Dean of the College Linda DeMeritt has announced the promotion of three faculty members to the rank of full professor: Richard Bowden, associate professor of environmental science; Michael Maniates, associate professor of environmental science and political science; and Daniel Shea, associate professor of political science. The promotions will take effect with the beginning of the fall 2006 semester.
Pamela Todd Fox, director of development services, presented three sessions at the Datatel User Group 2006 Conference: From Datatel to Excel for End-Users; Campaign Reporting: Another View; and Making Data Integrity a Reality. Fox has been a member of the Datatel User Group Track Committee and Conference Programming for three years and continues to assist in planning for the 2007 conference. The conference is attended by 2,100 Datatel users annually in Washington, D.C.
Neuroscience major Abigail Grant '06 won a best poster presentation at the Fifteenth Annual Sigma Xi Undergraduate Student Research Conference held April 1 at Penn State Behrend. The title of her presentation was “The Effects of Temperature on the Ventilatory Response of Sprague-Dawley Rat Pups to Carbon Dioxide and the Implications for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.” This research was Grant's senior project, which she conducted with Lee Coates, associate professor of biology and neuroscience. Approximately 200 undergraduate students from Allegheny College, Edinboro University, Gannon University, Mercyhurst College, Penn State Behrend, Penn State DuBois, Penn State Fayette, and Slippery Rock University presented at the conference.
An article by Assistant Professor of Modern and Classical Languages Teresa Herrera de La Muela has been accepted for publication in the journal Estreno: Cuadernos de Teatro Español Contemporáneo. The article, “De la evasión a la culpa: Calixto Bieito y una Verbena de La Paloma (1996) postmoderna,” is tentatively scheduled to appear in the Fall 2006 issue. The article explores how, in the hands of stage director Calixto Bieito, a traditional genre such as the zarzuela, a type of Spanish operetta, receives a postmodern revision that undermines its consumption by an upper-class audience.
A lecture series by Professor of Religious Studies Glenn Holland is one of the offerings published by the Teaching Company, which features teachers from leading colleges and universities in a series of courses on DVD, audio CD, and other formats. Holland's course, “Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World,” includes forty-eight thirty-minute lectures. More information on the lecture series can be found at http://www.teach12.com/ttc/assets/coursedescriptions/6340.asp?id=6340&d=Religion+in+the+Ancient+Mediterranean+World&pc=Religion.
Richard Holmgren has been promoted to the newly created position of Executive Director of Learning, Information and Technology Services. Holmgren, an associate professor of mathematics, has served as Associate Dean of the College since 1999. In 2004 he became director of the newly opened Learning Commons, which he will continue to direct.
Associate Professor of English Kirk Nesset has had two books accepted for publication: Saint X (poems, Lewis-Clark Press) and Mr. Agreeable (short stories, Mammoth Press). His individual stories, poems, and translations have been published recently (or were accepted for publication) by more than forty journals, anthologies, and magazines, including The Southern Review, The Kenyon Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Agni, Raritan, Carolina Quarterly, Crazyhorse, The Sun, New England Review, Mid-American Review, Poetry International, New American Writing, Salt Hill and elsewhere. A pair of his flash fictions (originally published in Fiction and High Plains Literary Review) have been selected to appear in two separate Norton Anthologies. He continues to read his work widely (in Oberlin, Austin, Vancouver, New York, Pittsburgh, and Erie, most recently) and still serves as writer-in-residence alternate years at the Chautauqua Writer's Center in upstate New York.
Associate Professor of Computer Science Bob Roos served as a judge for the 30th annual World Finals of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest, held in April in San Antonio, Texas. More than 5,600 teams representing 1,733 universities from eighty-four countries participated in regional contests held last fall. The top eighty-three teams qualified for positions at the 2006 World Finals championships.
Associate Professor of Political Science Sharon Wesoky will be presenting two papers at conferences in Hong Kong this summer. The first, a co-authored paper with Assistant Professor of Political Science Lisa Fischler of Moravian College titled “Engendering Chinese Studies: The Utility and Challenge of Incorporating Gender into Chinese Studies in American Higher Education,” will be presented at the Second International Conference on Gender Equity Education in the Asia-Pacific Region at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The second, titled “Re-Presenting Rural Women's Identities: Time, Recognition, and Representation of Rural Chinese Women,” will be presented at the Symposium on “Is There a Chinese-Style Politics of Recognition: Comparing Minority Politics in Different Chinese Polities” to be held at the Hong Kong Shue Yan College.
People & Places, published monthly during the academic year by the Office of Public Affairs, reports on the professional activities of members of the College community and highlights student achievements. Please submit items to people@allegheny.edu. We reserve the right to edit copy for length. This is the last issue of People & Places for this academic year, but we will be accepting material throughout the summer for the first issue of 2006-2007.
