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Kicking off the New Year Welcome back to a new academic year! On behalf of our returning faculty, I extend a particular welcome to our new faculty. I hope you will find your department and College an exciting and supportive place to begin or continue your careers. This year, twenty-three new tenure-line and twenty-two new multi-year fixed-term faculty join our faculty of 360 tenure-line and about 500 total full-time faculty. You join a dynamic College and University where we are making significant strides toward improving our quality and reputation. The quality of the new faculty we have hired, and the outstanding faculty we tenured and promoted last year (they are listed later in this newsletter) are indicators of our advancement. We aim to be a College whose disciplines are tops among our public peers, and we continue to move toward that goal. Essential to that goal is the quality of our graduate programs. Our Ph.D. placement record during the past two years was the best ever in many of our units. Increasing numbers of our graduates are finding jobs at peer institutions, and better. We also brought in a very strong group of new graduate students. However, the competition increased last year, challenging our graduate programs to place graduate recruitment and funding at the center of their strategic plans. In that light, we were very pleased that Bruce Miller, the chair of the College’s development council, has provided us with the Bruce Miller and Dean LaVigne Distinguished Graduate Fellowship. Income from this endowment, the University’s first Distinguished Grad Fellowship, will be matched by the University to create a very significant new fellowship that will benefit political science, Bruce’s major at Penn State. At the same time, our College has an important undergraduate instructional mission. We teach nearly one-third of all undergraduate credit hours at University Park. Continuing to improve the quality and rigor of our general education offerings as well as our major curricula is an ongoing goal. Both our general education enrollments and the number of our majors have grown substantially during the past several years, again posing a challenge to our departments as they work to meet this demand. The College has also recently gained new space. The acquisition of Pond Lab is benefiting, either directly in Pond or indirectly in downstream moves, faculty and staff in classics and ancient Mediterranean studies, communication arts and sciences, English, Jewish studies, political science, and the Social Science Research Institute. We are also delighted to report that the Moore building renovation and addition project for psychology is moving into the program and design phase after many years of discussion and hoping. We look forward to a lively year of progress and intellectual excitement. It is a pleasure to work with you to make this an even better College. Susan Welch All tenure-line Liberal Arts faculty are cordially invited to a reception to meet new tenure-line faculty colleagues. The event will be held from 4 to 6 p.m., Monday, September 13, at the Hintz Family Alumni Center (the Hintz center is the old University president’s house, located behind Sackett Building). Each of our new tenure-line faculty will be introduced. This year the College welcomes twenty-three new tenure and tenure-line faculty colleagues. This month we profile new professors and associate professors. John Casterline, professor of sociology and demography, earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1980. Prior to joining Penn State, John was a senior associate for the Policy Research Division, Population Council in New York. His interests lie in fertility transition; family change; social networks and demographic processes; and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Arab region, and South Asia (Pakistan). John’s research in social networks and fertility has been supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the United Nations Population Fund, and the Rockefeller Foundation. James Dillard, head and professor of communication arts and sciences, earned his Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1983. Jim’s teaching and research interests focus on the communication processes by which individuals attempt to change the opinions and behaviors of others. More recently, Jim has turned his attention to understanding the role of emotion in persuasive health communication. He has received the John E. Hunter Award for Meta-Analysis and the NCA Golden Anniversary Award for article of the year. He was co-editor of The Persuasion Handbook and is current editor of the journal Human Communication Research. B. Ikubolajeh Logan, professor of African studies and geography, received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. Ikubolajeh taught at the Department of Geography at Old Dominion University in Virginia from 1984–1988, and at the Department of Geography, University of Georgia