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Professional and Academic Notes: September 2019

10/04/2019

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

Students

Conferences and Presentations

SLU McNair Scholars at Heartland Conference

SLU McNair scholars and staff pose for a photo at the close of the Heartland Research Conference. Pictured are (back, left-to-right) graduate assistant Sunita Manu, scholars Noah Gistover, Mya Robinson, Academic Coordinator Anthony Parker-Gills, and scholars Antonia Simpson and Brendan Underwood,  and (front) scholars Dalia Harris, Wendy Teal, Liza Sivriver, Janee Davis, and Director Jamie Motley, Ph.D. Submitted photo

Eight students from the McNair Scholars Program at Saint Louis University traveled with the program’s staff to Kansas City, Missouri, to attend the 23rd Annual Ronald E. McNair Heartland Research Conference.

SLU McNair scholars Janee Davis, Noah Gistover, Wendy TealAntonia Simpson, Brendan Underwood, Dalia Harris, of Harris-Stowe State University, Mya Robinson, of Fontbonne University, and Liza Sivriver of Washington University, offered presentations in a wide range of disciplines, including the natural and social sciences, technology and philosophy.

In addition to student presentations, the Heartland Conference provided a robust conference schedule for those attending. McNair Scholars participated in professional development workshops on composing personal statements for graduate school applications and acquiring graduate fellowships to fund their higher education. Further, they were able to network with other scholars as well as faculty and staff from prospective graduate schools at a recruitment fair.

“I had the chance to see my major from the perspective of somebody else from across the country and it expanded my own perspective,” reflected McNair Scholar Brendan Underwood, a student in the and African-American Studies Program and Department of Philosophy, said.

The conference schedule was punctuated by keynote speaker Tara M. Ruttley, Ph.D. Ruttley, who holds a doctorate in neuroscience, is a McNair Scholar alumna currently working as associate chief scientist for microgravity research at NASA. At NASA, she is responsible for representing and communicating all the research conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

While her career shows many prestigious accomplishments, Ruttley’s keynote noted the difficult journey to her current position, one marked by average grades in mathematics and even taking a break from college at one point. To a standing ovation, Ruttley affirmed the scholars’ career aspirations and stoked their motivation to pursue graduate study.

“After presenting and meeting new people, I am filled with a new fire to learn more and push myself to be bolder in my next research project,” Underwood said.

Research Experiences

Senior Shruti Rai, a student in the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences, participated in a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Program this past summer at the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio University. She designed an independent research project studying the interplay of stress, anxiety, and social desirability among a sample of teachers, and subsequently presented her research at a local symposium in Athens, Ohio.

She will also present her project at the National Conference on Advancing School Mental Health this November, in Austin, Texas.

Publications

Julia Griffin

From June to August 2018, senior Julia (front center) Griffin surveyed 105 medical providers and patients in eight city health centers in Piura, Peru, conducting all of her research in Spanish. Submitted photo

Senior Julia Griffin,  who is majoring in health sciences and Spanish  with a minor in biology, with Elaina Osterbur, Ph.D., of the Clinical Health Sciences Program in the Doisy College of Health Sciences, published an article, "Cost, Quality, and Access of Healthcare in Piura, Peru," in the American Journal of Undergraduate Research.

Faculty

Sara McBride-Gagyi, Ph.D.
Sara McBride-Gagyi, Ph.D.

Sarah McBride-Gagyi, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, and Jane Yoon, M.D., a resident in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, were honored by the School of Medicine’s Excellence in Professionalism Award, from the Office of Professional Oversight.

The program, “The Excellence in Professionalism Award,” honors one student, staff member, faculty member or administrator monthly via nominations from the School of Medicine community.

McBride-Gagyi was honored for the month of June. who studies large-scale bone repair. During her five years at SLU, she has served as a research mentor for several medical students. These students not only presented their work at regional and national conferences but also first- and co-authored published manuscripts.

Yoon received July’s award. Originally from Texas, Dr. Yoon attended the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Nominations are reviewed by the OPO and are shared with those who are nominated. All nominees are recognized on OPO’s Web page.

Jane Yoon, M.D.
Jane Yoon, M.D.

