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Robert Freed Riley, professor of mathematics,
passed away on March 4, 2000, at age 64 following heart surgery.
Riley was a graduate of Cornell University and studied advanced mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his PhD from the University of Southampton in England in 1979. Riley spent time at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and the University of Colorado before joining the faculty at Harpur College in 1982.
During the 1970s, Riley made a remarkable mathematical discovery which, when developed further, led to one of the central topics of current geometry and topology. This theorem revealed that the complement of the figure-eight knot carries a hyperbolic structure. Riley was also one of the first researchers to use computers as tools for this kind of geometric analysis. A program developed in 1983 became the foundation on which current, more complex programs are based.
"With his passing, not only has Harpur College lost a friend and a colleague, but also a great mathematician who contributed so much to his field," said Dean Polachek. "His loss will be greatly felt by all those who knew and admired his research and scholarly endeavors."
Covered up, shut up and shut out. It's been the official
status of woman for much of the last millennium. And up to the 19th and
20th centuries, milestones in women's struggle for equal social standing
were few and far between. In his latest book, Love in the "Corral"-
Conjugal Spirituality and Anti-Theatrical Polemic in Early Modern Spain,
Thomas Austin O'Connor explores one of these milestones -- one that began
in an unlikely arena, late 16th century Spanish public theaters, also known
as "corrales." On November 18, 1587, Spanish women were given
permission to "tread the boards," an event that gave Spanish women
their first-ever public voice but one that cued a discourse that raged on
in Spain and, to a large extent, Europe for almost 200 years.
At a time when most European stage productions used young boys to play female roles, the document granting women the right to act in Spanish public theater was considered scandalous and controversial. "The reaction was extremely strong," said Thomas O'Connor, Harpur College professor of Spanish. "Women were given a physical presence in the theater, speaking in their own voices with feminine subjectivity becoming the center of much of the dramatic action. This was especially true in what we would call the Comedia, the cape and sword plays, the messages of which were delivered in a way that went against what was at the time socially acceptable. My book reviews and organizes the resulting debate as recorded in legal documents and theological treatises over the subsequent 200-year period, while also examining some of the popular plays of the time. The combination of the critical/polemical discourse and the dramatic texts provides a fascinating account of the kinds of issues that today we think define Western European or modern culture. They were in fact, being dealt with as far back as the 16th century."
Dividing the book into two sections, O'Connor begins with a detailed and historical account of the different dimensions to this polemic as recorded in written work of the time, mainly legal documents and theological text. Love in the "Corral" provides the first organized and detailed analysis of the source documents. It is also the first time that much of the material has appeared in English. The second half of the book examines how theatrical discourse reacted to the polemic and even at times adapted its discourse as a consequence. "I review, in depth, the kinds of concerns women were experiencing and subsequently expressing through their roles," said O'Connor. "Although written mainly by men, these plays were certainly a liberating step for society and had tremendous impact and influence on the drama of the Restoration era. The discourse surrounding the Spanish Comedia was felt throughout Europe."
According to O'Connor, tracking down some of the material was somewhat like a detective case, and it has taken him almost eight years to complete the project. The theater of the Golden Age, the period between c.1580 and c.1700, is O'Connor's area of expertise, but he became particularly fascinated with the ferocity and seriousness of the debate that Spanish drama provoked. "At the heart of the polemic over theatrical licitness, I found repeated references to Christian theological tradition, which exalted both virginity and celibacy while attempting to justify matrimony and conjugal love," said O'Connor. "For fundamentalists, the theater was seen as a sensual delight that pulled people away from a so-called true Christian existence, for which convents and monasteries served as model for life. The presence of women on stage and in the audience served as a catalyst for a larger debate on the role women were to play in public and private life."
O'Connor is the author of numerous articles in professional journals and has published Myth and Mythology in the Theater of Pedro Calderon de la Barca. O'Connor has edited El encanto es la hemosura/La segunda Celestina by Salazar, Vera Tassis and sor Juana and also serves as series editor for Spanish Classical Texts. Currently, he is book review editor for Bulletin of the Comediantes.
Megan Gavin and John Ros have every reason
to be a little stressed out these days. Over the next few weeks, they, along
with five fellow art students, face an important milestone in their academic
career -- their senior BFA exhibition.
As part of their graduation requirement, each of the BFA students will be featured in a five-day solo exhibit to be shown in the Rosefsky Studio Art Gallery.
For Gavin, her exhibit, which opened on March 10, will feature work made over the course of more than three years and consist of approximately 75 pieces. "The experience of staging an exhibit like this offers a good deal of real-world knowledge about the frustrations and triumphs of being an artist who shows," said Gavin. "I also think the exhibits offer a great opportunity to students just starting out. Seeing other peoples' work can be motivating in a sort-of friendly competition sense and also validating to know that other people are working and are being seen."
