Letter From the Dean

Jean Ann Linney, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

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Save the Dates!

Please mark your calendars for these important dates:

March 2                Mid-terms
March 5-11          Spring Break
April 4                   Easter Recess Begins After Last Class
April 10                Classes Resume

Please click here for the complete academic calendar.

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Faculty Scholarship

• Anil Bamezai, Ph.D., an associate professor of biology, in collaboration with his former graduate students, Colleen Kennedy and Matthew D. Nelson, has published a research article in the BioMed Central journal, Cell Communication & Signaling. The title of their publication is: "Analysis of Detergent-free Lipid Rafts isolated from CD4⁺ T cell line: Interaction with antigen presenting cells promotes coalescing of lipid rafts." In addition, Dr. Bamezai has been invited to join the editorial board of Journal of Nanomedicine & Biotherapeutic Discovery. He will speak at the International Conference and Exhibition on Nanotechnology & Nanomedicine on March 12-14, 2012, in Omaha. The conference, Nano-2012, anticipates 200 participants and 120 speakers from more than 30 countries.
• Aaron M. Bauer, Ph.D., a professor of biology, Gerald M. Lemole, M.D. Chair of Integrative Biology, and director of the  Graduate Program in Biology, was awarded $5,000 from the Thomas Barbour Fund for Field Research (Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University) “Herpetological Field Studies in Zimbabwe and Namibia” 2011. Dr. Bauer also was named the Herpetologists’ League Distinguished Herpetologist 2011. Two of his recent publications include: Stanley, E., Bauer, A.M., Jackman, T., Branch, W.R. and Mouton, P.leF.N. 2011. Between a rock and a hard polytomy: Rapid radiation in the rupicolous Girdled Lizards (Squamata: Cordylidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 58:53–70 and A. M. Bauer, Parham, J.F., Brown, R.M., Stuart, B.L., Grismer, L.L., Papenfuss, T.J., Böhme, W., Savage, J.M., Carranza, S., Grismer, J.L., Wagner P., Ananjeva, N.B., and Inger, R.F. 2011. Availability of new Bayesian-delimited gecko names and the importance of character-based species descriptions. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 278:490–492. 
• Ellen Bonds, Ph.D., an assistant professor of English, has published the article, "An 'Other' Look at William Faulkner's `That Evening Sun,'" in the winter 2011-12 issue of Studies in Short Fiction, Volume 37, No. 1, pages 59-69.
• Sheryl Perlmutter Bowen, Ph.D., an associate professor of communication, has published a chapter in a book, newly released by Routledge, entitled, Transcending Trauma: Survival, Resilience, and Clinical Implications in Survivor Families. According to Routledge, “Together, the authors and contributors Sheryl Perlmutter Bowen, Hannah Kliger, Lucy Raizman, Juliet Spitzer and Emilie Scherz Passow have transformed qualitative narrative analysis and framed for us a new and profound understanding of survivorship. Their study has illuminated universal aspects of the recovery from trauma, and Transcending Trauma makes a vital contribution to our understanding of how survivors find meaning after traumatic events.” Click here for more information. With Dr. Qi Wang, an assistant professor of communication, Dr. Bowen also presented a paper entitled, “Physician Attractiveness and Expectancy Violation: An Analysis of the Effects of Gender and Attractiveness in Provider-Patient Communication,” at the National Communication Association Convention, New Orleans (Nov. 17-20, 2011).
• Samantha Chapman, Ph.D., (PI) and Adam Langley, Ph.D., (Co-PI) both biology professors, have received major funding from NASA ($298,228) to study the impact of raising seas and temperatures on costal vegetation communities that store carbon, build soil, and protect costal environments. These studies are in line with NASA’s new Science Mission Directorate.
• Bryan Crable, Ph.D., an associate professor of communication, delivered a lecture on “Innovations in Communication” to a group of educators in a forum sponsored by the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge in Norristown, Pa. In addition, Dr. Crable has written the book, Ralph Ellison and Kenneth Burke: At the Roots of the Racial Divide, which was released by University of Virginia Press on December 9. The book is part of the American Literatures Initiative. The ALI was launched in 2008 by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and was aimed at strategically combating the situation of academic presses in the 21^st century. By creating a collaborative relationship between five presses (New York University Press, Fordham University Press, Rutgers University Press, Temple University Press, and the University of Virginia Press), the ALI is able to create new opportunities for first-time authors engaging pressing issues in literature and the humanities. Dr. Crable also contributed to the National Communication Association Convention, New Orleans (Nov. 17-20, 2011) in several ways. First, as part of a pre-conference seminar entitled, “E-Publishing in the Academy: Self Publishing Textbooks, Novels, Journals, and More: How to do it; Should we do it?” Second, he presented about Villanova’s Waterhouse Family Institute as part of the special convention series, “Voices of Consciousness,” a series designed to highlight the relationship between communication and social change. Finally, he presented a paper for the Kenneth Burke Society, NCA Branch, entitled: “Helping the Body Speak: Burke on Bones, Biologism, and the Question of Race.”
• Robert L. Curry, Ph.D., a professor of biology; first vice-president, Wilson Ornithological Society, 2011-2013; and vice chair, Board of Directors, Ornithological Council, was a coauthor on a paper that was published recently (Lovette, I., B. S. Arbogast, R. L. Curry, R. M. Zink, C. A. Botero, J. P. Sullivan, A. L. Talaba, R. B. Harris, D. R. Rubenstein, R. E. Ricklefs, and E. Bermingham, 2011. Phylogenetic relationships of the mockingbirds and thrashers (Aves: Mimidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
• Emmanuel David, Ph.D., an assistant professor of sociology, has co-edited the book, The Women of Katrina: How Gender, Race, and Class Matter in an American Disaster (Vanderbilt University Press). Learn more about the book here.
• Sterling F. Delano, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for $151,250 to direct a workshop in July 2012 for community college faculty on “Concord, Massachusetts: Fiery Feminists, Utopian Dreamers, and Social Reform in the Age of Emerson and Thoreau.” This is the fourth consecutive year that Dr. Delano has been funded by the NEH for this program. It is part of the NEH’s “Landmarks of American History and Culture” initiative.
• Mary Desmond, Ph.D., a professor of biology, has been invited to speak at an international conference this summer (Society of Experimental Biology being held in Salzburg, Austria, June 28-July 2, 2012). The comference will explore a new vision of cerebrospinal fluid in development and function of the central nervous system. 
• Laurence DeWarf, Ph.D., a professor of astronomy and astrophysics, attended the 219th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas (January 2012). He was the lead author of a paper presented on research regarding our Sun and how it compares to other stars like it. In the paper, "Is the Sun a Good Solar Twin?", evidence was found that the Sun currently exhibits exceptionally high (ten times more!) levels of magnetically-driven coronal X-ray emission when compared to other stars with the same physical properties and age. Evidently, our Sun appears to have been seriously "acting up" for the last few decades. But the Sun now may be showing signs of returning to normal. This research was done in collaboration with Edward Guinan, Scott Engle, and undergraduate astronomy major Jordan Robertson. This work is supported by grants from NASA.
• Bernard J. Gallagher III, Ph.D., a professor of sociology, has published the book, The Sociology of Mental Illness, recently released by Sloan Publishing. According to Sloan, " The book is written by one of the foremost psychiatric sociologists in the U.S. and Europe. It focuses on the critical role played by social forces associated with mental illness, including diagnosis, causality, social epidemiology, stigma and treatment, as well as the personal suffering of the mentally ill and their families. The book also includes several examples of cutting-edge research presented by the author's research team."
• With Drs. Brian J. Jones, Ph.D. and Joseph A. McFalls Jr., Ph.D. both professors of sociology, Bernard J. Gallagher III, Ph.D. also published an article, "Obstetrical Complications, Social Class and Type of Schizophrenia", in Clinical Schizophrenia and Related Psychoses, 5, 33-39, 2011.
• Charles Folk, Ph.D., a professor of psychology, was recently named Editor-in-Chief of the journal Visual Cognition. Dr. Folk also recently published three papers in collaboration with Roger Remington at the University of Queensland. The first, “A critical evaluation of the disengagement hypothesis” was published in Acta Psychological. The second and third papers, both published in the “Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance,” were entitled, “The role of relational information in contingent capture” (with coauthor Stefanie Becker from the University of Queensland) and “All set! Evidence for simultaneous attentional control settings for multiple colors” (with coauthor Jessica Irons also from the University of Queensland). Dr. Folk also recently attended the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society in Seattle where he coauthored three presentations. The first, with Brad Wyble of Syracuse University and Mary Potter of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was entitled “Attentional capture by images that match a conceptual target set.” The second, with former Villanova graduate student (see Student & Alumni News) entitled “Negative cuing effects are NOT a signature of attentional capture or disengagement.” The third, with Shu-Chieh Wu of San Jose State University and Roger Remington of the University of Queensland, was entitled, “Onsets do not override top-down goals but they are responded to more quickly.”
• José Luis Gastañaga, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Spanish, published the book Caballero noble desbaratado: Autobiografía e invención en el siglo XVI [Noble Knight Disrupted: Autobiography and Invention in the Sixteenth Century] (Purdue University Press, 2011). The book was recently in exhibition in a display case at Stanley Coulter Hall, home of the Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures series, where the book appeared, and of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures of Purdue University. In addition, he also gave a talk on “Cuzco School of Painting: The Basics” to commemorate the Hispanic Cultural Heritage Month at Falvey Memorial Library (September 15, 2011).
  
