March/April 2003
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Dean’s Message This is the first manifestation of an on-line LA Times. We have tried to be responsive to those who basically liked our existing format and those who wanted an electronic message. For now, you will find much of the same content as the paper version, some of it provided in the e-mail, but much of the detail (such as the calendar and staff comings and goings) is on the Web and can be accessed by clicking on the appropriate header below. As this electronic system evolves, you will see changes in content. We invite your suggestions for improvement and your other comments on either form or substance. This semester, we will also introduce another change reflecting technological advances. We will hold what, for want of a better term, is a virtual faculty meeting. We are doing this because past faculty meetings have dwindled in attendance to an embarrassingly few stalwarts. The virtual faculty meeting will run as follows: beginning at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 26, you will be able to go to a Web site (the site will be sent in advance with the agenda), listen to presentations, watch associated graphics, and respond electronically, if you wish, in a threaded message format. That means that you can see previous comments and respond to them and others can see yours. For this inaugural meeting, the agenda will be simple and short, with a Senate report from Dennis Gouran, chair of the Liberal Arts Senate caucus, and reports from Ron Filippelli on initiatives in undergraduate education, Ray Lombra on graduate recruitment and placement, and me on the state of the College. The Web site will remain for about two weeks, and you can watch, listen, and respond at any time. I recommend you connect on campus or with a cable or DSL connection, because normal telephone modem speed will be very slow and frustrating for sound and video transmission. I will appreciate hearing from you about your reaction to this virtual meeting experience. If successful, we will try to improve it for the future with enhanced technology and more complex agendas. Aside from reconsidering the use of technology for communications within the College, another priority this time of year is faculty recruitment. Many of our departments have been busy weeding out, wooing, and winning candidates. We have an exceptionally promising group of recruited new faculty, thus far, reflecting a weak market at the junior level in most disciplines, and, at all levels, our progress in improving academic quality. At this moment, we have made about ten new appointments, roughly divided among tenured associates and professors, untenured associates, and assistant professors. Several other offers are pending, at all levels. Several of our appointments are being made jointly with the Children Youth and Family Consortium, the Huck Life Sciences Institute (formerly the Life Sciences Consortium), and with other partners around campus. Of course, hiring new faculty is just the first step in their becoming part of the effort to elevate the quality of the College. Our continuing efforts, especially with junior faculty, to acclimate them to Penn State, assist them in launching their teaching and research programs, and giving them constructive and honest feedback are also vitally important as we raise our quality and aim higher in our goals. I welcome your thoughts about our technological innovations and any other issues. Susan Welch To show appreciation to our outstanding teaching, advising, and research colleagues in the College, each spring at the annual Alumni Society Board of Directors Awards Reception, we honor the past year’s “best.” On March 27, at 5:00 p.m. in the Boardroom of The Nittany Lion Inn, we will honor winners of University and College awards. In this issue, we list the faculty winning University awards, and we note and congratulate them. In the next issue, we will list our College level award winners. Congratulations to all of our winners! Alumni Teaching Fellow J. Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies and History, will be the Alumni Teaching Fellow for 2003-04. This is Penn State’s highest teaching award. Phil was cited for his outstanding versatility in teaching large classes as well as small. Also recognized for their teaching with University teaching awards were graduate assistants Wendy Falato, Department of Communication Arts and Sciences and Chad Lavin, Department of Political Science. IAH Faculty Grant RecipientsInstitute for the Arts and Humanities Individual Faculty Grants for the period January through June 2003 have been awarded for the following Liberal Arts faculty projects: Cheryl Glenn, associate professor of English and women’s studies, will complete research interrogating the scholarly assumption of the “silent Pueblo Indian”for her book Unspoken: A Rhetoric of Silences. Sandra Petrulionis, associate professor of English (Penn State Altoona), will continue work on her book-length manuscript “Murder to the State”: The Abolitionist Movement in Henry D. Thoreau's Concord. Matthew Restall, associate professor of history, women’s studies, and anthropology, will conduct archival research in Mexico for a book project titled The Black Middle: Slavery, Society, and African-Maya Relations in Colonial Yucatan. William Bianco, associate professor of political science, from the National Science Foundation for “Understanding the Uncovered Set.” Gordon De Jong, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Demography and director, graduate program in demography, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for “Welfare Reform and Migration: Moving to Benefits/Moving from Restrictions (NIH).” Roger Finke, professor of sociology and religious studies, from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. for “American Religion Data Archive.” Mark Hayward, director, Social Science Research Institute, and professor of sociology and demography, from Georgetown University for “BIMORA Project.” Marie Hojnacki, associate professor of political science, and Frank Baumgartner, professor and head of the Department of Political Science, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison for “Campaign Advertising Archive.”