John Ros agrees. "It is good for people, especially younger students, to see the development and hard work that four years can have on you. If the show helps people see that, it is all worth it!" Ros' show opens on March 31 and will feature monotypes, paintings and drawings completed over the past three semesters. "Any viewing experience is a good one because people need to be exposed to the arts as much as possible," said Ros. "The BFA exhibition is a great forum for that and gives me a wonderful close to a great four years at Harpur College. I have gained a lot and learned many valuable lessons. The show will sort of wrap it all together for me."
"These exhibitions are a very important
part of our program," said John Thomson, chair of the Art Department.
"Many of our BFAs go on for their MFAs at other schools and work from
this show will most likely become part of their portfolio. The exhibitions
are a required part of our BFA program, which is quite unusual in that not
many art schools have the facilities to offer these types of shows. As for
this year's batch of seniors, they have been a particularly cohesive and
hard-working group. And I think certainly the experience of mentoring and
learning from each other has been an integral part of the learning experience.
Like all our graduates, we look forward to following their careers in the
future."
The solo exhibitions will run through to the end of May and will feature the following students:
All BFA exhibitions will be held in the Rosefsky Studio Art Gallery in the Fine Arts Building. For more information, call the Art Department at 777-2667.
Professor Melvyn Dubofsky's feet have been
getting a workout since he arrived in Amsterdam in early January. On a Fulbright
Scholar grant at the University of Amsterdam, Dubofsky is teaching two courses
at the university's America Institute. But when he's not in the classroom,
Dubofsky is using his spare time to soak up the sights and the sounds. And
that includes going everywhere by foot or public transportation.
As Dubofsky says however, the cost of shoe leather is a small price to pay for the experience of living in a different society and culture. In a recent e-mail, Dubofsky noted: "How better to appreciate the quality of another society and culture but by living daily within it. Even though an outsider can never really be a full part of the host society, I am also more than a mere tourist."
Since early January, Dubofsky, regularly a faculty member in Harpur's Department of History, has been teaching two courses in the University of Amsterdam's America Institute, a relatively small American Studies program that awards Master's and Doctoral degrees. He is also the current holder of a distinguished John Adams Chair in American History to lecture in The Netherlands. Only one Adams Chair is awarded in any given quarter or semester by the Board of the Netherlands Commission for Educational Exchange (NACEE), the facilitators of the Fulbright program in the Netherlands. And only two are granted over the course of the entire year. Rotating annually among various Dutch universities, it is one of the more prestigious Fulbright awards.
But Dubofsky is no stranger to the Fulbright program and its awards. This is his second distinguished chair award, the first granted by the University of Salzburg, Austria, in 1988-89. He also participated in the program in 1977-78 when he lectured at the Tel Aviv University in Israel. "Those fortunate enough to receive grants have the opportunity to discover the ways in which modern media and mass consumption tie people together around the globe," said Dubofsky. "Or, at least in advanced industrial and post-industrial societies. And yet they also get to see how quite different cultural patterns persist despite globalization. Hollywood dominates the cinema while syndicated US TV shows monopolize the tube, but despite the influences, Dutch culture remains intact and unique from that of the U.S."
Dubofsky completes his stint at the University of Amsterdam in mid-March and is scheduled to lecture in Salzburg, Austria, later that month. Before returning to the US in mid-May, Dubofsky has been scheduled by The Netherlands-America Educational Exchange Committee (NACEE) to lecture at other Dutch universities.
Sponsored and funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State, the Fulbright Scholar Program provides U.S. faculty and professionals with opportunities for lecturing, research and seminar participation in 130 countries around the world. This year, approximately 750 U.S. faculty and professionals received grants to lecture or conduct research abroad. They join over 66,000 U.S. and foreign scholars who have participated in the program since its inception in 1946.
Attention
California alumni! Join Dean Solomon Polachek and the Binghamton University
Alumni Association for a fun-filled evening of family entertainment by Harpur
College Artists-in-Residence The Second Hand on Saturday, April 8, at Pepperdine
University.
Together since 1987, Andy Horowitz, Paul Gordon and Greg O'Brien met up as students at Binghamton University. Appearing as The Second Hand, this trio collaborates with tremendous ease, creating a unique blend of theatre, dance, comedy and acrobatics, which appeals to children and adults alike. They have appeared on- and off-Broadway and on the "David Letterman Show." The Second Hand has also performed internationally in Ireland, England, Austria, Holland, Chile, Japan, Germany and Russia. The trio is currently in the process of developing a new piece, commissioned for Harpur College's 50th Anniversary, which will be unveiled on May 5 at Reunion 2000. For more information about The Second Hand, visit their website at www.thesecondhand.org.
Before the April 8 performance at Pepperdine University, join alumni and friends for a reception in the Sculpture Garden of the Weisman Museum of Art. Curtain up is at 8 p.m. in the Smothers Theater.
