Heather Stauffer

Heather E. Stauffer recently joined ���ϲ����� Press (SU Press) as the new editor-in-chief. Prior to that, Stauffer was a legal writer at Brown Immigration Law and spent a dozen years at University of Nebraska Press, progressing in her career from intern to acquisitions editor. Stauffer received two master’s degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in both English and History, as well as the Addison E. Sheldon Fellowship in History.

“We’re thrilled to have someone with Heather’s experience and passion join us at SU Press,” said Catherine C. Cocks, director of ���ϲ����� Libraries’ SU Press. “Her interest and enthusiasm are especially helpful as we look to make progress on our academic strategic plan, which includes expanding experiential learning opportunities for students, strengthening our publications list, deepening our commitment to publish previously excluded or under-represented voices, and maximizing the Press’s participation in open access initiatives.”

“I’m excited and humbled to be joining such a distinguished and storied publishing program that is SU Press, and especially joining a team of dedicated and knowledgeable colleagues,” says Stauffer. “The Press brings out the best aspects of collaboration—on campus, in the region, internationally—and I look forward to being part of where we go next.”

Four ���ϲ����� Press authors and their forthcoming books will embark on the Path to Open this year.

���ϲ����� Press is participating in , a groundbreaking collaboration between university presses, libraries and JSTOR, to promote sustainable open-access publishing of high-quality scholarly eBooks and increase meaningful engagement with them. Through the program, will be publishing new books in the humanities and social sciences each year that will be available to a growing group of Path to Open libraries for three years and then become open access to anyone, anywhere. ���ϲ����� Press’ books will be among 300 new titles added to the collection from an array of university presses. This community-supported funding model will assist libraries’ efforts to increase cultural diversity in their holdings, reduce the financial risk of open-access publishing for small and medium university presses like ���ϲ����� Press, help our authors reach a global audience and advance equity of access to underserved researchers around the world.

“���ϲ����� Press is confident that removing barriers to access can significantly boost the readership and the impact of our authors’ books,” says Catherine Cocks, director of ���ϲ����� Press. “In fact, eBooks on JSTOR have already been used more than 43 million times in every country in the world. They have reached nearly 12,000 institutions, some of which might not be able to afford these texts, including high schools and community colleges.”

The following ���ϲ����� Press authors and their forthcoming books will embark on the Path to Open this year:

• “The Urgency of Indigenous Values” by Philip Arnold, associate professor of the Department of Religion, ���ϲ�����
• “Beyond Othering: A Gandhian Approach to Conflict Resolution in India and Pakistan” by Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra and Seema Shekhawat
• “Paradoxes of Emancipation: Radical Imagination and Space” in Neoliberal Greece by Dimitris Soudias
• “Outcasting Armenians: Tanzimat of the Provinces” by Talin Suciyan

is available on their website.

Catherine Cocks

She has over 20 years’ experience in academic publishing, having worked as senior acquisitions editor at the University of Washington Press and editorial director at the University of Iowa Press.

Cocks holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Davis, and a bachelor’s degree in history and Spanish from Williams College. She has served on several professional committees for the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) and is currently a member of a joint task force on career progression of the AUPresses and the Society for Scholarly Publishing, as well as the National Humanities Alliance working group on publishing publicly engaged humanities projects. She is also a published author of three scholarly books.

The award includes a $1,000 cash prize and a publication contract with ���ϲ����� Uni­versity Press. Manuscripts of high merit not selected for the final award may receive honorable mention.

The Veterans Writing Award was established in 2019 to recognize the contributions of veterans to the literary arts, shine a light on the multivalent veteran experience and provide a platform for unrecognized military writers.

Unpublished, full-length manuscripts are accepted for consideration. This biennial contest alternates between fiction and nonfiction each award cycle, with the 2023 award open to memoirs, nonfiction essays and creative nonfiction.

The award is open to U.S. veter­ans and active-duty personnel in any branch of the U.S. military and their immediate fam­ily members. This includes spouses, domestic partners, siblings, parents and children. Women veteran writers, veterans of color, Native American veterans, LGBTQ veterans and those who identify as having a disability are encouraged to submit.

Although work submitted for the contest need not be about direct military experience, original voices and fresh perspectives are sought that will expand and challenge readers’ understanding of the lives of veterans and their families. Posthumous submissions are eligible.

Finalists will be read by writer, activist and veteran of the United States Marine Corps and the winning entry will be announced in November of 2023.

Complete rules and submission guidelines can be found on the .

Brian O’Hare

���ϲ����� Press announces that Brian O’Hare’s short story collection “Something Hidden” is the winner of the 2021 Veterans Writing Award. O’Hare is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and former U.S. Marine Corps officer. Currently, he’s an award-winning writer and filmmaker living in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in “War, Literature and the Arts,” “Santa Fe Writers Project” and “Hobart,” and has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes. He was recently named a Writing Fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Veterans Writing Award judge Phil Klay praised O’Hare’s work, noting “Something Hidden” is written in delightful, incisive prose bursting with humanity. It is deeply observed and emotionally powerful, sharp on both the cultural mores of young men and on the deeper consequences of what happens when that mixes with American military power. And each story boasts richly imagined characters that live on in the mind long after you’ve finished reading.”

���ϲ����� Press, in cooperation with the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF), established the Veterans Writing Award in 2019. The mission of the award is to recognize the contributions of veterans to the literary arts, shine a light on the multivalent veteran experience and provide a platform for unrecognized military writers. This contest is open to U.S. veterans and active-duty personnel in any branch of the U.S. military and their immediate family members. This includes spouses, domestic partners, parents, siblings, and children. We encourage women veteran writers, veterans of color, Native American veterans, LGBTQ veterans, and those who identify as having a disability to submit. Although work submitted for the contest need not be about direct military experience, we seek original voices and fresh perspectives that will expand and challenge readers’ understanding of the lives of veterans and their families.

���ϲ����� Press Week display in Bird Library

University Press Week presents an opportunity for academic publishers to explore new ways to reach readers, amplify ideas and sustain scholarly communities while remaining steadfast in their commitment to advancing knowledge. This year’s theme for UP Week, meant to celebrate the many ways university press publishing has evolved and excelled over the last decade, is “Keep UP.”

“The ���ϲ����� Press has kept up over the past 10 years by expanding the ways to access our content through offering a wide range of accessible e-publications, MOBI, open access, audio books and print-on-demand publications. We have launched an accessible website, hosted online author events and greatly expanded our social media presence. Our focus on leading scholarship is demonstrated in new series that we have launched in the last ten years including: , , , and ,” says Alice Pfeiffer, director of the ���ϲ����� Press.

“Keep UP” is significant in a time when great change has come to all facets of book publishing and the media. For university presses, the past decade has presented opportunities that have allowed these nonprofit publishers to explore new ways to reach readers, amplify ideas, and sustain scholarly communities while remaining steadfast in their commitment to advancing knowledge. To mark a momentous decade of university press publishing and UP Weeks, this year the Association of University Presses’ members are showcasing books, journals, open access reading platforms, podcasts, and other efforts through a “Keep UP Gallery” and Reading List. ���ϲ����� Press has submitted Nina Shengold’s Reservoir Year for the Gallery and Reading list. Reservoir Year is uniquely available in paperback and as an audiobook, with the audiobook produced in partnership between ���ϲ����� Libraries’ Sound Beat: Access Audio and ���ϲ����� Press. “Partnering with SU Press to create audiobooks was a natural progression for us. It aligns with our mission of inclusion and accessibility and bringing important stories to a new listening audience,” says Jim O’Connor, Sound Beat Producer.

There are 159 members of the , and 20 percent of that number are presses outside the U.S. Members publish nearly 12,000 books each year and more than 1,500 journals and numerous innovative digital works. Since 1937, the Association of University Presses advances the essential role of a global community of publishers whose mission is to ensure academic excellence and cultivate knowledge. The Association holds intellectual freedom, integrity, stewardship, and diversity and inclusion as core values. Members are active across many scholarly disciplines, including the humanities, arts, and sciences, publish significant regional and literary work, and are innovators in the world of digital publishing.

Madeline Krumel (Ph.D. student, English) used the ���ϲ����� ’s collections to create teaching-specific finding aids that will make it easier for instructors to teach with art objects. Emily Dittman, associate director of the Art Museum, emphasized the range of topics covered by the objects that Krumel worked with, “from pedagogical tools to critical race theory, from literary afterlives to psychoanalysis” and their potential educational value. According to Krumel, “My hope is that these finding aids will make Humanities instructors (and beyond) feel encouraged and empowered to reinvigorate their teaching via SU Art’s extensive collections.”

Alex Hanson (Ph.D. candidate, composition and cultural rhetoric) interned at , working with several of its departments–Acquisitions, Marketing, and Editorial/Production–and carrying out a wide variety of work, such as writing proposals for the editorial board, researching outside readers for manuscripts and securing permissions for reprinted text and images. “I am so grateful for the very clear directions Peggy [Solic], Deb [Manion], and Kelly [Balenske] provided, their patient, kind, and generous mentorship. I felt like this was a very ‘intern-centered’ experience, ” says Hanson. Deb Manion, acquisitions editor, added that the internship was “a tremendous collaborative opportunity for the Press, the Graduate School and, most importantly, the graduate student, who can train in an academic-adjacent field that they have real interest in as part of their job market goals.”

The Graduate School also partnered with the College of Arts and Sciences’ Engaged Humanities Network and Dean’s Professor of Community Engagement Brice Nordquist to create four additional Engaged Humanities Summer Internships. These internships are connected to ongoing Engaged Communities projects across the city and region.

Jordan Brady Loewen (Ph.D. candidate, religion) worked at the , editing and producing the “Mapping the Doctrine of Discovery” podcast series, in addition to developing the Virtual Onondaga Project, overseeing a team of programmers, artists and designers. “It was wonderful to have focused time to do creative and public-facing scholarship,” Loewen says. “The pay was also an important motivator.”

Zakery Muñoz (Ph.D. candidate, composition and cultural rhetoric) worked at , digitizing and producing content for the organization’s Cultural Memory Archive and an upcoming exhibition. In addition, Muñoz led a writing workshop for Latinx youth from the local community. Teresita Paniaguia, executive director of cultural engagement for the Hispanic Community, enthused that Muñoz’s work was “absolutely critical to the agency at this particular time, as we were preparing to reopen our Center after closure due to Covid19. His contributions had a direct and very positive impact on the life of Center, on the lives of these kids, their families, and on the relationships between La Casita and its community partners.”

