Faculty Notes, Oct. 7, 2013

Mark Axelrod, Ph.D., Department of English, Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences, has a translation of Balzac’s play, Mercadet, the Good Businessman, coming out this month from Black Scat Publishing, San Francisco, with the title Waiting for Godeau.  His fourth book on screenwriting, Constructing Dialogue is set for a November release by Bloomsbury/Continuum. Georgiana […]

Mark Axelrod, Ph.D., Department of English, Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences, has a translation of Balzac’s play, Mercadet, the Good Businessman, coming out this month from Black Scat Publishing, San Francisco, with the title Waiting for Godeau.  His fourth book on screenwriting, Constructing Dialogue is set for a November release by Bloomsbury/Continuum.

Georgiana Bostean, Ph.D. assistant professor, Crean School of Health and  Life Sciences, Schmid College of Science and Technology, recently published a research paper titled “Cardiovascular health: associations with race-ethnicity, nativity, and education in a diverse, population-based sample of Californians” in the Annals of Epidemiology 23:388-394.

Jocelyn L. Buckner, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Theatre, College of Performing Arts, published the essay “Spectacular Opacities: The Hyers Sisters’ Performances of Respectability and Resistance” in the peer-reviewed African American Review issue 45.3,  subtitled Special Issue: On Black Performance. This essay analyzes the Hyers Sisters, a Reconstruction-era African American sister act, and their radical efforts to transcend social limits of gender, class, and race in their early concert careers and three major productions, Out of Bondage and Peculiar Sam; or The Underground Railroad, two slavery-to-freedom epics, and Urlina: the African Princess, the first known African American play set in Africa. At a time when serious, realistic roles and romantic plotlines featuring black actors were nearly nonexistent due to the country’s appetite for stereotypical caricatures, the Hyers Sisters’ positive (re)presentations of (African) American life and love were strategic, political acts of resistance against the rampant racism of Reconstruction-era America. Their pioneering productions enabled the sisters to create early opportunities for themselves and other black artists in a white, male dominated industry, and helped lay the groundwork for the growth and development of black theatre and popular entertainment in the decades to come.

Hesham El-Askary, Ph.D., associate professor, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Schmid College of Science and Technology, and Director of Hazards, Global and Environmental Change and Computational Science Programs, gave a lecture at the Orange Public Library Foundation’s STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) for Teens program. El-Askary covered various topics including global climate change and the technology and methods used in weather and climate research. The lecture marked the opening of the STEAM for Teens series.

John Gunderson, Ph.D., adjunct faculty, College of Educational Studies, and currently a teacher at Dana Hills High School, is one of 22 teachers from across the nation highlighted in the newly-released book Finding Joy in Teaching Students of Diverse Backgrounds: Culturally Responsive and Socially Just Practices in U.S. Classrooms, by Sonia Nieto, Ph.D. In addition, Gunderson recently published an article in the International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences titled “A Difficulty in the Concept of Educational Sustainability.”

Alicia Guy, associate professor, Department of Dance, College of Performing Arts, was commissioned to choreograph a new piece for Studio C in Boise, Idaho. She choreographed a contemporary dance that was set on a cast of 16 female dancers that will perform her work throughout the country. Guy was also selected as a judge for the Los Angeles Clippers Pro Dance Team NBA Finals. The two-week final selection process included adjudication of individual technique, multiple routine styles, improv solos and interviews.

Donald Guy, assistant professor, Department of Theatre, College of Performing Arts, was featured in the August/September 2013 issue of Vanish International Magic Magazine. The nine-page article, titled “Bringing Magic to Light,” is an in-depth interview on his career as a professional lighting designer. In addition Guy recently served as the lighting designer/lighting director for Carnival of Wonders at Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa in Palm Springs. The production featured award-winning magicians: Mark Kalin, Jinger Leigh, and Jeff Hobson.

John Gunderson, Ph.D., adjunct faculty member in the College of Educational Studies and currently teaching at Dana Hills High School, is one of 22 teachers from across the nation highlighted in the new book Finding Joy in Teaching Students of Diverse Backgrounds: Culturally Responsive and Socially Just Practices in U.S. Classrooms, by Sonia Nieto, Ph.D., which will be released on Sept. 25, 2013.  The book explores what it means for teachers who work with students in these difficult times of increasing deprofessionalization of teachers and marginalization of students. Dr. Nieto was the CES keynote speaker in 2011 and supported CES’s CLAGS efforts last year.  Dr. Gunderson continues his own scholarly output with his recent article in the International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences titled “A Difficulty in the Concept of Educational Sustainability.”

Vera Ivanova, Ph.D., assistant professor, Conservatory of Music at College of Performing Arts, has won the 2013 Earplay Donald Aird Composers Competition with her composition for piano, “Three Studies in Uneven Meters.” The prize comes with a monetary award and a performance of the winning composition at the closing concert of the Earplay ensemble’s 2013-2014 season on May 19, 2014 at the ODC Theater in San Francisco. “Three Studies,” recorded with the pianist Mikhail Korzhev, for release on Navona Records’ enhanced CD “Allusions.” The work will also be performed at the 35th International Moscow Autumn Festival on Nov. 27 in Moscow, Russia. Last year “Three Studies” was performed at the 16th Biennial Festival of New Music at Florida State University and at the last two concerts of the Locrian Chambers Players ensemble’s 2012-13 season in New York and Brooklyn.

Wenshan Jia, Ph.D., professor, Department of Communication Studies, Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences,  shares the “The William B. Gudykunst Outstanding Book Award” from the International Academy for Intercultural Research given to Jia as a contributing author with the chapter “Ethnic conflicts in China” in D. Landis & R. A. Roberts  (Eds.) Handbook of Ethnic Conflict:  International Perspectives (pp. 177-198), an International  Academy for Intercultural Research book published by Springer, 2012.  The article has also been selected as a “Break Journal Article” in psychology research by Psychology Progress (www.Psychologyprogress.com) May 15, 2013.

Jia’s review of David Shambaugh’s, China Goes Global: The Partial Power (Oxford, UK:  Oxford University Press, 2013) appeared in the Journal of Chinese political Science.

In addition, Jia recently wrote an op-ed article for the Orange County Register, available at http://www.ocregister.com/articles/china-508685-communication-chinese.html.

This summer he also delivered a talk titled “Global Justice Communication as a Growing Force of New Media-Driven Globalization and Denationalization” at the New Media and Communication of Justice in the Global Information Society, Second International Scholarly Camp for Graduate Students and Junior Scholars of Communication and Media sponsored by the Fudan-Institute for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, Fudan International Center for Research and Department of Sociology, Loughborough University, UK, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. http://www.ias.fudan.edu.cn/News/Detail.aspx?ID=4659

Vernon L. Smith, Ph.D., professor, Economic Science Institute, Argyros School of Business and Economics, gave a lecture Oct. 2 at Texas A&M University’s Hagler Auditorium in College Station, Texas, on “Adam Smith’s Humanomics: From Propriety and Sentiments to Property and Wealth.” Smith’s  lecture revealed how the insights of famed 18th-century economist Adam Smith remain fresh and relevant in the 21st century.

 

Dawn Bonker

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