Milne Library will host its annual Geneseo Authors Celebration on Thursday, Nov. 15, from 5-6 p.m., at which many faculty and staff will be recognized for the work they’ve published during the past year. And what a busy year it was for our authors, who collectively produced dozens of journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, monographs and more.
The authors represent many departments on campus and a wide variety of fields, and the following list includes just a sampling. Distinguished Teaching Professor of English Gene Stelzig continues to work in the area of Romantic autobiography, with special interest in the manuscript journals and diaries of Henry Crabb Robinson at Dr. Williams’s Library in London. Professor and Director of Writing Rachel Hall, also in the English Dept., has written a short story set in 1972 that examines family relationships against the larger political landscape of the time.
Over in Geological Sciences, Distinguished Service Professor Richard Young has been continuing his work on the geologic history of the Southwest (maybe you’ve seen him on the History Channel’s Grand Canyon documentary!). And recent research done by Distinguished Teaching Professor David Geiger (Chemistry Dept.) and colleagues involves the synthesis and structural studies of novel di-substituted benzimidazole derivatives bearing appendages that have the ability to interact with metal ions. Benzimidazoles, he explains, are a class of compounds with many pharmacological uses, such as anti-psychotics, anti-ulcer, anthelmintic, and antifungal agents. By varying the substitution pattern on the benzimidazole, the pharmacological activity can be modulated.
Patrick Rault, assistant professor of mathematics, has lately been doing research that gives new structural information about the number of points with integer coordinates lying inside of two hyperbolas, and for points with rational coordinates on plane curves. He collaborated on some aspects of this research with student Wilson Cheung, who won an award for his presentation of these findings at Mathfest, the annual meeting of the Mathematics Association of America, last August.
History Professor Emilye Crosby continues her research of the civil rights movement and race relations in Mississippi and has recently published an article exploring the history of school desegregation in Claiborne County, alongside analysis of oral histories, memory, and competing local and national narratives about school integration. Atsushi Tajima, assistant professor of communication, has published separate articles detailing his findings concerning celebrity mothers’ weight-loss narratives in People magazine, as well as Japanese imaginings of Blacks and race in popular media. And Distinguished Teaching Faculty Emerita Margaret Matlin has seen two of her textbooks, Cognition and The Psychology of Women, published in new editions.
In the School of Education, Assistant Professor of Reading Maria “Perpie” Liwanag’s research has led her to collaborate with Milne’s Steve Dresbach on how preservice teachers use knowledge of eye movement miscue analysis to design book trailers, and with Steve and Librarian Michelle Costello on the effects of collaborating to provide preservice teachers ways to integrate technology in literacy instruction. Also this year, she co-authored an article with a student describing how foreign languages can be taught to elementary students using a comprehensible input framework.
Provost Carol Long is expected to be on hand at Thursday’s event to recognize these and all of this year’s faculty and staff authors. Please join us in the Special Collections area on the Lower Level of Milne to celebrate the excellent work being done here at Geneseo! And if you’d like, check out our Facebook Event and let us know you’re coming!
