Professor of Art and Civic Engagement Council chair Amara Geffen and Core Commitments interns David Valentine ‘10 and Jinnie Templin ‘11 co-presented at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Educating for Personal and Social Responsibility: Deepening Student and Campus Commitments Conference in Minneapolis October 1-3. The presentation, part of a panel titled “Students Engaging Students: Facilitating Personal and Social Responsibility at the Intersection of Curricular and Co-Curricular Experiences,” featured the leadership by Allegheny students in revising the College’s Statement of Community as well as the role of student ambassadors in the Year of Social Change. Faculty, staff, and students from University of the Pacific and Rollins College also participated in the panel.
In addition, Professor Geffen presented — via Skype — at the Imagining America National Conference in New Orleans on October 1. The panel, “Community Arts in Rural America: Stories from the Field,” focused on the role of arts in transforming, creating measurable change, and impacting economic development, with emphasis on college-community collaborations. Professor Geffen’s presentation highlighted the decade of collaboration between the Arts & Environment Initiative and PennDOT. Panel co-presenters included Jesikah Maria Ross, director of Art for Regional Change at UC Davis, and Elliot Knight, co-director of Black Belt 100 Lenses at the University of Alabama.
Associate Professor of Computer Science Gregory M. Kapfhammer recently presented a poster at the 3rd International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM 2009). Co-authored with Erik Ostrofsky ‘11, “An Empirical Comparison of Methods for Compressing Test Coverage Reports” identifies some of the fundamental trade-offs associated with the compression and storage of coverage data. For instance, the poster reveals that a compression method tailored to the text-based eXtensible Markup Language (XML) can create a coverage file that is smaller than the corresponding report in a compressed binary format. Further information about this poster and other related research is available at http://www.cs.allegheny.edu/~gkapfham/research/kanonizo/.
Professor of Environmental Science Eric Pallant and Meredith Hanlon ‘09 attended the 7th International Globelics Conference 2009, “Inclusive Growth, Innovation and Technological Change: Education, Social Capital and Sustainable Development,” jointly organized by the Consortium pour la Recherche Economique et Sociale (CRES) of the Universite Cheikh Anta Diop and the United Nations University Maastricht Economic and Social Research and Training Centre on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT), held in Dakar, Senegal, October 6-8. They presented a paper co-authored with Associate Professor of Economics Steven Onyeiwu titled “Sustainable and unsustainable agriculture in Ghana and Nigeria: 1960-2009.”
Adjunct Instructor of Music and Woodwind Area Coordinator Julie Hepler will perform the Concerto in Bb for Bassoon and Orchestra, K. 191 with the River Cities Symphony Orchestra on October 30 in Parkersburg, W.V. Julie teaches courses in music history and appreciation, as well as private clarinet, saxophone, oboe and bassoon for the College. An active performer, she is the principal bassoonist of the Lake Erie Ballet Orchestra and the River Cities Symphony Orchestra. She is a frequent performer with the West Virginia Symphony, the Erie Philharmonic Orchestra and the Youngstown Symphony. In the past, she was the principal bassoonist of the Baton Rouge Symphony and has appeared with the orchestras of New Orleans, Mississippi and Buffalo, among others. Julie Hepler has performed as a bassoon soloist with the Erie Chamber Orchestra, the River Cities Symphony Orchestra and the Baton Rouge Symphony.
Assistant Professor of Classical Studies Judson Herrman was invited to present his recent work on Demosthenes at the Classical Commentary Writers’ Workshop at Georgetown University on October 16 and 17.
Mike Richwalsky, of the Office of Public Affairs, was the featured speaker at the CUPRAP West conference, held October 12 at Robert Morris University. He spoke on social media usage for marketing here at Allegheny and trends in the marketplace. CUPRAP is the professional organization of college and university marketing professionals in Pennsylvania.
Several photographs by Adjunct Professor Richard Sayer were shown at the Yolanda G. Barco Oncology Institute open house on October 2. The photographs were of Sue Kilburn, a Meadville woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. A breast cancer and breast care educator, Ms. Kilburn will continue to use the photographs and her story to try to help others. The Meadville Tribune ran a story by Richard Sayer on October 1 to kick off Breast Cancer Awareness month. The story and an audio slideshow with pictures from the exhibit can be seen at http://www.meadvilletribune.com/multimedia/local_story_273180127.html . Representative Kathy Dahlkemper read the Tribune story on the House floor.
People & Places, published monthly during the academic year, reports on the professional activities of members of the College community and highlights student achievements. Please submit items to people@allegheny.edu. Questions about People & Places? Contact Kathy Roos at kathy.roos@allegheny.edu. We reserve the right to edit copy for length.
Abby Conroy ‘10, Andrew Pfeifer ‘10, Shannon Zaret ‘10, and Assistant Professor of Environmental Science TJ Eatmon presented a paper titled “A Review of Paper Purchasing Policy Options for Allegheny College” at the annual conference of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) in Indianapolis. Since the report was first presented on campus last spring, several recommendations have been implemented including new default margin and spacing changes to campus computers and default duplex printing on 36 newly installed multifunction printers. The report estimates that controlling for changes in use habits, these new defaults should decrease campus paper costs by more than 50 percent while significantly reducing environmental impacts.
Jessica Kenemuth ‘09, Allison Hensler ‘10, and Associate Professor of Biology and Neuroscience Lee Coates presented research at the Midwest-Great Lakes Undergraduate Neuroscience Research Symposium recently held at Ohio Wesleyan University. The title of the presentation was “Investigating the Transduction Pathways of Odorants and Olfactory CO2 in Mice.” Jessica and Alli worked over the summer in Dr. Coates’s lab and were supported by the Shanbrom Research Fund. The research they conducted is part of Dr. Coates’s research program studying the triggers for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Amy Wiseman and her summer research students Ashley Brandebura ‘11 and Kristen Cushman ‘10 gave a presentation, “Ways to Maintain and Improve Cognition as Part of Active Aging,” on September 17 at the Active Aging Senior Center in Meadville. The presentation was taped by Armstrong Cable and will be shown on Channel 23 for the next two weeks.
Assistant Professor of English Kerry Bakken’s short story “Indignity” was named one of the 100 Notable Stories of 2008 by The Best American Short Stories 2008. Her essay “Not Waving But Drowning” was named one of the 100 Notable Essays of 2008 by The Best American Essays 2008.
In collaboration with co-authors Adam M. Smith ‘08 and Joshua J. Geiger ‘08, Manos Renieris (Google), and G. Elisabeta Marai (University of Pittsburgh), Associate Professor of Computer Science Gregory M. Kapfhammer recently published a paper in the Compendium of the IEEE Information Visualization Conference. “Interactive Coverage Effectiveness Multiplots for Evaluating Prioritized Regression Test Suites” describes a visualization technique that allows software testers to compare the effectiveness of test suite orders. Dr. Kapfhammer recently completed and continues to conduct studies of the method described in this paper with Vidya Kulkarni, a Reader at the University of Delhi, and two Delhi master’s students, Ankita Mahajan and Arpan Agrawal. Additional information about the paper and other related research is available at http://www.cs.allegheny.edu/~gkapfham/research/kanonizo/.
Brian Kern, head of technical services in Pelletier Library, gave a presentation at the annual meeting of the Eastern Great Lakes chapter of the Innovative Users Group, held at the Akron-Summit County Public Library in Akron, Ohio. His talk on collection management and deselection is available at http://www.rodmanlibrary.com/iug/egl2009/bookretirement.ppt
Assistant Professor of Art Darren Lee Miller is one of eight artists invited to show their work at the Durbin Gallery of Birmingham-Southern College. The Show, Visibilities: The Art of Negotiating Identity, is an invitational exhibition that examines the complex social, political and sexual issues surrounding identity and visibility in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer communities. Professor Miller will spend two days as an artist-in-residence on the Birmingham-Southern campus, where he has been invited to participate in critique and deliver an artist’s talk about his work Under the Surface and Everywhere: Performative Strategies for Unearthing the Queer in the Vernacular.
