Faculty-Staff Achievements, Sept. 10, 2012

Miller wins Best in Show for painting with a local focus

Doretta Miller, professor of studio art, received Best in Show for her oil painting, "Past, Present, Future: The Spirit of Life, Congress Park," at the 2012 Trask Art Show and Sale June 28 at the Canfield Casino. The Spirit of Life and Spencer Trask Memorial Restoration Campaign Benefit was sponsored by Saratoga Springboard and the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation.  

Paquette recognized by Saratoga County EOC

Michelle Paquette, associate director for academic programs and residencies, Office of the Dean of Special Programs, was recognized in by the Saratoga County Economic Opportunity Council (EOC) at its late May Community Action Awards Breakfast. This event, a part of National Community Action Month, acknowledges community members who "change people's lives, embody the spirit of hope, improve communities, and make America a better place to live."

Paquette began working with the EOC's Latino Community Advocacy Program in 2005 as an English as a Second Language tutor for backstretch workers at Saratoga Race Course. She developed curricula, lessons, and materials, and established a life-changing relationship with workers and their families. Her ESL work dovetailed with her ongoing involvement in the Saratoga arts community, and she helped establish the Estamos Aqui (We Are Here) photography exhibit  for EOC.  This project involved giving cameras to backstretch workers and their children as a way to document their lives and experiences in the Saratoga area. Paquette was instrumental in bringing the Estamos Aqui exhibit to Skidmore in 2011.

This year she is co-chair of the planning committee for the fifth annual "Vision - A Look at Life Behind the Scenes," the opening reception for the Estamos Aqui exhibit and a major benefit for the Latino Community Advocacy Program. 

Shorb honored by national financial aid association

Robert D. Shorb, director emeritus of student aid and family finance, is the 2012-13 recipient of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) Eastern Regional Leadership Award. Individuals selected for this award exhibit high integrity and character that shows creative leadership. They inspire and encourage others to actively participate in professional development, and and support the goals and objectives of NASFAA. Six individuals are selected each year for the award, one from each of the six regional financial aid associations. The award will be presented to Shorb by Ron Day, NASFAA 2012-13 national chair, at the EASFAA 2013 Conference in Boston. 

Shorb's 20-year involvement in EASFAA has included serving on and chairing committees; holding four offices, including two years as treasurer and one year as president; and for the last nine years, serving as the association historian. During his 30-year involvement in NASFAA Shorb has served on nine committees, on the board of directors as a representative-at-large, regional representative and commission director.

Shorb is currently executive director/ and chief executive officer of the Tuition Exchange, Inc., a non-profit association serving more than 600 higher education institutions and 6,000 tuition scholarship recipients in excess of $140 million annually. Skidmore College is a member institution of the Exchange.

Activities

Lisa Aronson, associate professor of art history, lectured Sept. 5 at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, on the foremost Nigerian photographer Jonathan Adagogo Green (1873-1905), an important voice for Nigeria's early modernist art movement. Her research on Green was funded through a Getty Collaborative Research Grant.

Paul Arciero, professor of health and exercise sciences, competed with his brother John in the U.S. Tennis Association National 50 and Over Grass Court Tennis Championships at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia, Penn., in late August. This championship tournament brings together the best masters tennis players in the country. The Arciero brothers competed in the doubles draw and won the Bronze Ball. In the quarterfinals they defeated the No. 1 ranked team and current national champions, Mike Tammen and Craig Koessler, from Portland Ore., 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-2. 

Diana Barnes, visiting assistant professor of Spanish, was part of the women's eight that won a gold medal at the U.S. Rowing Masters National Championship Regatta in early August at Lake Quinsigamond, Worcester, Mass. The team is sponsored by the Saratoga Rowers Association.

Tillman Nechtman, associate professor of history, was spoke at the international conference about one of the world's most isolated places ? Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific Ocean. Nechtman was chosen to discuss "Joshua Hill, the Self-Instituted King of Pitcairn Island" because of his extensive knowledge of the fraudulent rule of this mysterious, possibly insane, self-proclaimed ruler who brought a reign of terror to the tiny isle.

He gave his talk at the second International Bounty-Pitcairn Conference, Aug. 19-21 on the campus of Pacific Union College in California's Napa Valley. The event, which drew speakers from several countries including Pitcairn Island, was held to spotlight the tiny Pacific isle as a now-emerging member of the world community and as a new tourist destination. 

