Timothy Taylor, associate dean of students, director of NYSCAS’ Learning Resource Centers (SGS) and instructor of Languages and Literatures, attended the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (MMUF) Program’s 2006 Coordinators’ Conference in January in Cape Town, South Africa. MMUF addresses the issue of under-representation of minorities on faculties in higher education with a specific focus on the humanities and humanistic social sciences. The conference provided a base from which key institutions, faculty and administrators could encourage their pursuit of the Ph.D.

Julia Tsukerman, lecturer of English as a Second Language, currently is writing a dictionary titled "Confusers" – words commonly confused in spelling, meaning, and usage by both native English speakers as well as those learning English. She hopes the work will be completed and published in the near future.

• Languages & Literature: Adjunct Instructor Albert Rolls wrote biographies on NBA basketball star Bill Laimbeer, gerontologist and author William H. Thomas and chef, author and television star Anthony Bourdain, which were published in Current Biography v. 67 no. 1 in January 2006.

• Social Sciences: Adjunct Professor Ronald Singh, who joined Touro College last spring, is the founder and director of Liberty Tutoring Center in New York City, an organization that provides tutoring services for students who are not meeting academic standards and are seeking support. The Center was recently approved by the New York State Education Department as a provider of supplemental educational services in the “No Child Left Behind" program. Meanwhile, Professor Singh is collecting data with professors from Syracuse University and Michigan University for a study of “beliefs and experiences of Indo-Caribbean immigrants in New York,” after which they expect to publish their findings. A book chapter by Professor Singh on “Paternal Rights and Child Custody: Socio-Legal Issues and Transnational Caribbean Families in the United States” is expected to be published next year in the Virginia Journal of Social Policy & Law.

• Speech & Communication: Adjunct Instructor Barry Cline received “Honorable Mention” for one of her sculptures in a nationally juried exhibition at the Ben Shahn’s Court Gallery at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey.

In May, Satmar Bikur Cholim, a volunteer organization that helps Jewish people in times of need, honored adjunct instructor Miriam David. In Hebrew, Bikur Cholim means visiting the sick.

For the 7th consecutive year, Assistant Professor Michael Llorenz was reappointed as chair of the Education Committee and member of the Executive Committee for Community Board 1 in the Bronx, New York.

Adjunct Instructor Betsy Shevey is producing “Seven Ages,” a group of seven original plays in the spring tour of the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Cleveland. The plays portray the various stages of life depicted in “The Seven Ages of Man,” a speech in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”.

In the spring, Adjunct Instructor Diana Thompson was a guest curator at the American Indian Community House Gallery in New York City, where she showcased and promoted The Visual Art of Bill Miller, an exhibition of paintings and drawings by the Grammy Award-winning musician. Diana is also host of two Internet forums - “Writers, Actors and Artists” and “Educators” – for Digital Media Network, a Web site for people using digital technology.

Adjunct instructor Peter Zazzali presented a paper in July at the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI) in Malta. The topic was a comparison of the respective aesthetics, careers and legacies of Vsevelod Meyerhold, Russian theatre director and theorist, and Bertholt Brecht, German playwright. Professor Zazzali is currently completing his Ph.D. in theatre history and criticism at the City University of New York.

- Compiled with assistance from Kara Solomon, Director of Editorial Services, NYSCAS