Committed to advancing academic research, improving health care, generating cultural understanding, protecting the environment, and creating technical and social change, Wilkinson College faculty are lauded by local and global institutions. Below is a list of our faculty's most recent accomplishments.

2009-2010

FACULTY NEWS

(Click here for faculty books)

Dr. Robert Slayton, professor of History, compeated as the first disabled player in an Airsoft game on Saturday, July 10, 2010. Click here to read the story in Happenings!

Anna Leahy, associate professor of English, recently had a chapter titled "Teaching as a Creative Act" published in Does the Writing Workshop Still Work, part of the New Writing Series by Multilingual Matters. Her piece echoes the call to be nerds that she issues in her talk at the Sigma Tau Delta induction this past spring. Additionally, Leahy's conversation essay with poet Larissa Szporluk, entitled "Good Counsel," appears in the 30th Anniversary Issue of Mid-American Review.

Dr. Logan Esdale, assistant professor of English, has published an essay in the Spring 2010 issue of Textual Cultures (issues 5.1), titled "The Saintsbury Years of Marianne Moore." It offers a new reading of Moore's midcareer poetics, in particular how she turned to Saintsbury's work and to him personally (through correspondence) as she further developed a social poetics: for Moore, the intertextual was interpersonal. Dr. Esdale has also published a review essay in the journal Textual Practice (June 2010; issue 24.3), and in August he will travel to Oxford University to deliver a paper at The Emily Dickinson International Society Conference. His paper is titled "Adornment Practice in Dickinson's Studio."

Congratulations is in order for adjunct professor of journalism and creative writing, Doug Cooney for receiving The American Alliance for Theatre and Education's Charlotte B. Chorpenning Playwright Award. The award honors a nationally known writer of outstanding plays for children and recognizes a body of work. It is named in honor of playwright Charlotte B. Chorpenning of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Doug will be honored at the annual AATE awards ceremony Saturday, August 7, at the PARC 55 Hotel in San Francisco and will teach feature writing during the Fall '10 semester at Chapman.

Shakespeare Orange County, the theater group founded by Chapman professors Tom Bradac and Michael Nehring, kicks off its 19th season this month. Up first is a production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona", one of Shakespeare's earliest comedies, running from July 15-July 31. Carl Reggiardo directs the play, which features several actors with Chapman ties.

Performances are held at the Festival Amphitheatre in Garden Grove. Performances start at 8:15 p.m. Tickets can be purchased and more information can be found by calling (714) 590-1575 or by visiting the SOC's website, www.shakespeareoc.org.

As in summers past, Kent Lehnhof of the Chapman English department will be giving free lectures before selected shows. The lectures for "Two Gents" begin at 7 p.m. on the amphitheater patio and are scheduled for July 24 and July 31.

Dr. Marilyn Harran, Stern Chair in Holocaust Education, director of the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education and professor of religious studies and history and Dr. Jan Osborn, assistant professor of English accompanied first-prize recipients in the Rodgers Center Holocaust Art Writing Contest to Washington, D.C. for a four-day study trip. Click here to read more and see photos!

Dr. Angela Tumini, assistant professor of Italian Studies recently had her book "Gabriele D'Annunzio: Myth and Magic of Abruzzo in his Soul" re-printed in English from its original version in Italian by Verlag Publishing Company. The book talks about the influence of the Folklore and traditions of the native Italian region of the author on his writings. In addition to that, Dr. Tumini's essay on the cinema of Lars von Trier and its analogies with Italian Futurism, "Let's Kill the Moonlight in Electric Park: A Futuristic Interpretation of Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vintenberg's Dear Windy" was published in Film International. The essay is part of the ongoing research that Dr Tumini is doing on the analogies between Von Trier's cinema and Italian cinema and culture. As part of her research, Dr. Tumini has just returned to California from Copenhagen interviewing Lars von Trier at his Zentropa Film Studios.

Dr. Robert Slayton, professor of History, will be competing as the first disabled player in an Airsoft game on Saturday, July 10, 2010 at 11:30 a.m. Airsoft is a military based action game that takes place at Desert Fox in Rancho Cucamonga.

Before being confined to a wheelchair, Dr. Slayton played this sport for five years, this time, however, he will be playing in his wheelchair and as he puts it, "one good hand".

"Being in a wheelchair has not changed by affection for the game. One of my compatriots refers to what I am doing as "chairsoft".

Dr. Micol Hebron, assistant professor of new genres, presented a paper on contemporary American video art at the Annual Conference of Fine and Performing Arts at the Athens Institute of Education and Research in Athens, Greece from June 7 - 10, 2010. Dr. Hebron also has new art works in several art exhibitions this summer. Click here to find out where!

Dr. Liliana Leopardi, assistant professor of Art History, was an invited speaker at a conference on Carlo Crivelli held in Ascoli Piceno and Montefiore dell'Aso, Italy, on June 5th, 2010. Her paper, "Fra Rito ed Ornamento: Carlo Crivelli come pittore ed interprete della religiosita' Marchigiana" addressed close relationship between the artist and the dictates on ornament preached by the 15th century friar Jacopo della Marca.