• Judith Giesberg, Ph.D., an associate professor of history, has been selected as the spring 2014 speaker for the The Steven and Janice Brose Distinguished Lecture Series in the Civil War Era at Penn State University. Dr. Giesberg will deliver three lectures dealing with the impact of the Civil War on families and changing ideas of childhood in America. The series, titled The Civil War’s Lost Boys and Girls, combines Dr. Giesberg’s research specialties in Civil War era history and the history of childhood in America. The revised lectures will be published by the University of North Carolina Press. The Brose series is sponsored by the Richards Center for Civil War Era History at Penn State and was created through an endowment from Steven and Janice Brose in 1998. In addition, Dr. Giesberg's article, “Orphans and Indians: Pennsylvania’s Soldiers’ Orphan Schools and the Landscape of Postwar Childhood,” has been published in James Marten, ed. Children and Youth During the Civil War Era (New York, 2012), 188-206.
  
• Edward Guinan, Ph.D., a professor of astronomy and astrophysics, attended the 100 Year Starship Symposium, held in Orlando, Florida, in September 2011. The symposium was sponsored by NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Guinan is a member of the StarVoyager team formed to explore the possibility of traveling to nearby stars with habitable planets within the next 100 years. The StarVoyager group was set up to develop a reference for the establishment of colonies on Mars and the construction of starship capable of interstellar travel. The vehicle being considered is an small asteroid that would travel of about 10 percent the speed of light and be the habitat for several hundred human space explorers. The primary objectives of the StarVoyager program are to inspire and motivate students and the public in science, engineering and space exploration and to preserve the human species (off-Earth) in case of a major catastrophe on Earth. More information can be found on the StarVoyager Web site. Guinan also attended a conference sponsored by the International Astonomical Union, IAU - Vietnam International Workshop on Astronomy & Astrophysics. The workshop was held at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education in Ho Chi Minh City (Sai-gon), Vietnam. The workshop focused on developing Astronomy education and research in Vietnam. Guinan helped organize the workshop and gave a series of lectures on topics in Stellar Astrophysics, Solar Physics, Climate Change, and Astrobiology. Over 50 teachers and students from nearly every region of Vietnam attended the workshop. Guinan (with Scott Engle, Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics) received a grant from the NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to carry out X-ray observations of low luminosity, cool red dwarfs to study the suitability of these commonplace stars as host stars for habitable planets. During the Fall 2011, Engle and Guinan published a review paper on Red Dwarf Stars: Ages, Rotation, Magnetic Dynamo Activity and the Habitability of Hosted Planets in Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series (2011arXiv1111.2872E). Also, Guinan and co-authors had two papers accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. These papers focused on the study of asteroseismology and stellar structure and evolution of the bright star blue supergiant Rigel and the pulsating North Star - Polaris. The lead author of the paper on Rigel is Visiting Research Associate Ehsan Moravveji.
• Lowell Gustafson, Ph.D., associate dean of humanities and social sciences, and professor of political science, delivered the first lecture in the 2009 Anthropology Lecture Series. His presentation, "Speaking Up: The Origins of Language," just received 10,000 "views" on YouTube. In addition, Dr. Gustafson has been invited to participate in the Global Future 2045 International Congress from February 17 - 20, 2012, to be held in Moscow, where he will present a paper on "Big History, Politics, and Religion in Humanity's Future."
  
