Angel David Nieves, associate professor of Africana studies and co-director of the Digital Humanities Initiative, gave the opening keynote address on Feb. 19 at Austin College’s Digital Humanities Colloquium.

Professor of Comparative Literature Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz was an invited speaker on March 9 at the Brock University Archaeological Society’s Scholarly Symposium “Classics in Education: Ancient and Modern.” Her talk was titled “Academic Activism: Teaching Classics at Marcy Correctional Facility.”

“Good News, Bad News, and Consumer Confidence,” by Greg Casey ’09 and Henry Platt Bristol Professor of Economics of Ann Owen, was published in the March issue of Social Science Quarterly.

Professor of French Joseph Mwantuali recently published a book titled Tell This to My Mother, a novel based on the true story of  war rape victim Coco Ramazani. Published by Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency, it is Mwantuali’s first book written in English.

Religious Freedom: Jefferson's Legacy, America's Creed, a new book by Visiting Assistant Professor of History John Ragosta, will be a featured alternate selection in the June catalog for the History Book Club. The book explores the centrality of the Jeffersonian vision to the development of religious freedom in America, responding to such critics as Justices Rehnquist and Thomas and Professors Akhil Amar and Daniel Dreisbach.

Lawrence Chua, visiting assistant professor of art history, participated in several workshops recently. He presented from his ongoing research on leisure, race and nationalism in 20th-century Thai architecture at the Labour, Leisure, and Life Course from a Global Historical Perspective workshop at Humboldt University in Berlin, Feb. 13 to Feb. 15.

The Associated Press quoted Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Nigel Westmaas in an article titled “Guyana Officials stay nearly twenty years in mandates.” Westmaas discussed the country’s failure to hold municipal elections for nearly 20 years. Published on March 1, the article appeared in many news outlets including The Washington Post.

Lolita Buckner Inniss, the Elihu Root Peace Fund Visiting Professor of Women’s Studies, presented a lecture titled “James C. Johnson and the Princeton Fugitive Slave Case” on Feb. 25 at Princeton University.

John H. O’Neill, Edmund A. LeFevre Professor of English emeritus, was a contributing editor to The Broadview Anthology of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy, published by Broadview Press (Peterborough, Ontario).  O’Neill contributed an edition of The Man of Mode: or, Sir Fopling Flutter (1676), by Sir George Etherege.

Associate Professor of Sociology Jenny Irons reacted quickly to a serious error made by The Daily Show's Jon Stewart last week when, in Iron’s words, he “lampooned Dick Molpus.” The white former Secretary of State and civil rights champion, Molpus was responsible for registering Mississippi’s 1995 decision to ratify the 13th amendment abolishing slavery. Irons, who had worked for Molpus in the 1990s, wrote an opinion piece in the Huffington Post titled “Civil Rights Champion Falsely Accused by Jon Stewart” in which she corrected Stewart's mischaracterization.