Queens College is known for its involvement in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, especially the Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964. A year earlier, a lesser known, but no less important project took place, when 16 volunteers from the Queens College Student Help Project traveled to Prince Edward County, Virginia to tutor Black children who were shut out of public schools due to massive resistance to desegregation. There, they lent support to a long struggle for equal education dating back to the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954 and local, student-led activism for better schools.
In this presentation, primary sources from the archives will bring to life this important history, as documented through a year-long oral history initiative made possible by the Freda S. and J. Chester Johnson Civil Rights & Social Justice Archives Fellowship Program at the Queens College Library. Initiators/alumni of the Student Help Project will also join the event for the Q and A.
ANNIE TUMMINO is an assistant professor and head of Special Collections and Archives at the Queens College Library, where she manages over 5,000 linear feet of college records, personal papers, and rare books. She is particularly interested in preserving the social movement history of Queens College and connecting it to today’s activists and students. She received a master’s in library and information studies from Queens College in 2010 and a master’s in maritime studies from SUNY Maritime College in 2020.
VICTORIA FERNANDEZ is the museum coordinator at the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center at Queensborough Community College CUNY, where she helps develop and revise exhibition content, instruct student programming, manage library and archival collections, and facilitate interactions with their Holocaust survivor support group. She graduated from Queens College in 2021 with a dual master’s degree in history and library science (MLS/MA) after receiving a BA in history and political science from the Macaulay Honors College at QC in 2018. She has held several positions within the field of archives, most recently serving as the 2020– 2021 Freda S. and J. Chester Johnson Civil Rights and Social Justice Archives Fellow at the Queens College Department of Special Collections and Archives.
Sponsored by the Office of Institutional Advancement
This monthly film screening series continues on Wednesday, October 20th, at 6pm with the film Monster Pies!
When Mike’s English teacher pairs him up for a class assignment on Romeo and Juliet with hot new kid William, Mike can’t believe his luck! As the two spend more and more time working together on a monster movie version of Bard’s classic tale, they soon realize their feelings for one another may be more powerful than either is truly ready for.
This film screening is open to everyone on Zoom, but only the first (50) fully vaccinated Queens College students may join us on campus! Masks are required. Seating will be distanced.
At home, or on campus, Monster Pies is sure to tug at your heartstrings and haunt you for a long time.
Learn more about LGBTQI+ history by browsing the library’s Queer Collection.
Queer Cinema at QC is made possible because of the generous support of the New York City Council through the office of Daniel Dromm (District 25), the Office of Speaker Corey Johnson, and LaGuardia Community College, in partnership with the Queens College Office of Student Development and Leadership, the Queens College Libraries and The Summit at Queens College. Other sponsors include the Women and Gender Studies Programs at Queens College; the Gender, Love & Sexuality Alliance/GLASA at QC; the QC Arts Club, the CUNY Office of Student Inclusion Initiatives, and the Division of Student Affairs.
Queens College is a proud member of the CUNY LGBTQI+ Consortium.
The Queens College Library is celebrating Open Access Week with a workshop on all things open! The workshop will be held on Monday, October 25, 12:15-1:30 PM.
We want to introduce you to some helpful tools that can make it easier to locate, use, and create open resources. This year, we’re especially focused on how open resources can help your pedagogy. This is a practical workshop that will introduce you to specific tools and resources, including:
Locating and using public domain and open archives, manuscripts, and images from repositories like the Internet Archive, Queens Memory, and NYPL
Creating and using open educational resources in collaboration with students, using tools such as Manifold and hypothes.is
If you’re interested in using open or public domain works in your class, you may be interested in Annie Tummino’s presentation about locating open archives and the quirky and unexpected ways these items are being repurposed by scholars, artists, and gamers. You may also want to tune in for James Mellone’s talk on finding and using primary sources.
If you’d like to know more about the pedagogical benefits of collaborating with your students to build open educational resources, Leila Walker’s workshop on OER-building as pedagogy may be of particular interest.
If you’re thinking about how you can help your graduate students promote their research – or how you can promote your own! – you should attend Nancy Foasberg’s presentation on scholarly profiles and sharing your work.
Register for the workshop
The workshop will be held on: Monday, October 25 12:15-1:30 PM
All weekend there are virtual games with Brooklyn Virtual Game Night. Charades, trivia, and costumes. Tickets are free but there are limited spots each night.
Friday, October 29 at 9:15pm: Rock band My Morning Jacket will be streaming their live performance from The Alabama Theatre.
