Barbara Boucher Owens, associate professor of mathematics and computer science, presented a paper titled "Ethics and the Internet: A Novel Approach to Computer Literacy" and organized and chaired a panel titled "Challenges of Teaching in a Small Computing Department" at the South Central Conference of the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., in mid-April. She was re-elected to serve on the steering committee of the South Central Conference and named treasurer for next year's conference. She is in Washington, D.C., where she will serve on a panel evaluating proposals for the NSF Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics Scholarships program.

Michael Kamen, association professor of education, had a column published in the Winter 2003 issue of "CESI Science The Journal of the Council for Elementary Science International." The column is "In Search of Science, Thoughts From an Emerging Elementary Science Teacher, Chapter 1: Learning to Teach Science." It is written from the perspective of a fictitious student Ian Quiry in an undergraduate science methods course. Kamen also has been elected to the office of president-elect of the Southwest Association for the Education of Teachers of Science and will be hosting the 2004 regional conference. In May, he will take two SU students to New York to visit innovative inner-city schools. Kamen also presented at the Association for the Education of Teachers of Science 2003 Annual Conference in St. Louis, Mo. The session title was "Helping Teachers use Emergent K-W-L Charts" and was based on research he recently conducted on the use of K-W-L charts.

Amy Wendling, instructor of religion and philosophy, has been awarded an International Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council for the upcoming academic year.

Southwestern University was represented by 27 students and five faculty at the 49th annual meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association in New Orleans in mid-April. A number of students and faculty made research presentations: Jesse Purdy, "Social interactions in Weddell seals, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica;" Michelle Thibodeau, Beth Goetz, Bryan Neighbors, Amanda Seale, Sara Skladal and Desiree Whitley, "Are sorority members at greater risk for developing eating disorders?;" Jill Hogue, Matthew Hall and Traci Giuliano, "Girls just wanna have...FARM (Female Athletic Role Models);" Beth Goetz, Michelle Thibodeau, Bryan Neighbors, Desiree Whitley, Sara Skladal and Amanda Seale, "Eating disorder symptoms: Comparing women from small and large colleges;" Alexa Hampel, Miriam Matthews and Jacqueline Muir-Broaddus, "Planning for the future: Decision-making among college seniors;" Stephanie Braccini and Steven Schapiro, "The use of a bimanual task to assess tool use, handedness, and grip preferences among chimpanzees;" Maggie Remkus and Steven Schapiro, "The effects of the presence of an infant on the behavior of socially-housed adolescent female chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes);" Maria Kasper and Steven Schapiro, "The number of adult males in a group affects the activity patterns of socially housed male chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes);" Wade Kothmann, Jesse Purdy and Steven Schapiro, "Can chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) learn an eyes open/eyes closed stimulus discrimination task?;" and Rebecca Stelter, Aeron Aanstoos, Stephanie Orin and Jacqueline Muir-Broaddus, "Influence of attractiveness stereotypes and cognitive abilities on children's suggestibility." Special congratulations to Jill Hogue and Michelle Thibodeau who won Psi Chi Regional Research Awards of $300 for their excellent submissions.

April 18, 2003

Mary Young, professor of economics, was the keynote speaker at a conference held at the University of Northern Colorado on Apr. 4. The title of her lecture was "Health and Health Care in the U.S.: Challenges and Choices."

Todd Watson, senior system and network administrator in ITS, co-authored a paper which was recently published in the "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society." The paper, "Amplitude and frequency variability of the pulsating DB white dwarf stars KUV 05134+2605 and PG 1654+160 observed with the Whole Earth Telescope," was a result of collaborative research conducted during November 2000, at Iowa State University, and April 2001, at McDonald Observatory.

April 11, 2003

The Department of Mathematics and Computer Science had a strong showing at 2003 Texas Section Meeting of the Mathematical Association of America, Apr. 3-5. Associate Professor Gary Richter presented "Presenting e Again for the First Time." Graduating senior Brittany Kornmann presented "All These Numbers are Driving Me Crazy," based on last summer's research at SU in error correcting codes under Assistant Professor Cameron Sawyer and Associate Professor Therese Shelton, both of whom attended the conference. Graduating senior Casey Douglas presented "Another Delightful Hypergeometric Function Discussion." This year, each session of student presentations was evaluated by faculty judges, and Casey was recognized as the outstanding presenter from his session. Douglas' talk was the result of research with Professor Kendall Richards, who also attended. Graduating senior Pamela Hightower and first-year students Enrique Trevino and Elaine Cheng also attended.

Phil Hopkins, assistant professor of religion and philosophy, was the invited respondent to a session on "Heraclitus, Flux, and Knowledge" at the 26th Annual Ancient Philosophy Workshop, held this year at Texas A&M University, Mar. 27-29.

