For the Record, Friday, Nov. 8, 2024

For the Record provides information about recent professional activities and honors of University of Delaware faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Recent presentations and publications include the following:

Presentations

Monica A. Coleman, John and Patricia Cochran Scholar for Inclusive Excellence Professor of Africana Studies, presented on the topic of "Black Religious Multiplicity as a Quest for Freedom" at the FORWARD Conference: Religions Envisioning Change, sponsored by The Center for the Study of African American Religious Life at the National Museum for African American History and Culture (Smithsonian) in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 2, 2024.

On Nov. 1, 2024, Margaret Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies and professor of humanities, delivered a paper at an interdisciplinary conference at Columbia University in New York City. "Thoughts of Tomorrow: A Conference on the History of the Future" was co-organized by Columbia University's Department of History and its Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy. Her paper, titled "Will It Take a 'Hiro'? Futurism and 'Comfort Women' in Plum Rains," focused on a dystopian futurist novel set in Tokyo in 2029 that brings together an AI robot and an aged survivor of WWII military sexual slavery, addressing unresolved issues of justice and women's human rights. Stetz also served as the invited chair and commentator for the panel on "Sex, Gender and a Broader Future." On Oct. 27, 2024, she was an invited participant in the online workshop sponsored by Delaware Valley British Studies, an organization that has continued for more than 30 years and includes both faculty and graduate students from the New Jersey-Pennsylvania-Delaware area. The topic under discussion at this meeting was the role that British feminist groups played in anti-fascist movements both during and after World War II. On Nov. 4, 2024, she was also an invited participant in an online event organized to discuss the publication by Cambridge Scholars of a new biography (by Naomi Shmuel) of Karen Gershon, the author in 1966 of We Came as Children, one of the first books devoted to recovering and preserving the experience of Jewish children who were rescued by the Kindertransport of WWII.

Publications

Chris Chandler, associate director for UD IT Infrastructure Security, published an article in November's APCO International newsletter distributed to approximately 40,000 APCO members worldwide. The article highlights UD's response to the Crowdstrike cyber incident that impacted UDPD's 911 call center in July 2024 as part of a global outage. Founded in 1935, APCO International is the world's oldest and largest organization of public safety communications professionals. APCO's 40,000-plus membership includes those who manage, operate, build and support public safety communications systems for law enforcement, fire, emergency medical and other public safety agencies. The association supports its members - and the general public-by providing industry expertise, professional development, technical assistance, advocacy and outreach.

Margaret Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies and professor of humanities, is the author of the Afterword, "The Future of Egerton Studies," in the volume George Egerton: Terra Incognitas, which has been edited by Isobel Sigley and Whitney Standlee and is being released in November 2024 by Routledge in its series "Among the Victorians and Modernists." This is the first collection of critical essays devoted to "George Egerton," the pseudonym of the Anglo-Irish "New Woman" writer Mary Chavelita Dunne (1859-1945). Stetz was among the earliest scholars to rediscover and write about Egerton, who was best known for her short stories in Keynotes (1893) and for her contributions to The Yellow Book, the important 1890s British periodical.

Heinz-Uwe Haus, professor of theatre, published in the annual magazine Symposium (Vol. XXXI, Nr. 1, 2024, The Romanian Institute of Orthodox Theology and Spirituality, New York) an article " The Path to Europe's Multifaceted Identity." It posits that Europe is a place where national identity can be affirmed, rather than rejected, since this in itself does not contradict or diminish the idea of a shared European identity. Rather, a European identity can complement and even strengthen national identity. The complementarity of such identities is due to the uniqueness of the shared European space and of the sui generis nature of the EU itself. The conception of this shared space, however, is dependent on full respect for the principle of subsidiarity. The EU has registered some successes where subsidiarity has been maintained, but has struggled when it has attempted to emulate nation states in their creation of 'imagined communities.' Haus writes, "The more difficult elements-such as some contentious shared history-should be acknowledged rather than ignored, no matter how difficult this may be. Similarly, the Judeo-Christian heritage of Europe can add value to the debate on culture, identity and values."

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