by Hamilton Cochrane | May 10, 2024 | Staff
On April 27, Hawa Saleh ’24 presented a paper titled “Irreconcilable Rhetorics, Cultural Erasure, and Nuancing Violence: Yasser Arafat’s PLO versus the State of Israel in November 1974” at the regional conference of Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honors society, held at the University at Buffalo. Saleh’s essay was one of several to receive an Outstanding Paper Prize.
Saleh is graduating with three majors: history, English and creative writing. She is a member of the All-College Honors Program, vice president of the Honors Student Association, president of the Canisius chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America, vice master of Di Gamma, a Canisius Earning Excellence Program award winner and a writing center tutor.
Saleh’s essay was developed in two courses, Modern Middle East and the history senior seminar, taught by Dr. David Devereaux, the faculty advisor of the Canisius chapter of Phi Alpha Theta.
Submitted by: Mick Cochrane, Professor, Department of English
by Hamilton Cochrane | May 10, 2024 | Staff
Joseph M. Hassett, PhD, ’64, is the author of “Under The Metal Man: Sligo in Yeats” (Lilliput Press), a new study of the presence of the town of Sligo, Ireland, in the work of Irish poet William Butler Yeats and his family.
Roy Foster, Carroll Professor of Irish History at the University of Oxford and author of the definitive two-volume biography of Yeats, calls Hassett’s new book “a treasure.” Paula Meehan, a former Ireland Professor of Poetry, writes, “This book is a Cabinet of Curiosities. Open it and be transported to the creative heart of the Yeats family and to the soul of Sligo, the two commingled to powerful and bountiful effect.”
After graduating from Canisius, Hassett earned a law degree from Harvard University and became partner at the Washington, D.C., law firm Hogan & Harston (now Hogan Lovells). He also earned first a master’s degree, then a doctorate in Anglo-Irish literature at University College Dublin. In 2022 Hassett received Ireland’s Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad.
Among Hassett’s many gifts to Canisius was the creation of the Mel Schroeder Scholarship to honor his former teacher, a longtime and beloved member of the English Department. It funds Canisius students chosen to attend the Yeats International Summer School in Sligo, most recently Mason Bowes, ’24, and Maeve Devine, ’24.
Hassett also established the annual Hassett Family Reading, which brings Irish and Irish-American writers to campus to read from their work. Past Hassett readers include Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, Anne Enright, Alice McDermott, Emma Donoghue and Paul Muldoon. Earlier this year, he endowed the Hassett Family Creative Writing Scholarship, a four-year, full-tuition scholarship to attract and support student-writers of exceptional promise.
Hassett’s previous publications include “Yeats Now: Echoing into Life” (Lilliput, 2020), “The Ulysses Trials: Beauty and Truth Meet the Law” (Lilliput, 2016), and “W.B. Yeats and the Muses” (Oxford University, 2010).
Submitted by: Mick Cochrane, English
by rourken | May 10, 2024 | Staff
Josal Diebold ’09 graduated from Canisius with a dual major in religious studies and theology and psychology, as well as a minor in clinical psychology. At Canisius she was active in campus ministry and various social justice activities. She earned a master’s in social work from the University at Buffalo in 2018 and a doctorate of social work in 2023 with a thesis titled “Investigating Shared Interest: White Peoples’ Stake in the Fight for Racial Justice.” She is now teaching sociocultural and justice sciences at SUNY Fredonia.
The Department of Religious Studies and Theology is proud to recognize the work and great success of this Canisius graduate.
Submitted by Nancy Rourke, Interim Chair, Department of Religious Studies and Theology
by rourken | May 10, 2024 | Staff
Candace Lukasik ’11 graduated from Canisius with a bachelor’s in political science and international relations. She earned her master’s in Arab studies from the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University, and her doctorate in sociocultural anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Candace is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Religion at Mississippi State University. Her first book, “Martyrs and Migrants: Coptic Christians and the Persecution Politics of US Empire,” is to be published in 2025 by NYU Press.
The Department of Religious Studies and Theology is proud to recognize the important and exemplary work of this Canisius alumna.
Submitted by Nancy Rourke, Interim Chair, Department of Religious Studies and Theology