Melissa Johnson, assistant professor of anthropology, presented "The Making of Race and Place in British Honduras, 1750-1850" at the Second Annual Conference on Race and Place at the University of Alabama: Race and Place in the Americas, Mar. 7-9.

Thom McClendon, associate professor of history, chaired a panel on "Class Identities in Urban South Africa" at the conference on "African Urban Spaces: History and Culture," held at UT-Austin Mar. 28-30.

La Vonne I. Neal and Alicia L. Moore, assistant professors of education will present their research at the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Conference in Seattle, Wash., Apr. 10-12. Their paper is titled "Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: Embracing the African American Community Through Reading and Language Arts."

Victoria Star Varner, professor of art, has been awarded a fellowship for a residency at the Vermont Studio Center where she will work with artist William Bailey. She also was selected by a former student, Chrystal Hall, for an exhibition titled "Artists and Their Mentors" at Gallery 414 in Fort Worth. Hall curated the exhibition. Recently, Varner's work in the "Texas Prints 2001" exhibition traveled to several exhibition sites, including Santa Reparata, Italy.

Patrick Veerkamp, professor of art, has been invited to present a lecture/demonstration titled "The Prunus Vase: Form and Content in Korean Pottery of the Koryo Period" at Baylor University, Department of Education. The event is sponsored by the University Lecture Series, and the presentation will be at 9 a.m. Friday, Apr. 11, in the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Building ceramics studio.

Amy E. Wendling, instructor of religion and philosophy, has been awarded a Fulbright grant to study at the International Institute of Social History in the Netherlands next year. She will work on the archival manuscripts of Karl Marx from the 1850s that deal with the connections between technological and political changes. Her latest offering to the slaughterbench of Marx scholarship, "Are All Revolutions Bourgeois?: Revolutionary Temporality in Karl Marx's Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" will be printed in May's edition of "Strategies "(XVI:1, 2003), a British political science journal.

April 4, 2003

Elizabeth Green Musselman, assistant professor of history, has given two invited talks recently: The first was in the Department of English at UT-Arlington titled "Masculinities of Science and Empire: A Historiographic Introduction," and the second as the featured speaker at the annual meeting of the Lone Star History of Science Group on "Natural Knowledge in the Cape Colony: Re-Writing Imperial Science."

Laura Hobgood-Oster, assistant professor of religion and philosophy, led a presentation on collaborative teaching and research in environmental justice and presided over a session on teaching environmental studies in the humanities for the "ACS Green Teaching Conference" at Furman University on Mar. 29-30.

Christine E. Kiesinger, assistant professor of communication studies, recently published "Hands: A Tribute" in the "American Communication Journal." A photograph by SU junior Scott Rocher was included as part of this publication. The photo was shot at SU.

Maria Lowe, associate professor of sociology, was selected to participate in the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute for College and University Teachers Program titled "African American Struggles for Freedom and Civil Rights, 1866 to 1965" which will take place at Harvard University from July 7 to Aug. 1, 2003.

Thom McClendon, assistant professor of history, is the author of a chapter in a newly published collection on "The Culture of Power in Southern Africa: Essays on State Formation and the Political Imagination," edited by Clifton Crais (Heinemann, 2003). McClendon's chapter is titled "Coercion and Conversation: African Voices in the Making of Customary Law in Natal."

Tim O'Neill, professor of political science, has had five articles, including the lead article on the Establishment Clause, accepted in John Vile and David Schultz, editors, "The Encyclopedia of Civil Liberties " (M.E. Sharpe; forthcoming).

Associate Professor of Political Science Eric Selbin, Helen Cordes, Jesse Cordes Selbin, and Zoe Cordes Selbin published a chapter titled "Is This the Educational System You Wanted? Feminism and Homeschooling," in Mary Ann Tetreault and Robin Teske, eds. "Partial Truths and the Politics of Community: Feminist Approaches to Social Movements, Community, and Power, Vol. II" (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press).

Kiyoshi Tamagawa, associate professor of music, has 12 recitals scheduled this spring with violinist Eugene Fodor, top prize winner at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition, under the auspices of Community Concerts, Inc. This 70 year-old management program has sent hundreds of artists, including soprano Leontyne Price and pianist Van Cliburn, across the nation to perform in cities and towns outside the major metropolitan cultural centers. From February through April, they will perform concerts in Arizona, California, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. Tamagawa also gave a lecture-recital on the editorial and publication history of the violin and keyboard sonatas of George Frederick Handel at the American String Teachers' Association/National School Orchestra Association conference, held Mar. 26-29 at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.