Professional notes
Dr. María Chavarría, Modern and Classical Languages Department, attended the international conference of the Latin American Studies Association March 14-18 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was chair of a panel, "Alfabetización: propuestas para una pedagogía liberadora en las Américas," and presented a paper, "Alphabets and Literacy: A Problem for Developing an Intercultural Bilingual Education in the Peruvian Amazon." Panelists included scholars from Mexico, Cuba, Peru and the United States. Dr. Mark Abendroth, who received his Ed.D. from St. Thomas in 2005, presented a paper, "Critical Literacy Through Emancipatory Global Civic Education: Praxis in Cuba and the United States."
Dr. Catherine Craft-Fairchild, English Department, recently attended the annual meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies in Montreal. She presented a paper on a mid-18th-century writer's responses to Poor Law reform in England, "'Gratitude ... [Shall] Bind You to Good Behavior': Benevolence and Surveillance in the Writings of Sarah Scott." Craft-Fairchild also participated in a round-table discussion, "Teaching in the Transatlantic," in which she talked about her course on the British West Indies. In addition, at the national society's business meetings, Craft-Fairchild represented the Midwestern regional branch of ASECS, of which she is vice president.
Dr. David Kelley, Geography Department, presented a paper, "Coupling GIS With Problem-Based Learning to Enhance Undergraduate Education," at the annual conference of the Association of American Geographers March 9 in Chicago.
Dr. Craig Marcott, Economics Department, presented a paper, "Aggregate Production Functions With Micro Foundations," at the International Atlantic Economics Society meetings March 19 in Berlin.
Dr. Eileen Michels, professor emerita of art history, has received the David Stanley Gebhard Award for her monograph, "Reconfiguring Harvey Ellis." The award is given every other year by the Minnesota chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians for a new publication that best addresses aspects of Minnesota architecture. Ellis, a Rochester, N.Y., native who worked in Minnesota from 1885 to 1889 and after than in Missouri until 1893, was acclaimed nationally for his Midwestern Richardsonian Romanesque designs and perspective renderings.
Dr. Mark Neuzil, Journalism and Mass Communication Department, was a guest on KTLK-FM's Brian Lambert and Sarah Janecek Show on March 27. Neuzil was interviewed because of his role as a member of the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce task force on the sale of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Dr. Thomas Redshaw, Center for Irish Studies and English Department, presented an illustrated lecture, "Liam Miller's Crane Bag: The Dolmen Archive," March 6 at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. His was one of three plenary lectures given during Irish Festival Week for trustees, administrators and friends of the university in celebration of the opening of the Dolmen Press Archive at the library.
Sister Katarina Schuth, O.S.F., St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, wrote a section of a research study to be published in August, Experiences of Priests Ordained for Five to Nine Years by Dean Hoge. Her contribution is titled "Three Phases in the Life and Ministry of Recently Ordained Priests." Her review of An Infinity of Little Hours: The Trial of Faith of Five Young Men in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order was published in the April 3 issue of America magazine.
Eight students from the Sociology and Criminal Justice Department presented their work at an undergraduate research session co-organized by Dr. Lisa Waldner, Sociology and Criminal Justice Department, for the Midwest Sociological Society annual meetings in Omaha. Student presenters (and faculty sponsors) were: Kate Boran, "Globalization and the Middle Class" (Dr. Meg Wilkes Karraker, Sociology and Criminal Justice Department); Anna Clark, "Crime Rates in Japanese Society: A Socio-Cultural Analysis" (Karraker); Heather Martin, "A Web Analysis of Gay Skinheads" (Waldner); Anthony Denny, Jessica Nelson and Nathaniel Peterson, "Gender and Positive Attitudes Toward Study Abroad" (Waldner); Lyndsay Capeder, "Ideology of Gay Skinheads" (Waldner); and Sean Sweeney, "Must Succeed, Try to Succeed, or Try to Avoid Failing: The Effects of Goal Orientation, Competition and Cooperation on Motivation" (Dr. John Tauer, Psychology Department).
And last, but not least: Dr. Robert Werner, Geography Department, served as head judge in the Minnesota Geographic Bee March 31 at Macalester College. He reports that there's no way he could win the bee because those kids just know more than he does.