Excellence in Professionalism Award Principles

Appointments

Marc Scheessele, director of government relations for Saint Louis University, has been named to the board of directors for Citizens for Modern Transit, the region’s public transit advocacy organization. Officers will serve in their respective capacities for a one-year term and board members will serve a three-year term. Scheessele represents Saint Louis University at the federal, state and local levels of government and is charged with monitoring policy initiatives and serving as the chief advocate for all legislative and regulatory issues impacting the university’s students, faculty and staff.

Craig Adams, Ph.D., P.E., has been appointed to another three-year appointment as the Oliver L. Parks Chair in Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology. Adams joined Saint Louis University in 2016 as the Oliver L. Parks Chair and a professor in civil engineering.

Adams is a registered professional engineer, a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and a board-certified environmental engineer. A noted international researcher, he has more than 100 peer-reviewed journal publications in addition to more than 400 other scholarly works and presentations.

Craig Adams, Ph.D.
Craig Adams, Ph.D.

Adams is committed to clean water and safe sanitation in developing nations. He is the faculty mentor for the Billikens for Clean Water – a student group that has not only learned about clean water access in Belize, but also helped bring clean water solutions to many people in the country. The group is also paving the way for future work with club and local communities in the country’s southern district. Additionally, the group is working on projects in Honduras, Panama and Flint, Michigan.

In the summer of 2018, through SLU’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders, Adams, three students and fellow faculty member, Ronaldo Luna, Ph.D., traveled to Kenya to assess the water needs of Esther House, an orphanage where 21 kids ranging from infants to teenagers and their caregivers lack a reliable water supply. They took water samples, recorded GPS coordinates, and sought feedback from the local community about their water needs.

Gary Ritter, Ph.D.
Gary Ritter, Ph.D.

Gary Ritter, Ph.D., dean of the School of Education, was elected to the board of the Today and Tomorrow Educational Foundation. As a board member, Ritter will support the foundation's strategic planning efforts, in evaluation duties, and will provide oversight of the foundation’s mission. 

David Brinker was named executive director of the Saint Louis University Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA). Brinker succeeds the museum’s founding director, Terrence Dempsey, S.J.

Publications

Elizabeth Blake, Ph.D., of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, published her second book, Travels from Dostoevsky’s Siberia: Encounters with Polish Literary Exiles (Academic Studies Press, 2019). She also published a blog post about the book and was interviewed by Newslink for its “Write Stuff” feature series.

Simone Bregni, Ph.D., of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, published a new article on video game-based learning, “(Digital) Narrow Streets of Cobblestone: Game-Based Learning as a Preparatory Device & Simulation Strategies for Study Abroad Programs,” in the new issue of Beyond - Journal of International Education.

Cassandra Hamrick, Ph.D., of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, published a critical edition of the Salon de 1837, a series of unpublished articles on the annual Paris art exhibition in 1837 by 19th-century French writer and critic, Théophile Gautier. The volume was published by Honoré Champion (Paris).

The Salon of 1837 edition is one of ten of the writer's art Salons to appear in Volume 1, the first of six volumes scheduled to appear with publisher Champion. In all, the volumes will cover the entire span of Gautier's art Salons from 1833 to 1872.

This is the first time that these writings, which had an important impact on the art world and on art critics like Charles Baudelaire, have appeared in book form.

Julia Lieberman, Ph.D., of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, published an essay, “Few Wealthy and Many Poor: The London Sephardi Community in the Eighteenth-Century,” in Ler História: Judeus portugueses na Europa e nas Caraíbas, séculos XVII-XVIII issue 74, 2019.

Óscar R. López, Ph.D., of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, published “El elogio de los díscolos” (foreword) on  Dialogo de raíces, a short stories book by Santiago Andrés Gómez in Fondo Editorial EAFIT, 2019: 5-14.

Evelyn Meyer, Ph.D., of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, published a co-authored article with Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand: “sine mugens nicht erdenken: wand ez kan vor in wenken rechte alsam ein schellec hase: Women's German Medieval-Arthurian Scholarship,” in the Journal of the International Arthurian Society, 7:1 (2019): 61-90. The article appeared September 1, 2019.

