. 12 and 13 to launch the 10th anniversary season of the award-winning professional choir The Crossing under the direction of Donald Nally. Thanks to a grant from New Music USA, The Crossing also made a studio recording of the work that will be released on Albany Records in 2016. At its 2013 premier, Bonhoeffer was called "an important work... a breakthrough for all concerned" by The Philadelphia Inquirer.

T. Wistar Brown Professor of Philosophy Danielle Macbeth gave four talks this fall. In September, she presented an invited talk, "Yet Another Consequence of Pragmatism," in the session "Neo-Pragmatism and Metaphysics" at the Second European Pragmatism Conference in Paris, France. Also in September, at Haverford College, there was an author-meets-critics session of the Greater Philadelphia Philosophy Consortium on her book Realizing Reason: A Narrative of Truth and Knowing (Oxford University Press, 2014). In October, she gave an invited talk, "Logical Form, Mathematical Practice, and Frege's Begriffsschrift," at Georgetown University. She gave that same talk as a plenary lecture at the Third International Meeting of the Association for the Philosophy of Mathematical Practice in Paris in November.

Professor Emeritus of Anthropology Wyatt MacGaffey was invited to speak on "Deep Political Culture: Central Africa and Beyond," at a conference at the Centre for Research into the Dynamics of Civilization at University College London in November.

Associate Professor of Political Science Steve McGovern participated in a roundtable panel on "American Urban Political Development: What Questions Should We Be Asking?" at the annual meeting of the Northeastern Political Science Association in Philadelphia on Nov. 12.

The second edition of Professor of Biology Philip Meneely's book, Genetic Analysis: Genes, Genomes, and Networks in Eukaryotes, was one of four nominees for the Royal Society's prize for best undergraduate biology textbook of the year.

Associate Professor of Mathematics Weiwen Miao published a paper, "Case comment -- Briscoe v. City of New Haven: a statistical analysis of the effect of different written/oral exam weightings in disparate impact claims," in Law, Probability and Risk.

Associate Professor of Classics Bret Mulligan published a book, Cornelius Nepos, 'Life of Hannibal': Latin Text, Notes, Maps, Illustrations and Vocabulary, with Open Books Publishers. This book is part of a Classics Series in partnership with Dickinson College Commentaries, and Mulligan's commentary is available online.  He also gave a talk, "The Crisis of Catiline and Reacting to the Past," at the Classical Association of the Atlantic States Annual Meeting in Wilmington, Dele., and published a paper, "Gout, Beasts, and Other Metaphorical Punishments in the Anthologia Palatina 11.226-231," in Mnemosyne.

William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature Deborah Roberts gave an invited paper, "Translating Homosexuality: Jack Lindsay and his Illustrators," at Yale University at an inaugural celebration for the new Deborah Roberts Prize, which honors outstanding teaching by a graduate teaching fellow in classics and is funded by Timothy Bahti, who was a student in the first Greek class Roberts taught as a graduate student. Roberts' essay, "The Metamorphosis of Ovid in Retellings of Myth for Children," was published in The Reception of Ancient Greece and Rome in Children's Literature: Heroes and Eagles, edited by Lisa Maurice (Brill, 2015).

Visiting Assistant Professor of Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Adam Rosenblatt was interviewed about his new book, Digging for the Disappeared: Forensic Science after Atrocity (Stanford University Press, 2015), on the New Books in Genocide Studies podcast. He chaired a panel on "Bodies, Victims, and Hierarchies of Value" at the second "Disasters, Displacement, and Human Rights" symposium at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His panel included the presentation of a paper he co-authored with George Washington University anthropologist Sarah Wagner, "Forensic Investigation, the Nation-State, and the Iconic Dead," investigating the relationship between national historical narratives, the dead bodies of iconic individuals, and larger populations of the post-conflict missing through the cases of the Vietnam Unknown Soldier and the Chilean icons Pablo Neruda, Salvador Allende, and Victor Jara. Rosenblatt also authored a post for the official blog of Stanford University Press about the new mysteries surrounding the death of Neruda. His article about the "crisis" in the humanities and beauty as an organizing principle of teaching and learning, "On Beauty and Classroom Teaching," appeared in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal Hybrid Pedagogy.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Joshua Schrier spent the Fall semester as a Fulbright Scholar at the Fritz Haber Institut (of the Max Planck Society) in Berlin, Germany. While there, he presented a talk, "The Dark Reactions Project: Learning from 'Failed' Reactions to Accelerate Materials Discovery," at the Fritz Haber Institute's Chemical Physics Departmental Workshop, in Schloß Ringberg, Germany, in September. Schrier also published an article "Bio-Inspired Electroactive Organic Molecules for Aqueous Redox Flow Batteries. 1. Thiophenoquinones," in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C with co-authors Sergio D. Pineda Flores '15 Geoffrey C. Martin-Noble '16, and Richard L. Phillips '18.

Associate Professor of Anthropology Jesse Weaver Shipley gave several talks in Europe and U.S. as part of a book tour for Trickster Theatre: The Poetics of Freedom in Urban Africa (IUP, 2015). He spoke at George Washington University, Leuven University in Belgium, and University College London.

John R. Coleman Professor of Social Sciences and Professor of History and East Asian Studies Paul Jakov Smith presented a talk, "Thinking About Wars of Necessity and Wars of Choice: The Song Wars with the Tangut Xi Xia, ca. 1038-1085," at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study. Smith is a member of the Institute for the fall semester.

Associate Professor of English Gustavus Stadler participated in a roundtable on "Music in Public" at the conference of the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present in Greenville, S.C., in September. He also gave a paper, "Look Away: Race, Sex, and Shame in Some Paintings by Woody Guthrie," at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association in Toronto, in October, and read from his manuscript-in-progress, Woody Guthrie and the Intimate Life of the Left, for the American Literature Group of the University of Pennsylvania English Department.

Associate Professor and Director of Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Jill Stauffer published a book, Ethical Loneliness: The Injustice of Not Being Heard, via Columbia University Press on Sept. 1. Stauffer gave an invited talk about that book at the University of New Mexico's Philosophy Colloquium on Oct. 30 and another book talk here on campus on Nov. 18. Stauffer also attended the American Political Science Association in San Francisco in September to give an invited response to a new book, The Decline of Mercy in Public Life.

Audrey A. and John L. Dusseau Professor in Humanities, Professor of Fine Arts, and Curator of Photography William Earle Williams has photographs in More Than One: Print Publications from The Print Center at City Hall, an exhibit celebrating The Print Center's centennial that is on view at Philadelphia's City Hall through Dec. 14. That exhibit was reviewed by Edith Newhall in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Williams' publication, A Stirring Song, was reviewed by Matt Damasker in the October issue of E-Photo Newsletter.

Professor of Philosophy Kathleen Wright moderated a session on "Prejudices and Erlebnis: Problems for a Hermeneutical Theory of the Future" at the North American Society for Philosophical Hermeneutics meeting on Sept. 18. Wright also gave a paper, "Rehabilitating Confucian Ethics through Gadamer's Hermeneutics," at the New Directions in Chinese Philosophy Symposium at the University of Pennsylvania on Oct. 24.

*Associate Professor of English Christina Zwarg published "'Quotation, Simile, Photograph: Margaret Fuller on The French in Algiers," in a special issue of Nineteenth-Century Prose on Margaret Fuller.