John Koegel, music historian and professor of music, will be discussing his research on how “non-English-language immigrant musical theater has served as a source of ethnic and national pride in the face of xenophobia” Nov. 12 at the Library of Congress.
Koegel and Romarilyn Ralston are among faculty and staff members who have recently or will soon be making presentations both regionally and nationally.
Koegel’s lecture, “Recovering the History of the U.S. Immigrant Musical Theater at the Library of Congress,” is part of the American Musicological Society lecture series at the Library of Congress, the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States and the research arm of Congress.
The author of the award-winning “Music in German Immigrant Theater: New York City, 1840-1940” has taught on campus since 2001 and holds a doctorate in historical musicology from Claremont Graduate University, as well as a master of philosophy in ethnomusicology from the University of Cambridge.
Last month, Romarilyn Ralston, program director of Project Rebound, took part in “Lifting As We Climb: Life for Women and Families After Incarceration” at Yale Law School. Ralston joined Susan Burton of A New Way of Life Reentry Project in addressing an audience that included a federal judge, the chief federal defender of the District of Connecticut, the Connecticut Department of Corrections director of parole and community supervision, and the general counsel for Connecticut’s Board of Pardons and Paroles, as well as campus and community members.
As the recipient of the National Coalition of Black Women’s Civil Rights Advocacy Award last year, Ralston discussed Project Rebound and its importance in providing educational access to formerly incarcerated individuals, the role of attorneys in clients’ lives and barriers to effective communication between advocates and people in prison. She holds a master’s degree in liberal arts from Washington University in St. Louis and was a 2014-15 CORO Public Affairs Fellow.