February 5, 2007 (Vol. 5, No. 1)

Lehman Faculty Contributing Scholarship, Scientific Research, and Creative Works

Following is Part 1 of the Quorum Series for 2007, presenting highlights of the research being conducted by Lehman College faculty.

David A. Badillo
Stefan Bernard Baumrin
Antoinette Blum
Grace Russo Bullaro
Forrest D. Colburn
Craig Demmer
Brian Leahy Doyle
Licia Fiol-Matta
Christopher Gerry
Amanda Gulla

David A. Badillo

David A. Badillo (Research Director, Bronx Institute) wrote Latinos and the New Immigrant Church (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006). He presented the paper "Latinos and Civil Rights Leadership in Transnational Context" at the Symposium of the Latin American Studies Association in San Juan, Puerto Rico (March 2006). He also coordinated two major symposia on immigration: "New Immigrants in the Bronx: Creating Urban and Ethnic Spaces," at Lehman College (May 12, 2006) and "Mexican Immigrants in New York City: Profiles of a Migration," at Baruch College (October 20, 2006). Professor Badillo co-edited (with Dr. Herminio Martinez) the proceedings of the "Mexican Immigrants" conference (Bronx Institute, Lehman College, February 2007).

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Stefan Bernard Baumrin

Stefan Bernard Baumrin (Professor, Philosophy) wrote the encyclopedia entry for "DUTY" in the Encyclopedia of British Philosophy (Thoemmes Continuum, 2006). He also published the article "Becoming Moral" in The Philosophical Forum, vol. XXXVII, no. 3 (Fall 2006). The article was subsequently revised and published in the same journal, vol. XXXVII, No. 4 (Winter 2006).

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Antoinette Blum

Antoinette Blum (Professor, Languages and Literatures) wrote the biographical entry for "Romain Rolland (1866-1944)," in The Columbia Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century French Thought, pp. 647-649 (Columbia University Press, 2006). In addition, she published the article "Le Théâtre et la Guerre de 14-18" in the volume on "Le Théâtre dans le débat politique," Théâtre/Public, no. 181, pp. 43-52 (2006). In Fall 2006, Professor Blum served as acting chair in the Department of Languages and Literatures.

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Grace Russo Bullaro

Grace Russo Bullaro (Associate Professor, English) wrote Man in Disorder: The Cinema of Lina Wertmuller (Troubador Publishing Ltd., 2007). She also served as editor of Beyond Life is Beautiful: Comedy and Tragedy in the Cinema of Roberto Benigni (Troubador Publishing Ltd., 2005).

She published the following articles: "The Fictitious Genius of Lina Wertmuller's 1970s Films: A Look at the American and Italian Views," in Forum Italicum, vol. 40, no. 2 (Fall 2006); "Daisy Martinez, New Latina Diva of Cooking? The Host of 'Daisy Cooks!' Speaks to Us About Latino Identity, Ethnic Uplift and the Transmission of Traditions," in Columbia Journal of American Studies Online E-zine; "'Civilization is Marching Up Our Hill': Globalization and the Ligurian 'Peasantry' in Annie Hawes' Extra Virgin," in Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 40, no. 2 (forthcoming, February 2007); and "A Conversation with Lidia Bastianich on Terroir, Culture and Cuisine," in Columbia Journal of American Studies (forthcoming, Spring 2007).

Professor Bullaro also translated Francesco Durante's "Not Only McArone. Nineteenth-Century Additions to the Italian-American Literary Canon" and "'Merica on Culture and Literature of Italians in North America," by Cosimo Palagiano, Cristiano Pesaresi, Riccardo Morri, and Riccardo Russo in Aldo Bove and Giuseppe Massara's (eds.) 'Merica: Convegno sulla cultura e letterature degli italiani del Nordamerica, Fililibri Series, 25 (Forum Italicum Publishing, 2006).

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Forrest D. Colburn

Forrest D. Colburn (Professor, Latin American and Puerto Rican Studies) co-wrote the chapter (with Enrique Ogliastri et al.) "Leadership in Social Ventures" in Effective Management of Social Enterprises: Lessons from Business and Civil Society Organizations in Iberoamerica (David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University, 2006). He also published the articles "Defending the Market in Latin America: Appreciating Costa Rica's Success" in Journal of Business Research, vol. 59, issue 3 (2006) and "Interview with Gillett G. Griffin" in Tribal Arts (2006).

