(NEW YORK, NY — APRIL 28, 2024) Empire State University will hold an event celebrating the latest books by Professor Sabrina Fuchs Abrams, Professor Tom Mackey, and SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Margaret (Peggy) Tally on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 from 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. at its 4 Park Avenue location in Manhattan. The event will be livestreamed for those who cannot attend in person.

The event is sponsored by SUNY Empire’s School of Graduate Studies and School of Arts and Humanities. 

To view the event via livestream: Join the Event Virtually.

Authors

Sabrina Fuchs Abrams, Professor of English in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) program in the School for Graduate Studies at SUNY Empire, will present on her latest book, “New York Women of Wit in the Twentieth Century” (Penn State U Press, 2023). This book looks at the foremothers of women’s humor, who use satire, irony, and wit as an indirect form of social protest in challenging traditional gender roles and social hierarchies. It situates these writers in the context of New York City in the interwar period, which enabled these pioneering women of wit to set the stage for future generations of smart, sassy, sultry feminist humorists of today.

Thomas P. Mackey, Professor in the Department of Arts and Media, School of Arts and Humanities will present on his latest book with European Director of International Programs and Associate Professor Sheila Aird, “Teaching Digital Storytelling: Inspiring Voices through Online Narratives” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024). This edited volume emerged from their international exchange to teach digital storytelling and includes chapters by educators from around the world and a foreword by futurist and digital storytelling pioneer Bryan Alexander. The book presents innovative case studies from educators in South Africa, Czech Republic and the United States about the theory and practice of teaching digital storytelling while applying literacy frameworks such as metaliteracy, information literacy, visual literacy and multiliteracies.

Margaret (Peggy) Tally, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at the School for Graduate Studies, will present on her book, “The Limits of #MeToo in Hollywood: Gender and Power in the Entertainment Industry” (McFarland & Company). In October 2017, actress Alyssa Milano sparked the #MeToo movement. The ensuing protests quickly encompassed far more than Harvey Weinstein and the entertainment industry. They expressed women's outrage at male workplace behavior in every sector and social class and even helped elect a new generation of women leaders in 2018. But what has been the effect of #MeToo in the entertainment industry itself? This book traces the movement's influence on the stories being told, changing representations of women's lives and bodies, and the slow changes among the producers who shape the stories.