Jacob Gedetsis (MFA student, creative writing), worked with directors and teachers at the on the ongoing community writing project “Write Out,” leading daily writing sessions for middle-school students. Kofi Addai, associate director at North Side Learning Center, notes that Gedetsis helped the students “to think outside the box and be creative in their writing,” while Gedetsis affirmed that “this internship challenged and excited me like nothing else during my academic career.”

Aley O’Mara (Ph.D., English, 2021), worked with Joann Yarrow, ’s director of community engagement and education, on the theater’s housing policy project, “” O’Mara collected oral histories to fill archival gaps around housing insecurities and reform in ���ϲ�����, contributing to the larger project of using art to shift current housing policy in the ���ϲ����� area.

Over the past couple of years, the team, part of the Special Collections Research Center, has worked with the Libraries’ Advancement staff to include longer format audio projects, like narrated journals and documentary-style pieces. Partnering with SU Press to create audiobooks was a natural progression and partnership. And through an exciting partnership with the , InclusiveU students form an integral part of the production team. The opportunity to produce high quality audiobooks with students from InclusiveU at the center of the experience demonstrates the impact of cross-collaborative scholarship at ���ϲ�����.

has been publishing vital scholarship, sharing ideas and giving voice to important stories since 1943. They were delighted to collaborate on providing an alternate format for authors and readers. Audiobooks are the fastest-growing segment in the digital publishing industry, providing another medium to reach audiences and to share stories that might otherwise have not been told.

The described “” as an “… exceptional audiobook [that] proves there are still unique stories of Holocaust survival to hear. Alan Haft’s biography of his father…who used brawn and boxing skills to survive…imprisonment at Auschwitz, is one listeners will long remember. Narrator Price Waldman tells Harry’s story with a sense of rage, determination to survive, and even love, allowing the story to excel on audio in a way that print books cannot match…” (AudioFile 2021).

The book is available for purchase  through several vendors, including Apple Books, Hoopla, Libro.FM and Audible.

About ���ϲ����� Libraries

���ϲ����� Libraries provides expertise, information, and tools for students, faculty and staff, alumni, and the community. With over 4.8 million volumes of resources accessed by 1.2 million physical visits and 1.3 million online visits annually, the Libraries provides information services, responsive collections, knowledgeable staff, and safe and accessible physical and digital spaces that encourage intellectual exploration. In so doing, the Libraries enable the creation of new knowledge, catalyze scholarly collaboration and cultural exchange, and advance ���ϲ�����’s teaching, learning and research mission.

The contest is open to U.S. veterans and active-duty personnel in any branch of the U.S. military and their immediate family members, including spouses, domestic partners and children. Women veteran writers and veterans of color are encouraged to submit. Although work submitted for the contest need not be about direct military experience, SU Press seeks original voices and fresh perspectives that will expand and challenge readers’ understanding of the lives of veterans and their families.

Finalists will be read by National Book Award-winning author and veteran of the United States Marine Corps  and the winning entry will be announced in October 2021. The award includes a $1,000 cash prize and a publication contract with ���ϲ����� Press. Manuscripts of high merit not selected for the final award may receive honorable mention. Current faculty and staff of ���ϲ����� are not eligible to enter the contest.

The winner of the first Veterans Writing Award in 2019 was Dewaine Farria for his novel “.” The book recently received recognition as one of Shelf Awareness’s Best Books of 2020, the only university press book to receive the honor this year.

Members of the Veterans Writing Award Advisory Board include:

• Kyle Bass, Department of Drama instructor, associate director of ���ϲ����� Stage, playwright
• Christopher Kennedy, Department of English professor and director of the M.F.A. in creative writing program
• Eileen Schell, professor of writing and rhetoric, director of graduate studies and co-leader of the ���ϲ����� Veterans’ Writing Group
• Daniel Piston, program evaluation manager, IVMF
• Kicia Sears, program evaluation manager, IVMF
• Suzanne Guiod, director, Bucknell University Press
• Lisa Kuerbis, marketing coordinator, ���ϲ����� Press

For questions or more information, contact Lisa Kuerbis via email at lkuerbis@syr.edu.

Their first two audiobooks, “ by Nina Shengold and “ by Alan Scott Haft, are now available for purchase through several vendors, including Apple Play Books, Hoopla and Libro.FM, and are forthcoming through Audible. More information about the audiobooks can be found at .

Sound Beat is a 90-second daily radio program based on recordings held within the Belfer Audio Archive, part of ���ϲ����� Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center. Each episode provides a short back story on a specific piece of recorded sound. The show is on air in 360 markets and carried by commercial and community-supported stations around the world.

“Over the past couple of years, the Sound Beat team has expanded to include longer format audio projects, like narrated journals and documentary-style pieces. Partnering with SU Press to create audiobooks was a natural progression and partnership for us. It aligns with our mission of inclusion and accessibility and bringing important stories to a new listening audience,” says Jim O’Connor, Sound Beat producer.

���ϲ����� Press has been publishing vital scholarship, sharing ideas and giving voice to important stories since 1943. “We are so excited to be able to provide an alternate format for our authors and readers,” says Alice Pfeiffer, director of ���ϲ����� Press. “We’ve been watching the trend of the growth of audiobooks for several years. These first two audiobooks are just the beginning for our partnership, and we’re looking forward to planning the next ones. Audiobooks provide another medium to reach audiences and to share stories that might otherwise have not been told.”

Dewaine Farria and Tobias Wolff

���ϲ����� Libraries, ���ϲ����� Press and the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) will host a virtual Veteran’s Writing Award Reading and Book Talk on Nov. 12, 2020 from 4 to 5 p.m. ET, featuring  2019 award winner Dewaine Farria, author of “Revolutions of All Colors.”  Those interested should .

The event lineup will include:

• , award-winning novelist, short story writer, Vietnam veteran and former ���ϲ����� faculty member who will share his impressions of “” and why he selected it to win the inaugural award.
• , winner of the Veterans Writing Award, who holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, served in the U.S. Marine Corps and then the United Nations Department of Safety and Security.
• , IVMF program evaluation manager, and , ���ϲ����� Stage associate artistic director and assistant professor of theater at Colgate University both members of the Veteran’s Writing Award Advisory Board.

to attend this event.  For more information, visit the .

The annual Association of University Presses’ Book, Jacket and Journal Show recognizes achievement in the design, production and manufacture of books and journals by the university press community. It also serves as a focus of discussion and a source of ideas for intelligent, creative and resourceful bookmaking.

The show is a juried design competition, open only to Association of University Presses member publishers, of which SU Press is a member. Award-winning books are displayed in a traveling exhibit at member presses around the country.

SU Press has received several design awards in the past, most recently for the books “Women in Korean Zen: Lives and Practices” by Martine Batchelor and Son’gyong Sunim in 2007 and “The Adirondack Atlas: A Geographic Portrait of the Adirondack Park” by Jerry Jenkins in 2005.

Dwaine Farria

Dwaine Farria is the winner of the 2019 for his book “Revolutions of All Colors,” to be published by ���ϲ����� Press in fall 2020.

established the award in cooperation with the (IVMF). The award includes a $1,000 cash prize and a publication contract with the Press.

The award contest is open to U.S. veterans and active duty personnel in any branch of the U.S. military and their immediate family members. Although work submitted need not be about direct military experience, the contest encourages original voices and fresh perspectives that will expand and challenge readers’ understanding of the lives of veterans and their families.

A former sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, Farria served in Jordan and Ukraine. In addition to his time in the military, Farria has spent a good portion of his professional life working for the United Nations, with security assignments in the Russian North Caucasus, Kenya, Somalia and Occupied Palestine. He is currently a senior security and emergency services specialist for the Asian Development Bank. He lives in the Philippines with his wife, daughter, two sons, two cats and a dog.

Farria’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, CRAFT, Drunken Boat and Outpost Magazin, and on the Afropunk website. He is a frequent contributor to The Mantle.

He received a B.S. in sociology and criminal justice from Excelsior College, an M.A. in international and area studies from the University of Oklahoma and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Thomas Bardenwerper

The Veterans Writing Award Honorable Mention goes to Thomas Bardenwerper for his novel “Mona Passage.” Bardenwerper served five years as a U.S. Coast Guard officer aboard cutters homeported in Maine and Puerto Rico. He participated in law enforcement and humanitarian missions from Canada to Colombia. His career came to an unexpected end when he was medically retired in 2018 for Type 1 diabetes. Thanks to the G.I. Bill and Yellow Ribbon Program, Bardenwerper is now a law student at Harvard University.

“’Revolutions of All Colors’ is a vivid, original novel of young men struggling with questions of race, injustice, personal and political violence; of responsibility to family, friends, lovers, sexual identity—of what it means to be a man,” says award judge and acclaimed author Tobias Wolff, a Vietnam veteran and former ���ϲ����� English professor. “With great assurance, the narrative ranges from New Orleans to Ukraine, Somalia, Brooklyn, Oklahoma and from the military world to the worlds of prison, dance, mixed martial arts, even municipal government. It is a remarkable achievement.”

“’Mona Passage’ is moving in its portrait of families divided by the hostilities of their governments, in this case Cuba and the United States,” Wolff says. “The narrative is persuasive in its characterization of both Cubans and Americans, its evocation of San Juan, Havana and life aboard a Coast Guard cutter responsible for intercepting Cuban refugees and sending them back to the country they had good reasons to flee. Certainly a suspenseful, humane, eminently publishable novel.”

For more information about the Veterans Writing Award, contact Lisa Kuerbis at lkuerbis@syr.edu.

Authors Scott Pitoniak ’77 and ’80 will share highlights from the book and will be available for book signing at Bird Library on Friday, Sept. 13,  from 4 to 5:30 p.m. as part of .

Pitoniak, a nationally honored columnist and best-selling author, and Burton, a coauthor of numerous books and the David B. Falk Endowed Professor of Sport Management in the Falk College, have utilized exhaustive research, scores of interviews and their own ���ϲ����� experiences to craft a book that explores what it has meant to be Orange since the institution’s founding as a small liberal arts college in 1870.

