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Faculty and Staff Activities

Timothy Davis

Timothy Davis, Physical Education Department, was quoted in a story titled “H is for Hopscotch” about teachers who use organized play to prepare students, published Oct. 27 in The Highlands Current.

Theresa Curtis

Theresa Curtis, Biological Sciences Department, and Eric Plante ’15, are coauthors on the manuscript “Microencapsulated equine mesenchymal stromal cells promote cutaneous wound healing in vitro” that recently was published in Stem Cell Research & Therapy. The results demonstrate that stem cells might be a promising new therapy for impaired skin wounds, and encapsulation of the stem cells is a suitable way to deliver a continuous supply of the healing factors to the wound. This research was performed in collaboration with researchers from the Baker Institute for Animal Health, College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University.

Teagan Bradway

Teagan Bradway, English Department, gave an invited talk at the University of Pennsylvania on March 21. Bradway’s talk was titled “Renarratable Bonds: Queer Relationality in the Scene of Redress” and is drawn from her forthcoming article in differences: a journal of Feminist Cultural Studies. 

Thomas Hischak and Mark A. Robinson ’98

Thomas Hischak, emeritus professor of theatre, and theatre major Mark A. Robinson ’98, have co-written a book about musicals since 1989 that misfired on Broadway. The e-book, Musical Misfires: Three Decades of Broadway Musical Heartbreak, examines 151 musicals that did not run long enough to be considered hits. Such shows were once called flops but that, the authors argue, is no longer an appropriate description. The book cover is designed by graphics design major Karen Hischak ’12.

“Some of these were superb pieces of musical theatre that, for one reason or another, couldn’t find an audience, did not please the critics, couldn’t pay the high weekly bills, or just were not right for the time and place in which they opened,” Robinson said.

Oft-overlooked gems like “The Scottsboro Boys,” “Grey Gardens,” “Sweet Smell of Success,” “Xanadu,” “If/Then,” “Caroline, or Change,” “Bright Star,” “Steel Pier,” “The Last Ship” and “Tuck Everlasting” are explored alongside such famous musicals as “American Idiot,” “Victor/Victoria,” “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” “Sister Act,” “All Shook Up,” “Be More Chill,”  “Shrek the Musical,” “Seussical” and “Young Frankenstein” that never reached hit status on Broadway.

“This is a book for anyone who loves musical theatre, both its triumphs and its heartbreaks,” said Hischak.

Juke box musicals, cutting-edge musicals, movie adaptations, teenage musicals, biographical musicals, history musicals and even horror musicals are among the many genres included in this journey through Broadway shows from 1989 to 2020 in search of success.

Robinson is the author of such books as the two-volume reference series The World of Musicals and Sitcommentary: Television Comedies that Changed America, as well as a regular writer for various theatre websites and records companies.

Thomas Hischak is the author of The Oxford Companion to the American Musical and more than 30 other books on theatre, film and popular music.

Together, Robinson and Hischak penned the popular The Disney Song Encyclopedia in 2009.

Karen Hischak is a graphic designer for Hampton Golf Corporation and a freelance designer of print and online graphics.

Illustrated with 42 photographs and filled with backstage stories, reviews from the press, and commentary on why the musicals were not hits, Musical Misfires: Three Decades of Broadway Musical Heartbreak is available on all sites in which e-books are sold.

Mark Dodds

Mark Dodds, Sport Management Department, made two presentations at the Sport Marketing Association Conference held Nov. 2-4 in Indianapolis, Ind. Also, he co-presented “Corruption’s impact on sport marketing: The case of EA Sports and Ticketmaster’s powerplay against Stubhub.”  

Ray Cotrufo and Justin Lovich

Ray Cotrufo and Justin Lovich, Sport Management Department, each successfully defended their dissertations and earned their Ph.Ds. Cotrufo’s topic was “Examining the Influence of Ethical and Authentic Leadership Behaviors of NCAA Division I Athletic Directors.” Lovich’s dissertation was titled, “‘Unprecedented’: A Study of the National Football League’s Regulation of Labor through Punishment.”

Rhiannon Maton

Rhiannon Maton, Foundations and Social Advocacy Department, recently co-edited a special issue on education labor movements across the Americas for Critical Education journal. The issue is the fourth part of the “Contemporary Educator Movements: Transforming Unions, Schools and Society” special series that Maton co-edits for the same journal.

Robert Darling

Robert Darling, Geology Department, presented “Breccia-filled Fractures on Western Adirondack Summits: Relicts of an Ordovician Paleosurface?” at the combined Northeast/Northcentral regional meeting of the Geological Society of America. It was held March 20-22 in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Robert Ponterio

Robert Ponterio, Modern Languages Department, along with professor emeritus of Spanish Jean LeLoup, US Air Force Academy, and Mark Warford, Buffalo State College, presented a two-hour workshop/symposium at the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) Seventh International Conference on Language Teacher Education. They presented “Code-Switching, Cognitions and Communities: Promoting more teacher use of L2,” and specifically addressed implications for teacher training, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ (ACTFL)/National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) standards and implementation at the department level, as well as providing concrete examples of lessons representing strategies for achieving this goal in the high school and college classroom. The symposium, held May 20 in Minneapolis, Minn., presented the research base supporting 90-100 percent of target language use in language classes at all levels as recommended in ACTFL’s position paper.

Terrence Fitzgerald

Terrence Fitzgerald, Biological Sciences Department, and former students Michael Smith ’11 and Steven Miller ’08, co-authored a paper appearing in the current issue of the Journal of Thermal Biology. “Thermal properties of the tent of early instar colonies of the eastern tent caterpillar, Malacosoma americanum (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae)” is based on a study, conducted over a period of seven years, which shows that on spring mornings the silk tent that the caterpillars construct acts like a miniature green house allowing the caterpillars resting inside to raise their body temperatures far enough above the cold outside temperature to enable digestive processes and growth. Internal tent temperatures as great as 40 degrees Celsius in excess of outside air temperatures were recorded under field conditions in mid-May.