Saturday, October 30 from 12-5pm: Socrates Sculpture Park in Astoria hosts a doggie costume contest, as well as pumpkin carving and catapulting! Workshops lead up to the Flight of the Gourds at 2pm.
Saturday, October 30 from 6pm: The Queens Night Market season finale is going to be a Halloween themed blast! Just outside the New York Hall of Science in Corona Park, there will be trick or treating and costume prizes for children starting at 8:30. Entry and entertainment are free but the food vendors there have everything you can imagine, and all about $6 or less. I went for the first time this year, and was disappointed I hadn’t visited sooner!
Sunday, October 31 from 7pm:The Village Halloween Parade is back in Greenwich this year! This year’s theme is “Let’s Play!” It honors children as well as everyone’s inner child. The parade rolls out at 7.
Hello and Happy Autumn! Queen College is starting to buzz and that includes some exciting events from the Kupferberg Center and other departments. All listed events are free and most events are virtual, but there are some in-person options this month! Check back in later this month for some Halloween events!
Music
Sunday, October 10 at 3:00pm: Borough President Richards presents rock band Hollis Brown as part of Queens Live! This rock band was formed by Queens College alumni from Queens. Presented in part with the Kupferberg Center for the Arts, this in person event is free! Fort Totten Park, Cross Island Pkwy between Totten Ave and 15 Rd.
Monday, October 11 at 8:00pm:Trombone Shorty is hosting Shorty Fest from the legendary New Orleans venue, Tipitinas. Other acts include Galactic and Soul Rebels. New Orleans brass at its best from its home! You can livestream it for free!
Friday, October 15 at 7:30pm:The Queens College Orchestra will be livestreaming their concert from Leshrak Concert Hall in the Aaron Copland School of Music. The program includes Gounod’s Petit Symphonie and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6.
Literature
Tuesday, October 12 at 7:00pm:Join in the conversation with award-winning author and NPR journalist Maria Hinojosa. This is a Hispanic Heritage Month event organized in collaboration with the Latin American and Latino Studies program at Queens College and presented by the Kupferberg Center. This event will be livestreamed and tickets are free. You will have the option to get a Support the Arts Ticket.
Architecture
Ongoing:Archtober is New York City’s yearly celebration of architecture and its profound impact on our lives. Most virtual talks are free which you can filter to on their events page.
Research Services Librarian Alexandra de Luise, liaison for Italian American Studies, presents highlights from the Italian American Studies Guide.
The month of October has been designated Italian American Heritage month. Although overlapping with Hispanic Heritage month, it was chosen in 1989 by presidential decree to overlap with Columbus Day on October 11th. For many, it is a time to reflect on Italian Americans’ many contributions and to enrich their understanding through lectures, readings and events. It is also a time to explore through publications and media outlets the changes and new attitudes felt in the field by this group as they touch on its history, sociology, art, culture and literature.
For a few years now, Italian American authors have been exploring new directions in their scholarship which can be best understood from watching a recent segment of Italics (Television for the Italian American Experience a monthly presentation co-produced in collaboration with the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute). In the video. Queens College Professor and the Dean of the John D. Calandra Institute Anthony Julian Tamburri, as well as Queens College Distinguished Professor of Italian American Studies Dr. Fred Gardaphé, are in conversation with Calandra’s Director of Academic and Cultural Programs, Dr. Joseph Sciorra, and York College Professor Dr. Donna Chirico. As leaders in their fields and from their broad and wide-reaching perspectives, they discuss what they see as a greater emphasis on transnationalism, gender, sexuality, whiteness and colonialism. Current day scholarship is leaning towards a better understanding of our past, to help explain our emigration, immigration and human experiences. Here are some books and media productions that bear this out:
Books
Migrant Marketplaces by Elizabeth Zanoni Call Number: GT2850 .Z36 2018ISBN: 9780252041655 Publication Date: 2018′ Elizabeth Zanoni provides a cutting-edge comparative look at Italian people and products on the move between 1880 and 1940. Concentrating on foodstuffs–a trade dominated by Italian entrepreneurs in New York and Buenos Aires–Zanoni reveals how consumption of these increasingly global imports affected consumer habits and identities and sparked changing and competing connections between gender, nationality, and ethnicity.’
Whom We Shall Welcome : Italian Americans and Immigration Reform, 1945-1965 by Battisti, Danielle Call Number: onlineISBN: 0823286347 Publication Date: 2019 ‘Danielle Battisti looks at efforts by Italian American organizations to foster Italian immigration along with the lobbying efforts of Italian Americans to change the quota laws. While Italian Americans (and other white ethnics) had attained virtual political and social equality with many other groups of older-stock Americans by the end of the war, Italians continued to be classified as undesirable immigrants.”