Academic Service

Jean-Louis Pautrot, Ph.D., of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, served as editor-in-chief of Issue #1 of Faceless/Le sans-visage, dedicated to the works of French author Pascal Quignard, published online in May 2019. Thej is published on the departmental website.

The issue includes an interview with French author Annie Ernaux, and a testimony by sculptor Frédérique Nalbandian, as well as seven refereed analytical articles and four book reviews.

Presentations

Claudia Karagoz, Ph.D., of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, presented a paper, “Of Miracles and Madonnas: Roberta Torre’s Women on the Verge in I baci mai dati” at the Global Intersections and Artistic Interconnections: Italian Cinema and Media Across Time and Space, Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies Conference. This conference was held at the the American University of Rome, Italy, June 14 and 15.

Karagoz also gave an invited presentation titled “Donne sul crinale: I baci mai dati di Roberta Torre" at the University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy, on June 17. The presentation was part of a book launch event for the forthcoming collection Sicily on Screen: Essays on the Representation of the Island and Its Culture (Ed. G. Summerfield, McFarland 2019).

Kathleen Llewellyn, Ph.D., of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, delivered a presentation, “Comic Confessions in Early Modern France” at the conference Symposium for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at SLU in June. Llewellyn also chaired a session at the conference, “Using Texts: Agency in Translation, Reception, and Collection.”

Óscar R. López, Ph.D., delivered a presentation on Dialogo de raíces at the Museo Otraparte, Envigado, Colombia, in August.

Dan Nickolai, Ph.D., of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, gave two presentations this summer, Evaluating Speech Recognition Tech for L2 Pronunciation Practice" at the International Association for Language Learning Technology (IALLT) at the University of Oregon, in Eugene, Oregon, and “L'intégration de la reconnaissance automatique de la parole dans la phonétique corrective,” at the Computer-Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO) Conference in Montréal, Canada.

Interviews and Profiles

Debra Rudder Lohe, Ph.D., director of the Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, was interviewed for a higher education podcast, “Reinventing U,” sponsored by the Reinvention Collaborative. The episode is “The Nuance of Language and the Role of Pedagogy,” which discusses undergraduate education at a Catholic, Jesuit research university, the importance of the humanities and the tensions in higher education today between disciplines and inter-disciplines.

Kristi Richter, director of recruitment and admissions for the School of Social Work in the College for Public Health and Social Justice, was profiled by The Association for Graduate Enrollment Management (NAGAP).

Symposia and Conferences

Six members of SLU’s academic advising community attended the Missouri Academic Advising Association (MACADA) Conference in Lake Ozark, Missouri, between Sept. 19 and 20. SLU was one of five institutions to represent the St. Louis Region at MACADA.

The Mission of MACADA is to promote excellence in academic advising and supports the development of the professional competencies linked to students’ academic achievement, retention and persistence to graduation.

Several advisors presented sessions or facilitated discussions including:

Nancy Childrey, Ph.D., of Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology. Her talk was “Advising New American Undergraduates: Challenges and Opportunities.” Childrey also co-facilitated a session for members to discuss well-being/self-care for advisors and advisees.

Childrey and Summer Mattina, of Parks College, presented “Challenge Accepted: Peer-to Peer Advisor Training.”

Jeff Janson and Mike Heumann, of the College of Arts and Sciences, presented “Viewing Probation Narratives through the Lens of Superhero Origin Stories.”

Tara Ernst, of Doisy College of Health Sciences, facilitated a session for members to discuss mandatory versus non-mandatory advising policies.

Ernst will also continue her role as vice president of communications, and Childrey was elected as secretary of the MACADA Executive Board.

Lauren Cawein, of INTO SLU, attended the conference.

MACADA provide opportunities for professional development, developing connections and leadership for a diverse body of higher education professionals throughout the state of Missouri. MACADA promotes the overall awareness of academic advising as a profession and supports the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) Core Values.

Evelyn Meyer, Ph.D., co-organized the first Arthurian Mini-Conference at the SLU Symposium on Medieval and Renaissance Studies in mid-June. Sessions included:

Service and Community Engagement

The SLU community, including staff members from the Division of Business and Finance, took part in a 9/11 service day packing meals at Chaifetz Arena.