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Faculty Wire BETTY LUTHER HILLMAN EXAMINES THE POLITICS OF STYLE
History Instructor Betty Luther Hillman’s new book, Dressing for the Culture Wars: Style & the Politics of SelfPreservation in the 1960s & 1970s, has been released by the University of Nebraska Press. In the book, which had its origin in her dissertation topic, LutherHillman investigates the use of clothing and hairstyles by social activists in the mid-20th century as symbols of their political beliefs. Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, author of Radicals on the Road: Internationalism, Orientalism, and Feminism during the Vietnam Era, calls Luther-Hillman’s work “a wonderfully engaging and thoroughly researched study of the politics of style and self-presentation during the tumultuous decades of the 1960s and 1970s.” Luther-Hillman’s scholarly work has appeared in the Journal of the History of Sexuality and Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies.
JON SAKATA COLLABORATES ON ART INSTALLATION FOR ILLUMINUS BOSTON
In October, Adjunct Music Instructor Jon Sakata collaborated with artist Rob Trumbour, an associate professor of architecture at Wentworth Institute of Technology, to re-create a salt marsh in downtown Boston. The multi-genre installation, designed to be reminiscent of the city’s pre-urban landscape, was one of 30 chosen to be part of HUBweek’s contemporary art festival, ILLUMINUS Boston. In their artists’ statement, the duo write, “lifeSOURCE temporarily reinserts the natural rhythms … into the bustling Boston area by re-creating a salt marsh, an evolving and wildly diverse ecosystem rich in color, texture, form and sound, that supports life.” View the full project description at www. illuminusboston.org/project/lifesource. Sakata is a concert pianist and interdisciplinary artist who has performed and exhibited at celebrated institutions and venues around the world. 1 2 • T H E
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WILLIE PERDOMO’S POETRY COLLECTION EARNS PRESTIGIOUS LITERARY AWARDS
English Instructor Willie Perdomo has received national recognition for his third poetry collection, The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon (Penguin). His recent honors include being named winner of the 2014 International Latino Book Award for poetry and a finalist for the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry. The book is currently a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for poetry. Perdomo says the poems in this collection were inspired by his love of music and the stories his mother used to tell about an uncle he never met, a percussionist in a 1970s descarga band. Chris Abani, author of The Secret History of Las Vegas and The Virgin of Flames, writes, “Perdomo’s skill and lyrical voice is like a wet finger drawn slowly, agonizingly over the taut skin of a drum face, until the very last moment when it explodes into beat.”
Other English teachers received literary honors this year as well. Highlights include: Todd Hearon: 2015 Dartmouth Poet in Residence at the Frost Place; Spring 2015 Campbell Corner Poetry Prize; finalist for May Swenson Poetry Award and others Matt Miller: Walter E. Dakin Fellowship in Poetry at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference; River Styx Micro-Brew Micro-Fiction Prize for “This Tune Goes Manly” Ralph Sneeden: Finalist for National Poetry Series
Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize and the May Swenson Prize for Barcarole
Erica Plouffe-Lazure: Winner, 2014 Arcadia fiction
chapbook contest for Heard Around Town; finalist for Carolina Wren Press Doris Baker Award for Cadence and Other Stories
Alex Myers: Finalist for Lambda Literary Award for Revolutionary; winner of Good Housekeeping essay contest; featured on PBS NewsHour
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