Faculty and Staff Career News

To read complete versions of these abbreviated news items where you see a live link, click to reach the faculty member’s personal page. Then visit that page’s “Recent News” tab, where this current item in fuller detail will be at the top. For staffers without a faculty page, the full text of each news item is included here.

George Ashline, professor and chair of mathematics, during Spring Break week gave an invited talk/workshop to four different classes/groups of students at Canaan High School in Canaan, VT. These visits were sponsored by the Vermont State Mathematics Coalition’s “Expanding Horizons Program.”

Jeffrey Ayres, dean of the college and professor of political science, in late January offered his scholarly expertise about Canada for a segment broadcast on Vermont Public Radio about the political economics behind the rapidly devaluing Canadian dollar.

Christine Bauer-Ramazani, instructor in the Applied Linguistics Department, gave two presentations March 26-29, 2015, at the international TESOL Convention in Toronto, Canada, where she was also a lead web-caster. In February she submitted an invited chapter to be published later this year in the book Voices of CALL Teacher Educators.

Michael Bosia, associate professor of political science, and his co-author and co-editor Meredith Weiss, were awarded the 2015 Scholars Award from the International Studies Association LGBTQA Caucus at the annual meeting of the ISA this past February in New Orleans. Also, Michael has a chapter coming out in the edited volume Sexualities in World Politics: How LGBTQ Claims Shape International Relations.

Robert Brenneman, assistant professor of sociology, in December 2014 published a review essay titled “Latin American Youth Gangs” in Oxford Handbooks Online with a co-author, and published an article on Central American gangs in a special issue of the Latin American Research Review. Also, in late January he presented a workshop at an ecumenical gathering in La Paz, Bolivia.

Alain Brizard, professor of physics, has published two textbooks: (1) An Introduction to Lagrangian Mechanics (2nd Edition), World Scientific (2015); and (2) Ray Tracing and Beyond, with co-authors in his field. Alain has also been awarded a $145,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for the next three years to support his summer research activities.

Renee Carrico, chair and associate professor of psychology, gave the keynote address, “Understanding Resilience: Fostering the “Ordinary Magic” of Development” at the statewide Vermont Department of Children and Families training conference, “Zero-to-Six: Applying the Developmental Perspective to Achieving Safety for our Most Vulnerable Children.”  (March 31-April 1, 2015)

Christina Chant, assistant professor of chemistry, presented a poster on the usefulness of first-day assessments to determine math readiness in the general chemistry classroom (co-authored with David Heroux) at the 249th annual national American Chemical Society meeting in Denver, CO in March.

Nicholas Clary, professor of English, is author of a review of Rebecca Olson’s Arras Hanging: The Textile That Determined Early Modern Literature and Drama (University of Delaware Press, 2013), appearing in the latest issue of Shakespeare Quarterly (Fall 2014).

Laura Crain, associate director for collection services at the College library, was featured in the March issue of KidsVT for her volunteer work with the organization Kids-a-Part, a group that helps incarcerated moms read to their kids from prison.

George Dameron, professor and chair of history, has learned that his peer-reviewed article, “Florence,” will be published in Oxford Bibliographies in Medieval Studies by Oxford University Press.  He also has a recently published essay on Medieval Tuscany in an academic journal in his field, and  for this coming spring has been invited to be a panel respondent at the 41st annual Sewanee Medieval Colloquium in Sewanee, Tennessee, April 10 and 11.

Patricia Delaney, Gender Studies Program director, Sociology and Anthropology Department chair and associate professor of anthropology and gender, on March 27, 2015 gave an invited talk on Marriage, Alliances & Democracy in Timor-Leste at the Center for Diversity & Gender Studies at Texas State University during their 2015 Symposium.

Kristin Dykstra, Distinguished Scholar in Residence, won the inaugural Gulf Coast Literary Translation prize, announced in early 2015, with excerpts from her new book in progress with Marcelo Morales Cintero. She also in recent months saw her bilingual edition a book by Reina María Rodríguez published, with several essays, translations, and edited anthologys also published or accepted. In April she speaks at Brown University and New York University events as both translator and scholar, alongside Rodríguez.

William Ellis, assistant professor of fine arts/music, will be curating a show, “Looking Out: The Self-Taught Art of Larry Bissonnette,” that will run June 5 through August 29 at downtown’s Amy E. Tarrant Gallery. This is the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts” summer art show. This exhibit is supported in part by a three-year grant from the Surdna Foundation for disability related programming and education.

Farrah Fatemi, assistant professor of environmental studies, co-curated the art exhibit “Rooted in Soil”, showing at the DePaul University Art Museum Jan. 29- April 26.  A curator’s essay was published in the catalog (Chicago University Press, 2015), and Farrah was featured on Chicago Public Radio when the exhibit opened http://www.wbez.org/programs/morning-shift/2015-01-29/depaul-museum-show-rooted-soil-looks-role-earth-plays-life-death.

