News Center

Dean of the College Linda DeMeritt has announced the recipients of the Teacher-Scholar Divisional Chairs, which recognize the accomplishments of our faculty in teaching, scholarship, and service. These chairs afford faculty release time to work on scholarly projects and are among the most prestigious — and most competitive — honors awarded at the College.

Associate Professor of Philosophy Eric Palmer has received the Teacher-Scholar Chair in the Humanities to develop further a new line of teaching in globalization and human rights while also completing a book titled The Ethics and Law of Nations and Corporations. Palmer has already published five articles related to this topic and has 150 pages of the manuscript written. He will be using the chair to finish the research and writing necessary for completion of the manuscript. In addition, his research on ethics and international law will inform a number of his courses, both current and future.

Associate Professor of Political Science Dan Shea is the recipient of the Social Science Teacher-Scholar Chair. He plans to continue research on changes in the electoral process, but instead of working on them as discrete ideas, he wants to merge them into a single volume to be published in time for the 2008 election. Some of the issues he’ll explore include changes to the campaign finance system, the unintended consequences of negative advertising, the use of campaign consultants, and gender-based differences in campaigning and party politics. Shea has authored or edited seven books since arriving at Allegheny in 1999. As the director of the Center for Political Participation, he has brought in over $450,000 in grant money to the College.

Professor of Biology and Environmental Science Scott Wissinger is the recipient of the Teacher-Scholar Chair in the Natural Sciences. Wissinger will be working on a backlog of writing and grantsmanship that involves two lines of scholarship. One is related to his NSF-funded research with Allegheny students on the ecology of salamanders in alpine ponds in Colorado. The second derives from his work as a Fulbright scholar and focuses on the impacts of non-native trout on the native species in New Zealand lakes. Wissinger has edited two books and published prolifically over the past nineteen years at Allegheny, with many articles co-authored by Allegheny students. He has served on all of the College’s major committees and participated in over fifty departmental search committees and three senior administrative searches.

In addition, Dean DeMeritt has announced that the following faculty members have been granted tenure: Catharina Coenen, Assistant Professor of Biology; Shannan Mattiace, Assistant Professor of Political Science; Shaun Murphree, Assistant Professor of Chemistry; Doros Petasis, Assistant Professor of Physics; Ken Pinnow, Assistant Professor of History; and Barbara Riess, Assistant Professor of Modern Languages. They will become associate professors in fall 2006.

Assistant Professor of Classical Languages Judson Herrman has been named a Fellow at the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, N.C. for the 2006-2007 academic year. As part of an international team of seventeen scholars, Herrman will transcribe and edit newly discovered text by Hyperides, a politician and orator in fourth-century Athens.

Assistant Professor of Dance Studies Emerita Jan Hyatt was invited to present at the Center for Summer Learning’s national conference “Enhancing Summer Learning in All Settings,” held March 22-24 at Johns Hopkins University. Hyatt spoke about Allegheny’s Creating Landscapes program in her presentation, “Serious Play in July: Integrating Art and Science into a Thematic Summer Program.”

Professor of Communication Arts Michael Keeley had his documentary Donna’s Museum screened as part of the Film Kitchen independent film and screening series in Pittsburgh on March 14. The documentary is about a backyard Crawford County museum devoted to abolitionist John Brown.

Jacquie Kondrot has been appointed associate dean of students for wellness education. Kondrot, who has worked at Allegheny College in various roles for over 16 years, had been director of the Counseling Center since 1998. She has two master’s degrees, one in education from Edinboro University and one in college administration from Bowling Green State University. She also holds a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in Counseling Psychology from the University of Illinois and is a Licensed Professional Counselor (L.P.C.). Debra Thaler, Ph.D. has been appointed director of the Counseling Center. She has been a psychotherapist/counselor with the center since 2003. Thaler has her doctorate from Gannon University in the field of counseling psychology. This spring she passed the national and Pennsylvania psychology licensure examinations.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Shaun Murphree has been named a Fulbright Scholar for the 2006-2007 academic year. Murphree will spend his Fulbright year in Graz, Austria, where he will explore technology and alternative pedagogies in Austrian chemistry education as well as collaborate with Oliver Kappe, who is one of the leaders in microwave-assisted organic synthesis. Murphree also hopes to lay the groundwork in Graz for a semester-abroad opportunity for science majors.

Associate Professor of Political Science Dan Shea has been awarded $150,000 by the Young Voter Strategies program at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management. Allegheny’s proposal is one of eleven that were funded out of a pool of eighty-three proposals. Shea and the CPP will be engaged in a program in which representatives from community colleges in Pennsylvania and Ohio are trained in the most effective means of registering new voters on their campuses and in their communities. The goal is to register approximately 20,000 new voters in two of the highest profile states for the 2006 election.

Michaeline Shuman has been appointed director of career services. Shuman has a master’s of science in education from Alfred University. Her professional experiences include three years with the Peace Corps in Costa Rica, five years at Franklin and Marshall in their residential life program, and four years as the health center manager for Planned Parenthood in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where she supervised and guided college student interns.

The Department of History has announced the recipients of the Jonathan E. and Nancy L. Helmreich History Research and Book Fund Grant for 2006.

Assistant Professor Elizabeth KalÈ Haywood will utilize funding from the Helmreich Grant to conduct research in the Archivo del Cabildo Cathedral de Morelia (ACCM) in Morelia, Michoac·n, Mexico. She will study the documents of the cathedral chapter to establish a connection between Michoacano prebends and the breakdown of Viceregal and Peninsular authority in Mexico. This work will extend research begun in her dissertation, “A Climate of Confrontation: The Cathedral Chapter in the Diocese of Michoac·n, 1770-1795.”

Professor Barry Shapiro will visit the Newberry Library in Chicago to examine its collection of French revolutionary pamphlets and the Harvard University Library to study its collection of French revolutionary journals and magazines. This research will enrich his manuscript Living the Revolution: Trauma and Denial in the French Constituent Assembly, 1789-1791.

Associate Professor Ken Pinnow will travel to Kyiv, Ukraine, where he will conduct research in the Ukrainian archives. He will gather information about the approach to suicides in Ukraine during the 1920s and early 1930s so that he might better address the question of regional and cultural variations in the Soviet response to suicide. This information will enhance his manuscript The Loneliness of the Collective: Suicide and the Social Science State in Early Bolshevik Russia, 1921-1929. He will also conduct preliminary research for a project exploring the early Soviet approach to criminality with an emphasis on the Laboratories for the Study of Crime and the Criminal Personality established in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in the 1920s.

People & Places, published monthly during the academic year by the Office of Public Affairs, reports on the professional activities of members of the College community and highlights student achievements. Please submit items to people@allegheny.edu. We reserve the right to edit copy for length.