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Pride Month: Events, Resources, and Readings
JUNE IS PRIDE MONTH. Here are some Pride-themed readings, resources, and events, along with information about a study on transgender and gender-nonconforming young adults. We'd be glad to share any other Pride-related announcements or information from the Weissman community through our social media platforms or in the next issue of this newsletter, planned for June 14. Just DM us on Twitter at @baruch_weissman or email baruchwsas@baruch.cuny.edu.
RECOMMENDED READING: Thanks to Weissman Black and Latinx Studies Chair Professor Shelly Eversley for recommending these terrific blogposts:
RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY: Weissman Psychology Professor Christopher Stults and the Sexual & Gender Minority Health Lab are recruiting participants for an anonymous survey of risk and well-being among transgender and gender nonconforming young adults. Details here.
PRIDE-THEMED RESOURCES AND EVENTS: Thanks to Baruch Counseling Center psychologist Gary Dillon, who represents Baruch at the CUNY LGBTQI+ Council, for information on these CUNY-wide events and resources.
CUNY QUEENS CONSORTIUM VIRTUAL LGBTQI+ PRIDE CELEBRATION: Thursday, June 3, 7 p.m.-8 p.m. Registration: https://tinyurl.com/Queenspride21
CUNY PRIDEFEST: June 25, 4 p.m.-6 p.m. Livestreamed virtual Pride celebration from Queens College with CUNY-wide representation. Registration: https://tinyurl.com/CUNYpride21

  • CUNY LGBTQI+ COUNCIL: This CUNY-wide committee of faculty and staff is dedicated to ensuring the visibility and inclusion of LGBTQI+ students, faculty, and staff, and to supporting intersectional LGBTQI+ communities across CUNY. Information on the LGBTQI+ Student Leadership program, gender and name change forms, and other resources here: LGBTQI+ Hub.

  • BUILDING THE LGBTQ AAPI COMMUNITY: Program on "Typography of Intersectional Gender and Sexual Empowerment and Resistance," led by Hunter College Professor Glenn Magpantay, June 11, 5:30 p.m.-7 p.m., via CUNY's Asian American/Asian Research Institute. Registration: https://aaari.info/21-06-11magpantay/
CUNY PRIDE FILM FESTIVAL
Registration: https://forms.gle/DzEY2qnHpBCfWT3m7
  • The Celluloid Closet, June 21, 5 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Documentary about LGBTQ portrayals in Hollywood.
  • Prayers for Bobby, June 23, 5 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Based on a true story, Sigourney Weaver plays a devout Christian mother who tries to "cure" her gay son but ultimately becomes an advocate for gay rights. Discussion to follow with Rev. James Sheehan, chaplain of Bronx Community College.
  • All About My Mother, June 25, 5 p.m.-7:30 p.m. A Pedro Almodóvar drama about a grieving mother, a pregnant HIV-positive nun, a transgender sex worker, and a stage performer. Discussion with Bronx Community College Professor Alicia Bralove.
New Media Artspace Capstone: Interomnia Exhibition
The New Media Artspace Capstone exhibition has opened and will be on view on the NMA website over the summer. The artworks can also be previewed on Instagram and in a video of the students' presentations. 

The exhibition's title, "Interomnia," derives from the Latin omni ater, which means every journey. "The works may seem vastly different on a surface level, but they share experiences of the artist's journey, relationships, and evolution, bringing them together as one," reads the introduction to the online show. 

The uniquely fascinating projects range from a calendar displaying every social media post a student made during the year to a clothing collection printed with computer-generated textile patterns.
Read and Listen to the COVID Diaries Essays
Winning essays from the COVID Diaries contest have been published on Dollars and Sense. You can also hear the writers read their work in this video of a joyful and moving celebration attended by student winners and the contest judges, Weissman Professors Bridgett Davis and Gisele Regatao.

Essay themes ranged from an immigrant family getting by on food stamps to a young woman and her mom, worrying about each others' survival.

Event participants included Baruch alumnus David Shulman, who came up with the idea for the contest after reading Davis' memoir about her mother, The World According to Fannie Davis. Shulman's family foundation provided prize money for the top three winners and Davis funded three honorable mention prizes in her mother's honor.