• Maurice Hall, Ph.D., an associate professor of communication and chair of the department, participated in a panel discussion entitled, “Masculinities and Manhood” at the University of Pennsylvania in February. The panel, which explored the question “What Makes a Man Within His Own Culture?,” focused on research appearing in the book Global Masculinities and Manhood (Eds. Ronald L. Jackson & Murali Balaji, U of Illinois P., 2011). Dr. Hall has published a chapter in this text entitled, “Negotiating Jamaican Masculinities.” 
• Gregory Hoskins, Ph.D., one of the Lawrence C. Gallen Fellows in the Humanities in the Villanova Center for Liberal Education, will deliver the Jerry Jackson Lecture in the Humanities at Western Carolina University (Cullowhee, NC) on October 10, 2011. His talk will address issues in the philosophy and politics of commemoration. His essay, “The Capacity to Judge and the Contours of a Theory of Political Judgment,” will appear in a forthcoming anthology titled Paul Ricoeur and the Tasks of Philosophy (Lexington Books), and his article, “On Stories of Peoplehood and Dangerous Memories,” will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Philosophy & Social Criticism.
• Daniel Joyce, Ph.D., a professor of computing sciences, and William Fleischman, Ph.D., a professor of computing sciences, will present at I ETHICOMP Latin America Workshop, Praxis and Ethics in ICTs, which is part of CACIC 2011, in Argentina. Their paper is entitled, “Advantages and Trade-Offs of Introducing Ethical Issues in Computing through a Dedicated Course or through Modules in Relevant Content Courses in the Curriculum." Dr. Joyce will present the paper, and Dr. Fleischman will be in attendance to answers questions and run the session. This particular workshop will be held in English. Dr. Joyce serves as vice chair of ACM’s SIGCSE, the world’s largest society dedicated to the area of teaching computer science. As vice chair of SIGCSE, Dr. Joyce has been invited to address the entire CACIC Congress. He will deliver a 30-minute presentation in Spanish introducing SIGCSE to the audience and sharing ideas for collaboration/cooperation/involvement of SIGCSE with Argentinean CS Educators, and vice versa. Dr. Fleischman, who is fluent in Spanish, will assist Dr. Joyce, in particular with the question/answer session.
• Irene P. Kan, Ph.D., an assistant professor in psychology, presented a talk at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society. This work was done in collaboration with Anna Drummey, Ph.D., a research associate and adjunct faculty in the Psychology Department and researchers at the University of Maryland (Jared Novick, Ph.D. and Susan Teubner-Rhodes).
• Maghan Keita, Ph.D., a professor of history and director of the Institute for Global Interdisciplinary Studies, has published two articles: the first is “Believing in Ethiopians," in Daniel Orrells, Gurminder Bhambra, and Tessa Roynon, eds.  AFRICAN ATHENA: NEW AGENDAS (Oxford, 2011), 19-39, and the second is “Race: What the bookstore hid," in Celia Chazelle, Simon Doubleday, Felice Lifshitz, and Amy Remensnyder, eds., WHY THE MIDDLE AGES MATTER: MEDIEVAL LIGHT ON MODERN INJUSTICE (Routledge, 2012).
• Deborah Kendzierski, Ph.D., a professor of psychology, and an undergraduate student presented their research on “Self-Definition in Senior Tennis Players” at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association in Washington, D.C., in August.
• Catherine Kerrison, Ph.D., an associate professor of history, has published her essay, "Sally Hemings," in Frances D. Cogliano, ed., A Companion to Thomas Jefferson (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 284-300.
• Elizabeth Kolsky, Ph.D., an associate professor of history, has published an editorial on the case of Raymond Davis, the CIA operative, currently in custody in Lahore, in The Dawn (Pakistan's largest English language daily newspaper). Read the article here. In addition, Dr. Kolsky, in connection with her new research project on empire and terror, has been selected by the Palestinian American Research Center to participate in an overseas Faculty Development Seminar to be held in May in Jerusalem and the West Bank. In addition, Dr. Kolsky has published an article in Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English language newspaper, on the killing of Osama Bin Laden entitled, “Body of Evidence.” Dr. Kolsky also has published the article, “An unlikely pair,” comparing the parallel pasts and presents of Israel and Pakistan, in The Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English language newspaper. The article is based on Dr. Kolsky’s recent experience as a fellow at the Palestinian American Research Center (PARC). D. Kolsky's book, Colonial Justice in British India: White Violence and the Rule of Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), has been issued in a paperback edition.
  
