Rick Roemer, professor and chair of the Department of Theatre, had a busy spring break. He flew to California where he did voice-over work for an animated short film, and performed two sold out concerts at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center on Mar. 14-15. He begins rehearsals on Mar. 22 for Shakespeare's "Henry V" for the Austin Shakespeare Festival. "Henry V" opens on Apr. 26 at the Austin Playhouse.

Several chemistry students will attend the National ACS meeting in New Orleans next week to present posters on the research they have done as partial fulfillment of their Capstone requirements. Senior Ana Alcaraz will present a poster titled "Approaches to the Synthesis of Designer Estrogens Using Two-fold Extrusion Reactions." Senior Kimberly Larson will present a poster titled "The Design and Synthesis of New Anthrapyrazole Derivatives as Potential Anti-Cancer Agents." Both of these students did their projects in the laboratory with Frank Guziec, professor of chemistry. Senior Krystyn Alter's poster is titled "Investigation of the Microenvironment & Microviscosity Surrounding a Model Solute Randomly Dispersed in Poly(dimethylsiloxane)." This work was done in the laboratory with Emily Niemeyer, assistant professor of chemistry. Senior Don Lydon's poster is titled "A Cyclic Voltammetric Investigation of p-Aminophenol and p-Aminocresol in a Pyrazole-Imidazole Eutectic" and senior Neil Larson's poster is titled "Calculating the Atomic Mass and Error in Atomic Mass of Bromine Using GC/MS." These projects were done in the laboratory with Fred Hilgeman, professor of chemistry, who will accompany these students to the meeting.

Sophomores Jason Hayes and Manjah Fernandez and first-year Aaron Bowser will present the results of their research at the Texas National Association for Multicultural Education Conference in Dallas on Mar. 29. All three students are education majors. Their research was funded by the King Creativity Fund and supervised by La Vonne I. Neal, assistant professor of education. The presentation is titled "Braids, Fades, & Razorblades: The Educational Function of the African American Barbershop."

Seven students in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology will present papers on their research at the meetings of the Southern Sociological Society in New Orleans, Mar. 26-29. One of the papers, "Marinating in the Mainstream: Hip Hop, Country Music, and the Construction of Race in the U.S." by Angela R. Stroud, is based on research being done for an honors thesis in the department. Stroud is doing her thesis under the direction of Maria Lowe, associate professor of sociology and anthropology. A second paper is the result of research done in a National Science Foundation sponsored summer research program at the University of Texas at Austin. This paper is co-authored by senior Jonathan L. Broyles, who participated in the program last summer. The paper (with all co-authors) is titled "Region, Race, and Religion: Exploring the Distinctiveness of White Southern Evangelicals" by Broyles, Amy M. Burdette, Christopher G. Ellison and Rhys H. Williams. Five of the papers were first developed by students in Professor of Sociology Edward Kain's sociology research methods course. These papers are: "The Relationship Between Income and One's Perceived Health" by senior Emilia Garcia; "Representations of Race: A Look at Mainstream Music Channels" by junior Sara E. Trautner; "Changing Opinions of Women in the Work Force" by sophomore Dene A. Granger; "Religiosity as a Predictor of Attitudes Toward Homosexuality" by sophomore Ariel C. Reynolds; and "Cracking the Cocaine Culture" by junior Katherine M. Kroll.

At the same sociological society meetings in New Orleans, Edward L. Kain, professor of sociology and University Scholar, will serve as chair and discussant in three sessions: "The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Sociology: Research by and Conversation with Two Carnegie National Scholars," "Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Active and Service Learning," and an undergraduate paper session on "Hispanics in the New South: Changing Demography and Attitudes." Kain also is completing his year-long service as a member of the program committee for the 2003 annual meetings.

March 14, 2003

Elizabeth Green Musselman, assistant professor of history, was invited to give a talk during a research trip to the U.K. in January and February to the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University. Her talk was titled "Wandering and Settling: A Paradox of Imperial Natural History?"

Kathleen Helal, assistant professor of English, presented a paper, "Satire, Gender and the Limits of Literary Theory," at the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Conference in Albuquerque, N.M. in February. The paper is part of her larger book project on women's satire and will be published this summer in the Proceedings Collection of the 2003 PCA/ACA SW/Texas Regional Conference.

Edward L. Kain, professor of sociology, is leading a two-day workshop on curriculum review and assessment at Northern Illinois University on Mar. 21-22.

Basketball Coach Bill Raleigh was voted 2002-2003 SCAC Basketball Coach-of-the-Year.

Ken Roberts, professor of economics, had an article accepted for publication in "On the Move: Women and Rural to Urban Migration in Contemporary China," forthcoming by Columbia University Press. The article, which relates the migration experiences of young women from two provinces of rural China, is co-authored with colleagues in China and the U.S. who are partners in a research project on women's migration in China, funded by the Ford Foundation.

Hsueh-Yung Shen, associate professor of music, recently returned from New York where he heard the American Composers Orchestra under Steven Sloane do his commissioned piece, "Autumn Fall," at Carnegie Hall on Mar. 2. "The New York Times" duly listed the program in the Sunday, Feb. 23 edition. Also, the ACO is featuring two of his works in their chamber series "Coming to America" at Newcomers High School in Queens on Mar. 3. This is his second Carnegie Hall appearance this season. In October, the Metropolitan Orchestra under director James Levine did his percussion concerto work "Legend" with its principal percussionist Greg Zuber.