from 1988–2004. He specializes in the political economy and political ecology of African development. His present focus is on political economy transformations in post-colonial Zimbabwe. He has written extensively on African development and has consulted often with the U.N. and international non-governmental organizations. Denise Solomon, professor of communication arts and sciences, received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1992. Denise’s recent research interests include the role of communication in potentially problematic relationship transitions such as forming social relationships with co-workers, establishing a mutually committed dating relationship, engaging in initial coitus with a romantic partner, and coping with a diagnosis of breast cancer. Denise’s work appears in the leading journals devoted to both communication and personal relationship research, and she serves on the editorial boards of five major journals. Lorraine Dowler, associate professor of geography and director of women’s studies, earned her Ph.D. from Syracuse University. Her interests focus on the intersection of gender with violent nationalism. Her previous research has focused on issues of identity politics in Northern Ireland. Lorraine recently started an investigation of the role of women in firefightering and civic nationalism in the United States. Lorraine has been at Penn State since 1997 but is new to the College. Douglas Lemke, associate professor of political science, received his B.A. and an M.A. from Case Western Reserve, and his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 1993. He comes to us from the University of Michigan. Doug’s most recent book is entitled Regions of War and Peace (Cambridge University Press, 2002), and he has also written on war and rivalry among great powers and the impacts of power transitions in the international system. Christopher Long, associate professor of philosophy, received his Ph.D. from the New School for Social Research in 1998. Prior to joining Penn State, Christopher was an associate professor at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. He specializes in the history of philosophy, with a focus on ancient Greek philosophy, particularly Aristotle. He has published articles on a wide range of figures including Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, Arendt, Benjamin, and Adorno. His book, The Ethics of Ontology: Rethinking an Aristotelian Legacy, has recently been published by SUNY Press. Robert W. Schrauf, associate professor of linguistics,
comes to Penn State from the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern
University where he held research appointments in the Buehler Center on
Aging and the Cognitive Neurology–Alzheimer’s Disease Center.
Bob’s research in cognitive gerontology focuses on healthy and cognitively
impaired bilingual/bicultural immigrants, and he is particularly interested
in how language affects memory and emotions in young and older immigrants.
His cross-cultural fieldwork in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, and in Hispanic
communities in the United States has been funded by the National Institutes
of Health and others. Assata Zerai, associate professor of African and African-American Studies and sociology, received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1993. Prior to joining Penn State, Assata was an associate professor of sociology and Afro-American Studies and Research at the University of Illinois. Her scholarship focuses on the ways that race, class, and gender as interlocking spheres of domination and resistance can be conceptualized in empirical studies of maternal and child health. Assata’s most recent book examines the ways in which anti-drug laws and social policy limit choices for women with a cocaine-involved past. She is currently exploring Africana feminist perspectives on HIV in Zimbabwe. Liberal Arts Curricular Changes At the latest Board of Trustees meeting, the following changes in Liberal Arts curricula were noted for the information of the Board and thereby are now official: 1) In the psychology undergraduate major, a change in the old Biological Sciences Option to a new Neuroscience Option; 2) in psychology and LALS, the addition of an Option in Applied Linguistics in the graduate psychology program; and 3) in the Jewish studies major, the addition of a Culture and Language Option and an Interdisciplinary Option. It is a pleasure to report that eighteen Liberal Arts faculty from eight departments at University Park and one at the DuBois Campus have been promoted. Congratulations to all! Tenured and Promoted to associate professor: Promoted to professor: Richard M. Doyle, English; Richard A. Kopley, English (DuBois Campus); Amitava Kumar, English; R. Salvador Oropesa, sociology and demography; Matthew B. Restall, history, women's studies, and anthropology; Robin G. Schulze, English; Janet K. Swim, psychology; Nan E. Woodruff, history; Paul B. Youngquist, English; and Vickie