• Thomas B. Ksiazek, Ph.D., an assistant professor of communication, has a coauthored an article published in the February issue of the Journal of Communication titled, "The dynamics of audience fragmentation: Public attention in an age of digital media." It is co-authored with James G. Webster at Northwestern University. He also gave a presentation entitled, "Cross-platform audience behavior in an abundant media environment: A network analytic approach to understanding fragmentation and polarization" as part of the Ohio State School of Communication Colloquium Series. In addition, he has co-authored (with Elaine J. Yuan, University of Illinois Chicago) an article entitled, “The Duality of Structure in China’s National Television Market: A Network Analysis of Audience Behavior.” Their article has been published in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media (a publication of the Broadcast Education Association). In addition, Dr. Ksiazek will have his article, “A Network Analytic Approach to Understanding Cross-platform Audience Behavior,” printed in the December issue (Volume 24; Issue 4) of Journal of Media Economics. Dr. Ksiazek also presented "Partisan Audience Polarization: Beyond Selective Exposure," at the National Communication Association Convention, New Orleans (Nov. 17-20, 2011). This paper was chosen as a Top 5 Faculty Paper in the Mass Communication Division of NCA. Ksiazek also has published an article titled, “A Network Analytic Approach to Understanding Cross-platform Audience Behavior,” in the December issue (24.4) of Journal of Media Economics. He has also had a co-authored paper, “Media Consumption Across Platforms: Identifying User-Defined Repertoires,” accepted for publication in the journal New Media & Society. He co-authored this piece with Harsh Taneja, James G. Webster, and Edward C. Malthouse, all of Northwestern University.
• John Kurtz, Ph.D., a professor of psychology, is co-author on a paper published recently in Personality and Individual Differences entitled, “Birth order differences in normal personality traits: Perspectives from within and outside the family.” The first author is Victoria Marini (A&S, 2005), an undergraduate almuna who is now enrolled in the doctoral program in clinical psychology at the University of Vermont (see Alumni News).
• Robert Langran, Ph.D., a professor of political science, gave four lectures on "The Supreme Court in Times of Crisis" to the Elderhostel /Road Scholar program at the Warwick Center in New York in October. In addition, in November, he gave a talk at the Martins Run Senior Residential Community on “A History of the U.S. Supreme Court." He also was the chair and discussant at a panel on Protecting Individual Rights at the annual meeting of the Northeastern Political Science Association in Philadelphia in November. Dr. Langran also published the 8^th ed. of his book The United States Supreme Court. An Historical and Political Analysis.
• Gerald M. Long, Ph.D., a professor of psychology, presented a paper at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society in Seattle, WA, in early November. The paper is entitled “Dissecting Perceptual Processes with a New Tri-Stable Reversible Figure,” and it was co-authored by a recent graduate of the M.S. program (see Alumni News).
• Rayna D. Markin, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Education and Counseling, has been awarded a grant by the American Psychoanalytic Association to study long-term and short-term dynamic and experiential therapies. In addition, Dr. Markin published, "Does my group know how I feel? Measuring Intellectual Empathy in Groups Using the Social Relations Model," in Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 15, 1-16.3). Her article, wich is in press, "Transference, Countertransference, and Session Outcome in Supportive Expressive Psychotherapy with Depressed Patients," has been accepted for publication in Psychotherapy.
• Matthew Matell, Ph.D., a professor of psychology, received a $250,000 R15 grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, (NIH) to study the integration of discrepant memories and the influence of dopaminergic and serotonergic processes on such integration process. He also published five articles in the past year with MS alumni (see alumni news) as well as co-authors from other institutions. 1) “Stimulus Compounding in Interval Timing: The Modality-Duration Relationship of the Anchor Durations Results in Qualitatively Different Response Patterns to the Compound Cue," Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes; 2) “A heterogeneous population code for elapsed time in rat medial agranular cortex," Behavioral Neuroscience; 3) “Nucleus accumbens dopamine modulates response rate but not response timing in an interval timing task," Behavioral Neuroscience; 4) “Behavioral sensitivity of temporally modulated striatal neurons," Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience; and 5) “Multiple mechanisms for temporal processing," Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience. Dr. Matell also presented a paper, Averaging of temporal memories across drug states, and a poster, Averaging of temporal memories under conditions of incomplete information, with current and former MS students (see alumni news) at the 18^th Comparative Cognition Conference in Melbourne, Florida, in April. In addition, Dr. Matell has been named the winner of the D. G. Marquis Award for 2011. This award is given annually to recognize the best paper of the year published in Behavioral Neuroscience, a journal of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Mattell’s paper is entitled, “A heterogeneous population code for elapsed time in rat medial agranular cortex.” He had several co-authors, including M.S. alumnus, A. George Wilson, and former post-doc, Cindy Gooch. The formal presentation of the award will take place at the APA convention in August 2012.
• Shauna MacDonald, Ph.D., an assistant professor of communication, performed an original personal narrative short performance entitled, “If it Wasn’t for Bad Luck, We Wouldn’t Have Any,” as part of a session concerned with “Voicing Familial Loss Through Performance” at the National Communication Association Convention, New Orleans (Nov. 17-20, 2011).
• Michael Mafodda, M.B.A., instructor of communication, has been named a keynote speaker for the Main Line’s “Make More, Save More” Lecture Series; he will present “Technology at Work: Online Tools that Work NOW” next year. For more information about the series, click here. In addition, he has been awarded a a grant to provide each student enrolled in his spring course, Media Design for Mobile Devices, a 32GB iPad 2 to use throughout the semester. Mafodda’s students will work to create an App for “The Joy of Sox,” a local charity dedicated to providing socks for the homeless population.
• Timothy McCall, Ph.D., an assistant professor of art history, has published a chapter titled, “Pier Maria’s Legacy: (Il)legitimacy, Inheritance, and Rule of Parma’s Rossi Dynasty,” in Wives, Widows, Mistresses, and Nuns in Early Modern Italy: Making the Invisible Visible through Art and Patronage, ed. Katherine McIver (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2012), 33-54.
  