“Forever Orange” illuminates ���ϲ�����’s chronological history, with special focus on how the University led the way in numerous important matters—gender, race, military veterans and science—going far beyond the parameters of a traditional institutional history. Through narrative and hundreds of photos, “Forever Orange” presents the University’s glorious 150-year history in a lively, distinctive, informative manner, appealing to alumni and University friends, young and old.

The foreword is written by astronaut and retired U.S. Air Force Col. Eileen Collins ’78, with the afterword by Pro Football Hall of Famer Floyd Little ’67.

The series is edited by , associate professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences, working with an advisory board of some of the leading scholars in the field of Arab American studies.

“We’re excited to officially launch the Critical Arab American Studies series with two stellar books that engage with cross-racial and transnational analyses, opening up new, critical and urgently needed areas of research and study,” says Fadda.

“,” authored by Michelle Hartman (McGill University) explores the historical and current manifestations of Black-Arab political and cultural forms of solidarity, with a specific focus on Arab American literary works that use the English language to enact theories and ideas advanced by Black American thinkers.

“,” authored by Danielle Haque (Minnesota State University, Mankato) is a call to rethink binaries of piety and secularism in contemporary fiction and art through an examination of creative works by and about racialized minorities.

Both books are available for purchase through the .

The Critical Arab American Studies series is currently accepting new submissions. For queries, contact Fadda at cfaddaco@syr.edu.

For more information on the series, visit

Sparks fly as Fred Wellner uses an oxy-acetylene torch in his LaFayette workshop.

Fred Wellner ’17 is a native of Baldwinsville and a senior designer with ���ϲ����� Press. He is also a talented metalwork artist and a regular participant in the University’s On My Own Time (OMOT) exhibition. Through the years, OMOT judges have deemed many of his pieces worthy of selection for the annual community-wide exhibition at the Everson Museum of Art.

Here, Wellner talks about his day job and his art, as well as OMOT and collaborations with his wife, Laura Wellner ’84, the registrar at the SUArt Galleries and a 35-year staff member at the University (fun fact: the couple met on the Crouse College steps in 1984 and were married the next year).

What exactly does a senior designer for ���ϲ����� Press do?

Broadly, I design inside text and covers of some of the SU Press titles. There’s a more technical side to it, all which probably needs less description, but we can refer to it as digital preparation for the various uses in which a book will become and exist. And then there’s the trafficking of each job. I do, on occasion, create art for covers.

How long have you been with the Press?

Thirty years as of this coming Sept. 5. The first seven years I worked in the warehouse.

“Mask,” Fred Wellner’s first metal piece exhibited in OMOT.

What did you do before?

Laborer, lumber delivery driver, etc.

Did you study art in school or are you self-taught?

Self-taught. Actually, my degree is in philosophy and religion [from ���ϲ�����, in 2017].

Is metalwork your favorite form of art? Do you delve into other art forms, too?

My start was in graphite. Later, I was a painter (oils and then acrylic) and soapstone sculptor for many years before working with metal. I sold work out of the Delavan Art Center and then Szozda Gallery before that closed.

You mention the Delavan Center and Szozda Gallery. Have you had material exhibited elsewhere?

Yes, besides the Delavan and Szozda Galleries, Laura and I have had work shown at Floor One Gallery in Beacon [New York], Launchpad in Brooklyn, the Contemporary Art Gallery in ���ϲ�����, Redhouse in ���ϲ�����, and The Tech Garden in ���ϲ�����.

How do you come by your ideas? What’s your inspiration?

Dying rustbelt, Transhumanism, lost pagan roots, and musing on what humanity trades for modern convenience.

“The Obstinate Particle,” a painting by Fred Wellner.

Ballpark, how many pieces have you created?

A couple dozen.

Once you’ve created a piece, what do you do with it?

For now I’m still building a body of work. I keep things stored in my shop or out in the yard [in LaFayette, New York]. I have a large, four-legged creature called “Relic” about the size of a small pony out in the front yard near the road. Surprisingly, the metal scrappers haven’t stolen it.

What’s the typical size of your work? Is there a typical size, or do you do metal pieces of all sizes?

Average size would be about that of a small dog. My wife, Laura, has a small six- to eight-inch robot on a table next to where she works at the ���ϲ����� Art Galleries. My largest work is “Relic.”

Where can people find your pieces to buy them?

For now, it’s word-of-mouth, e-mail, Facebook.

How long have you been entering art in On My Own Time?

On and off, maybe 20-25 years. Regularly, the last five to 10, I think.

“Relic”

What do you have entered in this year’s On My Own Time?

It’s a joint work with Laura. My part is the rusted remains of a robot on one knee holding Laura’s beautiful handmade book with ones and zeros, and quotes from “Hamlet,” etc. There’s a message in the combination about existence and individual meaning. Technically, the two parts are in the show as separate pieces for reasons of OMOT policy, but Laura and I consider them together.

And you’ve had work selected for display at the community-wide exhibition at the Everson Museum.

I think I had a watercolor painting in the 1990s, an oil painting or two in the early to mid-2000s and metal sculpture the last five years.

That says a lot about the quality of the work you produce. Do you still get a kick out of seeing your art on display in the show?

OMOT has been very generous with their interest. I always get a charge seeing my work on display. I enjoy more that other people get to see it. I get inspired by seeing the other artists’ work, and I hope mine has the same effect back.

ABOUT ON MY OWN TIME

On My Own Time, now in its 46th year, was developed as a community arts program to bring visibility to the creative skills of people employed in local businesses and organizations. It is co-sponsored by CNY Arts and the Everson Museum of Art.

���ϲ�����’s in-house exhibition opens Monday, April 29, and continues through the closing reception for artists, family members and volunteers on Wednesday, May 15. The exhibition may be viewed weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Noble Room in Hendricks Chapel.

A panel of professional artists assembled by CNY Arts will serve as judges for the in-house exhibition. Artwork selected by the panel will be featured in a public exhibition at the Everson Museum in the fall.

Submissions are welcome from diverse authors across disciplines, traditions and orientations, but with special emphasis on the Haudenosaunee.

The series will be led by Philip P. Arnold and Scott Manning Stevens. Arnold is associate professor and chair of the Department of Religion in the , and a core faculty member of the ; he is also the founding director of the Skä·noñh—Great Law of Peace Center. Stevens is associate professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as associate professor of Native American and Indigenous studies and director of the program.

For queries, contact acquisitions editor Peggy Solic at masolic@syr.edu.

To kick off the publication, the press is offering the University community a pre-publication discount of 44 percent off the list price of $99.95 until July 10.

“Forever Orange” illuminates ���ϲ�����’s chronological history, with special focus on how ���ϲ����� led the way in numerous important matters—gender, race, military veterans and science—going far beyond the parameters of a traditional institutional history. Through narrative and hundreds of photos, “Forever Orange” presents ���ϲ�����’s glorious 150-year history in a lively, distinctive, informative manner, appealing to alumni and University friends, young and old.

The foreword is written by astronaut and retired U.S. Air Force Col. Eileen Collins ’78, with the afterword by Pro Football Hall of Famer Floyd Little ’67.

Authors Scott Pitoniak ’77, a nationally honored columnist and best-selling author, and ’80, a coauthor of numerous books and the David B. Falk Endowed Professor of Sport Management in the Falk College, have utilized exhaustive research, scores of interviews and their own ���ϲ����� experiences to craft a book that explores what it has meant to be Orange since the institution’s founding as a small liberal arts college in 1870.

To pre-order “Forever Orange” visit  or call 800.848.6224. To receive the special 44 percent discount, make sure to use code 05SAVE44 and order before the code expires on July 10, 2019.

The MLA prize is awarded each even-numbered year and is given alternately to an outstanding translation of a Yiddish literary work and to an outstanding scholarly work in English in the field of Yiddish. The MLA and its 24,000 members in 100 countries work to strengthen the study and teaching of languages and literature.

The MLA committee’s citation for Frakes’s book reads:

“In ‘Early Yiddish Epic,’ Jerold C. Frakes uses his vast and precise historical and philological knowledge of Old Yiddish to render the great epic texts written in that language into lucid, vivid, and compelling English prose…. ‘Early Yiddish Epic’ is a field-changing book in the strictest sense of that term; now that these long-neglected works are available in English translation, the study of Yiddish literature will experience a shift in its center of gravity.”

Frakes is SUNY Distinguished Professor of English at the University at Buffalo, where he has taught since 2006. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Memphis State University and an M.A. and a Ph.D from the University of Minnesota. He is author of six books.

“Early Yiddish Epic” was published by the ���ϲ����� Press in the .

���ϲ����� Press invites unpublished, full-length novels or short story collections in manuscript form for consideration. This contest is open to U.S. veterans and active duty personnel in any branch of the U.S. military and their immediate family members. Entrants must not have published a volume of fiction previously. Women veteran writers and veterans of color are encouraged to submit.

Although work submitted for the contest need not engage direct military experience, ���ϲ����� Press seeks original voices and fresh perspectives that will expand and challenge readers’ understanding of the lives of veterans and their families. Finalists will be read by award-winning novelist, short story writer, Vietnam veteran, and former ���ϲ����� faculty member Tobias Wolff, and the winning entry will be announced in September of 2019.

The submission period will open Dec. 15, 2018, and close Feb. 15, 2019. There is no fee for submission. Complete rules and submission details forthcoming.

The inaugural Veterans Writing Award Advisory Board includes the following members:

Kyle Bass, Department of Drama Instructor, Associate Director of ���ϲ����� Stage, Playwright

Christopher Kennedy, Professor, English Department, and Director, MFA in Creative Writing Program

Eileen Schell, Professor, Writing and Rhetoric, Director of Graduate Studies and Co-leader of the ���ϲ����� Veterans’ Writing Group

Daniel Piston, Program Evaluation Manager, IVMF

Kicia Sears, Program Evaluation Manager, IVMF

Suzanne Guiod, Editor in Chief, ���ϲ����� Press

Lisa Kuerbis, Marketing Coordinator, ���ϲ����� Press

For questions, contact Lisa Kuerbis at lkuerbis@syr.edu.

Image courtesy of agsandrew/Shutterstock Inc.

First in four-part series about humanities research at ���ϲ�����

Michael Ebner anticipates a busy summer. When not in his office in Eggers Hall, fulfilling his duties as chair of the Department of History, the ���ϲ����� professor will spend two months in Rome, conducting archival research for a book on Italian Fascism.

