Sabbatical Panorama 2013-2014
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Sabbatical Panorama 2013•2014 i Table of Contents Provost’s Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................ i Simone A. James Alexander ................................................................................................................................................. 1 Assefaw Bariagaber ................................................................................................................................................................ 3 David Bénéteau......................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Alan Brill ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Janine P. Buckner ................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Martha C. Carpentier ............................................................................................................................................................ 16 Colleen Conway ...................................................................................................................................................................... 18 Jorge López Cortina .............................................................................................................................................................. 20 Mark Couch .............................................................................................................................................................................. 24 Mark P. Denbeaux .................................................................................................................................................................. 26 Martin S. Edwards ................................................................................................................................................................. 28 Sheldon Epstein ...................................................................................................................................................................... 31 Martin J. Finkelstein ............................................................................................................................................................. 33 Paula Franzese ........................................................................................................................................................................ 36 David P. Gelb ............................................................................................................................................................................ 39 Alisa Hindin .............................................................................................................................................................................. 40 Jeffrey C Levy ........................................................................................................................................................................... 41 Msgr. Dennis Mahon ............................................................................................................................................................. 44 Cecilia Marzabadi .................................................................................................................................................................. 48 Robert Mayhew ...................................................................................................................................................................... 51 Elizabeth McCrea ................................................................................................................................................................... 54 Vicente Medina ....................................................................................................................................................................... 56 Penina Orenstein ................................................................................................................................................................... 57 Shigeru Osuka ......................................................................................................................................................................... 61 Robert Pallitto ......................................................................................................................................................................... 63 Marc Poirier ............................................................................................................................................................................. 65 Kurt W Rotthoff ...................................................................................................................................................................... 69 Peter Savastano ...................................................................................................................................................................... 73 Christopher Sharrett ............................................................................................................................................................ 77 ii Bonnie A. Sturm...................................................................................................................................................................... 80 Elaine Walker .......................................................................................................................................................................... 84 Heping Zhou ............................................................................................................................................................................. 87 iii Provost’s Introduction October 2016 Dear Faculty Colleagues: One book that I recommend to many colleagues is the collected correspondence of Shelby Foote and Walker Percy, edited by Jay Tolson. The letters provide a fascinating perspective on the writing careers of two longtime friends, one of whom took up writing as his first career, while the other took a much less direct route. I have highlighted this passage from the first letter: ‘the most heart-breaking thing about it is: the better you get, the harder you’ll have to work-because your standards will rise with your ability.’ Sabbaticals are one of a University’s tools to equip our faculty to respond to the rising standards of their fields and their own success. The faculty whose sabbaticals are reported in the following chapters traveled to India, Kazakhstan, China and Japan, England, Cambodia and the Philippines. They investigated projects ranging from meditation to the Gospel of John and the legacy of James Joyce. As with previous reviews of sabbatical work, these contributions fill me with pride for Seton Hall and confidence in the continuing relevance and impact of the scholarship that informs our classes. One of these entries has a particular poignancy for our community. Professor Marc Poirier, a dedicated and celebrated teacher and scholar in the Seton Hall School of Law, and a respected authority on property theory, passed away in August 2016. His sabbatical report testifies to the life of a fine colleague with a wide and expert intellectual curiosity, that ended all too quickly. Dr. Larry A. Robinson Provost i ii Simone A. James Alexander Department of English During my sabbatical I completed many of the major projects I set out to accomplish including completing editing fifteen chapters of my co-edited book, Feminist and Critical Perspectives on Caribbean Mothering that was published by Africa World Press. I also contributed a chapter to the book entitled “M/Otherly Guise or Guide?: Theorizing Jamaica Kincaid’s ‘Girl.” When I applied for the sabbatical my single-authored book, African American Diasporic Women’s Narratives: Politics of Resistance, Survival and Citizenship was under review with the University Press of Florida. The book was granted a contract subsequently. The sabbatical did not only allow me the time and space to revise the suggested edits but also to resubmit these revisions in a timely manner, resulting in an earlier than anticipated publication date. Published in 2014, the book has since won the 2015 College Language Association Creative Scholarship Award and to date has received four positive reviews in prestigious journals. African American Diasporic Women’s Narratives has also been nominated for two other notable awards, the Barbara T. Christian Literary Award and the African Literature Association Award. The winners of these awards will be announced later this year at upcoming conferences. The book has sold well and as a result will be reprinted in a paperback edition in March 2016. http://www.amazon.com/African-Diasporic-Womens-Narratives- Citizenship/dp/0813062055/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=145375843 5&sr=1-2&keywords=african+diasporic+women%27s++narrative The sabbatical afforded me the time and opportunity to return to Moscow, Russia to gather information for my fourth book project, Black Freedom in Communist Russia: Great Expectations, Utopian Visions. My plan to conduct