• Kevin Minbiole, Ph.D., an assistant professor of organic and natural products chemistry, is featured in the news release, "Research team explores how microbial diversity defends against disease."
• Anna Moreland, Ph.D., an assistant professor of humanities, is author of the book, Known by Nature: Thomas Aquinas on Natural Knowledge of God. Read a review of the book here.
• Billie Murray, Ph.D., an assistant professor of communication, presented a paper for the Freedom of Expression Division of the National Communication Association Convention, New Orleans (Nov. 17-20, 2011) entitled: “Creative Disruption: Challenging the Disciplining Effects of Regulation and Surveillance In Public Spaces of Protest.”
• Silvia Nagy-Zekmi, Ph.D., a professor of modern languages and literatures, director of Hispanic Graduate Studies, and director of the Cultural Studies Program, has co-edited with Karyn Hollis, Ph.D., a professor of English, Global Academe. Engaging Intellectual Discourse. (NY: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012) This is the second volume of Truth to Power: Public Intellectuals In and Out of Academe (UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010) also co-edited with Karyn Hollis. In addition, Dr. Nagy-Zekmi has been invited to be a plenary speaker at the 15th Annual Hispanic and Lusophone Studies Symposium, "Discursive Tensions: Occupation, Confrontation, and Negotiation," at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, on April 28, 2012. Past plenary speakers at this conference have included Dr. Jean Franco and Dr. David Herzberger, well-known figures of Hispanic Studies in the United States.
• David Oh, Ph.D., a visiting assistant professor of communication, has published an article in Communication, Culture & Critique, (a journal of the International Communication Association). His article is entitled, “Viewing Identity: Second-generation Korean American Ethnic Identification and the Reception of Korean Transnational Films.”
• Alain J. Phares, Ph.D., a professor of physics, has published an article in Langmuir, a journal published by the American Chemical Society in the general field of Materials Science with emphasis on Colloids and Interfacesentitled, entitled, "Coadsorption of n Monomer Species on Terraces and Nanotubes." Dr. Phares also submitted in October 2011 a one-year proposal to pursue his numerical computation research on the Cray XT5 (Kraken) of the National Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He proposed to use his lattice model of adsorption on surfaces to explain, among other things, why a certain crystallization pattern (called a 5x5 structure) appears when Sulfur (S) is adsorbed on Gold (Au) surfaces, which exhibits an equilateral triangular distribution of Au sites. The proposal was approved and Dr. Phares was awarded 500,000 service units on Kraken for the calendar year 2012.
  
• Michael A. Posner, Ph.D., an associate professor of statistics in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, recently met with a delegation from Egypt including the Minister of Education to discuss STEM education in the United States as the Egyptian government considers an overhaul of its STEM education systems. This meeting was coordinated by a group called World Learning. In addition, Dr. Posner recently received accreditation as a Professional Statistician (“PStat”). This new accreditation from the American Statistical Association follows the model of Canada and the UK to recognize those with skills as a statistician. He also is the winner of the Mathematical Association of America’s 2012 Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member. This national award is given to up to three beginning faculty (less than seven years of teaching) whose teaching has been extraordinarily successful and whose effectiveness in teaching undergraduate mathematics is shown to have influence beyond their own classrooms.
  
• Bernard G. Prusak, Ph.D., Gallen Fellow in the Humanities in VCLE and acting director of the Academic Learning Communities, published the paper, "When Words Fail Us: Reexamining the Conscience of Huckleberry Finn," in the Journal of Aesthetic Education 45/4 (2011): 1-22. His article, "The Moment of Recognition: 'Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus,'" appeared as the cover story in Commonweal, December 16, 2011, pp. 8-12, and his review of James Keenan's A History of Catholic Moral Theology in the Twentieth Century appeared in the same magazine's October 7, 2011, issue, pp. 28-29. Dr. Prusak was also recently elected to the Executive Committee of the American Catholic Philosophical Association.
  
• Megan Quigley, Ph.D., an assistant professor of English, has received a Research Fellowship from the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas. Megan will be using the fellowship to travel to do research on her book project: Vaguely Philosophical: Modernist Fiction and the Challenge of Philosophy.
• Barbara Romaine, an instructor of Arabic in IGIS, has been awarded second place in the prestigious Saif Ghobash-Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation. The prize annually recognizes outstanding work in a "published translation in English of a full-length imaginative and creative Arabic work of literary merit." According to the award announcement, "[Barbara's] impressive translation renders the metaphorical power of Ashour’s story with grace and subtlety, skillfully reflecting the shifts in time and the different voices and registers. Fluent and refreshing, Romaine has done a brilliant job."
• Heidi Rose, Ph.D., an associate professor of communication, published, "A Conversation with Anna Deavere Smith" in Text and Performance Quarterly, a journal of the National Communication Association. In addition, Dr. Rose presented a paper entitled, "Performing d/Deaf Identity in a ‘Normalized’ d/Deaf World” at the National Communication Association Convention, New Orleans (Nov. 17-20, 2011). Dr. Rose also served as an invited respondent for the performance “Up from the Ashes,” which took place at the convention.
• Paul Rosier, Ph.D., an associate professor of history, has co-written an article published in the premier Journal for American History: Alexandra Harmon, Colleen O’Neill, and Paul C. Rosier, “Interwoven Economic Histories: American Indians in a Capitalist America,” Journal of American History (2011) 98(3): 698-722.
• Joseph T. Schick, Ph.D., an associate professor of physics, and Caroline G. Morgan, Ph.D., a professor of physics at Wayne State University in Detroit, have written the article, "Gallium interstitial contributions to diffusion in gallium arsenide," in the journal AIP Advances, volume: 1, article number: 032161 (September 2011).
  