Dr. Pilar Valenzuela, associate professor, department of Languages, participated in the International Colloquium "Amazonicas III: Fonologia y Sintaxis", which took place at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, in the city of Bogota, between April 19-24.

Dr. Valenzuela's paper, "Aplicativos en Shiwilu", focuses on hitherto unknown morphosyntactic feature on Shiwilu, a critically endangered of the Kawapanan family. Her work is based on fieldwork she recently conducted in the Peruvian Amazon.

In addition, Dr. Valenzuela was elected as one of four members to serve on the permanent committee of "Amazonicas" Fonologia y Sintaxis", together with Dr. Elsa Gomez-Imbert (CNRS-Universite de Toulouse), Dr. Leo Wetzels (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), and Dr. Luciana Storto (Universidade de Sal Paulo).

Associate Professor of History, Dr. Carolyn Vieira-Martinez who specializes in the study of African Languages in Central African History and the Atlantic Diaspora, was asked by Oscar winning actor Tim Robbins to contribute her scholarship to the development of "Break the Whip", a colonial American history set in 17th century Virginia. The play was written and directed by the Creative Director of the Actors' Gang, Tim Robbins, who was inspired by the work of historians such as Howard Zinn, Tim Hashaw and Benjamin Wooley.

Workshop performances of the project were offered at the historic Actors' Gang Theater in Culver City. The Actor's Gang is an award winning national and international non-profit group which aims to bring thought provoking and meaningful theatre to a wide audience. The story of "Break the Whip" is told in three languages, including Algonquian and Kimbundu, and uses the Gang's signature style of shadow puppetry, music and dance.

The opportunity to participate in this unique experience was offered to Wilkinson College students and Dodge College students, invited by the director to the opening performances of the sold out workshops. The Chapman students were given the opportunity to contribute to the post-performance discussion with the director, cast, crew and writers regarding the future of the work.

Click here to learn more about Actors Gang.

Tekle Woldemikael, Ph.D., professor and chair of Department of Sociology presented his paper, "Globalization and the Eritrean Diaspora" at the Pacific Sociological Association Annual Conference in Oakland, CA, April 8-11.

Anna Leahy, associate professor of English, presented on a panel entitled "The Joy of Assessment" at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference in Denver, Colorado, on April 7-11. Her poem "On Nervous Breakdowns: Saint Dymphna" appears in the latest issue of Barn Owl Review. Her conversation essay about writing, teaching, and the imagination entitled "Good Counsel," co-authored with Larissa Szporluk at Bowling State University, appears in the new issue of Mid-American Review, forthcoming this month. On March 31, Dr. Leahy was featured on "Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour" on radio station KDVS, out of Davis, California.

Marvin Meyer, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Religious Studies, has just published another book on the Gospel of Thomas, this time an artist and calligrapher, Carol W. Nichols. The book, entitled An Illustrated and Illuminated Manuscript of the Gospel of Thomas (Letterata, 2010), is a limited edition art book, with Meyer's translation of the Gospel of Thomas presented in the tradition of illuminated sacred manuscripts. "The Gospel of Thomas is a beautiful, mystical text," Meyer noted, "and it deserves to be presented in a beautiful edition. While it should be stunning resting on a coffee table, the book is even more stunning when you pick it up and read it."

With the publishing this week of "Translating Rome," the twentieth book in the planned twenty-four volumes of the Collected Works of Robert Graves general editor (and Dean of Wilkinson College) Patrick Quinn breathed a sigh of relief. "This collection began back in 1993 and has survived a number of obstacles in its 17 year history.... click here to read more!  

Anne-Marie Pedersen, Assistant Professor of English, delivered her paper "Creative nonfiction: A Bridge between the Known and the New in First-Year Composition" on March 18 at the 2010 Conference on College Composition and Communication in Louisville, Kentucky. In the paper, Dr. Pedersen argues that asking beginning college students to write creative nonfiction (a genre that combines research with literary techniques, such as narrative and character) can prepare them to compose more traditional academic prose.

On March 3, 2010, Chapman Radio studio in Henley basement was renamed in honor of Dr. Allen Levy and Dean of Students Emeritus Joe Kertes. The students of Chapman Radio honored the two men for their contributions to the growth of Chapman Radio by revealing the new "Levy/Kertes Studio."

Pictured from left to right: Tyler McCusker, General Manager, Chapman Radio; Dr. Joe Kertes, the mysterious Chapman Radioman; and Allen Levy, faculty Advisor to Chapman Radio.

Dr. Carolyn Vieira-Martinez, Ph.D., assistant professor of History is working as a consultant on a historical drama screenplay about colonial Virginia from the perspective of African and Algonquin decent, which will be presented as a Workshop Performance on 3-10 - 3-26 by the Actors Gang in Culver City. Dr. Vieira-Martinez is one of two historical consultants on the piece. Her expertise comes from research on the Atlantic Ocean world through the study of Western Savannah Bantu languages. If interested in attending, order your tickets now by clicking here!

