Helene Meyers, professor of English, published an essay titled "The Lesbian and the Mishpachah: Newman's 'In Every Laugh a Tear'" in the latest volume of "Studies in American Jewish Literature." This essay is a small part of the chapter devoted to queer Jews in Meyers' work in progress, tentatively titled "Identity Papers: Contemporary Narratives of Jewishness."

January 22, 2004

Romi L. Burks, assistant professor of biology, recently published a manuscript in "Freshwater Biology" from her undergraduate research with mentor, Nancy Tuchman of Loyola University in Chicago. Together they examined how invasive zebra mussels in Lake Michigan functioned as a colony and the implications of using individual versus colony filtration rates for estimating whole lake impact. After having such a great undergraduate research experience, Burks now hopes to involve her own students in future publications.

Ken Roberts, professor of economics and business, was a participant in a workshop on "Chinese Population at the Beginning of the 21st Century," held in December at The Australian National University in Canberra. He presented a paper on "The Changing Profile of Chinese Labor Migration," which compared changes in the patterns of labor migration from Mexico to the United States from 1970 to 1990 to emerging patterns of migration from rural areas of China to the cities. He also served as a discussant in another session on migration and urbanization during the three-day workshop.

Assistant Professor of Mathematics Cami Sawyer, along with Associate Professor of Education Michael Kamen and Professor of Mathematics John Chapman, were awarded a competitive national grant to create a capstone course targeting future secondary mathematics educators. The grant is part of the Preparing Mathematicians to Educate Teachers Program administered by the Mathematical Association of America and supported by a 3 million dollar National Science Foundation Grant.

The Department of Mathematics and Computer Science had a strong showing at the recent national mathematics meetings in Phoenix, Ariz. Professors John Chapman and Kendall Richards, Associate Professor Therese Shelton, Assistant Professor Cami Sawyer, and Part-Time Assistant Professor Anand Pardhanani attended the meetings. Pardhanani and Sawyer presented a joint paper titled "Teaching a Liberal Arts Math Course Using a Communications-Centered Strategy." Sawyer also presented a joint paper titled "Incorporating On-line Testing and Tutorials in the Calculus Curriculum: Helping Students Become More Self-Directed Learners" with Nathan Smith and Lesa Beverly of the University of Texas at Tyler.

Preservice teachers Aaron Bowser and Manjah Fernandez, supervised by Assistant Professors of Education La Vonne I. Neal and Alicia Moore, were invited keynote speakers on Dec. 5, at the Urban Research Conference in Houston. Other conference keynote speakers during the four-day conference were: Linda and Cheryl Brown of the Brown v. Board Supreme Court Case; Carlotta Walls LaNier of the Little Rock Nine; and Geneva Gay, renown social justice researcher. Bowser and Fernandez presented their research titled "Braids, Fades, & Razorblades: The Educational Function of the African American Barbershop." Their research was funded by the King Creativity Fund.

January 15, 2004

Romi L. Burks, assistant professor of biology, will be an invited participant in an Ecoinformatics workshop within the SEEK (Science Environment for Ecological Knowledge) program sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The workshop, which is held at the University of New Mexico's Sevilleta Field Station, will allow Burks to gain hands-on experience with emerging information technologies designed to facilitate ecological research.

Elaine Craddock, associate professor of religion, gave two papers at the meeting of the American Academy of Religion in November: "Why Do Others Gossip Behind Our Backs? Defining a Shaiva Identity in South India," and "Cremation Ground as Sacred Grove: The Life and Poetry of Karaikkal Ammaiyar."

Thomas Howe, professor of art, made a presentation in November on archaeological site preservation and presentation to to an invitational colloquium in Pompei, sponsored by the Superintendence of Archaeology, the World Monuments Fund and the Kress Foundation. The presentation, to an audience mainly of project or institute directors, described the development of the Stabiae Master Plan and presented some of the innovative aspects of the plan, including the concept of the integration of the site with the urban life and fabric of the surrounding town, the inclusion of estimates of long term maintenance costs relative to various proposed interventions and an approach to roofing which will allow the ancient ruins to dominate the spatial experience of a fully roofed site by creating very lightweight and visually ephemeral covering structures. Howe also dealt with other business relating to the archaeological park including the preparation of the first detailed project definitions for the first excavation projects and the first new construction (a visitors' center). Construction and excavation will very likely start within several months to a year.

Helene Meyers, professor of English, presented a paper entitled "Unwounding Women: (Re)Embodying the Gothic in Dirty Weekend" at the annual meeting of the Modern Language Association. Her paper was part of a panel arranged by the Division on Twentieth-Century English Literature on the Female British Gothic.

Michael Saenger, assistant professor of English, presented a paper on authorship in Shakespeare's England at the Modern Language Association in San Diego and received a highly favorable assessment from the respondent, Jonathan Hope of the University of Strathclyde (UK). In addition, Saenger was commisioned by Comitatus to review a book on the editing of Medieval manuscripts and was also nominated for inclusion in Marquis's Who's Who in America, 58th edition.

Todd Watson, ITS senior system & network administrator, co-authored a paper which was recently published in the "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society." The paper titled, "A Whole Earth Telescope Campaign on the Pulsating Subdwarf B Binary System PG 1336-018 (NY Vir)," was a result of research conducted by Watson and other Whole Earth Telescope members in April 1999. During that time, Watson's research observations where made using the 2.1 meter telescope at the McDonald Observatory in West Texas.

Shannon Winnubst, associate professor of philosophy, gave two papers at the recent meetings of the American Philosophical Association: "Bataille's Queer Pleasures: Exceeding the Law of Desire" and "Imagining a Politics of Enjoyment," a response to Andrew Cutrofello on Habermas, Zizek and the Frankfurt School.

Two psychology research groups were awarded Psi Chi Undergraduate Research Grants in national competition. Nicole Blanchett, Sarah Barnett, Erin Puckett, and Professor Jacqueline Muir-Broaddus were awarded $1170 to study "Predictors of Decision-making among College Seniors," and Aubrey Buckert, Kathryn Hodges, Annie Peters, and Professor Jesse Purdy were awarded $1440 to study "The Role of Congruence between the CS and US and the Role of the US in Determining the nature of the CR in Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis)."