Thursday’s Notes, 54.2

Announcements

CSUN is pleased to announce that its fall “Essential Talk” will host Kimberlé Crenshaw (Professor of Law, UCLA and Columbia), a field-leading scholar of critical race theory, feminist legal theory, and civil rights, who famously introduced the theory of intersectionality to critical theory.

Professor Crenshaw’s virtual talk, “Critical Race Theory and its Impact on Social Change,” will explore the ways that CSUN will implement institutional change for greater equity. The talk will take place via Zoom on Thursday, November 10, at 4pm. Be sure to RSVP!

Reminders

Early registration for students begins on November 1, and most students will register between late November and mid-December. Please do create flyers or other materials to help publicize your classes!

Opportunities

 

This generous fellowship will support faculty and students: faculty will receive $5,000, UG students $1,500, and Grad students $3,500 to support their research and creative activity. 

 

Anyone interested in conducting research on the Comfort Women or related histories and experiences that will advance our knowledge of human rights are encouraged to apply. Students can apply for research related to coursework they are already planning on conducting (MA thesis, UG capstone projects, performances, etc).

 

For more information, see this article and attached PDF as well as reach out to jinah.kim@csun.edu:

 

Achievements

Mauro Carassai was invited to give a talk at the International Seminar on “International Exchange in the Age of Society 5.0” organized by Osaka University (Japan) on October 26, 2022. The title of the talk, based on his recently published contribution to the Routledge Companion to Humanism and Literature, is “Situating Digital Humanism: the Place of Humanistic Tradition(s) in a Technological Society.”

Kelan Koning was recently featured in CSUN Today for her ongoing mentorship in and out of the classroom and for her tireless work for disability advocacy.

Jutta Schamp gave a Zoom presentation entitled “‘Does My Voice Count?’: The Reconfiguration of Myth and Gender in Monique Roffey’s The Mermaid of Black Conch” at the “International Conference on Myths, Archetyps and Symbols: Models and Alternatives” at the London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (September 24 and 25).

Danielle Spratt published “The Gravity and Levity of How To with John Wilson” in The Rambling. She also presented a paper on her joint faculty-student public humanities project, which she directs along with with Ellen Jarosz and Nicole Shibata, “Blank Spaces in the CSUN University Library Archives,” at the International Conference on Romanticism, held at UC Santa Barbara, on 22 October 2022.

Audrey Thacker presented “Pop Goes the Bubble of Historical Truth: The Diminishing Returns of Holocaust Representation for the Public Imagination in HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm” at the Holocaust, Genocide, and Mass Violence in the Public Imagination conference at MSU Denver in September.

In Memoriam

The Department of English remembers our colleague Jody Myers, who passed away on October 22, 2022. We excerpt the following words from this announcement:

“Dr. Myers was Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at California State University, Northridge and longtime Coordinator of the Jewish Studies Interdisciplinary Program there. She also served on the executive board of the Western Jewish Studies Association.

A graduate of Brandeis University, Prof. Jody Myers studied with Amos Funkenstein at UCLA, from which she received her Ph.D. in 1984 with a thesis that became her first book, Seeking Zion: Modernity and Messianic Activism in the Writings of Tsevi Hirsch Kalischer (Littman Library, 2003). Her later scholarship took a more ethnographic turn, in Kabbalah and the Spiritual Quest: The Kabbalah Center in America (Praeger, 2007), and more recently in her studies of the role of food in American Jewish life. Together with Aaron S. Gross and Jordan D. Rosenblum, she was the editor of Feasting and Fasting: The History and Ethics of Jewish Food (NYU Press, 2020). At the time of her death, she had neared completion of “Eating at God’s Table,” an historical and ethnographic study of foodways, including contested kashrut authorities, in Pico-Robertson, a diversely Orthodox community in Los Angeles.  Diagnosed with a brain tumor earlier this year, Prof. Myers passed away in Los Angeles on October 22, at the age of 68.”

One of her sons shared the following: 

“In her bedroom filled with love, photographs, family and peaceful sounds of nature, my mom lost her battle with cancer tonight.   She fought hard with dignity and left our world peacefully with no regrets.   She received affection and respect from all of the doctors, nurses and caregivers that helped us along the way.  And she was overwhelmed with the love, support, sympathy and prayer from all of you.  My mom died feeling special.  So thank you. Her funeral will be held in Minneapolis next week so that she can be buried with her family.”

We extend deepest sympathies to her family, colleagues, students, and friends.