Professional Notes

Professional notes

Dr. Stephen Brookfield, School of Education, is the author of a chapter, "Myths and Realities in Adult Education," published in Insights From Research and Practice: A Handbook for Adult Literacy, Numeracy and ESOL Practitioners (Leicester, England: National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, 2005).

Father James Burns, Graduate School of Professional Psychology, recently presented three papers. He presented "An Internet Survey of Parish Closings and reorganizations in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston" at the joint conference of the Religious Research Association and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in Rochester, N.Y. He presented "Psychosocial Issues: Treating Patients in a Catholic Cultural Context" to therapists treating victims of clergy sexual abuse at the Archdiocese of Boston Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach. "Church Crises and Controversy: Assessing the Multiple Emotional and Psychological Issues of Catholics in an Age of Transition" was presented to the Dedham Adult Faith Formation group at St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, Mass. His paper "Globalization of Mental Health Resources: Potentials and Pitfalls" was accepted for presentation at the meeting this month of the International Association of Latin American Health Psychologists.

Dr. Alexis Easley, English Department, is the author of an article, "Tait's Edinburgh Magazine in the 1830s: Dialogues on Gender, Class and Reform," published in the fall edition of Victorian Periodicals Review. She also presented a paper, "The Politics of Domesticity: Periodicals, Tourism and the Reconstruction of Carlyle's House," at the Sept. 16 conference of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals, and another paper, "Rooms of the Past: Victorian Women Writers, Historic Preservation and the Reconstruction of Domestic Space," at the Sept. 30 conference of the North American Victorian Studies Association.

Dr. Josh Nollenberg, Physics Department, is primary author of an an article, "Galaxy-Quasar Correlations Between APM Galaxies and Hamburg-ESO QSOs," published in the Dec. 1 issue of Astrophysical Journal. It deals with an effect of general relativity called gravitational lensing, in which light from distant sources is deflected as it passes by a closer "lens." In the type of gravitational lensing described in the paper, the lenses are clusters of galaxies that bend light coming from very distant quasars (QSOs). The net effect is that we see statistical correlations between the positions of these distant QSOs and foreground galaxy clusters even though they are not connected in any way in three-dimensional space. It is a result of the lensing effect. Co-written by Dr. Liliya Williams of the University of Minnesota, the paper investigates a long-standing discrepancy between observed magnitude of the effect and predictions by cosmological models and eliminates some possible causes of the discrepancy while hinting at future avenues of study.

James Rogers, Center for Irish Studies, is the author of an article, "Edwin O'Connor's The Edge of Sadness: Grace, Duality and Words of Blessing," published in the current issue of U.S. Catholic Historian (Vol. 23, No. 3, Summer 2005). Rogers' article appears in an issue with the theme "American Fiction and Catholic Culture."