Over the past year, Dr. Colburn delivered invited lectures in Peru, Venezuela, and Costa Rica. He is currently spending the academic year on sabbatical at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

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Craig Demmer

Craig Demmer (Associate Professor, Health Sciences) published the following articles: "Responding to AIDS-related Bereavement in the South African Context," Death Studies (in press); "Coping with AIDS-related Bereavement in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa," AIDS Care (in press); "AIDS and Palliative Care in South Africa," American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (in press); "Grief is a Luxury: AIDS-related Loss Among the Poor in South Africa," Illness, Crisis & Loss (in press); "Confronting AIDS-related Loss and Grief: An Exploratory Study of Professional Caregivers in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa," African Journal of AIDS Research, 5(2), pp. 97-107 (2006); "Caring for a Loved One with AIDS: A South African Perspective," Journal of Loss & Trauma, 11(5), pp. 439-455 (2006); (with Villa, D.P.) "Exploring the Link between AIDS-Related Grief and Unsafe Sex," Illness, Crisis, Loss, 13(3), pp. 219-233 (2005).

He has also authored the following book reviews dealing with AIDS in South Africa: AIDSAFARI: A Memoir of My Journey with AIDS by A. Levin (2005); Positively Alive, by A. Brand (2005); and Witness to AIDS by E. Cameron (2005) in the Journal of Loss & Trauma (in press).

Several of Professor Demmer's students worked with him on his research and writing projects, including graduate student Geri Burghart who assisted on the paper "Experiences of AIDS-related bereavement in the United States and South Africa: A comparative study," which has been submitted to International Social Work and is currently under review. He helped another student, Leana Peltier, write an article, titled "Spirituality and Sudden Loss: A Personal Story," which appeared in The Forum, vol. 32, issue 2, p. 11 (2006). He also co-wrote a paper with Sarah McDermott, titled "Analysis of end-of-life content in health education textbooks," which has been submitted to Illness, Crisis, Loss.

In other news, Professor Demmer earned a second doctorate in social work from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. He was appointed to the University Committee on Research Awards as the Coordinator of the Health & Human Services Panel (2006-2009). In 2006, Professor Demmer served as an ad hoc reviewer for a number of journals, including: American Journal of Health Education, African Journal of AIDS Research, Journal of School Health, International Social Work, Journal of Palliative Medicine, and Cancer Control: Journal of the Moffitt Cancer Center, and Death Studies. Since 2002, he has been a member of the Review Board of the American Journal of Health Behavior and has served since 2000 as a volunteer for Crime Victims Support Services of the North Bronx, Inc.

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Brian Leahy Doyle

Brian Leahy Doyle (Assistant Professor, Journalism, Communication and Theatre) published the following articles: "Tragedy and the Non-Teleological in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men," in The Steinbeck Review (Spring 2007); "Tanistry and Witchcraft in Shakespeare's Macbeth," in Shakespeare in the Classroom (Spring 2007); "The Copeland Opera House," Theatre History Studies (Spring 2007); and "Larry Kirwan's Green Suede Shoes," Celtic Cultural Studies (Spring 2007).

He also presented the following papers: "Rediscovering Wisconsin's Opera Houses," a gallery talk at the Lehman College Art Gallery (April 2006), and "Larry Kirwan's Green Suede Shoes," at the 2005 Mid-Atlantic Regional American Conference for Irish Studies at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.

In May 2006, Professor Doyle was awarded the PSC-CUNY Research Grant and the George N. Shuster Research Grant for the Rediscovering Wisconsin's Operas Houses Research Project. In addition, he received a Distinguished Educator Award from the College of Liberal Arts and Education at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. He has signed a contract for his book Rediscovering Wisconsin's Opera Houses with the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.

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Licia Fiol-Matta (Associate Professor, Latin American and Puerto Rican Studies) presented the following papers: "Chencha's Gait: Latin Popular Music and Normativity in Myrta Silva," at the Latin American Studies Program of the University of Pennsylvania (November 2006); "Gender Narratives and Female Figurations in Latin Music: Popular Music and Normativity in Myrta Silva," at the Cuban Research Institute of Florida International University (May 2006); "Memoria y diáspora en Lydia Cabrera," at the CUNY Graduate Center's Department of Hispanic Literatures (March 2006); "Queer Performance in Myrta Silva: Popular Music and Normativity," at the Places of the Queer Conference, Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Texas at Austin (March 2006); "Memoria y diáspora en Lydia Cabrera," at the Sixth CRI Conference on Cuban and Cuban American Studies at the Cuban Research Institute of Florida International University: "Poéticas de la memoria" (February 2006); and "New Directions in Queer Latino Studies," at the Los Angeles Queer Studies Conference, University of Southern California/UCLA: "Body, Space, Sexuality" (November 2005).

