People in the News

In May, Siu-Lan Tan, Psychology, will give three presentations at the 20th convention for the Association for Psychological Science. The titles are "Source of Diegetic or Non-Diegetic Film Music Affects Viewers' Interpretations of Film" (Siu-Lan Tan, Matthew Spackman, and Elizabeth Wakefield); "Teaching Innovation: Preparation of a Supplementary Text by a Class for Future Courses" (Siu-Lan Tan and Clay Garnett); and "Where do We Go From Here?: Problem-Finding and the Psychology Curriculum" (Paul Jeffries and Siu-Lan Tan). Wakefield and Garnett are seniors who will graduate in June. In August, Tan will give an invited research paper at the 10th International Conference for Music Perception and Cognition at Hokkaido University (Sapporo, Japan). Her topic is the effects of music in multimedia, and she will be joined by colleagues with whom she is writing a book on that subject.

Amy Elman, Political Science, was invited by the Miami European Union Center for Excellence at Florida International University to present her work, "Intersectionality, Inequality, and European Union (EU) Law." Elman discussed the EU's expanded definition of illegal discrimination and asked if it confronts the manifold dimensions of inequality that women experience. The assertion that women are not a monolithic group may now be common, but what (if any) are the material implications of this insight? In addition to presenting her own work, Professor Elman also served as a discussant for an international conference panel on "Third Country Migrants in the EU."

Di Seuss, English, had works published in four magazines. The North American Review accepted her poem "I dreamed I was a Madame." The Alaska Quarterly Review accepted her poem "The Way a Dog Meets the Day." Taiga will feature her poem "my boyfriends." And Brevity will publish her creative nonfiction piece titled "you like it, don't you, you like it hard and cold."

Laura Furge, Chemistry, was recently named to the Editorial Board of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, a journal of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology that is "devoted to the publication of news, reviews and original papers with the object of improving the teaching of biochemistry and molecular biology to students at all levels of education." The journal editors are Donald and Judith Voet, authors of one of the most popular undergraduate textbooks in biochemistry and leaders in biochemical education.

Hannah McKinney, Economics, was as a panelist in a discussion titled "Civility in the Political Arena" in March. Panel members will explored the erosion of civility in the media and in people's personal lives and suggestedt ways to encourage civility. McKinney was an invited speaker at the 3rd annual National Summit on Equitable Development, Social Justice, and Smart Growth. The conference occured in New Orleans and included some 1,500 governmental leaders, policy makers, activists, and academics. McKinney took part in a conversation of elected officials that focused on the special challenges faced by smaller cities. She then attended the National League of Cities' (NLC) Congressional Cities Conference. There she moderated a discussion between Ken Wade, CEO of NeighborWorks, Inc., a national community development organization, and other elected officials who serve as leaders of various NLC committees. She also presided over a meeting of the Equity and Opportunity Panel, during which she facilitated a discussion between city officials on how they can best cope with the waves of foreclosures facing Americans Cities.

Professor Emeritus (English) Hal Harris and his former student Katie (Francher) Enggass ’78, who lives in New Mexico, have not allowed distance to diminish their enduring literary-learning relationship. For some dozen years Enggass has sent Professor Harris her short stories for his review comment. “She’s a first-rate writer practicing a difficult genre,” said Harris. Recently, the two switched roles when Harris sent Enggass his one-act play, “Deena and Jimmy”—which recently enjoyed a public reading at the Kalamazoo Public Library. “I sent it to Katie so that she could critique it and she did a great job,” said Harris. “By incorporating practically all of her suggested changes I feel that I have strengthened considerably what I hoped was already an excellent play. I wonder just how common is this kind of reciprocity between a retired professor and his one-time student.”

The Corporation for National and Community Service named Kalamazoo College to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction for exemplary service efforts and service to disadvantaged youth. The Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service-learning and civic engagement. Said Alison Geist, Director of the Mary Jane Underwood Stryker Institute for Service-Learning, “I'm particularly proud of the quality, scope and breadth of our work, including the complex and various ways faculty and students both have embraced civic engagement. Half of our student body and a quarter of our faculty are involved in learning with the community. I'm pleased with the extent to which our community work is embedded in academic learning and makes use of structured reflection,” she added. “This allows students to test theory in practice. And our efforts go far beyond what I call ‘thin volunteerism.’ Instead we incorporate a social justice orientation that is the product of real, ongoing relationships combined with critical thinking. That orientation reflects our commitment to global citizenship.”

Donut Day, a documentary by Dhera Strauss, Art and Information Services, was accepted into the East Lansing (Mich.) Film Festival, Lake Michigan Film Competition. The documentary premiered in April 2007, and continues to be shown in the area. For more information check out the website, donutdaydoc.com.

Two February exhibitions featured the work of Sarah Lindley, Art. Her solo exhibition, "Abandon," based on the Plainwell Paper Mill, was displayed in the Arts Council Gallery at the Epic Center in downtown Kalamazoo. The second exhibition, "Shifting Scale," was a joint exhibition with her husband, sculptor Norwood Viviano. The show featured two bodies of work based on Dutch Cabinet Houses and Italian Immigrant heirlooms and was on display at the University Art Gallery on Grand Valley State University's Allendale campus in February and March.

Regina Stevens-Truss, Chemistry, published a paper, "Instilling Civic Engagement as Early as in Introductory Chemistry While Teaching Experimental Design," in the newsletter for biochemists, Enzymatic: The Newsletter of the Undergraduate Affiliate Network of ASBMB (2007, 4 (3): 11-13). The paper describes the service-learning character of her Introductory Chemistry II course, in which students design and implement an experiment that gets them thinking about various course conceptsand how they relate to everyday phenomena. The experiment must be designed using reagents commonly available in a grocery store. The work often represents the first time students have been asked to think about chemical concepts in an integrated way. Moreover, the students must take their design, or some portion of it, and teach the concept and do the experiment with students at a local elementary school. Her paper notes the high degree to which the service-learning project has involved Kalamazoo College students in the local community.

Richard Koenig, Art, has a current one-person exhibit at the South Bend Regional Museum of Art. The show began March 15 and runs through May 18. Richard is part of "Focus: Three One-Person Exhibitions" at the Gwen Frostic School of Art, Albertine Monroe-Brown Gallery, College of Fine Arts, Western Michigan University. The exhibit runs from April 24 through August 1 at the Richmond Center for Visual Arts. Richard was one of six nationally and internationally known artists in the exhibition In and Out of Place, which showed early this year at the Indiana State University Art Gallery (Terra Haute).

Jan Tobochnik, Dow Distinguished Professor of Natural Science and Interim Provost, has been chosen by the editors of American Physical Society journals as one of the inaugural group of 534 Outstanding Referees. These journals have about 42,000 referees in all. Tobochnik's reports and advice have helped to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics while creating a resources that is invaluable to authors, researchers, students, and readers. Although most scientists understand that participation as a referee is necessary for maintaining the integrity of the scientific enterprise, not all have given of their time and wisdom as generously as Tobochnik. .

David Barclay, History, was elected to the executive committee and nomination committee of the American Council of Learned Societies. ACLS is the umbrella organization for 66 academic associations (American Historical Association, American Economic Association, American Sociological Association, German Studies Association, Association of American Law Schools, etc.) with a combined total membership of about 300,000 individuals.

Joe Brockington, Center for International Programs, is one of ten members of a Task Force on Institutional Management of Study Abroad. The task force has been organized by NAFSA: Asssociation of International Educators. It will recommend principles, values, and behaviors for senior campus administrators to consider as they develop policies and practices to guide the management of study abroad.