Faculty News briefs

Nohemy Solórzano-Thompson, associate professor of Spanish, recently attended two professional meetings in the Greater Los Angeles area. She was at UCLA for a board meeting of the Association for Jotería Arts, Activism, and Scholarship (AJAAS), a new Queer Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies organization. As part of the Program Committee, Solórzano-Thompson is working on the inaugural AJAAS Conference to be held next October in New Mexico. Solórzano-Thompson then attended the Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS) annual gathering held at UCSB. At MALCS, Solórzano-Thompson participated in a roundtable discussion on “Consejos y Sabiduría: Chicana/Latina Leadership in Academia.” As one of a handful of tenured Chicanas in the U.S. academy, Solórzano-Thompson was invited to speak on professional development and mentorship to an audience of Chicana/Latina/Native women activists, scholars and students.

James Winchell, adjunct assistant professor of foreign languages, recently published a new article in Tablet Magazine. Titled “The Healing Power of Jew-Love,” the article examines the concept of “philosemitism,” or love of Jews, as recently promoted by historian Gertrude Himmelfarb as a potential remedy to anti-Semitism in literature. Winchell focuses specifically on George Eliot’s 1876 novel Daniel Deronda. 

Matt Reynolds, assistant professor of art history and visual culture studies, has written an article that appears in the most recent edition of the journal Public: Art, Culture, Ideas. The essay is titled “A Massive Multi-Faceted Screening Room: LA Freewaves Curates Hollywood Boulevard” and analyzes the intersections between art, media and the ongoing Hollywood Redevelopment Project. The work was completed with support from a Perry Research Grant and the assistance of art history major Liz Hockett ’11.

Jeff Northam ’88, head men’s tennis coach, has been named NCAA Division III West Region Coach of the Year by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). It is the second time in 10 years that Northam has been selected. Despite losing three top-notch seniors to graduation a year ago, Northam led his 2011-12 roster to one of Whitman’s most successful seasons in more than two decades. Read more here.

Aaron Bobrow-Strain, associate professor of politics, reports that his latest book, “White Bread,” has been reviewed by The Atlantic (July/August 2012) and The New York Times, (June 29, 2012).

Barry Balof, associate professor of mathematics, recently presented at the 15th International Conference on Fibonacci Numbers and Their Applications in Eger, Hungary. About 100 experts from 20 countries attended the conference. Balof’s talk was titled “Restricted Tilings, Coordination Sequences, and Bijections,” and it involved analyzing different types of combinatorial objects that are counted by the same formula and looking for links between the objects that explain why they have the same formula. The talk also involved some elements from geology. “While the conference was mostly mathematicians, there were also musicians and artists giving talks, so it was quite the ‘liberal arts’ setting,” he reports.

Paul Apostolidis, T. Paul Chair of Political Science and director of the State of the State of Washington Latinos, has written an opinion piece for The Seattle Times, published June 30. Titled “Closing the wide gap between Latino population and representation in much of Washington,” the piece proposes that “Washington is doing a dismal job of electing Latinos that represent their rapidly growing populations… We can, and should, enact state voting reforms to change that. Apostolidis credits former students Zach Duffy, and Seth Dawson, Ian Warner and Nick Dollar for conducting the research that made this guest op-ed possible. Read the full piece HERE.