Arts and Culture

The University at Buffalo is one of only seven universities nationwide to receive a small but significant "Imagining America" grant through a new initiative co-sponsored by the White House Millennium Council and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation to begin work on a collaborative educational documentary involving a multifaceted "virtual-reality" version of Buffalo's 1901 Pan American Exposition.

One aspect of the rich and complex history of human knowledge -- its recording, transmission and preservation -- has been altered irrevocably by the advancement of information technology. But the replacement of a libraries' millions of bound volumes by electronic versions is no more than a twinkle in the eye of someone who is not a librarian, University at Buffalo librarians say.

By studying post-World War II Hollywood movies, University at Buffalo historian David Gerber has made some important discoveries in his career-long exploration of the impact of drastic change on the lives of individuals in American social history.

Allegedly tried as a witch by his own people, admired and feared by European monarchs, accused of betraying the nation he represented, the formidable Iroquois diplomat Red Jacket remains one of the most compelling figures of his era. "Red Jacket: Iroquois Diplomat and Orator," a new book by University at Buffalo Archivist Christopher Densmore, is the first modern biography of the legendary Seneca Indian.

A noted literary critic as well as a celebrated poet, University at Buffalo English professor Susan Howe is one of nine literary figures from here and abroad recently elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Born deaf and raised in a hearing family, Lee Dray spent the first 16 years of her life unexposed to the culture and language that now define her identity and career. As the instructor for the University at Buffalo's new courses in American Sign Language, she hopes to help narrow the gap between cultures of the deaf and the hearing, as well as expose hearing people to the deaf culture of America.

Harvey Breverman, professor of art at the University at Buffalo since 1961 and a widely exhibited and internationally acclaimed artist, has been named a Distinguished Professor, the highest faculty rank in the State University of New York system.