Alumnus Kaleb Anderson (Theatre and Communication ‘04) cut the ribbon at UMD Theatre’s newly renovated ADA compliant Box Office at Marshall Performing Arts Center on October 15, 2021.
The College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences is the new home of The Bark (formerly The Statesman). The student news organization turns 75 this year; staff launched a new weekly newsletter, moved their offices, and gained a new editorial adviser and administrative home in 2021. They also continue to win awards for their reporting, garnering 11 awards in 2020–21 from the Minnesota Newspaper Association.
Dr. David Beard and Dr. Lisa Horton (English, Linguistics, and Writing Studies) published a chapter, “The Critical Role of New Media in Transforming Gamers Into Remixers” in the book The Critical Role of New Media in Transforming Gamers Into Remixers (Routledge, 2021).
Dr. Teresa A. Bertossi (Environmental Studies and Geography) along with UMD students helped host Healthy Lives Day on October 30, 2021 in support of adequate access to healthy food.
Assistant Professor Thomas Jacobsen (Theatre) composed the musical of Maxa: The Maddest Woman in the World which premiered in the Marshall Performing Arts Center on October 14, 2021. Maxa is also a Participating Production in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.
Assistant Professor Whitney Jacobson (English, Linguistics, and Writing Studies) interviewed author Andrea Gilats about the memoir, After Effects: A Memoir of Complicated Grief, and published two book reviews in Split Rock Review.
Professor Tadd Johnson (American Indian Studies) received NAFOA Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his decades of work as a faculty member, liaison, tribal court attorney and judge, and the University of Minnesota’s first senior director of American Indian Tribal Nations relations.
Current student Seeley Mangelsen (History and Professional Writing ‘22) published two poems in Bringing Joy: A Local Literary Welcome, released by the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College.
Alumna Siona Roberts (Geographic Information Science and Cartography ’18) was awarded the first ever “Young Professional Award” from the MN GIS/LIS consortium.
Associate Professor Joellyn Rock (Digital Art) created MASKING, an experimental video with mixes of Zoom-remote and in-person interviews, to document the evolution of COVID-19 through 2020–2021. The visual narrative draws from historical imagery of plague and pandemic masks, theatrical and ritual masques, protective masks designed for science and medical use, and homespun mask-making rising to meet the supply demands of the COVID-19 crisis.
Dr. Diana Shapiro’s (Music) article, “Forging Relationship in Two Minutes – Getting to Know Your Instrument Before
Performance,” was selected for publication in the American
Music Teacher Journal and her presentation, “Congratulations! You Have a Partner, Now What….,” was selected for the World Piano Conference in Serbia (October 2021).
Dr. Krista Sue-Lo Twu (English) organized an event in commemoration of 700 years since the death of Dante, author of the Divine Comedy. It included participation from students at UMD and high school students enrolled in Mater Dei, a local Catholic college preparatory experience for high schoolers.
Dr. Janelle L. Wilson (Studies in Justice, Culture, & Social Change) collaborated with Michael Hviid Jacobsen (Aalborg University) on “Sociology and Nostalgia: Micro-, Meso- and Macro-level
Dimensions of an Ambiguous Emotion,” published in Intimations of Nostalgia: Multidisciplinary Explorations of an Enduring Emotion (Bristol University Press, 2022).
Dr. Elizabethada Wright (English, Linguistics, and Writing Studies) contributed to and co-edited with Christina R. Pinkston (Norfolk State University) the anthology Catholic Women’s Rhetoric in the United States (Lexington Books, 2022).
In Memoriam
Dr. Raymond Dodge Comstock, teacher of viola and violin and conductor of UMD’s symphony orchestra until retirement, passed away on Tuesday, December 14, 2021, at his home in Baldwin City, Kansas.
Dr. Karissa White Isaacs, Tweed Museum of Art curator and tribal member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe, passed away on Monday, December 13, 2021.