Thanks to a $6,000 Summer Stipend from the (NEH), Ebner will study how Italian Fascists ruled colonies in Africa. Such research, he says, will glean insights into other forms of modern-day imperialism. “Most of my previous research has been on political violence, so I will pay close attention to the coercive actions of Italian colonial authorities,” says Ebner, dually appointed to the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the College of Arts and Sciences.

The manner by which imperialist powers attempt to subjugate peoples—economically, politically and otherwise—is arguably just as reprehensible today as it was in the 1870s, when European states began establishing vast empires in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Ebner appreciates the time to do uninterrupted work and the funding that will cover most of his research-related expenses. He also knows that grants such as his are in danger of becoming extinct. In March, President Trump called for the elimination of the NEH, along with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and other arts and cultural agencies. Congress responded with a bipartisan agreement on a bill to fund the agencies for the rest of the current Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 budget, ending Sept. 30. Trump expects to sign the bill, which would allocate $150 million each for the NEH and NEA, a $2 million increase respectively from last year.

As for the FY2018 appropriations bill for funding the federal government from October 2017 to September 2018, anything can happen. This bill is the one in which Trump recommends eliminating the NEH, NEA, CPB, etc.

Is Ebner worried? “The end of the NEH would remove federal government support for all types of humanities-based scholarship, while retaining support for scientific research,” he says. “Deciding that humanities research is unimportant or irrelevant to the common good in the United States is, in my view, a mistake.”

Scholars agree that, with increasing globalization and contingency, rethinking the humanities is important. At ���ϲ�����, these areas include African American studies; art and music histories; English; languages, literatures and linguistics; philosophy; religion; women’s and gender studies; and writing studies, rhetoric and composition. Ebner says that, while most historians—and humanists, for that matter—are accustomed to working on shoestring budgets, the real losers of NEH support are the American public, many of whom have had their lives enriched by NEH-funded projects, sometimes without realizing it. They include Ken Burns’ “Civil War” documentary, the 1976 King Tut exhibition and the rediscovery of Jamestown.

“If Washington decides that the federal government should play no role in teaching children of all backgrounds, enriching communities and preserving American history and culture—that only science and technology are worthwhile—it will profoundly degrade public life, and the appreciation for, and advancement of, our own culture,” Ebner continues.

There was little doubt before Trump’s 2017 budget was unveiled that it would bolster spending on police and the military, at the expense of the arts, scientific research and environmental protection, writes Laila Lalami in The Nation. “Yet the president still managed to surprise with the scope of his proposed cuts,” she says, adding that the NEH, NEA and CPB account for 0.02 percent of the federal budget—a pittance compared to billions annually spent on arts and culture by nations such as France, Germany and Sweden. “The simple truth is that cutting the NEA and the NEH will do nothing to help balance the budget, although it will severely affect states that depend on these agencies to fund cultural or educational programs. [For example, 40 percent of NEA funding goes directly to states to finance arts programs, particularly in rural areas.] Often, it is through such programs that children from poor or underserved communities get access to arts or music education, which, in turn, boosts school performance.”

Michael Ebner and Alice Pfeiffer G’77, G’86

The fate of the NEH is of interest to ���ϲ����� faculty because it provides critical support for humanities research, teaching, preservation and programming, such as the . A joint project between the NEH and , the Open Book Program repurposes out-of-print humanities publications as open-access ebooks. ���ϲ����� is one of eight institutional participants, and Alice Pfeiffer G’77, G’86, director of ���ϲ����� Press, is using a $58,000 award to digitize 23 titles from its Irish Studies and New York State series.

“We are honored and grateful to the NEH for this chance to bring important books of humanistic interest back into conversation with current scholarship, and to make them openly available to a global community of readers,” says Suzanne E. Guiod, editor in chief of the Press.

Adds Pfeiffer: “Central to our mission is the preservation and dissemination of scholarship. The NEH grant provides the path to make sure these books are preserved in digital formats that will make them accessible for generations to come.”

Like the NEA, the NEH reaches every state and congressional district. Kathy Everly, who chairs the (comprising mostly department chairs and program directors in A&S and Maxwell), applauds Congress’ recent support of the NEH. “The humanities are not partisan,” she says. “They’re not a luxury, and you don’t need to be a Democrat or a Republican to enjoy them. Congress has the ability to fund the NEH, despite Trump’s proposals, and we need to make sure [members of Congress] understand the impact of what the agency does.”

Everly is a professor of Spanish literature and culture. Nowhere is humanities funding more critical, she says, than in scholarly research. In A&S, the humanities are a major category within the liberal arts, which includes the natural sciences/mathematics and the social sciences, offered in conjunction with Maxwell. The result? More than 175 professors working in some two dozen academic departments and programs dedicated to the humanities. That research has many modes: disciplinary, interdisciplinary, individual, collaborative, public, non-public, digital, medical—the list goes on.

“Yes, the new budget agreement is good news, but it does not erase the atmosphere of tension and mistrust that predominates conversations about humanities in the current administration,” Everly says. “It is the first step in redirecting the current conversation about humanities education and funding in this country and at individual institutions of higher learning at large.”

Modest amounts of money are essential to such scholarly activity. Unfortunately, for all its importance, the academic study of the humanities rarely makes front-page news, compared to that of the sciences, whose effect on public policy is often direct and immediate. Gerry Greenberg, senior associate dean in A&S who oversees the Humanities Division, says there are many reasons why this is so—political, social, economic and cultural. He also is convinced that the humanities are not going away anytime soon.

“As long as human beings are around, the humanities will be around,” says Greenberg, the author of a well-turned article in The Washington Post titled “.” “In fact, their importance is probably greatest when their popularity is ebbing. The liberal arts and a liberal education are the way to go, and, while all the fields in the liberal arts are part of the way, the humanities are the heart of the way.”

Greenberg explains that applications for humanities research and humanities-related activities are not always as clear-cut as STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Thus, it can be difficult to quantify humanities funding and outcomes, with the many federal, state and local agencies involved. “It’s harder to assess what we do,” he says, “which is why the humanities often have difficulty in the search for money.”

Humanities scholarship thrives on competitive grant awards. At ���ϲ�����, federal and state agencies—such as the NEH and (née the New York Council for the Humanities), respectively—do much of the heavy lifting. This translates into opportunities on and off campus. Rachel May, director of sustainability education for the University, is helping create a prototype of a digital atlas of nearby Onondaga Lake, a sacred space for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy for more than a thousand years. The project is supported by a $29,000 grant from the NEH, and includes Jane Read, associate professor of geography in Maxwell, and Phil Arnold, associate professor and chair of religion in A&S.

“Drawing on various methods and techniques, including the digital humanities, we’re creating a comprehensive survey of the historical, cultural and economic significance of Onondaga Lake that ultimately becomes a tool for respectful communication,” Arnold says.

He and May also are spearheading a $91,000 grant project from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency involving students and faculty from ���ϲ����� and the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, as well as Haudenosaunee consultants. They are using the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address to help teachers and students understand the cultural and ecological significance of the lake.

Other types of public support include NEA Creative Writing Fellowships and various NEH fellowships, Public Scholar and Faculty awards, and Summer Stipends. Common to all of them is the pursuit of original research and scholarship. At ���ϲ�����, this has resulted in an abundance of articles, monographs, books, digital materials, archaeological site reports, translations, editions and other scholarly resources. The funding also has spawned a few careers.

In 2005, Stephanie Shirilan received a fellowship to attend an NEH Summer Research Institute at the John Carter Brown Library in Providence, Rhode Island. The opportunity eventually led to a faculty appointment in A&S. “The experience helped me envision a career in the humanities in practical terms,” says Shirilan, an associate professor of English, who works at the nexus of cultural critique and canonicity. “It helped me become familiar and competent with materials I would use in teaching and helped me articulate questions I would pursue for the next 12 years.”

Likewise, Mary Karr and Bruce Smith, professors in the top-ranked M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing, have benefited immeasurably from NEA support. Both were struggling writers in 1984, when they received grants for $12,000. “It was life-changing,” recalls Karr, who went on to publish her first volume of poetry. Adds Smith: “I was teaching high school, and had a four-year-old kid. The money allowed me to take time off to complete my first book of poems.”

Recent examples include Amy Kallander, an associate professor of history who also is affiliated with women’s and gender studies (WGS) in A&S. She used an NEH Summer Stipend to study rare Tunisian periodicals at the National Library of France. Moreover, four professors in Maxwell’s Department of Anthropology—Doug Armstrong, John Burdick, Maureen Schwarz and Sue Wadley—have received continuous NEH support for more than 25 years, driving global learning and collaboration in unique ways.

Although the NEH provides critical support for many activities at ���ϲ�����, the agency is at its lowest funding level since 1971. Thus, humanists are increasingly turning to private sources for help. They range from individuals, corporations, foundations, nonprofit arts and culture organizations to the University itself.

Vivian May, Gregg Lambert and Kathy Everly

Probably no other private entity has done more for humanities research at ���ϲ����� than the Mellon Foundation. Since 2006, Mellon has awarded more than $5 million to the , a large-scale, interdisciplinary research project comprising nine institutions, including ���ϲ�����, Cornell University and the University of Rochester. Mellon’s support may help the Humanities Corridor remain a program of the in perpetuity, as it has formed the basis for a matching endowment program. ���ϲ�����, Cornell and Rochester—the corridor’s founding partners—have until December 2017 to meet their campaign goals, bringing the cumulative endowment to $6.5 million.

Gregg Lambert, the Humanities Corridor’s director and principal investigator, recalls how the Humanities Corridor and the Humanities Center (of which he was founding director from 2008 to 2014) have flourished in the face of adversity. “The fiscal crash, a decade ago, forced us to do things differently,” says Lambert, also a Dean’s Professor of the Humanities. “The Humanities Corridor helped bring a number of organizations that had been on the periphery of the University into the fold. It also supported collaborations in the humanities throughout the region, amongst institutions. We pooled our resources. I don’t know if what we did was the result of genius or accident, but, thanks to Mellon’s support, it worked.”

Today, the Humanities Corridor is a national model of excellence. It has sponsored more than 100 different working groups, coordinated by nearly 300 regional scholars. The groups, in turn, have generated more than 400 scholarly activities, including panel discussions, lectures, screenings, reading, performances, workshops and master classes.