L. Ziegler, German. Congratulations to the following faculty who have won new grants during the past few weeks! Peter Arnett, associate professor of psychology, from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for “Contribution of Rudimentary Oral Motor Speed to Neuropsychological Test Performance in MS.” Alan Booth, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Human Development, and Demography, and Ann Crouter, professor of human development and family studies, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for “National Symposium on Family Issues.” Faculty Honors Robert Lima, Professor Emeritus of Spanish and Comparative Literature, and Fellow Emeritus of the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies, was designated as a Knight Commander in the Order of Queen Isabel of Spain, as decreed by Juan Carlos I, King of Spain. Alan Sica, professor of sociology, received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Theory Section of the American Sociological Association. Five Liberal Arts faculty have been named as resident scholars at the Institute, each for a semester. Deborah Clarke, associate professor of English and women's studies, will complete a book manuscript, Women on Wheels: Literary and Cultural Automobility. Sherry Roush, assistant professor of Italian, will work on a book titled Ghosts of Poets Past: Political Reincarnations of Dante and Boccaccio in the Italian Renaissance, which will expose the ideological motivations underlying fifteenth- and sixteenth-century ghost stories that feature the souls of Dante and Boccaccio. Clement Hawes, associate professor of English, will write a monograph tentatively titled Swift and the Politics of Scale, which will examine the works of Swift through the lens of scale, geographical and otherwise. Adam Rome, associate professor of history, will work on a book titled Sustaining the Nation, in which he will argue that the history of environmental activism offers rich new insight into the great economic, social, political, and cultural transformations of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Janina Safran, associate professor of history, will complete a book manuscript on communal identity and the definition, contestation, and negotiation of communal boundaries in Islamic Iberia. IAH Individual Faculty Grant Recipients Seven Liberal Arts faculty won Institute for the Arts and Humanities Individual Faculty Grants for fall: Dan Berman, assistant professor of classics and ancient Mediterranean studies, for an interpretation of the way the play Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus represents Athenian and Greek culture. Charlotte Holmes, associate professor of English and women's studies, for a creative prose book on the paintings and life of Finnish artist Helene Schjerfbeck. Anthony Kaye, assistant professor of history, for an integration of the theory and findings of human geography with a rigorous history of the ideology of slaves. Sophia McClennen, associate professor of comparative literature, Spanish, and women’s studies, for the first full-length study in English on Ariel Dorfman—novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, journalist, and human rights activist. Bénédicte Monicat, professor of French and women's studies, for the creation of an electronic database for nineteenth-century French texts written by women for girls. Greg Smits, associate professor of history, for an examination of the rhetoric of national and group identities within the Ryukyu Islands from the time of their annexation through the early years of the second Sino-Japanese war. Maria Truglio, assistant professor of Italian, for an examination of Italian children’s literature from the late nineteenth-century through the end of World War II. Please note the following approaching deadlines for Institute competitions: Friday, October 1, 2004: Team Teaching Across the Disciplines, 2005-06 This IAH competition provides opportunities to bring interdisciplinarity into upper-level undergraduate and graduate classrooms through collaborative teaching. Funding will cover expenses directly related to faculty team-teaching, including use of multi-media resources; guest speakers; faculty/student travel to museums, to performances, or for learning-related projects in other locations; and course buy-out for one faculty member to facilitate team-teaching. Sponsored by a Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Maximum grant award: $7,500. Friday, October 15, 2004: Individual Faculty Grant Program (for the period January-June 2005) This program helps to fund the research and creative projects of individual faculty members in and across the arts and humanities at Penn State. Awards support materials, travel for research/creative activity, costs related to publication, wages for research assistance, and release time. Maximum grant award: $4,000. Friday, November 5, 2004: Resident Scholars and Artists Program, 2005-06 This program, jointly sponsored with the College of the Liberal