Princeton Research Forum
CALENDAR AND ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR MIDSUMMER 2026
With so much news from our busy members, we are bringing out a summer Calendar. It includes not only planned meetings of two groups but several announcements from and about members, including a brief review of one member’s new book. The next issue of the Calendar will appear at the end of August – do think of news and notes that you would like to include in it.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, from 3 to 5 pm. The SHORT STORY GROUP will meet at the home of Ellen Gilbert in Princeton. They will be reading “French Doll” by Cynthia Ozick, which first appeared in The New Yorker on July 31, 2023. For more information, and a copy of the story, write info@princertonresearchforum.org.
MONDAY, AUGUST 17: The POETRY GROUP will meet at 7:00 pm on Zoom to continue reading “Werewolf Hill” by Kevin Young. If there is a quorum, we may meet in person at 3:00 pm instead. Stay tuned. Contact is Winifred Hughes, poetry@princetonresearchforum.org.
NEWS AND NOTES
On July 14, Kairy Koshoeva, PRF member and pianist, gave a concert entitled “3 B Recital — and Not Who You Think: Bortkewicz Burshtin Begaliev & Rachmaninoff.” It was held at the Steinway Piano Gallery of Princeton under the auspices of the Piano Pedagogy Summer Institute.
Shelley Frisch reports that her translation from the German of Thomas Meyer’s Hannah Arendt: A Life of the Mind will be published by Penguin Press on August 11. (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/609267/hannah-arendt-by-thomas-meyer-translated-by-shelley-frisch/)
Shelley has also just completed a translation of Martin Mittelmeier’s new book about Thomas Mann’s life in California (title yet to be decided). The book will be published by Princeton University Press in spring 2027.
And on June 10, there was a ceremony in New York to award this year’s Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize. The prize went to Max Lawton for his superb translation of Michael Lentz’s Schattenfroh. (https://www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/kul/kuf/hkw/w26.html) Shelley has chaired the jury for this prize for the past 12 years.
Karen Reeds has written to say that, as some PRF folks know, she is an ardent paper-folder, an origami creator, and teacher, and, in a small way, a historian of origami. Origami USA’s magazine, The Paper (Issue 150, Spring 2026), has now allowed her to bring those enthusiasms together with her scholarly interests in early modern material culture.
The issue includes an essay review (on pages 12-15) of Letterlocking: The Hidden History of the Letter, by Jana Dambrogio and Daniel Starza Smith, with the Unlocking History Research Group (MIT Press, 2025). And (on pages 18-19), it features a model Karen created called “Heart with Secret Pockets.”
A NEW MEMBER
We are also happy to welcome a new member, Olga Ast, who is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and independent scholar based in New York. Her work investigates the relationships between space, time, and information by combining diverse media to uncover connecting threads across fields such as art, poetry, philosophy, science, and technology. She has exhibited and lectured internationally, presenting her work at conferences and academies including at Rutgers and MIT, plus other universities in New York Washington, and several European cities.
Olga is also the author of several books, including Fleeing from Absence: Four Cross-Disciplinary Essays on Time, Its Nature and Its Interpretations and Infinite Instances: Studies & Images of Time. The latter is collection of papers and artworks by contributors to the ArcheTime project, which she has been curating since 2009.
A BOOK REVIEW
Longtime PRF member Maureen Mulvihill writes from her home in Florida about the new book written by past PRF president Ashwini Mokashi, presently teaching at Oxford. Maureen describes the book, titled Kabir: On Philosophical Counseling, Poetry, Insight, and Practice, as a “guide to a universal concern: the human heart.”
Maureen’s brief review of Ashwini’s book for PRF members follows. It “offers comfort and direction in the philosophical principles of the 15th-century Hindu mystic and poet, Kabir. The book includes introductory information on Kabir’s life and political background, with special emphasis on the ‘Kabir-Bhakti framework,’ which Ashwini uses in her philosophical counseling. The chapter that focuses on 12 poems by Kabir is the theoretical core of the book; these are helpfully printed in four versions: the original text, a Roman transliteration, and translations in both Hindi and English. [See Digital Bodleian for Kabir’s manuscript writings.]
“Ashwini’s case studies of clients’ transformation will hold the attention of the most jaded post-modernist. The special achievement of Ashwini’s useful guide for the heartsick – and their caregivers – is her accessible presentation of esoteric Medieval Hindi material for a 21st-century audience, with life lessons from her own deep experience as a professional philosophical counselor.”
Ashwini’s book has been published in India. Although it is not currently available through Amazon, it can be purchased at the reasonable price of $14.95 (plus shipping) through Ashwini’s website: https://ashwinimokashi,com/purchase/.