Faculty + Staff News / February 19, 2013

Rosalind Cummings-Yeates (Journalism) will be a featured speaker in July on the writing panel "Pitching The Periodical" for the annual Blogher Conference, an event about news and trends for women in social media. Cummings-Yeates also was recently admitted as an active member of the Society of American Travel Writers. 

Lisa DiFranza (First-Year Seminar) presented during a seminar at Loyola University Chicago's Center for Urban Research and Learning. Her talk, "The Living News: Fusing Theater and Journalism to Examine Homelessness in Chicago,” examined her project The Living News: Shelter, a theatre production of hers that brings together artists, journalists, and Columbia students with homeless men, women, and children to raise questions about the social causes that have led to rising homelessness rates.

Sylvia Ewing (AEMM) interviewed Walter Mosley, Maria Hinohosa, and Aaron Neville for the Chicago Public Library, The Association for Women Journalists, and a National PBS pledge special airing in March, respectively. Ewing recently also received a positive review for her book, Comfort and Joy: Stories of Hope, Meditations for Happiness, and she produced a new show for Santita Jackson on The World Network, which airs at 2:30 p.m. Central Time on Saturdays on the Urban Ministry channel. 

Laurie Lawlor's (Fiction Writing) book, Rachel Carson and her Book that Changed the World, was recently honored with the John Burroughs Riverby Award, which is awarded for an outstanding nature book for young readers by the John Burroughs Association. Her book was also selected for the Amelia Bloomer List, which consists of the best, most recent books with significant feminist content that appeals to young readers as part of the Amelia Bloomer Project.

Kris Lipkowski (Library) will present her paper, "La Loi et la Foi: Transgressive Tendencies of Nuns on Propaganda Postcards," in April at Toward the Metropolis: The 6th Annual Joint Colloquium of Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies at Leeds Trinity University in the UK. 

Claudette Roper (Film + Video, Television) was quoted in a North by Northwestern article, "How the digital age changed hip-hop," commenting on social media's role in creating an international platform for today's hip-hop artists. 

Mark Schimmel and David Spodak (Film + Video) collaborated on creating 10 profile stories for Lehigh Valley Health Network. 

Reid Schultz (Film + Video) discussed the hits, misses, and controversies of the 85th Academy Awards at "An Afternoon at the Oscars" presented at Cook Park Library in Libertyville. 

Shawn Shiflett (Fiction Writing) will be a featured reader on March 6 in Reading Under the Influence—which features readings of short original works and themed trivia contests—for the "Madness" theme at Sheffield's on the North Side. 

Len Strazewski (Journalism) was featured in ChicagoTalks for his comic book work that is currently on display in the Five Collaborations exhibit at 600 S. Michigan Ave., 8th Floor. 

Matt Till (Television) directed a video about school safety at Woodland Middle School in Gurnee. The video, which will be used for new school employees who did not receive formal training about lockdown procedures, was produced by students at Columbia College Chicago. 

John Wawrzaszek (Campus Environment) was recently chosen to be part of the advisory council for the American Association of Sustainability in Higher Education. He will support the organization's growth and development while advising staff and board members on complex issues as well as general goals and direction. 

Lillian Williams (Journalism) has an article, "African American Newspapers Move to Beef Up Digital Operations," published on Yahoo! Voices.