People & Places: March 2019

Judson Herrman, the Frank T. McClure Professor of Greek and Latin, has published a substantial peer-reviewed reference article on “Hyperides” for the new digital edition of the Oxford Classical Dictionary, which, in its earlier print editions, has long been the standard reference work in the field of classical studies.


Associate Professor of Communication Arts Ishita Sinha Roy has published a book on India’s new nation-building efforts: Manufacturing Indianness: Nation-Branding and Postcolonial Identity (Peter Lang, 2019). The book explores how nation-branding initiatives in India are serving the colonizing project of Hindutva or a Hindu-based neoliberal nationalism. With the upcoming general elections in India in April/May 2019, this book is a timely exploration of the media terrain where Indianness, reclaimed from the former British colonizers, is being used by the postcolonial nation to reclaim and re-make its history. Manufacturing Indianness combines interviews with media and nation-branding professionals and a psychoanalytic postcolonial analysis of recent media events and campaigns to unpack how a fetishized “Make in India” brand of ‘authentic’ Indianness is being used to justify Islamophobia, casteism, and misogyny. The table of contents can be viewed here.


Assistant Professor of Art Ian Thomas, ceramics/sculpture, was a visiting artist at Harvard University, where he presented a lecture and workshop and participated in the exhibition “Raise a Glass.” Additionally, this fall Thomas was a visiting artist at Oregon College of Art and Craft, had images of his research published in the Ceramics Monthly, exhibited at Aqua Art Miami and Penn University, and participated in two exhibitions in Pittsburgh and at the Contemporary Museum of Art in Plainview, Texas.


ROTC Formal at Edinboro University
Kyle Kanell, 
junior and ROTC cadet, Alexis Hart, associate professor of English and ROTC faculty advisor, and admissions counselors Louis Fehér-Peiker ’17 and Amanda Carroll ’18 represented Allegheny College at the annual Fighting Scot ROTC Military Ball on March 1 at the Concourse of Union Station in Erie. Kanell was recognized for his outstanding achievements and dedication to the Fighting Scot ROTC Battalion with a medal from the Military Officers Association of America Award. Kanell and Hart also opened the dessert mess by ceremonially cutting the dessert cake with an officer’s sword. The Fighting Scot ROTC Battalion is a partnership ROTC program with Edinboro University and Allegheny College.


Anna Meyer
Junior Anna Meyer is one of 15 undergraduate students in the U.S. to be awarded a 2019 Research Fellowship from The Endocrine Society. This fellowship will allow her to continue her research project entitled “Characterizing the role of CREBRF and its metabolic-risk variant in glucocorticoid action”. Her project seeks to address gaps in knowledge regarding a novel obesity-risk gene (CREBRF) and its role in the modulation of the glucocorticoid action among broader influences on systemic metabolic homeostasis. Her fellowship will include a poster presentation at ENDO 2020, the Society’s Annual Meeting & Expo being held in San Francisco March 28–31, 2020, and membership in the society. Anna will be working under her mentor, Dr. Erin Kershaw, chief, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Pittsburgh.


Assistant Professors Adrienne Krone (Religious Studies) and Pamela Runestad (Global Health) presented papers at Food, Heritage and Community: An Inclusive Interdisciplinary Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, March 9–10, 2019. Krone presented her research on Jewish community farming in North America, and Runestad presented results of preliminary research on maternity clinic meals in Japan.


2019 Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Band
The Allegheny College Wind Symphony was well represented at the 72nd annual Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Band held at Wilkes University, Wilkes Barre, Pa., March 8–10, 2019. This year’s guest conductor was Dr. Michelle Rakers, retired assistant conductor of the U.S. Marine Band “The President’s Own.” Dr. Rakers is a familiar face at Allegheny as she served for several years as a conductor for our summer Band Camp for Adult Musicians. Pictured are Jon Mendez, euphonium; Tucker Harvey, trumpet; Morgan Palmer, oboe/English horn; Ronald Stitt, assistant director of bands; Rakers, guest conductor; John Scott, alto saxophone; and Jon Schaeffer, alto saxophone. The Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Band is the oldest intercollegiate band in the United States.