The Divo and the Duce by Giorgio Bertellini Call Number: onlineISBN: 9780520301368 Publication Date: 2019 ‘Giorgio Bertellini’s work on Italian-born star Rodolfo Valentino and Italy’s dictator Benito Mussolini shows how their popularity, both political and erotic, largely depended on the efforts of public opinion managers, including publicists, journalists, and even ambassadors. Beyond the democratic celebrations of the Jazz Age, the promotion of their charismatic masculinity through spectacle and press coverage inaugurated the now-familiar convergence of popular celebrity and political authority. Co-winner of the Italian American Studies 2020 book award.’
Napoli/New York/Hollywood by Giuliana Muscio Call Number: OnlineISBN: 0823279405Publication Date: 2018-10-30‘Napoli/New York/Hollywood is an absorbing investigation of the significant impact that Italian immigrant actors, musicians, and directors–and the southern Italian stage traditions they embodied–have had on the history of Hollywood cinema and American media, from 1895 to the present day. Included are such well-known directors and actors as Francis Coppola and his sister Talia Shire, John Turturro, Nancy Savoca, James Gandolfini, David Chase, Joe Dante, and Annabella Sciorra.’
Featured Media and Websites
i-Italy ‘A guide to everything Italian in America.” A fascinating bilingual blog/magazine/website of information and video clips, the project of the John D Calandra Italian American Institute.
The Italian Americans. Well-known series shown on the Public Broadcasting System. With Stanley Tucci, narrator.; Ark Media (Firm) production company.; WETA-TV (Television station : Washington, D.C.) production company. 2014
This edition of QC Research Highlights features some of the important, fascinating research done by graduate students at Queens College. Academic Works, CUNY’s institutional repository, has a small collection of master’s theses and student capstones completed at Queens College. This collection is still growing! See below if you’d like to participate.
Social Sciences
Thanks to our partnership with the History department, we have been able to add theses showing some of the breadth of this discipline, from anarchist education to the business of baseball to the history of environmentalism and ecofascism.
Finally, we’re delighted to share some of the scientific research being done by Queens College graduate students! Both these theses are in Earth and Environmental Sciences.
Azlan Maqbool’s thesis, Investigating Distribution of Legionella pneumophila in Urban and Suburban Watersheds, assess the presence of the aforementioned bacteria – the cause of Legionnaire’s Disease – in New York City street water. These bacteria are indeed common in street water and increase in wet weather, and this is the first study to document that.
Thanks to all the authors featured here for sharing their theses in the repository! Thanks, also, to Grace Davie, David Lahti, Emily Wilbourne, and other faculty who have assisted in facilitating student deposits.
The master’s theses in Academic Works currently represent only a small portion of the important research done by QC graduate students! If you’re interested in sharing your thesis, please see this Guide to Theses and Capstones in Academic Works.
The library also holds many master’s theses in print. You can search for these works in OneSearch and, once you have the call number, request access by emailing the Borrowing desk.
The QC Library currently has trials to the following resources:
Theatre Performance and Design Collection
Access Provider: Alexander Street Description: Theatre Performance and Design Collection combines the most important video content types used in theatre education (filmed stage performances, master classes, documentaries, and training material) with previously unpublished production designs, reference texts, and top-of-the-line teaching tools, there really is no better way for faculty to bring the brilliance of stage right into their classrooms. Note: Access from September 1, 2021 through October 29, 2021 Format: E-books, Streaming Videos Access Portals:OneSearch, A-Z Database List
Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans
Access Provider: ReadEx-Newsbank Description: Books, pamphlets, and broadsides published during the 17th and 18th centuries from the bibliography by Charles Evans and Roger Bristol’s Supplement; published in cooperation with the American Antiquarian Society. Note: Access from September 27, 2021 through October 31, 2021 Format: Articles, E-Books Access Portals:OneSearch, A-Z Database List
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker
Access Provider: ReadEx-Newsbank Description: Books, pamphlets, and broadsides published during the early 19th century from the bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker; published in cooperation with the American Antiquarian Society. Note: Access from September 27, 2021 through October 31, 2021 Format: Articles, E-Books Access Portals:OneSearch, A-Z Database List
ProQuest One Literature