A Staff Awards Reception on February 5 honored our staff award winners this year. Christopher Gamble, alumni relations and development, was honored with the Alumni Society Outstanding Staff Award. Other winners of outstanding staff awards are Nicole Duffala, economics; Sheri Miller, sociology and crime, law, and justice; Cindy Bierly, languages and literatures; Robin Robinson, undergraduate studies; Pat Ellenberger, recently retired from English, was honored with the Staff Mentoring Award. Also honored were our ten-year service award recipients, whose names and photos are shown.
 Pictured above is Christopher Gamble, Liberal Arts Alumni Society Outstanding Staff Award recipient, and Susan Welch, dean.
Pictured above are the Liberal Arts Outstanding Staff Award winners: (left to right) Cindy Bierly, Sheri Miller, Robin Robinson, and Nicole Duffala.  Pictured above are the College ten-year service award recipients: (front row, left to right), Robin Kephart and Sandy Wingard; (back row, left to right), Sandi Moyer, Gloria Rhule, and Kathy Bryon. Staff and Children of Staff Program The first awards were made from the College of the Liberal Arts Staff and Children of Staff Program Support Fund. Sally Arnold, linguistics and applied language studies, and Christi Daniels, English, were selected as staff recipients. Sally is working towards an associate degree in letters, arts, and sciences and Christi is currently taking classes as a non-degree student and plans a major in crime, law, and justice. The selection committee included Rebecca Bressler, French, (chair); Brandy Bower, RGSO; Antonia Mooney, history; Janette Moore, economics; and Elaine Prestia, psychology. Betsy Will (human resources) coordinated the committees’ efforts. Awards were also made for the first time for the children of staff. The two recipients selected were Gregory Shoemaker, son of Jan Wallace, sociology, and Tara Gardner, daughter of Helen Gardner, psychology. Gregory is an eighth-semester political science major and Tara is a fourth-semester psychology major. Applications for 2003-04 children of staff funding are currently being accepted and are due on March 22, 2003. We will begin accepting staff enrichment applications after July 1, 2003. If you are interested in making a contribution or have questions, please contact Marilyn Byers at 863-1827. Congratulations to all the recipients and thank you to all who contributed to make these awards possible. Spring semester commencement for undergraduate and associate degree students will be held on Saturday, May 17, 2003, at 12:00 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center. Our commencement speaker, who is also receiving an honorary degree, will be Jonathan Kozol. Jonathan is an educator and author of nonfiction works which focus on the issues of race, poverty, and education. He graduated from Harvard University Summa Cum Laude in 1958 and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford. He has held two Guggenheim Fellowships, has twice been a fellow of Rockefeller Foundation, and has also received fellowships from the Field and Ford Foundations. His books include Death At An Early Age, Savage Inequalities, Amazing Grace, Illiterate American, and Rachel and Her Children. The graduate commencement will be Saturday, May 17, at 7:00 p.m. in Rec Hall. All faculty are invited to attend. The Institute for the Arts and Humanities will be hosting several speakers at their brown bag luncheon series this spring including Billie Grace Lynn, assistant professor of art, Matthew Restall, associate professor of history, women’s studies, and anthropology, David Gissen, assistant professor of architecture, and Cheryl Glenn, associate professor of English and women’s studies. The lunches will be held in room 102 Kern Building and will begin at 12:15 p.m.; the presentations begin at 12:30 p.m., and are followed by questions and discussion. Coffee and tea are provided. For additional information please contact Sue Reighard at 865-0495 . See the LA Calendar for more details. Roger Chartier, Directeur d'Etudes at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and Annenberg Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, will deliver a public lecture entitled “Languages, Books and Reading Practices from Printed Culture to the Digital Era” on Thursday, March 20, at 7:00 p.m. in the Foster Auditorium, Pattee Library. One of the most renowned historians of Early Modern European history, cultural history, and the history of print culture, Roger Chartier is the author of numerous books including, most recently The Cultural Origins of the French Revolution, 1991, The Order of Books: Readers, Authors, and Libraries in Europe between the Fourteenth and Eighteenth Centuries, 1994, Forms and Meanings: Texts, Performances, and Audiences from Codex to Computer, 1995, and On the Edge of the Cliff: