UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST
May 2004
IN THIS ISSUE
GREETING FROM DEAN LEE EDWARDS
Welcome to the May issue of Illuminating, the online newsletter of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. (more at http://www.umass.edu/hfa/illum/May04/dean.html )
COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND FINE ARTS SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS
Dean Lee Edwards and alumni contributors awarded 46 scholarships and awards to outstanding College of Humanities and Fine Arts students at a luncheon ceremony on Saturday, May 1. A list of recipients appears at http://www.umass.edu/hfa/illum/May04/Scholarship.html
QUICK TAKES
Illuminating has learned that the following 2004 graduate degree recipients have secured appointments as listed below. We know that there are many more, and hope to publish their names in the June issue. Their years of hard work, study and research have come to fruition. Congratulations to every one of them, and best wishes for their careers:
Linguistics
Ana Arregui, Assistant Professor, (tenure track,) Linguistics, University of Ottawa.
Andries Coetzee, Visiting Assistant Professor, Linguistics, University of Michigan.
Marcin Morzycki, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Linguistics, Universite du Quebec a Montreal.
Michael Terry, Assistant Professor, (tenure track,) Linguistics, University of North Carolina.
Germanic Languages and Literature
Berit Norman, tenure track position in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Boise State University.
Many of the departments and programs within the College of Humanities and Fine Arts list their graduate student placements and achievements on their websites. You can access the departmental pages from http://www.umass.edu/hfa/departments.html
Interested in buying a piano?
The annual sale of pianos and other keyboard instruments loaned to the Department of Music and Dance by Falcetti Music Company through a Yamaha Corporation of America Program, will take place on June 6, from 11am - 4pm. The instruments are sold below retail price, with manufacturer's warranties.
Special preview and purchase appointments are available for Alumni, Staff, Students and Friends of UMass Amherst, on Friday and Saturday June 4 and 5.
For information call 413-577-2312.
Sara Lennox, Germanic Languages and Literature, has been elected as Vice President for two years, followed by the office of President for two years, of the Germanic Studies Association.
The Translation Center and the new Department of Languages, Literature and Cultures, helped host the second American Translation Studies Association conference in March. They had over 50 guest speakers and 120 attendees representing over 10 countries. For more information contact Edwin Gentzler, gentzler@complit.umass.edu
Women's Studies
Assistant Professor Dayo Folayan Gore has accepted a Fellowship as Scholar-In-Residence at the Schomburg Center for the Study of Black Culture in New York City, where she will work on her study of Post WWII, black women radicals in U.S. history, integrating the study of Cold War politics, U.S. Feminism and African American history.
Assistant Professor Miliann Kang has received a grant from the Institute for Asian American Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston, to study "Second Generation Asian Pacific American Households in New England: Negotiating Work, Family, Community and Identity."
Classics
Professor Rex Wallace, Chair of Classics, has received a grant from the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation to travel to Murlo, Italy this summer to catalog, analyze and translate Etruscan inscriptions uncovered at the site of a 7th century BC Etruscan building complex. Professor Wallace was also the recipient of grants from the American Philosophical Society and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation for his work on an online database of Etruscan inscriptions with historical and linguistic commentary.
Classics is one of six departments at UMass Amherst chosen to participate in the Davis 2 Grant for Teaching Technology. Professors Debbie Felton Miller, Kenneth Kitchell, and Marios Philippides, will be using the grant to set up Online Web-based Learning, (OWL) for large lecture courses. The OWL instructional units will then be coordinated with the use of the Personal Response System, (PRS) in the classroom.
Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies
Center Director, Arthur Kinney reviewed the current exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Byzantium: Faith and Power, on WFCR on May 4. To hear his excellent review in either Real Player or Windows Media Player format, and to find other links to the museum and the Byzantium exhibition, go to http://www.wfcr.org/wfcrnews.html and scroll down to the paragraph beginning with "The Metropolitan Museum of Art."
English
Professor Charles Moran has been named "Outstanding Technology Innovator of the Year," by the Committee on Computers in Composition and Communication of the National Council of Teachers of English. In addition, an annual award for service to this segment of the profession was established in his name by the National Council.
The Juniper Initiative has been awarded a planning grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts which will support the planning and development of the "Juniper Prize Readings Project." When implemented, this project will sponsor four readings annually for Juniper Prize winners as part of the Visiting Writers Series in Amherst and in other locations.
Afro-American Studies
Professor Steve Tracy has been invited to speak at the University of Nottingham in June at a conference on "Confluence and Influence in 20th Century African American Music, Visual Art and Literature."
Music and Dance
The University of Massachusetts Amherst Studio Jazz Orchestra has been selected as the Best Collegiate Studio Orchestra by the 2004 Downbeat Magazine Annual Student Music Awards Program, for the seventh time!
The ensemble was also invited to perform at the national convention of the Music Educators National Conference on April 17.
JAMES TATE ELECTED TO THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS
Professor and Poet James Tate, of the MFA in Creative Writing Program in the English Department, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, considered the most prestigious honor for a writer in the U.S. The full story is at: http://www.umass.edu/umhome/news/articles/2700.php
FIFTH ANNUAL PUBLISHING DAY SCHEDULED AT UMASS AMHERST
Faculty and advanced graduate students from the Five Colleges will attend a day of discussion of academic and trade publishing with professional representatives from the publishing world, on Tuesday May 18, in the Top of the Campus Center. Presenters will include David Lenson, Professor and Editor, Massachusetts Review, Carole DeSanti, Vice President, Editor at Large, Penguin Group, (USA), Michael Flamini, Executive Editor, St. Martin's Press, Wendy Strothman, The Strothman Agency, former Executive VP, Houghton Mifflin, Alan Sturmer, Acquisitions Editor, Edward Elgar Publishing, and Bruce Wilcox, Director, University of Massachusetts Press.
For information on Publishing Day, contact Bruce MacCombie, maccombie@hfa.umass.edu
ALUMNI AND DEVELOPMENT NEWS
The Dean's Seminar Series: Alumni in the World, brought two enthusiastic and successful entrepreneur graduates of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts to the Amherst Campus in April. On April 22, Mary Lou Andre, Journalism '86 held a luncheon workshop with graduating students, held a book signing and spoke to a public relations class. Read about our visit with Mary Lou at: http://www.umass.edu/hfa/illum/May04/Andre.html
On April 26, John Jacobs, Art/English '90, addressed a technical writing class in the morning, and spoke to art students in the afternoon. Our interview with John is at: http://www.umass.edu/hfa/illum/May04/Jacobs.html
The Robert and Pamela Jacobs Distinguished Lecture in Jewish Life and Culture for 2004, was presented by Naomi Chazan, past speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Professor of Political Science and African Studies at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and current Robert Wilhelm Fellow at the Center for International Studies at MIT. A report on Professor Chazan's lecture is at: http://www.umass.edu/hfa/illum/May04/Chazan.html
UPCOMING PERFORMANCES FROM MUSIC AND DANCE
The Music Department has announced Bestorfest Redux...the rescheduled concert of the works of Professor Emeritus Charles Bestor. Information at: http://www.umass.edu/hfa/illum/May04/music.html
LAST WORD
Once again, we encourage you to send your news and information to lneely@hfa.umass.edu for future issues of Illuminating Online. The next issue will be published in June.