Arts and the College of Arts and Architecture, provides up to eight faculty members per year with one semester of release time from teaching, a $1,000 grant for research expenses or materials, and the use of an office in Ihlseng Cottage. Monday, November 15, 2004: Interdisciplinary Groups Funding for interdisciplinary groups covers expenses directly related to group programming such as travel, lodging, and honoraria for invited speakers, performers, or artists; costs of publicity; research assistance to help with programming; costs related to publication ensuing from symposia or lecture series; and costs of exhibition or performance. Group programs may be funded for one academic year (2005-06) or for two years (2005-07). Maximum amount per group per year: $10,000. Tuesday, February 15, 2005: Graduate Student Summer Residency Program, 2005 This competitive program provides up to eight advanced graduate students with a $3,000 stipend and the use of an office in Ihlseng Cottage during summer term 2005, enabling them to spend focused time working on their dissertations or final creative projects. Graduate officers may nominate up to two students per department or program. Tuesday, March 1, 2005: Individual Faculty Grant Program (for the period July-December 2005) Further information on these programs, please call the Institute at 865-0495 or e-mail at iah1@psu.edu. The College will sponsor a panel discussion and information session on promotion and tenure for tenure-track faculty on Thursday, October 14, 2004, from 2 to 4 p.m. in 124 Sparks Building. In addition to remarks from Dean Welch, the program will include a panel of department heads. The material covered will be similar to previous years (promotion and tenure procedures, dossier preparation, and the responsibilities of the tenure candidate), although we will, of course, touch on changes in promotion and tenure guidelines made during the past year. There will be an opportunity for questions and discussion. Though the panel is targeted for tenure-track faculty, all faculty are welcome to attend. Provost Emeritus Faculty Teaching Scholar Awards Francis Gentry, Professor Emeritus of German, Leonard Rubinstein, Professor Emeritus of English, and Daniel Walden, Professor Emeritus of American Studies, English, and comparative literature, were named Provost's Emeritus Faculty Teaching Scholars for Fall 2004. Richard B. Lippin Lectureship in Ethics Hilary W. Putnam, Cogan University Professor Emeritus of the Department of Philosophy, Harvard University, will present “The Uniqueness of Pragmatism” as the guest speaker for the 2004 Richard B. Lippin Lectureship in Ethics. The lecture takes place on Thursday, September 9, 2004, at 4 p.m. in the Assembly Room at The Nittany Lion Inn and will explain how pragmatism is different from both mainstream analytic philosophy and Rortian relativism, as well as situate it in respect to a number of European philosophical currents. Before joining the faculty of Harvard, Dr. Putnam was professor of the philosophy of science at M.I.T., and also taught at Northwestern University and Princeton University. He is a past president of the American Philosophical Association (Eastern Division), the Philosophy of Science Association, and the Association for Symbolic Logic. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Corresponding Fellow of the British and French Academies, and holds a number of honorary degrees. He has written extensively on issues in metaphysics and epistemology, on the philosophies of science, of language, and of mind, and in recent years, on the relations between scientific and non-scientific knowledge, and on American pragmatism. His most recent book, Ethics Without Ontology, deals with many of these topics. The annual lecture is hosted by the Rock Ethics Institute and the Department of Philosophy and is sponsored by a generous endowment established by Richard and Ronnie Lippin. Family scholars from across the nation will converge on Penn State October 12-13 for the Penn State Annual National Family Symposium. The focus of the 2004 symposium is threefold. The first goal is to better understand the nature and origins of contemporary patterns of sexual and romantic relationships. The second goal is to illuminate how early romantic and sexual relationships influence individuals' subsequent development and life choices, including family formation. A third emphasis will consider whether or not current trends in romantic and sexual relationships in adolescence and emerging adulthood are problematic for individuals, families, and communities, and, if so, to identify effective ways to address this complex set of issues. The symposium will be held at the Nittany Lion Inn and is titled Romance and Sex in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: Risks and Opportunities. The symposium is organized by Alan Booth, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Human Development, and Demography, and Ann Crouter, professor of human development and family