Winter Term in �鶹��Ƶ: 2020</h1> <article> <h1>Winter Term in �鶹��Ƶ: 2020</h1> <p>ygay — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 15:35:06 +0000</p> <span>Winter Term in �鶹��Ƶ: 2020</span> <span><span>ygay</span></span> <span><time datetime="2020-02-24T10:35:06-05:00" title="Monday, February 24, 2020 - 10:35">Mon, 02/24/2020 - 10:35</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">Campus News</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2020-02-24T12:00:00Z">Mon, 02/24/2020 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yvonne Gay</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a class="view-more" href="https://photo-stories.oberlin.edu/winter-term-in-oberlin/">Browse Winter Term in �鶹��Ƶ: 2020</a></p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2356">Conservatory</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2413">Social Sciences</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2378">Allen Memorial Art Museum</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25346">English</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=33031">TIMARA</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25411">Physics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25326">Creative Writing</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25456">Russian</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a 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href="/conservatory/divisions/winds-brass-and-percussion" hreflang="und">Winds, Brass, and Percussion</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/vocal-studies" hreflang="und">Vocal Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/dance" hreflang="und">Dance</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/history" hreflang="und">History</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/russian" hreflang="und">Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/creative-writing" hreflang="und">Creative Writing</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/physics-and-astronomy" hreflang="und">Physics and Astronomy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art" hreflang="und">Studio Art</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/english" hreflang="und">English</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/conservatory/divisions/contemporary-music" hreflang="und">Contemporary Music</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/latin-american-studies" hreflang="und">Latin American Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Students in the Practicum in Exhibit Design project work on a community-informed exhibit of Alaska Native cultural objects that will be displayed in the Mary Church Terrell Library in the spring.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yvonne Gay</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Unraveling Medicinal Recipes from the 17th Century</h1> <p>ygay — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 21:27:05 +0000</p> <span>Unraveling Medicinal Recipes from the 17th Century</span> <span><span>ygay</span></span> <span><time datetime="2019-11-18T16:27:05-05:00" title="Monday, November 18, 2019 - 16:27">Mon, 11/18/2019 - 16:27</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A classroom in the Science Center was the perfect location for an English department project. For several hours throughout the day, more than 50 student volunteers filed in and out of room A255 to transcribe medicinal recipes from the 17th century that played a central role in scientific evolution.</p> <p>The English department’s transcription project was part of the <a href="https://emroc.hypotheses.org/ongoing-projects/the-folger-manuscript-v-b-400-project" target="_blank">5th Annual Early Modern Recipe Collection Transcribathon</a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-external-link"></span>. The goal of this international event is to welcome scholars, students, and the general public in the preservation, transcription, and analysis of recipes written in English from 1550 to 1800, and to make searchable, encoded versions of these texts freely available for scholars and the general public. Volunteers received on-the-spot training of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s online transcription platform and support from English faculty members. They also received insight into the background of these recipes.</p> <p>“We wanted students to understand the pivotal role women played in the development of scientific and medical discourses, and that a lot of these developments took place in the home and kitchen,” says <a href="/node/5626">Danielle Skeehan</a>, assistant professor of English and comparative American studies. “Once transcribed, these recipes become accessible and searchable for a wider audience who wants to learn more about early modern women, domesticity, science, and medicine.”