Acta

Highlights of faculty and staff activities

Last fall Sandy Baum, economics, went to London to consult with the offices of the prime minister and chancellor of the exchequer regarding university tuitions and student aid.

John Brueggemann, sociology, is a new associate dean of the faculty, focusing on faculty development.

A new play by Victor Cahn, English, ran this winter at Urban Stages Theater in New York City. Roses in December starred Tony-winner James Naughton and daughter Keira Naughton ’93. Also this winter, Cahn’s Fit to Kill was premiered at Curtain Call Theater in Latham, N.Y.

Janet Galligani Casey, English, won a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to work on Fertile Grounds: Women, Modernism, Rural America, a study of women and agrarianism in the United States from 1920 to 1940.

John Crooks, post office, has retired after thirty-five years at Skidmore. Well remembered by generations of students as the clerk who weighed their mail and handled their packages, Crooks says, “I miss the people, but not the paperwork.” He’s devoting his time now to his service in the Knights of Columbus, for which he’s organizing an assistance program for widows and widowers.

Ross Professor Terence Diggory, English, presented a paper titled “‘Peacefully Hammering’: Williams’s Urban Pastoral” at a session about William Carlos Williams at the Modern Language Association’s annual convention in New York City.

Jordana Dym, history, won a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to support her work on They Also Mapped: The Cartography of Western Travel Writers, 1750-1950, an analysis of the relationship between travelers and maps over 200 years.

Hédi Jaouad, French, is the new editor and Marc-André Wiesmann, French, and Charlene Grant, Spanish, are the new associate editors of Revue CELAAN Review, the journal of the Center for the Study of the Literatures and Arts of North Africa. The center was founded by one of Jaouad’s former professors at Temple University.

Reginald Lilly, philosophy, is the author of “Foucault and the Disappearance of the Visible Subject” in the recently published collection Panorama: Philosophies of the Visible, published by Continuum Press.

President Emeritus David Porter, classics, and John Anzalone, French, have published “Clouds in the Sky: The Sports et Divertissements of Erik Satie and Charles Martin,” in Bulletin de Bibliophile, 2001, no. 2. In 2002 Porter also published “Cather on Cather: Two Early Self-Sketches” in Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial Review 14; “Playing the Game: Horace, Epistles 1” in Classical World 96; and a monograph titled Virginia Woolf and Logan Pearsall Smith: “An Exquisitely Flattering Dance,” published by Cecil Woolf, London (for the Bloomsbury Heritage Series).

Jeffrey Segrave, exercise science, presented a paper on “The Modern Olympic Games and Ritual Invention” at the American Historical Association’s annual meeting.

Linda Simon, English, is the author of “William James: The European Connection,” forthcoming in William James in Russian Culture, from Lexington Books.

In February Jamienne S. Studley, president, testified before a joint hearing of the New York State Senate and Assembly. As chair of the legislative committee for the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, Studley expressed concern about possible cutbacks in state-funded student aid programs.

Adrienne Zuerner, French, is the new director of the women’s studies program, and Mary Beth O’Brien, German, is the new director of international affairs. New department chairs are Michael Arnush, classics; Gregory Pfitzer, American studies; Patricia Rubio, foreign languages and literatures; and Susan Walzer, sociology, anthropology, and social work.