Access Provider: ProQuest Description: ProQuest One Literature is for scholars who must engage with an exhaustive and diverse set of scholarly resources around a given literary topic for research and course planning. It contains 3 million literature citations from thousands of journals, monographs, dissertations, and more than 500,000 primary works – including rare and obscure texts, multiple versions, and non-traditional sources like comics, theatre performances, and author readings. Note: Access September 27, 2021 through October 31, 2021. Titles are available in OneSearch Format: Articles, E-books, Journals, Streaming Videos Access Portals:OneSearch, A-Z Database List
Literaturnaia Gazeta Digital Archive (DA-LG)
Access Provider: East View Information Services Description: Established on April 22, 1929 with the support of the “father of Soviet literature,” writer Maxim Gorky, Literaturnaia gazeta is a landmark publication in Russia’s cultural heritage. With its focus on literary and intellectual life, Literaturnaia gazeta allowed Soviet Russia’s preeminent authors, poets, and cultural figures a particular podium for commentary, affording perhaps fewer restrictions than might be possible in other publications. Note: Access October 7, 2021 through November 3, 2021. Titles are available in OneSearch Format: Newspapers, Primary Sources Access Portals:OneSearch, A-Z Database List
SDGO Online | Sustainable Development Goals Online
Access Provider: Taylor & Francis Description: Taylor & Francis’ Sustainable Development Goals Online collection is a carefully curated interdisciplinary collection of digital content mapped to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDG Online collection includes more than 12,000 of the most important and relevant book chapters and journal articles, published under the Routledge and CRC Press imprints, in an online library covering all 17 SDGs. Note: Access from October 14, 2021 through November 30, 2021 Format: Articles, E-books, Journals Access Portals:OneSearch, A-Z Database List
Electronic Resources can be accessed via the library catalogue, OneSearch, and the A-Z Database List. Accessing library resources remotely will prompt users to sign into proxy using their CUNY Credentials, the same that is used for Blackboard and CUNYFirst. For more information on remote access, please review our Remote Access FAQ. Users may browse the Electronic Resources Status Dashboard for updates.
Queens College users who would like to suggest a resource to add to our catalogue and/or to trial, may do so by completing the Suggest-a-Title form. General information on QC Library’s Electronic Resources can be found on our website, Research → Electronic Resources.
Past Trials
Drama Online Oberon Collection
Access Provider: Bloomsbury Description: Oberon Books has long been recognised as one of the most exciting publishers specialising in drama and the performing arts, with a reputation for publishing challenging and compelling works. From ground-breaking British plays to the best of international drama and plays in translation, this is a unique and inspiring collection of over 500 titles that features a diverse gathering of canonical and contemporary drama. Note: Access from September 1, 2021 through October 1, 2021. All titles (database and ebooks) are available in OneSearch Format: E-books, Plays, Texts Access Portals:OneSearch, A-Z Database List
Human Kinetics Library
Access Provider: Bloomsbury Description: The Human Kinetics Library is built around a mission to increase the knowledge, enhance the performance and improve the health and fitness of all people around the globe through authoritative information about physical activity and sport. The platform features a growing collection of cross-searchable ebooks and videos from the world’s leading educational publisher for fitness, exercise, coaching and sport. Note: Access from September 1, 2021 through October 1, 2021. All titles (database and ebooks) are available in OneSearch Format: E-books, Streaming Videos Access Portals:OneSearch, A-Z Database List
Timely, online programming presented by the Queens College Library’s Special Collections and Archives in Collaboration with Queens Memory.
Scroll down to view the live stream recordings of each event.
Art and Archives: Creativity During COVID-19
Tuesday November 16 from 4:00pm-5:30pm
How do art and archives intersect? In this roundtable discussion, participants will discuss creative projects undertaken during COVID-19, and their connections to primary sources and archival repositories. Livestreamed on https://www.facebook.com/queensmemory.
Chair:Annie Tummino, Assistant Professor, Head of Special Collections and Archives, Queens College
Panelists:
Edisa Weeks, Director of DELIRIOUS Dances and Acting Chair of the Queens College Department of Drama, Theatre & Dance;
Members of the What Will the Neighbors Say? Investigative Theatre Company, Artists-In-Residence at Queens College;
Joyce LeeAnn, Certified Archivist, Interdisciplinary Artist, and founder of Archival Alchemy®.
Co-sponsored by the Kupferberg Center for the Arts, the Queens College Department of Drama, Theater, and Dance, and Social Practice CUNY.
Surviving & Thriving: Black and Latinx Faculty, Staff, and Students on Campus
Tuesday, October 19th from 4:00pm-5:30pm
What does it take for Black and Latinx faculty, staff, and students to not only survive but thrive in higher education? Join us for a roundtable discussion and presentation of oral history clips from the archives. Livestreamed on https://www.facebook.com/queensmemory.