Professor of Religious Studies Carl Olson recently published Historical Dictionary of Buddhism (Scarecrow Press, 2009) and “The Human Body as a Boundary Symbol: A Comparison of Merleau-Ponty and Dogen,” edited by Jin Y. Pak and Gereon Kopf (Lexington Books, 2009), pp. 83-94.
The Advertising Federation of Northwest Pennsylvania — formerly the Erie Ad Club — recently announced the winners of its 2009 Creative Spark Awards. Mike Richwalsky, of the College’s Office of Public Affairs, received the award for excellence in electronic communications and marketing for his work in the Erie community. The Creative Spark Awards recognize individuals who are making a positive impact on the advertising and marketing communications industry in northwest Pennsylvania. The award recipients will be honored at an awards celebration on Friday, Oct. 2 at the Bayfront Sheraton Hotel in Erie.
Adjunct Professor Richard Sayer won a first place in the General News category for Region 3 of the National Press Photographers Association for a photograph of a man jumping headfirst into the icy water at Pymatuning Lake last February. Sayer and his brother also won the Northeast division playdowns for the U.S. Championships in the doubles, considered the premier event in Lawn Bowls. The win allows them to compete representing the Northeast in the championships held in Long Beach, California, in October. This will be his 10th trip to the Championships — he won the U.S. Championships in 1996 and 2007, both times with his brother. They have come in second four times.
Associate Professor of Political Science Sharon Wesoky presented a paper titled “Engendering the Local: Development Projects and the Empowerment of Chinese Rural Women” at a symposium on China’s Rural Development, the 2009 signature conference of the China Institute at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. Her chapter, “Re-presenting Rural Women’s Identities: Time, Recognition, and Representation of Rural Chinese Women, ” was recently published in Marginalization in China: Recasting Minority Politics (Palgrave, 2009).
People & Places, published monthly during the academic year, reports on the professional activities of members of the College community and highlights student achievements. Please submit items to people@allegheny.edu. Questions about People & Places? Contact Kathy Roos at kathy.roos@allegheny.edu. We reserve the right to edit copy for length.
Twelve Allegheny students gave presentations at the national meeting of the American Physical Society held in Pittsburgh last March. They are (with faculty advisors in parentheses) Adam Simbeck ‘09, Brandon Momeyer ‘09, Leah Parsons ‘09 (Professor Gary Bedrosian), Kristen Duthie ‘09, Chris Whiting ‘09, Nate Rieders ‘09, Satoko Asahi ‘09, Simon Kohnstamm ‘10 (Professor Adele Poynor), Tanya Nocera ‘09, Katlyn Meier ‘09 (Professor Doros Petasis), Barbara Dunlap ‘09 (Professor David Statman), and Kelly Salb ‘09 (Professor Dan Willey). In addition, Professor Shafiq Rahman gave a presentation titled “Civic Engagement through Differential Equations?” on the innovative Physics Junior Seminar designed to expose physics majors to the issues that lie at the intersection of science and society, Statman gave an invited talk on forging partnerships with science museums as a way to increase public outreach, and Poynor presented a talk co-authored with Corey Shemelya ‘08 on using Surface Plasmon Resonance to investigate the behavior of water near hydrophobic surfaces.
Sarah Snider ‘09, Amy Schrembs ‘09, Stephanie Ogilbee ‘09, and Katy Orchowski ‘09 – accompanied by Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Rodney Clark – attended the 35th annual convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI), held May 22-26 in Phoenix. Sarah, Amy, Stephanie, and Katy presented posters of their independent study and senior comprehensive research projects. Sarah’s work was titled “A Comparison of Mefloquine and Phencyclidine in a Place Preference Procedure in Rats.” Amy’s project was titled “An Application of Computer-Based Training on Facial Discrimination in Autistic Children.” Katy and Stephanie jointly presented their work: “Some Discriminative Properties of Cocaine and Caffeine; Effects of A2a, D1, and D2 Receptor Antagonists.”
Michael Peroski ‘10 recently published the article “Commissions on a Mission” in Science Progress, a journal that focuses on progressive approaches to science and technology policy. The article — which is available at http://www.scienceprogress.org/2009/08/commissions-on-a-mission/ — focuses on the evolution of bioethics commissions in the United States, the roles of a president’s commission of bioethics, and the differences between a data-driven commission and an ideology-driven commission.
Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Amy Wiseman presented a poster titled “Distinctiveness memory training reduces gist-based false recognition” at the annual Association for Psychological Science meeting in San Francisco in May. Her three student coauthors on the poster were Lauren Mursch ‘10, Ashley Brandebura ‘11, and Samantha Ford ‘10.
Assistant Director of Student Involvement Kate Gullatta was selected to be a facilitator at the Undergraduate Interfraternity Institute (UIFI) in July at Indiana University in Bloomington. UIFI is a five-day program through which undergraduate Greek students from around the country enhance their leadership skills, strengthen their commitment to their fraternity or sorority, and grow to expect values-based action from themselves and those they lead.
Assistant Professor of Classical Studies Judson Herrman recently published his second book. Hyperides: Funeral Oration; Edited with Introduction, Translation and Commentary has appeared as volume 53 of American Classical Studies, published by Oxford University Press.
Professor of Psychology JW P. Heuchert made a presentation titled “The Development of an Adolescent Version of the Profile of Mood States (POMS)” at the XIV European Developmental Psychology Conference in Vilnius, Lithuania in August. Heuchert also participated in the Institute of Higher Education’s “Pedagogy for Peace: Educating Moral Leaders in a Violent World” in Arlington, Texas, in June.
Associate Professor of Computer Science Gregory M. Kapfhammer was appointed to the editorial board of the International Journal of Software Engineering and Its Applications (IJSEIA), published by the Science & Engineering Research Support Society in the Republic of Korea. More information about the IJSEIA is available at http://www.sersc.org/journals/IJSEIA/. Kapfhammer also served as a journal reviewer or member of a conference program committee on twelve occasions in 2009, examining papers for publication venues such as Elsevier Journal of Information and Software Technology and IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.
The Bridges Organization has published the paper “An Interdisciplinary First Seminar on Symmetry,” by Associate Professor of Mathematics Tamara Lakins. Lakins presented the paper at the Bridges: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science conference held at the Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery in Alberta, Canada in July 2009. In August 2009, Lakins was an invited member of the panel “Joining the mathematical community,” held at the Project NExT workshop in Portland, Oregon. Project NExT (New Experiences in Teaching) is a national Mathematical Association of America professional development program for new and recent Ph.D.s in mathematics; Lakins is also a co-coordinator of the local Allegheny Mountain Section NExT.
Associate Professor of Political Science Shannan Mattiace presented a paper at Harvard University’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies on April 10, 2009. The topic of the symposium was “Fifteen Years after the Zapatistas: Social and Political Change in Mexico and Chiapas since 1994.” Mattiace’s article “Ethnic Mobilization among the Maya of Yucatan” was published in the journal Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies in July 2009.
Assistant Professor of Art Darren Lee Miller was one of fifty artists chosen to show their work in the 2009 International Exhibition at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado. Juror Andy Adams selected Miller’s image “Heaven” from over 1,500 submissions for the show. The 2009 International Exhibition will be on display in the center’s online gallery (http://www.c4fap.org) and physical gallery October 2-31.
Associate Professor of Economics Tomas Nonnenmacher and Associate Professor of Political Science Shannan Mattiace were awarded a University of Pittsburgh Library Fellowship for their work on labor and henequen haciendas in Yucatan, Mexico for use during the summer of 2009.
