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Creative and Scholarly Activities
The State University of New York recognized Leigh Wilson as a Distinguished Service Professor, one of the SUNY system’s highest honors. In addition to being an award-winning fiction writer, highly regarded teacher and chair of Oswego’s English and creative writing department, Wilson also directs the college’s creative writing program, campus-wide Grand Challenge’s Fresh Water for All initiative, the Digital Oz storytelling project and, until recently, the Interdisciplinary Programs and Activities Center. Wilson began teaching at SUNY Oswego in 1984, and her service bridges her scholarship and teaching, establishing and building connections across disciplines, among students and with the broader community.
Leigh Wilson (standing), professor and chair of the English and creative writing department, recently earned one of the top honors in the State University of New York system, the title of Distinguished Service Professor. She is shown in this file photo leading the Digital Oz project, one of many interdisciplinary collaborations she has created and spearheaded.
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Member Earns Prestigious NEH Fellowship
Gonzalo Aguiar Malosetti of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures earned a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Scholar Fellowship for his book project, Tropes of Violent Inequality: Brazilian Crime Fiction in a Post-Neoliberal Age. The award comes with an invitation to a future seminar, “The Making of Modern Brazil,” which will connect top teachers and scholars in this field in an environment to “exchange ideas, readings and research at various stages of completion,” Aguiar Malosetti said. The seminar includes a variety of readings that connect participants with such avenues as anthropology, cinema studies, cultural studies, gender studies, history, linguistics, literary studies, performing arts, sociology and urban studies. Directed by theatre professor Steven J. York, In the Cotton is driven by a racially motivated hate crime on a college campus, and the fallout as students and administrators take sides. The result in the award-winning play written by Morgan McGuire is conversations and explorations on racism, hate, protest and related threads. York said the cast and crew developed some cutting-edge techniques for the production where its participants were never able to gather in one place due to the pandemic. Auditions, rehearsals and performances were held online. The resulting “virtual theatre” is similar to traditional theatre in being produced in a single take, “but also very close to the process of creating live television in that there’s no audience present and that live performance is being captured on camera relying heavily on camera and sound feeds,” York said.
‘In the Cotton’ Production Uses Innovative Techniques to Tackle Serious Topic
Published Books by Faculty
Clockwise top left are director Steven J. York; Angel Tyler ’21, who plays Meridian; and assistant director Bayana Burnell ’21. • Darkened Enlightenment: The
Deterioration of Democracy, Human
Rights and Rational Thought in the
Twenty-First Century (Routledge, 2020), the latest book by sociology professor Tim Delaney, describes society at a crossroads, with a choice between rational thought and antiintellectualism.
• Political science faculty member Helen Knowles published two books—
Cascadian Hotel and Free Speech Theory: Understanding the Controversies.
The first covers a historic treasure of a building in the Pacific Northwest and the second addresses hot topics like removing Confederate statues. • Midwest Gothic (Ashland Poetry
Press, 2020), a new award-winning book from English and creative writing faculty member Laura Donnelly, brings together a collection of poems on the themes of family, memory, history and a sense of place. • Communication studies faculty member Jason Zenor’s new book,
Emerging Media: Legal Principles,
Virtual Issues (Cognella Publishing, 2020) takes a different approach to media law—focusing forward instead of back. The book covers issues in the news like regulating tech companies, bots spreading fake news, apps that can track health information, facial recognition technology and hacking of data stored in the cloud.
Campus App Connects Students to Mental Health Resources
SUNY Oswego was an early adopter of the Thriving Campus application, a program that connects students with counseling services and which SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras announced would be adopted throughout the State University system as part of a comprehensive plan to expand access to mental health services to every student at SUNY’s 64 campuses. Thriving Campus is a HIPAA-compliant web application that breaks down the barriers to getting help by bridging the gap between campus counseling services and local mental health and wellness service providers. “The Thriving Campus App will expand the mental health services we offer to students in need during this most difficult time as they navigate living and learning amidst a global pandemic,” said SUNY Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley. When campus counseling centers determine that a student needs more specialized, long-term care, the easy-toaccess, mobile-friendly Thriving Campus App facilitates the handoff to a licensed local provider. Providers manage their own profiles, posting up-to-date information on their specializations and time availability. Their profiles are hidden if they are not accepting new patients, breaking down a frequent barrier to services by preventing students from reaching out, being turned down, getting frustrated and ultimately abandoning their search. The Thriving Campus directories are customized by college. They also include a help guide that provides tips on insurance and choosing a provider, as well as a voicemail script that puts students at ease reaching out. Colleges can also utilize the app to create custom provider lists based on specific treatment needs. To learn more and view connected mental health providers in the area, visit oswego. thrivingcampus.com. For more information on SUNY Oswego’s mental health services, visit oswego.edu/ counseling-services.
Federal Grant Supports College’s Mental Health Services
A federal grant of nearly $280,000 over the course of three years will strengthen the college’s mental health crisis counseling capabilities. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention program grant in large part supports training campus members how to teach and use QPR—Question, Persuade and Refer.
The goal of QPR is to reduce suicidal behaviors and save lives by providing innovative, practical and proven suicide prevention training. The program reflects a belief that quality education empowers all people, regardless of background, to make a positive difference in the life of someone they know. The grant also allows the college to increase coordination between emergency community resources and SUNY Oswego to reduce the stigma and trauma experienced as a result of a mental health emergency.
CSTEP to Provide Strong Support to Underrepresented Students in STEM, Professional Fields
SUNY Oswego recently secured a five-year grant from the New York State Department of Education to support the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP), which offers a range of strong support for underrepresented and/or economically disadvantaged students entering STEM or professional licensure fields. An annual grant of nearly $200,000 through 2025 will support a range of activities from mentorship to tutoring to assistance preparing for graduate entrance exams to bolster student success in fields that benefit from a well-prepared diverse pool of graduates. Ultimately, the program also improves the job fields that the students enter by diversifying the professional body. To qualify, students must be full-time, New York state residents (at least 12 months), either underrepresented minority or economically disadvantaged, and interested in pursuing a career in a STEM field or a licensed profession (like accounting, teaching or counseling). For more information or to apply for the program, visit oswego.edu/cstep.