Professor Fiol-Matta has received the following grants: The Puerto Rican Diaspora Grant from the CUNY-Caribbean Exchange Program, Center for Puerto Rican Studies, for her work titled "Latin Music: Gender Narratives, Female Figurations" (Spring 2007); the Dáaz-Ayala Cuban and Latin American Popular Music Collection Travel Grant from the Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University, for "Latin Music: Gender Narratives, Female Figurations" (May 2006); a PSC-CUNY Research Award for "Latin American Women Writers, Exile, and Cultural Power" (2006-2007); the Puerto Rican Diaspora Grant, CUNY-Caribbean Exchange Program, Center for Puerto Rican Studies, for "Latin Music: Gender Narratives, Female Figurations" (Spring 2006); the National Endowment for the Humanities' Faculty Research Award for "Remembering Cuba: Memory and Loss in Lydia Cabrera" (2005-2006); the CUNY Scholar Incentive Award for "Remembering Cuba: Memory and Loss in Lydia Cabrera" (2005-2006); and a PSC-CUNY Research Award (2005-2006) for "Latin American Women Writers, Exile, and Cultural Power."

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Christopher Gerry

Christopher Gerry (Professor, Physics and Astronomy) wrote the following articles: (with K.D. Lamb, Q. Su and R. Grobe) "Unitary and non-unitary approaches in quantum field theory," in Physical Review A (Spring 2007); (with Q. Su and R. Grobe) "Timing of pair production in time dependent force fields," Physical Review A, vol. 74, no. 044103 (2006); (with R.A. Campos) "Boson Permutation and Parity Operator: Lie Algebra and Applications," Physics, Letters A, vol. 356, p.286 (2006); (with A. Benmoussa) "Proposal for a Probabilistic "Dial Up" Generator of Fock States in a Traveling-Wave Optical Field," Physical Review A, vol. 73, no. 063817 (2006); (with A. Benmoussa and K. Elalouani) "Proposal for a Macro/Meso-scopic Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger Test of Quantum Mechanics with Entangled Optical Traveling-Wave Coherent States," Journal of Modern Optics, vol. 53, p.1485 (2006); (with R.A. Campos) "Permutation-Parity Exchange at a Beam Splitter: Application to Heisenberg-Limited Interferometry," Physical Review A, vol. 72, article number 065803 (2005); and (with A. Benmoussa and R.A. Campos) "Quantum Non-Demolition Measurement of Parity and Generation of Parity Eigenstates in Optical Fields," Physical Review A, vol. 72, no. 053818 (2005).

Professor Gerry also presented the paper "Heisenberg-Limited Phase Estimation via Parity Measurements" at the conference of the Optical Society of America in Rochester, New York (October 2006).

He has also been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of the Army for his research, titled "Parity Measurements and Quantum Information Processing."

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Amanda Gulla

Amanda Gulla (Assistant Professor, Middle & High School Education) published the following articles: "Developing Teacher Efficacy through Shared Stories," in Academic Exchange Quarterly, vol. 9, issue 4 (2005) and (with Margo Dellicarpini) "Sharing Stories and Developing Multiple Perspectives in post 9/11 English Classrooms," in English Journal (November 2006).

She has also delivered a number of papers at academic conferences, including (with NYC high school teachers Jennifer Ochoa and Anne George) "Putting the 'shop' in Reading Workshop: An Ethnographic Study of an ELA Classroom in a Vocational School," at the Penn Ethnography Forum held at the University of Pennsylvania (February 2006); (with Lehman Professors Marietta Saravia-Shore and Andrea Zakin and the staff of the Lincoln Center Institute) "Aesthetic Education and Social Discourse: Ping Chong's 'Secret History' at Lehman College's School of Education," at New York University's Ethnotheater Forum (April 2006); and (with David Hyman and student Jeanette del Valle) "Collaborative Challenges and the Small School Initiative," at the City College conference on "New Educator: Building and Sustaining Learning Communities in Challenging Times" (October 2006).

Most recently, she delivered a presentation, titled "Organizing a Literacy Classroom to Support the Needs of CTE Students," at the Career-Tech Education Resource Center Conference at Brooklyn Tech High School (November 2006). In February 2007, she will present "Teacher Growth from the Grassroots: An Urban High School's Approach to Meeting the Literacy Needs of their Students" at the Penn Ethnography Forum.

She was awarded a PSC-CUNY Grant for a year-long study of a ninth-grade literacy classroom at Alfred E. Smith CTE High School in the Bronx, titled "Literacy Practices in a Vocational School: An Ethnographic Study," and another grant from the National Writing Project to organize and facilitate a professional writing retreat for teachers who are members of the New York City Writing Project during 2006-07.

Professor Gulla also created and co-taught (with the Lincoln Center Institute) a week-long summer faculty development course in Aesthetic Education Action Research for Lehman and Bronx Community College faculty (Summer 2006). During the 2006-07 academic year, she will participate in Writing Across the Curriculum with CUNY Graduate Center Fellows.

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