studies, of Penn State. For more information, please see the National Symposium on Family Issues. Comparative Literature Luncheon The Comparative Literature Luncheon is a weekly informal lunchtime gathering of students, faculty, and other members of the University community. Each week there is a short (twenty-minute) presentation, by a visitor or a local speaker, on a topic related to a humanities discipline. Daniel Walden (dxw8@psu.edu) is the coordinator for the series this semester. We meet every Monday in 102 Kern at about 12:15 p.m. Coffee and tea are provided (no charge). You can bring your lunch or buy something on a tray in Kern Cafeteria (next door) and bring it into 102. The speaker will begin at about 12:40 p.m. Allowing a few minutes for discussion, we'll conclude in time for you to get to classes that meet at 1:25 p.m. All students, faculty, colleagues, and friends are welcome. For details; check the WebEvents Calendar. The WebEvents Calendar features, lectures, talks, and conferences between July 1 to September 3. If you need to obtain or exchange parking permits, please come to Room 111 Sparks Building, Monday through Friday, from 9 to 11 a.m. and 2 to 4 p.m. only. Please remember to bring your license plate number(s) with you when you register for your permit. Once you have a permit, please be sure you report new or changed license plate numbers to Louise Sharrar at lsharrar@psu.edu or 865-7691. As a reminder, if you are leaving the College, you will need to return your parking permit to 111 Sparks Building. Human Resources and Administrative Update Program On September 16, the College will have an administrative update session for administrative and staff assistants who handle departmental promotion and tenure matters. The workshop will include promotion and tenure and human resources issues as well as several presentations. The program will be held in the Assembly Room of the Nittany Lion Inn from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Staff Professional Development Monthly workshops on a variety of issues will offer opportunities for professional development for Liberal Arts staff members. Workshops will include best practices, pitfalls to avoid, resource lists for additional help, and opportunities to share experiences and solutions. Some topics include: • preparing for your performance review, BEST PRACTICES FOR INTERVIEWING is scheduled for September 22, from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. in 124 Sparks. This workshop will include strategies to be used both for interviewing job candidates and for those of you who may be job candidates. The rest of the workshops will be held on the third Wednesday of each month also from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. in room 124 Sparks. The schedule of workshops will be posted on the Liberal Arts Human Resources Web site on September 1. Interested staff members may register by contacting Betsy Will at ejw5@psu.edu or 865-6487. If you have suggestions for other workshops, please let us know. An informational session is being offered for college staff on Friday, October 15, from 9 to 10:00 a.m. in room 121 Sparks Building. Dean Welch will discuss college initiatives and directions, and Jennifer Morris will speak about human resources programs and initiatives. All staff members are invited to attend this informational program and to bring any questions you may have. The Eleventh annual United Way Day of Caring will be held on October 7, 2004. Over the years the faculty and staff of the College of the Liberal Arts have donated many volunteers and hours to the United Way Day of Caring. If you, or a team of employees from your area, are interested in donating a day of service for improvement projects throughout the county please contact the Day of Caring Office at (814) 238-2941 or at dayofcaring@ccunitedway.org for details. For a volunteer application, please see the following Web site: For a list of projects and locations refer to this Web site: http://www.psu.edu/ur/events/unitedway/dayofcaring.html Angela Auman, staff assistant VI, financial office Erin Eckley, staff assistant VII, undergraduate studies Heidi Harner, manager of network and information systems II, Liberal Arts Computer Support Services (LACSS) Barbara King, staff assistant VI, Center for Work and Family Research Ann Morris, staff assistant VI, African and African American Studies, labor studies and industrial relations, and women’s studies Leigh Werkeiser, research support associate, sociology, PA Commission on Sentencing Benjamin Whitesell, staff assistant VI, history, religious studies, classics and ancient Mediterranean studies, and Jewish studies Cynthia Carlson, staff assistant VI, sociology Holly Lockey, staff assistant VI, financial office LA Times is compiled by Louise Sharrar, Dean’s Office, 111 Sparks, 865-7691, lsharrar@psu.edu 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 consult Louise Sharrar 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 05-54 |