Director of Pre-Professional Studies Kirsten Peterson was elected president of the North East Association of Advisors of the Health Professions (NEAAHP) at the organization’s annual meeting in Philadelphia in early April. NEAAHP is one of four regional groups that make up the National Association of Advisors of the Health Professions (NAAHP). Regional presidents serve on the national board during their tenure. Both organizations help advisors keep abreast of changes and trends in all fields of medical education in a number of ways, primary of which is sponsoring a yearly conference that brings advisors together with medical professional school deans, admissions directors, and professional association representatives to share issues of common concern. Peterson also serves on the NAAHP Communications Committee, contributing to the quarterly journal The Advisor and other NAAHP publications, as well as abstracting articles for the NAAHP website.
Mike Richwalsky, of the Office of Public Affairs, presented at the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE) Information Services Conference, held at Smith College, where he led a hands-on session about Amazon Web Services. He spoke about Allegheny’s use of social media at both the Whipple Hill Annual Users Conference in Boston and at workshops in London, England, and Cardiff, Wales, presented by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and NetSkills. Finally, he was an invited speaker at the Institutional Web Management Workshop held at the University of Essex in Colchester, England. This fall, he is serving on the NERCOMP program committee.
Professor of Art George Roland is exhibiting a work of computational art at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. The work was selected for inclusion in the AAP 99th Annual Exhibition, which runs through November 9. The exhibition juror was Doryun Chong, associate curator in the department of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Professor of History Barry Shapiro’s book Traumatic Politics: The Deputies and the King in the Early French Revolution is scheduled to be published by Penn State University Press on October 1. This work examines the political effects of the grave threats to the lives of the members of the French National Assembly posed by royal troops in June/July 1789. It seeks to demonstrate that, even though these threats were never actually carried out, the intense fear of death experienced by the deputies was sufficiently traumatizing as to profoundly influence their future political behavior. In pursuing this argument, Shapiro attempts to expand the range and scope of situations in which trauma can be considered as a significant explanatory factor in historical analysis, for historians have hitherto generally confined themselves to exploring the traumatic impact of massively violent and destructive events like military combat, genocide, and natural disaster.
The Morris K. Udall Foundation has honored four Allegheny students, the highest number of combined scholarship and honorable mention recipients from any single college. Carlyn Johnson ’11 and Ali Trunzo ’11 have been selected as 2009 Udall Scholars. Brandon Goeller ’10 and Sandra Wayman ’10 received honorable mention awards. A 14-member independent review committee selected this year’s group of scholars and honorable mention recipients on the basis of commitment to careers in the environment, health care or tribal public policy; leadership potential; and academic achievement.
On April 3 Becky Egg ’09 gave a talk titled “Geometrical Structures Associated to a Finite Group” at the annual meeting of the Allegheny Mountain Section of the Mathematical Association of America. The meeting was held at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia.
Meredith (Molly) Hanlon ‘09 was chosen in a nationally competitive process to represent Allegheny College at the 13th annual undergraduate poster session on Capitol Hill. The event, hosted by the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR), aims to educate those in the U.S. Congress who provide funding for science and science education about the importance of undergraduate research. Student presenters are selected based on the quality of their project and ability to communicate clearly. Molly will be presenting a poster titled “A Role for the Plant Hormone Auxin in Arbuscular Mycorrhiza, and Agriculturally Important Symbiosis,” in which she summarizes two years of research conducted in collaboration with Associate Professor of Biology Catharina Coenen. Molly also won a travel grant from Penn State University to present a poster titled “Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis in Tomato: Genetic Evidence for Auxin Control” at the 17th Penn State Plant Biology Symposium, Plant-Soil Interactions in Future Climates, on May 19-21.
Twenty one Allegheny students participated in the Sigma Xi undergraduate research conference held at Penn State Behrend on April 18. They are (with their faculty advisors listed in parentheses): David Barlow (Paula Treckel), Casey Brown (Jeff Cross), Sara Brown (Gwen Kenney-Benson, Patricia Rutledge, Rodney Clark), Devin Click (Milton Ostrofsky), Amelia Conte (Rodney Clark), Katherine Eriksen (Rodney Clark), Jennifer Evans (Milt Ostrofsky), Lucas Glover (Jeffrey Cross, Amy Wiseman), Meredith Hanlon (Catharina Coenen), Ryan Hanson (Lee Coates), Shane Hennessy (Lee Coates), Jessica Kenemuth (Lee Coates), Chrysanthemum Mattison (Melissa Comber), Brittany Pierce (Alice Deckert), Marina Rezk (Lee Coates), Emily Ricotta (Tricia Humphreys), Lesley Sevcik (Alice Deckert), Stephen Shinsky (Catharina Coenen), George Swinston (Jeff Cross), Christopher Wahlmark (Ann Kleinschmidt, Jennifer Dearden) and Ashleigh Welko (Lauren French, Lee Coates). Students whose names appear in boldface italic were given awards for best presentations in their sessions. A total of 224 students from colleges in western Pennsylvania participated in the conference.
Allegheny seniors Elizabeth Andrews and Christina Walrond, both student fellows with the Center for Political Participation, along with CPP Program Coordinator Mary Solberg, attended “Advocating for Change,” a two-day conference sponsored by the National Campaign for Political and Civic Engagement at Harvard University. The April 3-5 conference generated thought-provoking discussion among colleges throughout the country on ways to increase civic/political involvement by students through hands-on public advocacy projects. Marshall Ganz, a Harvard lecturer in public policy and a recognized civil rights organizer, was a featured presenter.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Carla Bluhm, Ashley Crosby ’10, Michelle Pastor ’11, and Daniel Tate ’12 presented a paper at “Teachers, Teaching, and the Movies: Representations and Pedagogy in Film, Television, and New Media” called “Teaching by Tweets: New Media in the Psychology Classroom” at St. Mary’s College of California.
Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Amy Wiseman and three of her students, Ann Schellberg ‘09, Bahar Noorbakhsh ‘09, and Laura Erbelding ‘09, presented a poster titled “Training Older Adults to Reduce False Recognition” at the annual Eastern Psychological Association meeting in Pittsburgh in March.
Jessica Kenemuth ’09, Andrea Hoke ’09, and Associate Professor of Biology and Neuroscience Lee Coates presented research at the Association of Chemoreception Sciences meeting held in Sarasota, Florida in April. The title of the presentation was “The Effects of Membrane Permeant and Impermeant Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibitors on the Olfactory and Trigeminal Responses to CO2 in Mice.” This research investigated the transduction mechanism of olfactory CO2 receptors, which is part of Dr. Coates’s research on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
The Department of History is pleased to announce this year’s recipient of funding from the Jonathan E. and Nancy L. Helmreich Research and Book Grant Fund. Assistant Professor Guo Wu will utilize funding from the Helmreich Grant to travel this summer to Shanghai and Guiyang, China, where he will conduct research on the role of bookstores in transforming the culture of inland China in the 1910s and 1920s. He will investigate how bookstores, selling new journals, books and translation works to teachers, students, and workers, fostered cultural change. At the same time, he will explore how the bookstores were appropriated by their founders as a site to implement their ideology of mutual aid and anarchism. This work is for Professor Wu’s new research project, “Reading Rooms, Book Stores and Early Chinese Marxists, 1919-1920.”
The Department of History is pleased to announce that Assistant Professor Kale Haywood is the recipient of a grant from the Edwin Van Duesen Selden Fund. This grant permitted her to attend the Southwest Social Science Association annual meeting in Denver, Colorado, where she presented the paper “Into the Sunset: Travelers’ Perceptions of the Diocese of Michoacan, 1760-1900.” This paper is an outgrowth of her manuscript on the colonial Michoacano cathedral chapter and explores foreigners’ perceptions of the region. In her paper Haywood argued that outsiders viewed the region as lagging behind national economic development standards while retaining a rustic, colonial charm. Haywood also served as chair and commentator on a panel titled “War and Society in Nineteenth Century Latin America” at the conference and chaired the F. Bullitt Lowry Prize Committee, which selected the most accomplished paper submitted to the conference in the area of African and Latin American history.
