Cay Anderson-Hanley, visiting assistant professor of psychology, was a co-author (with students Sarah Meshberg and Melissa Marsh, both Class of ’02) of a poster display titled “Benefits of choice-enhancing intervention for nursing home residents: Moderating effects of cognitive function and locus of control.” The poster was presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in March in Salt Lake City, and won the “Best Scientific Poster” award.

Bill Brown, associate professor emeritus of biology, discussed “Power Plant Defeated by Rattlesnake: Personal Perspectives of the Case” at the eighth annual Ramapo River Watershed Conference April 25 at Ramapo College, Mahwah, N.J.

Fred DiMauro, manager of planning and construction, recently participated at the mid-Atlantic Regional Conference of the Society for College and University Planning in Washington, D.C. He was a co-presenter (with Thomas Appelquist of Ewing Cole Cherry Brott Architects and José Alminana of Andropogon Associates Landscape Architects) of a session titled “Integrating Multiple Goals in a New Music Buildings.” They discussed Skidmore’s future music center and how to optimize facility use during the academic year; partnering with arts organizations to optimize use in non-traditional seasons; investing in new technologies; and innovations of sustainable design and major grant opportunities for energy savings. Although the building is on hold, the project has progressed through design development.

Roy Ginsberg, professor of government and Glaverbel Professor in European Politics, Catholic University of Louvain, was a Title VI-A grants reader for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of International Education in February. These grants fund international studies curricula at undergraduate colleges and universities in the U.S. Skidmore received two such grants in the 1990s.
     In March, Ginsberg gave a number of lectures on European Foreign Policy and the United States at the Institute for European Studies, Catholic University of Louvain, including the following: “European Union-United States Political Relations: History, Theory, Practice,” March 17; “The European Union and the United States During and After the Cold War,” March 18; “Defining/Evaluating European Foreign Policy and the United States,” March 19; “The European Neighborhood in EU-U.S. Political Relations,” March 21; “The Middle East in EU-U.S. Political Relations” and “Other Regions and Issues in International Affairs in EU-U.S. Political Relations,” both on March 24; and “EU-U.S. Political Relations Before and After Iraq,” March 25.
     On April 14, Ginsberg discussed “The United States and the European Union Before and After Iraq” at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Catherine Golden, professor of English, gave an invited lecture titled “We Gather Together: Women and Reading in the Victorian Parlor” April 13 at the Surry Williamson Inn for a program sponsored by the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation and titled “Life in the Victorian Parlor.”

Barbara Miller Heron, director of the Skidmore Shop and outgoing trustee-at-large on the board of the National Association of College Stores (NACS), was honored by the association during its March 10 annual business meeting. NACS is the professional trade association representing the nation's collegiate retail industry. As a trustee, Heron had a role in governance of the association's more than 3,000 members, guiding the organization toward its strategic plan. Her term as trustee ended at the annual meeting, which took place March 7-11 in St. Louis.

Masako Inamoto, lecturer in Japanese, presented the paper “On Japanese Adverbs Sekkaku and Wazawaza” at the 18th annual meeting of the Southeastern Association of Teachers of Japanese March 8 at Duke University.

Reinhard Mayer, visiting associate professor of German, has accepted an invitation to serve on the selection committee of Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) to review applications for research grants to Germany for humanities faculty and scientists. DAAD is the German equivalent of the Fulbright program. The committee met in April in New York City.

Margaret Pearson, associate professor of history, has had her paper, “Behind Social Structure: The Earliest Meanings of Yin and Yang,” accepted for presentation at the third International Convention of Asia Scholars, meeting Aug. 19-22 in Singapore. However, due to concerns about Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Pearson will not attend the event.

Lisa Pleban, teaching associate in exercise science and women’s basketball coach, accepted an invitation to appear before the New York State Legislative Women’s Caucus April 30 to speak in support of Title IX, the 30-year-old federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education. The invitation came following a state Assembly call for strong enforcement of Title IX policies. Recent recommendations by the Secretary of Education’s Commission on Opportunity in Athletics could have a deleterious effect on Title IX. Pleban spoke to the press about the need for Title IX protection in collegiate sport.

Jay Rogoff, lecturer in English and liberal studies, was in residence at Yaddo, the artists’ colony, from mid-January to mid-March, where he worked on new poems and also served as special assistant to Yaddo’s president.
     In addition, he gave readings of his poetry Feb. 6 at Skidmore and March 9 at Temple Sinai.

Linda Simon, professor of English, gave a paper titled “Vital Science” as part of a talk on William James April 16 for the Philosophical Club of the First Unitarian Society of Schenectady. The club meets weekly, and has been in existence for 20 years, consisting mostly of retired professionals from the area.

Shirley Smith, associate professor of Italian, Richard Bonanno (a former adjunct professor at Skidmore) and Alison Coladarci ’03 presented papers and videos at the American Association of Italian Studies meeting March 14 at Georgetown University. Their topic was “Video-Making and Literature: A Constructivist Model.”

Publications, Exhibitions, and Performances

Yacub Addy, lecturer in music, and his Ghanaian performing group Odadaa! performed with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra at the Miller Theater at Columbia University in New York City on May 2 and 3.
     Titled “African Jazz,” the event featured musical collaborations by Marsalis and Addy.
In February Addy and Marsalis met in this area, prior to a Marsalis family concert at Proctor’s. Marsalis returned to the Capital District in late April for rehearsals with Odadaa! at Hudson Valley Community College, the troupe’s Troy residence.
     “African Jazz” was part of “A Symposium on the Drums in Jazz” sponsored by
Jazz at Lincoln Center as part of the Year of the Drum celebration.

