October - December 2005
- Dr. Ronald A. Hemmel, A.A.G.O., associate professor of music theory and composition and artistic director of the Music Computing Center at Westminster, presented his paper, “See Lola Run: The Compositional Devices of Film Director Tom Tykwer” at the annual conference of the College Music Society in November. The paper presents an analysis of Tykwer's subtle uses of tempo, timbre, modulation, density, variation and lyrics in the context of the action seen on screen. The College Music Society is a consortium of college, conservatory, university, and independent musicians and scholars interested in all disciplines of music. Its mission is to promote music teaching and learning, musical creativity and expression, research and dialogue, and diversity and interdisciplinary interaction. The annual conference attracts scholars from across the United States and Canada, as well as Europe and the Pacific Rim.
- Dr. Robin A. Leaver, professor of sacred music at Westminster Choir College, presented two lectures at St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York on two Sundays at the end of August, on Bach’s short Masses, BWV 234 and 235, before the services in which they were presented. Hallmark cable channel screened a documentary on the life and music of Bach in which Dr. Leaver was one of the primary Bach scholars interviewed. In September, he was the leading consultant to the Dublin [Ireland] Institute of Technology Conservatory of Music and Drama for preliminary discussions with regard to setting up an international, interdisciplinary research center for the study of the German Baroque, focusing on music and especially the music of J. S. Bach. In November, he gave a paper on the theological and liturgical context of Luther’s hymns at the annual conference of the Good Shepherd Institute for Pastoral Theology and Music for the Church at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He published the essay, “Figs and Thistles: Luther’s Hymns in English,” in Thine the Amen: Essays on Lutheran Church Music in Honor of Carl Schalk, ed. Carlos R. Messerli (Lutheran University Press). Several books were published in which Dr. Leaver’s scholarly assistance was recorded, including Robert Blocker’s The Robert Shaw Reader (Yale University Press), Jeffrey S. Sposato’s The Price of Assimilation: Felix Mendelssohn and the Nineteenth-century Anti-Semitic Tradition (Oxford University Press), and Anna Marlis Burgard’s Hallelujah: the Poetry of Classic Hymns (Celestial Arts).
- Dr. Ilhan Meric, professor of finance, Dr. Herbert Gishlick, professor of economics, and Dr. Leonore Taga, associate professor of economics, have a paper on the financial and economic integration of the EU countries accepted for presentation at the 2006 conference of the Academy of Economics and Finance. The paper is co-authored with Dr. Gulser Meric of Rowan University. With three co-authors from Rowan University, Ilhan Meric has also recently presented a paper on the 2003 dividend tax law change at the 2005 conference of the Financial Management Association.
- Dr. Jacqueline Simon, director of the Education Enhancement Program, and Dr. Barbara Blandford, director of Services for Students with Disabilities and associate director of the Education Enhancement Program gave a presentation on "Navigating Through an Expanding Integrated Support Program: What's the Impact?" at the 2005 College Reading and Learning Association Conference held on November 2-5, 2005 in Long Beach, CA. The presentation focused on 15 years of research in a comprehensive and successful academic support program at a four-year institution.
- Dr. Minmin Wang, professor of communication, and special assistant in the President’s Office, chaired one panel, "A Chinese Perspective of Group and Organizational Communication," and was the invited respondent for another panel, "Political Discourses in the Global Context: Looking in and Looking out of China," at the National Communication Annual Convention, November 16-20, in Boston.
- Dr. Frank Abrahams, professor and chairperson of the music education department, taught classes in Critical Pedagogy for Music Education at University of North Carolina, Greensboro, in September. He presented a paper titled, “Preparing Future Music Educators using Critical Pedagogy for Music Education” at the national conference of the Society for Music Teacher Education on September 16. From there, he went to Recife, Brazil and spoke at the Fifth International Colloquium on Multiculturalism and Education at the Paulo Freire Institute on September 20. His topic was “Multicultural Music Education from a Freirian Perspective.” In November, he and Patrick Schmidt, assistant professor of music education, presented a paper titled, “Critical Pedagogy for Music Education as a pathway to musical understanding” at the international conference on Musical Understanding at Oakland University in Rochester, MI, on November 11. The second edition of the text, “Case Studies in Music Education” was published by GIA in August.
- Dr. Myra Gutin, professor of communication, presented the paper, “…human rights are women’s rights. And women’s rights are human rights, once and for all’: Hillary Clinton at the United Nations Fourth Conference on Women, Beijing, China, 1995” as part of a panel discussion at the 11th annual Presidential Conference at Hofstra University on November 11. “William Jefferson Clinton, The ‘New Democrat’ From Hope” was the theme of the conference. Gutin participated in the panel, titled “A New Role For The First Lady: Staffers’ and Scholars’ Assessments.” The principal respondent was Melanne Verveer, who was Mrs. Clinton's Chief of Staff from 1997-2001.
