Events
Faculty Notes
Fall 2007
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Blanche Abram, adjunct professor of music, and Naomi Drucker, adjunct instructor of music, co-directors of the American Chamber Ensemble (ACE), were surprised at the end of their April 22 Hofstra concert when two representatives from the Long Island Music Hall of Fame came onstage to present them with The Long Island Sound Award for their "Outstanding Contributions to Long Island's Musical Heritage." In their presentation of the award, the representatives spoke of Professor Abram and Professor Drucker's 43-year collaboration on the ACE, which has highlighted the work of Long Island composers in almost every performance. The influence of their teaching was also cited in the tribute. Music from the ACE's April 22 concert will be featured on the group's next CD, scheduled for release in fall 2007. The CD features works for clarinet and piano by American composers of the 1920s and 1930s.
Alafair Burke, associate professor of law, was interviewed for the May issue of Library Journal about her forthcoming book, Dead Connection. This is her fourth mystery novel. Her first three – Judgment Calls, Missing Justice and Cold Case – centered around heroine Samantha Kincaid. Dead Connection is Professor Burke's first standalone novel.
Alexander J. Burke, Jr., professor of English and director of the Hofstra Publishing Studies program, has published the first book on John the Baptist for the general reader in the last 50 years, John the Baptist: Prophet and Disciple (St. Anthony Messenger Press). He also published an article in Logos – The Journal of the World Book Community. The article, titled 'College of the Book': Teaching Publishing Studies to Undergraduates," offers a description of the Hofstra Publishing Studies program and its unique status among American universities.
Mary Kennedy Carter, adjunct instructor of curriculum and teaching, received an Educator of the Year Award at the Freeport/Roosevelt Annual Freedom Fund Dinner Dance. Mrs. Carter has taught at every level from elementary grades to graduate school. In 1969 she developed and taught a black studies course for the Roosevelt School District, designed for students and teachers. In Rockville Centre she developed a human relations curriculum for seventh grade students, a curriculum on the Holocaust for eighth grade students and, in 1989, she founded the club "P.I.N.K./B.L.U.E" (Prejudice Is Not Kool/Build Lasting Unity Everywhere) for middle school students who teach prejudice reduction to elementary students. She recently worked with Hofstra Professor Alan Singer on the curriculum guide "New York and Slavery: Complicity and Resistance," which received the 2005 Social Studies Program of Excellence Award from the National Council for Social Studies. Mrs. Carter has lived, studied and worked in Europe and Africa. In Uganda she spent two years at a teachers college, where she taught teaching methods and conducted reading method workshops for more than 500 elementary school teachers. In collaboration with a Uganda teacher, she co-authored an English reader for primary students. Mrs. Carter is the recipient of a number of awards, including the National Sojourner Truth Award given by the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Club, Inc., Central Nassau Club; the Master Educator Award, Rockville Centre School District; and the Detective Sergeant Joseph Zito Memorial Award from the American Jewish Congress Center for Prejudice Reduction. In 2006 she received the Nassau Commission on Human Rights Martin Luther King Award.
John DiGaetani, professor of English, has been nominated for membership on the distinguished advisory board of the Bernard Shaw Society, the oldest continuing society of its kind in New York. The society boasts distinguished scholars of the arts and culture such as Eric Bentley, Jacques Barzun and theater critic Howard Kissel. Dr. DiGaetani's scholarly expertise includes a focus on the relationship between Shaw and German composer Richard Wagner, who was considered central to many of Shaw's plays and in his early career as a music critic. Dr. DiGaetani's most recent book, Wagner and Suicide, will be followed by Inside the Ring: Essays on Wagner's Opera Cycle." Dr. DiGaetani was nominated for membership in the Bernard Shaw Society by Hofstra Professor Emerita Rhoda Nathan, who serves as the organization's president. Dr. Maureen Murphy, acting dean of the School of Education and Allied Human Services, also serves on the advisory board.
Jeanne Fuchs, professor emerita of comparative literature and languages, and Ruth Prigozy, professor of English, are co-editors of Frank Sinatra, the Man, the Music, the Legend, published by the University of Rochester Press. The volume is derived from the conference Frank Sinatra: The Man, The Music, The Legend, presented by the Hofstra Cultural Center in 1998.
Claire Lindgren, associate professor of art history, was invited by the Universite de Provence CNRS, to present a paper at the International Colloquium on Roman Provincial Art held in Arles and Aix-en Provence, France, in May 2007. This colloquium was attended by archaeologists from all regions of Europe, the Mediterranean, Israel, Tunisia and Egypt, which had been part of the Roman Empire at its greatest extent. Dr. Lindgren was the only art historian to speak. The invitation was extended to her because her research has centered on analyzing excavated art from these areas by examining how the classical examples inherited from the Greek world conflated with the art of the indigenous pre-Roman populace in both style and iconography. Her paper, which was very well received, will be published by the Centre Camille-Jullian Universite de Provence-CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) in the coming year.
Herbert Rosenbaum, professor emeritus of political science, delivered the annual Stein Lecture, titled "Jews in American Politics," at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. The lectureship was established in honor of Max K. and Mathilde Stein, formerly of Hempstead. Max Stein was a 1956 graduate of Hofstra. Their son, Dr. Kenneth Stein, is professor of contemporary Middle Eastern studies and Jewish studies at Emory.
Paula Uruburu, professor and chair of the English Department, was interviewed in May by several radio stations about the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, the legacy of the film and its literary influences. The stations were KXYL in Brownwood, Texas, on May 9; WPRO in Providence, Rhode Island, on May 10; and WTZN radio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on May 11.
Joan Zaleski, associate professor and chair of literacy studies, was interviewed by several media outlets during the week of June 18 on the history of the Nancy Drew children's books. She was interviewed by Hofstra's own WRHU-FM, the Jewish Herald Voice newspaper in Texas, the Michigan Macomb Daily, and News Talk 980 in Saskatchewan, Canada.
