James E. Young, distinguished professor emeritus of English and Near Eastern studies and founding director of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Young was one of the nearly 250 members elected for 2025. An induction ceremony will take place Oct. 11 in Cambridge.
Young, whose teaching and research areas include narrative theory, cultural memory studies, Holocaust studies and visual culture, has taught at UMass Amherst since 1988. He also taught at New York University from 1984-88 as a Dorot Professor of English and Hebrew/Judaic Studies, at Bryn Mawr College, and as a visiting professor at the University of Washington, Harvard University and Princeton University.
In 1997, Young was appointed by the Berlin Senate to the five-member Findungskommission for Germany’s national Memorial to Europe’s Murdered Jews, which was finished and dedicated in May 2005. He has also consulted with Argentina’s government on its memorial to the desaparacidos, as well as with numerous city agencies on their memorials and museums. Most recently, he was appointed by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. to the jury for the “National 9/11 Memorial” design competition, won by Michael Arad and Peter Walker in 2004 and opened on Sept. 11, 2011.
***************************************************************************
Florence Bank announces that Amanda Constantilos has been promoted to manager of the bank’s King Street branch in Northampton.
Constantilos joined the bank’s team in 2016 as a senior teller, and since, she has served as a teller operations manager in the Granby branch and as a customer service representative and assistant branch manager in Hadley.
She has 19 years of experience in the banking industry.
************************************************************************
Dietz & Company Architects Inc. announces that firm Principal Lee H. Morrissette has earned the credential of Certified Passive House Consultant through Phius, a nonprofit organization dedicated to decarbonization and passive building. The Phius passive building certification standard is an energy standard that produces buildings that use 40-60 percent less energy than conventional structures.
He joined Dietz & Company Architects in 2019 and has over 20 years of experience designing new construction and renovations for affordable housing, community and senior centers, educational, and commercial facilities. He has focused on bringing sustainability and energy efficiency to his projects.
