Alejandro de Acosta, assistant professor of business, presented a paper at the Philosophy, Interpretation, and Culture Conference in Binghamton, N.Y., on April 23. The paper was titled "The Bicycle and the Principle of Individuation" and is about ideas of community and group belonging.

Phil Hopkins, assistant professor of philosophy, was a respondent to a paper in plenary session at the Ancient Philosophy Society conference at the University of Oregon, on April 15. The paper was titled "The Role of Images in the Seventh Letter." I also was invited to be on the program committee for next year's conference.

Amy Wink, assistant professor of English, will have an essay, "In the Middle of Difficulty Lies Opportunity," published in the "Journal of the Assembly for Extended Perspectives on Learning" (NCTE).

April 23, 2005

Bob Bednar, assistant professor of communication studies, presented a paper titled "Portals, Passages, and In-Between Spaces: Roadside Shrines in Contemporary Material and Visual Culture" at the Pacific Northwest American Studies Association Conference in Portland, Ore., on April 14, 2005. He also served as panel chair and respondent on a panel titled "Challenging Traditional Categories in American Studies" at the same conference.

Eileen Cleere, associate professor of English, delivered a paper in early April at the International Society for Narrative Study in Louisville, Ky. Her paper was entitled "Homeland Security: Domestic Economy, Political Economy, and Hannah More's 'Coelebs in Search of a Wife.'" She also was interviewed by Meghna Haldar, an independent filmmaker from Canada, about her new research on Victorian pollution anxieties. The interview will be part of a documentary about the cultural meanings of filth.

Thomas Howe, professor of art, is currently collaborating on a major exhibition of ancient Greek machines being curated by Eugenio Lo Sardo of the Archaeological Superintendency in Rome, to be staged this summer at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. The Naples museum is one of the oldest and largest museums in Europe and Howe's illustrations for books IX and X of the Roman architect Vitruvius (Cambridge University Press, 1999) are to be used for the didactic illustrations of the exhibit. Howe's illustrations are the most complete illustration of the two "mechanical" books of Vitruvius done in the last 500 years. Howe's Vitruvius illustrations also will be used in toto for a new Portuguese translation of Vitruvius being published by University of Lisbon. Howe has recently been invited to contribute five articles to a new "Biographical Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists" for Routledge Press. The articles are on five ancient architects, including Vitruvius, who represented the promotion of liberal knowledge and science as the basis of architecture.

Also, Howe was recently invited to speak on May 26th in Ferrara, Italy, on the Stabiae project to a national gathering of city administrators from across Italy.

Bob Snyder, professor of political science, has been awarded "Outstanding Faculty Member" by the Brothers of Pi Kappa Alpha.

April 15, 2005

Laura Senio Blair presented two conference papers this semester entitled "New Ways of Thinking About Home: Alberto Fuguet's Representation of the Return" at the National Association of Hispanic and Latino Studies (NAHLS) in Houston, in February, and "Bridging the Divide: Connecting Communities through Humor in Returnee Literature" at the Southwest Council of Latin American Studies (SCOLAS) in Veracruz, Mexico, in March.

Cameron Sawyer, assistant professor of mathematics, and senior Whitney McCall co-presented a 90-minute session entitled "Developing Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Pre-service Secondary Teachers" at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics meeting in Anaheim, Calif.

April 7, 2005

Eric Selbin, professor of political science, presented a talk entitled "Stories of Revolution in the Periphery" at King's College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge, he participated in a small conference to put together a book tentatively titled "Revolution, Class, and Modernity," where he presented a paper "Agency, Culture, and Class in 'Third World' Revolutions." He has been invited to return to Cambridge as a Visiting Fellow. Selbin also has been interviewed by several reporters and newspapers: 1) by a reporter for "The Boston Globe" who is working on a story about the revolutionary Che Guevara, with a particular emphasis on his contemporary relevance; and 2) by the Swedish magazine "Latinamerika" about the status of various peace processes in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Edward L. Kain, Professor of Sociology and University Scholar is leading a workshop entitled "The Academic Job Market in Sociology" for graduate students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Tuesday, 19 April. This is based, in part, upon data from an article of his that is currently under review at "Teaching Sociology." While at Chapel Hill, he is teaching a session of the graduate seminar on the teaching of sociology. His is talking about the new national guidelines for the undergraduate major, as well as "Questions to Ask When Preparing and Evaluating Your Test Questions."