Beginning in the 1930s, Pitcairn Island gained world-wide fame through scores of books and several Hollywood-type movies that told of it becoming the hide-out of mutinous sailors who in the late 1700s revolted against their captain William Bligh on the British ship HMS Bounty. The story is known throughout the world as the "Mutiny on the Bounty."

Nechtman is currently working on two new book projects, one on Joshua Hill, and the other on Britain's overseas territories, one of which is Pitcairn Island.

Publications, Exhibitions, Performances

Peter von Allmen, professor and chair, Department of Economics, is co-author (with John Solow, University of Iowa) of "The demand for aggressive behavior in American stock car racing" published in Sports Economics, Management, and Policy, Vol. 4, 2011.

Two members of the Skidmore community ? Bobby Carlton, technology sales and social program administrator, Skidmore Shop, and Megan Hyde, curatorial assistant, Tang Museum ? had work featured in 20TAKE30, a group photography project at the Spring Street Gallery this summer. Carlton spent time this summer taking photos of his family's summer activities as well as up close and personal images of himself; while Hyde took a photo of the first person (or people) she saw each day. The 20 participants in the exhibition took photos every day and the final exhibition was "a startlingly beautiful mosaic of stages, places, and points of view," according to the gallery's web site.

David Domozych, professor of biology,performed immunological research as part of a team that researched and reported on "The identification of cutin synthase: formation of the plant polyester cutin" which is the cover story of the current issue of Nature Chemical Biology (July 2012, Vol. 8, No. 7).

In addition, Domozych is the lead author for a mini-review article in the May 8, 2012, edition of Frontiers in Plant Science titled "The cell walls of green algae: a journey through evolution and diversity."

He also wrote an invited review titled "The quest for four-dimensional imaging in plant cell biology: it's just a matter of time," for a special issue of Annals of Botany on the topic of root biology, published in late May.

Corey Freeman-Gallant, associate dean of the faculty and professor of biology, is lead author on a paper published in  Biology Letters, "Oxidative damage to DNA related to survivorship and carotenoid-based sexual ornamentation in the common yellowthroat" (7: 364-367). Co-authors include four Skidmore alumni (Conor Taff, Brit Berdy, Stephanie Wein, and Joel Amidon) and Mark Haussmann of Bucknell University. Freeman-Gallant is also coauthor on two additional papers: "Multi-modal sexual selection in a warbler: plumage and song are related to different fitness components" ( Animal Behaviour, in press), and  "Female song in the common yellowthroat" ( Wilson Bulletin, in press). Taff is lead author on both manuscripts; co-authors include one current student (Kate Littrell) and four alumni (David Steinberger, Courtney Clark, Kara Belinsky, and Haley Sacks). A fourth paper, "Early life events carry over to influence pre-migratory condition in a free-living songbird," was recently published in PLoS One (6: e28838) with colleagues from Bowdoin College and University of Guelph. 

Gordon Thompson, professor of music, has added the following entries to his blog hosted by Oxford University Press. They include the following:

"The Beatles First Visit to EMI," part one and part two; "The Beatles at EMI: The Contract, 18 June 1962"; " 'I Hope They Don't Think We're a Rock 'n Roll Outfit': The Rolling Stones Debut, 12 July 1962"; and "A British ante-invasion: 'Telstar,' 17 August 1962."

In the news

Ian Berry, Malloy Curator, Tang Museum, was one of a number of members of the community featured Aug. 3 on WAMC-FM. The station's remote broadcast that morning focused on August in Saratoga. A number of representatives from area cultural attractions and businesses were interviewed.

Beth Post-Lundquist, director of financial aid, was interviewed June 30 by YNN (Time Warner Cable) when Congress approved a bill to keep the interest rate for subsidized Stafford student loans at 3.4 percent.

Jay Rogoff, lecturer, Department of English, was interviewed July 10 by Paul Elisha on WAMC-FM for the program titled "A Bard's Eye View." Rogoff discussed his book The Art of Gravity: Poems. On April 30, Rogoff was a guest on WAMC's "Roundtable" program, discussing the poet Walt Whitman at the end of National Poetry Month.

Jeff Segrave, David H. Porter Professor and professor of health and exercise science, wrote an op-ed essay titled "Jingoism triumphs at NBC," published Aug. 13 in the Albany Times Union.

Bob Turner, associate professor of government, was a source for the story "Many in area like new Obama deportation rule" published June 21 in The Daily Gazette.

More details on summer activities of Skidmore faculty and staff will be featured in the next issue of Scope Weekly. Please send items for inclusion in the column to Andrea Wise, Office of Communications.