Co-sponsored by the Queens College SEEK Program and Black Latinx Faculty Staff Association.
Chair: Obden Mondesir, Associate Director, Barnard Archives and Adjunct Instructor in the Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies.
Panelists:
Norka Blackman-Richards, Director of the Queens College Percy E. Sutton SEEK Program;
Marco Navarro, Lecturer in English and Director of The Writing Center, Queens College;
Nathaniel Smith, Director of NYC Men Teach at The City University of New York, Queens College.
Jessica Alejandro, Queens College Graduate student majoring in Special Education 1-6
Documenting a Pandemic: What We’ve Learned
Tuesday, October 5th from 4:00pm-5:30pm
Members of the Queens Memory Project will discuss lessons from the COVID-19 Project, and how they worked together as a team to incorporate the diverse voices of our borough and campus into the archives during this momentous period in history. Livestreamed on https://www.facebook.com/queensmemory.
Chair:Annie Tummino, Assistant Professor, Head of Special Collections and Archives, Queens College
Panelists:
Meral Agish, Queens Memory Community Coordinator;
Obden Mondesir, Associate Director of the Barnard Archives and Adjunct Instructor, Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies;
Dacia Metes, Queens Public Library Digital Archives Manager;
Jo-Ann Wong, Librarian, Queens Public Library, Hunters Point.
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.
Queens College and the Pandemic
In the midst of the long public health emergency of COVID-19, scientists and scholars from all disciplines have done important research to help us better understand both the virus itself and the social effects of the pandemic. CUNY faculty have been very active in these efforts.
Important research has been carried out across CUNY, but for the purposes of this blog post, I would like to point out some research by Queens College (QC) authors in particular.
Medicine and Public Health
John Dennehy (Biology), led a team of researchers developing a protocol to detect COVID-19 in wastewater, which was adopted by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to monitor the prevalence of COVID in New York City. Aside from John Dennehy, authors credited in these articles included QC graduate and undergraduate students Kristin Cheung, Anna Gao, Sherin Kanoly, Michelle Markman, and Kaung Myat Sun, as well as other researchers from across CUNY. This research was also featured in QC’s Big Ideas series, and the library has created a guide to further resources.
Hongwei Xu (Sociology) worked with collaborators to study the relationship between the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s and the health behaviors of adults in China. This research has implications for the study of health behavior around COVID.
QC faculty have also examined the social and economic effects of the pandemic.
Cliff Chen (Education and Community Programs), along with graduate students Elena Byrne, and Tanya Vélez studied the impact of the pandemic on families with children, showing the greater impact of the pandemic on lower-income families and families of color:
Daisuke Akiba (Division of Education) has written about anti-Asian racism in schools during the pandemic, recommending some steps schools can take to protect Asian-American students.
The tech industry has profited during the pandemic. ShinJoung Yeo (Media Studies) examined the relationship between tech companies and health care in the context of COVID-19:
Annie Tummino, also of the library, worked with partners at the Queens Public Library to host virtual events on social justice, including a roundtable on xenophobia during COVID-19. Together, they created a poster about this experience:
This is one of a new 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.
We will kick off this monthly film screening series on Wednesday, September 8th, at 6pm with the film Kiki!
“Kiki fluidly combines interviews on-the-street and dance-floor scenes to create an exhilarating, multifaceted portrait of ballroom participants, a number of whom are L.G.B.T. activists. Kiki is also an indelible, must-see ode to gay New York.”
-MANOHLA DARGIS, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Join us for a queer flick, some fun and a chance to win a prize!
This film screening is open to everyone on Zoom, but only the first (50) fully vaccinated Queens College students may join us on campus! Masks are required. Seating will be distanced.
At home, or on campus, Kiki is sure to excite and educate!!! Seeya there!
Learn more about LGBTQI+ history by browsing the library’s Queer Collection.
Queer Cinema at QC is made possible because of the generous support of the New York City Council through the office of Daniel Dromm (District 25), the Office of Speaker Corey Johnson, and LaGuardia Community College, in partnership with the Queens College Office of Student Development and Leadership, the Queens College Libraries and The Summit at Queens College. Other sponsors include the Women and Gender Studies Programs at Queens College; the Gender, Love & Sexuality Alliance/GLASA at QC; the CUNY Office of Student Inclusion Initiatives; and the Division of Student Affairs.
Queens College is a proud CUNY LGBTQI+ Consortium member.
