For the Record provides information about recent professional activities and honors of University of Delaware faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Recent new appointments, presentations, publications, honors and special events include the following:

New appointments

Dan Smith, associate professor of public policy and administration, has been named associate dean for the social sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), where he served as acting associate dean in 2019-20. The appointment was effective July 1. Smith succeeds David C. Wilson, who has been appointed a dean at the University of California Berkeley. CAS Dean John A. Pelesko also announced the following leadership changes, all effective Sept. 1: Huantian Cao, appointed chair of the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies; David Satran, reappointed director of the Associate in Arts Program for a second term; David Redlawsk, reappointed chair of the Department of Political Science and International Relations for a second term; and Patricia Sloane-White, reappointed chair of the Department of Women and Gender Studies for a second term.

Presentations

Shelby Daniels-Young, affiliate assistant librarian and Pauline A. Young Resident at the University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press, was a panelist for “Implementing Programmatic Anti-Racist (Re)Description at Predominantly White Institutions” at the 2021 annual conference for the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Daniels-Young spoke about the work of the Library, Museums and Press’ Wilson Collection Metadata Working Group, which is developing best practices for describing and providing access to a digitized collection that contains racist imagery of African Americans.

Amanda T. Zehnder, chief curator and head, Museums, at the University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press, has been invited by the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami to deliver an online presentation, “Artistic Ideals and Ideas Go to Court: Whistler v. Ruskin,” on July 22, 2021. It will be a thorough look at the famous spectacle of artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler suing art historian and critic John Ruskin for libel after a particularly harsh review of Whistler's work. The lawsuit and ensuing trial in 1878 remain one of the most unusual and intriguing examples of a clash about the meaning of art and the role of criticism playing out in a courtroom. The Lowe Art Museum's description of the event and information about how to register to view the online program can be found here. The presentation relates to the exhibition, Friends and Enemies: Whistler and His Artistic, Literary, and Social Circles, that was on view last semester and will be on view again in Old College Gallery at UD from Sept. 7-Dec. 10, 2021. Zehnder was one of the co-curators of the exhibition, along with Mark Samuels Lasner, senior research fellow for Special Collections, and Ashley Rye-Kopec, curator of education and outreach for Museums.

Publications

A paper titled "Risk Information and Markdowns-Induced Incentives to Participate in Hotel Room Resale Schemes”, coauthored by doctoral candidate Ling "Ally" Ling and Tim Webb and Zvi Schwartz, faculty at the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, was recently published in the Journal of Revenue & Pricing Management. According to the abstract, the paper is the first to address a major concern in pricing in the hospitality industry where third party agents resell hotel rooms at unqualified rates to deal-oriented customers. It empirically shows that to reduce these undesirable behaviors, hotels can scare these customers by sharing information about the risks involved and that the effectiveness of these scare tactics depends on the level of the discount associated with the rate.

A paper coauthored by three faculty members in the Alfred Lerner College’s hospitality business management department -- Zvi Schwartz, professor, and Tim Webb and Joy Ma, assistant professors --  was recently accepted in the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. The paper, titled "Hotel Analytics: The Case for Reverse Competitive Sets," explores the potential of two alternative competitive sets to those commonly used by hotel industry practitioners and scholars. According to the abstract, the study shows analytically and empirically that the two are likely to mitigate biases. Multiple practical implications are outlined and discussed.  

Sheryl Kline, deputy dean and Aramark Chaired Professor in UD's Lerner College, recently had a paper published in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research. Coauthored with Ruth K. O'Rourke from James Madison University and Frederic B. Mayo from New York University, the paper is titled "Teaching Etiquette to Students in Hospitality and Tourism Programs."  According to the abstract, it “advocates for teaching the principles and practices of good etiquette and manners so that hospitality and tourism graduates will succeed in an industry focused on customer service and teamwork. Based on an extensive literature review a list of essential etiquette skills is identified."

Honors

Bingqing Wei, professor of mechanical engineering, has been admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Membership as a fellow is reserved for individuals with more than five years in a senior position whose efforts have made an impact in any field of the chemical sciences. Tracing its origins to 1841, the Royal Society of Chemistry is an internationally renowned learned society with more than 54,000 members.

Special events

Mark Samuels Lasner, senior research fellow at the University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press, was the principal organizer of International Kelmscott Press Day, sponsored by the William Morris Society in the United States, on June 26. More than 35 libraries, museums and groups worldwide participated in the celebration, which marked the 125th anniversary of the publication of The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer by William Morris’ Kelmscott Press. UD participated with the creation of an online exhibition, A Book with a Claim to Beauty: Marking the 125th Anniversary of the Kelmscott Chaucer, curated by Samuels Lasner and Alexander Johnston, associate librarian and coordinator of books and printed materials at the Library, Museums and Press. In addition, during the Morris Society’s virtual presentation on June 27, Samuels Lasner spoke about “On Collecting the Kelmscott Press.”

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