Bonni C. Hodges
Bonni C. Hodges, Health Department, organized the webinar “School Health Education in the 21st Century” for the American Association for Health Education [AAHE]. AAHE webinars are developed for professionals, students and the general public for professional development, continuing education credit and general knowledge. The webinar was developed and presented by Hodges and her colleagues Donna Videto, Health Department; Tami Benham-Deal, University of Wyoming; and Nancy Hudson, Council of Chief State School Officers. It was delivered live on Nov. 16 and is available as a webinar-on-demand through AAHE.
Rhiannon Maton
Rhiannon Maton, Foundations and Social Advocacy Department, recently had a book chapter, “School Closures and the Political Education of U.S. Teachers,” published in Shuttered Schools: Race, Community, and School Closures in American Cities, edited by Ebony M. Duncan. The chapter was co-authored with Lauren Ware Stark.
Janet Ochs, Jeremy Pekarek, Rod Koch and Chris Badurek
Janet Ochs, Jeremy Pekarek and Rod Koch, all from Memorial Library, and Chris Badurek, Geography Department, presented virtually at the SUNY Conference on Instruction and Technology on Thursday, May 27. The title of the presentation was “Tired of video conferencing fatigue? Explore tools to increase learner engagement and energize the class.”
Sam Avery
Sam Avery, Communication and Media Studies Department, was awarded grand prize for best short film at the Snowtown Film Festival on Jan. 26 in Watertown, N.Y. His short film, “DEADEYE” tells the story of an aging female boxer whose spirit rages despite the torments of society and a manager who won’t return calls. Over 200 film fans and filmmakers attended the fifth annual festival Jan. 25 and 26. The winter celebration of film concluded on Saturday evening with an award ceremony and presentation of the grand prize for best short film. More than 500 films were submitted for competition from eleven countries. Awards were also presented to student filmmakers, outstanding comedy and outstanding animated shorts and winter through film. The festival also included a script writing competition. Snowtown Film Festival will begin accepting submissions for next year’s festival this spring. Avery directs the Blackbird Film Festival, which will be held on campus April 26 to 28.
Robert Spitzer
Robert Spitzer, Political Science Department, continued to play a leading role in the national debate on gun violence with an Op-Ed article titled “Stand Your Ground Makes No Sense,” published on May 4 in the New York Times.
Kathleen Lawrence
Kathleen Lawrence, Communication Studies Department, had her paper, “A World without Limits: Living in a Barbie Reality as Pop Culture Ambassador” competitively selected for presentation in San Jose, Costa Rica, on July 26 at the International Popular Culture Association annual conference. The theme of the conference was global issues related to popular culture. Lawrence’s paper discussed how Mattel, one of the world’s largest toy companies, has promised generations of children and their parents that girls should boldly “dream, discover and explore their world” through Barbie. Lawrence explored this pack-and-go approach to international relations in the doll world. A rhetorical analysis of the “cultural” narratives, “authentic” artifacts, and “ethnic” costumes provided for each doll in the “Barbie Dolls of the World” series was included along with illustrations.
Robert Spitzer
Robert Spitzer, Political Science Department, is the author of an article titled “Separating Truth and Myth in the American Gun Debate,” published in the Fall 2013 issue of The Islamic Monthly.
Melinda Shimizu
Melinda Shimizu, Geography Department, had an article titled “Design a Children’s Map—Competition Edition!” published in March in The Geography Teacher.
Tadayuki Suzuki
Tadayuki Suzuki, Literacy Department, presented with Darryn Diuguid of McKendree University at the 2019 National Council of Teachers of English on Nov. 22 in Baltimore, Maryland. The presentation, “Intersectional Identities in LGBT Trade Books: Exploring the Current Trend in Rainbow Book List Winners,” was part of the roundtable sessions titled “LGBTQ + Spirited Inquiry: Visibility in ELA.”
Kathleen A. Lawrence
Kathleen A. Lawrence, Communication and Media Studies Department, recently had her poem, “Three's a Crowd,” placed with 19 other selected poems in an exhibit titled “Hay(na)ku: A 21st-Century Diasporic Poetry Form” in the San Francisco Public Library. Also, she wrote a haiga, a Japanese form which is typically a haiku with illustration, accepted for publication in New Verse News. This poem called “Amiss” was written as a tribute (elegy) to Aretha Franklin on her passing. Her poem “Head Over Heels,” written for a fantastical theme in the haiku form, was accepted for publication in the last week of August by the Colorado Boulevard.net. Also, Lawrence received notice that her speculative poem titled “Not Tonight” will soon appear in Star*Line, the print journal of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA).