Faculty Notes, Feb. 10, 2012

Robert Buranello, Ph.D., Musco Professor of Italian, Department of Languages, Wilkinson College, participated in The California Interdisciplinary Consortium of Italian Studies (CICIS) Annual Conference at Scripps and Pomona Colleges, California, Feb. 10-11, 2012. Dr. Buranello presented the paper “Zonderwater: the ‘tendopoli’ of identity,” part of his on-going research into Italian POW literature.

On Wednesday, Feb. 15, Dr. Buranello gave a guest lecture at the George L. Graziadio Center for Italian Studies at California State University, Long Beach, entitled, “Moose on the Loose: A Theatrical Representation of the Italian Canadian Experience in Los Angeles.” This contemporary comedy by Dina Morrone played to excellent reviews and enjoyed an extended run in Los Angeles in the spring and summer of 2011. Dr. Buranello was joined by the playwright at this event.

Grace Fong, D.M.A., Director of Keyboard Studies, Conservatory of Music, College of Performing Arts, recently returned from her performances as soloist and master clinician with the Williamsburg Symphonia, a performance at the Disney Hall, and a performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Los Angeles Philharmonic member John Lee and principle cellist of L.A. Opera, John Walz. She also performed a debut concert in Waterloo, Canada, which will lead into her Canadian Performance Tour to occur in March 2012.

Kelli Fuery, instructor, Department of Communications and University Honors, was invited to be the Chapman University faculty advisor  for “Forward Thinking: A curatorial roundabout.” Students Sayer Kanakriyeh (Film/Art), Rebecca Rau (Art) and Hannah Karsen (Art) were selected as curators and artists for the project. The Chapman student videos will screen at the CAA conference on Feb. 24 from 1 to 2 p.m.http://conference.collegeart.org/2012/artspace/medialounge

Micol Hebron, Assistant Professor, Art, has organized two programs that will be featured in the College Art Association Centennial conference in Los Angeles from February 22 – 25th, and she have included Chapman faculty and students in one of the programs! Professor Hebron will be chairing a panel session, “Collecting Collectives” on February 22nd from 2:30 – 5pm for ARTSpace at CAA. Prof. Hebron will moderate the panel which features representatives from 5 contemporary artist collectives who discuss the nature of collaborative and collective artistic practice in the contemporary art world and art market. Professor Hebron has also organized a video art program for CAA titled “Forward Thinking: A Curatorial Roundabout” featuring work by 27 students from 6 Southern California Universities, including Chapman.

Tibor R. Machan, Ph.D., professor and holder of the R.C. Hoiles Chair in Business Ethics and Free Enterprise at the Argyros School of Business and Economics  gave a talk titled “Liberty versus Economic Stimulus” at Junto, a forum for discussions of public affairs (modeled after Benjamin Franklin’s similarly named forum) in New York City, on Jan. 5.  He also participated in a debate on animal rights at Rutgers University School of Law in Newark, NJ, on January 12th. At the Junto meeting Machan was presented with a copy of the Festschrift prepared in his honor by a group of scholars and friends, Reality, Reason and Rights (Lexington Books, 2011).

Ramesh P. Singh, Ph.D., professor, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Schmid College of Science, was invited to give an invited talk on Black Carbon and Himalayan Glaciers at the workshop Glaciers, Snow Melt and Runoff in the Himalayas organized by the EU-FP7 project HighNoon Supported by ICIMOD, DFID and SDC, held Feb. 6-7 at the UNESCO Center ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal. Dr. Singh chaired a breakout session on black carbon during this workshop. The workshop was attended by scientists from UK, Swiss, Germany, US, India, Pakistan, China, Japan, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Pilar Valenzuela, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Languages, Wilkinson College, recently led a four-day workshop to analyze the grammar of Shawi, an indigenous language spoken in the Province of Alto Amazonas, in northeastern Peru. The workshop took place in Yurimaguas, a small town on the banks of the Huallaga River, and was organized by a group of native teachers specialized in intercultural bilingual education. With a population of approximately 15,000 individuals, the Shawi are among the largest indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon. Their language continues being passed on to the children, who tend to be monolingual until they attend elementary school in their villages. The Shawi bilingual teachers approached Dr. Valenzuela in search of linguistic training due to her intensive research on the sister language Shiwilu as well as a comparative work involving the two languages.

A Safeway in Arizona, the new book by Tom Zoellner, associate professor, Department of English, Wilkinson College, was the topic of a blog post in OCWeekly’s new book blog, OC Bookly. Blogger Andrew Tonkovich called Zoellner’s book an “excellent and comprehensive memoir.”