April - June 2006
- Drs. Michele Kamens, associate professor of teacher education, Diane Casale-Giannola and Joanne Vesay assistant professors of teacher education, attended the Annual Conference of the Council for Exceptional Children in Salt Lake City, April 5-8. Kamens and Casale-Giannola gave a presentation entitled, “Inclusion at the University: Experiences of a Young Woman with Down Syndrome.” Dr. Kamens will be attending the Center for Improving Teacher Quality (CTQ) Forum Planning/Case Study Meeting at the Omni Jacksonville Hotel in Jacksonville, FL, May 22-24. The CTQ is s a program sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).
- Dr. Michael G. Curran Jr., associate professor of teacher education, has been named New Jersey Business Technology Education Association (NJBTEA’s) 2006 Educator of the Year. Dr. Curran was honored for his achievements at the NJBTEA conference May 11 at The Pines Manor in Edison. He was selected based upon his service to his students, the profession, and his recent research in accounting education, culminating in his new textbook, “Accounting Fundamentals” (2006) published by McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
- Dr. Don Ambrose, professor of graduate education, recently published the article "Large-Scale Contextual Influences on Creativity: Evolving Academic Disciplines and Global Value Systems" in the “Creativity Research Journal (2006, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 75-85).” He also published the paper, "Far-Reaching Interdisciplinary Explorations for Expansion of Conceptual Foundations" in “Conceptual Foundations,” the newsletter of the Conceptual Foundations Division of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC, Spring 2006, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 6-9).
- Dr. Mary Morse, associate professor of English, was nominated by The Huntington for a Huntington/British Academy Fellowship. Her nomination for manuscript research on birthgirdles and other devotional texts related to childbirth, especially legends and prayers associated with the saints Quiricus and Julitta, has been accepted by the British Academy. She will be conducting the majority of her research in manuscript libraries in London (British Library), Oxford (Bodleian), and Trinity and St. John's Colleges in Cambridge for four weeks during her sabbatical leave next fall.
- Dr. Roberta Fiske-Rusciano, adjunct assistant professor of political science and Global and Multinational Studies, was a discussant on March 24 for the Association for the Study of Nationalities, Harriman Institute at Columbia University. The panel was entitled: "Governance in Ethnically Mixed Cities: Managing Ethnic Conflict in a Microcosm".
- Dr. Frank Rusciano, professor of political science, published a new book titled, “Global Rage after the Cold War” (Palgrave) The book focuses on issues from the headlines ranging from the Iraq war to Abu Ghraib to 9/11 and the problem of terrorism.
- Dr. Fiske-Rusciano, Dr. Rusciano, and Dr. Ibrahim Saleh, assistant professor of communications at American University at Cairo, published an article entitled "Behind the Percentages: Insights into American and Middle-Eastern Students' Views on Terrorism" in the April 2006 volume of the journal Public Opinion Pros. This article was based upon research gathered from The Student Global Village videoconferences between Rider University and American University in Cairo students. The Student Global Village, sponsored by the Global and Multinational Studies major, has had a particularly busy spring with student-led videoconferencing: They have had 10 videoconferences with Cairo, Egypt this semester; one with E. Timor, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Thailand (hosted also by Americans for Informed Democracy--"The Future of U.S./Asian Relations", March 23); one with Palestine (April 5); one with Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon (April 11); and one with Paraguay, Dominican Republic, and Ecuador (hosted also by Americans for Informed Democracy--"Secure in the Future: Global Warming, Energy, and the Role of Local Communities", (April 18).
- Dr. Sylvia Bulgar and Dr. Peter Hester, associate professor and assistant professor in the department of teacher education, respectively, presented "The Design of a Middle School Program at Rider University" at the joint conference of The New Jersey Middle School Association and The New Jersey Consortium for Middle Schools, titled “Coming Together Is A Beginning…” in Somerset on March 27. Their presentation focused on the rationale for the program and its alignment with the qualifications needed by middle school teachers as described by New Jersey middle school principals.