• Christopher D. Schmidt, Ph.D., LPC, LMFT, an assistant professor in the Department of Education and Counseling, has two manuscripts accepted for publication: Schmidt, C. D., Hardinge, G. & Rokutani, L. "Expanding the School Counselor Repertoire Through STEM-focused Career Development," The Career Development Quarterly (in press), and Schmidt, C. D. & Adkins, C. P. "Understanding, Valuing, and Teaching Reflection in Counselor Education: A Phenomenological Inquiry." Reflective Practice (in press). In addition, Dr. Schmidt will be presenting at the International Association of Moral Education Apnual Conference,“Cultivating Morality: Human Beings, Nature, and the World,” in Nanjing, China, in October 2011. The title of his presentation is: “Intellectual and Emotional Development: Translating Reflections During Developmental Transitions."
• Sally Scholz, Ph.D., recently published six articles in the Encyclopedia of Global Justice, edited by Deen Chatterjee and published by Springer (2011). The articles are: “Shiva, Vandana,” “Genocide,” “Solidarity,” “Rousseau, Jean-Jacques,” “War, Just and Unjust,” and “Social Contract theory.”
• John J (Jack) Schrems, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Political Science, has published the “new revised edition” of his Understanding Principles of Politics and the State on the theme that understanding politics requires a grasp of structuring principles the work considers democracy, the fundamentals of authority, justice, rights, constitutionalism, federalism/unfederalism, and governing structures. The book was published in September 2011 by University Press of America.
• Luckow Family Professor of English Lauren Shohet, Ph.D., a professor of English, has been named the first recipient of the new Shakespeare Association of America-Bogliasco Foundation joint fellowship. Under the fellowship, Professor Shohet will be in residence at the Liguria Humanities Center for a month in 2013, where she will pursue research on intersections of translation theory and theories of literary adaptation.
• Raka Shome (Harron Family Endowed Chair in Communication) was the keynote speaker for the German Communication Association’s 2011 conference—Beyond Center and Periphery: Dewesternizing in Communication Studies—at the University of Erfut, Germany (October 27-29, 2011).
• Len Shyles, Ph.D., an associate professor of communication, has written the book, The Art of Video Production, which has been selected to be among the inaugural set of titles in SAGE Publications’ online books platform (to be launched in 2012). This platform will include over 2,000 titles and serve as an interdisciplinary social science book and reference offering.
• Edward M. Sion, Ph.D., a professor of astronomy and astrophysics, gave an invited talk at the conference "The Golden Age of Cataclysmic Variables" held in Palermo (Mondello), Sicily, in late September. His talk was entitled "White Dwarfs in Cataclysmic Variables: Accretion Physics and Evolution." Dr. Sion also presented an invited summary of the conference. A Villanova junior astronomy and astrophysics major, Craig Kolobow, lead-authored a peer-reviewed scientific paper with Dr.Sion entitled, "The Amazing Old Nova Q Cygni: A Far Ultraviolet Synthetic Spectral Analysis," which appeared in the September 2011 issue of the Publications of Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Junior astronomy and astrophysics major, Alexandra Bisol, lead-authored a peer-reviewed scientific paper with Drs. Sion and Patrick Godon, research assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics, entitled, "Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopy of Three Long-Period Nova-like Variables," which is scheduled to appear in the February 2012 issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
• Cristina Soriano, Ph.D., an assistant professor of history, has written the essay, "Buscar libros en un ciudad sin imprenta: La Circulación de los Libros en Caracas a finales del siglo XVIII." (Looking for Books in a City Without Printing Press: the Circulation of Books in Caracas at the End of the Eighteenth Century) has been published in El Libro en Circulación en el Mundo Moderno en España y Latinoamérica (Pedro Rueda (ed.) Madrid, Calambur, 2012) (The Circulation of Books in the Modern World: Spain and Latin America).
• Michael Tomko, Ph.D., an associate professor of literature in the Department of Humanities, haswritten the book, Firmly I Believe and Truly: The Spiritual Tradition of Catholic England, published by Oxford University Press. The 700+ page anthology, which takes its title from Newman’s Dream of Gerontius, contains writings from 1483-1999, a general introduction as well as historical and thematic introductions to each of the book's three sections, and original biographies of all the authors included.
• Thomas Toppino, Ph.D., a professor of psychology and chair of the department, and three of his current and former graduate students presented two posters at the recent conference of the Psychonomic Society in Seattle. The first, entitled, “Metacognitive control of spacing and testing during learning: Are they related?,” was coauthored by current M.S. graduate students (see student news). The second, “What’s the value of massing and spacing? Learners’ expectations about the effect of distributing practice,” was coauthored by a recent graduate of the M.S. program (see Alumni News).
• A. Maria Toyoda, Ph.D., chair and associate professor of political science, has two publications forthcoming: a book chapter, "Reforming Government Financial Institutions," in The Evolution of Japan's Party System: Politics and Policy in an Era of Institutional Change, University of Toronto Press, ed. Leonard Schoppa, published in October, and a journal article, "Assessing Measures of Financial Openness and Integration," co-authored with Dennis Quinn (Georgetown University) and Martin Schindler (IMF and Joint Vienna Institute), forthcoming in the IMF Economic Review. In addition, Dr. Toyoda is the co-chair of the Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies Conference on Human Rights and Social Justice at Princeton University, October 22-23, and was selected chair of the Greater Philadelphia Asian Studies Consortium for the 2011-2012 academic year. Dr. Toyoda traveled to Tokyo this summer to do some data gathering and interviews for a new project on the determinants of Japanese ODA, thanks to a travel grant from the Northeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies, and VSB's Center for Global Leadership. Dr. Toyoda also served as a panelist for POLITICAL SCIENTISTS DOING FOREIGN POLICY: A ROUNDTABLE ON THE EXPERIENCES OF SCHOLARS AS POLICY-MAKERS at the recent American Political Science Association meeting in Seattle, where she recounted what she learned as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow.
• Catherine Warrick, Ph.D., an assistant professor of political science, published an article, "Not in Our Right Minds: The Implications of Reason and Passion in the Law," in Politics & Gender, 7:2, June 2011.
• Teresa G. Wojcik, Ph.D., an assistant professor of education, presented two papers at academic conferences this fall. During the 2011 Annual Conference of the American Educational Studies Association, Dr. Wojcik presented a paper entitled, “Creating Spaces to Inquire: School-Based Resistance in the People’s Republic of Poland (1952-1989).” She also presented at the Fourth International Conference of the Society for Educating Women. Her paper was entitled, “Girls State: Preparing Young Women for Participatory Democracy.” This past summer, Dr. Wojcik once again coordinated and conducted the culminating workshop of the 2011 U.S.-Poland Youth Leadership Exchange program in Krakow, Poland. Also this summer, Dr. Wojcik was elected to the Board of Directors of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America, a non-profit organization of scholars headquartered in New York City.
• Qi Wang’s co-authored article, “The Effect of Conflict Goals on Avoidance Strategies: What Does Not Communicating Communicate?” (with Fink, E. L., & Cai, D. A), is in press and will soon be published in Human Communication Research. Dr. Wang, an assistant professor of communication, also has a coauthored article titled, “An intercultural competence model of strategic public relations management in the Peru mining industry context,” in press in the Journal of Public Relations Research. Her coauthors are Qi Wang, Lan Ni, and Maria de La Flor.
• Jonathan P. Yates, Ph.D., VCLE’s current Arthur J. Ennis Fellow for Augustinian Studies, delivered an invited lecture at the second Ministerium Sermonis Conference held in Rome, Italy, from September 15 to 17, 2011. The theme of the conference is “Saint Augustine’s Sermons on the New Testament and Their Context.” The proceedings are scheduled for publication in 2012 as part of the Brepols series Instrumenta Patristica et Mediaevalia.

