The college's research and development committee received grant applications for 27 spring and summer faculty research projects and awarded money to 20, says committee chair and professor of sociology William Norris. The class of 1972's fund for student research assistants paid for three of the awards.
Assistant professor of dance Ann Cooper Albright will work on a project titled "Choreographing Difference: The Body and Identity in Contemporary Dance."
Professor of politics and East Asian studies Marc Blecher received a grant for work on his forthcoming book, A World to Lose: Workers' Politics and the Chinese State. His research will also be supported next year by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (Observer 19 January 1995).
The committee awarded funding to associate professor of mathematics Susan Colley to attend the American Mathematical Society's summer research institute in algebraic geometry. She will speak with other mathematicians regarding her work in enumerative geometry and higher-order contact problems.
Professor of theater Roger Copeland will study the National Endowment for the Arts and what he calls the "erosion of the 'Arms' Length policy.'"
The class of 1972 fund for student research assistants is funding associate professor of economics Barbara Craig's work on a database on US agriculture. The grant will pay the salary of a student who will produce a database management program based on an earlier version created by a team of students in the computer science program's Software Development course. The new program will provide easy access to a database of state-level observations on the prices, quantities, and total values of agricultural outputs and inputs (Observer 20 January 1994). Craig developed the database with Phil Pardey at the University of Minnesota.
The new software, Craig says, "will encourage widespread use of this historical data both at Oberlin and beyond." She and Pardey plan to make both the data and software available on a CD-ROM that will be bundled with a book on the historical patterns of development in US agriculture.
The same fund for student research assistants will pay Edward Chowdhury '95 for his work with associate professor of biology Yolanda Cruz on her "Mammalian Embryos on CD-ROM" project (Observer 16 February 1995).
Assistant professor of music education Joanne Erwin's grant supports her study of the effectiveness of keyboard use in string education.
Professor of creative writing--and former professor of German--Stuart Friebert will explore his relationship with the German language in a project titled "Living in Another Language." He describes the project as "a book of memoirs and reflections on my relationship with, and deep, not to mention terrifying, involvement in German life, language, and letters, from my perspective as an American Jew who was one of the first exchange students to study in Germany after WW II. ... This experience culminated in a PhD in German, four volumes of poetry and prose published in German, and teaching positions at Mt. Holyoke, Harvard, and eventually Oberlin."
Associate professor of politics Chris Howell will study British trade unions and the state as part of a book manuscript, tentatively titled "Between the State and the Market: The Political Economy of British Trade Unionism in Decline."
"The book is an investigation of the relationship between the state and the trade unions in Britain," Howell explains. "It will argue that the British state has been much more interventionist in industrial relations than is usually understood." It has intervened not so much through labor legislation but "through administrative action to promote trade union recognition and collective bargaining."
Associate professor of art Patricia Mathews received grants for travel expenses and a student research assistant for two book projects: "Feminisms and Art Historical Meanings" and "A Different Vision: The Nudes of Suzanne Valadon."
Associate professor of biology David Miller received a grant for his project "Elemental Analysis of Gravel Rock Powders."
Assistant professor of theater Paul Moser received a grant for a workshop production of his new play, Sanctuary. "During the workshop process, seven actors will collaborate in the reworking of the text," he says, which will then be presented in the Little Theater. The company will include Oberlin students, recent graduates, and local professional actors.
Sanctuary, a full-length play with music, "deals with severe mental illness," Moser says, "tracing the descent of a promising musician through his entanglement in mental health and legal institutions to his eventual death on the streets." It "examines the conflict between protecting the civil liberties of the mentally ill with the moral responsibility to treat sick people."
Visiting instructor in Russian Thomas Newlin received a grant for travel to Russia to do research for a book.
Associate professor of religion Paula Richman's project is "Political Use of a Hindu Epic in India and the Diaspora." The class of 1972 fund will pay for her student research assistants.
Associate professor of physics John Scofield received funding for travel to a US Department of Energy meeting.
Professor of geology Bruce Simonson is searching for 2.6 billion year-old impact spherules in the Transvaal Basin of South Africa (see related article).
Associate professor of composition Param Vir received a grant for stage two of his orchestral composition Horse Tooth White Rock (Observer 20 January, 28 April 1994). He will extend the first movement and add a third movement. "The work is being composed in short-score format and student assistants will be used to edit and copy out the score in full orchestration," he says. He expects the composition to "be a useful and instructive experience for those composition majors ... involved in this orchestral project." Performances of the extended work are planned in 1996 and 1997.
Geology major Shannon McDaniel '96 will work with professor of geology Steven Wojtal studying the relationship between the roughness of a large thrust fault surface and the scaling law that governs the growth of small faults in the rocks on either side of the major thrust.
--Janet Degges
