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Sinha is featured commentator on 'The Abolitionists' on PBS

As the nation marks the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, historian Manisha Sinha of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies has been tapped for a three-part public television presentation titled “The Abolitionists,” being shown on successive Tuesdays beginning Jan. 8.
 
Part of the American Experience series, “The Abolitionists” will be presented from 9-10 p.m. on PBS stations nationwide.

Bryan appointed to new post of associate provost for personnel

John G. Bryan of the University of Cincinnati has been named to the newly created position of associate provost for personnel, according to Provost James V. Staros.
 
In a Dec. 13 e-mail to all faculty, Staros said the new post was created to consolidate major aspects of the jobs held by Associate Chancellor Susan Pearson, who has managed the contract with the Massachusetts Society of Professors, and Donna Marino, director of Academic Personnel. Pearson is retiring and Marino plans to retire next summer, he said.
 
Bryan, who has served as Cincinnati’s vice provost for academic personnel and

Obituary: William Pleppo, retired Physical Plant plumber/steamfitter

William Pleppo, 89, of Hadley, a retired plumber/steamfitter for Mechanical Maintenance at Physical Plant, died Dec. 19 at Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

Born in Amherst, he graduated from Smith Vocational High School. After school he entered into the U.S. Army and served in the Korean War.

He worked at Westinghouse in Springfield, and then at Physical Plant for 35 years until his retirement in 1986.
 
He leaves his wife Frances, daughter Karen Ann Pleppo and his sister.

The funeral will be Saturday, Dec. 22 at 9:30 a.m. at the Most Holy Redeemer Church in Hadley.

Rose chosen as Upward Bound program director

Alumnus Tyson Rose has been named program director for the campus’s revitalized Upward Bound initiative, according to Jean Kim, vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life.
 
In a Dec. 13 e-mail to faculty and staff, Kim said Upward Bound is a federally funded TRIO program that serves high school students from low-income families, and high school students from families in which neither parent holds a bachelor's degree.

Gerstel recognized as Spotlight Scholar

Distinguished Professor Naomi Gerstel of the Sociology Department, whose research has examined gender inequality, work, marriage, and how race and class shape caregiving and the extended family, has been recognized as a Spotlight Scholar.

Gerstel, who joined the faculty in 1978, has been cited in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post and The Chronicle of Higher Education, and on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Charlie Rose and Good Morning America.

Read more about Gerstel’s career and research

Macchia's opera to premiere at New Music Festival in NC

Insectaphobia, an opera by Salvatore Macchia, professor of contrabass and composition in the Department of Music and Dance, will premiere in March at the New Music Festival of the East Carolina University School of Music in Greenville, N.C.

Performances will take place March 24-26 with a morning performance for schoolchildren on March 27. Edward Jacobs, director of the New Music Festival and professor of composition at the school of music, received a B.A. in Music Composition in 1984 at UMass Amherst, where he studied composition with Macchia and saxophone with professor Lynn Klock.

Ben-Ur awarded study grant by Hadassah-Brandeis Institute

Associate professor Aviva Ben-Ur of the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies has been awarded a Senior Grant in History from the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute for her book project “Eurafrican Identity in a Jewish Society: Suriname, 1660-1863.”
 
Ben-Ur’s book project focuses on slave society in the former Dutch colony of Suriname in South America, where Jews of Iberian origin were among the earliest colonists.

O'Leary presents at conferences in Mass., Kazakhstan

Maureen O’Leary, adjunct assistant professor in Veterinary and Animal Sciences, discussed institutional animal care and use committee and institutional biosafety committee collaboration for animal model research at the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research Conference on Oct. 2 in Wellesley.

In September, O'Leary was an invited speaker at the Central Asian Biosafety Conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where she presented a talk on “Regulatory Harmonization to International Standards in Kazakhstan.”

Obituary: G. Richard Huguenin, founder of Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory, inventor and former trustee

G. Richard Huguenin, the founder and director of the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory (FCRAO) and former professor of Astronomy and a one-time member of the Board of Trustees, died Nov. 22 in Sedro-Woolley, Wash. He was 75.  
 
Born in East Stroudsburg, Pa., he received a B.S. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1959 and a Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University in 1963. He was elected to the Harvard Society of Fellows from 1960-63.
 
He taught at Harvard and directed Harvard’s space radio astronomy program from 1963-68. He came to Amherst in 1968 and

Obituary: William T. O'Neill, retired maintainer

William T. O'Neill, 84, of Chicopee, a retired maintainer I with the Grounds Department, died Dec. 8 at the Holyoke Soldiers Home.
 
Born in Holyoke, he was educated in the city’s schools.
 
He was a Marine Corps veteran of the Korean War.
 
He worked joined the campus staff in 1972 as a custodian and later worked as a motor truck driver, handyman/skilled laborer and a maintainer. He retired in 1994.
 
He leaves his wife, Tessie F.

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