Assistant Professor of History Ian Binnington will publish an article titled “‘Standing Upon a Volcano’: Cincinnati’s Newspapers Debate Emancipation, 1860–1862″ in the journal American Nineteenth Century History in June 2009.
Professor of Environmental Science Richard Bowden presented “Earth, Wind, and Fire: Singing the Praises of Geothermal, Wind, and Biodiesel Energy at Allegheny College” during the National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Web Conference held March 12. Bowden’s presentation described Allegheny’s initiatives on geothermal heating, wind energy purchases and local partnerships, and the College’s Center for Economic and Environmental Development collaboration with the City of Meadville on a biodiesel program.
Professor of Computer Science and Economics Robert Cupper gave a presentation as part of a panel at SIGCSE 2009, the 40th Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, in Chattanooga, Tennessee in March. Cupper’s contribution included a description of the software infrastructure developed here with the support of a grant from the Buhl Foundation. This software, when used in conjunction with our high tech multimedia classroom/laboratory, facilitates an interactive learning-by-doing component in the introductory course in computer science.
Director of Human Resources Pat Ferrey has been elected president of the Southwestern PA CUPA-HR chapter (College and University Professional Association for Human Resources) for 2008-2010. The president serves as the chapter’s chief volunteer and partners with the regional and national boards to achieve the association and chapter’s mission and goals, provides leadership to the board of directors, chairs meetings of the board, and helps guide and mediate board actions with respect to organizational priorities and governance concerns.
In February, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Matt Jadud was invited to give a talk at Carnegie Mellon at the computer science department’s Colloquium on Computer Science Pedagogy. The talk, “Exploring the Behavior of Novice Programmers,” as well as a video of the talk, is available at http://www.intro.cs.cmu.edu/events/colloquium.html). Jadud’s paper “Affective and Behavioral Predictors of Novice Programmer Achievement,” co-authored with colleagues at the University de Ateneo in the Philippines, was accepted to ITiCSE (the conference Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education). Jadud has also been invited to speak at USENIX, the Advanced Computing Systems Association’s large, annual conference. The talk is titled “Towards Designing Usable Languages,” and the abstract is available at http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix09/tech/tech.html#jadud.
Associate Professor of Mathematics Tamara Lakins was awarded the 2009 Allegheny Mountain Section Service Award at the Spring 2009 meeting of the Allegheny Mountain Section of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). The Section Service Award recognizes “a consistent record of excellence in service to the section over a period of time.” Lakins has served the Allegheny Mountain Section MAA in the following capacities: second vice-chair (2000-01), first vice-chair (2001-02), chair-elect (2002-03), chair (2003-05), co-coordinator of the Allegheny Mountain Section NExT (2000-03, 2008-present).
Assistant Professor of English and Coordinator of the Black Studies Minor Aisha Damali Lockridge presented papers at two conferences this April. She presented “Mystical Mammies and Séance Sisters: Examining the Magical Negress” on April 10 at the annual PCA/ACA conference. The second, “Uplifted Out DuBois: Ntozake Shange and the Talented Tenth,” was given on April 18 at the annual African Literature Association conference. Lockridge was also recently nominated to serve on the executive board of the African Literature Association.
Associate Professor of Computer Science Bob Roos served as a judge for the 33rd World Finals of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest, held April 18-21 in Stockholm, Sweden. More than 7,100 teams representing 1,838 colleges and universities from 88 countries participated in regional contests held last fall. The top one hundred teams qualified for positions at the 2009 World Finals championships. This was Roos’s fourteenth year serving as a World Finals judge.
Richard Sayer and Josh Tysiachney served as panelists at Edinboro University’s High School Journalism Day on April 15. Sayer, who is an adjunct faculty member at Allegheny and a photographer for the Meadville Tribune, was on the panel “Photojournalism: Capturing the Moment.” Tysiachney, who is assistant director of public affairs and co-editor of Allegheny magazine, was on the panel “Technological Trends in Student Media l.”
English instructor and Campus newspaper advisor Penni Schaefer won a second-place award in the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association’s annual Keystone Awards competition in the category of Special Projects. Her entry was a look into the money earned by the state through gambling taxes and how it wasn’t going where it was promised in the initial proposals to legalize gambling. The story was completed while Schaefer was a reporter for the Meadville Tribune. Richard Sayer, an adjunct faculty member in the art department, was awarded a second place for a graphic/photo illustration for a page one feature in the Tribune on the first day of high school basketball season. Sayer has been a photojournalist at the paper for 11 years.
Meadville Fine Art Prints held an exhibition of pen-and-ink drawings by Associate Professor of Art Richard A. Schindler. The exhibition, titled “Awash in Angels,” was held April 1-30.
Assistant Professor of History Guo Wu contributed two Chinese-English translations, “The New View of Historical Evolvement and the Modernizing Process in East Asia” and “Modern Chinese Historical Studies in the Light of the Modernization Theory,” to Chinese Studies in History: A Journal of Translations (M.E. Sharpe) at the invitation of its editor.
People & Places, published monthly during the academic year by the Office of the President, 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.
Sharon Bellina ‘09 has accepted a year-long internship in dramaturgy at the Pasadena Playhouse in California.
Amy Schrembs ‘09 presented her work “An Application of Computer-Based Training on Emotional Discrimination in Children with Autism: A Comparison to Non-Computer-Based Training” at the 2009 ABAI Autism Conference held in Jacksonville, Florida, in early February. The work was completed as part of Amy’s senior thesis project, supervised by Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Rodney Clark.
Under the supervision of Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Sarah Conklin, Siera Goodnight ‘09, Josh Sesek ‘10, Annie Ginty ‘09 and Emilia Symoniak ‘10 presented the results of their summer research at the 67th annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society in Chicago in March. The project consisted of a 21-day double blinded and placebo controlled trial of the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (1.4 g EPA & DHA) in young adults. Siera Goodnight, who was a recipient of the society’s Young Scholar Award, presented data showing that supplementation of these fatty acids influenced resting cerebral asymmetry of EEG power, whereas the placebo group showed no change. Emilia Symoniak, who was also a recipient of the Young Scholar Award, reported data showing that supplementation with the fatty acids, but not placebo, reduced self-reported symptoms of neuroticism and depression. Annie Ginty was a co-author on the poster. Josh Sesek presented his data on cardiovascular reactivity to mental stress. Josh found that supplementation, but not placebo use, reduced mean arterial pressure reactivity to a mental stress task in the laboratory. The Young Scholar Award is presented to the top ten abstract submissions by students, a category that includes graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and medical residents.
Professor of Environmental Science Richard Bowden was a presenter for the National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Habitat Restoration and Protection on Campus Conference held February 19, 2009. Bowden’s talk, “Using Vegetation to Capture and Reduce Carbon Emissions: Forest Carbon Sequestration, Biofuel Studies and Native Wildflower Gardens,” addressed Allegheny’s efforts on campus as well as with community partners to protect habitat and to reduce carbon emissions.
Associate Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies Mark Cosdon published “Le Voyage en Suisse des frres Hanlon: performances de comÈdiens et comÈdie de la performance” in the book Pantomime et thÈ‚tre du corps. Transparence et opacitÈ du hors-texte issued by the University of Rennes in France.
Assistant Professor of Computer Science Gregory M. Kapfhammer was recently chosen to serve as a guest editor for a special issue on Software Test Automation in the Advances in Software Engineering Journal. Working with lead guest editor Philip Laplante (Pennsylvania State University) and five other guest editors, Kapfhammer will help to prepare a journal issue focusing on the development and evaluation of methods that both reduce the cost of testing and improve software quality. This special issue of Advances in Software Engineering is slated to be published in December 2009.