History, Language, and Practices, 1997. Professor Chartier’s visit to Penn State is being co-sponsored by the Departments of French, History, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, the Committee on Early Modern Studies, the Center for Language Acquisition, The Penn State Center for the History of the Book, The Pennsylvania Center for the Book, and the University Libraries. For further information on Professor Chartier’s visit, contact Willa Silverman, Department of French. Center for Medieval Studies Conference The Center for Medieval Studies spring 2003 conference, “Health and Healing in the Medieval Garden,” will be held on Friday, April 4, and Saturday, April 5, on the University Park campus, featuring Peter Dendle, Mont Alto, The Pennsylvania State University, “Plants in the Medieval Cosmos: Medicine, Magic, and Eco-Colonialism;” Mark Horton, University of Bristol, “Archaeological Evidence for the Monastic Garden;” Peter Jones, University of Cambridge, “Herbs and the Medieval Surgeon;” Deirdre Larkin, New York Botanical Gardens and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “The Medieval Healing Garden;” Martin McGann, The Pennsylvania State University, “Special section on the Penn State AT&T Medieval Garden;” Walton Schalick, Washington University, “Tools of the Trade: Garden-Medicine in Medieval France;” Terence Scully, Wilfred Laurirer University, “The Cook as Dietician in the Medieval Garden;” Marilyn Stokstead, University of Kansas, “The Alchemists’ Garden;” Alian Touwaide, Smithsonian, “Medicinal Plants in the Fourteenth century Eastern Mediterranean World;” Linda Voigts, University of Missouri at Kansas City, “Plants and Planets: Connecting the Celestial with the Vegetable in Late-Medieval Texts.” The thirty-second annual Dotterer Lecture, entitled “Philosophy the Day after Tomorrow,” will be presented by Stanley Cavell on Friday, April 4, at The Nittany Lion Inn, Boardroom I, at 4:00 p.m. For this event each year a distinguished speaker is invited by the Department of Philosophy to present a public lecture under the auspices of a memorial lectureship established in honor of philosophy professor Ray H. Dotterer. A reception follows the lecture. Stanley Cavell received his A.B. in music from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard. Since 1963 he has taught at Harvard University as the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value. His major interests focus on the intersection of the analytical tradition with aspects of the Continental tradition, American philosophy, the arts, and with psychoanalysis. Professor Cavell is a MacArthur Fellowship recipient and a past president of the American Philosophical Association. In l997 he became Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. Some of his publications include In Quest of the Ordinary: Lines of Skepticism and Romanticism; A Pitch of Philosophy: Autobiographical Exercises; Philosophical Passages: Wittgenstein, Emerson, Austin, and Derrida; Disowning Knowledge in Seven Plays of Shakespeare; The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film; Contesting Tears: The Melodrama of the Unknown Woman; and The Claim of Reason: Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy. Tues 3/4—Eli Clare, author of Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation, “Stolen Bodies, Reclaimed Bodies,” Foster Auditorium, 101 Pattee Library, 6:30 p.m. (Rock Ethics Institute Ethics and Disabilities Lecture Series) This lecture is free and open to the public. Wed 3/5—Dunja Jutronic, professor of linguistics and head of the Department of English and American Studies, Maribor University, Slovenia, “What Happened to Serbo-Croatian?” 304 Burrowes Building, 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Wed 3/5—Billie Grace Lynn, assistant professor of art, “Touching: Interactivity in Art,” 102 Kern Building, 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. (Institute for the Arts and Humanities Brown Bag Luncheon) Wed 3/5—Holloway Sparks, assistant professor of political science, “From Suffering Citizens to Militant Mothers: Activist Identities and Dissident Citizenship in the U.S. Welfare Rights Movement,” 102 Weaver Building, 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. (Gender History Workshop–Breaking the Silence Brown Bag Series) Fri-Sat 3/7-3/8—Metaphysical Society of America annual meeting, “Psyché,” Room 113 Carnegie Building, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Please call 814-865-6397 for more information. Non-members are welcome. Thurs 3/20—Barbara J. Fields, professor of history, Columbia University, “From Racism to Race and Back: The Strange Career of a Historical Crime,” Foster Auditorium, 101 Pattee Library, 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Breaking the Silence Lecture Series) Thurs 3/20—Istvan G. Toth, Columbia University and Central