The University of Kansas

Joyce Castle, music professor, sang the role of the witch Jezibaba in Dvorak’s “Rusalka” at the Seattle Opera Company in October. The Seattle Times wrote: “Castle’s dramatic (and comic) moments earn her appreciative laughter during the action and gave her an enthusiastic crescendo in the applause at the opening-night curtain. Her performance transcends that of merely a well-sung role.”

William Crowe, Spencer librarian, was recently elected to serve a third one-year term as chair of the Online Computer Library Center’s board of trustees. Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC is a nonprofit organization that provides computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing and preservation services to 40,000 libraries in 81 countries and territories.

Sherrie Tucker, assistant professor of American studies, received a $38,000 contract from the National Park Service to research and write a feminist study of New Orleans jazz women for the New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park. She also presented a paper, “Democracy on the Dance Floor: Gender, Race, Nation at the Hollywood Canteen,” at the American Studies Association in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 10. Tucker was interviewed about her book, “Swing Shift: All Girl Bands of the 1940s,” in the Nov. 29 issue of The Mag, the arts and entertainment supplement to the Lawrence Journal-World.

Tami Albin, public services librarian at the Regents Center Library, will be a research associate on a project of the National Parks Service. The project is a feminist study on New Orleans jazz women, and the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park will use the research resulting from the study.

Leonardo A. Villalon, associate professor of political science, was elected president of the West Africa Research Association at the November 2001 annual meeting of the association’s board of directors. WARA was founded in 1989 for the purpose of promoting scholarly exchange and collaboration between American and West African researchers with interests in the countries of West Africa. Funded primarily through grants from the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of State, WARA awards fellowships to American and West African scholars; sponsors a variety of collaborative initiatives, projects and conferences; and disseminates West Africa-related research.

Two members of the Division of Musicology presented papers at the national meeting of the American Musicological Society, held in Atlanta from Nov. 15 to 18. Walter Clark, associate professor of musicology, presented a paper, “Doing the Samba on Sunset Boulevard: Carmen Miranda and the Hollywoodization of Latin American Music,” and Roberta Freund Schwartz, assistant professor of musicology, presented “Spain Is Different: Patronage of Music by the Spanish Nobility in the Renaissance.” Both papers were well received and stimulated significant discussion.

Paul Laird, associate professor of musicology, is co-editor of Res musicae: Essays in Honor of James W. Pruett, published in October by Harmonie Park Press of Warren, Mich. The book includes Laird’s article “Leonard Bernstein and Eclecticism: A Preliminary Consideration.” On Nov. 5, Laird was a guest lecturer at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, where he presented a class on the Broadway musicals of Leonard Bernstein. On Nov. 8, he was a guest lecturer at Illinois State University, where he presented classes on the baroque cello and its history and performance practice.

Clarence Bernard Henry, assistant professor of ethnomusicology, gave a presentation, “The Influence of African Music and Religion in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil,” at the Merienda Series for the KU Center of Latin American Studies on Nov. 1.

John T. Alexander, professor of history and Russian and East European studies, recently published an essay titled “Amazon Autocratrixes: Images of Female Rule in the 18th Century” in Gender and Sexuality in Russian Civilisation, edited by Peter Barta. The book was an outgrowth of papers presented at a conference at the University of Surrey at Guildford, England, in 1996.

Allan Hanson, professor of anthropology, published the article “Donor Insemination: Eugenic and Feminist Implications” in the September issue of the Medical Anthropology Quarterly. He also delivered the paper “Rethinking Methodological Individualism in the Light of Information Technology” at the annual meeting of the Society for the Social Study of Science in November in Cambridge, Mass.

Gunda Georg, distinguished professor of medicinal chemistry, gave her inaugural lecture, “Collaborative Efforts Toward Discovery of Anti-Cancer Agents,” Nov. 27 at the Kansas Union.

This site is maintained by University Relations, the public relations office for the University of Kansas Lawrence campus. Copyright 2001, the University of Kansas Office of University Relations. Images and information may be reused with notice of copyright, but not altered. kurelations@ukans.edu, (785) 864-3256.