Faculty Notes

by John McClain

Drew Buchman contributed a chapter to the just-published Oxford Handbook of Sondheim Studies. In it, he examines the genesis and reception of Stephen Sondheim’s 1981 stage musical, Merrily We Roll Along.

Emeritus faculty member Michael Beug’s new book, Ascomycete Fungi of North America: A Mushroom Reference Guide, came out in March from the University of Texas Press. At nearly 500 pages, the book includes 843 color photographs and is the first written on the subject since 1951. It has been nominated for the PROSE award for the best 2014 book in the single volume reference/science category. PROSE Awards annually recognize outstanding and innovative scholarly contributions to the arts, humanities, sciences, and math.

Peter Dorman’s introductory economics textbooks, Microeconomics: A Fresh Start and Macroeconomics: A Fresh Start, were published over the summer by Springer.

Susan Fiksdal (emerita) published A Guide to Teaching Effective Seminars: Conversation, Identity, and Power with Routledge last spring. She includes tips from Evergreen faculty and data she collected over 20 years at the college. The book has a companion website with resources, video clips of seminars, and a poem by faculty emeritus Dean Olson.

Steven Hendricks’ debut novel, Little is Left to Tell, was published this fall by Starcherone Books. Kirkus Reviews calls the novel “a vivid story that uses the language and metaphors of myth to reflect on the unkind nature of age and perception.”

Zoltan Grossman received the 2014 Enhancing Diversity Award from the Association of American Geographers (AAG). He shared the award with four colleagues from the AAG Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group. The five were honored for their efforts to increase the number of Native Americans, Alaskan Natives, and Native Hawaiians pursuing geography degrees, as well as to raise the visibility of Indigenous peoples’ issues in the field.

Two pieces by Naima Lowe—“Thirty-nine [39] Questions for White People” and “Richard Simmons ’Til You Die”—were part of “The Missing Body: Performance in the Absence

of the Artist,” an exhibition in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.

Nancy Koppelman’s essay, “ ̔When you want to do something, join us!’: The Limits of the Social Justice Mandate in Higher Education,” will appear in November in The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel from Wayne State University Press.

Miranda Mellis received a 2014 Artist in Residence award at the Headlands Center for the Arts, in Sausalito, Calif., where she is spending fall quarter. Her recent publications include three short stories in the summer 2014 issue of Western Humanities Review. Her column for The New York Times’ On Work series, “A Menagerie of Ideas, Unlocked in Odd Jobs,” appeared in the August 17 issue.

Kabby Mitchell III served on the faculty of the 2014 Northwest Dance Intensive. The three-week summer program for international teachers of dance was held at Evergreen. Mitchell also choreographed the summer musical, “Roll Thunder Roll, Hear My Cry,” performed by African-American teenagers at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute in Seattle.

Zhang Er (Mingxia Li) was named Female Poet of the Year 2013 by Overseas Chinese Poetry Magazine in December. (Not pictured above.)