Campus Currents Communication Studies Professor Named Fulbright Specialist Ongoing work on how corporations use individuals’ personal data in exploitative ways earned communication studies professor Ulises Mejias a prestigious post as a Fulbright Specialist to work on this topic with educators and audiences across the globe.
President’s Awards Honor Outstanding Academic Advisers Lindsay McCluskey of communication studies and Casey Raymond of chemistry are the 2021 recipients of the SUNY Oswego President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Advising.
Physics Professor Earns International Honor SUNY Oswego physics professor Carolina Ilie was one of 15 scholars selected as Sigma Xi Fellows, a prestigious honor for continued contribution to the international honor society and the field of scientific research.
The program from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and World Learning pairs highly qualified U.S. academics and professionals with host institutions in other countries to share expertise, strengthen institutional links, hone skills, gain international experience and learn about other cultures. It is a multiyear commitment, with Mejias joining the specialist roster from 2021 to 2025.
35th Annual ALANA Conference Focuses on Migration Stories The other tribute this year was a page in the program dedicated to a former SUNY Oswego employee Roosevelt Muhammad, who oversaw the ALANA Student Conference from 1991 to 2006 and who died Aug. 23, 2021. Ana Luz ’94 wrote a poem in honor of Roosevelt that was included in the program. Building on this year’s theme of migration and courage, Jessica Hernandez ’18 and Kelsey Gillett ’14, who both work with Oswego’s Education Abroad program, encouraged students to experience an unfamiliar culture and country. In their Sept. 22 presentation about the “5 Big Fs of Study Abroad,” they addressed all five: fear, funds, faculty support, family and fit.
This year marked the 35th anniversary of SUNY Oswego’s annual ALANA (Asian, Latino, African and Native American) Student Leadership Conference, which took place Sept. 21–27, 2021. Based on the theme “Migration Stories of Courage,” the ALANA Conference featured a range of presentations, performances, discussions and the 11th Annual Peace Walk. This year’s program also featured two tributes. One was a page with thank-you messages for President Deborah F. Stanley from the ALANA Planning Committee, the ALANA community and the Student Association, and from Oswego Alumni Association Board of Directors members who have been active in ALANA organizations, Thaina Gonzalez ’92 and Rufaro Matombo ’12. Many of the individual events and presentations also included special recognition for President Stanley.
Following the 11th Annual Peace Walk on Sept. 26, the City of Buffalo’s first poet laureate, Jillian Hanesworth, performed four original spoken word poems, including “Ashe” written specifically in honor of Oswego’s Peace Walk. She stressed the importance of words and their power to shape the future generations. Closing out the 7-day conference, Claudia D. Hernández, the author of this year’s Oswego Reading Initiative book Knitting the Fog, spoke to a standing-room only crowd in the Sheldon Hall Ballroom. Hernández, who was raised in Guatemala before immigrating to Los Angeles, discussed how important the women in her life, primarily her great aunt and grandmother, are to her. Hernández explained how her relationship with these two women inspired her works in Knitting the Fog and her photography book, Women, Mujeres, Ixoq: Revolutionary Visions. To read more complete coverage of the conference, check out magazine.oswego.edu.
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