FACULTY NEWS & NOTES
Torok Composition Performed as Part of National Parks Week
A composition commissioned and published by Debra Torok, artist-lecturer in music, premiered in the George Washington Memorial Chapel at the Valley Forge National Historical Park on October 6, 2015. It was performed again on Sunday April 17 at the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia as part of April’s National Parks Week during the centennial celebration of the National Park Service. Professor Torok was the conductor and speaker at both events and had two of her arrangements of Revolutionary Dances also included in the programs: The Fords of the Brandywine and September 11, 1777, a seven-movement work for flute choir with optional piano. For more information, check out the URL from the Friends of Independence Historical Park website.
Dunn, Guest Editor of Psychology Journal
Professor of Psychology Dana Dunn served as guest editor of a special section of the February 2016 edition of the journal Rehabilitation Psychology, a quarterly publication of the American Psychological Association. Dunn and colleagues Dawn Ehde of the University of Washington School of Medicine and Stephen T. Wegener of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine co-wrote the commentary introducing the focus of the February issue, which addressed the importance, relevance, and application of the foundational principles of rehabilitation psychology, and they edited the seven articles comprising the special section. Dunn has been on the editorial board of Rehabilitation Psychology since 2000.
O’Boyle Collaborates with Australian Songwriting Hall of Famer
Sean O’Boyle, artist-in-resident, has contributed to an anthology released by Australia's most successful female artist, Kate Ceberano, a member of the national Songwriting Hall of Famer who counts five platinum and five gold albums among her twenty-three albums. Sean arranged and conducted her only orchestral album and toured extensively with Kate, his 151st release associated with ABC Music.
O'Connell Participates in Healthcare Panel
Virginia Adams O'Connell, associate professor of sociology and author of Getting Cut: Failure to Survive Surgical Residency Training, participated in a healthcare panel discussion, "Alternatives to Obamacare" held on April 20 at Villanova University.
Aguilar-Rodriguez Pens Piece on Food and Morality in Ibero-America
Sandra Aguilar-Rodríguez, assistant professor of history, will be publishing an article on food and morality entitled "Modernity, Nutrition and Morality in Modern Mexico" this June in Revista de Historia Iberoamericana (The Journal of Ibero-American History) as part of a special issue on the history of science and technology in Ibero-America.
Radine Chapter Appears in Edited Volume
Jason Radine, associate professor of religion, has published a chapter in an edited volume published by the Society of Biblical Literature. The article titled "The 'Idolatrous Priests' of the Book of Zephaniah" suggests that the mysterious "kemarim" priests mentioned in the book of Zephaniah are royally-appointed Israelite priests who followed an Aramean/Assyrian religious rite as an act of submission to the dominant Assyrian Empire and appears in the book Priests and Cults in the Book of the Twelve.
Rossi a Star at AAA
After peer review, the teaching techniques of John D Rossi, III, associate professor of accounting were accepted for an Effective Learning Strategies (ELS), while his paper titled “Teaching Fair Value using the Art of Numismatics” was accepted for presentation. In this paper he demonstrated the focus of how he gets students to understand the concept of supply and demand, which leads to a better understanding of fair value. The paper was accepted at the Southeast Regional Meeting of the American Accounting Association in Atlanta, GA. He also volunteered to be a Dialogue Facilitator at that meeting.
Celebrating Bob Mayer
There will be a retirement party for Bob Mayer, professor of education, on Friday the 29th of April from 4:00-5:00 pm in the third-floor atrium at PPHAC.
The Poems from Your Pocket
In lieu of my bi-weekly note, I am publishing poems sent in by faculty in recognition of National Poetry Month. Thanks to all who heeded the call!
“Landscape With The Fall of Icarus” by William Carlos Williams
According to Brueghel
when Icarus fell
it was spring
a farmer was ploughing
his field
the whole pageantry
of the year was
awake tingling
near
the edge of the sea
concerned
with itself
sweating in the sun
that melted
the wings' wax
unsignificantly
off the coast
there was
a splash quite unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning
Submitted by Claudia Mesa, associate professor of Spanish
“What Have I Learned” by Gary Snyder
What have I learned but
the proper use for several tools?
The moments
between hard pleasant tasks
To sit silent, drink wine,
and think my own kind
of dry crusty thoughts.
—the first Calochortus flowers
and in all the land,
it's spring.
I point them out:
the yellow petals, the golden hairs,
to Gen.
Seeing in silence:
never the same twice,
but when you get it right,
you pass it on.
Submitted by Robert Mayer, professor of education
"Only Breath" by Jalludin Rumi (13th century mystic)
Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion
or cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up
from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,
am not an entity in this world or in the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve or any
origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.
I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,
first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.
Submitted by Akbar Keshodkar, assistant professor of history and sociology
“The Herdsman” by Alberto Caeiro bka Fernando Pessoa (translation by Edouard Roditi)
I'm herdsman of a flock.
The sheep are my thoughts
And my thoughts are all sensations.
I think with my eyes and my ears
And my hands and feet
And nostrils and mouth.
To think a flower is to see and smell it.
To eat a fruit is to sense its savor.
And that is why, when I feel sad,
In a day of heat, because of so much joy
And lay me down in the grass to rest
And close my sun-warmed eyes,
I feel my whole body relaxed in reality
And know the whole truth and am happy.
Submitted by Joel Nathan Rosen, associate professor of sociology
“Saint Francis and the Sow” by Galway Kinnell
The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as Saint Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.
Submitted by Joyce Hinnefeld, professor of English
“Auf den Mund” by Christian Hoffmann von Hoffmannswaldau (1616-1679)
Mund! der die Seelen kann durch Lust zusammen hetzen,
Mund! der viel süßer ist als starker Himmelswein,
Mund! der du Alikant des Lebens schenkest ein,
Mund! den ich vorziehn muß der Inden reichen Schätzen,
Mund! dessen Balsam uns kann stärken und verletzen,
Mund! der vergnügter blüht als aller Rosen Schein.
Mund! welchem kein Rubin kann gleich und ähnlich sein,
Mund! den die Gratien mit ihren Quellen netzen;
Mund! Ach Korallenmund / mein einziges Ergetzen!
Mund! lass mich einen Kuß auf deinen Purpur setzen.
Submitted by Khristina Haddad, associate professor of political science