Associate Professor of Political Science Shannan Mattiace was invited to present her paper “Mexico’s ‘Tranquil’ Indians: State Legislation and Indian Rights in Yucatan, Mexico” at a conference on Mexico’s Multiculturalism in Comparative Perspective at American University on February 19 and 20. Mattiace and Associate Professor of Economics Tomas Nonnenmacher published their first co-authored paper (with co-author Lee Allston) in The Journal of Economic History (Vol. 69, no. 1, March 2009). The title of the article is “Coercion, Culture, and Contracts: Labor and Debt on Henequen Haciendas in Yucatan, Mexico, 1870-1915.”
Associate Professor of Geology Rachel O’Brien has been invited to teach a three-day workshop on “Preparing for an Academic Career in the Geosciences: A Workshop for Graduate Students and Post-doctoral Fellows.” The workshop is sponsored by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers and is funded by a National Science Foundation grant. Scheduled for July 2009, the workshop will be held at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Professor of Religious Studies Carl Olson has published some further essays in the three-volume text Encyclopedia of Time: Science, Philosophy, Theology, and Culture, edited by H. James Brix and published in London by Sage Publications in 2009. He composed essays for the encyclopedia on Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Dogen, Nargarjuna, Sankara, and Paul Tillich.
Mike Richwalsky, of the Office of Public Affairs, presented the pre-conference workshop at the annual College and University Public Relations Association of Pennsylvania (CUPRAP) conference held in Hershey. The presentation dealt with the use of social media tools like Twitter and Facebook in college public relations. Mike’s slides are available at http://tinyurl.com/mikeslides. Mike was also featured in the March 2009 issue of University Business magazine, in an article titled “10 Questions and Answers About the Cloud,” dealing with college and university use of cloud computing. The article is online at http://tinyurl.com/acubstory.
Assistant Professor of History Guo Wu’s research paper “The Zhanguoce (Warring States Strategy) School’s Effort of Wartime Cultural Reconstruction, 1940-1942″ has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Modern Chinese History.
Marianne Broome ‘10 stage managed “Cymbelline” and “Misalliance” this past summer for New York Classical Theatre.
Carrie Miller ‘09 served as dramaturg on the Morse Code Theatre Company production “My Name Is Rachel Corrie.” Morse Code is a theatre company in New York City. The production featured Molly Beth Seremet ‘04.
The Mid-America Theatre Conference selected Lizzy Pecora ‘09 to present her paper “The Blessing of Angels in America: More Life, The Reagan Administration, and AIDS” at the organization’s March gathering in Chicago.
Professor of Mathematics Michael Barry’s article “The Density Function of the First Occurrence of a Binary Pattern” has been accepted for publication by the Mathematical Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Barry became interested in the ideas that resulted in this article after serving as second reader of Mark Imling’s fall 2002 senior comprehensive project, “Expected Waiting Times until the Occurrence of a Pattern of Heads and Tails,” which was directed by Professor of Mathematics Anthony Lo Bello.
Professor of Environmental Science Richard Bowden recently received a grant from the Wild Resource Conservation Fund, a program of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources that funds programs to conserve natural resources and non-game species. The grant, titled “High School Forest Conservation Education Modules: Preparing Students to Understand Conservation and Management of Penn’s Woods,” will develop high school-oriented forest education modules that introduce students to means by which modern forest science is applied to forest research and management. The modules, which will contain forest study exercises, background information, and forest research equipment, will be located at five sites around Pennsylvania. The $40,375 grant, which builds upon current work by Bowden and Department of Environmental Science Chair Terry Bensel, will support this effort, including students, through 2010.
Associate Professor of Theatre Mark Cosdon published a book review of “Angels in the American Theatre: Patrons, Patronage, and Philanthropy,” edited by Robert A. Schanke, in the New England Theatre Review. The American Theatre and Drama Society has appointed Cosdon to chair the Betty Jean Jones Award Committee; the award honors an outstanding teacher of American theatre. With funding from the Academic Support Committee, Cosdon will conduct research this summer on the Roman Empire’s popular performers.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Science TJ Eatmon presented a paper titled “Paradiplomacy and Climate Change: American States as Actors in Global Climate Governance” at the 50th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association in New York City. The paper will appear in an upcoming issue of Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research, a new interdisciplinary journal offering various policy-oriented perspectives on issues of natural resources.
Assistant Professor of Classical Studies Judson Herrman gave an invited presentation titled “Hyperides’ Against Diondas and the rhetoric of revolt” at an international conference on the new Hyperides text at the Institute of Classical Studies in London on January 30.
Assistant Professor of Computer Science Gregory M. Kapfhammer recently had a research paper accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on the Automation of Software Test (AST 2009), co-located with the 31st International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2009). Kapfhammer co-authored “An Experimental Study of Methods for Executing Test Suites in Memory Constrained Environments” with Suvarshi Bhadra ‘08, Alexander Conrad ‘09, Charles Hurkes ‘09 and Brian Kirklin ‘09. The paper describes and evaluates several new methods for running test suites in execution environments where main memory is severely limited. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach can reduce testing time by 17 percent and the code size of the test suite and application under test by 68 percent. In future research and development, Kapfhammer and his students aim to apply their techniques to the testing of software on modern mobile phones. More information about the paper is available at http://www.cs.allegheny.edu/~gkapfham/research/juggernaut/.
Assistant Professor of Art Darren Lee Miller is part of a four-person exhibition at the Art Institute of Boston Gallery at University Hall in Cambridge from March 5 through April 11. The show, titled “fourselves,” features photographs by John Arsenault, Janieta Eyre, Darren Miller and Lissa Rivera and is curated by Arlette Kayafas of Gallery Kayafas, Boston and Andrew Mroczek of Lesley University. Miller will present a public lecture about his work at the Art Institute of Boston on Thursday, March 5 and at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on Friday, March 6. More information about the exhibition can be found at http://www.lesley.edu/aib/events/events.html.
Professor of Religious Studies Carl Olson has had several essays published recently: “Trends and Competition within the World Religions Academic Marketplace,” Religious Studies Review (2008): 255-259; “Risks, Writing, Memory, and Intention: Reflections on the Process of Creating Introductory Texts on Buddhism and Hinduism,” Religion Compass, Vol. 2, No. 6 (2008): 993-1003; and “Implicatiile Hermeneuticii lui Elide,” translated by IIimpia Iacob. Origini: Romanian Roots Vol. XLII, Nos. 6-7-8 (August 2008): 91-97 (a journal published in Romania). His essay “Radical Monotheism of the Qur’an and the Equitheism of the Bhagavata Purana: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Allah and Krishna” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Indian Philosophy and Religion.
On Friday, March 20, at 7:30 p.m., the Erie Art Museum will host an opening of the documentary film “The Love of the Brick,” co-produced and co-written by Eleanor Weisman, director of the Allegheny Dance and Movement Studies Program. The film was created from interviews at BrickWorld 2008, a convention of adult and teen fans of LEGO. It illustrates the power of creativity and collaboration inspired by the “brick” and documents the internet community that has grown around the phenomenon.
Professor of Biology and Environmental Science Scott Wissinger’s article “Absence of species replacements between permanent and temporary lentic communities in New Zealand” was published in a recent issue of the Journal of the North American Benthological Society. The paper is based on research conducted while Wissinger was on sabbatical in New Zealand and is co-authored by Hamish Grieg and Angus McIntosh.
People & Places, published monthly during the academic year by the Office of the President, 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.
Michael Peroski ‘10 recently coauthored policy recommendations on human embryonic stem cell research in a report titled “Stem Cells: A Life Sciences Crucible.” The report was launched at a Center for American Progress event on January 16 and is available at:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/01/stem_cells.html.