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Alumni in the News

• Brian Anderson, (MS Psychology, 2009), now enrolled in a Ph.D. program at The Johns Hopkins University, coauthored a presentation with Dr. Charles Folk entitled, “Negative cuing effects are NOT a signature of attentional capture or disengagement.” The presentation was presented at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society.
• Megan Angelo, '06, who majored in English, is featured in the New York Times article, "Marketers, Seeking Family Show, Hold Script Contest." Angelo won an intense competition, which sought scripts for 30-minute situation comedies about modern family life. The contest attracted more than 235 entries.
  
• Richard J. Cassell, a reinsurance broker with 25 years of experience, has been appointed Vice President at U.S. RE Corporation. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Villanova. Read more here.
• Kevin Flanagan, '73, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science, has been named vice president of packaging services at AAIPharma Services Cor.p, where he will oversee the company's Packaging and Distribution functions at the Wilmington headquarters. Learn more here.
• Betsy Kramer has been promoted to Vice President, Account Director, at Topin & Associates, a full-service health care marketing communications agency based in Chicago. Betsy Kramer joined Topin & Associates initially as Account Director less than seven months ago. In her new role as Vice President, Account Director, Kramer will continue the day-to-day management of several of the agency's account teams while overseeing the strategy and planning on these accounts. A New York native, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Communications from Villanova and is a graduate of Loyola University's Graduate School of Business.
• Allison Kurti (MS Psychology, 2010) was first author of an article titled “Nucleus accumbens dopamine modulates response rate but not response timing in an interval timing task” in Behavioral Neuroscience. The article was co-authored by Matthew Matell, Ph.D. They also co-authored a paper entitled, “Averaging of temporal memories across drug states” that was presented at the Comparative Cognition Conference in Melbourne, Florida, in April.
• Victoria Marini (A&S, 2005) is first author on a paper entitled, “Birth order differences in normal personality traits:  Perspectives from within and outside the family.”  The paper is co-authored with Dr. John Kurtz and was recently published in Personality and Individual Differences.  Victoria is now enrolled in the doctoral program in clinical psychology at the University of Vermont.
• Robert W. Meredith, '00, published a paper in Science entitled, "Impacts of the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution and KPg Extinction on Mammal Diversification."
• George Portugal, Ph.D. (MS Psychology, 2006) was the first author of an article entitled “Behavioral sensitivity of temporally modulated striatal neurons” published in Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience. Co-authors on that article included Arlington George Wilson (MS Psychology, 2007) and Matthew Matell, Ph.D.
• Elizabeth Rowland, '10, who graduated with a major in communication, has been included on PR News' People Awards "15-to-Watch" list.
  
• Dale Swanton (MS Psychology, 2009) was first author of an article titled “Stimulus Compounding in Interval Timing: The Modality-Duration Relationship of the Anchor Durations Results in Qualitatively Different Response Patterns to the Compound Cue” in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes. The article was co-authored by Matthew Matell, Ph.D.
• Arlington George Wilson (MS Psychology, 2007) was a co-author of two published articles. The first, entitled “A heterogeneous population code for elapsed time in rat medial agranular cortex,” was published in Behavioral Neuroscience. Co-authors on that article also included Matthew Matell, Ph.D., Eric-Shea Brown, Ph.D., University of Washington, Cindy Gooch, Ph.D., Temple University, and John Rinzel, Ph.D., New York University. The second, entitled “Behavioral sensitivity of temporally modulated striatal neurons” was published in Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience. Co-authors on that article included George Portugal (MS Psychology, 2006) and Matthew Matell, Ph.D.