</p> <p>There would be even more learning outcomes, days after the Transcribathon. <a href="/node/5596">Wendy Hyman</a> associate professor of English and comparative literature, explains. “I found something related to the Transcribathon that thought it would be interesting to share,” she writes. </p> <p>“I was working with a student on a manuscript (call #V.a.621, written by Catherine Bacon) on the Folger Library website the other day. We chose it pretty much at random. And we came across a recipe which utilizes ‘they’ as a singular third person pronoun, just as contemporary trans activists are urging us to do. … It is for a compound to relieve birth pangs (or travails):”</p> <p>‘‘To help a woman if her travell [travail] be hard and if they have been long without children & or of the first child to open the wombe.’’</p> <p>“In other words, the woman giving birth is, later in the sentence, referred to as ‘they.’ This is not an anomaly; ‘they’ had occasionally been used just like ] ‘she’ and ‘he’ since the middle ages. But I think it’s pretty neat to see it there in seventeenth century handwriting.’’</p> <p class="obj-center"></p> <p><br> <a class="view-more" href="https://flic.kr/s/aHsmJgp1Uu" target="_blank">View more images from the Transcribathon on �鶹��Ƶ Flickr</a></p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">Campus News</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2019-11-18T12:00:00Z">Mon, 11/18/2019 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Yvonne Gay</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Student volunteers work to produce searchable transcriptions of two 17th-century recipe books in a single day.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2354">Campus Life</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25346">English</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25311">Comparative American Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25316">Comparative Literature</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/wendy-beth-hyman" hreflang="und">Wendy Beth Hyman</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/danielle-skeehan" hreflang="und">Danielle Skeehan</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/english" hreflang="und">English</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/comparative-american-studies" hreflang="und">Comparative American Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/comparative-literature" hreflang="und">Comparative Literature</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Audrey Tran ’22</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-28791" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-photo-gallery paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="section--photo-gallery o-flex--photo-gallery"> <p class="header-tag">Photo Gallery</p> <div class="o-flex--photo-gallery__grid"> <div class="o-flex--photo-gallery--overlay"> <div class="o-flex--photo-gallery--overlay__content"> <button class="btn js-modal" data-modal-prefix-class="fullscreen" data-modal-content-id="28791" data-modal-background-click="disabled"> View photo gallery </button> </div> </div> <div class="o-flex--photo-gallery__grid__img-wrapper"> </div> <div class="o-flex--photo-gallery__grid__img-wrapper"> </div> <div class="o-flex--photo-gallery__grid__img-wrapper"> </div> <div class="o-flex--photo-gallery__grid__img-wrapper"> </div> </div> </div> <div id="28791" class="photo-gallery-wrapper"> <div class="photo-gallery"> <div class="photo-gallery__slides"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__wrapper"> <figure class="photo-gallery__slide"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__image"> </div> <figcaption> <span class="figure__caption">Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature Wendy Hyman writes instructions on the chalkboard.</span> <span class="figure__credit">Photo credit: Audrey Tran ’22</span> </figcaption> </figure> </div> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__wrapper"> <figure class="photo-gallery__slide"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__image"> </div> <figcaption> <span class="figure__caption">Students work on transcribing recipes in room A255 of the Science Center.</span> <span class="figure__credit">Photo credit: Audrey Tran ’22</span> </figcaption> </figure> </div> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__wrapper"> <figure class="photo-gallery__slide"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__image"> </div> <figcaption> <span class="figure__credit">Photo credit: Audrey Tran ’22</span> </figcaption> </figure> </div> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__wrapper"> <figure class="photo-gallery__slide"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__image"> </div> <figcaption> <span class="figure__credit">Photo credit: Audrey Tran ’22</span> </figcaption> </figure> </div> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__wrapper"> <figure class="photo-gallery__slide"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__image"> </div> <figcaption> <span class="figure__caption">Students use the the Folger Shakespeare Library’s online transcription platform.