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CLAE faculty news

CLAE faculty win University academic excellence awards

Professor of English Nicholas D. Rombes received the Distinguished Faculty Award and Assistant Professor of Psychology Linda H. Slowik was honored with the Faculty Achievement Award during the Faculty Recognition Dinner, Nov. 13, 2009. Recipients of these academic excellence awards are nominated each year by faculty representing all of the schools and colleges from throughout the University.

People at award ceremony
From left: Professor of English Nicholas D. Rombes, UDM President Gerard L. Stockhausent, S.J. and Assistant Professor of Psychology Linda H. Slowik at the Faculty Recognition Dinner, Nov. 13.

Faculty accomplishments

Libby Balter Blume, professor of Psychology, was named series editor for the Groves Monographs on Marriage and Family, to be published by the University of Michigan beginning in 2010.

Jocelyn Bennett-Garraway and Sheri Pickover, assistant professors of Counseling/Addiction Studies, gave the presentation, "Socio-economic status as a cultural language perspective for communication styles for group work with economically disadvantaged clients," at the annual Counselor Education and Supervision conference in San Diego, Oct. 17.

Laurie Britt-Smith, assistant professor of English, gave the presentation, "Social justice goes digital," at the Computers and Writing Conference, June 21 at USC Davis (Davis, Ca.).

Claire Crabtree, professor of English, gave the presentation, "Innocence and Irishness in Alice McDermott's At Weddings and Wakes and Charming Billy," to the Conference on Migration and Return, at University of Aberdeen, Scotland, Research Institute for Irish and Scottish Studies, May 19.

John Franklin, professor of Counseling/Addiction Studies, gave the presentation, "Spirituality and recovery," to the Michigan Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors at their annual convention, this summer.

Montie Garraway, assistant professor of Counseling & Addiction Studies, recently began his tenure as president of the Michigan Counseling Association. In this role and during his two-year term, he will lead the state's primary professional counseling association.

Mary-Catherine Harrison, assistant professor of English, presented a paper on interpersonal and narrative empathy at the 2009 conference of the International Society for the Study of Narrative at the University of Birmingham (England), June 4.

Daniel B. Kennedy, professor emeritus of Criminal Justice Studies, recently authored the foreword to the textbook, Forensic Criminology. Also, his article, "Terrorists Behind Bars," was published in the August issue of American Jails.

David Koukal, associate professor of Philosophy, gave the presentation, "Stolen space: the perverse architecture of torture," at the conference, Flesh and Space: Intertwining Merleau-Ponty and Architecture, Sept. 9 at Mississippi State University.

Douglas MacDonald, associate professor and director, Clinical Psychology, M.A. program, was nominated and included in the 2009 Great Minds of the 21st Century (4th edition), a publication of the American Biographical Institute. MacDonald has also been included in the 2010 Marquis Who's Who in America, a reference biographical directory that includes the highest achievers and contributors from across the country and around the world. He has been included in the directory since 2004.

Isaiah McKinnon, associate professor of Education, participated in the Holocaust Teacher Fellowship Program, June 1-5, at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The program focuses on developing educators to serve in a global effort to ensure quality Holocaust education in our schools. Participant educators plan to lead workshops, serve on boards, lead study trips to Holocaust sites and serve as conduits to the Holocaust Museum for educators, institutions, students, professional organizations and community groups.

Gail Presbey, chair, Department of Philosophy, was appointed by The National Research Council, as a reviewer for the Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowship Program.

Nick Rombes, professor of English, authored the book, A Cultural Dictionary of Punk, published by Continuum in July.

Barbara Schirmer, professor of Education, authored the book, Teaching the Struggling Reader, published by Allyn and Bacon this summer, as well as the article, "Repeated reading as an instructional intervention with deaf readers: effect on fluency and reading achievement," published in the fall issue of Reading Improvement. In June, Schirmer presented the paper, "Repeated reading as an instructional intervention to improve the fluency of deaf readers," at the annual conference of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, in Boston.

Gregory Sumner, professor of History, was awarded his second William J. Fulbright fellowship to Rome, Italy. Sumner will be a senior visiting lecturer for four months, beginning February 1, 2010, at the University di Roma Tre, where he taught in 2001. See longer story.

Joseph A. Weglarz, lecturer in Economics, was the recipient of the 2009 Crystal Apple Award, Oct. 6 by the Michigan Council on Economic Education. The award is given to individuals that encourage and instruct Michigan educators in their use of various MCEE materials in the classroom.

Carol Weisfeld, professor of Psychology, gave the presentation, "Long-term partnership: what it means in the post-modern era," at the "Evolutionary Psychology in the New Millenium" Conference, last April in Natal, Brazil. Weisfeld also facilitated workshops with Brazilian students.

Faculty promotions

The following College of Liberal Arts & Education faculty were promoted and/or granted tenure, effective Aug. 16.

V. Barry Dauphin was granted tenure and promoted to associate professor of Psychology.
Donald DiPaolo was granted tenure and promoted to associate professor of Education.