FACULTY & STAFF
 

     Dina Al-Kassim is new to the English Department this semester. In 1997 she received a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of California at Berkeley. She earned an M.A. in English from Berkeley in 1991, and before that, a B.A. in history and literature at Reed College. 
     Al-Kassim held a Mellon post-doctoral fellowship in comparative literature at Stanford. She held several fellowships at Berkeley, including a Vice Chancellor's Travel Fellowship, a Chancellor's Dissertation Year Fellowship, a Mellon Fellow, and a Teaching Fellowship in comparative literature. Educated in France, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the U.S., she speaks English, French, and Arabic fluently and can read Spanish and Italian.
     Al-Kassim's work has focused on postcolonial literary studies, queer theory, psychoanalysis, and literary modernism. 

    Mike Hill is another new face in the English department this semester.  He earned a Ph.D. in 1994 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and an M.A. in English in 1988 from UC Santa Barbara.  In 1986, he graduated summa cum laude from UC Humboldt, in English and the theater arts. 
    In 1997 Hill won the Gustavas Myers Award for Outstanding Book in recognition of Whiteness. He was awarded a Junior Faculty Research Grant in fall 1996 from Marymount Manhattan. In 1995, he held a Margaret Sokol Faculty Development Fellowship, also at Marymount Manhattan College. 
     Hill's work has ranged from studies of crowds in 18th century literature to contemporary re-conceptualizations of race.   While Whiteness may be the best known of his books, he has also written numerous essays, short book reviews, and journal articles. In 1998, Hill gave a presentation on Counting Race: Multi-racialism and the Census 2000 to the Northeast Modern Language Association.
     Prior to coming to Albany, Hill was an associate professor of English at Marymount Manhattan College from 1992-’99, and a visiting professor at the University of Michigan in winter 1997.
     Hill has been an associate editor of the Minnesota Review, and a reader for Harper Collins and SUNY Press. He has been an active member of the American Studies Association and the Modern Language Association.

     Brian Massumi, an international figure in cultural studies as well as literary and new media theory, has also  joined the Department of English. 
     Massumi, an Australian American, received his Ph.D. and M.A. from Yale University, and a B.A. in comparative literature (French, English and Chinese) from Brown, where he graduated magna cum laude.
     Massumi previously taught communications, was director of a comparative literature program and an assistant professor of comparative literature at McGill University.
     Winner of a Humanities Research Grant from the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research at McGill University in 1989, Massumi was a Visiting Fellow in the Humanities and Research Centre in 1993 at the Australian National University. Between 1979 and 1983, he held a graduate fellowship at Yale. 
       Massumi has translated Lyotard's Postmodern Tradition, Deleuze/Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus, and Attali's Noise: The Political Economy of Music.  He has written a major work on Deleuze called A User's Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Deviations from Deleuze and Guattari, which is now in its third printing and is going to be published in Japanese. 

Thomas Gebhardt Delivered Presentation on Alcohol Abuse Prevention
     Thomas Gebhardt, director of Personal Safety and Off-Campus Affairs, spoke this summer at a conference on Fostering Alliances Between Campuses and Communities to Prevent Alcohol Abuse, at Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vt.
     His presentation was on Campus Community Collaboratives - the Committee on University and Community Relations. The conference focused on the latest initiatives in substance abuse prevention at colleges and the communities surrounding them, and was sponsored by the Vermont Department of Liquor Control. 

Edward Mayer New Chair of the Faculty
     Art Professor Edward Mayer became chair of the faculty on Sept. 1. He replaces Psychology Professor V. Mark Durand, who will become an associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences.
     The fall meeting of the voting faculty is today, Wednesday, Sept. 22, at 3 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom. There will be a reception at 2:30 p.m.

Cheryl Savini Promoted
    Assistant Vice President for Research Garrett Sanders has announced the appointment of Cheryl Savini to the position of research compliance administrator.
    “This promotion is in recognition of Cheryl's outstanding contributions to the University's research mission,” Sanders said.

Wei-Chyung Wang Wins DOE Recognition
     Wei-Chyung Wang, senior research associate for the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, and a professor of applied sciences with the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, received a citation from the U.S. Department of Energy in June in Beijing for his work on a joint project between the U.S. and China, Study of the Greenhouse Effect.
     Wang has been the chief scientist for the U.S. on this project since 1987. The citation noted: “Presented to Professor Wei-Chyung Wang for your insightful counsel and excellent science. You have proven to be the cornerstone for the success of the joint global change research program between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Chinese Academy of Sciences with your service as the U.S. chief scientist.”

Joseph Zimmerman Honored
     The American Political Science Association Section on Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations has selected Professor Joseph Zimmerman of the Department of Political Science as the winner of the 1999 award for Distinguished Federalism Scholar.
    Since 1990, this award has been granted annually to outstanding scholars in federalism and intergovernmental relations. 
     Zimmerman was honored at the section meeting Sept. 2 during the group's meeting in Atlanta.
     He received a similar honor as Outstanding Academician from the Section on Intergovernmental Administration and Management of the American Society for Public Administration in 1997. His new book, Curbing Unethical Behavior in Government, was published in Japanese in August.