Washington College Magazine
Faculty/Staff Achievements
WAYNE BELL, director of the Center for Environment and Society, reviewed Chesapeake Bay Blues: Science, Politics, and the Struggle to Save the Bay by Howard R. Ernst for the latest issue of the journal Ecological Restoration.
JENNIFER BERSHON ’95 M’00 has been promoted to Registrar. She joined the College in 1995 after graduation and has held several posts, including Associate Registrar.
KEVIN BRIEN, professor of philosophy, has signed a contract with Prometheus/Humanity Books to publish his book Marx, Reason, and the Art of Freedom: Expanded Second Edition. The first edition was published by Temple University Press in 1987. The expanded second edition includes an additional 97 pages of development beyond the first edition.
TOM COUSINEAU, professor of English, co-chaired in Paris an organizational meeting to plan "Presence de Samuel Beckett," a scholarly conference that will take place this summer in Normandy.
FRANK CREEGAN, professor of chemistry, became President Elect of Washington College’s Sigma Xi chapter this year. He will follow this term by serving as President of the chapter next year. ANNE MARTEEL-PARRISH, assistant professor of chemistry, was elected to the position of secretary.
MELISSA DECKMAN, assistant professor of political science, co-authored the chapter “Disciples of Christ” in Pulpit and Politics, edited by Corwin E. Smidt.
In October, PEGGY DONNELLY, assistant professor of education, presented the lecture and workshop, “Readers’ Theatre: Performance for Fluency,” to the faculty and staff of Church Hill Elementary School in Queen Anne’s County. In November, she made a similar presentation to the entire faculty and support staff at Sudlersville Elementary School in Queen Anne’s County. Also in November, she presented the workshop, “Creating Scripts for Readers’ Theatre,” to the faculty and staff of both Church Hill Elementary School and Sudlersville Elementary School, two of Washington College’s Professional Development School partners.
BOB FALLAW, professor of history, recently lectured on “Native Americans of Colonial Maryland” for the Daughters of the American Revolution and on “James Madison, the Essential Moderate” at the convention of the Maryland chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.
RICHARD GILLIN, professor of English, signed a contract with the Encyclopedia of Europe 1789-1914 to contribute an article.
ADAM GOODHEART, Fellow at the C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, won the inaugural Henry Lawson Award for Travel Writing for his article on Australia, “The Other Side of Oz,” written for Travel + Leisure. The award, sponsored by Tourism Australia and Qantas Airways, recognizes the best travel writing about Australia in North America.
MEREDITH DAVIES HADAWAY, Vice President for College Relations and Publications, published reviews of new books by Maxine Kumin, Judith Skillman, Jan Lee Ande, and Milo De Angelis in Poetry International (Volume 9).
MIKE KERCHNER, associate professor of psychology, recently was named President Elect of Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN). He was also selected to be a member of a Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) Keck Consultancy Team charged with providing a programmatic review of the current plans to build a new science center at Gustavus Adolphus College, and he was chosen as a principal consultant to Emmanuel College to assist with the development of an undergraduate neuroscience program. He also represented the Washington College Chapter of Sigma Xi at the Sigma Xi Annual Meeting in Montreal, where he presented a poster highlighting recent activities and programs sponsored by the Washington College Chapter. Finally, he served as a judge in the Sigma Xi undergraduate research poster awards.
EDWARD MAXCY, former associate dean of students, will move from Student Life to the Provost’s Office to serve as Senior Academic Advisor in July. He will be working closely with Mark Hoesly, associate dean of academic advising, and will continue to teach as a lecturer in the department of drama.
DONALD MCCOLL, associate professor of art, spoke on Roman art at Rosa Parks Middle School in Olney, Md. He also wrote an essay, "Ad Fontes: Iconoclasm by Water," for Idols in the Age of Art edited by Michael Cole and Rebecca Zorach, and reviewed an exhibition catalogue, Review of Painted Prints: The Revelation of Color in Northern Renaissance and Baroque Engravings, Etchings, and Woodcuts by Susan Deckerman, for Historians of Netherlandish Art Newsletter. Professor McColl participated in the colloquim, "History through Images in the Sixteenth Century: The Wars, Massacres, and Troubles of Tortorel and Perrissin," at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art. He also gave a conference paper, "Words Fail: Remarks on the Visual Culture of the Reformation," at the Fourth International Conference of the Fruhe Neuzeit Interdisziplinar, held at Duke University.
MIKE MCLENDON, assistant professor of mathematics and computer science, gave a talk in November at the American Mathematical Society Regional Meeting Session on invariants of knots and 3-manifolds titled “Traces on the skein algebra of the torus.”
ERIN MURPHY, lecturer in English, gave poetry readings this fall at West Chester University and at the Poetry Center in Paterson, NJ. She also received the 2004 Chesapeake Award from the Office of Economic Development in Cecil County, MD, for her community service work in the literary arts. Her poem, “13 Ways of Looking at Wallace Stevens,” was published in the Atlanta Review, and she has more poetry appearing in Beltway: The Walt Whitman issue. A review of her first collection of poems published last year, Science of Desire, appears in the current issue of The Georgia Review.
SEAN O CONNOR, professor of education, presented the paper, “Holding Up a Mirror to Our Teaching Patterns in Instruction: One Generalized Model Based on Structured Observations in Graduate Classes,” and another interdisciplinary paper with Michael Harvey, assistant professor of business management, titled “The Problem Set Process: Knowledge Transformation, Collaborative Meaning Making, Change, and Leadership,” at the Inaugural Conference of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, October 21-24, at Indiana University.
ANDREW OROS, assistant professor of political science, served as an invited panelist on “Implications of the U.S. Presidential Election for Bilateral U.S.-Japan Relations” at the Washington and Southeast Regional Japan Seminar held at George Washington University. He also delivered a United States Institute of Peace-sponsored local outreach lecture on “Sources of Conflict in East Asia: Challenges for the United States” at Wesley Hall in Easton, MD.
JASON RUBIN, assistant professor of drama, published the essay, “The Girl Friends: Lew Fields and the Early Musicals of Rodgers, Hart, and Fields,” in the book Art, Glitter, and Glitz: Mainstream Playwrights and Popular Theatre in 1920s America.
John Taylor's book
KAREN SMITH, professor of physical education, presented the paper, “From the Village to the Stage: Shaping Traditional Dance for the Concert Venue,” and taught an introduction to American tap dancing class at the 18th World Congress on Dance Research of the International Dance Council/UNESCO in Argos, Greece. She also presented a lecture on “Brown Bag Nutrition” at the 32nd Maryland State Dance Festival.
Professor of Political Science JOHN TAYLOR recently released the book The right to Counsel and Privilege Against Self-Incrimination: Rights and Liberties under the Law, part of the America's Fredom series published by ABC-CLIO.
MICHELE VOLANSKY, assistant professor of drama, recently served as dramaturg for the Philadelphia Theatre Company’s production of Tracey Scott Wilson’s play, The Story. In addition to her rehearsal work and writing for the theater’s publications, she coordinated and moderated two public lectures on contemporary media issues of race, ethics, and plagiarism in the context of Wilson’s play. She also has been contracted to serve as dramaturg for two new plays: an adaptation of Chaim Potok’s My Name is Asher Lev, and Seventh Ward, a play about a middle-class African-American family in Civil War-era Philadelphia.
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