Dr. Angela Tumini, assistant professor of Italian Studies, presented a paper titled Eros and Thanatos: the murderous struggle of pain and desire in Gabriele D'Annunzio's Triumph of Death and in Lars von Trier's Antichrist at the Global Interdisciplinary Conference titled "Making Sense of Pain" in Sydney Australia, February 17-19, 2010. Her paper is about the connection between Danish cinema and Italian Literature.

Gregg A. Payne, Ph.D., associate professor of communication studies, has been invited to participate in a March symposium at Stanford University dealing with News and Inclusion: Journalism and the Politics of Diversity. The symposium will feature scholars from Australia, Finland, Singapore, Canada, The Netherlands, England and the United States. It is sponsored by Stanford's department of communication, John S. Knight Fellowships for Professional Journalists; the Center for Comparative Studies of Race and Ethnicity and Erasmus University Rotterdam's Department of Media and Communication.

Mark Axelrod, Ph.D., director of the John Fowles Center for Creative Writing and professor of English in the Wilkinson College of Humanities and Social Sciences, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholars Fellowship to teach screenwriting at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Dr. Axelrod's lectures in Sao Paulo, which begin this summer, will focus on the fundamentals of storytelling, characters and conflict, and two areas he believes are often ignored in screenwriting: dialogue and adaptation. To teach the importance and significance of dialogue, for example, Dr. Axelrod will examine The Graduate, Pulp Fiction and Ordinary People, films that all have great dialogue.

Why Brazil? Dr. Axelrod has taught in the United States, Europe and Latin America. He's taught Brazilian students before and finds that they bring "a sensibility to film that is often different than those found in other countries." What's so different? Brazilian students "want to write scripts that are character- driven, that often deal with personal and, sometimes, painful stories. I’ve found the same thing in places like Germany and Finland, Spain and Denmark. The experiences they bring are often very different than the experiences North American students bring," he said.

Gregg A. Payne, Ph.D., associate professor of communication studies, has been invited to participate in peer review of manuscripts submitted to the mass communication division of the National Communication Association for presentation at the association’s 2010 conference, scheduled for Nov. 11-17 in San Francisco

Polly J. Hodge, Ph.D, Associate Prof. of Spanish in the Department of Languages traveled to Cadiz, Spain in October, invited by the organizers of the international theater festival, Festival Iberoamericano de Teatr de Cadiz, to participate in the round table discussions of the plays performed at the ten day festival, she also participated in a special session to present the interactive online book entitled, Cartografia teatral: Los escenarios de Cadiz en el Festival Iberoamericano de teatro 2008. The volume be accessed free at: www.hnet.uci.edu/gestos/fit2008.

Kent Lehnhof, associate professor of English, has published an essay in the most recent edition of Milton Studies, the foremost annual in the field. The publisher's website describes Dr. Lehnhof's essay, "Performing Masculinity in Paradise Lost," as a "a revolutionary study of alternative masculinities in Paradise Lost, with an emphasis on systems of sex and gender embedded in the epic." Another essay by Dr. Lehnhof, this one dealing with early modern ideas about female chastity, will appear in an edited collection titled Performing Pedagogy: Gender and Instruction in Early Modern England. The collection will be published by Ashgate in early 2010.

Assistant Professor of English Dr. Anna Leahy's poems "Mountain (1)," "Mountain (2)," and "Mountain (3)" appears in the most recent issues of the Laurel Review. Her poem "Google Moon" was just released as a broadside from Twin Cranes Press as the winner of their Moon Poem Contest.

Marvin Meyer, Ph.D., director of the Schweitzer Institute and Griset Professor of Bible and Christian Studies, has had an article published in the volume The Legacy of John: Second-Century Reception of the Fourth Gospel, edited by Tuomas Rasimus (Supplements to Novum Testamentum 132; Leiden: Brill, 2010). Titled "Whom Did Jesus Love Most? Beloved Disciples in John and Other Gospels," the article discusses the various disciples -- including not only John but also Mary Magdalene, Judas Thomas the Twin, James the Just, the brother of Jesus and others -- who are singled out for special attention as disciples loved by Jesus in gospels inside and outside the New Testament. These suggestions of a multiplicity of beloved disciples championed by early Christian gospels illustrate the widespread diversity that characterized the early church, as various texts and communities each claimed, "Jesus loved our favorite disciple more than yours!"

Joanna Levin, Ph.D., assistant professor of English and author of Bohemia in America, 1858–1920, was just published by Stanford University Press. Dr. Levin's book explores the construction and emergence of "Bohemia" in American literature and culture. At first the province of small artistic coteries, Bohemia soon inspired a popular vogue, embodied in restaurants, clubs, neighborhoods, novels, poems and dramatic performances across the country. Dr. Levin's study follows la vie bohème from its earliest expressions in the United States until its explosion in Greenwich Village in the 1910s.