Professor of Environmental Science Richard Bowden received a National Science Foundation Supplemental Grant to conduct work at the Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research Site in central Massachusetts. The project, “Leaf and Root Litter Decomposition: Soil OM Contributions,” will fund collection and quantification of leaf litter inputs to a long-term study that examines controls on soil organic matter.
Professor of Philosophy Bill Bywater gave two presentations over the summer on Goethe’s delicate empiricism and the idea of apprenticeship (based on delicate empiricism) that Bywater is developing. One paper was delivered at the International Human Research Conference at Ramapo College in New Jersey. The second was delivered at the Humanistic Psychology meetings (Division 33 of the American Psychological Association) in Boston.
Assistant Professor of Political Science Melissa K. Comber recently had her paper “Learning to Participate: The Effects of Civic Education on Racial/Ethnic Minorities” published in the National Political Science Review, 2008, special symposium titled “Beyond the Boundaries: A New Structure of Ambition in African American Politics.”
Assistant Professor of Classical Studies Judson Herrman delivered a paper at the 2009 meeting of the American Philological Association titled “Getting over defeat: Hyperides’ Against Diondas and the battle of Chaeronea.” Herrman also published an article, “The authenticity of the Demosthenic Funeral Oration,” in volume 48 of Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae.
Assistant Professor of Computer Science Gregory M. Kapfhammer was recently chosen to serve as a guest editor for a special section of the Elsevier Journal of Information and Software Technology. In the past few months, Kapfhammer has also served as a program committee member for the IEEE Workshop on Search-Based Software Testing and the IEEE Symposium on Search-Based Software Engineering. Finally, Kapfhammer was appointed to the position of program co-chair for the Testing: Academic and Industrial Conference (TAIC PART) that will be held in Windsor, United Kingdom in September 2009. More details about this international conference are available at http://www.taicpart.org/.
Portions of an interview with Associate Professor of Physics James C. Lombardi Jr. appeared in the Discovery Channel show “Cosmic Collisions: Galaxies,” which aired for the first time on January 28. Lombardi and his students use computer simulations at Allegheny to model what happens when stars collide. The show discussed collisions between galaxies, as well as between the stars within them, and portrayed the future collision of Andromeda and our own Milky Way galaxy.
Assistant Professor of Art Darren Lee Miller will be part of an exhibition at the Distillery Gallery in Boston from February 19 through March 26. The show, “Homestead AK 1st annual Summer Residency Show,” features diverse works by the first group of artists-in-residence at The Homestead AK, located about 100 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska. More information about Distillery Gallery and The Homestead AK can be found at http://www.distilleryboston.com/gallery_distillery.htm and http://www.thehomesteadAK.org.
Associate Professor of History Ken Pinnow’s article “Violence against the Collective Self: Suicide and the Problem of Social Integration in Early Bolshevik Russia” has been published in Histories of Suicide: International Perspectives on Self-Destruction in the Modern World, ed. John Weaver and David Wright (University of Toronto Press).
Mike Richwalsky of the Office of Public Affairs was interviewed in the January 2009 issue of University Business magazine in an article on the use of Twitter, a social networking and micro-blogging service, by colleges and universities across the country. You can follow Allegheny at Twitter here: http://twitter.com/alleghenycol. Richwalsky has also been named a Technology Fellow with the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE), a community-based, nonprofit initiative dedicated to helping undergraduate-centered colleges, universities, and educational organizations use technology to strengthen undergraduate education. He will be doing research and leading instructional sessions on cloud computing for other NITLE institutions around the country.
Adjunct Professor Rich Sayer has been appointed to a national committee of the United States Lawn Bowls Association to devise a new plan for the Laws of the Sport of Lawn Bowls in the United States and to make a proposal to World Bowls for changes to the international rule book. A third-generation bowler, Sayer has appeared in nine U.S. Championships, winning twice and being a runner-up five times. Sayer was also awarded another first place for a sports photograph in the National Press Photographers Association Region Three monthly contest. It is his third award this year in that contest.
Associate Professor of Political Science Sharon Wesoky recently presented papers at two conferences. She chaired a panel on “Experiences of Globalization in Greater China: Materiality, Representation, and Resistance” at the annual meeting of the Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies in Boulder, Colorado, where she also presented a paper titled “Representing Themselves: Globalization and the Empowerment of Chinese Rural Women.” She also presented a paper, “Feminism and Critiques of Globalization in Contemporary China,” at the Second Conference of the Kartini Network on “The Future of Asian Feminisms,” in Bali, Indonesia.
Assistant Professor of History Guo Wu published a book review on Kathryn Edgerton-Tarpley’s Tears from Iron: Cultural Responses to Famine in Nineteenth-Century China (University of California Press, 2008) in The Chinese Historical Review (Fall 2008), vol. 15, no. 2. He also completed two translation projects in December. One is an 8,000- word Chinese-English translation titled “Global History: In the Historical Memory of the Nation,” which is forthcoming in Chinese Studies in History, a translation journal of M.E. Sharp; the other is a 15,000-character Chinese translation of “The Public Sphere in Modern China” by Professor William T. Rowe of Johns Hopkins University, which will appear in a translation series published by a leading academic press in Shanghai in 2009.
People & Places, published monthly during the academic year by the Office of the President, 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.
Sustainability Coordinator Kelly Boulton ‘02 and Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Jennifer DeHart attended the AASHE (Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) Conference in Raleigh, N.C., in November. DeHart chaired a session on institutional change and presented a co-authored paper, “Green Honchos: How Allegheny College’s Taskforce for Environmental Responsibility Created Eco-minded Administrators.” The co-authors include all members of the College’s Taskforce for Environmental Responsibility.
Professor of Environmental Science Richard Bowden co-authored the presentation “Effects of Plant Litter Input on Lignin Degradation in Forest Soils” at the Eurosoil Conference in Vienna, Austria. The paper described research from experimental sites in Germany and at Allegheny’s Bousson Experimental Forest that examines how alteration of organic matter inputs affects biogeochemical processes controlling soil organic matter content and fertility in forest soils.
Visiting Assistant Professor TJ Eatmon co-authored a conference paper, “Political Feasibility, Environmental Sustainability, and Economic Efficiency Analysis of Conventional and Advanced Biofuels Technologies in the U.S.,” that was presented at the Global Conference on Sustainable Product Development and Life Cycle Engineering at Busan National University in Korea. The co-authors are members of the Sustainable Futures Institute at Michigan Technological University and include Michael Brodeur-Campbell, Jill Jensen, and David Shonnard of the Department of Chemical Engineering and John Sutherland from the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics. The paper examines three technologies for producing ethanol, including sugar sources, corn starch, and lignocellulosic biomass along criteria such as the ability of each to meet the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) of the United States Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, greenhouse gas emissions, land use change emissions, fossil energy consumption, land and water usage for each technology to meet the RFS, revenue generated, and the net economic value of investment in an additional ethanol production facility based on each technology.
Assistant Professor of Computer Science Matthew Jadud presented a paper, “Safe Parallelism for Behavioral Control,” written with colleagues at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, at the first IEEE conference on Technologies for Practical Robotic Applications (TePRA) in Woburn, Massachusetts in November. The paper describes an international collaborative effort that brought parallel programming to the classroom at Olin College in Needham, Massachusetts. Already, students at Allegheny have begun exploring these ideas in CMPSC 190: Virtual Worlds and Real Robots, and more students will dig deeper into languages and robotics in CMPSC 220: Programming Languages.
Jason Jannot ‘93 and Scott Wissinger, professor of biology and environmental science, recently published a research article in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society titled “Diet and developmental time constraints alter life history tradeoffs in high elevation caddisflies.” The research was conducted at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado, where the authors have collaborated since Jannot was an undergraduate student at Allegheny. Jannot is currently a postdoctoral associate at Illinois State University.
