UW-Milwaukee Authors Honored

Marija Gajdardziska-Josifovska, Dean of the UWM Graduate School, apologizes to a conference center filled with UWM faculty and staff. “Apologies that there is no dinner,” Gajdardziska-Josifovska says. “I guess this is the start of our budget cuts.” The room erupts in laughter at the timely joke.

The UWM faculty and staff members have gathered in the Golda Meyer Library Conference Center in order to attend the UWM Author’s Recognition Ceremony. UWM faculty and staff who have written, translated, edited, or illustrated a book are recognized during the ceremony and given a certificate.

The ceremony has been held every two years since its creation in 1992. There are currently 3,075 collected works from UWM faculty and staff. The 2013-2014 ceremony celebrates 98 UWM faculty and staff members, and is the 12^th ceremony to take place.

The faculty and staff mingle and get to know each other. They talk about the various things they are working on, the subjects that they teach, and make small talk about how they “didn’t even know the Golda Meir library had a fourth floor.” Two long tables display the author’s works. Refreshments and snacks are also available at the back of the room. Three UWM classical guitar students perform background music until the event begins.

When the time comes, Ewa Barczyk, Associate Provost and Director of Libraries, opens up the ceremony by welcoming everyone. “We can safely say that research and scholarly activity is thriving on campus,” Barczyk says. She refers to the two lengthy tables filled with books.

In attendance is UWM Chancellor Mark Mone, who helps open up the ceremony with some remarks on how important of a tradition the ceremony is and how important it is to recognize the books that UWM staff and faculty continue to put out.

Before the main part of the ceremony begins, a performance put together by the UWM Classical Guitar Director Rene Izquerdo begins. The three classically trained UWM guitar players perform a solo song each.

After the finale, Max Yela, Head of Special Collections, announces the authors’ names. They are called to the front of the room in order to get a certificate. A projector displays the professor’s name and a list of the books they’ve written that are being recognized.

Craig Berg, a Curriculum and Instruction professor, has a particularly long list of seven books, to which other professors react with exclamations and whistles.  Not every professor whose name is called is in attendance. Former UWM Chancellor Michael Lovell was one such name. “And look, there’s me!” Yela says as his name comes up at the end of the alphabetical list.

The ceremony closes with praise to all of the authors named, and everyone is left to mingle and check out each other’s works on display. One of the older professors refused to comment on his feelings about the ceremony. “I’m too old, I’ve been here for 30 years. Ask one of the younger professors,” he says. The other professors generally seem to appreciate the ceremony.

“I think it’s really nice to have a chance to look at what our colleagues have been working on, to find out sort of the range of topics that UWM professors research,” says Peter Paik, a French, Italian, and Comparative Literature professor. “The musical performance was also a really nice touch.”