Cost for the event is $10 per person, which includes a special $20 discount for BU alumni and guests (regular ticket price is $30 per person). Seats are very limited, so please respond early! To reserve your tickets, send a check made payable to: Binghamton Alumni Association, PO Box 6004, Binghamton, NY 13902-6004. Payment must be received by April 6 and tickets will be available from 6 p.m. on April 8 at the "Will Call" window.
Pepperdine University is located in Malibu at Pacific Coast Highway and Malibu Canyon Road. Enter campus off of Malibu Canyon Road onto Seaver Drive. Follow signs to the parking areas for the Center for the Arts.
For more details, contact Lee Nesslage at (607) 777-4278 or harprsvp@binghamton.edu.
From one end of the country to the other! Law alumni in Florida and California are encouraged to circle these dates on their calendars -- March 21 and April 10. Dean Polachek, the Harpur College Law Alumni Council and the BU Alumni Association will be hosting law alumni events in Fort Lauderdale and San Francisco and encourage all law alumni and Harpur College friends to stop by.
Fort Lauderdale Law Event:
On Tuesday, March 21, Fenster and Faerber P.A. will be hosting the Binghamton
Alumni Law reception at their offices at 8751 West Broward Boulevard in
Fort Lauderdale. Facilitating the event at Fenster and Faerber is Jesse S. Faerber
'71. The reception will begin at 5:30 pm. Those wishing to attend
should contact Lee Nesslage at (607) 777-4278 or harprsvp@binghamton.edu
by March 17.
San Francisco Law Event:
Then crossing the country, the next law alumni event will be held in San
Francisco, facilitated by the current president of the BU Alumni Association,
Martin F. Triano '76. This event begins at 5:30 p.m. The location for this
event will appear in the next issue of Harpur Hotline. Alumni are encouraged
to contact Lee Nesslage at (607) 777-4278 or harprsvp@binghamton.edu
for more information.
Alumni and friends wishing to attend either one of these two events can look forward to an evening of meeting old acquaintances and making some new ones. For more details about the law reception, or about how you can support the Harpur College Law Alumni Council programs or become involved in upcoming projects, contact Lee Nesslage.
Visit the Harpur Alumni site at harpur.binghamton.edu/alumni.htm to see photos of the Law Alumni event held on March 1 at the White and Case LLP offices in New York City.
William Spanos,
professor of English, will be featured as the guest lecturer at the next
Dean's Lecture scheduled for 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 29. The lecture
will focus on his book of memoirs in progress in which he attempts to come
to terms with his Greek-American heritage.
In particular, Spanos will use the Dean's Lecture to relate the details of a series of visits to the Mycenae excavation site in 1969 when he was a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Athens. The military junta had staged a coup d'etat two years earlier and was at the height of its brutal power. The visit, because of the political context in which it was made, was to have a profound impact on Spanos, not simply as a person, who had never felt at home either as a Greek or an American, but also as a teacher of American literature.
Spanos was born in New Hampshire into a poor Greek immigrant family during the Depression. He served during World War II and was taken prisoner in the Battle of the Bulge. Spanos was also in Dresden, Germany, at the time of the Allied firebombing that killed over a hundred and thirty-five thousand people in one night and day. On his return to the United States, Spanos attended Wesleyan University under the GI Bill of Rights. He then went on to Columbia University for his MA and Wisconsin for his PhD. Spanos taught at the Mount Hermon Prep School, the University of Kentucky and Knox College before joining the faculty at Harpur College in 1966. In 1987, Spanos was awarded an honorary degree in Philosophy by the University of Athens, not only for his scholarly work but also because of the commitment to resisting injustice, promoted through his teaching. With Robert Kroetch, he co-founded boundary 2: a journal of postmodern literature, which he edited for 17 years before passing on to his former student, the eminent critic and scholar Paul Bove. He is the author of numerous essays on postmodern literature and theory, higher education, imperialism and post-colonialism. His books include: Repetitions: The Postmodern Occasion in Literature and Culture, (Louisiana University Press, 1987); The End of Education: Toward Posthumanism (Minnesota University Press, 1993); Heidegger and Criticism: Retrieving the Cultural Politics of Destruction (University of Minnesota Press, 1993); The Errant Art of Moby-Dick: The Canon, the Cold War, and the Struggle for American Studies (Duke University Press, 1995); and America's Shadow: An Anatomy of Empire (University of Minnesota Press, 2000).
The Dean's Lecture is scheduled for 3 p.m. in Casadesus Recital Hall in the Fine Arts building, with a reception immediately following in the Theatre Department Green Room. The university community and friends of Harpur are cordially invited to attend.
Last updated 3/14/00. Written by Gail Glover, Harpur College Public Relations Specialist.