October 6, 1995

JEFFREY MERRICK, Associate Professor, Department of History
"Researching the History of Homosexuality"

Professor Merrick will discuss his research methods and overall use of libraries relating to his current research on the history of homosexuality. In association with his presentation, Professor Merrick has produced a small exhibition of rare and special research materials for the academic study of gay and lesbian history, on view in the library's Special Collections Reading Room through November 3.

Professor Merrick teaches European intellectual history and early modern European history, and recently introduced a course in Historical Perspectives on Homosexuality, which was offered for the first time this past Spring semester. He is co-editor of Homosexuality in Modern France, to be published by Oxford University Press next Spring, and is currently working on a documentary volume about homosexuality in early modern France. He is currently coordinator for the Committee on Lesbian and Gay History, affiliated with the American Historical Association.

November 10, 1995

KERRI DUPONT, Assistant Professor, Department of Art
"Type Design and Multimedia Applications on Computer"

Kerri Dupont will discuss her research and overall use of information resources relating to her current work on type design and multimedia applications on computer. Professor DuPont works actively as a graphic designer, and teaches several courses in typography and graphic design. Her interest in letter form and type design has led her to create original fonts, mainly by computer. She recently received a Graduate School Research Grant for multimedia and interactive applications and design, and during her presentation will demonstrate the use of computers in graphic design work as well as design applications for an online environment.

December 8, 1995

JUDITH SENKEVITCH,Assistant Professor, School of Library and Information Science and
JAMES SWEETLAND, Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Science
"To Keep or Not to Keep: Can We Define a Core List of Adult Fiction Classics?"

Judith Senkevitch and James Sweetland will discuss their research methods and overall use of information resources relating to their current research exploring correlations between adult fiction titles most held in public libraries and the predictability of such titles in library collections. With the recent passage of the Great Books program at UWM, and the debate over what exactly constitutes a great book, Senkevitch's and Sweetland's presentation topic, "To Keep or Not to Keep: Can We Define a Core List of Adult Fiction Classics," is particularly relevant. Armed with two grants from OCLC, the corporation that provides the world's largest bibliographic utility, their collaborative research has yielded some surprising results.

Judy Senkevitch's primary research interests lie in public library issues, particularly evaluation and adult fiction. James Sweetland, a former Head Librarian of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, is a specialist in collection evaluation, adult fiction, and online information retrieval. An active book reviewer, Prof. Sweetland, like Prof. Senkevitch, is also interested in the relationship between reviews and library holdings, and conducts research on the act and impact of book reviewing. Together their study and conclusions have direct relevance for the debate over fiction vs. literature, the myth or reality of classic fiction, and issues of cultural relevance.

February 23, 1996

CHERYL S. AJIROTUTU, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
"A Women in Nigeria: Income, Status, and Traditional Technologies"

Cheryl Ajirotutu will discuss her research methods and overall use of information resources relating to her current research on women's use of traditional technologies in Nigeria. Professor Ajirotutu began her research while teaching at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, from 1986-1990, and she continues to make research visits to Nigeria. Using slides, she will discuss her fieldwork with women in Nigeria and her documentary use of Nigerian archival records. Her research touches on topics of women in development, gender and technology, and the apparent invisibility in the documentary evidence of women in relation to technological usage.

March 22, 1996

MARY ELLIOTT, Doctoral Candidate, Department of English
"Researching 'Trash': Lesbian Pulp Fiction of the 1950s and 1960s"

Mary Elliott will discuss her research and overall use of information resources relating to her current work on lesbian pulp fiction of the 1950s and 1960s. Ms. Elliott's current research began with her dissertation proposal to examine the parallels of domestic ideology in post-WWII lesbian pulp novels and 19th-century women's narrative. She found that the lines of connection were striking: both dramatized struggles between women's subjectivities and dominant theories of gender, sexuality and social relationships; both challenged (and reflected) prevailing notions of gender, individuality and sexual identity; both helped create an environment that inspired change in women's public and private lives.

April 26, 1996

DAVID MULROY, Associate Professor, Department of Classics
"Translating Greek and Roman Poetry"

David Mulroy will discuss his research and overall use of information resources relating to his recent work on establishing poetic translations of ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The focus of his research has been to "produce translations of ... poems that are enjoyable in the same way that the ... originals are." The consequence of this work has been the publication of two books by the University of Michigan Press: Early Greek Lyric Poetry (1992), and Horace's Odes and Epodes (1994). Both of these works offer accurate and lively translations that effectively communicate the enthusiasm for reading the ancient poets that has continued for millenia.

Professor Mulroy has written that "the only reason that a significant number of people still go to the trouble of reading ancient Greek and Latin literature in the original languages is the pleasure derived from doing so. Behind our various masks, classical scholars are essentially hedonists." In keeping with this statement, Professor Mulroy will try to convey a little of the classicist's reverie by devoting a good portion of his presentation to performing some translations of the early Greek lyric poets and the Romans, Horace and Catullus. Dr. Mulroy's other Milwaukee-area performances of these lively, stimulating, and often frank and personal poems, have been very well received.