Mid-Summer Professional Notes

07/02/2019

A round-up of awards, presentations, papers and the other professional achievements of SLU faculty, staff and students. 

FACULTY AND STAFF

Appointments

Jennifer R. Rust, Ph.D., of the Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been named as the inaugural Georgia K. Johnston Professor of English.

Rush, an associate professor of English, received her doctorate from the University of California, Irvine in 2007, the same year she joined the SLU faculty. Her research and teaching interests take in early modern and medieval English literature; the religious culture of Reformation England; Shakespeare; political theology; and literary theory.

Her publications include The Body in Mystery: the Political Theology of the Corpus Mysticum in the Literature of Reformation England (Northwestern University Press, 2014); a co-translation of Carl Schmitt’s Hamlet or Hecuba: The Intrusion of the Time Into the Play (Telos Press Publishing, 2009); and numerous articles on religion and politics in early modern literature.

“Georgia was an extraordinary colleague, always deeply supportive of her junior colleagues, a wise mentor and a tenacious advocate,” Rust said. “I am honored to carry on her legacy with this professorship.”

During her term as Johnston Professor, Rust plans to complete her next book project, which explores how literature participates in a larger process of governmental experimentation in the early modern era.

“In the sixteenth century, the word ‘government’ was applied much more broadly than today: individuals practiced forms of ‘government’ over themselves, families were ‘governed’ by fathers, churches and monasteries had ‘governments,’” Rush said. “I want to demonstrate the underlying, long-term continuity between religious and secular modes of government. My big question is: How do works of imaginative literature by figures like Shakespeare, Milton and Thomas More highlight this historical process?”

“Jen Rust is an outstanding choice as the inaugural recipient of Johnston Professorship,” Toby Benis, Ph.D., chair of the English department, said. “She is an internationally recognized scholar, an excellent teacher and a tireless advocate for the liberal arts.”

Johnston was a professor of English and a member of the SLU faculty since 1992 before her death in 2017 from cancer. She was an internationally recognized scholar of modern British literature, specializing in the intersections between women’s writing, psychoanalysis and constructions of gender. The professorship was established through a gift.

“Georgia was an extraordinary colleague and friend; it is entirely characteristic that she never mentioned her intention to leave the English department this generous gift,” Benis said. “The Georgia K. Johnston Professorship was created to honor her legacy as a teacher, scholar, and faculty leader.”

Christine Luebbert will become director of The Ability Institute this month, following the retirement of the institute’s founder, Karen Myers, Ph.D., of the School of Education. Myers, professor and program director of higher education administration, will continue as chairperson of the Ability Institute Advisory Board. Mark Pousson, Ph.D., will serve as SLU faculty liaison to the institute, and Mirtha Peralta will continue as a member of the board.

Publications

Rubén Rosario Rodríguez, Ph.D., of the Department of Theological Studies, published several works including:

• “The Moral Problematics of Exodus as Liberation Narrative,” in Ex Auditu: An International Journal for the Theological Interpretation of Scripture, Vol. 34 (2018), 1-13.
• “Do Black Lives Matter to White Christians? A Theological reflection in Three Movements,” in CrossCurrents Vol. 68, No. 1 (April 10, 2019), 112-34.

He also served as editor for “Symposium: Criminalizing Latinidad,” in Political Theology Network (Dec. 6, 2018).

Zhenguo Lin, Ph.D., of the Department of Biology, will publish a paper, “Pervasive and Dynamic Transcription Initiation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae,” with SLU graduate student Zhaolian Lu in the July issue of Genome Research.

Paper Abstract

• Gene regulation controls which genes are turned on or off, which is critical for life, but the complex process is not yet fully understood. In this study, we determined the exact locations where the cells start to synthesize RNA for all genes in the baker's yeast. We found that the yeast cells start to synthesize RNA from much more locations in its genome than previously identified. Most genes synthesize their RNA from multiple starting locations. Most importantly, yeast cells not only turn on or off genes in response to changing environments, but also frequently switch from one starting location to another for a gene. These results reveal that gene regulation is more complicated than we have recognized.

Kimberly Enard, Ph.D., of the Department of Health Management and Policy in the College for Public Health and Social Justice, has co-authored a newly-published article, “Social Determinants of Health Influence Shared Decision Making for Health Failure Patients,” that appeared in JAMA Cardiology.

