Faculty and Staff Activities

Celeste McNamara

Celeste McNamara, History Department, participated in a workshop on May 3 titled “Confession, Truth, and Power: A Conversation,” sponsored by Syracuse University’s Department of History, Humanities Center, and Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program. She presented a paper titled “Confession and Scandal in the Catholic Church.”

George McDermott

George McDermott, geography emeritus, will give a presentation at a special event honoring women during World War II being held Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Henderson County (N.C.) Heritage Museum. McDermott, who resides in Brevard, N.C., is a World War II veteran and the author of Women Recall the War Years: Memories of World War II, a collection of mini-memoirs of 27 American and nine European women describing their experiences during the war. The diversity of their roles, the hardships they endured and the contributions they made are amazing and a tribute to their resolve and ability. The locale of their stories ranges over six continents. None of the women are well known or famous, just young women who performed extraordinary tasks during extraordinary times.

Donna K. Anderson

Donna K. Anderson, performing arts (music), spoke about American composer Charles T. Griffes in London's Wigmore Hall on June 25. The talk preceded an all-Griffes concert, the first in England that Anderson helped to organize and for which she also provided publicity materials and extensive program notes. Of the latter, critic Peter Grahame Woolf wrote, "A pre-concert talk had been given by Donna Anderson, whose photos and extensive notes made the programme one of the best seen at Wigmore Hall." Anderson just returned from the Czech Republic where, on Oct. 12, she delivered the inaugural address, "A Brief Introduction to the Rise of Choral Music in the American Colonies During the 17th and 18th Centuries," at a three-day choral symposium, "Cantus Choralis 09," held Oct. 12-14 at Jan Evangelista Purkyne University in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic. The event, held every two years, featured presentations by scholars from the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and the United States, as well as concerts by Czech and Slovak choirs.

Mary Lynch Kennedy

Mary Lynch Kennedy, English, and Hadley M. Smith, Ithaca College, have published an expanded fourth edition of Reading and Writing in the Academic Community, Prentice Hall, 2010. The book is a comprehensive rhetoric covering critical reading and the major genres of academic writing that students encounter as undergraduates. Also, Kennedy was invited to give a two-hour workshop, "Exploring Memories in Writing," at the 59th Annual Conference of the New York State English Council held Oct. 22 in Albany N.Y. Kennedy and Ross Borden, English, gave a presentation Sept. 16 on Marjane Satrapi's graphic memoir, Persepolis, to the Ladies Literary Club of Cortland. This year the Literary Club is celebrating its 130th anniversary.

Jerome O'Callaghan

Jerome O'Callaghan, arts and sciences, has been selected as a member of the Irish Voice's "2009 Irish Education 100." The list, in this inaugural edition, is designed to recognize Irish and Irish-Americans who have made significant contributions to the field of education in the United States.

Gretchen Herrmann

Gretchen Herrmann, library, participated in a book reading at Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca, N.Y., on Oct. 23. She read from an article she had published titled "His and Hers: Gender and Garage Sales," which was included in the recently released edited collection Doing Gender Diversity: Readings in Theory and Real-World Experience, (Westview Press) edited by Lis Maurer, LGBT Education, Outreach and Services Program Director, and Rebecca Plante, associate professor of sociology at Ithaca College. The book focuses on both hegemonic and transgressive gender development, roles, identities and practices and demonstrates the multiple ways in which the universe of gender is socially, culturally and historically constructed. Herrmann's article focuses on the gendered patterns of belief and behavior that constitute "doing gender" in the social microcosm of the U.S. garage sale.

Robert Spitzer

Robert Spitzer, political science, will participate in the live broadcast of the 300th episode of the long-running television program broadcast on WCNY-TV, Syracuse, "The Ivory Tower Half Hour," on Friday, Nov. 13. First aired in September of 2002, the "Ivory Tower" has become the highest rated locally produced television program in Central New York aside from local nightly news. Spitzer is one of four original participants still with the program. The live broadcast will expand from its usual half hour format to include not only its customary analysis of public affairs and its "A's" and "F's" segment, but also questions from a studio audience invited to participate in the event.

Brett Troyan

Brett Troyan, history, organized and hosted the New York Latin American History Workshop at SUNY Cortland, which took place on Oct. 16.

Bob Ponterio and Jean LeLoup

Bob Ponterio, international communications and culture, and Jean LeLoup, international communications and culture emerita, are the authors of an article appearing in the Oct. 2009 volume of The Language Educator, a publication of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. The article, "FLTeach Marks 15 Years as Foreign Language Forum," describes the FLTeach project, a discussion forum for teachers of all languages at all levels of instruction that was begun by LeLoup and Ponterio in February 1994 and now has more than 5,000 subscribers in all 50 states and 73 foreign countries.  

Ubaldo Valli

Ubaldo Valli, Performing Arts Department, has been selected as a prize winner in The American Prize National Nonprofit Competition in the Performing Arts. Valli shared third prize in the Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award in Orchestral Programming, College/University Division category. The American Prize is “the nation’s most comprehensive series of contests in the classical arts” and is “designed to evaluate, recognize and reward the best performers, ensembles, composers and administrators in the United States.”