“The humanities and the liberal arts are central to the ���ϲ����� educational experience and are an important part of our emerging Academic Strategic Plan,” says ���ϲ����� Vice Chancellor and Provost Michele Wheatly. “The Humanities Corridor has created ‘corridors of intellect’—attracting stellar faculty and new, inspired talent to Central New York, while drawing on the distinct histories and assets of the region.”

Likewise, the Humanities Center is a hub of vibrant scholarship and dynamic programming. Located in the beautifully renovated Tolley Humanities Building, the center resides in A&S but has served the entire campus community for more than a decade. In addition to faculty and graduate student fellowships, as well as visiting professorships, the Humanities Center supports events and activities, such as the yearlong , a public humanities series focusing on an annual theme.

“Much of what we do aligns with the University’s commitment to high-impact research,” says Vivian May, the center’s director since 2015 and a professor of WGS. “We support interdisciplinary collaboration and foster public engagement in the humanities. The Humanities Center adds to the strengths of our individual departments and programs by providing a common space for scholarly exchange. By nature of our location, we are a physical and symbolic gateway to campus.”
The Humanities Corridor, the Humanities Center and the renovation and rededication of the Tolley Building all arose during the deanship of Cathryn Newton, dean emerita of A&S, professor of interdisciplinary and Earth sciences and now also Special Advisor to the Chancellor and Provost for Faculty Engagement. She expresses great appreciation for the rapid evolution of both the Humanities Corridor and the Humanities Center.

“The ���ϲ����� Humanities span an exceptional range of fields—both the disciplines and many interdisciplinary areas—with a truly lustrous history of research and creative work. Yet other universities throughout the world compete fiercely to attract the best Humanities scholars and students. We must invest continually in our SU Humanities programs to deepen and extend their impact,” Newton says. “At every gathering of A&S alumni I have attended, someone rises to express, often eloquently, the influence of a particular humanities course or curriculum on a life at ���ϲ�����.”

Romita Ray

Romita Ray often jokes that her work is “steeped” in the humanities—she is, after all, an authority on the visual histories of Indian tea. During a meeting in Bowne Hall, the Calcutta-born historian riffed on the merits of humanities research at ���ϲ�����. Interestingly, the conversation was as much about STEM as arts and culture.

“Even a scientist is a humanist, right?” she asks rhetorically, between sips of Ceylon Black. “Since ancient times, science and the humanities have coexisted naturally. Only in the past century have they become polarized. I think the academy is realizing that scientists and humanists, despite their stereotypical differences, are natural partners. They’re inquisitive and open-minded; they just approach their subjects differently.”

Ray, whose great-grandfather founded the first Indian tea planters association in British India, has spent much of her academic career working at the margins. In addition to serving as chair of the Department of Art and Music Histories (considered the birthplace of the U.S. interdisciplinary humanities movement), she is an associate professor of art history. On paper, Ray’s interests seem attuned to mostly art and architecture of the British Empire in India. A quick glance at her overstuffed bookcase, however, reveals a coat of many colors. The history of science, landscape studies and post-colonial theory are some of her other areas of expertise.

“Our faculty are known for their world-class research and for creating opportunities for intellectual exchange,” says Ray, who recently availed of a yearlong fellowship—her third NEH grant award—to conduct research for an upcoming book in three different countries. “This excellence manifests in the classroom and branches out to other parts of campus and the community through lectures, workshops and symposia. We do not confine the humanities to a single school or college. They’re in every building on campus.”

Ray ticks off the names of various centers and institutes at ���ϲ����� that engage in “humanistically oriented research.” At the top are the Humanities Center and Humanities Corridor, followed by a dozen other units, ranging from the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs and the South Asia Center to the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism. She singles out the Special Collections Research Center and the Belfer Audio Archive (both of which are in ���ϲ����� Libraries) and SUArt Galleries as powerfully valuable resources.

When pressed for a pithy explanation of the humanities, Ray responds with the “study of human experience”—specifically, the quest for knowledge, values, purpose and meaning. How humanities research folds into teaching is of particular interest to her because the approach varies among departments, programs and professors.

“Faculty research can be fun for undergraduates because they get to see a different side of you,” Ray says. “By telling your story, you become more human, more accessible, to them. This creates a more rewarding classroom experience for everyone involved.”

Everly agrees with Ray, suggesting that faculty and students should approach research differently. “As scholars, we do field work, such as visiting archives, archeological sites and other communities and cultures, to articulate our findings,” she says. “In turn, getting students out of their seats, literally and metaphorically, to see the world as a global community is important. It helps them reconsider what they think they know.”

Everly references Cherríe Moraga—a leader in Chicana, feminist, queer and indigenous activism, art and scholarship—who was this year’s Jeannette K. Watson Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities. For two weeks in February, the Stanford professor headlined a series of lectures, performances and dialogues organized by the Humanities Center. “Most of the events started with students reading a text,” Everly says. “Cherríe then helped our students explore these ideas in the context of historical problems, community awareness and political solidarity. It was a terrific blend of teaching and research.”

Discourse is one of the most important aspects of humanities research. Ray recalls how a news story about her tea research caught the eye of a professor in the Falk College. Before long, she was invited to speak about her project to food studies majors. “The humanities are the intellectual corridor that connects different fields. They are the basis of who we are,” Ray says.

Such conversations can happen spontaneously. Roger Hallas, associate professor of English, noticed this in March, when he spoke about his forthcoming book on photography and documentary film at a Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) conference in Chicago. While he was there, Hallas pitched his next project, an edited collection on visual arts documentaries, to a number of editors from academic presses, all of whom expressed interest. “My idea for the collection came from putting together a panel on visual arts documentaries at SCMS the previous year,” says Hallas, a Spring 2017 Humanities Center Faculty Fellow. “I saw, from the conversation, that there was not only a gap in the scholarship but also an interest in the field for it to be filled.”

Hallas considers the edited collection a companion piece to his current book project, “A Medium Seen Otherwise: Photography and Documentary Film,” to which he already has received commitments from many contributors. “We humanities scholars predominately pursue the almost monastic labor of individual research,” he says, “so I am always eager to seize opportunities for collaborations across the humanities.”

Adds Ray: “We should never underestimate the power of conversation. It’s where great ideas are born.”

Cathryn Newton, Gerry Greenberg and Dympna Callaghan

Any discussion about humanities research—its value, how it is expressed, how its effectiveness is measured—usually involves the so-called “image problem.” Heidi Tworek, a fellow at the Transatlantic Academy and an assistant professor of international history at the University of British Columbia, has written extensively on the subject. (Her 2013 article in The Atlantic, titled “,’” is required reading for almost anyone in the liberal arts.) Tworek argues that a number of factors—including gender, race, ethnicity and class—have shaped public perception of the humanities. She also believes that Trump may not be entirely bad for business. “It’s too soon to tell, but, at least on first inspection, [his] presidency may have revived student interest in the humanities and renewed faculty commitment to teaching critical thinking skills,” she says. Tworek illustrates her point by saying that history is the largest major at Yale for the Class of 2019 and that the University of Washington offers a course on “Calling Bulls—t,” replete with online videos.

Stanley Fish also has written about the humanities’ “PR problem.” A renowned literary theorist and legal scholar, he is known for his 2008 op-ed in The New York Times, in which he infamously wrote: “To the question ‘of what use are the humanities?,’ the only honest answer is none whatsoever.” Nearly a decade later, many humanists still chafe at the idea.

“Humanities teachers and scholars became incredibly defensive, but there also were people who felt they could use his comments to justify the defunding or financializing of the humanities,” says Lambert, regarding Fish’s article. “These kinds of overreactions can be damaging because they set into motion events that can take years to undo.”

During a recent phone conversation, Fish explains how some of his comments may have been misinterpreted. It is not that he is opposed to the humanities; he simply wants people to distinguish between the humanities as a public practice and presence (e.g., plays, poetry readings, Shakespeare festivals, concerts and lectures) and the academic study of the humanities.

“The first is easily defensible because everyone wants his or her town to have a performing arts center and a couple of good bookstores,” says Fish, the Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor of Humanities and Law at Florida International University, as well as the Floersheimer Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Yeshiva University. “The second is a specialized academic enterprise in which poems are explicated, authoritative editions are produced, and received accounts of historical events are challenged. This enterprise is hard to defend because the benefits—for example, having an up-to-date edition of a minor 15th-century poet—are not clear to the layperson. The reason they are not clear is that, in practical terms, in terms of the state’s bottom line, there aren’t any.”

Fish points out that the academic study of the humanities offers so-called “pleasures”; however, marketing or linking them to society’s central concerns can be difficult. “[The academic study] becomes an acquired, somewhat esoteric taste,” he continues. “The only way to enlarge the base of people willing to acquire and subsequently pay for it is to get more and more people into our classes, perhaps by means of the technological devices now available to us.

“Anyone can appreciate the value of having cultural resources in the community, but the value of subjecting those resources to rigorous and extended critical analysis, which is what academic humanists do, can be appreciated only from the inside.”

May considers the humanities’ ostensible “image problem” a misnomer. Over coffee in the Tolley Humanities Building, she explains how humanistic research has repeatedly altered the course of history, noting the extraordinary work it has performed in advancing research, scholarship and culture. The humanities also have been pivotal to solving concrete problems in fields as diverse as law, medicine, economics and science. “We all know how important the humanities are, with their emphasis on critical thinking, cultural awareness, creativity, compassion and innovation,” she says. “So why are they considered a luxury?”

Dympna Callaghan, the William Safire Professor of Modern Letters, may have part of the answer. A colleague of May’s, Callaghan is a scholar of Renaissance poetry and drama who also follows key issues in global higher education. Callaghan insists the humanities “prepare people for lives as free men and women”—to quote Kwame Anthony Appiah, professor of philosophy and law at New York University and past president of the Modern Languages Association. “I don’t think it gets any clearer than that,” she adds.

Callaghan believes “training” and “education” are two different things and that the humanities are integral to only the latter. “We don’t want to train people to be cogs in a well-oiled machine already set up by employers,” she says. “That is not education; that is merely training. Education is dangerously disruptive to training and to the pedagogical assumptions that lie behind it.”

The British-born scholar says training prepares students for a rather narrow sweep of jobs that already exist, whereas education opens up their intellectual and cultural horizons to an almost infinite range of employment. Callaghan salutes ���ϲ�����’s commitment to creativity and innovation, which, in turn, produces articulate, authentic and ethically responsible students. “Training can be a component of education, but, in and of itself, is devoid of the questions posed by humanist inquiry,” she says. “Education prepares students for life—for responsible citizenship, for community building or for whatever shape employment takes in the future.”

