Brandeis Magazine

Ulrike Dettling, MA’90, would welcome hearing from fellow alumni of the graduate school’s sociology program. John Benitz, MFA’91, is chair of the theater department at Chapman University, in Orange, California. A play he helped create and directed, “If All the Sky Were Paper,” has been performed across the U.S. by Annette Bening, Mary Steenburgen, Laura Dern and the rapper Common, among others. John and wife Maria have three children, Duncan, Finn and Zoe. He says he has very fond memories of Ted Kazanoff and other Brandeis faculty members. Johnathan Brownlee, MFA’93, produced a film, “The Standoff at Sparrow Creek,” which premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. He is currently casting for his next film, “The Eyes of Jefferson,” which he will direct this year. Scott Brickman, PhD’96, P’16, returned from a European tour, where his newest compositions, “Dies Irae” and “Von Himmel Hoch,” debuted in Ukraine and Brussels, respectively. Everett Lilly, Heller PhD’97, who recently retired after a career in management and college teaching, is writing a book about his musical family, which is set against the backdrop of the southern coalfields of West Virginia, an area that has suffered long-term economic exploitation, poverty, drug abuse and related problems. Hamid Gayibov, IBS MA’98, works at iownit, a next-generation capital-markets platform for private securities investing. In August, Elizabeth Wood, PhD’99, celebrated the publication of “Bound: A Daughter, a Domme and an End-of-Life Story,” a memoir about caregiving that explores themes of sexuality, aging and the challenges of navigating a dysfunctional health-care system through the lens of an unconventional mother-daughter relationship. Elizabeth is chair of the sociology, anthropology and social work department at Nassau Community College, in Garden City, New York.