Regis Brodie, professor of art, has works featured through May 31 in the Small Gallery at Gallery 100, 445 Broadway, Saratoga Springs.

Jennifer Delton, assistant professor of history, is the author of an article, “Before the White Negro: Sin and Salvation in Sinclair Lewis’s Kingsblood Royal,” in the current issue of American Literary History, Vol. 15, No. 2, Summer 2003.

Victor Cahn, professor of English, is participating in a staged reading of “84 Charing Cross Road” through May 18 at Steamer No. 10 Theater in Albany. James Roose-Evans adapted Helene Hanff’s book detailing her decades-long corresponding friendship with an English bookseller she never met.

Ruth Andrea Levinson, associate professor of education, and Gerry Erchak, professor of anthropology, have had an article, “The Impact of Cultural Context on Brazilian Adolescent Sexual Practices” accepted for publication in the journal Adolescence. The article was co-written with their late Brazilian colleague, Clesia Sadigursky, M.D., of the Universidade Federal de Bahia.

Margo Mensing, assistant professor of art, and John McQueen (a previous Rosanne Brody Raab lecturer at Skidmore) exhibited individual works and one collaboration in “Conscriptions” on view during April at Mobilia Gallery, 348 Huron St., Cambridge, Mass.
     Mensing and McQueen frequently collaborate; this is their second installation at the Cambridge gallery. (The first, “Comestibles,” was exhibited in 2001.) “Conscriptions” revolved around the idea of being captive, whether in the sense of individuals who are the captives of their imagination, or in the socio-political sense of, for example, agriculture as the hostage or captive of business interests. The artists created works notable for the inventive and provocative use of familiar materials, from McQueen’s sculptures and “drawings” made of sticks tied together with string or grocery bag ties, to Mensing’s “dot drawings” in which the “dots” are actually circles punched out of security envelopes or the stickers commonly found on fresh produce at the market.
     The collaborative work, “Bounty/Wallpaper,” is 22 feet long and more than 10 feet high. Mensing created the images by hand and digitally. The wallpaper was printed on the College’s Media Services HP 54-inch printer. Steve Dinyer oversaw production of the piece, which was the longest run to date on that printer. McQueen then inserted 56 stick crop duster airplanes, one in each blue square.
     A catalogue of the exhibition accompanied the exhibition. Mensing received a Skidmore faculty development grant to support her work for the exhibition.

Rajagopal Parthasarathy, associate professor of English, has seven poems (“Aubade,” “The Traveler,” “Who Needs the Gods?” “The Seal,” “A Word of Advice,” translated from the Sanskrit; “Song of a Former Courtesan,” translated from the Pali Therigatha [Songs of the Elder Nuns, 6th century BCE], possibly the earliest anthology of women’s religious verse; and “When Will You Come, Beloved?” translated from the Hindi Padavali [Songbook, 16th century] of Mira, a celebrated religious poet) to appear in the Spring 2003 issue of Modern Poetry in Translation (London).
     A section of his February 2003 Edwin M. Moseley Faculty Research Lecture, titled “Translating India: Making Tamil and Sanskrit Poems Speak in English,” has been accepted for publication in the American Literary Translators Association’s Translation Review (Richardson, Texas).
     Parthasarathy has an entry on his work forthcoming in The Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, second edition (Routledge, London & New York, 2004).

Lisa Pleban, teaching associate in exercise science, is co-author (with L. Wiersma) of “Speedball: The Oldest New Game Around,” published in the Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, Vol. 74, No. 3.

Jay Rogoff, lecturer in English and liberal studies, has had his second full-length book of poetry, How We Came to Stand on That Shore, published this spring by River City Publishing, Montgomery, Ala., as part of the press’s River City Poetry Series. In connection with the book’s publication, Rogoff has had several book signings, including events at the Skidmore Shop and at Barnes and Noble.
     In addition, he was a participant in “Page Turners: A Literary Soiree,” a fundraiser hosted April 6 at the Surrey Williamson Inn by the Saratoga County Chapter of Literary Volunteers of America.

Patricia Rubio, professor of Spanish, has an article titled “Los discursos de la memoria en la prosa de Marjorie Agosín” reprinted in Memorial de una escritura: aproximaciones a la obra de Majorie Agosín, edited by Emma Sepúlveda (Santiago: Cuarto Propio, 2002).

Linda Simon, professor of English, has had an essay, “Diagnosing the Physician: Patients’ evaluation of 19-th century medical therapeutics” accepted for publication in Alizes/Trade Winds, the journal of the Université de la Réunion (France). This essay is longer version of a paper she read at the International Henry James Conference last July in Paris.

Sheldon Solomon, professor of psychology, was a technical consultant and is featured prominently in the new documentary film Flight from Death, which won the Audience Choice Award for best documentary last weekend at the 2003 Beverly Hills Film Festival. The festival received more than 2,000 submissions this year from which 27 films were selected to be screened. Flight from Death will next compete in the 2003 Dubrovnik International Film Festival May 29-June 1 in Croatia.