- Dr. Stephen Arthur Allen, assistant professor of fine arts, has just published his article 'Billy Budd: Temporary Salvation and the Faustian Pact' in the Journal of Musicological Research, Vol. 25, No. 1 (January-March 2006):43-74. The article investigates the dilemmas of power and the exercise of law and authority versus conscience in Benjamin Britten's celebrated opera.
- Rebecca Basham, assistant professor of English, presented a reading of her work, “Lot’s Daughters,” as an American college theater festival winner 2004, at The Drama Book Shop in New York City on April 10. Back Stage Books conducted the event for the Kennedy Center affair.
- Dr. Yun Xia, assistant professor of the department of communication, has published a research article, “Construct Chinese culture from the classroom speaking: An ethnography of Chinese graduate assistants’ instructor-centered speaking in the US classrooms,” in Human Communication, 8, 62-81. The study in the article examines intercultural resources pertaining to communication that Chinese graduate assistants use in their English speaking activities when they teach the U.S. students in classrooms. As one of the vice co-chairs of the Human Communication and Technology Division of the National Communication Association (NCA), Dr. Xia is also planning programs for this year’s NCA Convention in November at San Antonio.
- Dr. Daria Cohen, assistant professor of Spanish and foreign language education, presented a paper titled "Twisted Sisterhood: Deconstructing Female Solidarity in Cristina Fernández Cubas' _Hermanas de sangre_" at the Northeast Modern Language Association Convention in Philadelphia on March 3. The presentation was part of a panel on Women Playwrights of Modern and Contemporary Spain. Dr. Cohen also attended the Foreign Language Educators of NJ Spring Convention in Somerset on March 18.
- Dr. Linda Materna, chairperson of foreign languages and literatures and professor of Spanish, presented a paper entitled "Elena Cánovas' Theater of Liberation: Libertas Libertatis” at the annual conference of the Northeast Modern Language Association in Philadelphia from March 2-5. In addition, she chaired a panel on women playwrights of modern and contemporary Spain. Finally, Dr.Materna was one of two scholars who introduced the conference's invited Spanish playwright Jose Ramón Fernández with a talk entitled "Poética y temática delteatro de José Ramón Fernández" as well as a dramatic reading of one of his brief plays. She also presented on March 29 a talk on the themes of freedom, authority and artistic expression in the play “Cartas de amor a Stalin” (Love Letters to Stalin) of Spanish playwright Juan Mayorga for the Grupo de Mujeres Latinoamericanas de Princeton."
- Dr. Pearlie Peters, professor of English, was a recent special guest speaker and moderator on selected short stories of Zora Neale Hurston presented in the discussion series, “Speaking of Voice: Stories With a Southern Accent,” which was held in March at the Monmouth County Library Headquarters Division in Manalapan.
- Dr. Mitchell Ratner, associate professor of finance, Dr. Christine Lentz, associate professor of management and organizational behavior, and Dr. Ilhan Meric, professor of finance, have a paper titled "A Principal Components Analysis of the Index Returns of Latin American Stock Markets and the World's Other Stock Markets" accepted for presentation at the 2006 conference of BALAS (the Business Association of Latin American Studies) in May. Dr. Ilhan Meric has a second paper with Dr. Joe Kim, associate professor of marketing, and Dr. Lewis W. Coopersmith, associate professor of decision sciences, titled "Co-movements of Pacific-Basin Stock Markets:Portfolio Diversification Implications" accepted for presentation at the 2006 conference of the Academy of International Business in June. Dr. Gulser Meric of Rowan University is a co-author of both papers.
- Dr. Jack Sullivan, director of theAmerican Studies program and professor of English, delivered a paper on March 17 at the Conference on Black Music Research at the Society for American Music Conference.; The title was "The New Unknown World of Freedom: the Impact of Jazz on European Artists and Intellectuals." The keynote speaker at the conference cited Sullivan's “New World Symphonies” as one of the two most significant recent books on black music.
- The fourth annual meeting of the Music Theory Society of the Mid Atlantic was held March 17-18 at Westminster Choir College of Rider University. Hosted by the Department of Composition, History, and Theory, the conference featured a number of scholarly papers and presentations on a wide variety of topics. Announced at the meeting was the inauguration of GAMUT, the first peer-reviewed online journal published by a regional music theory society.
