Faculty News

Jaafar Aksikas (HHSS)

Jaafar Aksikas (HHSS) led a seminar called “Doing Cultural Studies: A Seminar on Cultural Studies Methods and Methodologies.”

Dr. Aksikas also presented a paper on “Globalization and the Politics of Collectivity” at the “All Together Now: The Future(s) of Collectivity 2010” Cultural Studies Association Conference, which was hosted at the University of California, Berkeley, in March.

Stephen Asma (HHSS)

Stephen Asma (HHSS) received a glowing review of his recent book, Why I Am a Buddhist: No-Nonsense Buddhism with Red Meat and Whiskey, in the April 15, 2010 issue of the Chicago Reader.

The Reader said Dr. Asma “tackles a complex subject in a straightforward, earthy way that makes it accessible—even, at times, amusing.” In October of 2009, Dr. Asma released On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears, published by Oxford University Press. He’s currently working on his seventh book—a text for professional philosophers that poses questions about ethics, fairness, and social justice.

Jesus Macarena-Avila, RoseAnna Mueller, and Nancy Van Kanegan (HHSS)

Jesus Macarena-Avila, RoseAnna Mueller, and Nancy Van Kanegan (HHSS) gave a presentation in October as part of the Intersections series.

Titled “La Llorona: The Weeping Woman,” the presentation examined the folk figure of La Llorona in Mexican culture. After the presentation, the Abilene Reporter News interviewed Dr. Mueller for a story on the subject.



Anne L. Becker (Education)

Anne L. Becker (Education) presented at the National Art Education Association Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. The conference was held in April, and her presentation focused on technology in teaching, leadership skills, and networking.



Lisa Brock (HHSS)

Lisa Brock (HHSS) presented “Not Yo’ Mama’s Travel Course: Genius, Contradiction, and the Future of History in South Africa” at the Department of Humanities, History, and Social Sciences’ Intersections lecture series at the Chicago Cultural Center. 

Peter Cook (ASL)

Peter Cook (ASL) gave a presentation at Columbia titled “The Third Person in a Deaf Walk: The Implication of Deaf Space in Visual Arts.” His presentation focused on how space can function as an intimate visual element and how it emerges as a visual, cultural, and linguistic contextual signal that creates a collective experience for the eyes of viewers.

Jim DeRogatis (English)

Jim DeRogatis’ (English) newest book, The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones: Sound Opinions on the Great Rock ’n’ Roll Rivalry, will be released this fall. DeRogatis co-wrote the book with Gret Kot, with whom he co-hosts WBEZ’s “Sound Opinions.” 

Zack Furness

Zack Furness (HHSS) published a book, through Temple University Press, called One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility. Dr. Furness examines what it means to be a bicycle transportation advocate and activist. He also presents an underground subculture of bike enthusiasts who aggressively resist the culture of cars and maps out the cultural trajectories between mobility, technology, urban space, and everyday life.

Arielle Greenberg-Bywater (English)

Arielle Greenberg-Bywater (English) co-edited two books, both of which came out in April: Gurlesque: The New Grrly, Grotesque, Burlesque Poetics, published through Saturnalia Books, and Starting Today: 100 Poems for Obama’s First 100 Days, published through University of Iowa Press. 

Renee Hansen (English)

Renee Hansen (English) was the 2010 First-Place winner of the art and literature journal New South’s Prose Award. The award-winning poem earned Hansen a $1,000 prize and was published in the journal’s summer 2010 issue. Hansen also had an essay mentioned in a review of New Madrid’s special issue on poverty and wealth. New Madrid is the national journal of the low-residency MFA program at Murray State University.

Ames Hawkins and Danielle Aquiline (English)

Ames Hawkins and Danielle Aquiline (English) started writing food columns for the Windy City Times, an LGBT, Chicago-based weekly publication. Every ten weeks, the two collaborate on their column, “Amuse Bouche,” and they also write individual articles centered around specific themes related to food.



Deborah H. Holdstein (School of Liberal Arts and Sciences)

Deborah H. Holdstein (School of Liberal Arts and Sciences) is a participant in the Scientific Committee for the global Littéracies Universitaires conference, taking place in Lille, France, this upcoming September. Dean Holdstein also was selected to join a small group of academic administrators and faculty members from several countries to discuss and create the protocols and judge several hundred proposals for the conference, and is a respondent to several panels at the September conference. Dean Holdstein also delivered a keynote address at an international conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, in August.