- Robert Lackie, an associate professor-librarian, and Michele D'Angelo-Long, adjunct assistant professor of English, co-presented the paper, "What to Do and Where to Go: Strategies and Resources for Combating Plagiarism" at the TYCA/Northeast Regional Conference on October 21 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Princeton, NJ. The conference theme was "Innovate, Collaborate, Negotiate: Global English in The Twenty-First Century." Lackie and D'Angelo-Long spoke on various interactive, user-friendly resources and tutorial Web sites to assist in developing research and academic writing skills. On October 25, Lackie also presented the paper, "Google Print versus Google Scholar: What's All the Fuss?" at the national conference, "Internet Librarian 2005" at the Monterey Conference Center in Monterey, CA. He shared insight on how to effectively search Google Print & Scholar, compare goals of each service, and understand what is included. He also provided quick search tips.
- Dr. John Baer, professor of teacher education, co-authored a chapter for the just-released Special Education Almanac on "Creativity and the Special Education Student"; a theoretical article on the APT Model of Creativity for the Roeper Review; and a research report on how gifted student writers evaluate the creativity of others' work for Gifted Child Quarterly. This summer, he co-chaired a symposium on Creativity and the Issues of Gender, Race, Culture, and Fairness and presented a paper on "Gender Differences in Creativity" at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association; presented a paper on "Myths and Misconceptions about Creativity" at the 16th International Conference on College Teaching and Learning; and spoke on "Knowledge Acquisition and Creativity" for the Florida Association for Media in Education.
- Dr. Michele Kamens, associate professor of teacher education, attended the Center for Teacher Quality (CTQ) Annual Forum on October 5-8 in San Diego, CA, sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers. She participated in two presentations - one with the New Jersey Department of Education as a representative of their State team, and the second facilitating a panel discussion on service delivery models for students with disabilities. This is the third CTQ meeting in which Dr. Kamens has participated as part of the New Jersey Team. The CTQ is a national center created to work with states on developing models for improving the preparation, licensing, and professional development of teachers in both special and general education who teach students with disabilities.
- Dr. Drew J. Procaccino, assistant professor of computer information systems; Dr. Marvin E. Darter and Dr. William J. Amadio, associate professors of computer information systems, and Dr. June M. Verner, National Information and Computing Technology in Australia, published the paper, "Toward Predicting Software Development Success From The Perspective of Practitioners: An Exploratory Bayesian Model," in the Journal of Information Technology, Volume 20, Number 3 (September 2005) p.187-200. Dr. Procaccino, Dr. Katherine M. Shelfer, Baruch College at The City University of New York, and Dr. David Gefen, Drexel University, also published the paper, "What Do Software Practitioners Really Think About Project Success: An Exploratory Study", in the Journal of Systems & Software, Volume 78, Number 2 (November 2005), p. 194-203.
- Dr. Don Ambrose, professor of graduate education, recently served as guest editor for a special May issue of the journal, "Roeper Review." Based on the theme "expanding our conceptual horizons," the issue incorporated philosophical, theoretical, and interdisciplinary perspectives on giftedness, talent development, and creativity. Ambrose also published the lead article, "Interdisciplinary Expansion of Conceptual Foundations: Insights from Beyond Our Field," in the issue.
- John Buschman, professor - librarian, authored the article, "On Libraries and the Public Sphere" in Library Philosophy and Practice, Spring 2005 issue. Reviews of Buschman's book, "Dismantling the Public Sphere: Situating and Sustaining Librarianship in the Age of the New Public Philosophy" (Libraries Unlimited/Greenwood, 2003) have appeared in: Information Research, vol. 10 (April 2005); College and Research Libraries vol. 66 (March 2005), portal: Libraries and the Academy, vol. 5 (April 2005), Progressive Librarian, Issue 23; The Journal of Academic Librarianship v. 31 (May 2005).
- Dr. Roberta Fiske-Rusciano, adjunct assistant professor of political science, and Dr. Frank Rusciano, professor of political science, presented a paper with their partner from the American University in Cairo, Egypt, Dr. Ibrahim Saleh, entitled "The Student Global Issues Forum: Videoconferencing Towards Deliberative International Discussion" at the annual conference of the World Association of Public Opinion Research in Cannes, France. The paper was an analysis of the process of maintaining a sustained dialogue (weekly, throughout one semester), with Middle Eastern students from the American University in Cairo and Rider University. This "difficult dialogues" forum was part of the Student Global Village last semester, and is continuing this fall.
- Dr. Marge O'Reilly-Allen, associate professor of accounting, and Dr. Zaher Zantout, associate professor of finance, had their paper, "The Welfare Effects of the National Cooperative Research Act of 1984 and the National Cooperative Production Amendments of 1993," accepted for publication in the American Journal of Economics and Sociology.
- Dr. Pearlie Peters, professor of English, presented papers at the following conferences this past spring: "A Reinvestigation of the Frederick Douglass-Nantucket Connection," at the Frederick Douglass and Herman Melville: A Sesquicentennial Celebration, June 22-26 in New Bedford, MA; "The Good, Bad and Pretty: Literary Depictions of Black Women Characters in Selected Novels by Albert French," at the American Literature Association Conference, May 26-29 in Boston, MA. This summer, Dr. Pearlie Peters, professor of English, presented an invited paper, "Zora Neale Hurston and Catherine Lim: Global Perspectives on Womanhood from Eatonville, FL, to Singapore and Malaysia," at The Oxford Round Table at St. Anthony's College at The University of Oxford in England. She was one of a select group of academicians, attorneys, physicians and public policy makers internationally to participate in The Oxford Round Table's forum on Women's Leadership, August 7 -12.