David M. Van Slyke, professor of public administration and international affairs and dean of the Maxwell School, has this to say: “The humanities challenge us to recognize and appreciate diversity, and to foster an understanding of different viewpoints. This focused effort to create a culture of dialogue and engagement and to overcome barriers is the very essence of effective citizenship.”

Karin Ruhlandt and David M. Van Slyke

Perhaps the “image problem”—if one truly exists—stems from a general misunderstanding about the field itself. In his landmark book, “A New History of the Humanities” (Oxford University Press, 2013), Dutch scholar Rens Bod examines the “feats and deeds of humanistic inquiry” from antiquity to the present. Such overviews are commonplace in the sciences, but not so much in the humanities. “As if humanists have no clue about their own history, insights and applications [that were the result of humanistic research] have been credited to the sciences,” he writes.

Regardless, declining humanities enrollment gives faculty pause. The reasons are many—the corporatization of higher education, an increase in online undergraduate courses and adjunct faculty, the weakening of liberal arts distribution requirements.

The liberal arts landscape has changed drastically since the 1970s, when humanities enrollment started to drop. Faculty and administrators have since been rethinking research assessment and evaluation in not only the humanities, but also the natural and social sciences.

When asked about measuring the efficacy of humanities research, Tworek turns the question around, inquiring if the academy has done any better with STEM. “Science literacy is still sorely lacking in the general public,” she says. “Part of the problem with any measurement system is that the benefits of research may be unclear at the time or for decades afterward.” The “usefulness of useless knowledge,” coined by U.S. educator Abraham Flexner in 1939, has triggered some of history’s biggest innovations. Case in point: The United States did not award the first radio system patent until 30 years after the discovery of radio waves.

On a purely academic level, Tworek thinks measuring humanities research starts by acknowledging the field’s parameters. The notion of academic authorship, for instance, is a sticking point among humanists, whose single-author books and papers seemingly lack collaboration compared to scientific articles, whose bylines can take up pages. Assessments of merit, Tworek says, also should take into account digital output (e.g., webcasts and podcasts) and non-quantitative methods.

Several professors think coordinated communication may help raise the humanities profile at ���ϲ�����. Some kind of institutional clearinghouse or searchable database for humanities proposals, grant awards, teaching opportunities and news stories is one idea bandied about by faculty. (Granted, most of this information resides in the Office of the A&S Dean and the University’s Office of Sponsored Programs, but some say they would like to see a more comprehensive, coordinated effort.) “If we want to cultivate a donor, attract a particular student or faculty member or mentor each other as colleagues, we need to have something at our fingertips that helps us tell our story in a consistent way,” May says. “I’m not saying that the information isn’t out there; it is. I’m saying that we, as professors and administrators, should look at how we can better access and utilize it.”

Ray goes a step further. Anyone who has been to a Humanities Council meeting likely has heard her museum rap—creating a stand-alone building that would advance the University’s teaching and research mission through exhibitions, screenings, performances and academic programming. “Let’s say you have an exhibit on theater design. It could bring together people from Arts and Sciences, VPA [the College of Visual and Performing Arts], the School of Architecture, Newhouse,” she says, adding that museums are de rigueur for Ivy League institutions. “What a humanities conversation that would be.”

Karin Ruhlandt, dean of A&S and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, understands the importance of cross-disciplinary work. For example, she meets twice a month with Van Slyke to identify opportunities for student and faculty collaboration. “We want to break down academic silos and cultivate horizontal thinking,” she says. “We also know there’s a growing demand for liberal arts majors. It’s easier to hire people who already know how to think critically than [for employers] to train them to think critically.”

What of the NEH’s possible elimination? “I’m disappointed, more than anything,” Ruhlandt shrugs, “because we must give full value and support to all branches of scholarly and cultural activity, not just the STEM fields. The funding extension is promising, but our work is far from done. In some ways, it’s just beginning.”

Maggy Rozycki Hiltner, “#2 Gas Money,” 2013

The ���ϲ����� Art Galleries celebrates the strength of ���ϲ����� students, alumnae and scholarship with the presentation of two new exhibitions that opened April 6.

“Hindsight: Four Alumni Artists from the College of Visual and Performing Arts” examines the careers of four women who met during their time as students in the College of Visual and Performing Arts: Sarah Provoncha Burda, Angela Earley-Alves, Maggy Rozycki Hiltner and Jenny Kanzler.

“Taking Flight: Richard Koppe’s Works on Paper” features over 20 original prints and drawings selected from the ���ϲ����� permanent art collection, and is the first exhibition to highlight Koppe’s work, maintained by the Art Collection, in over 40 years.

Richard Koppe, “Waiting,” 1946

The exhibitions will be on view April 6 through May 14, 2017 in the Shaffer Art Building at ���ϲ�����. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Sunday, 11 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.; and Thursdays 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.  The Gallery will be closed on Easter weekend and University holidays.  The SUArt Galleries will host a gallery reception from 5 – 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 13.  Patrons are welcome to view the exhibition until the gallery closes at 8 p.m.  The reception is free and open to the public.

“Taking Flight: Richard Koppe’s Works on Paper” explores for the first time in 40 years the holdings of this important abstract artist housed in the ���ϲ����� permanent art collection. The display examines an artist whose career exemplifies the interconnectedness of art, design and engineering in the 20th century. The paintings and drawings on exhibition can be linked to his experiences as a student of the New Bauhaus, a wartime aircraft production engineer and art educator at one of the first design schools in America.

Installed in the Wiezel Gallery, the exhibition was curated by Theresa Engelbrecht G’17, dual master’s candidate in museum studies and art history and recipient of the 2015 and 2016 Louise and Bernard Palitz Art Scholar Award. The topic corresponds with her thesis research on the artist, which she will present at the conclusion of her graduate work in art history.

“Hindsight: Four Alumni From the College of Visual and Performing Arts,” installed in the Study Gallery, features the work of artists Sarah Provoncha Burda, Angela Earley-Alves, Maggy Rozycki Hiltner and Jenny Kanzler. Each has grown in artistic practice since graduating in 1997, taking on new media and shifting subject matter that progressed from their original course of study. In addition to their campus connection, the work of these artists share overarching themes of memory, nostalgia, storytelling and the idea of their work being more than what meets the eye at first glance.

Burda, Earley-Alves, Hiltner and Kanzler look back on their experiences from childhood and their migrations from ���ϲ�����, to and from various cities, rural areas and suburbs in their post-collegiate artistic careers. Students enrolled in the Graduate Program in Museum Studies course Advanced Curatorship, organized the exhibition, guided by Andrew Saluti, chief curator of exhibitions, programs and education at the Special Collections and Archives Research Center at ���ϲ����� Libraries.

Select programming associated with the exhibitions includes an artist panel with the four artists from “Hindsight,” presented by the Visiting Artist Lecture Series sponsored by the School of Art, on Thursday, April 13, at 6:30 p.m. in the Shemin Auditorium in Shaffer Art Building. There will also be a Lunchtime Lecture, highlighting the exhibition “Taking Flight” with curator of the exhibition Theresa Moir Engelbrecht, on Wednesday, May 3, at 12:15 p.m. Please check the SUArt Galleries website for updated information on the lectures, as well as additional programming including lunchtime lectures and a special SUKids event in April.

“NEH provides support for projects across America that preserve our heritage, promote scholarly discoveries, and make the best of America’s humanities ideas available to all Americans,” says NEH Chairman William D. Adams. “We are proud to announce this latest group of grantees who, through their projects and research, will bring valuable lessons of history and culture to Americans.”

“We are delighted that ���ϲ����� has received this grant, which supports core library values such as open access to scholarship and quality academic publishing,” says Dean of Libraries David Seaman. SU Press will digitize 23 titles from its Irish Studies and New York State series. The new ebooks will be available through multiple platforms, including Project MUSE Open and SU’s SURFACE repository.

“���ϲ����� Press welcomes this opportunity to make available digital editions of widely reviewed and cited early histories of New York state, along with noteworthy books from our Irish Studies series that remain relevant to today’s scholars and students,” says Alice Randel Pfeiffer, director of SU Press.

“We are honored and grateful to the NEH for this chance to bring important books of humanistic interest back into conversation with current scholarship and to make them openly available to a global community of readers,” says SU Press Editor in Chief Suzanne E. Guiod. “Significantly, this grant will allow us to further our collaboration with ���ϲ����� Libraries in developing ���ϲ����� Unbound, our joint open access publishing initiative.”

“This award presents an outstanding opportunity for SU Press to resurface and vivify important works from its prestigious backlist,” says Terry Ehling, associate director of Project MUSE. “Project MUSE looks forward to working with the Press to ensure that these books are discoverable, usable and potentially transformative to scholars now and in the future.”

SU Press was founded in 1943 by Chancellor William Pearson Tolley as a means to publish and disseminate scholarly research and to extend the University’s reach and academic reputation. The Press has gained national and international acclaim by publishing award-winning and ground-breaking books. With more than 1,700 titles in print, the Press supports the central mission of the University to teach, to support research initiatives, and to disseminate scholarship. The Press also prides itself on publishing carefully edited and beautifully designed books that enhance the intellectual life of general readers.

Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at .

This project has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this resource do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

In his newest book, published by ���ϲ����� Press, nationally celebrated columnist Sean Kirst offers a deeply moving collection of stories about the struggles and triumphs of the everyday men and women who define ���ϲ�����. A group of strangers risk their lives along the New York State Thruway to save a soldier from a burning truck. The true story of how the number 44 rose to prominence at ���ϲ�����, as told by football legend Jim Brown. The beautiful yet tragic connection between Vice President Joseph Biden and ���ϲ�����. The impossible account of how Eric Carle, one of the world’s great children’s authors, found his way to a childhood friend through a photograph taken in ���ϲ����� more than eighty years ago.

These and other stories are included in “The Soul of Central New York,” a collection of Kirst’s columns that spans almost a quarter-century. During his long career as a writer for the ���ϲ����� Post-Standard, Kirst won some of the most prestigious honors in journalism, including the Ernie Pyle Award, given annually to one American writer who best captures the hopes and dreams of everyday Americans.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event. For more information, contact Linda Dickerson Hartsock at ldhart01@syr.edu.

