A Monthly Newsletter Reporting the Professional Activities of the Allegheny Community
Assistant Professor of English Kerry Bakken's book, Necessary Lies, has won the USABooks Best Books 2006 National Book Award for Short Fiction.
Assistant Professor of Communication Arts Mark Cosdon published “‘Serving the Purpose Amply': The Hanlon Brothers' Le Voyage en Suisse” in the Journal of American Drama and Theatre. This past May at the International Colloquium “Le jeu du hors-texte: transparence et opacité de la pantomime” in Toulouse, France, Cosdon presented a paper titled “Les frères Hanlon le Voyage en Suisse: Protéger le théâtral, garder la représentation.” He chaired the panel “Empire vs. Nation in American Theatre History” at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education's August 2006 conference in Chicago. In 2007 and 2008, Cosdon will serve as conference planner for the American Theatre and Drama Society. Cosdon's production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town will be presented in the Playshop Theatre November 9–12.
Professor of Music Lowell Hepler was the piano soloist playing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the Ringold Band, the third oldest professional band in the country, in October. The principal tubist with the Erie Philharmonic, a post he has held for twenty-five years, he is serving on the Philharmonic's Search Committee for their new music director. Hepler has also been invited to serve as an adjudicator for the Festivals at Sea program, which involves adjudicating school bands and orchestras aboard cruise ships. This is at the invitation of Commander Allen Beck, retired conductor of the United States Navy Band.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Communication Arts David Jortner has co-edited, with Kevin Wetmore and Keiko McDonald, the book Modern Japanese Theatre and Performance, recently released by Lexington Press. Jortner's essay “Remembered Idylls, Forgotten Truths: Nostalgia and Geography in the Drama of Shimizu Kunio” appears in the forthcoming volume Inexorable Modernity: Japan's Grappling with Modernity and the Arts, also from Lexington Press (to be released in February 2007). In addition, he presented several papers at both the Association for Theatre in Higher Education conference and the Association for Asian Performance conference this past summer.
Professor of Religious Studies Carl Olson has published the following articles: “Politics, Power, Discourse and Representation: A Critical Look at Said and Some of His Children,” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 17/4 (2005): 317-336; “Transcendental Meditation,” in Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed., edited by Lindsay Jones (New York: Macmillan Reference, 2005), Vol. 14: 9289-9292; and “Contested Categories and Issues in Interpretation,” in Religions of South Asia: An Introduction, edited by Sushil Milltal and Gene Thursby (London: Routledge, 2006), pp. 263-286.
Professor of Environmental Science Eric Pallant's letter “Cooperating over Water Issues in the Middle East” was published in the Oct. 13, 2006 issue of Science.
Robert Raczka, Professor of Art and Gallery Director, recently completed an artist's residency at Oklahoma State University, where he organized collaborative projects with students, presented an artist's lecture, and oversaw the installation of a one-person exhibit of his work, from which the university purchased an artwork for their permanent collection. His artwork has also recently been included in: A State of Independence: From the Walls to the Boards, Community Gallery at the Philadelphia Foundation; Articulating Spaces, University Art Gallery, Clarion University of Pennsylvania; Summer Idylls, Gallery 339, Philadelphia; Ten-Year Anniversary Exhibit, Artists Image Resource, Pittsburgh; and Outside the Centers, On the Edge, an exhibit that is traveling to a number of galleries and is on exhibit through Nov. 26 at the Erie Art Museum.
People & Places, published monthly during the academic year by the Office of Public Affairs, reports on the professional activities of members of the College community and highlights student achievements. Please submit items to people@allegheny.edu. We reserve the right to edit copy for length.