</span> <span class="figure__credit">Photo credit: Audrey Tran ’22</span> </figcaption> </figure> </div> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__wrapper"> <figure class="photo-gallery__slide"> <div class="photo-gallery__slide__image"> </div> <figcaption> <span class="figure__credit">Photo credit: Jack Lichtenstein ’23</span> </figcaption> </figure> </div> </div> <div class="photo-gallery__navbar"> <figure class="photo-gallery__navbar__item"> </figure> <figure class="photo-gallery__navbar__item"> </figure> <figure class="photo-gallery__navbar__item"> </figure> <figure class="photo-gallery__navbar__item"> </figure> <figure class="photo-gallery__navbar__item"> </figure> <figure class="photo-gallery__navbar__item"> </figure> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article> <article> <h1>In Memoriam: Professor of Comparative Literature and English Jed Deppman</h1> <p>hhempste — Fri, 28 Jun 2019 17:25:12 +0000</p> <span>In Memoriam: Professor of Comparative Literature and English Jed Deppman</span> <span><span>hhempste</span></span> <span><time datetime="2019-06-28T13:25:12-04:00" title="Friday, June 28, 2019 - 13:25">Fri, 06/28/2019 - 13:25</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>John “Jed” Erickson Deppman, Irvin E. Houck Professor of Comparative Literature and English at �鶹��Ƶ College, died peacefully on June 22, 2019, with his family at his side. </p> <p>Born June 13, 1967, in Washington, D.C., Jed grew up in Middlebury, Vermont. In 1985, he confirmed his love of languages and discovered the value of mental tenacity during a year as an AFS exchange student in northern France, where he completed the demanding <em>baccalauréat</em> with <em>mention bien</em>, placing second in his class. After returning to the United States, he enrolled at Amherst College. In 1990, he graduated both summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, with a senior thesis on mental heroism in European folklore. </p> <p>With the support of two graduate scholarships, including the prestigious Henry P. Field award, he went on to the University of Wisconsin, Madison to earn an MA (1992) and PhD (1998) in comparative literature, with a dissertation on “Community and the Sublime in Dickinson, Valéry, and Joyce.” While in graduate school, he earned a Diplôme d'Études Approfondies in Philosophy and Epistemology at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, where he studied with Jacques Derrida and Vincent Descombes. In 2003, after brief stints at Eastern Kentucky University and Trinity University, San Antonio, he and his wife, Hsiu-Chuang Deppman, professor of Chinese and cinema studies, joined the �鶹��Ƶ College faculty. </p> <p>A leading expert on Emily Dickinson and James Joyce, Deppman published his monograph <em>Trying to Think with Emily Dickinson</em> with UMass Press in 2008. He coedited <em>Emily Dickinson and Contemporary Poetics</em> (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008) and <em>Emily Dickinson and Philosophy</em> (Cambridge University Press, 2013). He also translated and coedited <em>Genetic Criticism: Texts and Avant-Textes</em> (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), a seminal volume that opened up an entire field to the English-speaking academy. Among his many awards are an NEH fellowship, a Fulbright scholarship, and Amherst’s Lindberg-Seyersted Scholarship. His many published essays deal with topics as diverse as Borges, Walt Whitman, Jean-Luc Nancy, Sophocles, and 19th-century lexicography. He recently completed a novel, <em>Taking Chemo with Nietzsche</em>. </p> <p>At �鶹��Ƶ, Deppman directed the Comparative Literature Program almost without interruption, and with great success, for 15 years. Under his leadership, it has become a flagship humanities program, consistently attracting some of �鶹��Ƶ’s best students, while breaking through silos to build lasting connections among the College of Arts and Sciences, Allen Memorial Art Museum, and the Conservatory of Music. He also conceived and organized �鶹��Ƶ’s legendary annual Translation Symposium. </p> <p>Deppman believed in the transformative power of literature, art, music, and thought. He was deeply committed to rigorous humanistic scholarship as a means of deepening our understanding of life and the world. A dynamic and innovative teacher and sought-after advisor, he was ferociously demanding and unconditionally supportive of his students. In 2014, he was awarded �鶹��Ƶ’s Excellence in Teaching Award and, in 2015, the