George Goldsworthy, manager of print & mail, in early April was elected president of the Association of College and University Mail Services (ACUMS) by the membership. He will be serving a two-year term beginning July 1, 2015. This professional organization facilitates training and education for mail room managers in higher education since 1978. George also will be hosting the ACUMS Spring Conference in Lake Placid, NY from April 11-15.

William Grover, professor of political science, had a book titled The Unsustainable Presidency:  Clinton, Bush, Obama and Beyond  published in December by Palgrave Macmillan. It is co-authored  with Joseph G. Peschek of Hamline University. They also had an article titled  “Our Imperial System: On How Not to Think About the American Presidency” published December 4, 2014 on the Common Dreams news web site.

David Heroux, associate professor of chemistry, in January he was elected “Chair Elect” of the Green Mountain Section of the American Chemical Society for 2015. Hell serve as program chair and member of the executive committee and automatically becomes Chair the following year. David also organized and chaired a symposium at the Spring National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Denver, CO, presenting a talk; and he took part in the American Chemical Society’s Leadership Institute in Dallas, TX.

Rowena He, recently hired as assistant professor of history, learned in March that the Asia Society has listed her book Tiananmen Exiles as a “Top Five China Book of 2014.”

Val Hird, adjunct instructor of art, was interviewed this past winter by the UK-based magazine studio international: Visual Arts, Design and Architecture, about the roots of her work in multiple cultures.

Cathy Hurst, professor, and John Paul Devlin, associate professor of fine arts/theatre, accompanied 18 Saint Michael’s College students to the regional Kennedy Center American Theater Festival in Hyannis, MA, Jan. 26 – Feb.1. Cathy received awards for excellence in directing the acting ensemble for Saint Michael’s productions of Proof and Godspell; she also took home the Kennedy Center Gold Medallion Award. John is one of two first-year regional co-chairs for the event and, remarkably, helped pull off a well-attended and successful conference despite an historic blizzard.

Aostre Johnson, professor of education, presented a paper: “The Relationship between Spiritual, Religious, Contemplative and Mindfulness Education” at the 5th Global Conference on Spirituality in the 21st Century in Lisbon, Portugal, March, 2015.

Nicholas Kahm, Henry G. Fairbanks Visiting Scholar-in-Residence (Philosophy), had an article accepted at the British Journal for the History of Philosophy (May, 2015) entitled “Aquinas on Quality.” He will also be giving a paper at the  50th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University (May 14-17, 2015) entitled “Free Choice and Consent in Aquinas: Did Aquinas Change His Views on Will?”  He published a paper about divine providence and chance or randomness in the Fall 2013 issue of American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, entitled “Divine Providence in Aquinas’s Commentaries on Aristotle’s Physics and Metaphysics, and its Relevance to the Question of Evolution and Creation.”

John Kenney, professor of religious studies, gave the 17th Annual Lawler Lecture in Theology at Creighton University, the Jesuit University in Omaha, NE, on March 18. The topic was: The Mysticism of St. Augustine.

Richard Kujawa, professor of Geography, presented the paper “Critical Pedagogies of Environmental Governance: Coal Ash, Waste, and Discourses of Environmental Justice in the Liberal Arts classroom,” at the national conference of the Association of American Geographers held in Chicago in April, 2015.  He continues his term as the elected representative for the New England and Saint Lawrence Valley region on the National Council of the Association.

Dave Landers, instructor of psychology and gender studies, was awarded a top NCAA  Faculty Mentor Award, presented by the Division II Student Athletic Advisory Committee in Washington, D.C., in January. He also has made media appearances as an expert on everything from fraternities to the Final Four and has presented programs at high schools and universities in the region on topics from high school-college transition to student-athlete mental wellness.

Carolyn Lukens-Olson, professor of modern languages/Spanish, recently had an article published in the Anuario de Estudios Literarios (Vigo, Spain: January 2015). She also presented a paper at the 60th annual conference of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland, which was held at Exeter University (UK) April 13-15.

James Nagle, associate professor in education, in April launched the inaugural issue of the Middle Grades Review, which he co-edits. It’s is an online journal that encourages a critical perspective within the field of middle grades education and explores issues in democratic education, technology and innovation, and social justice.

Tara Natarajan, associate professor of economics, presented a conference paper — A case of “toxic development,” at the annual economic convention of Allied Social Science Association (ASSA) 2015, held Jan. 3-5 in Boston. Tara presented in a joint session of Association for Evolutionary Economics/Union for Radical Political Economics at the ASSA gathering.

Elizabeth O’Dowd, professor of applied linguistics and director, graduate TESOL programs, gave a presentation in March at the International TESOL Convention, Toronto: “Learning Grammar By Ear.”

Paul Olsen, assistant professor of business administration and accounting, presented two Critical Incident cases – “August First Bakery & Café Goes Screen Free” and “Save the Whales? Crisis Management at Lego,” at the Midwest Business Administration Association (MBAA) International Conference in Chicago in March.

