Professional notes
Dr. Jean Birbilis, Graduate School of Professional Psychology, was invited to present a symposium, “The Professional Life Cycle of a Practitioner,” at a Presidential Miniconvention at the 113th annual convention of the American Psychological Association in August in Washington, D.C. Co-presenters were Dr. Dorothy Cantor, former president of the American Psychological Association; Dr. Melba Vasquez, incoming president of the Texas Psychological Association; and Dr. David Ballard, assistant executive director of the APA Office of Corporate Relations and Business Strategy. Birbilis presented work she completed on sabbatical last spring.
Dr. Stephen Brookfield, School of Education, recently delivered and published the following juried conference papers: “On Malefic Generosity, Repressive Tolerance and Post-Colonialist Condescension: Considerations on White Adult Educators Racializing Adult Education Discourse” and “Problematizing White Engagement in Racial Talk” in the Proceedings of the 44th Adult Education Research Conference (Athens: University of Georgia, 2005).
Nine students from the Chemistry Department presented the results of their research at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society last March in San Diego. Students of Dr. J. Thomas Ippoliti presenting posters were Kayla Kent, Susan Pribyl, Lauren Becker, John Schwerkoske, Jay Christenson and Jay Vlaminck. Students of Dr. William Ojala who presented posters were Jon Smieja and Ben Sanders. Adam Huss, a student of Dr. Joseph Brom, presented a poster that earned Huss an expenses-paid trip to this meeting; his was the top-ranked poster in the Chemistry Department’s annual Summer Research Symposium in August 2004. Ippoliti also presented a paper, “Zwitterionic Superabsorbant Polymers,” at the national meeting. The talk initiated a new research collaboration with Sherwin-Williams.
Dr. Ellen Kennedy, Service-Learning, gave a talk, “Rwanda: After the Genocide,” to the Congregation Shir Tikvah Sept. 9 in Minneapolis. She spoke about her experiences traveling in Rwanda last spring. Her summer also included teaching a service-learning workshop for faculty at the University of Technology in Kingston, Jamaica.
Dr. Mary Rose O’Reilley, English Department, is the author of a new book, The Garden at Night: Burnout and Breakdown in the Teaching Life (Heinemann, 2005). Read more about it here.
Dr. Thomas Redshaw, English Department and Center for Irish studies, attended two conferences at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, in June. At the annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Irish Studies, he gave an illustrated lecture on the graphics of Stanley William Hayter and the poetry of John Montague. For An Dara Comhdháil ar an Rúraíocht (Second Ulster Cycle Conference), sponsored by An Roinn na Nua GHaeilge at Maynooth, Redshaw was invited to lecture on the making of Thomas Kinsella’s The Tain (1969), a translation of the Táin Bó Cúailgne, the epic of Ulster.
Dr. Mary Reichardt, Catholic Studies and English departments, is the author of an article, “Literature and the Catholic Perspective,” which appears in a new book, Ethics, Literature and Theory, edited by Stephen George (Rowman and Littlefield, 2005). The book is a collection of critical articles on ethical criticism and literary theory; philosophy, religion and literature; and readers’ and writers’ responses to religious approaches to literature. Articles include those by Wayne Booth, Martha Nussbaum, Toni Morrison, Bernard Malamud, Joyce Carol Oates and others. Reichardt’s article contributes a Catholic approach to the topic of religious belief and literature.
Dr. Lisa Rezac and Dr. Jeff McLean, along with undergraduate math majors Nicole Lanie and Amanda Thompson, were instructors for the fourth-annual GEMS (Girls Experiencing Mathematics in the Summer) Camp for high-school girls June 26-July 1. Participants learned about iteration and fractals related to the Mandelbrot and Julia sets, and explored geometry with a focus on circles in Euclidean, spherical and hyperbolic systems. A career panel with local professional women, a trip to the Science Museum of Minnesota’s calculus exhibit, recreational activities and speakers rounded out the week. Among guest speakers was Dr. Cheri Shakiban, Mathematics Department, and Christine Berger ’97.
Rezac also received a travel grant for a presentation at the “Women Count” conference held in conjunction with the annual conference of the Mathematical Association of America Aug. 2-6. “Women Count” brought together directors of math and science programs for women (and other under-represented groups in mathematics) to share information. Lanie and Thompson will give presentations on the GEMS camp at the Inquiry at UST poster session Sept. 29 and at the annual conference of the Minnesota Council of Teachers of Mathematics this fall.
James Rogers, Center for Irish Studies, is the author of a review of Charles Duffy’s A Family of His Own: A Life of Edwin O’Connor (Catholic University of America Press, 2004). Published in the fall issue of the Irish Literary Supplement, a biannual publication of Boston College Irish Studies, the review notes the biography’s insights into the dynamics of the Irish-American Family.
Dr. Barbara Shank, School of Social Work, was appointed by Archbishop Harry Flynn to a three-year term on the Commission on Women of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The commission promotes women’s voices in the life of the church and responds to women and men in crisis or in alienating situations.
Dr. John Spry, Economics Department, presented a paper, “The Relative Regressivity of Seven Minnesota Lottery Games,” at the 80th annual conference of the Western Economics Association International in July in San Francisco. The paper’s co-authors are Dr. Kathryn Combs and Dr. Jaebom Kim, Economics Department. Spry also served as a discussant at the conference.
Dr. Susan Webster, Art History Department, is one of 60 scholars who received a 2004-2005 postdoctoral research fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies. Webster is doing research in Ecuador over the next two years. Her study explores the socio-cultural context of colonial architecture in terms of its practitioners and patrons in Quito. Click here for a look at all the ACLS fellows and descriptions of their projects.
