Tom Bushlack
Dr. Tom Bushlack, Theology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, spoke at an event for the release of the Pope’s encyclical on the environment at St. Thomas More on June 17. MPR included a picture of Bushlack with his kids in its coverage.
Dr. Massimo Faggioli is the author of "The 1928 Presidential Campaign: Toward a Transatlantic and Institutional Approach to Catholic Histories," published in “American Catholic Studies,” vol. 126 n. 2 (2015), pp. 1-21.
Eric Fort
Dr. Eric Fort, Chemistry Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of a paper, “Rapid and Efficient Desilylation and Deuteration of Alkynylpyridines,” published in the journal Tetrahedron Letters, 2015, 56, pp. 4,232-4,233. This work included three St. Thomas undergraduate students, Ben Gelinas, Joe Jaye and Gabi Mattos.
Dr. Hans Gustafson, Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning and Theology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, was one of 25 university professors selected from a nationwide pool of nominees to participate in the Teaching Interfaith Understanding seminar held June 21-25 at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The seminar is offered by the Council of Independent Colleges and the Interfaith Youth Core with support from the Henry Luce Foundation.
Doug Hennes
Doug Hennes, University Relations, and his biography, That Great Heart: The Life of I.A. O’Shaughnessy, was a finalist in the “Biography” category of the Midwest Book Awards contest sponsored by the Midwest Independent Publishing Association in May. The biography was nominated for a Minnesota Book Award earlier this year in the “Minnesota” category.
Dr. John Martens, Theology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, won second place for his blog, “The Good Word," which is run through the website of America magazine. (This is separate from his column at America.) He received the award for Best Group Blog at the national Catholic Press Association awards.
Dr. Rebecca McGill, a graduate of the doctoral program in leadership in the Department of Leadership, Policy and Administration, wrote a peer-reviewed book chapter, “Informal Learning Contributes to the Leadership Development of Nurse Managers,” in a new book, Measuring and Analyzing Informal Learning in the Digital Age, edited by Olutoyin Mejiuni, Patricia Cranton and Olufemi Taiwo. The chapter is based on her dissertation research.
Sowah Mensah
Sowah Mensah and Kathy Crockett M.A. '12, Music Department, received the 2015 Yale Distinguished Music Educator Award presented at the Symposium on Music in Schools. They were recognized for their ongoing partnership developing, maintaining and directing African music ensembles at Turtle Lake Elementary and Chippewa Middle School.
Talia Nadir, UST Libraries, has been accepted in the ACRL Assessment in Action Program. Her application was considered one of the best and she (actually, the University of St. Thomas) not only was accepted, but granted a $600 scholarship. In the words of the vice chair of the Value of Academic Libraries Committee, “The top applications were distinguished by a clear connection between the team’s project goals and institutional priorities as well as strong institutional commitment to support the team’s project during the course of the AiA program.” The program requires the participating institutions to identify a team, consisting of a librarian and two others (faculty, student affairs, institutional research, academic administrator, etc.), which then participates in a 14-month program that includes cohort-based learning and team-based activities on campus. Nadir will lead the team in the development and implementation of an action-learning project examining the impact of the library on student success and contributing to assessment activities on campus. Her application proposes a library partnership with the Writing Across the Curriculum program faculty to increase library impact on student learning.
Artika Tyner
Artika Tyner, Office of Mission and College of Education, Leadership and Counseling, served as a guest lecturer at the ninth annual Women's Symposium held at SIAS International University in Xinzhen, China. Her lecture was titled "Leadership, Social Change and You." She also served as a facilitator and provided students with leadership development training at the World Academy for the Future of Women (SIAS International University, Xinzhen, China). The mission of WAFW is to promote and accelerate the advancement of women worldwide, “training women university students to address the U.N. development goals in emerging nations.” Lastly, she presented a paper titled "The Leader as Social Entrepreneur" at the Social Entrepreneurship Forum also held at SIAS International University.
Christian Washburn
Dr. Christian Washburn, Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity, attended the sixth meeting of the 12th round of the U.S. Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue held May 27-31 in Washington, D.C. He also attended the meeting of Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity in Budapest, Hungary, July 13-21. Conducted under the auspices of the Lutheran World Federation and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the meeting focused on the topic “Baptism and Growing Communion.”
Paul Wojda
Dr. Paul Wojda, Theology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, was one of three individuals invited to speak July 8 at the first of four conversations about Laudato Si’ at East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul. The other two speakers were Ann Mongoven, member of ISAIAH, and Kathleen Remund, of the Kaleo Center for Faith, Justice and Social Transformation at United Theological Seminary. Wojda also was one of 12 local experts invited to participate July 9 in a “Town Hall Forum” organized by American Bar Association’s Special Committee on Bioethics and the Law. The ABA committee is preparing a “White Paper” on the topic of informed consent. It will rely on the input of experts in law, medicine and bioethics from across the country. Many medical and legal professionals are concerned that our current model of informed consent is broken and in need of reform.
Note: Accessing online UST Libraries content from off-campus requires an active UST account. Alumni and guests are welcome to use our resources on-site. Please direct any library-access questions to Laura Hansen (laura.hansen@stthomas.edu). Other UST-community research can be found in our institutional repository: UST Research Online.