Professor Props “Instructor of the Year.” </p> <p>In his life and work, Professor Deppman embodied the border-crossing, eclectic ethos of Comparative Literature in an exemplary way. In addition to his work on Dickinson, Joyce, Valéry, Derrida, and Whitman, he was a specialist in postmodern and poststructuralist French thought, genetic criticism, translation theory, and philosophies of death. He had a near-native command of French and spoke Spanish, Portuguese, and Mandarin, as well. In high school and college, he excelled in math and science. At different points of his life, he was a high-school student in Dunkirk, France; an academic translator; an Ultimate athlete; a novelist; and a line-cook in Paris. He also was a fiercely competitive table tennis player.</p> <p>At �鶹��Ƶ, Professor Deppman taught many popular cross-listed courses, including Introduction to Comparative Literature, European Modernism and the World, Itineraries of Postmodernism, French Joyce, Introduction to Literary Translation, and an advanced translation workshop. From his very first semester at �鶹��Ƶ, he was also known for his first-year seminar Ars Moriendi: Death and the Art of Dying, in which students not only read, thought, and talked about death but also paired up with residents of Kendal at �鶹��Ƶ to connect with people for whom the end of life was an imminent reality. It quickly became one of the most transformative courses in the First-Year Seminar Program. He’d teach it almost every year.</p> <p>The Ars Moriendi seminar gained an unexpectedly personal dimension in fall 2008 when Professor Deppman was diagnosed with stage IV cancer. Nonetheless, for the next 11 years, and with the tireless support of his wife, Hsiu-Chuang, he taught full time, traveled the world, lived abroad, and continued to produce scholarship of the highest caliber. </p> <p>Professor Deppman will be remembered for his deep love of his family and friends, dedication to his students, fierce intelligence, sharp sense of humor, extraordinary mental tenacity, and thirst for adventure. In his final essay “Coda: Living and Dying with Emily Dickinson,” forthcoming in the<em> Oxford Handbook of Emily Dickinson</em> (eds. Cristanne Miller and Karen J. Sanchez-Eppler), he concluded: “We can identify impressive moments we have witnessed or imagined, work them into dynamic images, and use them to organize our attitude toward life and death. Similarly, we can always rethink the limits of who and where we are. We have always been connected to so much—our loved ones, people who have died already, our childhood, our past and future selves, our past and future places—that we can always think about new ways to belong to them.’’</p> <p>In addition to Hsiu-Chuang and their two daughters, Formosa and Ginger, Professor Deppman is survived by his mother, Elizabeth A. McLain and her husband, John H. Fitzhugh, of West Berlin, Vermont; father John C. Deppman, and his wife Clara Yu, of Fort Myers, Florida; sister Ann A. Deppman (Vance DeBouter) of �鶹��Ƶ, Ohio; brother Benjamin H. Deppman (Lesley Deppman), of Cornwall, Vermont; aunt Lynn McLain of Chestertown, Maryland; cousin Joseph Cook, of Baltimore, Maryland; and seven nieces and nephews: Victor, Kent, Alden, John, Jack, Lydia, and Calvin.</p> <p>In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Comparative Literature Program at �鶹��Ƶ College in Jed Deppman’s memory or to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, 1025 Vermont Ave NW, Suite 1066, Washington, D.C. 20005. </p> <p>Gifts to the Comparative Literature Program can be made online at <a href="https://oberlin.edu/donate" target="_blank">oberlin.edu/donate</a>—when asked for a designation choose “other” and then enter “Comparative Literature” in the text box, and include Professor Deppman's name in the memorial section. Checks can be sent to �鶹��Ƶ College, 50 W. Lorain St., �鶹��Ƶ, OH 44074 and should include “Jed Deppman” in the reference field. Please contact Ann at <a href="mailto:adeppman@oberlin.edu">adeppman@oberlin.edu</a> with any questions.</p> <p><em>[Editor’s note: Many thanks to Sebastiaan Faber for his contributions to this article.]