Dr. Sarah Armstrong, Personal Counseling and Testing, received the Minnesota Psychological Association’s 2010 Susan T. Rydell Outstanding Contribution to Psychology Award at the 74th annual MPA convention April 16 in Plymouth. The award recognizes distinguished leadership and loyal service to the field of psychology. Armstrong has directed the pre-doctoral internship program at St. Thomas for 14 years and has helped to mentor 42 young psychologists, most who have stayed in Minnesota and are currently working in college counseling, hospitals, academia, business, group practice and private practice. Armstrong also has served on the MPA Education and Training Committee for many years and has presented locally and nationally on issues of training, multiculturalism and spirituality.
Armstrong expressed the university's pride in these St. Thomas pre-doctoral interns, who presented posters of their dissertation research at the MPA convention: Sandra Sanger, Laura Sherr and Jan Townsend. Sanger's poster was titled "Clinical Supervisory Interventions in the Event of Client Suicidal Behavior"; Sherr's was "Moderators of the Effectiveness of a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program Compared to an Active Control Group for Solid Organ Transplant Patients"; Townsend’s was "The Moderating Role of Social Support on Stress in Graduate Students."
Faculty and undergraduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences' Geology Department presented their research at a regional meeting of the Geological Society of America April 12-13 in Branson, Mo. Ben Czeck and his research adviser, Dr. Kevin Theissen, gave talks on their investigations of historical nutrient and contaminant inputs into Minnesota lakes. Lucas Olson and his research adviser, Dr. Jennifer McGuire, presented posters on their novel experiments documenting contaminant fates and transport in soils.
N. Curtis Le May, Archbishop Ireland Memorial Library, gave a conference presentation, “What Went Before: The Roman Catholic Educational Heritage of the Minnesota Territory and the Subsequent Influence of Archbishop John Ireland,” at the Catholic Library Association conference April 7 in Minneapolis.
Dr. Lorina Quartarone, Modern and Classical Languages Department, College of Arts and Sciences, presented a paper, “From the Mouths of ‘Babes’: Multivocalism in Atwood’s The Penelopiad,” in at the 106th annual Classical Association of the Middle West and South conference last month in Oklahoma City. Her paper offers a narratological reading of this postmodern sequel to The Odyssey that focuses on the conflicting accounts of Penelope and her maids and how these modern voices respond to the Homeric text.
Dr. Thomas Redshaw , English Department, College of Arts and Sciences, gave the plenary lecture at the fourth Print Culture Symposium on March 5 at the Humanities Institute of University College Dublin, Ireland. Titled “Liam Miller and the Dolmen Press,” Redshaw's lecture focused on the role of the Dolmen Press revival of poetry publishing in Ireland after World War II. Irish University Review will print the text of the lecture, with illustrations, in a spring 2012 special issue.
Sister Katarina Schuth, O.S.F., St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, presented a workshop on “Forming Priests for the Future” March 24-26 at Allen Hall, the seminary of the Westminster Archdiocese, in London. The presentations, given for the faculties of the English seminaries, vocation directors and religious formation faculty, covered topics such as “Views of the State of Catholic Seminaries,” “Dynamics Affecting Human, Spiritual, Intellectual and Pastoral Formation Programs” and “Formation Issues and Principles Concerning Sexual Abuse.” Schuth spoke on the “Partnership Between Library Staff and Seminary Faculty” at the annual meeting of the Catholic Library Association, held in conjunction with the National Catholic Educational Association Meeting April 8 in Minneapolis.
Dr. Susan Smith-Cunnien, Sociology and Criminal Justice Department, College of Arts and Sciences, delivered the fourth annual Torstenson Lecture in Sociology April 8 at Augsburg College. Her talk, “Sociologists and Seed Potatoes: Learning and Using Our Discipline in Mali, West Africa,” detailed the work she completed with UST students Andrea Jauli, Nate Minor and Louis Rangel in January 2009 and Breanna Alston and Jackie Pavek in January 2010.
