Newsmakers

June 27, 2023

Ben Willmott, director of operations for the School of Performing Arts, presented “Achieving Service Excellence Through the Performing Arts at a STEM-based University” during the Association for Service Excellence in Higher Education’s (ASEHE) annual conference on June 14 in Winter Park, Fla. Willmott recently completed a Master of Science in service leadership and innovation through Saunders College of Business, which culminated in a qualitative research study examining student experiences in RIT’s Performing Arts Scholarship Program.

June 13, 2023

Jonathan Schroeder, the William A. Kern Professor in Communications, presented on his forthcoming book (co-authored with Janet Borgerson), Designed for Success: Better Living and Self-improvement with Midcentury Instructional Records, for the Popular Music Books in Process Series, sponsored by the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, on June 12. The book, which is being published by MIT Press, traces the largely untold history of instructional records, which have been part of the recording industry from its inception.

June 8, 2023

Esa Rantanen, associate professor of psychology, served as the chair of the 22nd International Symposium on Aviation Psychology, held May 31-June 3 at RIT. The symposium had about 140 participants from 14 countries, from as far as Australia, Japan, and Singapore, as well as representation from the U.S. government.

May 25, 2023

Bruce A. Austin, professor in the School of Communication, reported and wrote “Quest for the Chest: Madeline Yale Wynne's Masterpiece,” the cover story for the June 2023 issue of Maine Antique Digest. The story is about a curator’s inadvertent encounter with a photograph of a 1903 bride’s chest that prompted a two-decade long search to bring the chest home. The hunt led to a fundraising campaign for the chest’s acquisition and resulted in its repatriation to the place where it was crafted.

May 25, 2023

Christine Keiner, chair of the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, is one of 25 national college-level educators who has been selected to participate in the National Endowment for the Humanities-funded summer seminar on “Reading, Writing, and Teaching the Rust Belt.” The two-week seminar aims to help participants “equip their students to shape the future of the Rust Belt, identify and contribute to social solutions, and reimagine the role of the humanities within this sphere.” Keiner plans to enhance her syllabus for her environmental studies course on the Great Lakes, and to continue researching historical and contemporary Rust Belt bioinvasions.

May 18, 2023

Bruce A. Austin, professor in the School of Communication, authored Tourists and Trade: Roadside Craftsmen and the Highway Transforming Craft, published by SUNY Press. The book examines two small Western New York craft shops located on Routes 5 and 20, initiated at the height of the Depression, and their role elevating handcrafts from pantry shelves to museum vitrines and craftworkers from hobbyists to artist-professionals by innovating a business model adopted 70 years later on a very different “super highway” — the Internet.

May 11, 2023

Silvia Benso and Brian Schroeder, professors in the Department of Philosophy, hosted a virtual seminar with philosopher Caterina Resta (Università di Messina, Italy) on “Geophilosophy, Environmental Crisis, and the End of the World.” The seminar, which also featured responses by professors Elvira Roncalli (Carroll College, Montana) and Damiano Benvegnù (Darmouth College, New Hampshire), was organized in collaboration with Tim Campbell (Cornell University), Stefano Giannini (Syracuse University), and Donatella Stocchi-Perucchio (University of Rochester), and was funded by a grant from the Central New York Humanities Corridor through an award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

May 4, 2023

Christine Keiner, chair of the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, was recently interviewed by veteran environmental journalist Tom Horton for his forthcoming documentary on Chesapeake oysters, as he describes in his recent column for the Bay Journal.

May 4, 2023

Michaël Amy, professor of the history of art, delivered the keynote address on “Cimabue’s Altarpiece of the Crucifixion in the Upper Church of San Francesco at Assisi,” at the annual Art History Symposium on April 28 at SUNY Geneseo.

April 28, 2023

Christopher Ferrari, a marketing and political science student, was selected to the 2023 ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll representing RIT. The ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll awards college students doing outstanding work to advance nonpartisan democratic engagement at participating campuses. Ferrari joins a group of 175 students recognized for their voter registration, education, and turnout efforts ahead of last year’s historic midterm elections. RIT was recognized as one of ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge’s Most Engaged Campuses for College Student Voting in November 2022.