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Students In the News

• Kathleen Davidson, a second-year master's-level Clinical Mental Health Counseling student, will present at the Association of Counselor Education and Supervision Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, in October 2011. The title of her presentation is: “Examining counselor educators pedagogical practices: Cultivating competent counselors through increased cognitive complexity and reflective thinking.”
• Emily Durgin, '12, a senior eduation major, is featred in the recent Philadelphia Inquirer artcle entitled, "Students staff shelters to get the homeless on track."
• Jeffrey Eisenberg (Communication M.A.) has been selected as a recipient of a Graduate Studies Travel Award, created to recognize and support outstanding scholarship by graduate students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He has received this award in support of his upcoming presentation of “Voice, Vision, and The Discarnate Global Village: How ‘Invisible People’ Shape Communication Bias Via the Internet” at the National Communication Association Annual Convention in New Orleans, La., November 17-20, 2011.
• The Chinese Studies Program is pleased to announce that Andrew Haas, Tina Ley, and Jennifer Zhu have taken the Chinese Proficiency Test offered by the Chinese Confucius Institute, which has close to 300 branches over more than 80 countries. All three students passed Level 3 of the exam with very high scores. The Chinese Proficiency Test is the essential test designed for those who are not native Chinese speakers; the test is authorized by China’s Department of Education. This test was offered for the first time in the Philadelphia area, and for Villanova University, it was also the first time that our students took the test and passed it. In addition, Andrew Haas, who was awarded a scholarship by the Confucius Institute, is going to study at the Beijing Language University for four weeks.
• Joseph Leman (Psychology MS student) presented a poster entitled “Averaging of temporal memories under conditions of incomplete information” at the Comparative Cognition Conference in Melbourne, Florida, in April. Matthew Matell, Ph.D., psychology, and Michael Brown, Ph.D., psychology, were co-authors.
• Sheila Reid, '12, an English major, who successfully defended her national championship title against the University of Oregon's Jordan Hasay, has been named the recipient of the 2012 Honda Sports Award in cross country. It marks the second time that the fifth-year senior from Newmarket, Ontario, has been tapped as the top female collegiate athlete in cross country by the Collegiate Women Sports Awards Program.

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Faculty and Staff in the News

• Robert Beck, Ph.D., a professor of computing sciences and chair of the department, was quoted in the Christian Science Monitor in an article entitled, "HP and Meg Whitman: signs of a Silicon Valley in transition."
• Lara M. Brown, Ph.D., an assistant professor of political science, was among a group of seven political experts who discussed the primary results for a special piece in the New York Times entitled, "Angry Boomers and Other Election Clues." Read the piece here. In addition, Dr. Brown was featured in U.S. News & World Report in an article entitled, "Washington Whispers: Sarah Palin's 2012 Opportunity."
• John Carvalho, Ph.D., professor and chair of the department of philosophy, was featured in a Philadelphia Inquirer article entitled, "Study of philosophy makes gains despite economy." Brian Karalunas, a three-time all-American in lacrosse, also is featured in the article. He graduated from Villanova with a philosophy degree in the spring and in September was drafted by the Minnesota Swarm of the National Lacrosse League.
  
• Cowen Elected Two-Term PRBI President: William L. Cowen, MA, faculty in Communication, coordinator of the public relations specialization, and director of the Villanova Communication Alumni Network, has been elected to an unprecedented second term as PR Boutiques International (PRBI) President. PRBI is the world's first network for boutique PR organizations. In his first term, Cowen led extensive membership growth in North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Under his administration, PRBI continues strategic expansion in global membership and industry thought leadership. Cowen also maximizes the network to create professional and academic opportunities for Villanova Communication students and alumni. As a founding PRBI member, Cowen’s consultancy, Metrospective Communications, is the exclusive market representative for the Greater Philadelphia region. Cowen also was featured in "More Good News for the PR Industry" in the international publication Bulldog Reporter for his thoughts on the global PR outlook for 2012.
• Bryan Crable, Ph.D., an associate professor of communication, was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Kenneth Burke Society at the Triennial Conference of the Kenneth Burke Society at Clemson University, Clemson, S.C.
• Mark Doorley, Ph.D., director of the Ethics Program, recently was featured in a Philadelphia Inquirer article entitled, "An air of change in Camden waterfront neighborhood."
• Francis A. Galgano, Jr., Ph.D., an associate professor and chair of the Department of Geography and the Environment, received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Pennsylvania Geographical Society (PGS) for his outstanding contributions to the discipline of Geography. Dr. Galgano also presented during the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Geographical Society.
• Brian Jones, Ph.D., a professor of sociology and author of Social Capital in America: Counting Buried Treasure (2010), now out in paperback, will appear on WHYY's Voices in the Family from noon to 1 p.m. on Monday, January 23, at 90.9 on the FM dial. The title of the program: Social Capital: Connections Cultivated. It may not be a term you throw around very often or give much thought to, but social capital figures prominently in our lives. It’s there when we attend a gallery opening…exercise with neighbors…call an old friend…or volunteer at the local library. Social capital refers to the social structures we build to seek the things we value. Family life, time spent with friends and co-workers, and volunteer activities are all sources of social capital. They’re connections we make that are vital to one’s sense of well-being. While many think we have less social capital than ever before, research tells us it’s still there, and while it is shifting a bit, it’s not in danger of being depleted or in need of a bail out.
• Susan Mackey-Kallis, Ph.D., a professor of communication, is featured in the Bahamas Weekly article entitled, "Educators call on the Governor General of The Bahamas."
  
• James Kirschke, Ph.D., a professor of English, was featured in the September 2011 issue of Military Officer. Read the story here.
• Anthony Lagalante, Ph.D., an associate professor of chemistry, and graduate student Courtney Dillon are featured in a recent Chemical & Engineering News article entitled, "Cleaning Acrylics."
• Rev. Martin Laird, O.S.A., of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, is featured in the Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.
• Billie Murray, Ph.D., an assistant professor of communication, was quoted in an October Medill Washington News Service article called, “Occupiers in D.C. have less hostile relationship with police elsewhere.”
• Satya R. Pattnayak, Ph.D., professor of sociology and political science, and director of Latin American Studies, wrote an opinion piece, "Echoes of India, Not Egypt," in the New York Times.
• Kathryn Getek Soltis, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Christian ethics and director of the Center for Peace and Justice Education, was a recent guest on WHYY's Voices in the Family hosted by Dan Gottlieb. The program examined the 30th annual International Day of Peace, which was celebrated on Sept. 21, and asked the questions: what is peace? What can grassroots peacebuilding look like locally? And what will you do to make peace on September 21? Learn more here.

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