Dawn BonkerWe welcome all faculty news and notes. Please submit them online using the Faculty Notes Submission Form.
Quaylan Allen, Ph.D., assistant professor, College of Educational Studies, hosted a professional development conference entitled, “Supporting African American Students” on Saturday, May 16, at the Center for Urban Education at the University of Pittsburgh. The purpose of this workshop was to provide an opportunity for Pittsburgh area educators and community members to learn about the most innovative tools, practices, and insights on educating African American children with a focus on five particular domains: health, STEM, SES, Sport, and Policy. Allen also was invited to deliver a keynote entitled, “#BlackMalesMatter: Contributing Factors to Disproportionality in Black Male Student Discipline.”
Mark Axelrod, Ph.D., professor, Department of English, and director of the John Fowles Center for Creative Writing, Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences, was accepted for a fourth Fulbright for 2016 at the University of Copenhagen. He was also a 2015 Fulbright Scholar’s Award finalist for the University of Trieste.
In addition, his experimental collection of short stories, Dante’s Foil & Other Sporting Tales, was published, two of his screenplays were finalists at the Amsterdam International Film Festival and the Firereel International Film Festival. His screenplay Moonlight on the Wabash was a finalist in the Best Feature Film Screenplay at the 7th Annual River Bend Film Festival, in South Bend, Ind. He was a contributing author to the journals Black Scat Review #11 and Two Thirds North. Notions of the Feminine: Literary Essays from Dostoevsky to Lacan was published by Palgrave Macmillan.
His biography Big Thoughts Are Free: Biography of Milan Panic (Peter Lang) is set to release this May. The Honorable Milan Panic is a member of President Jim Doti’s Cabinet.
John Benitz, associate professor, and co-chair of the Department of Theatre, was interviewed by Broadway World as part of a Memorial Day feature on the award-winning play, If All the Sky Were Paper, written by Benitz and staged May 21-22 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Jivas Chakravarthy, Ph.D., assistant professor, Argyros School of Business and Economics, is co-winner of the 2015 Financial Accounting and Reporting Section’s Best Dissertation Award from the American Accounting Association. The award will be presented at the annual meeting of the AAA in Chicago this August.
Theresa Dudeck, Ph.D., instructor, Department of Theatre, was a guest speaker on the panel “Cutting Edge of Improvisation” at the Coup de Comedy Festival at UC Irvine in May.
John Eastman, Ph.D., professor, Dale E. Fowler School of Law, was featured in a national podcast discussing the Supreme Court’s oral argument in the marriage cases, sponsored by the Federalist Society. Listen online at Federalist Society website.
Lois Fishman, adjunct professor, Dale E. Fowler School of Law, moderated a “Distinguished Authors” panel on issues in publishing for the Georgetown Alumni Club of San Diego in early May at the new downtown public library.
Ron Friedman, adjunct faculty, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, just finished his autobiographical book I Killed Optimus Prime, requested by Hasbro when he wrote the animated feature The Transformers: The Movie. It will be available for purchase in late June.
Two other projects nearing completion include: The theatrical adaptation of The Secrets They Kept, a family history by Suzanne Handler for Broadway producer Donald Loze; and a novel titled The Film School Murders.
María J. García, Ph.D., College of Educational Studies, with co-authors Fuentes, M., and Colon-Muñiz, submitted for publication “California Structured English Immersion: A Failing State of Affairs? Proposing a Comprehensive Educational Model to Improve Structured English Immersion Programs” to Journal of Education & Social Policy.
In addition, García was awarded the Extraordinary Doctoral Award in Education on April 7 by the National University of Distance Education (UNED), the largest university of Spain with more than 260,000 students and 7,154 professors in colleges and branches all around the world. She was selected for this award from among 32 international candidates, all doctors in education who finished their doctoral degrees during the 2013-14 school year with the honor of Summa Cum Laude.
Alicia Guy, associate professor, Department of Dance, and Don Guy, associate professor, Department of Theatre, brought dance majors and theatre technology students to the 2015 Cirque du Soleil Entertainment and Technology Symposium held at the Cirque du Soleil Headquarters and Training Facility in Las Vegas. Students attended a variety of master classes taught by Cirque du Soleil artisans, participated in private technical demonstrations, back stage tours and performances of the shows Michael Jackson ONE at Mandalay Bay and The Beatles LOVE at the Mirage. Special guests included Chancellor Daniele Struppa, Chapman University Trustee Wylie Aitken and his wife Bette, Faculty Senate Vice President Cris Giannantonio, Ph.D., associate professor and faculty senate vice president and associate dean of faculty affairs for the College of Performing Arts, and Louise Thomas, D.M.A., associate professor and Faculty Senate vice president and associate dean of Faculty Affairs for the College of Performing Arts.
Ky Kugler, Ed.D., senior associate dean, College of Educational Studies, has been selected by the National Athletic Trainers Association to receive the “Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer” award. The award will be presented in St. Louis in June.
Whitney McIntyre Miller, Ph.D., assistant professor, College of Educational Studies, published “An Integral Perspective of Peace Leadership” in the Integral Leadership Review. It can be read online at Integral Publishers.
Marisol Rexach, Ph.D., adjunct faculty, College of Educational Studies, successfully defended her dissertation entitled, “Sudanese Children of Immigrants: Black Angels Navigating Cultural Worlds.” While there exists many immigrant stories of adaptation, research chronicles the Latino and Asian experience. Limited scholarship has dedicated its efforts to understanding the black immigrant experience. Rexach’s study spanned eight years and explores the lives of young Sudanese children who are growing up in Southern California. The aim was to gain a better understanding of how they negotiate their complex cultural worlds and consider how they perceive themselves as Muslims, Africans, speakers of Arabic, and children of immigrants. The result allows for a deeper understanding of these children and how they make sense of a racialized, Christian-centered, white society. This work was guided by committee chair Lilia Monzo, Ph.D., assistant professor and chairs Suzanne Soo Hoo ,Ph.D., professor, and Anaida Colon Muniz, Ph.D., associate professor. Also on the committee was Mustafa Kuku, Ph.D., director of the Islamic Society of Riverside and a member of the Sudanese community.
Connie Shears, Ph.D., associate professor, published two papers “Acquired Brain Injury Results in Specific Impairment of Planning” and “Mapping High vs. Low Planning Knowledge in Survivors of Brain Injury Knowledge,” in the latest issue of Brain Impairment Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment, 2015.
Anna Waterhouse, instructor, Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, announces that her first novel Mycroft Holmes will be published by Titan Books (Random House) in September. Mycroft is Sherlock’s older, smarter brother. Like Sherlock, he has a photographic memory and a keen insight into human nature. Unlike Sherlock, he’s not interested in individual criminals but in stopping crime before it starts. He is a diplomat and politician — and not above Machiavellian moves when necessary. In this novel, he’s 23 years old. This is his first big and potentially deadly adventure.
In addition, Waterhouse is co-producing an HBO feature-length documentary on basketball great Kareen Abdul-Jabbar. Kareem: A Minority of One will air in October.
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