November 2023: Faculty and Staff Accomplishments

Professor Jim Elkins’ novel, Weak in Comparison to Dreams, launches on November 13 with a reading and conversation at Madison Street Books.

An excerpt from Professor, adj. Eileen Favorite’s novel The Same Country was published on The Manifest-Station, a literary blog and an electronic publishing platform.

A new album dedicated to the music of Professor Emerit Peter Gena has been released by New World Records. The recording includes works from a span of more than 40 years and was produced by 14-time Grammy award-winner Judith Sherman.

Professor, adj. William Harper’s animation Swwart Wovlve Wolve will be featured at Festival Photogenia, which takes place in Mexico City from November 22–December 3. Focusing on experimental and radical filmmaking, Festival Photogenia brings together artists who challenge the limits of film and sonic media.

Associate Professor, adj. Eric Leonardson will participate in Beyond Listening: Agency, Art and the Environment–International Symposium on Sonic Ecologies, which takes place November 22–25 at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest, Hungary. Leonardson will also deliver a summary of Listening Pasts–Listening Futures, a conference that took place at Atlantic Center for the Arts in March 2023, as a part of the roundtable How to Activate Ecology of Sound Beyond Listening? on November 25.

Professor William J. O’Brien’s exhibition Duplex Magic took place at Outer Space gallery in Concord, New Hampshire. O’Brien describes his work as synesthetic mantras transforming the sounds of people and objects into intuitive kaleidoscopes of shapes and colors.

Lecturer Michael Paradiso-Michau will publish Creolizing Frankenstein, an edited collection with Rowman & Littlefield's Creolizing the Canon book series, in January 2024. This volume is directly connected to Paradiso-Michau's teaching at SAIC, as well as his work with the Caribbean Philosophical Association.

Lecturer Maryam Taghavi’s first solo exhibition, Nothing Is, will open at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago on December 19. In her paintings and sculptures, Taghavi investigates the notion of distance and perspective. Taghavi’s exhibition will culminate in an immersive installation, exploring perception by inviting audiences to close one eye and look at the work with the other.