Published by , “The Muckers” is a first-person account of a young 19th-century gang member in New York City. Register discovered the manuscript while conducting research in the Special Collections Research Center at ���ϲ����� Libraries. The original manuscript was written by William Osborne Dapping, who would go on to become a respected Central New York journalist, winning a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of a 1929 prison riot for The Auburn, N.Y., Citizen-Advertiser.

Woody Register is chair of the Department of History and directs the American Studies Program at the University of the South (Sewanee), where he teaches post-Civil War U.S. history.

Additional information on “The Muckers” can be found in Register’s .‌

The lecture is open to the public; however, there is limited space available for the seminar. R.S.V.P. to jschambe@syr.edu.

Sean Kirst

“My first interaction with Sean came in the form of a phone call,” says Wiese, a Le Moyne College baseball standout who was diagnosed with bone cancer in his senior year. “I was sitting in my basement and distinctly remember hearing this rusty voice on the other end of the line. I was excited because I’ve thought highly of Sean’s work.”

Kirst and Wiese developed an immediate rapport, the latter going into details about a surgery to remove a tumor in his leg and the painful bouts of chemotherapy that followed. Eventually, the conversation turned to Wiese’s fateful encounter with a “cancer angel” at Boston’s Fenway Park during the 2013 World Series. The angel in question was Dave Mellor, the park’s longtime head groundskeeper, who let Wiese “paint” home plate and the pitcher’s mound before Game 2.

Mellor also had dreams of playing professional ball, but a freak car accident shattered his knee. He and Wiese were kindred spirits.

“As I told Sean everything, he didn’t say a word. That spoke volumes to me,” says Wiese, now a sought-after baseball instructor. “I believe Sean’s greatest gift is just being present … and listening. He understood my passion, as I spoke for what seemed like hours. Afterward, we talked baseball, dissecting the game as if we were two guys in a sandwich shop.”

The two did not meet until a year later, when Kirst was doing a follow-up story on Wiese. By then, his first column about the Fayetteville resident—aptly titled “God Puts People in Your Path” (Nov. 28, 2013)—had transformed Wiese into a local hero, driving interest in his eponymously named foundation supporting cancer research, as well as patients and their families.

The article also reaffirmed Kirst’s role as a voice for the community, a journalist capable of capturing the hopes and dreams of everyday people. When it came time to put together “” (���ϲ����� Press, 2016), a collection of Kirst’s columns spanning almost a quarter century, Wiese’s story got the nod.

“Sean was exactly as I imagined him: pen and paper, plaid shirt, jeans,” says Wiese, who, during his meeting with Kirst, threw out the first pitch at a ���ϲ����� Chiefs home playoff game. (It was a strike.) “He screamed grit. I was automatically drawn to him, as we stood on the concourse and, again, talked baseball.”

A sense of humanity

The cover of Sean Kirst’s latest book, “The Soul of Central New York”

“The Soul of Central New York” is about resilience—Kirst’s as much as anyone else’s. Culled from thousands of columns he wrote for The Post-Standard between 1991 and 2015, the collection weaves together tales of love, sorrow and hope. The result is a literary masterstroke featuring such familiar names as Vice President Joseph Biden G’68, H’09, Jim Brown ’57 and Jim Boeheim ’66, G’73 alongside quiet hometown heroes. Common to all of them is a sense of humanity—and vulnerability—making their stories instantly relatable. “They’re all on a level playing field,” Kirst says.

The original plan was to do something longer, but his editors thought otherwise. “In 2013, I gave SU Press a collection of 150 columns, and they sent it to professional readers who rightfully annihilated it; they said it was too long and felt thrown together,” recalls Kirst, 57, during a meeting at Starbucks on Marshall Street, wearing—what else?—a red plaid shirt and blue jeans. “It was humbling.”

Stroking his salt-and-pepper beard, he wistfully recalls how the project helped him adjust to life after The Post-Standard in 2015. “I finally could give it my full attention,” says Kirst, who now writes for ���ϲ����� and The Buffalo News. “My editor at the Press, Alison Maura Shay, was terrific to work with, and felt strongly about what the book needed to say. She gave it an in and an out.”

Kirst and Shay spent months wrestling over which columns to keep and discard. They eventually settled on 88 of them (less than two percent of Kirst’s total oeuvre) spread over 10 chapters. “Choosing the last few was especially hard because everything I’ve written about, everyone who has trusted me, matters in my life,” Kirst says in his gravelly baritone. “The themes [of the chapters] exemplify all the questions I’ve been trying to answer during my career.”

The result is a 400-page love letter to Central New York, replete with a foreword by Eric Carle—yes, the Eric Carle, the children’s book author who was born and raised in ���ϲ�����; a well-turned preface and epilogue; a detailed chronology of columns; and 45 illustrations that originally appeared in The Post-Standard.

Whether one is new to Kirst’s writing or has religiously followed it over the years, “The Soul of ���ϲ�����” is more than a greatest hits package. Janice Bullard Pieterse, author of “Our Work Is but Begun: A History of the University of Rochester, 1850-2005” (Meliora Press, 2014), praises Kirst’s extraordinary connection with his readers and subjects. “How wonderful it would be for any community to have such an artful chronicle of its poignant moments,” she says.

Adds Jason Emerson, author of “Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln” (Southern Illinois University Press, 2012), “Kirst not only shares with readers his love and passion for the people, places and voices of his hometown, but also captures the essence of what it is to be a community.”

Indeed, “The Soul of Central New York,” Kirst’s third book, offers a vivid portrait of the people defining the region. Witness a group of strangers risking death along the New York State Thruway to save a solider from a burning truck, or football legend Jim Brown waxing poetic about the legend of No. 44 at ���ϲ����� or Vice President Biden tracing his bittersweet connection to the University.

“There’s a lot of darkness here, but there’s also a lot of hope,” admits Kirst, winner of the 2008 Scripps Howard Award (i.e., the Ernie Pyle Award) for human-interest storytelling. “How we deal with tragedy is what defines us.”

A compassionate soul

Kirst at the Marriott ���ϲ����� Downtown, formerly Hotel ���ϲ�����.

Storytelling can be big business, if done well. As of this writing, “The Soul of Central New York” is the fastest-selling title in SU Press’ 73-year history. Book-signings are coveted affairs, with readers often waiting in line for hours for the “Bard of Upstate America” (as Kirst is known to POLITICO’s Jimmy Vieklind) to grace them with a hug or an autograph. Not even a December whiteout, which ground the city to a halt, deterred some 50 people from showing up at a Barnes & Noble signing. Despite the storm raging outside, Kirst and his readers enjoyed a warm back-and-forth about the book. A second event was added a week later, with lines of people snaking around the building.

Readers also flocked to signings at the Onondaga Historical Association, in which 100 copies were snatched up within 10 minutes, and the newly renovated Marriott ���ϲ����� Downtown (formerly the historic Hotel ���ϲ�����). Such turnouts are an anomaly in the world of university publishing. “It’s been heartwarming, exciting and just pure fun to go on this journey with Sean, as he has brought this book to the community,” says Alice Randel Pfeiffer G’77, G’86, director of SU Press. “Sales have been through the roof. We’ve ordered our third printing in less than a month.”

The demand for product—and Kirst’s time—keeps him hopping. Upcoming events include Barnes & Noble in DeWitt on Saturday, Feb. 11, from 1-3 p.m.; the River’s End Bookstore in Oswego on Tuesday, Feb. 14, from 6-8 p.m.; and the Institute for Retired People in ���ϲ�����’s University College on Thursday, Feb. 16, from noon-1 p.m.

SU Libraries, SU Press and the Blackstone LaunchPad are co-hosting a special program on Friday, Feb. 24, from 3-5 p.m., featuring author remarks and a panel discussion, followed by a signing and reception.

No one is more surprised at all the fuss than Kirst himself. “Leaving The Post-Standard was very painful for me,” he says, leaning forward with a cup in hand. “I had built up an intense relationship with the community. After being away from my column for a while, I wasn’t sure what people still thought of me.”

Kirst pauses to consider how much time has passed since that warm November morning in 2015, when he sat down to write his farewell column, lavishing praise upon his readers. “You are a treasure, as is this town,” he famously wrote. The intervening months have been revelatory. Given time to think, Kirst has developed a new appreciation for what he deems the essence of his craft: sharing the struggles and triumphs of everyday people. “It is a journey I will follow for the rest of my career, in whatever form it takes—whether as columns, narrative writing, public speaking or as books,” he continues.

Shay, the Press’ acquisitions editor, echoes these sentiments, calling Kirst a master storyteller. “The people of Central New York have been exceedingly generous in entrusting Sean with their stories,” she says. “Through each beautifully composed story—of triumph and sadness, of the everyday and the unusual—he introduces readers to some of the incredible individuals who make up our community.”

One of them is Thelma Bonzek ’43, who helped her husband, Joe, locate the survivors of Jesse Gallardo, a fellow soldier killed on a French mountainside during World War II. Years later, the Bonzeks traced Gallardo’s brother, Francis, to an Ohio nursing home, the circumstances surrounding Jesse’s death still unknown to Francis. “It was an emotional phone call,” recalls Thelma, a 93-year-old ���ϲ����� native. “Joe and Jesse were best friends during the war. He carried [Jesse’s] body down the mountain, after he was killed.”

Although Joe died three years later, his legacy—and Jesse’s—is intact, thanks to Kirst’s storytelling. Bonzek says people like Kirst are a vanishing breed. “I can tell what I need to know about someone in five minutes,” she says. “I knew right away with Joe, and we were married for 65 years. I also have known with Sean because, when he talks to me, he looks me in the eye. He’s an honest, compassionate soul.”

Chris Couse also attests to these qualities. His grandparents, Leonard and Rose Mancini, were the subject of an early Kirst piece titled “A Couple Walks Side by Side to the Last Step” (July 2, 1994). Couse recalls contacting Kirst many years after the column appeared. “I asked him if he remembered the story and if it might be archived somewhere,” Couse says. “Not only did Sean remember the story, but he remembered how it moved him. He promptly sent me a copy of the article. I couldn’t thank him enough.”

Couse still has no idea how Kirst found out about his grandparents, but knows that the writer interviewed his mother, aunt and uncle for the article. “It’s a touching story, even more so for those of us lucky enough to call these beautiful people ‘family,’” Couse adds.