John O’Meara, associate professor of physics, on February 27 was the invited colloquium speaker at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, where he shared recent research developments in his work on galaxies and their environments. In February, he also was selected as a member of the International Science Definition Team for the 30-meter telescope project. In early April, John was the colloquium speaker at Middlebury and University of Vermont in celebration of the 25^th anniversary of the launch of Hubble Space Telescope.

R. Michael Olson, associate professor of philosophy, presented a paper on John Henry Newman at The Association for Core Texts and Courses (ACTC) Twenty-First Annual Conference in Plymouth, MA, on April 12. His essay on Newman, which he presented last fall at The Joint International Conference of the Association française des Amis de Newman and the Newman Association of America in Paris, France, will be published in Études newmaniennes.

Robin Rhodes Astor, senior associate director of admissions, recently placed a Letter to the Editor of the Burlington Free Press titled “College education more than just elite schools,” in which she took issue from her professional perspective with an article the paper had run titled “Tips from an Expert — How to Wow Top Colleges” (March 31). Robin made the case for the value and success-stories to be found at a wider variety of colleges than those surveyed in the syndicated Free Press piece.

Michael Samara, academic support adviser/campus minister, recently completed exit interviews with six Chaplain Interns completing their year-long Clinical Pastoral Education program at the UVM Medical Center. Mike also has been active as a pastoral care visitor for his church (First Congregational Church of Burlington), regularly visiting folks in the hospital, local rehab centers and nursing homes.

Jonathan Silverman, associate professor of education (department chair) and coordinator of arts in education, recently published an article, “A cross cultural collaboration exploring art literacy, creativity, and social transformation in China,” in the International Journal of Education through Art (April 2015).

Patricia Siplon, professor of political science, was the keynote speaker at the National Student Global AIDS Campaign Conference held at Harvard University February 21. She delivered a talk entitled “Global HIV/AIDS Activism and the Role of Students — Past, Present and Future.”  She will also deliver a paper at the Annual Midwest Political Science Association Panel and chair a panel, accompanied by a student who will present a research paper on work in Tanzania.

Michael P. Stefanowicz ’09, assistant director of admission, in September 2014 was voted in as the President-Elect of the Consortium of Vermont Colleges, a statewide admission network and a committee of the Vermont Higher Education Council.  Mike will be the President of the CVC from September 2015 through September 2016.

Laura Stroup, assistant professor of environmental studies; Jeff Ayres, professor of political science and dean of the College; and Richard Kujawa, professor of geography, Economics Department chair and human geography minor coordinator, have had the following paper accepted for publication: “Envisioning a Green Energy Future in Canada and the United States” in a Special Issue of American Review of Canadian Studies on the Place of Nature in Canadian Studies in the U.S.  The paper is slated for volume 45.3 (Fall 2015).

Jerry Swope, associate professor of media studies, journalism and digital arts, had 19 images published in the Spring 2015 issue of Vermont Life Magazine for a story about the Sustainability Academy at Lawrence Barnes in Burlington.

John A. Trono, professor of computer science, gave an invited talk on March 18, 2015, at Middlebury College, presenting his “Reasonably Secure Cryptosystem Based on Addition.” He also presented a paper at the Central Plains regional conference of the Consortium for Computer Science in Colleges (CCSC-CP), April 10-11 in Branson, Missouri.

Jeffrey Trumbower, professor of religious studies, published an essay, “Christians, Sabbateans, and the Dead Sea Sect: A Comparative Case Study in Jewish Sectarian Logic,” in T. R. Blanton, R. M. Calhoun, and C. K. Rothschild, eds., The History of Religions School Today (Tuebingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2014), pp. 185-196.

Joan Wagner, director of community-engaged learning and coordinator of experiential learning, contributed a book chapter titled “Care, Compassion, and the Examined Life: Combining Creative Nonfiction and Community Engagement in a First-Year Seminar” to a new Modern Language Association publication, Service Learning and Literary Studies in English, Eds. Laurie Grobman and Roberta Rosenberg (2015). The publication explores how a variety of student collaborations with community partners can bring social awareness and deeper ethical understanding to the study of literary texts.

Todd A Johnstone-Wright ’96, M’11, associate dean of students and director of wilderness programs, has been invited to participate in the United Kingdom Coaching Certificate/British Canoe Union). Level 4 Coach Program (Level 4 is the highest qualification for coaches working in the United Kingdom and is a collaboration between the BCU, UKCC and the University of Sterling; it is a 2-year post-graduate, master’s program in Performance Coaching. Todd is a member of the third cohort to begin the program and the second North American to be invited.

Joan Wry, associate professor of English, presented a paper, “Lydia Sigourney’s Fabric Poems and the New England Marketplace,” at the PCA/ACA American Culture Association Conference in New Orleans on April 3, 2015.  She also served as Chair of the New England Studies panel for the conference.