In October Dr. Maria-Isabel Ibanez-Wing took her Spanish 201 class to learn about Multiculturalism at Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. They saw two exhibits about the arts ain Hispanoamerica.

The students had the opportunity to better understand the hispanoamerica paintings, and their artists, and how they represent the culture from South America.

After the trip, the students wrote an essay illustrating the importance of hispanoamerican artist.

Dr. Jennifer Bevan, associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies and core faculty member in the Health Communication Master's of Science program, was recently recognized as one of the most prolific scholars in the field of communication studies. A research study published in the November 2009 edition of the journal Communication Research Reports determined that Dr. Bevan was the 24th most published scholar across regional, national, and international peer-reviewed communication journals during the years 2002 to 2006. There were over 3,800 authors who published in these 24 journals over the five-year span that was examined. Dr. Bevan was the sole or first-author of each of the nine communication studies articles that she published during this time, in addition to five peer-reviewed articles that she co-authored in journals from other academic disciplines. Overall, Dr. Bevan, who joined Chapman University in 2006 and was awarded tenure in early 2009, has published 22 articles in peer-reviewed journals, with an additional article forthcoming.

Jennifer Waldeck, Ph.D., assistant professor of communication studies, was elected Vice Chair Elect of the Instructional Development Division (IDD) of the National Communication Association (NCA) at its November 13 business meeting in Chicago. As Vice Chair Elect, she will be responsible for representing IDD at NCA's legislative assembly in 2010. As Vice Chair, she will be the conference planner for IDD for NCA's 2011 conference in New Orleans. Her leadership will  conclude in 2012, when she will serve IDD as division Chair. IDD is NCA's third largest division. Its membership consists of scholars interested in the role of communication in learning and developmental process. At this conference Dr. Waldeck presented a paper titled "Philosophical and Methodological Foundations of Instructional Communication."

David Shafie, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science, recently participated in “Evaluating the Bush Presidency,” a conference at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
 His paper, “Midnight Deregulation: Environmental Policy in the Administrative Presidency of George W. Bush,” examined the efforts by the Bush administration to cement its environmental legacy through deregulatory initiatives in the weeks that followed the 2008 election.

Gregg A. Payne, Ph.D., associate professor, department of communication studies, will have his doctoral dissertation published by the Digital Library of the Commons at Indiana University. The dissertation, titled "Consensus by Exhaustion: An Ethnographic Case Study of Issues Management in a Commons Dilemma,” examines failed efforts under former California Gov. Pete Wilson to achieve détente in the state’s perennial water wars. A common dilemma exists when multiple stakeholders have equally defensible claims to a scarce public resource. In the case of California water, claims have traditionally been regional, pitting Northern California against Southern California; political, pitting state and federal governments against one another; and parochial, involving competing needs of agriculture, industry, public and environmental uses. Efforts launched in the mid-90s under Wilson foundered largely because of disputes over state-federal jurisdiction and the defection of environmental interests.

Robert Buranello, Ph.D., Paul & Marybelle Musco Professor in Italian Studies, recently had his article titled "Pietro Aretino between the 'locus mendacii' and the 'locus veritatis' " reprinted in its entirety in the academic encyclopedia Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. (Volume 165. Detroit: GALE, 2009, 110-120.) It originally appeared in Printed Voices: A Comparative Outlook on Renaissance Dialogue, edited by Heitsch, Dorothea and Jean-François Vallée.  (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004, 95-112.) Dr. Buranello was also recently named a North American jury member of the 2009 Premio Napoli Literary Award through the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles. Already in its 55th year, the Premio Napoli is a prestigious literary award based in Naples. 

Tekle Woldemikael, Ph.D., professor and chair of Department of Sociology, was published in Biopolitics, Militarism and Development: Eritrea in the Twenty-First Century, edited by David O’Kane and Tricia Redeker Hepner (Berghahn Books). His chapter is titled "Pitfalls of Nationalism in Eritrea." Also, upcoming in African Christian Diaspora, edited by Frieder Ludwig (Red Sea Press) is "Spiritual Life of Eritreans in the United States.” Over the summer, Dr. Woldemikael was an invited speaker in Dakar, Senegal, where he presented his paper titled "Islam, the Nation State and the Debate Over National Language in Eritrea" at an international conference on "Islamic Renewal in Africa: Struggles Over the Public Sphere and Development," June 23-25. Dr. Woldemikael also addressed the Pacific Sociological Association in San Diego in April on "The Politics of Memory and Mourning in Eritrea." Finally, Dr. Woldemikael was invited to join the editorial board for the blog  "Critical Investigation into Humanitarianism in Africa," which was created this year by the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of California, Irvine.