</em></p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">Campus News</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2019-06-28T12:00:00Z">Fri, 06/28/2019 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Communications Staff</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2544">In Memoriam</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25316">Comparative Literature</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25346">English</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/comparative-literature" hreflang="und">Comparative Literature</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/english" hreflang="und">English</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Professor Jed Deppman</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Formosa Deppman</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Q&A with Phyllis Gorfain, Emerita Professor of English and Ohio Arts Council Award Recipient</h1> <p>hhempste — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 16:42:10 +0000</p> <span>Q&A with Phyllis Gorfain, Emerita Professor of English and Ohio Arts Council Award Recipient</span> <span><span>hhempste</span></span> <span><time datetime="2019-02-20T11:42:10-05:00" title="Wednesday, February 20, 2019 - 11:42">Wed, 02/20/2019 - 11:42</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Learn more about Gorfain and �鶹��Ƶ Drama at Grafton in this Q&A:</p> <p><strong>You began the �鶹��Ƶ Drama at Grafton (ODAG) program in 2012, and have since directed or helped direct 11 productions; five of them full or abridged Shakespeare plays. What was the impetus for beginning this program?</strong></p> <p>Some of my friends who led a volunteer writing program at the Grafton prison asked if I would come to read a Shakespeare play with their students in the prison. Soon after, I learned about other Shakespeareans producing Shakespeare’s plays in prisons, and I became connected with them at a Shakespeare conference where a movie called <em>Shakespeare Behind Bars</em> was also screened. There, I was able to talk to the director of the actual Shakespeare Behind Bars program, which is located in La Grange, Kentucky, and I also got to talk to the directors of the film.</p> <p>The film was extremely inspiring, but not so much that I thought I would do it myself. I just thought I had found a community from which I could gather advice. But that summer, when I did read a Shakespeare play with incarcerated men, I was convinced that working with Shakespeare with incarcerated men would be a profound experience for us all and I would pursue that as a retirement project. I saw it as a way to combine my Shakespeare expertise and my theater knowledge—and my secret desire to direct Shakespeare. It would be a whole new way to experience Shakespeare in a non-academic context—to participate in exploring Shakespeare for social change and transformation.</p> <p>So following retirement, I took two acting classes and one directing class to get some of the theater training I needed. I realized this would be a great second act in my career. </p> <p><strong>What involvement do �鶹��Ƶ students and faculty have in the �鶹��Ƶ Drama at Grafton program?</strong></p> <p>Over the six and a half years of the program’s existence, 24 students have worked with ODAG, many of them for three years. Most join as student assistants in their sophomore year and participate all the way through to their senior year. That the students remain consistently involved allows the men to enjoy continuity of leadership; the men also feel very connected to the college through the students. Professors have also been involved by leading master classes and teaching fundamentals of acting. The creativity, dedication, and expertise of faculty and especially of students has been essential to the success of ODAG.</p> <p><strong>Since the program’s inception, what’s changed or evolved?</strong></p> <p>I think the biggest development was having other people direct. On two occasions, two students directed their own devised plays based on the men’s writings, improvisations, and narrated experiences while I served as the assistant director. In both of those cases, audiences were deeply affected by the men’s moving stories.</p> <p>Now, Tracey Field, a professional theater practitioner and an Equity actor, is directing this year’s production of the<em> Merchant of Venice</em>, and she earlier conducted a showcase of performances she helped make coherent and beautifully theatrical. I hadn’t originally anticipated that other people would direct plays, but it has provided the actors with different styles of directing, leadership, and plays.</p> <p><strong>Have you experienced any particularly poignant or memorable moments during the past seven years of the program?</strong></p> <p>I have probably 10 stories I could tell about profound experiences that I’ve had where actors make stunning discoveries or testify about very meaningful changes that they’ve made.</p> <p>The ODAG actors take passages in the plays to places that I never could reach myself. They go beyond my knowledge and imagination—and of course that’s very humbling. This example from a production of Macbeth is very simple: One of the actors had watched the sleepwalking scene many times, in which Lady Macbeth is imagining washing a stain from her hand. During the talkback session at the end of the performance, one of the actors said this to the audience, “When I see Lady Macbeth trying to wash the stain from her hands, it's the stain of her remorse; it’s the stain of her guilt; it’s the stain of her knowledge. When I see that she cannot wash it off, I think of the stain that I will always carry from my crime, but I also think of the stain on my victim—the stain that she will never remove.” This kind of self-examination results in growth that exceeds what I could ever anticipate.