Allan Johnston (English)

Allan Johnston’s (English) poetry collection Northport was published by Finishing Line Press in January. 

Garnett Kilberg-Cohen (English)

Garnett Kilberg-Cohen (English) published essays in Briar Cliff Review and Glossolalia. Other recent and forthcoming publications include stories or poems in the Michigan Quarterly Review, Natural Bridge, and the Connecticut Review. Cohen also released her critically acclaimed book of linked short stories called How We Move the Air. Mayapple Press published the book last July.

Robert C. Lagueux (First-Year Seminar) and Neil Pagano (School of Liberal Arts and Sciences)

Robert C. Lagueux (First-Year Seminar) and Neil Pagano (School of Liberal Arts and Sciences) presented “Assessing Liberal-Learning Outcomes through Multi-Modal Student Projects” at the General Education and Assessment meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. The meeting was held in Seattle, Washington, in February.

Jim Van Manen (ASL)

Jim Van Manen (ASL) gave a presentation at Columbia in April titled “Flying Fingers, Invisible Allophones, and Other Monsters That Give Us Nightmares: What We Are Learning about Fingerspelling.”

Jesus Macarena-Avila, RoseAnna Mueller, and Nancy Van Kanegan (HHSS)

RoseAnna Mueller (HHSS) reviewed the book Contemporary Spanish American Novels by Women: Mapping the Narrative, by Susan E. Carvalho, for the journal Letras Femininas.

Dominic Pacyga (HHSS)

Dominic Pacyga (HHSS) presented an illustrated talk, “An Ongoing Legacy: The Burnham Plan from the City Beautiful Movement to Daley’s Post-Modernist Chicago,” as the featured speaker in the Spring semester’s Friends of the Library Signature Showcase. His book, Chicago: A Biography, was recently published by the University of Chicago Press.

Pan Papacosta’s (Science and Mathematics)

Pan Papacosta’s (Science and Mathematics) article, “The Pedagogical Significance of Debates in the Classroom,” appeared in the winter edition of AGLS News, the newsletter for the Association for General and Liberal Studies (AGLS). Dr. Papacosta was a plenary speaker at the annual conference of AGLS, held in St. Louis. His presentation was titled “Bridging the Cultures: Humanities, Science and Art.” The plenary session was in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the 1959 essay

“The Two Cultures” by C. P. Snow.



David Pritchett (First-Year Seminar)

David Pritchett (First-Year Seminar) completed a residency at Jiujiang University in China, where he documented a poetry project with students.

Pegeen Reichert Powell (English)

Pegeen Reichert Powell (English) co-edited the book Mothers Who Deliver: Feminist Interventions in Interpersonal and Public Discourse. The book is being published through SUNY Press and is scheduled for a late 2010 release.

Michael Robbins’ (English)

Michael Robbins’ (English) poem “Lust for Life” appeared in the April 12, 2010 issue of The New Yorker. This is the second poem of Robbins’ to appear in the magazine, the first being “Alien vs. Predator,” which prompted an interview last year with Village Voice blogger Zach Baron.

Louis Silverstein (HHSS)

Louis Silverstein (HHSS) co-hosted a workshop titled “Mandala Making: Human Experience in the Realm of Harmony” at the conference Inspiring a Culture of Peace: A Day of Artful Creativity and Action and Creativity. Dr. Silverstein also gave a presentation on his book Encountering Life’s Endings at the national joint conference of the American Society on Aging and the National Council on Aging, as well as at the ASA Chicago Roundtable. 

Fereshteh Toosi

Fereshteh Toosi (First-Year Seminar) participated in a performance of Let Them Eat Cake, which was a production of About Face Theatre and the XYZ Festival.

Tony Trigilio’s (English)

Tony Trigilio’s (English) latest book, Historic Diary, has been accepted for publication by BlazeVOX Books. The book of poems is based on the diaries of Lee Harvey Oswald, and it is tentatively slated for a spring 2011 release. 

Stan West (English)

Stan West (English) was the co-organizer, with filmmaker Yves Hughes Jr., of the Oak Park International Film Festival at the Oak Park Public Library.