Voces Novae: Chapman University Historical Review won first prize for the best student history electronic journal in the nation from Phi Alpha Theta, the National History Honor Society. Principal credit goes to the three Senior Editors, Hailey Giczy, John Cowles and Sarah Ganderup as well as Mary Litch, Director of the Office of Academic Technology and Digital Media. Professor Estes was the faculty advisor. The first issue was published last June. All nine articles were written by students from the Department of History's two Senior Seminar coures. In addition, there are two separate interviews with Dr. Sergei Khrushchev, which were carried out by Kyle Kordon as part of his Senior Seminar research. In total, articles in this issue have won seven research paper prizes including four from Leatherby Libraries, two at the Southern California Regional Phi Alpha Theta History Conference at UCLA, and the Nels Andrew Clevens Prize from the national office of Phi Alpha Theta.

Jennifer Waldeck, assistant professor of communication studies, was invited to speak at the University of California Santa Barbara Communication Department's 25th Anniversary celebration October 9-11. Jennifer earned her doctorate at UCSB and will join a distinguished group of graduate and prominent friends of the department from the discipline for this weekend-long conference. She will speak about the ways in which communication research can add value to business and professional enterprises. UCSB has one of the top-ranked graduate programs in the United States, according to several annual National Communication Doctoral Program Reputation Studies.

Jennifer D. Keene, professor of history, receives a certificate signed by Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, recognizing her as the recipient of a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, from Dan Clune, the U.S. Charge d'Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Canberra, Australia. Dr. Keene is in Australia until January 2010 conducting research on Australian soldiers during the First World War.

It has just been announced that the Alpha-Mu-Gamma Chapter has just won its second Best Chapter Award in a row from Phi Alpha Theta, the National History Honor Society. This prestigious award was given to our PAT chapter for the whole range of its many activities including the founding of it's own Alpha Mu Gamma History Conference in March and the publication of the first issue of Voces Novae: Chapman University Historical Review. In addition, PAT members won two of the three paper prizes at the Soutern California Regional PAT Conference at UCLA, two Faculty sponsored Student Research Grants from the Office of the Chancellor and the Faculty Research and Development Council, and all four Leatherby Libraries Undergraduate Research Prizes. The chapter also won for its many contributions to the university and the wider community including thousands of hours volunteering as a group cleaning up Seal Beach, helping out at the Thanksgiving Food Bank Drive and providing much of the labor that help make the many Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education events so successful. The Department of History would like to thank Brenda Farrington, the Faculty Advisor for PAT this past year, and the officers of the chapter -- President Hailey Giczy, Vice President Ashley Duree, Secretary John Cowles, Treasurer Brittany Columbus, Historians Karli McEnti and Andrew Paul. AS House Rep Sarah Ganderup and Alumni Liaison Elizabeth Mack -- for their many hours of dedicated service that made this award possible.

International and National news can now be heard hourly on Chapman Radio, reports Allen Levy, Faculty Advisor to Chapman Radio. The newsfeed, supplied by USA News Network, can he heard 5 minutes before each hour from 9:55 a.m to 4:55 p.m. Monday through Friday. Due to programming considerations, on Tuesday the news begins at 10:55 a.m. Chapman Radio, Chapman University's internet radio service, also carries the audio feed of "Dialog with Doti and Dodge" and Chapman sports, including Chapman football games, both home and away.
http://www.chapmanradio.com/

Dr. Jennifer Keene, professor of history, has a new book title, "Visions of America: A History of the United States," which uses images as primary historical evidence bringing history to life for a generation of visual learners. 

"Visions of America was born in the classroom where my students taught me the value of using images to understand the past," said Dr. Keene. "An image invites interpretation and debate, while also provoking questions - who made it, why, what impact did it have?"

"Unlike other textbooks Visions of America analyzes a range of images, including paintings, photograph, advertisements, and caricatures, to show students how competing economic, political, and cultural visions have shaped their nation's history. After reading Visions of American, students will know that history is a dynamic process, the result of individual decisions that people made in the past, not just a list of names and dates to memorize."

Pilar Valenzuela, Ph.D., assistant professor of languages, was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to document two rapidly disappearing languages of the Kawapanan group: Shiwilu and Shawi. Both languages are spoken in relative proximity to one another in the Peruvian Amazon. Documentary work is especially urgent for Shiwilu, since it is in immediate danger of complete disappearance with only a few elderly fluent speakers remaining. The award is for $89,812 over two years. The start date is Sept. 15. The project will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Valenzuela's colleague, Scott Farrar, who will be funded separately at the University of Washington, with Dr. Valenzuela as the lead investigator.

Mark Axelrod, Ph.D., professor of English and comparative literature, is collaborating with Hoosiers director David Anspaugh to write Hoosiers: The 25^th Silver Anniversary Edition, a book that explores the making of the film, which ranks as one of the Top 5 sports movies of the 20^th century. He also gave a series of lectures on screenwriting at both ARCOS and UNIACC colleges in Santiago, Chile.

Robert Buranello, Ph.D., Paul & Marybelle Musco Professor in Italian Studies, just had his 2004 article titled “ Pietro Aretino Between the Locus Mendacii and the Locus Veritatis” republished in Volume 165 of Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800 in the section dedicated to the eminent 16th century Italian letter-writer, dialogist, poet, dramatist and biog rapher Pietro Aretino. The series is dedicated to the great poets, dramatists, novelists, essayists and philosophers of the 15th through 18th centuries and to the most significant interpretations of these authors’ works. This 2009 reference publication places Dr. Buranello’s essay in the company of many eminent scholars of the Italian Renaissance.