</p> <p><strong>What role does the audience who watches these productions play?</strong></p> <p>For the audience members, it can be a transforming experience to meet men who are unlike what they expected, who are capable of very profound thought, who invest so much of themselves into their roles, and who achieve such courage and artistry in a very difficult environment.</p> <p>It’s part of �鶹��Ƶ Drama at Grafton’s mission to create a community of citizens who appreciate their shared humanity through the sharing of art.</p> <p><strong>You just received the 2019 Governor’s Award for Arts Administration, an honor that recognizes individuals and organizations who have been vital to the growth and development of Ohio's cultural resources. What does this award mean to you?</strong></p> <p>I know, and actually everyone who works with me knows, that ODAG depends on a whole community—above all, the commitment, courage, and ability and talent of the actors. That’s what people come for—to see the actors perform and to meet them.</p> <p>Also, it wouldn’t happen without the prison assisting. The regional director of prisons and the warden and deputy warden have all been enthusiastic supporters of ODAG. Although the prison environment is very difficult, the top administrators have ensured that ODAG will persist and succeed. It also wouldn’t happen without all of the students, faculty, mentors, and other professionals who make ODAG.</p> <p>It’s hard to accept an award such as this when you aren’t a sole artist. What I have come to terms with is that the award isn’t for me as an artist, but for me as an arts administrator. I do actually do all of the nuts and bolts—the calling, the emails, the organizing. So I am the administrator, that’s true. But what the award is really for—is for ODAG’s impact. So I feel OK as the conduit for that recognition and honor, for ODAG—the actors, the volunteers, the audiences, and the donors.</p> <p><strong>What do you see in the future for the �鶹��Ƶ Drama at Grafton program? Any news or new developments?</strong><br> <br> I’m 75 years old, and I’ve been doing this for six and a half years. So, I’m hoping that ODAG will find a new direction sometime in the future. I hope that we will find someone or an institution that will head up ODAG to take it on its next leg of the journey.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">Campus News</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2019-02-20T12:00:00Z">Wed, 02/20/2019 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Communications Staff</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Emerita Professor Phyllis Gorfain, founder and artistic director of �鶹��Ƶ Drama at Grafton, received the 2019 Governor’s Award for Arts Administration from the Ohio Arts Council. The arts administration award is for an “individual who has shown sustained, impactful, and visionary leadership of an arts organization.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2414">Faculty</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2385">Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25346">English</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/english" hreflang="und">English</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Courtesy of Phyllis Gorfain </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> <article> <h1>English Professors Receive GLCA Grant</h1> <p>Anonymous — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 18:19:41 +0000</p> <span>English Professors Receive GLCA Grant</span> <span><span>Anonymous (not verified)</span></span> <span><time datetime="2016-11-07T13:19:41-05:00" title="Monday, November 7, 2016 - 13:19">Mon, 11/07/2016 - 13:19</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Three English professors have received a $47,520 grant from the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) for “Expanding Collaboration Initiative on World Literature: Phase Two,” a joint project with three Kenyon College faculty. The project is being funded through the GLCA’s <a href="http://glca.org/glcaprograms/glca-expanding-collaboration-initiative" target="_blank">Expanding Collaboration Initiative</a>, a professional development program made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that supports collaborative curricular initiatives involving faculty and key professional staff who share common academic interests.