Assistant Professor of Computer Science Gregory M. Kapfhammer and Adam M. Smith ‘08 recently had a paper accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the 24th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing. The paper, “An Empirical Investigation of Incorporating Cost into Test Suite Reduction and Prioritization,” reports on regression testing techniques that use test case execution time and coverage data. The experimental results in the paper highlight new ways to save software testers time by quickly finding faults in real world software applications. Smith continues to pursue research in this area as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Pittsburgh. The Web site http://www.cs.allegheny.edu/~gkapfham/research/papers/ furnishes additional details about the paper and other articles authored by Kapfhammer and students in Allegheny’s Department of Computer Science.
Director of Administrative Information Services Rich Metzger and Jason Ramsey ‘98 (also of AIS) helped organize the second annual Pennsylvania Area Datatel Users Group (PADUG) conference at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove on Oct. 13 and 14. Ramsey also co-presented a session with Jodi Millin (Financial Services) on Entrinsik Informer as a web-reporting tool for the college administration and co-presented with Jason Andracki (Admissions) on Allegheny’s use of the Common Application in the admissions process. Pete Gifford (AIS) presented a session on his web-based system for submitting and tracking work-study time sheets and co-presented with Keri Fadden (Learning Commons) on Allegheny’s innovative academic standards reports, which provide key contact on student academic issues between the faculty advisor, Dean of Students office, Registrar, Learning Commons, and Athletics.
The work of Assistant Professor of Photography Darren Lee Miller is featured in a new book, The Nude Male: 21st Century Visions, by David Leddick, the popular and acclaimed author of 2001’s Male Nude Now. 21st Century Visions is the latest and most current survey of the male nude form, as seen through the eyes of today’s most important and influential artists. This collection showcases such prominent photographers and illustrators as David Hockney, Sam Taylor-Wood, Clive Barker, Mark Beard, Tom Bianchi, Reed Masengill, Nan Goldin, Bruce La Bruce, and Duane Michals, presenting images ranging from the erotic to fantastic, romantic, dangerous, and funny. The book features the work of more than 120 visual artists. Examples of Miller’s work can be found at http://www.darrenleemiller.com.
Bill Ross, the head coach of the College’s cross country and track and field teams, has been elected for induction into the Thiel College Athletics Hall of Fame. He will be inducted as a member of the Class of 2009 on Feb. 8. Ross coached Thiel’s men’s and women’s track and field teams from 1990 to 1996. He won four Presidents’ Athletic Conference track and field titles — two with the men’s team (1992, 1996) and two with the women (1991, 1996). He was twice named the Mideast Region Coach of the Year (1995, 1996) and was honored as the PAC Coach of the Year three times. Ross also coached two individual NCAA outdoor track and field champions, two ECAC Division III champions, 26 national qualifiers, and 12 NCAA All-Americans.
Instructor Richard Sayer has won several awards for his work as a photojournalist with the Meadville Tribune. In the annual photography contest of the News Photographers Association of Greater Pittsburgh, Sayer was awarded second place in the sports portfolio competition and an honorable mention for a sports action shot of a Saegertown second baseman desperately trying to flip a ball to the shortstop in front of a sliding player. He also won two regional awards in 2008, both sports photographs, in contests that include Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. Sayer was also part of the team that won first place for best use of photography in the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association’s annual Newspaper of the Year competition.
People & Places, published monthly during the academic year by the Office of the President, 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.
Jessica Brazelton ‘07, Emily Pfeufer ‘08, and Associate Professor of Biology Catharina Coenen published a paper titled “2,4-Diacetylphloroglucinol Alters Plant Root Development” in the October issue of the journal Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. Their coauthors were Teresa Sweat of the USDA-ARS in Corvallis, Oregon and Brian McSpadden Gardener of Ohio State University. The paper describes interactions between a bacterially produced antibiotic and the plant hormone auxin.
Alexander Conrad ‘09 presented a poster at the Conference for Undergraduate Research at the State Capital in Harrisburg. “Using Genetic Algorithms to Improve Test Suite Prioritizations” describes research that Conrad conducted in collaboration with Assistant Professor of Computer Science Gregory M. Kapfhammer. During a recent visit to King’s College in London, Kapfhammer also gave a research presentation entitled “Can Search-Based Prioritizers Improve the Coverage Effectiveness of Regression Test Suites?” The poster and presentation both describe the implementation and empirical evaluation of heuristic search algorithms that re-order the test suites for real world software applications. As part of research funded by the Harold M. State Fellowship, Conrad and Kapfhammer are preparing a paper that furnishes an in-depth examination of search-based test prioritizers. More information about these research endeavors, including a downloadable version of the poster and presentation, is available at http://www.cs.allegheny.edu/~gkapfham/research/kanonizo/.
Four students — Rebecca Sorenson ‘09, chairwoman of College Republicans; Sam Rigotti ‘10, former chair of College Democrats; Alexandra Jaffe ‘11 of The Campus; and Matt Lacombe ‘11 of the Center for Political Participation — attended the National College Conference for Political Engagement at Harvard University Sept. 19-21. Director of Public Affairs and Associate Director of the CPP Barb Steadman also attended. The conference dealt with how to motivate our campus for the upcoming presidential election and methods for how to get out the vote.
On November 1, five students will represent Allegheny College at the 2008 East Central North America Regional Programming Contest at Youngstown State University. Tierney Wirth ‘09, Joe Shaffer ‘09, Jim Kukunas ‘10, James Devine ‘10, and Radu Creanga ‘11 will compete against teams from schools throughout western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and eastern Ontario to try to solve as many programming problems as possible in five hours. Their coach is Assistant Professor of Computer Science Matthew Jadud. The contest, organized by the Association for Computing Machinery and sponsored by IBM, is the first stage of a two-tiered competition that culminates in the International Collegiate Programming Competition World Finals to be held in Stockholm in April 2009.
Professor of Environmental Science Richard Bowden was an invited keynote speaker at Otterbein University’s Symposium on Sustainability. His presentation, “Faces of Change: Environmental Sustainability on Small College Campuses,” examined strategies by which colleges embrace efforts on environmental sustainability. Bowden also co-authored the paper “Sources of Long-Term Soil Organic Matter Varies by Forest Type; But How Stable Is It?” presented at the Tenth North American Forest Soils Conference held at Virginia Tech University. The paper examines sources and stability of carbon in of soils in different forest types.
Director of the Counseling Center Yvonne Eaton-Stull presented the keynote address on Assisting Young Adults in Crisis and a workshop on Animal Assisted Therapy at the annual Crisis Intervention Association of Pennsylvania Conference on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. Eaton-Stull also presented a workshop entitled “Who Let the Dogs In” at the annual Association of University and College Counseling Center Directors conference. This workshop was co-presented with counseling center directors from Case Western Reserve University and Utah State University and focused on colleges that utilize animal-assisted therapy in their provision of services to students. In addition, Eaton-Stull presented a program on animal-assisted interventions for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Behavioral Health Training Series on Oct. 29.
Judson Herrman, assistant professor of classical studies, has co-authored, together with colleagues in England and Hungary, the first edition of Hyperides’ speech Against Diondas. This previously unknown text is the most substantial find of new Greek oratory since the nineteenth century. An introduction, text, translation, and commentary now appear as the lead article in volume 165 of Zeitschrift f¸r Papyrologie und Epigraphik, and Herrman has himself authored the archival TEI-compliant XML version of this text for the Digital Archimedes Palimpsest, online at http://archimedespalimpsest.org.
Michael Peroski ‘10 was selected to present a poster at the International Conference on Biomedicine and Human Rights, which will take place December 10-12 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. His poster is titled “fMRI lie detection: technical flaws and human rights violations.” Michael also recently coauthored the article “A New Way to Bank” in the journal Science Progress, which is based at the Center for American Progress. The article focuses on the utility of stem cell banks and stem cell registries and considerations for the next presidential administration. It is available online at: http://www.scienceprogress.org/2008/09/a-new-way-to-bank/. Michael is studying at Oxford University this year.