Robert Slayton, Henry Salvatori Professor of American Values and Traditions, just had his article, "The Most Precious Cargo," published in the September issue of Commentary. The article reveals how, during the Berlin Airlift to 1948-1949, despite frantic efforts to supply the city by air, the American authorities managed to evacuate the last Jewish residents of that city, survivors of the Holocaust years.

Victoria Carty, Assistant Professor of Sociology, recently attended the American Sociological Association (ASA) conference held in San Francisco in August, as well as the Study of Social Problems/Critical Sociology conference also held in San Francisco. At the August ASA meetings she presented a paper entitled, "Move On as a Political Hybrid: Insider versus Outsider Posturing." At the Critical Sociology conference she served as moderator for the panel on "New Opportunities in the Global Economy." Professor Carty has also published a paper entitled, "A Commodity Chains Analysis of Cuba's Re-insertion into the Global Economy via the Tourism Industry" in the Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Tourism.

Assistant Professor of English Dr. Anna Leahy's light poem about sharks placed second in the Summer Shark Poetry Contest. The poem appears on the website of the Aquarium of the Pacific http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/sharsummer/poetrycontest/, and she will read that poem at the aquarium on Oct. 21. Leahy will give poetry readings at the Ugly Mug in Orange on Sept. 9, at Lit Quake in San Francisco on Oct. 17, and at the Felix Kulpa Gallery in Santa Cruz on Oct. 25.

Patrick Quinn, Ph.D., dean of Wilkinson College, share with us that he has had a "new experience in my rather complex life. I just discovered that I appear as a character (named Patrick Quinn) in a short story by the southern writer Barry Hannah that appeared in the June edition of Harpers. The short story is titled "Sick Soldier at Your Door" and I am only described - its apt! Dr. Quinn also just received a copy of "The Cambridge Companion to War Writing," with his chapter "The First World War: American Writing," (pp 175-184). The book was edited by Kate McLoughlin.

Jennifer Waldeck, Department of Communication Studies, was invited to the August 2009 issue of Communication Currents, the online magazine of the National Communication Association (NCA). The publication is designed to translate contemporary scholarship from communication instruction which she developed in an experimental course taught here at Chapman University. It can be found at http://www.communicationcurrents.com/For-Instructors. Waldeck is also currently listed as one of three experts in Business and Organizational Coummunication on NCA's website http://www.natcom.org/index.asp?bid-11029. In these ways, she is very proud to help advance the Chapman Communication Studies department's national profile.

Associate Professor of American Studies, Paul Apodaca, appears on the DVD release of Nicolas Cage's new film "Knowing" that deals with the end of the world. The "Special Features" section contains a documentary film, "Visions of the Apocalypse," that presents professors from various universities including UCLA, Yale, and Cal State Northridge speaking about the history of these predictions as well as the astronomical reality of the universe and its life cycle. Professor Apodaca appears in the discussion and gets the last word in his final segment as his remarks frame the ending of the documentary.

Professor Apodaca was part of a team that won the Academy Award for the 1985 documentary "Broken Rainbow" and regularly appears in documentary films for the History Channel, NOVA, and other outlets as well as contributing musical scores and advising for the films and TV including the Lonesome Dove series.

"I think it's great to have Chapman's name appear on this international  DVD release," said Professor Apodaca, "People are very interested in how different culture's look at the world. Our programs in Sociology/Anthropology combine with others to make that an important part of our curricula."

Doug Sweet, instructor of English composition, delivered a paper titled "Social Learning and the Competitive Problematic," at the Working Class Studies Conference in Pittsburgh on June 3-6.

Dr. Anna Leahy, associate professor of English had her article "Why Teach Creative Writing: Melding Form and Content" published in American Book Review (http://americanbookreview.org) in their May/June 2009 issue.

Dr. Robert Slayton, professor of history, had an article in the April 17, 2009 issue of Huffington Post entitled, "Stem Cell Research Up Close." Slayton, who recently got tranverse myelitis and is a hemiplegic, critiqued the debated over stem cell research from the standpoint of the disabled community.

Pilar M. Valenzuela, Ph.D., assistant professor of languages, recently participated at the 2009 Conference on Endangered Languages and Cultures of Native America, organized by the Center for American Indian Languages, University of Utah. Valenzuela's talk was based on her article titled "Ethnic-Radical Reclassification and Language Revitalization among the Shiqilu from Peruvian Amazonia", which will appear in the International Journal of the Sociology of Languages in 2010.