</p> <p>The �鶹��Ƶ faculty receiving the grant are Anuradha Dingwaney Needham, Donald R. Longman Professor of English; Danielle Skeehan, assistant professor of English; and Harrod Suarez, assistant professor of English and comparative American studies. The Kenyon College faculty are Travis Landry, associate professor of Spanish; Jesse Matz, William P. Rice professor of English and literature, and Pashmina Murthy, assistant professor of English.</p> <p>The purpose of the project is to elaborate a more nuanced and deeper understanding of what it means to study world literature today in the context of a liberal arts college setting and to make scholarship more inclusive of underrepresented, predominantly non-European traditions.</p> <p>“What currently counts as world literature tends to privilege European texts. Our emphasis is not so much on rejecting European texts as on foregrounding non-European ones,” Needham says. “As a result our discussions have emphasized a different body of theory that doesn’t necessarily turn up under world literature. We want to make the argument that it belongs there.”</p> <p>The professors received a $13,016 grant, also from the GLCA Expanding Collaboration Initiative, for the first phase of the project. In phase one, the professors launched a hybrid course in which Kenyon students enrolled in Reading World Literature (taught by Landry and Matz) and �鶹��Ƶ students enrolled in Globalization and Diaspora (taught by Suarez) in spring 2015 collaborated by <a href="https://kenyonoberlinworld.wordpress.com/">contributing to a blog</a> and participating in discussions that engaged them in thinking about elements of world literature.</p> <p>The professors will use the grant awarded for phase two to create two additional offerings of collaborative hybrid courses in spring 2016 and 2017 with additional features to integrate collaboration more fully. They will also write a scholarly article (tentatively titled “Performing Provincialism in a Cosmopolitan World”) and convene a Consortial Meeting on World Literatures that will include participants from GLCA institutions and outside scholars and writers working in world literature today. Needham says the group hopes attendees will feel inspired to write essays post-meeting, which they will collect and publish in an edited collection.</p> <p>In an email to Needham, Director of Program Development at GLCA Gregory Wegner had this to say about the project: “This is a project that shows considerable promise in its continuing steps to create a GLCA consortial community to think together about the implications of world literature, to infuse one another’s thinking as scholars and teachers, and to take advantage of opportunities to collaborate in the teaching of world literature classes on GLCA college campuses.”</p> <p>The success of phase two will be evaluated through a variety of means, including written feedback and informal discussions. Needham says she does not anticipate the project will require additional phases at this time.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">Campus News</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2015-10-09T12:00:00Z">Fri, 10/09/2015 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Lisa Gulasy</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2563">Grants</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25346">English</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/harrod-suarez" hreflang="und">Harrod Suarez</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/danielle-skeehan" hreflang="und">Danielle Skeehan</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/english" hreflang="und">English</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> </article> <article> <h1>First-of-its-Kind Symposium on Asian Cinema</h1> <p>Anonymous — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 18:20:09 +0000</p> <span>First-of-its-Kind Symposium on Asian Cinema</span> <span><span>Anonymous (not verified)</span></span> <span><time datetime="2016-11-07T13:20:09-05:00" title="Monday, November 7, 2016 - 13:20">Mon, 11/07/2016 - 13:20</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Asian cinema experts, filmmakers, and enthusiasts will come together in �鶹��Ƶ this weekend for a series of events that includes the symposium Asian Cinemas in a Global Context; the lecture “<a href="https://calendar.oberlin.edu/event/tom_gunning_why_cinema_has_not_yet_been_invented_or_taking_the_digital_in_hand#.VP39n2TF-9V">Why Cinema Has Not Yet Been Invented: or Taking the Digital in Hand</a>,” by University of Chicago Professor Tom Gunning; and the lecture “<a href="https://calendar.oberlin.edu/event/lecture_by_taiwanese_documentary_filmmaker_ho_chao-ti#.VQA9_2TF-9V">Globalization from a Local Lens: Creative Conceptions of a Taiwanese Director</a>,” by documentary filmmaker Ho Chao-ti. The symposium, a collaborative effort between the Department of English, the programs in East Asian studies and cinema studies, and �鶹��Ƶ Shansi, is the first to explicitly bring together Indian and Chinese cinemas for discussion.