Inside Gustavus September 5, 2013 | Volume 46, Number 1

Faculty/Staff Activities

Glenn Kranking (History & Scandinavian Studies) was interviewed and quoted by one of the main Norwegian newspapers "Aftenposten" regarding the history of Swedish-American relations ahead of President Obama's visit to Stockholm. Kranking also served as a Study Leader for a Smithsonian Journeys tour of Scandinavia in August. As Study Leader, he gave a series of lectures, and acted as a cultural and historical expert for the tour group, arranged through the Smithsonian Institute.

Two recent online publications have highlighted the work of Priscilla Briggs (Art and Art History). Hyperallergic published a piece about Priscilla's work in Shantou China titled "Documenting China's Burgeoning Bra Industry". OtherPeoplesPixels Blog published an artist interview with Priscilla.

Kathy Lund Dean (Economics & Management) facilitated or chaired four sessions at the Academy of Management annual meeting, held August 8-14 in Orlando. She chaired a writer’s workshop roundtable for the Journal of Management Education, helping authors develop their research for publication. With her co-authors, she facilitated a teaching philosophy creation workshop [similar to the workshop for the Kendall Center in June]. Part of her role as a member of the Academy’s Ethics Education Committee, she facilitated a research ethics session at a Ph.D. student consortium. Finally, she facilitated a session about the future of learning and teaching practice as technology pressures faculty to demonstrate more concrete value for students. Kathy also earned an outstanding reviewer award from a member of the Editorial Board, from the Academy of Management Learning & Education. AMLE is the premier management education empirical research journal, on whose Board Kathy has served since 2011.

Justin Knoepfel (Music) conducted, performed, and taught at the Dorian Summer Music Camps in June (Luther College, Decorah, IA). He also was on the faculty of Lutheran Summer Music (June 21- July 22) teaching viola and playing in the Omega String Quartet with members of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. In addition, Knoepfel recently performed Dvorak's Quintet Op. 97 on the Bridge Chamber Music Series (August 22) on the campus of St. Olaf College with member of the Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra and colleagues from St. Olaf College.

Heidi Meyer (Nursing) presented “Enhancing Clinical Reasoning: Teaching Thinking through Debriefing” at the International Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL), Las Vegas, NV. The pre-conference session engaged participants in working through an active debriefing strategy through simulation. It also highlighted research findings from a pilot study conducted by the Minnesota Consortium for Nursing Education Research with nursing faculty membership from Bethel University, St. Catherine University, and St. Olaf (Lynnea Myers, Assistant Professor of Nursing, is also a member).

Yuki Sakuragi (MLC and Japanese Studies) and Judy Fuller (English, retired) published an article titled "Shape and Function in Hmong Classifier Choices" in Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Vol. 42, Issue 4, pp. 349-361. This study was supported by Presidential Faculty-Student Collaboration Grants, and Bao Xiong (‘09) and Mai Lee Vang (’09) provided assistance in collecting data.

A festschrift in honor of Barbara Fister (Library), Finding a Public Voice: Using Barbara Fister as a Case Study, edited by Danielle Theisse and Diane K. Kovacs, has been published by the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Eric Vrooman (English) gave a reading in Northfield, Minn., on Aug. 7, led a workshop for teens at the Center for Hmong Arts & Talent on June 27, and had a story ("WataPark") published in Vita.mn on July 25.

Chuck Niederriter (Physics) presented an invited talk, "Renewable Energy and Sustainability at Gustavus Adolphus College", at the summer meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers in Portland Oregon in July. The talk highlighted the work of Chuck, Jeff Jeremiason, Jim Dontje, Colleen Jacks, and numerous students on the NSF funded project to develop new laboratory exercises involving renewable energy, as well as other work in sustainability at Gustavus.

Jill Locke (Political Science and GWS) has signed a contract with Cambridge University Press for her book manuscript, Democracy and the Death of Shame: Political Equality and Social Disturbance (expected publication is fall, 2014). Her article, "Little Rock's Social Question: Reading Arendt on School Desegregation and Social Climbing," was pre-released in July by the journal Political Theory as an OnlineFirst selection. The print edition will appear at the end of August (Volume 41, issue 4: 533-561).

Laurent Déchery (French and Philosophy) gave a paper titled "Diderot as a Smugler: Reading Two Friends from Bourbonne" for the 300 year anniversary of Diderot's birth in his native town of Langres, France. The celebration was organized by La Société des amis de Diderot and the towns of Langres and Bourbonne-les-Bains.

Funding Opps

The Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations' weekly program or funding opportunity highlight:

• National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI)

  The RUI program supports research for faculty members of predominately undergraduate institutions through support for 1) individual and collaborative research projects, 2) the purchase of shared-use research instrumentation, and 3) Research Opportunity Awards for work with NSF-supported investigators at other institutions. These RUI programs are described at (http://www.nsf.gov/pubsys/ods/getpub.cfm?nsf00144). For more information, contact the NSF program director of the research program to which a proposal might be submitted. To locate the appropriate program officer, click on http://www.nsf.gov/staff/.

For more information on grants or proposal preparation, contact Bob Weisenfeld in the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations (x7049 or bweis@gustavus.edu).

In The Media

• The Star Tribune printed a news obituary about former President Frank Barth in its Sept. 5 edition. President Ohle was quoted in the story.
• The Mankato Free Press printed a story on Friday, Aug. 30 about Gustavus being ranked highly by Washington Monthly Magazine. V.P. for Enrollment Management Tom Crady was quoted in the story.
• The Mankato Free Press printed a story on Saturday, Aug. 31 about legacy students in the Class of 2017. Beth Jones ’82, William Jones ’17 and Sydney Franklin ’17 were quoted in the story.
• The Mankato Free Press printed information about the Gustavus Artist Series in its Aug. 30 edition.

New Faces

The following people have recently joined the Gustavus community:

* New Support Staff

• Mary Ann Felmlee, PM Cook, Dining Service
• Diane Harms, On Call Cashier, Book Mark
• Aaron Johnson, Ministry Associate, Chaplain's Office
• Mark Kump, Media Collections Specialist, Library
• Theodore Rosenback, Market Place Supervisor, Dining Service

* New Administrators

• Michael Asmus, Worship Curator, Chaplain's Office
• Justin DeGrood, Assistant Men's Basketball Coach, Athletics
• Craig First, Assistant Men's and Women's Track Coach, Athletics
• Kelly Hanson, Disability Specialist, Academic Support Center
• Laura Lindell, MELL Academic Support Specialist
• Jody Lunz, Assistant Softball Coach, Athletics
• Angela Potts, Assistant Women's Basketball Coach, Athletics
• Brittany Salsman, Interim Assistant Director of Student Activities