Josh Hengemuhle, Off-campus Student Services, participated in the ACPA – College Student Educators International conference, held March 25 to 28, in Louisville, Ky. He presented a session titled “Civility Near Campus: Educating Students to Be Positive Community Members Off-campus.”
Dr. Lorina Quartarone, Modern and Classical Languages Department, presented a paper in March at the 108th annual Classical Association of the Middle West and South conference in Baton Rouge. In her paper, “Vergil’s Dying Deer: Heroic Criticism in the Aeneid,” she discusses the poet’s varying depictions of hunter figures and observes a gradual devolution in their portrayals that indicates flawed motivations. Quartarone also traces the assimilation of the hunters’ various victims to women, animals and individuals from other cultures and concludes that Vergil depicts Aeneas’ final encounter with his native Italian enemy, Turnus, as an act of subduing the Other in an inappropriate fashion.
Dr. Julie Risser, Art History Department, College of Arts and Sciences; and director of the American Museum of Asmat Art at the University of St. Thomas, presented a paper, "Culture, Distance and Influence: The Asmat Art Festival," at the annual Midwest Art History Society conference held at Wichita State University, Kansas. The paper explored some of the economic and political issues surrounding contemporary Asmat art created for the annual festival. Local development issues as well as broader ones within the Papua province play a significant role in how the festival is run as well as how it is covered by official news agencies. As national development promotes immigration to the province, demographics are shifting dramatically. Papuan people are or will constitute less than half of the population by 2020. While Asmat is remote, immigrant populations are strong, particularly in the more densely populated sites, including the festival site, Agats.
Dr. Erika Scheurer, English Department, College of Arts and Sciences; and Director of Writing Across the Curriculum, presented “Enlisting the Spoken Voice in Teaching Literature” on March 22 at the Conference on College Composition and Communication in St. Louis, Mo.
Dr. Martin Warren, English Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of “A Rose Depicted Through Any Genre Would Smell Just as Sweet, Wouldn’t It? − Coming to Grips with Genre,” published in Minnesota English Journal, 47: 48-57.
On Thursday, March 29, two panels of UST faculty and staff presented papers on their work in Writing Across the Curriculum at the annual Minnesota Colleges and Universities English and Writing Conference in Minneapolis. The panels were titled, “It Takes a University to Support a Writer: Writing to Learn and Learning to Write at the University of St. Thomas.” Dr. Erika Scheurer, Director of Writing Across the Curriculum, chaired each panel in which the following faculty and staff presented their approaches to WAC pedagogy:
- Dr. James Heyman, Marketing Department
- Dr. Katherina Glac, Ethics and Business Law Department
- Dr. Sherry Jordon, Theology Department
- Dr. Amy Levad, Theology Department
- Dr. Stephanie Lohse, Modern and Classical Languages Department: French
- Dr. Paola Ehrmantraut, Modern and Classical Languages Department: Spanish
- Dr. Marie Lopez del Puerto, Physics Department
- Dr. Bernard Armada, Communication and Journalism Department
- Dr. Debra Petersen, Communication and Journalism Department
- Talia Nadir, UST Libraries
Several faculty and students from the Sociology and Criminal Justice Department, College of Arts and Sciences, participated in the 2012 annual meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society.
- Dr. Sue Smith-Cunnien served as local arrangements chair.
- Dr. Meg Wilkes Karraker organized a session on "New Directions in the Work-Family Enterprise." Presenters included: Dr. Ritch Sorenson (UST Opus Chair in Family Business), "Family Values and Business Culture"; Wilkes Karraker and sociology major Kelly Beamish, "Religious Family Values, Family Business Virtues: Proposal for a Pilot Study"; and Sociology Department alumnus Paul Schmid.
- Dr. Lisa Waldner organized the undergraduate student poster session. Presenters included sociology student Kylee Joosten, "Verbal Sexual Coercion in Intimate Relationships: The Role of Self-Silencing and Traditional Gender Role Ideologies,” whose research was funded by the Luann Dummer Center for Women (faculty sponsor, Waldner); Matthew Vicknair, "The Perceptions of Microloans and Female Self-Sufficiency: A Study Into the Democratic Republic of the Congo" (faculty sponsor, Wilkes Karraker); Dr. William Kinney (with UST alum Dr. Jynette Larshus), "Losing 'Generations': The Impact of Technology on Generational Dynamics”; and Waldner (with Dr. Betty Dobratz, Iowa State University), "The Re-Hetrosexualization of Eleanor Roosevelt: Stigma Management Techniques of ER Biographers. ” Waldner also was a panel member for "How to Get Published in Referred Journals.”
- Dr. Tanya Gladney organized two panels: "Issues and Transitions for Women in the Prefession" and "Diversity Within MSS: How Do We Define Diversity for the 21st Century.”
Three students represented St. Thomas at the Region Five National Orientation Directors Association conference, held March 20 to April 1, in Omaha, Neb. Laurie Schulz, graduate student in the Leadership in Student Affairs program, hosted a roundtable session on serving diverse students and also co-presented a session with colleagues from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. The session was titled “From the floor to the Balcony: Empowering student Employees Using Adaptive Leadership.” Christina Weiberg and Jared Scharpen, both seniors and orientation interns, also participated in the conference. Scharpen, along with students he was partnered with from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and Eastern Illinois University, won the best overall case study competition.