Mark Maier, Ph.D., assocation professor of sociology and Director of the Leaderships Studies Program, designed and co-facilitated sessions on "Preventing Foreseeable Failures" for senior managers in the Federal Government at the Bolger Center for Leadership Development in Washington D.C. on March 11 and March 25. "It's all part of our ongoing commitment to Chapman's vision of transcending the boundaries of the traditional classroom and taking an active citizenship role in the world," Maier explained upon his return. The Bolger Center hosts ongoing leadership programs for top managers and executives from all federal agencies, including the I.R.S., the U.S. Postal Service, Homeland Security, F.E.M.A., N.A.S.A. and the N.E.A.

Dr. Gregg A. Payne, assistant professor of communications studies, will present a paper in November at the annual conference of the National Communication Association in Chicago. The paper, titled "A General Process Model of News Content Homogenization: Implications for Information Deprivation in Democracies," articulates theoretical relationships involving gatekeeping hierarchies, news framing and maintenance of political, economic and social stasis consistent with dominant ideologies.

Dr. Kent Lehnhof, associate professor of English, presented a paper at the annual meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America, held this month (April 2009) in Washington, DC. Lehnhof's paper, "Men, Boys, and Maids in Shakespeare's Coriolanus," used "unmanly" characters of the play (boys and virgins) to shed light on its operative idea of manliness. An expanded version of the paper Lehnhof presented at last year's meeting of the Shakespeare association has been selected for inclusion in a multi-author collection to be published by Ashgate under the title Gender and instruction in the Early Modern England.

Dr. Anna Leahy, assistant professor of English had her poem "A History of Air Travel" published in Air & Space Magazine on airspacemag.com on April 8, 2009.
Click here to read the poem.

Richard Doetkott, professor of communication studies, had his paper "Public Speaking Delivery Styles: Audience Preference and Recollection" reviewed and awarded as one of the "Top Papers in the Basic Course Division" at the National Communication Association's 95th Annual Convention in Chicago this fall. The paper is a groundbreaking study of a new "oralistic" approach to the teaching of public speaking in academe. Doetkott has given a number of workshops nationally and regionally over the last 10 years on the approach, which both reduces speech anxiety and greatly increases effectiveness. Com 101 was used both as a model and test audience for study, with Chapman student speakers proving superior to the best of the University of Wisconsin's students. The Wisconsin speakers are featured in a textbook used by half of the speech teachers in the United States.

"Please join me in congratulating our Wilkinson College colleagues: Dr. Nubar Hovsepian, Associate Professor of Political Science, on earning tenure, and Dr. Jennifer Bevan, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, on earning tenure and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor," said Dean of WCHSS Roberta Lessor. Click here to read more!

Jennifer Waldeck, assistant professor of communication studies, will present a paper entitled Communication in a Changing Professional World: Contemporary Perspectives on Business Communication Competence at the Southern States Communication Association Conference on Friday, April 3 in Norfolk, VA. The paper was co-authored by Chapman students Brandon Marcia, Cathryn Durante, and Briana Helmuth.

On April 22, 2009, Dr. Waldeck will present a paper entitled Dealing with Student Resistance in the Wired Classroom: Maintaining Focus and On-Task Attention at the Eastern Communication Association conference in Philadelphia, PA. Additionally, Dr. Waldeck is co-chair of ECA's annual daylong preconference focusing on the basic undergraduate communication course and was invited to review submissions to the Organizational Communication division of the International Communcation Association for the 2010 Singapore conference.

Dr. Logan Esdale, assistant professor of English, received a fellowship from the National Humanities Center (NHC) to attend the Summer Institute in Literary Studies. He was a participant in a seminar on "Forms of Life in Emily Dickinson's Poetry" led by Sharon Cameron, a leading Dickinson scholar and professor at Johns Hopkins University.

Wenshan Jia, associate professor, interim chair, Department of Communication Studies, directly appointed by the President of International Communication, Association, served on the Communication as an Open Field Award Committee. Upon invitation, he also acted as a judge on the international debate between American and Chinese students in Irvine Valley College on February 2, 2009.

Dr. Paul Apodaca will be a featured speaker at the Southern California Forum for Diversity in Graduate Education at CSU San Marcos in April.

2008

Doug Sweet, writing program coordinator, Department of English has been asked to speak at the 2009 Annual Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) on Saturday, March 14. Sweet will be presenting during the session, "Defining (the) Class: Social Learning Theory and Pedagogy." Sweet's presentation is titled "'Social' Learning and the Competitive Problematic."  

Dr. David Shafie, assistant professor of political science, had his article "Participation in E-Rulemaking: Interest Groups and the Standard-Setting Process for Hazardous Air Pollutants" published in the December 2008 issue of the Journal of Information Technology and Politics. His article examined the attempts by regulated industries and environmental groups to influence the regulatory process by mobilizing supporters with the World Wide Web. 

This year Dr. Martin Nakell, professor of English, gave a poetry/fiction reading at Long Island University, and at KGB Bar in New York City, one of the premier cultural venues in the still-cultural capital of America. Nakell also published four short fictions in Mad Hatter's Review, voted Number 1 online literary journal. Currently Dr. Nakell is Co-Director of &NOW, a major biannual conference of innovative fiction and poetry authors.

