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Stott wins award for biography
The Royal Society of Literature and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation have presented a £10,000 ($19,946) annual award for nonfiction to Andrew Stott, associate professor in the Department of English, College of Arts and Sciences.
Stott, a former stand-up comic, received the award to support his work-in-progress, a book on humor, depression and Joseph Grimaldi (1779-1837), the great Regency harlequinade and pantomimist.
Thomas Ponsonby, the administrative director of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, says the annual awards—one for £10,000 and two for £5,000 each—act as an umbrella over the early careers of the young writers of nonfiction who receive them, permitting them to carry out new research and devote more time to their endeavor, and thus produce a better book.
Stott, who joined the UB English faculty in 2002, teaches upper-level graduate courses and directs the department’s master’s degree program. His research and teaching focuses on early-modern visual culture, as well as the popular culture, comedy, drama, spectacle and popular entertainments of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
He has been fascinated by comedic performance since he was a child, and after receiving his doctorate from the University of Cardiff, he worked as a stand-up comic in England for four years before beginning an academic career that has focused in some part on the analysis of humor and comedic performance.
Stott’s previous publications include “Comedy” (London and New York: Routledge, 2005), “The Fondness, The Filthiness: Laughter and Deformity in Early-Modern Comedy,” The Upstart Crow: A Shakespeare Journal, XXIV (2004) and “Ghosts: Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, History” (ed. with Peter Buse, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1999), a collection of theoretical essays that considers the efficacy and use of the concepts of haunting and spectrality as they appear in literature, culture and theory.
Planned giving seminar set
The UB Office of Gift Planning will present a “UB Faculty and Staff Estate Planning Seminar” on May 5 in the Center for Tomorrow, North Campus.
Registration will begin at 5:30 p.m.
The program, which will begin at 6 p.m., will feature four sessions:
Required Minimum Distribution: What You Need to Know, Richard Thompson, TIAA-CREF.
Making Sense of Medicaid, Terrie Benson Murray, Cohen & Lombrado P.C.
How to Select an Executor or Trustee, Daniel Caro, Law Office of Daniel Caro.
Money In the Bank: How Can You Earn Income for Life and Support UB, Wendy M. Irving, UB Office of Gift Planning.
The seminar is free of charge, however space is limited. Those interested in attending should call (877) 825-3422 or email dev-pg@buffalo.edu to confirm which of the two programs they plan to attend.
Correction
Due to incorrect information supplied to the Reporter, the newspaper misidentified the company that is erecting the new transmission tower and antenna for WBFO-FM 88.7.
Sabre Communications is doing the work on the tower.
Open figure drawing sessions set
The Student Visual Arts Organization (SVAO) in the Department of Visual Studies, College of Arts and Sciences, is sponsoring open figure drawing sessions from 7-9:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, beginning May 21 and running through Aug. 13, in 218 Center for the Arts, North Campus.
There will be no session on July 2.
The sessions, which are open to the public, cost $5 per session. No registration is required. Easels are provided; artists must bring their own drawing materials.
Trauma training to be held
International trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk, known for his ability to appeal to audiences with or without technical background on the effects of trauma on the body and mind, will conduct a day-long training session on May 2 sponsored by the School of Social Work.
Van der Kolk, director of The Trauma Center in Boston, Mass., will speak on “Trauma, Attachment and the Body” in a program beginning at 8:45 a.m. in the Holiday Inn, 1881 Niagara Falls Blvd., Amherst. Presented by the School of Social Work’s Office of Continuing Education, van der Kolk’s lecture will present current research about post-traumatic responses and explore the influence this research has on treatment.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to learn from one of the best public speakers in the world on the subject how trauma affects the body and how it recovers,” says Nancy J. Smyth, dean of the School of Social Work, also an expert on the effects of psychological and emotional trauma. “And he does it in a very understandable way, for laypeople as well as professionals.”
Van der Kolk’s training session will address the psychological and emotional costs of trauma. Trauma research has led to insights in how extreme experiences throughout life can contribute to behavioral disorders, addictions, suicides, personality disorders and violent behavior.
“A high percentage of personal problems that present themselves in a wide range of service settings is influenced by traumatic experiences,” says Smyth. “Trauma survivors make up a large percentage of the clients in most service settings, yet few settings include services to meet their needs. This makes it hard to engage, retain and effectively treat these individuals and their families.”
The training session is part of the School of Social Work’s continuing education noncredit Trauma Counseling Certificate Program. “Professionals can improve their knowledge and skills so they can better understand and engage this population, and set up the most meaningful, effective treatment services,” says Lesa L. Fichte, director of continuing education for the School of Social Work.
The training session is intended for those enrolled in the certificate program as well as those not enrolled but who are interested in expanding their knowledge of trauma treatment and research—including social workers, substance abuse counselors, psychiatrists and psychologists, and others dealing with trauma survivors. Members of the general public also would find his lecture of interest, Smyth says.
Cost of the session is $105, which includes lunch. To register or for more information, contact Trisha Mahar, training coordinator, at 829-3939, ext. 154, or email at sw-ce@buffalo.edu, or click here.
The training seminar is co-sponsored by the Erie County Department of Mental Health and the Erie County Trauma Task Force.