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

Recent presentations, awards and publications include the following:

Presentations

Cheryl A. Ernst, director of the English Language Institute, delivered an invited International Lecture class at Musashino University in Ariake, Japan, to a group of 30 first-year global communications students. The topic, Preparing for Your Study Abroad, introduced students to setting realistic expectations, learning outside of their comfort zones, and understanding cross-cultural communication. The students participated in an American-style classroom, which helped establish expectations of active participation and using English exclusively. Musashino University’s Global Communication Department requires all students to participate in a study abroad, with UD being one possible destination starting in 2026.

On July 26-28, 2024, the UD-born musical Shanghai Sonatas was presented as part of the 38th Powerhouse Season at Vassar College. Powerhouse brings developmental productions, workshops of plays and musicals, and readings of works-in-progress to the Vassar campus. Written by Sean Gao, Trustees Distinguished Professor of Music, with book by Alan Goodson and lyrics by Joyce Hill Stoner, Edward and Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg Professor of Art Conservation, Shanghai Sonatas explores the remarkable exchange of cultures between Western refugees and their Eastern hosts during World War II. Framed by the fading glamour of this “Paris of the East” and the urgency to escape violent prejudice, stories of survival, moments of compassion, forbidden love and – above all – beautiful music bring these two communities closer than ever before.

Awards

Julie L McGee, associate professor of Africana studies and art history, will be among the 2024-2025 Tyson Scholars of American Art sponsored by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. McGee’s supported research project, ”Curatorial Care: Critical Art Histories and David C. Driskell,” is focused on the significance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) to American art and art history.

Nadya Ellerhorst, a 2024 graduate of the Honors College with bachelor’s degrees in international relations and Russian studies, produced a documentary as a UD student that has been nominated for the 2024 Mid-Atlantic College Production Awards. The documentary. called "A World Inside Another," focuses on the Women's Group at UD's English Language Institute. She completed the documentary as part of an independent study with Nancy Karibjanian, instructor in communication.

Peyton Free, a second-year master of public health student in the epidemiology program, has been selected by the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) as a 2024-2025 Ambassador. Free, who was nominated for the position by MPH Program Director Jennifer Horney, joins nearly 100 exceptional graduate students from more than 60 ASPPH member schools worldwide as part of this year’s This is Public Health Ambassador Cohort. The cohort exemplifies ASPPH’s core mission of improved health and well-being for everyone, everywhere. As an ambassador, Free will have the opportunity to connect with professionals nationwide and spread public health awareness through social media takeovers.

Publications

Heinz-Uwe Haus, professor of theatre, published in the recent issue of Comenius - Journal of Euro-American Civilization (Comenius Academic Club, New York, vol. 11, no 1, 2924) a review of the newest book of the German-American writer Gabriele Eckart, titled Not All Pain Is Curable. The focus is on Eckart's collection, Schrappel - stories and poems (Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg, 2023), which attests to the multifaceted nature of growing up as a young woman in Communist East Germany and her later emigration to the United States. It also deals with the subject of war, the experiences of young men during the First World War and the American Civil War.  "Questions about sincerity, responsibility and resistance appear to be of great 'use value' (Brecht) in Eckart's rendition" (Haus).

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