Associate Professor of English Christopher Bakken gave several invited readings and lectures while serving as a Fulbright Scholar in Romania: at Transylvania University in Brasov, at the American Corner in Baia Mare (on the Ukrainian border), and at the Biennial Fulbright conference in Bucharest. He was also invited to participate in the International Writers’ Festival and Colloquium sponsored by the Writers’ Union of Romania, which took place in Neptun on the Black Sea. While living in Romania, he also recorded the commentary for the head-set audio guide to the Romanian Art collection at the National Museum of Art in Bucharest. Bakken’s new book of poems, Black Earth, is taking shape, while poems from that collection find their way into print in Ploughshares and Beloit Poetry Journal. His long essay about harvesting olives on the island of Thassos is being published in the next issue of Parnassus: Poetry in Review.
Professor of Environmental Science Richard Bowden co-authored the paper “Long-Term Change in the Composition and Structure of an Oak Forest at Sikfokut, North Hungary,” published in the Hungarian journal Termeszetvedelmi Kozlemenyek. The paper examines changes in the species and growth of trees at a site in Hungary that is a part of the U.S. National Science Foundation International Long-Term Ecological Research Program.
Assistant Professor of Music Jennifer Dearden recently won an audition with the River City Brass Band. Starting in November, Dearden will be playing solo cornet with the group, which performs several dozen concerts a year in the Pittsburgh area and occasionally plays concerts around the country. Founded in 1981, the River City Brass Band has made several recordings. Further information about the ensemble can be found at www.rcbb.com.
Visiting Assistant Professor TJ Eatmon co-authored an article this summer titled “A Life-Cycle Assessment of Portland Cement Manufacturing: Comparing the Traditional Process with Alternative Technologies” in the Journal of Cleaner Production. The journal is an interdisciplinary publication designed to facilitate the “exchange of information and research results on the technologies, concepts and policies designed to help ensure progress towards sustainable societies.” This is the latest in a series of articles that examine the socio-economic and technological feasibility of implementing low-cost, environmentally friendly cement substitutes in the developing world through an interdisciplinary lens that combines principles of engineering and public policy.
Assistant Professor of Computer Science Gregory M. Kapfhammer recently traveled to Windsor, United Kingdom to chair a software testing conference called TAIC PART 2008 (see
http://www.taicpart.org/ for more details). While in the U.K., Kapfhammer also presented a paper that was co-authored with Suvarshi Bhadra ‘08. “Prioritizing Test Suites by Finding Hamiltonian Paths: Preliminary Studies and Initial Results” describes techniques that efficiently re-order test suites so testing can take place on resource constrained devices like mobile phones. The paper also includes experimental results that describe the efficiency and effectiveness of the testing methods. More information about the paper is available at http://www.cs.allegheny.edu/~gkapfham/research/juggernaut/.
Brill Publishers of Leiden, the Netherlands, is publishing the book The Commentary of al-Nayrizi on Books II-IV of Euclid’s Elements of Geometry, with a Translation of That Portion of Book I Missing from MS Leiden Or. 399.1 but Present in the Newly Discovered Qom Manuscript Edited by R¸diger Arnzen by Professor of Mathematics Tony Lo Bello. This is his fourth book published by Brill, which is celebrating its 325th anniversary this year. The book contains a translation and discussion of a tenth-century Arabic mathematical text that was important in the transmission of Euclid to the Latin West.
Assistant Professor of Communication Arts/Theatre Michael Mehler has been elected vice president of programming for the United States Institute for Theatre Technology. Michael was profiled in the September 2008 USITT News & Notes.
Professor of English Lloyd Michaels has published his fourth book, Terrence Malick (Illinois University Press), a study of the enigmatic American director of Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, and The New World. A description of the book can be found at the publisher’s website: http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/f08michaels . In addition, Michaels’ essay “Come and See (1985): Klimov’s Intimate Epic” appeared in Quarterly Review of Film and Video (25:3; 2008), and his book reviews of David Thomson’s The Whole Equation and Richard Schickel’s Elia Kazan: A Life have been published in recent issues of Quarterly Review of Film and Video and Film Quarterly. He continues to edit the journal Film Criticism, housed at Allegheny and now in its 33rd year of continuous publication.
Associate Professor of English Kirk Nesset has in these last months published short stories, poems, and translations in numerous magazines and journals and has had pieces accepted by numerous others. These works (45 pieces all told) appeared (or will appear) in American Poetry Review, Apalachee Review, Another Chicago Magazine, Boulevard, Chelsea, Christian Science Monitor, Cimmarron Review, Cincinnati Review, Conduit, Denver Quarterly, Field, Five Fingers Review, Good Foot, The Kenyon Review, LIT, Meridian, New Ohio Review, Northwest Review, The Paris Review, Poetry International, Raritan, Rhino, Salt Hill, The Southern Review, Spoon River Poetry Review and Verse. Following the publication of his book of short stories, Paradise Road (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007), Nesset has given twenty-four readings at college and university campuses, bookstores, and elsewhere, here and in Canada, including (among others) Gettysburg College, Lafayette College, Mercyhurst College, Alfred University, Marshall University, Kent State University, Duquesne University, Clarion University, Washington and Jefferson University, and the University of Pittsburgh. He is scheduled to read and visit classes at UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, Cal State University East Bay, and Whittier College in November, when his new book of fiction, Mr. Agreeable (Mammoth Press) is due to appear. Paradise Road was selected as finalist for Binghamton University’s 2008 John Gardner Fiction Award, judged by Vivian Shipley.
Professor of Religious Studies Carl Olson’s essay “The Deification of Death in Postmodern Thought: A Critical Examination” was published in the International Journal of Humanistic Ideology, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Summer 2008). Olson has also had the following essays accepted for publication: “Trends and Competition within the World Religions Academic Marketplace,” to appear in Religious Studies Review; and “Risks, Writing, Memory, and Intentions: Reflections on the Process of Creating Introductory Texts on Buddhism and Hinduism,” to appear in Religion Compass. He has signed a contract with Routledge Publishing Company in London to produce the book Religious Studies: Key Concepts, which is due for publication in 2010.
Mike Richwalsky of the Office of Public Affairs was the keynote speaker at the Technology Council of Northwest Pennsylvania lunch series held at the Ambassador Conference Center this July. His talk, “Engage the Crowd: Integrating Social Networking into your Business,” detailed how businesses can use services like Facebook to engage and connect with customers.
Professor of Art George Roland presented an artist’s gallery talk on his work at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh on September 7. Roland had two works of computational art in the 98th Annual Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Exhibition at the museum. The exhibition continued through September 14.
Associate Professor of Psychology Patricia Rutledge published a paper titled “21st Birthday Drinking: Extremely Extreme” in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (Vol. 76). Her coauthors were Aesoon Park and Ken Sher of the University of Missouri – Columbia. The American Psychological Association has provided the following link to this paper:
http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/ccp763511.pdf.
Associate Professor of Art Richard A. Schindler presented a paper, “Out of the Box: Gay and Lesbian Autobiography’ in the Graphic Novel,” at the annual Southeastern College Art Conference (SECAC) in New Orleans on Sept. 25, 2008.
Professor of History Barry Shapiro’s book Traumatic Politics: The Deputies and the King in the Early French Revolution has been accepted for publication by Penn State University Press. It is scheduled to be released by summer 2009.
Josh Tysiachney and Mike Richwalsky of the Office of Public Affairs presented at the EduWeb Conference, held in Atlantic City, N.J., in July. Their presentation, “Head in the Cloud: On-demand solutions for processing, storage and content delivery needs,” explored the use of new on-demand services like Amazon’s Web Services and their uses in higher education.
People & Places, published monthly during the academic year by the Office of the President, 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.
