Ed Clark, VP for Technology, CIO & CDO, received the nonprofit ORBIE award for government, education and not-for-profit organizations. The ORBIE has been presented to every CIO of the Year winner since 1998, and signifies exceptional leadership, innovation and vision, representing the characteristics and qualities that inspire others to achieve their potential.
Paul Gavrilyuk, College of Arts and Sciences, Aquinas Chair in theology and philosophy, published his new book, "Letters, 1947-1955." Moscow: St. Tikhon's Orthodox University Press, 2019. In Russian.
Hans Gustafson, College of Arts and Sciences Jay Phillips Center, was an invited respondent to the roundtable discussion of “Interreligious/Interfaith Studies: Defining a New Field” moderated by Eboo Patel at the November 2018 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Denver. Gustafson was also an invited participant at “A Convening on the Case Method” hosted by Pluralism Project at Harvard University in January 2019. In addition, he was an invited participant at the “Interfaith Studies Pedagogical Consultation” hosted by Wabash Center and Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago in October 2018. Gustafson was also invited to present on “The ‘Nones’ and the Religiously Unaffiliated” at the Second Annual Minnesota Multi-faith Network Breakfast and World Interfaith Harmony Week Observance hosted by Adath Jeshurun Congregation in February 2019.
John Martens, College of Arts and Sciences theology program, published an article, “Children and Church: The Ritual Entry of Children into Pauline Churches” in "Children in the Bible and the Ancient World: Comparative and Historical Methods in Reading Ancient Children, 1st Edition," (ed. Shawn W. Flynn; London and New York: Routledge Press, 2019), 94-114.
Jeni McDermott, College of Arts and Sciences geology program, and her student research collaborators Elliott Allen and Matthew Endres gave poster presentations on their research exploring landforms and tectonics in Norway and landslide hazards in the Twin Cities, respectively, at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in Washington, D.C. in December 2018.
Jessica Park, chapel organist and assistant liturgical musician at the Chapel of Saint Thomas Aquinas, was selected by The Diapason magazine as one of its 20 leaders under the age of 30. Park is the principal musician of the chapel and director of the Schola Cantorum.
Jenna Schultz, College of Arts and Sciences history program, published National Identity and the Anglo-Scottish Borderlands, 1552-1652 with Boydell & Brewer Press in 2019. The book provides a window into early modern state formation, diplomacy and cross-border interactions during a key moment in history. She has presented her research both nationally and internationally. Most recently, she was invited to the Huntington Library to speak on the subject of the borderlands at the “1595-1606: New Perspectives on Regime Change” conference in early 2019. Schultz is also the membership secretary for the North American Organization of Scottish Historians.
Kevin Theissen, College of Arts and Sciences geology program, published “A record of Mid- and Late Holocene paleohydroclimate from Lower Pahranagat Lake, southern Great Basin” in the peer-reviewed journal, Quaternary Research. Also, he and his student research collaborator, John Duggan, gave poster presentations on their work exploring evidence of past drought, water supply, and microbial communities from shallow lakes and springs in southern Nevada at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in Washington, D.C. in December 2018.
Kari Zimmerman, College of Arts and Sciences history program, was invited to present and contribute her research to the digital humanities initiative Enslaved.org. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Enslaved is a digital hub that allows students, researchers, and the general public to reconstruct the lives of individuals who were part of the historic slave trade between Africa and the Americas. Zimmerman's research on urban slavery and gender in nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro will be one of the linked databases in Enslaved.org. She presented her findings at the international conference, “Enslaved: Peoples of the Historic Slave Trade" at Michigan State University, which served as the official launch of the digital project.
David Kelly, College of Arts and Sciences geology program, is the author of an article, “Understanding how distance to facility and quality of care affect maternal health service utilization in Kenya and Haiti: a comparative Geographic Information System study”, published in the International Journal of Geospatial Health (2019. Issue 14:92-102). His co-author is Xing Gao, a former Excel! Research Scholar. On April 27, 2019, the University of St. Thomas Department of Geography and Environmental Studies attended the 15th annual Minnesota Undergraduate Geography Symposium, hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Symposium was conceived in 2005 to fill the need to showcase local or broad-discipline undergraduate research in Geography. This year, there were 110 participants from six Midwest colleges. 16 UST students presented their original research to their colleagues.
Mark Neuzil, College of Arts and Sciences Communication and Journalism department, has published a book review essay titled "Vignettes from Traveling the Northern Boundary," an examination of Porter Fox's book Northland, in Literary Journalism Studies 10:2 (Fall 2018).
