After three years of beating her head against the wall of declining university press runs, Elizabeth Green Musselman, assistant professor of history, has received her first book contract. State University of New York Press will publish the manuscript, which is based on her doctoral dissertation and entitled "Nervous Conditions: Science and the Body Politic in the Industrial Age."

The research lab of Traci Giuliano, associate professor of psychology, presented four papers at the national meeting of the American Psychological Society this summer in Atlanta, Ga: (1) Giuliano, Jennifer Knight '00, and seniors Kelly Turner and James Lundquist presented "Like Mike or Mia? The Selection and Influence of Elite Athletic Role Models;" (2) James Lundquist Giuliano, and senior Krista Wilke presented "The emergence of professional female athletes as role models;" (3) Jennifer Knight and Giuliano presented "The impact of heterosexist portrayals on perceptions of male and female athletes;" and (4) Kelly Turner, Giuliano, James Lundquist, and Jennifer Knight presented "Twice as nice: The double burden of contemporary female athletes."

September 11, 2003

Two members of SU's history department, Assistant Professor Elizabeth Green Musselman and Associate Professor Thom McClendon, presented papers last weekend at the Northeastern Workshop on Southern Africa (NEWSA) in Burlington, Vt. The biennial NEWSA workshop convenes a small grouping of scholars from multiple disciplines and four continents who work on southern African issues. The invited participants engage in intensive discussion of pre-circulated papers, many of which are works in progress. Green Musselman presented a paper titled "Worlds Displaced: Reading the Heavens from the Cape Colony," a paper growing out of her recent NEH-funded research in South Africa. McClendon's paper was titled "Witchcraft and Statecraft in Early Colonial Natal" and is part of his ongoing project on the elaboration of colonial rule in South Africa. Southwestern was the only U.S. college or university to have two scholars present at the workshop.

Kathleen Helal, assistant professor of English, received confirmation that her article, "Celebrity, Femininity, Lingerie: Dorothy Parker's Autobiographical Monologues," has been accepted for publication in the special upcoming edition of "Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal" titled "Women and the American Short Story." Helal's article analyzes the only two explicitly autobiographical short stories Dorothy Parker wrote, "But the One on the Right" and "The Garter," in terms of recent theory on celebrity culture. The article argues that Parker cunningly manipulates her autobiographical monologues both to exploit the literary market and to critique the limiting effects of celebrity culture on women writers.

La Vonne I. Neal, assistant professor of education, is the recipient of the "Linking Academic Scholars to Educational Resources" (LASER) 2003-2004 Research Grant. With this distinction comes a grant award of $10,000.00. The grant is funded from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). In collaboration with Sherry Adrian, associate professor of education, Neal will conduct a study to model and evaluate the effects of culturally responsive pedagogy in two urban middle schools in Austin. As a LASER Research Scholar, Neal will participate in two "Think Tank" conferences in New Mexico and Hawaii to discuss action research related to special education issues.

Bob Snyder, associate professor of political science, had his paper titled "Hating America: Bin Laden as a Civilizational Revolutionary" accepted for publication in the journal "The Review of Politics." His paper titled "The Myth of Preemption: More than a War against Iraq" was accepted for publication in the journal "Orbis." Both will appear in the fall issues.

September 4, 2003

Teena Gabrielson, assistant professor of political science, presented a paper at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association titled, "Avenues to Virtue: Gender, Nature, and Citizenship at the Turn of the Century." The paper examines Mary Austin's much ignored argument for woman suffrage in the context of her larger theory of citizenship.

Thomas Howe, professor of art and Brown Distinguished Research Professor, has returned from a year-long sabbatical spent in Rome and Naples/Castellammare, Italy. While in Europe, he worked on two projects. The first was the foundation restoring Ancient Stabiae, a project which aims to create an "archaeological park" on the site of a series of beautifully preserved luxurious Roman seaside villas 4 kilometers. from Pompeii. If this project is fully launched, it will be the largest archaeological project in Europe in the post WWII period. Howe serves as the coordinator general, the chief design coordinator and archaeological coordinator of this project.

He also worked on and has nearly completed the manuscript of the text of a book, "The Development of Political Space in the Roman Republic," written under contract for Cambridge University Press. The book is both a synchronic and a dichronic account of the development of Roman architecture and the power structure that produced it.

In addition, Howe contributed to the concept line of a six-part BBC series on the origins of art, currently in production, and made presentations on the Stabiae project and the sharing of international cultural properties at conventions at the Italian embassy in Washington, D.C., in June. Howe is coordinating the organization of an exhibit of both original ancient material and design material for the archaeological park at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., tentatively scheduled to open in February 2004 through September 2004, and a two-year tour of the material in 2005-07.

Melissa Johnson, assistant professor of anthropology, had her article, "The Making of Race and Place in Colonial British Honduras," accepted for publication by the journal "Environmental History." The article (an earlier version of which was a Brown Working Paper) will appear in the October 2003 issue.

Education Department pre-service teachers, Jason Hayes, Aaron Bowser, and Manjah Fernandez and assistant professors La Vonne I. Neal and Alicia Moore were invited speakers at the Center for Action Research on Urban Schools and Effective Leadership Symposium on July 23, 2003, in Tampa, Fla. They presented their paper titled, "Braids, Fades, and Razorblades: The Educational Function of the African American Barbershop." In addition, they presented their paper at the University of Texas at Austin to professors and doctoral students on June 26, 2003.