</p> <p>Anuradha Needham, chair of the English department and Donald R. Longman professor of English, and Hsiu-Chuang Deppman, associate professor of Chinese and author of <em>Adapted for the Screen: The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Fiction and Film</em>, organized the symposium in conjunction with courses they are teaching this semester: <a href="https://catalog.oberlin.edu/preview_course.php?catoid=43&coid=159017&print">Bollywood’s India: An Introduction to Indian Cinema</a> and Popular Chinese Cinema and Public Intellectualism. Needham, who studies Indian cinema and recently published the book <em>New Indian Cinema in Post-Independence India: The Cultural Work of Shyam Benegal’s Films</em>, says it was students expressing interest in Bollywood cinema who inspired her to teach her course and, ultimately, co-organize the symposium.</p> <p>Needham says she and Deppman planned the symposium for this weekend because it coincides with Tom Gunning and Ho Chao-ti’s lectures. “It’s a series of happenings all on cinema. They are related to each other; they piggyback on each other,” she explains.</p> <p>Tom Gunning’s lecture on March 13 will be the ninth in the series �鶹��Ƶ Lectures in English and American Literature. The series is made possible by an endowed fund created for that purpose by Andrew Bongiorno, a former English department chair and professor who died in 1998.</p> <p>Ho Chao-ti’s lecture will launch the Jacobson-Cocco Distinguished Lecture Series, endowed by �鶹��Ƶ Shansi in honor of former Executive Director Carl Jacobson and Associate Director Deborah Cocco, who, according to �鶹��Ƶ Shansi Campus Coordinator Sophie Grimes, worked for the nonprofit for 36 and 27 years, respectively. In addition to her lecture, two of Ho Chao-ti’s documentaries, <em><a href="https://calendar.oberlin.edu/event/film_screening_my_fancy_high_heels#.VQA-RGTF-9W">My Fancy High Heels</a></em> and <em><a href="https://calendar.oberlin.edu/event/film_screening_sock_n_roll#.VQA-W2TF-9W">Sock ‘n’ Roll</a></em>, will be shown.</p> <p>According to Needham and Deppman, the symposium and other related events epitomize many of �鶹��Ƶ College’s core values. These include diversity, originality, and, most notably, collaboration, the latter of which is demonstrated by the cooperation of the various departments, programs, and organizations involved. Additionally, the symposium will welcome three Kenyon College faculty and their students who, along with three �鶹��Ƶ English faculty, are part of a Great Lakes College Association (GLCA) supported collaborative grant.</p> <p>Needham cites the number of symposium registrants—now more than 100—as an indication of people’s interest in the topic of Asian cinema. “This is the first instance any symposium combines Indian and Chinese cinema,” she says. “We are excited that so many people are excited about it.”</p> <p>For more information about the symposium and a complete schedule of events, visit <a href="http://shansi.org/">shansi.org</a>.</p> <p>The symposium would not have been possible without funding and support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant for the �鶹��Ƶ Center for Languages and Cultures (OCLC); the President’s Office; the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences; the Department of Art History Baldwin Fund; South Asian Students Association (SASA); Leading Edge Fund; and the Multicultural Resource Center (MRC).</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">Campus News</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2015-03-11T12:00:00Z">Wed, 03/11/2015 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Lisa Gulasy</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2366">Guest Artists & Speakers</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2397">Shansi</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25346">English</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25256">Cinema and Media</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25336">East Asian Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/english" hreflang="und">English</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/cinema-studies" hreflang="und">Cinema and Media</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/east-asian-studies" hreflang="und">East Asian Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">A series of events is taking place March 12-15, including the symposium Asian Cinemas in a Global Context; the lecture “Why Cinema Has Not Yet Been Invented: or Taking the Digital in Hand,” by University of Chicago Professor Tom Gunning; and the lecture “Globalization from a Local Lens: Creative Conceptions of a Taiwanese Director,” by documentary filmmaker Ho Chao-ti.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> </main></body></html>