Zhang Jie, professor of sociology and director of the Center for China Studies, published his article "The Mechanism of New Generation Employees’ Suicide Ideation," coauthored with Yuxin Liu, Jianwei Zhang, Xichao Zhang, Chengquan Wang, in the journal Advances in Psychological Science 21: 1150–1161.

Zhang Jie, professor of sociology and director of the Center for China Studies, published his article "Psychological Strains Found in the Suicides of 72 Celebrities," coauthored with Jiandan Tan and David Lester, in the Journal of Affective Disorders 149 (1–3): 230–234. Jiandan Tan was a visiting scholar to Buffalo State's Center for China Studies last year.

Jill Gradwell, associate professor and coordinator of the social studies education program, History and Social Studies Education Department, was recently invited to serve as the book and media review editor for the social studies flagship journal Theory and Research in Social Education.

Kimberly Hart's book, And Then We Work for God: Rural Sunni Islam in Western Turkey, was published by Stanford University Press in July. Exploring religious expression in two villages, the book considers rural spiritual practices and descries a living, evolving Sunni Islam, influenced and transformed by local and national sources of religious orthodoxy. The work is based on a decade of research and is useful for teaching on living, transforming spiritual practices.

Drew Kahn, professor of theater and director of the Anne Frank Project, delivered the keynote address "Telling Your Story to Improve the World: The Real Reason You Go to College" for the University at Buffalo's Freshman Honors Colloquium. The address was delivered August 25 at Statler City to 325 freshman honors students attending UB this fall.

Carolyn Guzski, assistant professor of music, was a guest on the radio program "The Jazz Collectors," broadcast over WPFW-FM 89.3 (Washington, D.C.), on August 12. She and host Robert Northern discussed the impact of the Harlem Renaissance on American composers of the 1920s.

Gerhard Falk, professor of sociology, has translated a book by Martin Luther written in Gothic German in 1543, 21 years before Shakespeare, called Vom Schem Hamphoras. This is the only translation of this work into English inasmuch as Luther left all quotations from Hebrew and Latin sources without rendering them into German. Luther's book will be published by McFarland Publishers as an appendix to a book on Christian theology in which Falk has reviewed the writings of the early church fathers all the way to the declaration "Nostra Aetate" by Vatican II.

Thomas J. Reigstad, professor emeritus of English, presented his paper “John Harrison Mills: Twain’s Illustrator at the Buffalo Express” at the Seventh International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies, held at Elmira College August 1–3. His presentation described the personal and professional relationship between Twain and Mills, the staff illustrator at the Buffalo Express who provided six wood-cut engraved drawings to accompany four of Twain’s Saturday feature stories in August and September of 1869.

Laura Roberts, a clinical supervisor and instructor in the Speech-Language Pathology Department, was awarded board recognition in the specialty of swallowing and swallowing disorders in May, following completion of more than 75 hours of continuing education in the area of swallowing, the successful completion of the board examination, and the accumulation of clinical experience diagnosing and treating individuals with swallowing disorders.

Brian Kantz, publications director in the College Relations Office, has been selected as the host judge for the "Annual or Institutional Reports" category of the 2014 CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) District II Accolades Award program. Kantz and the College Relations publications team won a bronze award in this category at the 2012 CASE District II Accolades Award program. District II, also known as Mid-Atlantic District II, is the largest CASE district, with more than 675 member institutions from Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and West Virginia.