The winning essays are eloquent, powerful, and deeply affecting; you'll need a tissue to wipe the tears away. The photo of hands in a bowl, shot by first-place winner Rosa Guevara, shows her mom preparing food for their family.
Faculty Books, Publications, and Podcasts
FACULTY BOOKS
The Awakening and Selected Stories, edited and annotated by Weissman English Professor Rafael Walker, offers 21st century readers a fresh look at Kate Chopin's classic novel, along with some of her lesser known stories. First published in 1899, The Awakening tells the tragic story of a middle-class woman struggling against the strictures of her life as a wife and mother. Its groundbreaking feminist themes made it a popular text among second-wave feminists in the '70s, but Walker says The Awakening "still resonates" and "remains an important touchstone even for modern feminism. It's also just extremely well written, both stylistically and narratively." You can hear more from Walker in this Book Talk podcast.
Lithuanian Architects Assess the Soviet Era by Weissman Fine and Performing Arts Professor John Maciuika offers an oral history of modernist architecture in Lithuania as it took shape in the mid-20th century. In the 1990s, shortly after the old Soviet Union dissolved, Maciuika interviewed the country's four top architects about their work in the Soviet era. He found that despite limits placed on them by the government, they found ways to use their designs to carry out small acts of subversion. This bilingual edition was published by a Lithuanian press and has made a splash in that country.
FACULTY PUBLICATIONS AND PODCASTS
  • RELATIONSHIP RULES: Weissman Psychology Professor Christopher Stults' study of relationship rules among young gay and bisexual men in consensual non-monogamous relationships was published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior.
  • BLOOMBERG OP-ED: Education without controversy? What's the point? Weissman Journalism Professor Andrea Gabor wrote in an opinion piece on Bloomberg.com asserting that the liberal arts are more important now than ever.
  • ROMAN EGYPT: Rome ruled Egypt for several hundred years. Weissman History Professor Anna Lucille Boozer discussed life in Egypt under Roman rule on the Ithaca Bound podcast.
  • NEWSBOYS: Journalism Professor Vincent DiGirolamo discussed his book Crying the News: A History of America's Newsboys on the Axelbank Reports History and Today podcast.
Upcoming Events
JUNE 2, noon to 1 p.m. WEBINAR: Raising the Profile of Behavioral Sciences on Campus, moderated by Weissman Psychology Department Chair Jennifer Mangels. Experts, scientists, and policy professionals will discuss how to bring research to a broader audience and engage with federal policy makers. Part of a series on public scholarship sponsored by the Federation of Associations for Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS) in collaboration with the Scholars Strategy Network (SSN). Register here.
Student/Alumni News and Achievements
CORP COMM ALUM ON CRAIN'S NOTABLE LIST
Brandon Levesque, director of public relations and communications at the Newmark commercial real estate advisory firm, is on the Crain’s New York Business list of this year's notable professionals in marketing and public relations. Levesque earned his master's degree in corporate communications at Weissman in 2018. He's also an active member of Out Professionals, a nonprofit LGBTQ networking association.
WATCH: VOICES OF BARUCH VIDEO WITH RUDY SCALA
Rudy Scala has just completed a master's degree at Weissman in mental health counseling. He came to Baruch after 15 years in theater to pursue a new career and is now interning at Mount Sinai's addiction institute. Watch his one-minute "Voices of Baruch" testimonial about Baruch and the MHC program.
MED SCHOOL, PAST AND FUTURE
Nahid Bakhtari, a 2015 Weissman graduate, completed medical school at Stony Brook last year and is now doing emergency medicine at Northshore-Long Island Jewish Hospital. Bakhtari, a Baruch-Macaulay student, double-majored in bio and psychology and minored in chemistry and NYC Studies. She says she'd love to see more Baruch alumni in the field and invites students to message her via Facebook with any questions.
Newly minted graduate Lauranna Maresca, who was president of Weissman's Biomed Club and winner of the Emil Gernert Award in Natural Sciences, is taking a gap year before she applies to med school (including her "dream school," Columbia). In the meantime, she'll be working in a lab to gain more experience. She expressed deep gratitude to faculty in the Department of Natural Sciences, saying they were mentors and role models, not just teachers. "My instructors helped me to improve my skills, my knowledge and helped me to realize that it is normal to feel down sometimes, it is normal to fail because all of these steps are part of a big suitcase that will take me to my dream of becoming a doctor," she said. She added "special thanks" to Professors John Wahlert, Pablo Peixoto and RebeccaLaura Spokony.
AN ACCOUNTING STUDENT'S FOND MEMORIES OF WEISSMAN
Baruch's 2021 salutatorian, Chiandredi (CJ) Johnson, was an accounting major. But when asked about her favorite teacher and fondest memory, she talked about her experiences at Weissman.

Her favorite teacher, she says, was Black and Latinx Studies Professor Regina Bernard. "Professor Bernard really made me appreciate the different perspectives of people in my community and those who aren’t," Johnson said. And her fondest memory was going to the Metropolitcan Opera in her Arts in NYC class with Professor Karen Shelby. "I never thought I would be able to go inside the Met Opera," she said, "but Professor Shelby taught us to explore and see things beyond our comfort zones."