COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, ARTS AND HUMANITIES – Clemson University recently recognized its new faculty emeriti, including members of the CAAH faculty: Steven Grosby, professor of religion; Steve Katz, Pearce Professor of Professional Communication; and Victor Vitanza, director of the Ph.D. program in Rhetorics, Communications, and Information Design (RCID). Carter Hudgins, director of the graduate program in Historic Preservation, and Criss Mills, a senior lecturer of architecture, also were recognized upon their retirement from the faculty. Congratulations and sincere thanks to all for their dedicated service to Clemson University.
ENGLISH – Maria Bose published three essays: “Distantly Reading Race in the Contemporary ‘Postrace’ Novel” in Textual Practice; “Virtual Flânerie: Teju Cole and the Algorithmic Logic of Racial Ascription” in C21 Literature; “Allegories of ‘Postracial’ Capitalism: Colson Whitehead and the Materials of Twenty-First-Century Black Cultural Authorship” in Critique. She also completed fellowships at Clemson with the Watt Center and Global Engagement. The latter involved master’s coursework in Global Political Economy and Security Studies via Johns Hopkins’ Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.
ART – Mark Brosseau was awarded a $21,000 grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation for the period of April 15, 2019 to April 15, 2020 to support his studio practice. The Greer Citizen published an article about his award. News about the foundation’s 2019 grants to 111 artists also was published in major arts publications such as ARTnews and Artforum.
HISTORY – On April 4 at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians (OAH) in Philadelphia, Vernon Burton chaired a session about his forthcoming book, “Reconstruction at 150: Reassessing the Revolutionary New Birth of Freedom,” co-edited with Brent Morris of the University of South Carolina. On April 6, Burton presented a paper during a panel discussion on the “250th Anniversary of the 14th and 15th Amendments in Retrospect.” An interview with Burton also was recorded for the organization’s Distinguished Lectures series. On April 10, he spoke at the Supreme Court and participated in a discussion with Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor and presented her with mementoes from her visit to Clemson in 2017. On April 17, Burton presented an OAH Distinguished Lecture at Augusta University in Georgia about “Cyberinfrastructre for the Humanities: Recent Advances in Digital History,” and consulted with the history department on its new public and digital history initiative.
HISTORY – Professor Emerita Elizabeth Carney published “An Exceptional Argead Couple: Philip II and Olympias” in the book “Power Couples in Antiquity: Transversal Perspectives,” edited by Anne Bielman Sánchez (Routledge: London and New York, 2019), pp. 16-31.
ENGLISH – Lucian Ghita was invited to present a research paper titled “The Jacobethan Avant-Garde: Re/Intersections in Cultural, Literary, Theater, and Performance Studies” at the “More Soon; A Symposium Honoring Joe Roach,” held in April at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. He was also recently awarded the English department’s Holman Teaching Prize.
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION – Professor Emeritus Steven Grosby’s review essay “Scholarship, Truth, and Islam” of Alexander Bevilacqua’s book “The Republic of Arabic Letters: Islam and the European Enlightenment” (Cambridge: The Belknap Press, 2018) appeared in The Athenaeum Review 2, pp. 45-48. He retired this semester after 22 years at Clemson.
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION – Elizabeth Jemison received the CAAH Ambassadors’ Advisor of the Year Award for her exceptional work with students.
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION – Edyta Kuzian, a postdoctoral fellow in philosophy, conceived and organized the “Embodiment and Race Conference,” held April 11-13 at the Outdoor Lab. The conference allowed Clemson University students the chance to engage with students from other universities and some of the leading scholars in the world on these topics.
PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION – Professor and Chair Emeritus William Maker delivered a paper, “Black Bodies, Black Souls: An American Narrative,” at the recent “Embodiment and Race Conference.”
ARCHITECTURE – Andreea Mihalache’s article “The Priest, the King and the Street Vendor: Urban Allegories in Saul Steinberg’s ‘Strada Palas’ (1966)” was published in the journal Architecture and Culture, Vol. 6, No. 3. Mihalache presented the paper “On Deferred Judgment: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives” at the “Architectural Theory Now?” symposium held April 4-6 at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She also presented the paper titled “On Boredom: Architecture and Public Spaces in the 1960s” at the 72nd Annual International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians held April 24-28 in Providence, Rhode Island.
ENGLISH – Angela Naimou delivered a public lecture at the University of Binghamton in New York as part of its speaker series on “Refugee Journeys, Lifeworlds, and Futures,” co-sponsored by the Human Rights Institute and the Department of English. She also participated in the Migrations and Mobilizations conference organized by the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where national and international scholars who have done significant work in their fields convened to discuss today’s internationalism.
ENGLISH – Kathleen Nalley coordinated and participated in a Circle of Poets event on April 16 at M. Judson Booksellers in Greenville, South Carolina, in honor of National Poetry Month. Additionally, she served as a judge of the 2019 Young Minds Dreaming Poetry Contest for high school students, presented through the SC State Library, and was chosen to serve on the Emrys Foundation Board of Directors.
PERFORMING ARTS – Shannon Robert presented with the Broadway Green Alliance on sustainable theatre practices for the United States Institute of Theatre Technology and presented a second session on her design work at the same conference. Robert, Matthew Leckenbusch, and Brad Putman from Clemson Engineering were awarded a USITT Innovation Grant for $49,700 to develop and fabricate new technology for the theater entertainment industry. Robert is currently designing scenery for “Children of Eden” for Aurora Theatre in Atlanta.
LANGUAGES – Johannes Schmidt published “‘Ich begehre keinen freien Willen’ (I desire no free will): G.E. Lessing’s Peculiar View on Human Freedom” in Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Spring 2019), pp. 337-360. He also presented a paper titled “Herder’s Telos: Between Christian Linearity and the Simultaneousness of History” and chaired a panel on “Herder’s Temporalities” at the 2019 meeting of the American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies in Denver.
LANGUAGES – Graciela Tissera published two book chapters: “Jorge Luis Borges y David Roas: Percepciones de Múltiples Universos y Seres Soñados” in “Estéticas de lo Insólito en la Narrativa en Lengua Española,” edited by Natalia Álvarez y Ana Abello Verano (Editorial Visor), and “Paco Cabezas y Gilles Paquet-Brenner: Intersecciones de la Memoria Histórica en el Cine,” in “¿Qué es el cine?” edited by Mercedes Miguel Borrás (Ediciones Universidad de Valladolid). Tissera also attended two conferences related to her research in International Health: World Congress on International Therapies and Future Leaders in the Biotech Industry, from April 10-12 in New York City.
ENGLISH – Jillian Weise read with Ishmael Reed and Tennessee Reed at Third Man Records in Detroit for a new series. The series – The All Access Café – focuses on disabled writers and musicians. It is supported by Jack White, Marshall Mathers and the Knight Foundation. Weise also read at Syracuse University as part of the Burton Blatt Institute’s Multimedia (Dis)courses Series.
ART – Valerie Zimany’s “Hanazume (Double Eared Vessel)” is on view in “Nuance: Craftsmanship, Imagination, and Innovation” at the Peters Valley School of Craft in Layton, New Jersey. This national exhibition was juried by renowned artist and educator Sin-ying Ho, and features work representing the merger of hands and technology in contemporary craft. Selected artists use technology to expand their work, forward the craft, and demonstrate what is possible when technology is used to design and fabricate components or facets of handmade work. Most importantly, the diversity of the work exemplifies how human nuance can be augmented through innovative applications of technology. The show opened April 13 and continues through May 19 at the school’s Sally D. Francisco Gallery.