Article abstract

• Social determinants of health may limit a person’s ability to make health-related choices, and place certain groups at greater risk for adverse outcomes, prior to and after the development of heart failure. Shared decision-making processes are associated with increased knowledge; more accurate risk perception; improved values clarification and patient-clinician communication; increased patient satisfaction; and reduced decisional conflict and regret.
• The article also states that initiating shared decision-making in early symptomatic disease, and as a preventive strategy for heart failure stages A and B, may produce greater long-term benefits.
• The authors state that shared decision-making benefits heart failure patients by engaging them as informed and active partners in decisions about their health care, particularly preference-sensitive decisions for which there is more than one reasonable treatment option, and write that opportunities to deliver patient-centered care exist at the intersection of shared decision-making and social determinants of health frameworks.
• When shared decision-making is integrated into routine clinical practice, and patients and clinicians work together to manage heart failure, a policy window is open to improve how these patients participate in delivery of their care.

The Office of University Compliance and Ethics has published its summer newsletter. 

Grants

Colin Flaveny, Ph.D., of the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology in the School of Medicine, received a $100,000 grant from the Siteman Cancer Center through its RO1-Pre-Award Program to study cancer immunotherapies.

Project abstract

• Cancer immunotherapies, which stimulate the body’s immune system to attack and destroy tumors, are revolutionary drugs that have literally changed the way cancer is treated in the clinic. Unfortunately prostate cancer, the second leading cause of cancer-related death in men, is highly resistant to immunotherapy. It is thus far unclear what unique feature of prostate cancer makes it refractory to these treatments. Prostate tumors, are highly dependent on fat, which they use primarily to fuel rapid growth.
• Flaveny’s team recently discovered that the fat produced in prostate tumors also actively block immune cells from destroying tumors and may underlie prostate cancer resistance to immunotherapy. The research suggests that these tumor fats disrupt the metabolic processes needed for immune cells to mount a full-scale attack on tumor growth.
• This research project focuses on determining whether drugs designed to target a protein known to regulate fat production and immune cell activity; the Liver-X-Receptor, can be used to overcome prostate cancer resistance to treatment. If successful Flaveny’s work could lead to the development of a new class of treatments that target prostate cancer fat-addiction and make prostate tumors more responsive to immunotherapy.

Conferences and Presentations

Eleonore Stump, Ph.D., the Robert J. Henle, S.J., Professor Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy, co-organized the workshop “Wrestling with Life: Analytic Theology and Biblical Narratives,” at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute of Jerusalem in June. The workshop brought together leading philosophers and theologians to examine Jewish and Christian sacred textual narratives using the resources of analytic philosophy and theology. The workshop’s presentations were designed to be a pilot project investigating the benefits and advantages of using this methodology on foundational cultural narratives.

The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies hosted its seventh annual Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies from June 17 to 19. Hundreds of scholars specializing in medieval and early modern studies gathered from all around the world to attend, and to share their research at the symposium.

The symposium included more than seventy individual sessions and more than two hundred papers containing original research, ranging from topics such as Arthurian literature and its interaction with modern media, to discussions on medieval philosophy and identity.

The symposium also included valuable workshops organized by The Walter J. Ong, S.J., Center for Digital Humanities, which instructed scholars on the many of the advanced tools available for historians in the digital age.

The symposium also included several mini-conferences specializing in particular fields, such as the 46th Annual Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies, the longest running conference in North America devoted exclusively to medieval and Renaissance manuscript studies.

This year the symposium also featured the Later Medieval Philosophy Mini-Conference and the Early Modern Mediterranean Mini-Conference as well as The International Arthurian Society, North America, which organized its own Arthurian Studies Mini-Conference as part of the symposium’s events.

John J. Contreni, Ph.D., of Purdue University, Maureen C. Miller, Ph.D., of the University of California, Berkeley these were among the conference’s plenary speakers and other distinguished guests included Kevin J. Harty, Ph.D., of La Salle University, and Francesca Manzari, Ph.D., of the Sapienza Università di Roma.

Brian Goss, Ph.D., of SLU-Madrid’s Department of Communication, recently presented a new work at the 40th annual conference meeting of the Associação Portuguesa de Estudos Anglo-Americanos (APEAA) at University of Porto in Portugal. In line with his specialization in mass media, his address for the conference was titled, “Neoliberalism-spotting: The United Kingdom’s Trajectory from Trainspotting (1996) to T2: Trainspotting (2017).” The talk addressed the films’ implications for economics and subjectivity, gender and globalization.