Dr. Anna Leahy, assistant professor of English was invited to be a Featured Reader and participate in the Poetry Symposium at Winter Wheat, a writing festival sponsored by Mid-American Review at Bowling Green State University. Dr. Leahy also presented an interdisciplinary talk -- "Constituents of Matter: Poetry, Science, and Creativity" (a reading and discussion), Association for Integrative Studies, Springfield IL. In December '08 she will speak at the Modern Language Association in San Francisco.

In a recent review article in Chinese by China's People's Daily (http://yq.people.com.cn/Art/Art125.htm), Dr. Wenshan Jia, Chair of Department of Communication Studies, has been quoted and identified as the only scholar out of the 30 scholars around the world interviewed by China's People's Daily "Public Opinion" during the Beijing Olympic Games who argued for China's need to further identify with the universal human values and promote global citizenship education in China's post-Olympic era.

Dr. Jennifer Bevan, associate professor of communication studies, presented a paper at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association called, "The relationships among interpersonal communication apprehension, topic avoidance, and the experience of irritable bowel syndrome."

Dr. Bevan presented a second paper, "Stress, social support, health, and perceptions of emergency management" with three of her colleagues at that same meeting.

Dr. Marvin Meyer, chair of the Department of Religious Studies, has his article "Interpreting Judas: Ten Passages in the Gospel of Judas" published in L'Evangile de Judas: Le contexte historique et litteraire d'un nonvel apocryphe, edited by Madeleine Scopello (Leiden:Brill). This article is based on a paper he presented at an international conference held at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he also delivered a keynote address and gave a public presentation. Recently Dr. Meyer presented two papers at the Ninth International Congress of Coptic Studies, meeting in Cairo, on Coptic gnostic traditions and Coptic magical papyri.

Nancy Martin, professor of religious studies, presented the paper "Mirabai Transformed: How a Sixteenth-Century Hindu Woman Becomes a Global Saint" at the annual Conference on the Study of Religions of India. Martin was also the invited moderator of a Special Topics Session at the Annual National Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Chicago, featuring leading Indian feminist historians and human rights advocated addressing "The Influence of Religion on Women's Legal Rights in India."

Dr. Paul Apodaca presented at the California Indian Conference at the UC Riverside Extension Campus in Palm Desert on Friday, Oct. 3, 2008 discussing indigenous music.
The California Indian Conference is sponsored by the Anthropology Department of the University of California, Berkeley, and is hosted each year by a different UC campus. Scholars and American Indians from across the state gather to exchange views and discuss new research. Dr. Paul Apodaca has also been appointed as the Autry National Center's Southwest Museum of the American Indian "View from the Braun" Lecturer in Residence. It is a two-year appointment and Dr. Apodaca will be assisting a lecture program as well as presenting his own research.
The Autry National Center is the overarching entity that controls two museums and a research institute devoted to the academic study of the American West. This includes the Southwest Museum, the oldest museum in Los Angeles with the largest private collection of American Indian research material west of the Rocky Mountains and home of the Braun Research Library.
Dr. Apodaca has done work with the Getty Research Institute, the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian, to name a few. This appointment with the Southwest Museum carries Chapman's name and the Department of Sociology to national recognition.

Alexander Bay, assistant professor of history recently had his paper, "Beriberi, Military Medicine, and Medical Authority in Prewar Japan," published in the Japan Review: Journal of the International Research Center for Japanese Students 20 (2008): 111-56. Bay is currently on leave this year, pursuing a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science post-doctoral fellowship, turning his dissertation into a book. Bay first presented his paper at the first ever "Works in Progress" workshop in Wilkinson College, ran by Nubar Hovsepian and Marvin Meyer in the fall of 2007.

Dr. Marilyn Harran, Stern Chair in Holocaust Education, director of the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education and professor of religious studies and history, has been honored with the 2008 Spirit of Anne Frank Outstanding Educator Award, which will be formally presented to her June 12 at a ceremony at the Pierre Hotel in New York City. Sponsored annually since 1996 by The Anne Frank Center USA, the Spirit of Anne Frank Awards honor educators, students and citizens of all faiths and backgrounds- bridge builders, peacemakers, and role models- who have demonstrated outstanding personal courage and commitment in working to promote tolerance, inclusion and social justice in their communities.

Dr. Mark Axelrod, professor of English and comparative literature, has been invited to be one of several guest writers to speak/read at the first International Literary Arts Festival to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in November. He was also given permission by the John Fowles Estate to adapt Fowles' novella Mantissa into a stage play.

Dr. Joseph Runzo, professor of philosophy and religious studies, has authored the chapter on "Religious Pluralism" for Blackwell's (UK) Philosophy of Religion: Classic and Contemporary Issues. Just published, this volume presents definite essays by leading British and American experts. In his chapter, Dr. Runzo addresses whether the conflicting truth claims of the world's religions can be reconciled, assesses prominent attempts to do so, and argues that the religious perspectives of the world religions can be compatible even through their religious truth claims are irreducible plural.