Five members of the Languages and Cultural Studies department – Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies Andrea Meador Smith, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies Bryan Pearce-Gonzales, Ph.D., Visiting Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies Casey Eriksen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Foreign Language Adela Borrallo-Solis, Ph.D., and Visiting Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies Arnaldo Robles, Ph.D. – served on the Virginia Humanities Conference (VHC) committee, including the statewide president for 2017, Professor of Comparative Literature and Director of Gender and Women’s Studies Petra Schweitzer, Ph.D. The conference, held April 6 through April 8, succeeded in bringing greater visibility to Shenandoah’s campus and in uniting scholars and students from around the country to discuss the timely subject of “The Unbearable Humanities.”
“Listening to the response of all participants, we can say that the VHC . . . was a tremendous success,” Dr. Schweitzer said. “The themes of the panels addressed timely issues, and the presentations were extremely professional. Our audience engaged actively in the question-and-answer sessions. This conference brought together a diverse community interested in the future of the humanities.”
In addition to organizing and participating actively in the conference, six faculty members presented original papers, including two on literature, two on TV and film, and two on pedagogy. On literature, Petra Schweitzer presented “Embodied Existence of Mothers,” and Dr. Casey Eriksen presented “On the Uses of the Grotesque: Silvina Ocampo and the Psychological Portrait.” On TV and film, Dr. Adela Borrallo-Solís presented “The Unbearable in Spanish Politics and Television: The Case of La que se avecina,” and Dr. Andrea Meador Smith presented “Unbearably Barren: The Horror of the Motherless Child in El vientre.” On pedagogy, Dr. Arnaldo Robles presented “The Virtue of Errors in the Second-Language Classrooms: Making Use of Contemporary Research,” and Dr. Bryan Pearce-Gonzales presented “Shenandoah University’s Plan for General Education Curriculum and Town Hall Culminating Experience.”
Assistant Professor of Mathematical Sciences Amanda Sutherland, Ph.D., presented a talk at the 2017 Joint Mathematics Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia: “Using Guided-Inquiry Activities to Promote Stronger Foundations in Introductory Statistics”. The presentation, part of the Mathematical Association of America’s Special Session on “Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning,” was a preliminary report on the research and results of an ongoing project she is working on with Adjunct Mathematics Instructor Beth Dodson, M.Ed., to create and implement a set of Guided-Inquiry Activities (similar to POGIL) for introductory statistics classes. Sutherland was an invited panelist for the Project NExT session “Surviving and Thriving in your First Course Using Active Learning Techniques” at the same conference, where she discussed her work on this project.
Professor of History Warren Hofstra, Ph.D., organized and chaired a session at the 2017 Virginia Forum at Norfolk State University (held March 2 through March 4) on “Virginia Women: Their Lives and Times” to celebrate the publication of a two-volume book by the same title by the University of Georgia Press. His presentation was “Patsy Cline: A Life and Legend.”
Dean Emeritus of the College of Arts and Sciences Calvin H. Allen, Jr., Ph.D., had “Oman’s Maritime History since 1856 CE,” published in “Oman: A Maritime History.”
Professor of Art History and Art Geraldine W. Kiefer, Ph.D., presented “Un-Bearable Iceland: A Studio and Historical Journey through the Maelstrom of Monstrous Maps,” first at the Virginia Humanities Conference at Shenandoah on April 7 and then for the Shenandoah History Colloquium series on April 26. Dr. Kiefer had work accepted at the Seventh Annual Art and Earth Juried Exhibition in Martinsburg, West Virginia, in April and May, and the 2017 Academy Center of the Arts Annual National Juried Art Exhibition in Lynchburg, Virginia in April. An illustrated catalog was published for the latter exhibition.
Associate Professor of English and Chair of the English Department Michelle Brown, Ph.D., presented her paper, “Postcolonial Families and Unbearable Nationalities,” at the Virginia Humanities Conference at Shenandoah University, Winchester, VA, in April 2017. Dr. Brown was named the next Shenandoah University Fellow for Academic Excellence, reporting to the vice president of academic affairs and serving on the university’s academic leadership team.
Assistant Professor of Political Science Michael Romano, Ph.D., recently presented findings (with Todd Curry of the University of Texas El Paso) at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association in Chicago, Illinois. Their paper, “Writing for the Audience: Judicial Framing of Death Penalty Decisions” focuses on an empirical examination of opinion writing and language use by state supreme court judges in 5,020 death penalty cases.
Associate Professor of Psychology Wendy Carlson, Ph.D., will have a research article, “Undergraduate students’ attitudes toward individuals with disabilities: Integrating psychology disability curriculum and service-learning,” published in Teaching of Psychology. This research found that combining classroom curriculum and direct experience with individuals with disabilities can influence positive change in undergraduate students’ attitudes toward individuals with disabilities.
Professor Comparative Literature and Director of Gender and Women’s Studies Petra Schweitzer, Ph.D., participated in the conference, “Listening to Trauma,” at Cornell University in April. The conference celebrated Cathy Caruth’s “Unclaimed Experience.” Dr. Schweitzer presented “Trauma: A Call for Memory.” Schweitzer also provided leadership for the 2nd Annual Women’s History Month Film Series: From Responsibility to Activism.
Associate Professor of Psychology Scott King, along with co-authors Associate Professor of Public Health Audra Gollenberg, Ph.D., and Assistant Professor of Exercise Science Barry Parker, Ph.D., was awarded an Intergenerational Connections: Students Serving Older Adults Grant from the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) with support from the AARP Foundation. The grant will be used to support six student practica per semester during the 2017-18 school year with the Shenandoah Area Agency on Aging (SAAA) Winchester Senior Center. Each semester, two students from psychology, public health, and exercise science will carry out a service-learning practicum at the Winchester Senior Center, focusing on social support, nutrition and functional fitness, respectively.
Dr. King also mentored four undergraduate researchers (Olivia Mayak ’17, Jasmine Alexander ’18, Bethany Cales ’18, and Tayler Darr ’18) in Independent Research projects about social media. All of them traveled to Campbell University to present their research on April 22 at the Carolinas Psychology Conference, the premier undergraduate psychology conference in the region.
Assistant Professor of Religion and Affiliate Faculty of Gender and Women’s Studies Meredith Minister, Ph.D., has published two short pieces on reframing responses to sexual violence on college campuses: “Sexual Violence in and around the Classroom” in Teaching Theology and Religion and “Victims, Criminals, Classrooms” in the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. Dr. Minister has also been accepted into a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute on “Diverse Philosophical Approaches to Sexual Violence” to take place June 18 through June 30 at Elon University in North Carolina.
Assistant Professor of Exercise Science Jessica Peacock, Ph.D., is featured in Shenandoah Magazine, the Official Publication of Shenandoah University. Dr. Peacock and her award-winning Fall 2016 First Year Seminar class “We’re All ‘Humans of New York:” Empathy and Connectedness on a Global Scale” are profiled in the Spring 2017 edition.
Peacock presented at the 2017 Virginia Humanities Conference, held in April at Shenandoah University. Peacock presented on original research: “Bariatric Surgery and the Unbearableness of Obesity,” and included two undergraduate exercise science students, Levi Perry and Kyle Morien, in data analysis and preparation of the presentation.
Assistant Professor of Exercise Science Jessica Kutz, Ph.D., and Peacock supervised exercise science senior Danyelle McGrady throughout completion of an independent research project during the 2016-2017 year. McGrady presented her project, “The Relation of Psychological and Physiological Assessments with Running Performance in Track and Field Athletes” at the SUpr Summit on April 20, and received the Undergraduate Individual Project in Arts & Sciences Award.