QC Research Highlights: Local Context

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QC Research Highlights is a monthly blog series featuring work from Queens College (QC) authors in CUNY Academic Works. Fascinating, important research is happening here at QC and we want you to know about it! Sometimes (but not always) this series may feature several works on related topics; other times it will simply feature a few works of interest. 

All the works featured in this series are available to read and download for free from CUNY Academic Works. 


Local Knowledge, Universal (?) Applicability

Welcome to the November edition of QC Research Highlights! This month, I wanted to feature some articles that consider how things learned locally might be of interest both inside and outside that local context – and especially when we are learning about our local context, New York. 

In “Education Faculty as Knowledge Brokers: Competing for Access to New York State Print Media and Policy Influence,” Nakia Gray-Nicolas (Education and Community Programs) and co-authors consider how education researchers can reach a larger public, thus influencing public debates about educational policy and practice. This article focuses specifically on the media in New York State. This article considers the reasons it’s so difficult for academics to get access to the media.  

Communicating in different contexts is important to students as well as faculty. “Workin’ Languages: Who We Are Matters in Our Writing” is a book chapter by Sara Alvarez (English), Amy Wan (English), and Eunjeong Lee (formerly a member of the English department, now at the University of Houston).  In this chapter, Alvarez, Wan, and Lee consider how to ensure that students’ rich linguistic diversity is valued in the writing classroom. The authors suggest strategies for supporting students as they recognize their own work as “language architects” and come to understand that their language strategies are valuable in an academic context. 

We should all be interested in how the built environment of New York affects those who live and work here. Kara Schlichting (History) and coauthor Melanie Kiechle (Virginia Tech) consider how heat and ventilation can post health threats to city dwellers (and New Yorkers specifically) – during COVID, but also long before.  Their article, “Invisible Inequalities: Persistent Health Threats in the Urban Built Environment,” considers the history of health reform in New York City through the lens of environmental inequality, with a reminder to think of cities as collections of people and not just landscapes. This perspective allows for a larger-scale structural look at how urban planning and public health are deeply intertwined. 

Of course, New York is not just a built environment but also a natural one. César Castillo (Biology) worked with coauthors from the New York Botanical Garden and the US Department of Agriculture to describe a plant naturalized to New York in “First Report of Mummenhoffia alliacea (Brassicaceae) for New York.” This report includes information on how to identify this plant – one key is the scent!  

A little further afield, Fred Cadieu (Physics) examines rocky planets in his article “A Consistent Model of Terrestrial Planet Magnetospheres and Rotations in Our Solar System.” In this article, he explains how the presence or absence of magnetospheres has affected the atmospheres and tectonic behavior of the four terrestrial planets of the solar system – Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars – and perhaps exoplanets as well.  

Having taken us from New York all the way into the depths of space, I wish you all a happy and productive November! 

Thanks to all the authors featured here for sharing their work in the repository!


This is one of a series of blog posts featuring faculty publications in CUNY Academic Works. Academic Works is a service of the CUNY Libraries dedicated to collecting and providing access to the research, scholarship, and creative and pedagogical work of the City University of New York. In service to CUNY’s mission as a public university, content in Academic Works is freely available to all. 

If you would like to share your research in Academic Works, please see this guide to Academic Works, or contact Nancy.Foasberg@qc.cuny.edu.

If you would like to share your research in Academic Works, please see this guide to Academic Works, or contact Nancy.Foasberg@qc.cuny.edu.  

The Queens College Library buildings are set to reopen August 16, 2021

Library Hours 

  • Rosenthal Library:
    • August 16th – 29th
      • Monday – Friday: 9AM – 5PM
      • Saturday and Sunday: Closed
    • August 30th – December 21st
      • Monday – Thursday: 8AM – 9PM
      • Friday: 9AM – 5PM
      • Saturday and Sunday: Closed
      • Exceptions:
        • September 7th – 8th and 15th – 16th: 9AM – 5PM
        • September 6th, October 11th and November 25th – 26th: Closed 

  • Music Library:
    • Monday-Friday: 10AM – 4:45PM
    • Saturday and Sunday: Closed
    • Exceptions:
      • September 6th, October 11th and November 25th – 26th: Closed 

For information on library services currently available, visit our Remote Library Services page.

FAQs

  • Do I need a reservation to come into the library?
    Yes, you must use our Reservation System to enter the library. The Reservation System will open August 9, 2021.
  • Will a QC ID be required to enter?
    Yes, everyone MUST have a QCard ID to enter campus. If you need a replacement or new ID card, visit Queens College Helpdesk and open a ticket.
  • Can other CUNY patrons use the library?
    No;  only current QC students, faculty and staff will  be able to access the library.
  • Will all floors be open?
    Floors 2, 3, 4, & 5 are anticipated to be open.
  • Will computers be available? 
    A limited number of computers will be available on level 2.
  • Will I be able to check out reserve books?
    Yes, we will allow reserve books to go out on a limited basis.
  • Will book stacks be open?
    Stacks will be open for browsing.
  • Will students be able to study where they want to? 
    Students will be able to study in all available open spaces. 
  • Will study rooms or study carrels be available?
    While the group study rooms will not be available, study carrels will be available on levels 4 and 5.
  • Will everyone need to use the stairs? 
    Elevators will be available with a limit of two (2) people per elevator.