European University, Budapest, “Missionaries and Cultural Transfer in Early Modern Central Europe,” 102 Weaver Building, 4:00 p.m. Fri 3/21—Roger Chartier, Directeur d'Etudes at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and Annenberg Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, “Littérature et culture écrite en France à l'époque moderne,” 212 Burrowes Building, 2:30 p.m. The lecture is in French. (Table Ronde Lecture Series) Fri 3/21—Wendy Goldman, professor of Russian and Soviet history, Carnegie Mellon University, “Stalinist Industrialization and Working Class Resistance,” 102 Weaver Building, 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. (Modern History Workshop) Fri 3/21—Winston James, associate professor, Columbia University, “Alaine Locke’s New Negro and the New Negroes: Of False Manifestoes and Cannon Formation,” 102 Weaver Building, 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Breaking the Silence Lecture Series) Fri 3/21—Joseph Margolis, Laura Carnell Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Temple University, “The Importance of the Human Sciences,” 124 Sparks, 4:00 p.m. Tues 3/25—Bob Schoeni, senior associate research scientist and associate professor of public policy and economics, University of Michigan, “Disability from Injuries at Work: The Effects on Earnings and Employment,” 406 Oswald Tower, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Wed 3/26—Matthew Restall, associate professor of history, women’s studies, and anthropology, “The Black Middle: Slavery, Society, and African-Maya Relations in Colonial Yucatan,” 102 Kern Building, 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. (Institute for the Arts and Humanities Brown Bag Luncheon) Thurs 3/27—Rick Goulet, Department of History, Political Science, and Economics, Lock Haven University, “The Price of a Soul? Trade and Conversion on the Upper Amazon Frontier in the Eighteenth Century,” 102 Weaver Building, 5:30 p.m. (Latin American Studies Series) Fri 3/28—Mark Morrisson, associate professor of English, title: TBA, 102 Weaver Building, 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Modern History Workshop) Mon 3/31—Sonia Baires, president of the Women’s Association for Dignity and Life (DIGNAS), “Women and Democracy in Post War El Salvador,” 102 Kern Building, 3:00 p.m. (Feminist Scholars Series) Mon 3/31—Susan Squier, Brill Professor of Women’s Studies and English, “Meditating on Disability,” Foster Auditorium, 101 Pattee Library, 6:30 p.m. (Rock Ethics Institute Ethics and Disabilities Lecture Series) This lecture is free and open to the public. Wed 4/2—Daniel Letwin, associate professor of history, “The Problem of ‘Social Equality’ in African American Thought, 1830-1965,” 102 Weaver Building, 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. (Breaking the Silence Brown Bag Series) Wed 4/2—Marianne Sommer, NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, Penn State, “Paleoanthropology, Imperialism, and War: William Sollas at Oxford University, 1897-1930,” 102 Weaver Building, 4:00 p.m. (Science, Medicine, and Technology Lecture Series) Thurs 4/3—Labor Studies and Industrial Relations Alumni Student Mentoring Sessions, NLI, Alumni Lounge, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. All students are welcome. Fri 4/4—Semi Annual Labor Studies and Industrial Relations APG Board Meeting, NLI, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Fri-Sat 4/4-4/5—Labor Studies and Industrial Relations Sixtieth Anniversary Symposium, NLI, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. 4/4—Stanley Cavell, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Harvard University, presents the 2003 Dotterer Lecture, “Philosophy the Day after Tomorrow,” NLI, Boardroom I, 4:00 p.m. Fri 4/4—Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer AFL-CIO, Fourteenth Annual Philip Murray Memorial Labor Lecture, 102 Kern Building, 4:30 p.m. Public welcome. Wed 4/9—David Gissen, assistant professor of architecture, “From Shtetl to Spaceship: Examining the Jewish Spatial Imaginary,” 102 Kern Building, 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. (Institute for the Arts and Humanities Brown Bag Luncheon) Fri 4/11—Jean Allman, co-editor of Social History of Africa Series, Heinemann Press, “Gender, Dress, and National Identity in Nkrumah’s Ghana.” For additional information call 863-4025. (Gender History Workshop) Fri 4/11—William Chase, professor of Soviet history, University of Pittsburgh, “Constructing Mortal Threats: Stalin and the Moscow Show Trials of 1936, 1937, and 1938,” 102 Weaver Building, 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. (Modern History Workshop) Mon 4/14—Steve Raudenbush, professor of education and statistics, University of Michigan, Topic: TBA, 406 Oswald Tower, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Clogg Memorial