Breaking down walls

Kirst sightings are common in ���ϲ�����. Here, he signs a book for former colleague Dee Klees at a neighborhood cleanup in Elmwood. (Photo by Judge James Cecile ’88, G’91)

An Upstate journalist since 1974, Kirst espouses the blue-collar values of many of the people in his book. His professional career began at age 14, when he worked as a stringer with the Dunkirk Evening Observer, near Buffalo. “I did a little bit of everything, but really loved covering sports,” Kirst says, adding that he has a baseball novel that is 90-percent done. “I’m particularly moved by great baseball writing. To me, it’s always offered a chance to catch real elements of a larger American experience.”

After earning a bachelor’s degree in English from SUNY Fredonia, Kirst worked briefly in Rochester and Niagara Falls, and then moved to The Post-Standard in 1988. He developed a reputation for being honest and fair, part of an old guard of journalists driven by the quest for truth. “Whether I was writing about major news events or human-interest stories, I tried to focus on the daily trials and triumphs that we all can appreciate. I was lucky that people trusted me with those stories,” he says, citing Dan Barry, Studs Terkel and Jimmy Breslin as influences, along with many Upstate journalists he followed as a youth. “The issue is maintaining a line of objectivity, even when writing about powerful, emotional issues.”

Kirst explains that “The Soul of Central New York” is as much a portraiture as it is an homage to his fellow denizens. “I am deeply appreciative for everything I’ve learned from countless great journalists at ���ϲ�����.com and The Post-Standard,” he says. “They gave me so many opportunities there.”

Former editor Richard Sullivan marvels at how Kirst—raised in a factory family, amid change and civic disintegration—weaves together love, hope and passage in an avuncular way. “The success of Sean’s book sends a message: People miss Sean, and they miss this kind of journalism,” he says, speaking by phone from his home in San Diego. “Sean is an icon not just because he’s a great writer and a great reporter, but also because he’s one of us. He sits and talks with people. Genuinely listens to them. He has a way of engaging readers, without preaching to them.”

This is because Kirst often comes at a story from a different place, quite literally. “At a news event, Sean never stood with the pack,” Sullivan adds. “He always would be off to the side, watching and listening. This gave Sean and his readers a different perspective on the event.”

As Kirst writes the next chapter of his career, he no doubt will keep a forensic eye on the divisions and rivalries that have pushed ���ϲ�����—and the United States—toward a sense of civic twilight. Such sensitivity is his wheelhouse. “The best part about Sean’s book is that every one of his stories connects to a resident of ���ϲ�����, one way or another,” Wiese says. “If you hand the book to a passerby in ���ϲ����� and ask him to read it, I guarantee you that he will have a tie, directly or indirectly, to someone in it. Writing is Sean’s way of building community.”

Kirst, for one, hopes Wiese is right, as “The Soul of Central New York” admittedly has been a hard-fought win. “Working on it has taught me a lot about other people, and about myself,” Kirst says, running his hands through his close-cropped dark hair. “Whether you live in Cicero or on ���ϲ�����’s South Side, there are fundamental things that unite all of us—holding a baby in your arms, comforting a sick child, saying goodbye to a parent. I want to break down walls by capturing these moments, these snapshots in time. This is my life’s work, and it’s never done.”

In “The Soul of Central New York,” Kirst, who spent nearly 25 years as a columnist at the ���ϲ����� Post-Standard, showcases some of the most memorable stories about struggles and triumphs of the ordinary men and women who define ���ϲ�����.

Readers will learn how the city of ���ϲ����� is intertwined with the spiritual roots of the Six Nations of the Iroquois (also known as the Haudenosaunee) in one piece. Another story details the experience of a grieving father whose son was lost to violence on the streets of the city.

Kirst will be participating in a book launch, talk and signing where you can hear him discuss tales from the book, like how a group of strangers risked death along the New York State Thruway to save a soldier from a burning truck or learn about the beautiful yet tragic connection between Vice President Joseph Biden and ���ϲ�����. The book tour will take Kirst to three area locations in ���ϲ�����: , at 4 p.m. at the Onondaga Historical Association; , at 7 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble on Erie Boulevard East; and a third event, hosted by the Strathmore Speaker Series, on Tuesday, Dec. 20, at 7:30 p.m. in the Community Room at the Marriott ���ϲ����� Downtown.

The announcement can be located .

The Man Booker International Prize recognizes one writer for his or her achievement in fiction. The prize, worth £60,000, is awarded every two years to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in the English language. The winner is chosen solely at the discretion of the judging panel and there are no submissions from publishers.

The Man Booker International Prize is significantly different from the annual Man Booker Prize for Fiction. In seeking out literary excellence, the judges consider a writer’s body of work rather than a single novel.

For over 70 years, ���ϲ����� Press has been committed to serving scholars and scholarship, promoting diverse cultural and intellectual expression, and preserving the history, literature, and culture of our region. The Press publishes rigorously edited, beautifully designed, and critically acclaimed books in specialized areas, including Irish Studies, Judaica, Middle East Studies, Native American Studies, New York State, and Peace and Conflict Resolution.

The American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence annually recognize the best in professional and scholarly publishing by bringing attention to distinguished books, journals and electronic content in over 40 categories. Judged by peer publishers, librarians and medical professionals, the awards recognize publishers and authors for their commitment to pioneering works of research and for contributing to the conception, production and design of landmark works in their fields.

The PROSE Awards are sponsored by the Professional Scholarly Publishing division of the Association of American Publishers and announced at the PSP Annual Conference.

The scholarly press celebrated its 70th year in publishing this year with special speakers and events, while at the same time imagining the future opportunities in publishing.

“SU Press has recently announced a new series, ���ϲ����� Studies in Geography, building on the strength of ���ϲ����� faculty to form the series’ editorial board,” Pfeiffer says. “We also envision collaborating with the SU Libraries to support SU faculty and students in the digital publishing realm.”

Another new joint project, between and SU Press, has been the launch of Public: A Journal of Imagining America, a hybrid multimedia e-journal and archive focused on the humanities, arts and design in public life, part of the national consortium Imagining America.

Public is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal using the open source software platform of Open Journal Systems, developed by the Public Knowledge Project, to manage submissions and peer review. It is the first open-access journal to be published under ���ϲ����� Unbound, the new joint imprint of ���ϲ����� Libraries and ���ϲ����� Press.

As SU Press explores new possibilities and collaborations, its vision remains constant: serving scholars and general readers by promoting the understanding of history, literature, science, societal problems, conservation, art and culture.

“We will continue to publish exceptional and award-winning books for scholars and the general public worldwide,” Pfeiffer says. “���ϲ����� Press is known for editorial excellence in the fields of New York State studies, Middle East studies, Irish studies, Native American studies and Jewish studies, to name a few areas in which the press publishes. The press is likewise known for the highest quality in design and production.”

Recent releases include such works as “The Banshees: A Literary History of Irish American Women Writers” by Sally Barr Ebest; “Unknown Museums of Upstate New York: A Guide to 50 Treasures” by Chuck D’Imperio; and “The Photographed Cat: Picturing Human–Feline Ties, 1890–1940” by Arnold Arluke and Lauren Rolfe, which was recently highlighted in a .

Michael Doyle

Earlier this month, ���ϲ����� Press celebrated its many decades in publishing with a reception and presentation by Michael Doyle, author of “Radical Chapters: Pacifist Bookseller Roy Kepler and the Paperback Revolution.”

Dozens gathered at the Community Folk Art Center to commemorate the work of the scholarly press. The press built up to the 70th anniversary celebration with various author talks throughout the state during the past year.

The events highlighted the various disciplines published by SU Press and the dedication that goes into each of the pieces.

“Throughout its history, the press has been fortunate to have talented professionals in all facets of the organization carrying out its mission,” Pfeiffer says. “And we will continue to evolve with the changing landscape of scholarly publishing.”

The event is free and open to the public; books will be available for purchase.

���ϲ����� native Louis B. Marshall (1856-1929) was one of the most important figures in the Jewish community in the 20^th Century, and he had a significant impact both in ���ϲ����� and nationally. A prominent corporate, constitutional and civil rights attorney, he reportedly argued more cases before the U.S. Supreme Court than any other attorney of his era. He was a tireless advocate for a number of notable American Jewish organizations and institutions, and spearheaded many civil rights campaigns for other ethnic groups.

He was a driving force in establishing the New York State College of Forestry at ���ϲ�����—now the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF). He was a SU trustee and the first president of the Forestry College Board of Trustees.

In 2006, the 100 block of the popular Marshall Street on the ���ϲ����� hill was renamed Louis Marshall Way in his honor.

Silver will travel from Israel to attend the book launch. He is a modern Jewish history scholar at Max Stern College of Emek Yezreel in Israel and the author of several books and articles, including “Our Exodus: Leon Uris and the Americanization of Israel’s Founding Story” (Wayne State University Press, 2010).

For more information on the event, call 428-1864.

In “Pulling Strings” (, 2010), Kaiser explores the extraordinary career of Melville A. Clark (1883–1953), a ���ϲ����� musician, inventor, entrepreneur, community leader and collector whose colorful story is largely unknown.

Beginning with an account of Clark’s musical family, Kaiser chronicles the founding in 1859 of the Clark Music Co., of which Melville Clark became president in 1919. Originally just a tinker’s shed, the business ultimately moved into a six-story building in the center of ���ϲ�����. The music company celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2010. Clark also combined his talents as a gifted musician and astute entrepreneur to start the first ���ϲ����� Symphony Orchestra.

Kaiser recounts the development of the Clark Irish harp, the first portable harp manufactured in the United States, which could easily play accidentals. Other Clark inventions include the first nylon strings for instruments. In addition, Clark designed balloons that the British used in 1918 to drop more than 1.25 million pamphlets over Germany. Clark’s story unfolds in fascinating detail: a musical encounter with President Woodrow Wilson, entertaining President Franklin Roosevelt, visiting Buckingham Palace to present Princess Elizabeth with a music box, and the journey of a Clark Irish harp to Antarctica with Admiral Byrd.

Lavishly illustrated, “Pulling Strings” not only uncovers the life of a musical genius but also sheds light on a forgotten chapter in ���ϲ����� history.

Kaiser is a musician who performs on the harp, piano and guitar. She has published articles in the International Folk Harp Journal and has published and recorded an album of harp music, “Lullabies for Earth Children.”