CUNY Chapbook Festival, Part 2: Panel and Readings

Date: Thursday March 18, 2021
Time: 4:00PM – 5:30PM

Process & Collaboration: Designing Poetry Chapbooks in the Book Arts

Photo credit: Echosistemas (2020). Poems by Katerina Ramos Jordan. Designed and assembled by Erika Morillo, with printing assistance by Matthew Collins. 

Join us for an in-depth conversation led by three Book Artists with distinct practices, who will discuss their experiences designing and collaborating with poets on hand-produced limited edition chapbooks and other literary objects. CBA’s Programs Manager, Jenna Hamed will moderate this conversation with Aurora De Armendi, Erika Morillo, & Faride Mereb.

For nearly 50 years, Center for Book Arts has been supporting artists and book arts by presenting exhibitions, lectures, readings, and performances; providing opportunities for artists, writers, curators, and scholars through residencies. Their annual chapbook contest has been an elegant gateway for numerous emerging poets.

City University of New York MFA Reading: Four CUNY alumni read from their chapbooks. Featuring Dudgrick Bevins (City College), Charles Theonia (Brooklyn College), Jiordan Castle (Hunter College) and Leila Ortiz (Queens College)

“Our Pandemic Story Through Artifacts:” Annie Tummino on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday

On March 7, 2021, Annie Tummino, Head of Special Collections & Archives at Queens College Library, was interviewed by LuLu Garcia-Navarro on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday to discuss the Queens College COVID-19 Collection, which is a part of the Queens Memory COVID-19 Project.  Tummino is a part of a collaborative effort in community archiving that includes Queens College Library, Queens Memory, and Queens Public Library.

The interview focused on the amazing work that archivists do to preserve our experiences and memories of this time.  It goes into the work of Tummino’s team in collecting the stories of COVID-19, documenting the digital artifacts (videos, oral histories, images, documents, etc.), and preserving them for the future so that there is a record of today’s experience during the global pandemic. As Tummino puts it, “the role of archivists is not only to preserve old records but also to figure out what’s happening in the world today that researchers and community members will want to be able to study and understand in the future.” 

Take some time and listen to the interview (3 minutes), explore the Queens College COVID-19 Collection, and maybe contribute your own story to the historical record.  Also, check out Tummino in the recent JSTOR Daily article, “Preserving the History of Coronavirus in Queens.”

Celebrating Diversity: Black History Month

In Honor of Black History Month, Queens College announced a full calendar of events —celebrating Black history, culture, and achievements while also addressing today’s struggles for racial equity. This year these events have gone virtual, making them readily accessible to the broad audience that cannot attend them in person during the pandemic. Sessions will address such varied topics as the future of Black women in the technology sector, the role of theatre in social change, and hip-hop, including a performance and workshop.

For calendar and event information, visit the Black History Month website.

Events will be live-streamed on YouTube

Prof. Yearwood moderated Grassroots Youth Activism

Watch our own Simone L. Yearwood, Deputy Chief Librarian, Associate Professor, as she moderates a discussion with QC Alum (Class of 2019) and newly elected New York Assemblyman (D) Khaleel Anderson on Grassroots Youth Activism as a bridge to elected office. Assembly Member Anderson, the youngest Black assembly member in New York State history, was elected to serve Assembly District 31 in Queens in the November 2020 election.

Watch Professor Yearwood moderate the discussion on YouTube:

Check out the Black History Month events on the YouTube Channel.

CUNY CHAPBOOK FESTIVAL

Dates: February 18, March 18, and April 15, 2021

“In an age when everything is never fast enough, the chapbook is a small anchor to the moment; it is a pause to read and relish,” says Kimiko Hahn, poet, professor, and one of the festival organizers.

The chapbook, a modest publication has had an impressive longevity dating from early printing press publications to today’s editions, whether stapled and photocopied, hand-lettered on hand-made paper, or digital. 

This three-day festival revives an earlier incarnation that took place at CUNY’s Graduate Center. Funded by the Executive Vice Chancellor Jose Cruz’s Office of Academic Affairs and the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library, the events are virtual and registration is open to the public.

Highlights include:

  • Keynote: Matvei Yankelevich, poet, translator and the executive director of Ugly Duckling Presse, will speak on “The Chapbook Then and Now.” He also recorded a video on how to make a chapbook, available on the website.
  • Musical performance: Cornelius Eady Trio will perform work whose lyrics are published in numerous chapbooks. 
  • Reading: Alicia Ostriker, N.Y. State Poet Laureate, will read from her chapbook Ideas of Order and Disorder, created just for the festival.  The presentation of this stellar hybrid collection will include her photographs. 
  • Panels include how to compile and chapbook and how to start a chapbook press.
  • Student reading: CUNY alumni from Brooklyn, City, Hunter, and Queens Colleges will read from their chapbooks.

The website also features an exhibition from the Library’s collection of chapbooks as well as a virtual Chapbook Fair.