On Veterans Day, we recognize the service of the members of our University community who wear and have worn the uniforms of our nation’s armed services. This is a day to remember our debt to all of them.
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SAS In Focus is the only newsletter devoted to reporting what’s happening in the School of Arts & Sciences.
In this edition . . .
NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIST HONORED WITH 2024 LILLIAN FAIRCHILD AWARD
The Department of English in collaboration with the Memorial Art Gallery have selected G. Peter Jemison (pictured above) as the winner of the 2024 Lillian Fairchild Award.
Jemison, of the Heron Clan from the Cattaraugus Territory, Seneca Nation, is a mixed-media artist and writer whose work has been shown at major museum collections around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. His landscape piece, “we used to be free like the birds and the animals,” was purchased by the Jacques Chirac du quai Branly Museum in Paris.
The Lillian Fairchild Award was established in 1924 by University of Rochester Professor Herman L. Fairchild as a tribute to the artistic endeavors of his daughter, Lillian, who died of tuberculosis at age 32. The prize recognizes a resident of the Rochester area who has produced “the most meritorious and praiseworthy creation of art, poetry, or literature of the imagination” within the previous calendar year.
Past winners include choreographer Garth Fagan, acclaimed sculptor Albert Paley, and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Anthony Hecht.
A ceremony celebrating Jemison will take place in the spring.
BRIGHT FUTURES IN HUMANITIES
The inaugural Samuels Family Speaker Series, “Bright Futures for Humanities Majors,” features a conversation with alumnus Steve Blank on Nov. 15 from 3:30-4:30 p.m. in Conference Room D of the Humanities Center.
Blank has worked in marketing in the entertainment industry for 14 years, including at TV Land, Nickelodeon, and currently at Lucasfilm. He’s helped oversee marketing for projects such as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Spongebob Squarepants,” and “Star Wars Rebels,” as well as New York and San Diego Comic Con presentations. Blank is also the co-executive sponsor of Lucas Pride, Lucasfilm’s LGBTQ+ employee resource group.
He will discuss important lessons he learned at Rochester, how he got into marketing, and advice for humanities majors after graduation. The lecture is open to all current humanities majors.
A reception will follow in the Humanities Center Lounge. The event is co-sponsored by University Advancement.
PUBLIC LECTURE: “BLACK GUILT & BLACK DIGNITY”
The Humanities Center launches a new series of events around the topic of “Dignity” on Nov. 11 with a public lecture titled “Black Guilt & Black Dignity.” The lecture begins at 5 p.m. in Conference Room D of the Humanities Center, 202 Rush Rhees Library.
In this conversation, two colleagues and collaborators – Associate Professor of Religion Josh Dubler and Vincent Lloyd, an associate professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University explore the moral framework of anti-Black racism and criminalization.
POLISH FILM FESTIVAL: PART II
Love stories. Suspenseful dramas. Morality tales. The six films of the second half of the Polish Film Festival that runs Nov. 12-17 cover the gamut of emotions and have earned international praise.
The festival, organized by the Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies at the University of Rochester, has been a staple of the city’s fall film scene for 28 years for good reason: its menu of movies is second to none. The films are in Polish with English subtitles, and each will be shown for one day only at the Dryden Theatre and the Little Theatre.
They’re all worthwhile watches, but the best of them might be “Green Border” (pictured above), a deeply affecting drama set against the migrant crisis in Europe by the director Agnieszka Holland that won accolades at prestigious film festivals around the world last year. Tickets are $12 for adults and $7 for students.
PLUTZIK READING SERIES CONTINUES
The Plutzik Reading Series continues on Nov. 14 with author Laura van den Berg (pictured above), the author of five works of fiction, including The Third Hotel, a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, and I Hold a Wolf by the Ears, one of Time Magazine’s 10 Best Fiction Books of 2020.
Van den Berg will read from recent works, answer questions, and sign copies of her books, which will be available for purchase. The free event is at 5 p.m. in the Humanities Center, Conference Room D.
The series is one of the most prestigious and longest-running reading series in the country, and honors the life and poetic achievements of Hyam Plutzik, a critically acclaimed poet and Rochester faculty member.
NEWLY FUNDED RESEARCH
Congratulations to Ignacio Franco, professor of chemistry and physics, for securing a $550,302 grant from the federal Department of Energy for his project, “Tensor Network Decomposition of Open Quantum Dynamics for Efficient Simulation of Next-Generation Quantum Systems.”
The central hypothesis of the project is that dimensionality in the hierarchical equations of motion can be efficiently curbed by developing a tensor network decomposition of the open quantum dynamics.
GOT NEWS TO SHARE?
Send your SAS In Focus news tips to SAS Senior Communications Officer David Andreatta at david.andreatta@rochester.edu. Tell him about research, awards, publications, symposiums, and whatever other news you think is fit to print. Be sure to put “SAS In Focus” in the subject heading.