Lecture) Tues 4/15—Sandra Hofferth, professor of sociology, University of Maryland, Topic: TBA, 406 Oswald Tower, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Wed 4/16—Troy Duster, professor, Institute for the History of the Production of Knowledge and Department of Sociology, New York University, “Human Molecular Genetics and the Subject of Race: Contrasting the Rhetoric with the Practices in Law and Medicine,” 110 Henderson Building, Living Center, 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Breaking the Silence Lecture Series) Wed 4/16—Cheryl Glenn, associate professor of English and women’s studies, “Unspoken: A Rhetoric of Silences,” 102 Kern Building, 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. (Institute for the Arts and Humanities Brown Bag Luncheon) Thurs 4/24—Kris Lane, history department, College of William and Mary, “Quito, 1599,” 102 Weaver Building, 5:30 p.m. (Latin American Studies Series) Senate and Graduate Council Election Results Anibal Gonzalez-Perez, Dennis Gouran, Benedicte Monicat, John Moore, Iyunolu Osagie, John Selzer, and Susan Welch were elected to represent the College in the University Faculty Senate. The newly elected senators will be invited to attend the April meeting of the University Senate. J. Philip Jenkins, Raymond Lombra, and Carla Mulford were elected to two-year terms on the Graduate Council. These faculty represent your views to the Senate and Council. Please let them know of your concerns.
Leonard L. Rubinstein, Professor Emeritus of English, and Daniel Walden, Professor Emeritus of American Studies, English, and Comparative Literature have been named Provost’s Emeritus Faculty Teaching Scholars for 2003-04.
Brian Goesling, sociology, has been selected as a Robert Woods Johnson Fellow. This is a very competitive award for new Ph.D.s. Brian will be going to the University of Michigan for two years. Tracie Bogus, staff assistant V, sociology and crime, law, and justice Alaina Breitberg, research technician, psychology Amy Bucha, administrative assistant I, English George Dreibelbis, staff assistant VI, English Erica McMullen, staff assistant IV, languages and literatures Jason Phenicie, staff assistant V, African and African American Studies, labor studies and industrial relations, and women’s studies Cassandra Buncie, academic counselor, psychology Elena DeLuca, law school resource coordinator, undergraduate studies Cynthia Myers, staff assistant VI, languages and literatures Employee Benefits Inquiry System The Employee Benefits Division recently announced the new Employee Benefits Inquiry System (EBIS). Through this secure site, regular full-time faculty and staff can verify their current benefit plan and dependent information as well as view their current deductions for flexible spending accounts, 403(b) and 457(b) supplemental retirement plans. A valid Penn State User ID and password are required to access the EBIS site. Additionally, those individuals who are enrolled in flexible spending accounts may view their flex claim and payment activity, as well as the current balance in their accounts. As in the past, flexible benefit reimbursements will be processed weekly and participants will continue to receive e-mail notification of direct deposit to their bank account. Changes in benefits, such as the addition or deletion of a dependent, will be reflected in the EBIS system as soon as they are processed in the Employee Benefits Division. Flexible benefits claim information will update after business hours each Friday and will be available with the receipt of the e-mail notification of deposit. Faculty and staff are encouraged to familiarize themselves with this system and to complete the on-line feedback survey. LA Times is compiled by the Dean’s Office, 110 Sparks, 865-7691. LA Times is also available on the Web at: http://www.la.psu.edu/ This publication is available in alternative media on request. Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please call 814-865-7691 in advance of your participation or visit. The Pennsylvania State University is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities, admission, and employment without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities. It is the policy of the University to maintain an academic and work environment free of discrimination, including harassment. The Pennsylvania State University prohibits discrimination and harassment against any person because of age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status. Discrimination or harassment against faculty, staff, or students will not be tolerated at The Pennsylvania State University. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to the Affirmative Action Director, The Pennsylvania State University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802-5901; Tel 814-865-4700/V, 814-863-1150/TTY U. Ed. LBA 03-181 |
