Hampshire College Faculty News: Fall 2017

Susana Loza

Associate Professor of Critical Race, Gender, and Media Studies Susana Loza recently contributed “Remixing the Imperial Past: Doctor Who, British Slavery and the White Savior’s Burden” in Doctor Who and History: Critical Essays on Imagining the Past. The book comprises a collection of essays examining how the time-traveling character Doctor Who’s engagement with history relates to Britain’s colonial past, nostalgia for village life, Norse myths, alternate history, and the impact of historical decisions on the present.

Aaron Berman

Professor Aaron Berman presented on the Arab American intellectuals Ameen Rihani and Abraham Rihbany at the Middle Eastern Studies Association Conference, in Washington, D.C., November 18–21. Rihani and Rihbany, contemporaries in early 1900s America, were among the public thinkers who helped to forge the Arab American political identity of the time. Berman’s talk was the result of research with the Ameen Rihani papers at the Library of Congress, the Philip Hitti Collection at the University of Minnesota, and a small collection on Rihbany at Harvard Divinity School, as well as the extensive published works of both men. 

Christoph Cox, Daniel Warner

An expanded edition of Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music, coedited by Philosophy Professor Christoph Cox and Music Professor Dan Warner, was published in August. Audio Culture maps the aural and discursive terrain of vanguard music today. Rather than outlining a history of contemporary music, it traces the genealogy of current musical practices and theoretical concerns via writings by philosophers, cultural theorists, and composers.

Warner also recently published Live Wires: A History of Electronic Music, a book exploring how the five key electronic technologies — the tape recorder, circuit, computer, microphone, and turntable — revolutionized musical thought and paved the way for innovative compositions. The book was recently reviewed in the MIT journal Leonardo.

Andrea Dezsö

Professor of Art Andrea Dezsö was recently nominated for the 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world’s largest for children’s and young-adult literature. Other nominees are Ursula Le Guin, Maira Kalman, Eric Carle, Judy Blume, István Bányai, and other writers, illustrators, reading promoters, and storytellers. Administered by the Swedish Arts Council, the final award is presented annually to one or several laureates in the spring.

Bob Meagher

Professor of Humanities Bob Meagher recently organized a Christian–Muslim dialogue in greater Hartford for Common Ground Services, a Muslim nonprofit committed to opposing Islamophobia with conversation and fellowship. Meagher serves on the organization’s board. 

Meagher also participated in a panel at the National Humanities Conference, in Boston, November 2–5, presenting on his years of work with veterans and the humanities.

Ethan Meyers

Professor of Statistics Ethan Meyers recently published an article in the journal Cerebral Cortex.

James Miller

James Miller, professor of communications, recently presented his paper “Media, Mobile and Immobile: Some Implications of Portable and Fixed Media” at the International Association for the History of Transport, Traffic, and Mobility (T2M) annual meeting, held November 2–5 at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. 

Miller also wrote the chapter titled “Mediatization of the Automobile” in Dynamics of Mediatization: Institutional Change and Everyday Transformations in a Digital Age (publishing date: December 6).

Abraham Ravett

Professor Ravett screened his film Holding Hands with Ilse on October 9 at the Copernicus Center (Chicago) and at the Putnam Theater at Keene State College (New Hampshire) on November 2. On October 11, he screened several of his 16 mm films at Milwaukee’s Microlights Cinema.

Loretta Ross

Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies Loretta Ross coedited Radical Reproductive Justice, a recently released collection of essays that features writing by Hampshire Professor Marlene Gerber Fried and Hampshire grad Rachael Strickler. The anthology is rooted in Black feminism and built on intersecting identities, asserting a woman’s right to have children, to not have children, and to parent and provide for the children they have. 

Laela Sayigh

The Boston Globe recently wrote about Visiting Professor of Animal Behavior Laela Sayigh’s work as lead researcher on a team seeking to curb dolphin mass-stranding events by understanding their language.

Sayigh published an article on dolphin-communication recognition, “What’s In a Voice? Dolphins Do Not Use Voice Cues for Individual Recognition,” in the journal Animal Cognition and cowrote a chapter on cetacean communication for the book Deep Thinkers, a collection of works about porpoises, dolphins, and whales. 

Robin Sears

Visiting Professor of Forestry Robin Sears was part of a research team that contributed to the article “Forest Ecosystem Services and the Pillars of Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness” in the CIFOR Occasional Paper. 

Seeta Sistla

Professor of Ecosystem Ecology Seeta Sistla coauthored a paper, “Coastal Livelihood Transitions under Globalization with Implications for Trans-ecosystem Interactions,” in the PLOS One journal. 

Mei Ann Teo

Professor of Theatre Mei Ann Teo directed the play Fulfillment, by Jeremy Tiang, on October 20 at the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre.  The play was written up on the Broadway World website.

Chris Tinson

Chris Tinson, professor of African American studies and history, released the book Radical Intellect: Liberator Magazine and Black Activism in the 1960s. In it, he examines the magazine Liberator and its role in the rise of 1960s black radicalism in the first full-length history of the organization that produced it.