“This new project is rooted in and an extension of my previous work,” Goss said. “The global dimensions of neoliberal (‘free market’) economics was the subject of my dissertation in 2000 and, in this case, I am following up on its cultural concomitants in the two films directed by Danny Boyle. I have also used both of these films in classes at SLU, including for field trips to the cinema in Madrid when they have been exhibited on the big screen.”  Following further revision, Goss plans to submit the work to a journal for publication.

Goss also served as a guest lecturer at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. His lecture, “Dissed Information: Beyond Fake News and Toward a Theory of Weaponized Flak Discourses,” was derived from his research on flak, which is slated for publication by Peter Lang Publishing in late 2019. It will be the first book-length academic volume devoted to flak as a political strategy of harassment.

Fabiola Martínez Rodríguez, Ph.D., of SLU-Madrid’s Department of Fine and Performing Arts, co-organized the “Transnational solidarity and visual culture: resistance and revolutionary memories from WWII to the Cold War” Conference at the Université Grenoble Alpes, Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Grenoble, France.

Chris Sebelski, Ph.D., presented on her scholarly research at the World Confederation of Physical Therapy (WCPT) Congress in Geneva, Switzerland in May.

Workshops

Karen Myers, Ph.D., and Mark Pousson, Ph.D., of the Department of Higher Education Administration, presented workshops to teachers, deans, and administrators from various tertiary institutions in Belize in June. On June 5 and 6, they were invited presenters at the ATLIB Summer Professional Development Conference for Tertiary Level Institutions in Belize, at STANN Creek Ecumenical Junior College in Dangriga, Belize. The conference’s theme was “Professionalizing Tertiary Education in Preparation for the 21st Century Learner.”

Pousson presented on service learning, and Myers presented on disability in higher education.

In addition to the workshop presentations, The Allies for Inclusion: The Ability Exhibit was on display.

Pousson traveled to St. John College (SJC) in Belize City, Belize, and led an “Assessment and Evaluation” workshop with the faculty at St. John's College on June 7.

Myers traveled to Orange Walk, Belize, and led a disability training workshop with the Belizean Ministry of Education.

Community Involvement

Cesar Rioja, director of the Department of Athletics at SLU-Madrid, took part in the Movistar Estudiantes vs. Real Madrid veterans’ match, a fundraiser to build a school where children can practice sports in Ethiopia through an NGO called Holystic Pro África.

STUDENTS

Awards

Doctoral student Caroline Lipic of the Department of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training, accepted an Honorable Mention Award from the American Physical Therapy Association Foundation Luncheon, for fundraising efforts on the foundation’s behalf by SLU’s physical therapy community. SLU’s efforts raised more than $3,000 during the 2018 Physical Therapy Spirit Week in November 2018.

SLU students Megan Schultz, chapter president, and member Arden McReynolds represented SLU’s Eta Nu Chapter of Alpha Delta Pi at the sorority’s 2019 National Grand Convention in Las Vegas in late June, where the chapter received The Golden Lion, the honor given to the highest performing chapter at the collegiate level. This is the third time since 2013 that SLU’s Eta Nu chapter of Alpha Delta Pi has received this honor.

Students Allison Hallums, vice president of member education, and Grace Neary, vice president of public relations, represented SLU’s Zeta Iota chapter of Kappa Delta during the sorority’s 2019 National Convention in Memphis, Tennessee in late July.

The women of Zeta Iota received a Recognition Award. The honor is given to chapters that displayed great efforts in areas of community service, membership, programming, and sisterhood while meeting other criteria over the past two years

Publications

Doctoral student Cindy Reed, of the Department of American Studies, published an article, “From One First Lady to Another: The Speculative Worlds of Michelle Obama and The Walking Dead’s Michonne,” in Women & Language, Vol. 40, no. 1 (2018).

Exhibits Expansions

The Allies for Inclusion: The Ability Exhibit has launched a second exhibit at St. John’s College in Belize City, Belize. Mirtha Peralta, president of St. John’s College (STJ) and doctoral student in the Department of Higher Education Administration at SLU, will serve as a member of the Ability Institute Advisory Board, and has agreed to be the international host site of the Ability Institute.

STJ will house the two exhibits on St. John’s College campus and will manage the exhibition’s schedule and related workshops to be conducted in school districts across Belize.

Professional Notes will be on hiatus for the remainder of the summer, and will be published again in August. Please submit awards, publications and other notable achievements through the Newslink submission form, and send photos to newslink@slu.edu.