Professional Notes for March 3, 2015

Dr. Vanessa Cornett-Murtada, Music Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of "Mental Skills and Music Performance: The Teacher's Role," published in American Music Teacher 64:4 (February/March 2015): 28-30. She is also the author of three reviews of CD recordings and new music published in Clavier Companion: A CD review of Alessio Bax Plays Beethoven (Signum Classics SIGCD 397) CC 7(1), a CD review of Annie Fischer: Encore – In Concert (Hungaroton HCD3275051) CC 7(2), and a review of original Argentine tangos, Solo Tango Solo Piano vol. 2, arr. Gustavo Beytelmann (Universal Edition) CC 7(1).

Dr. Joseph Fitzharris, professor emeritus of history, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of “From Adolescence to Maturity on the Civil War Home Front: Lizzie Caleff of Nininger,” published in Over the Years, 55: 1 and 2 (December 2014): 33-50.

Dr. Hans Gustafson, Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning and Theology Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of an article titled "Interreligious and Interfaith Studies in Relation to Religious Studies and Theological Studies," published in StateofFormation. Gustafson wrote the chapter “Vexation and Promise in the New Testament: The Experience of God for Non-Christians," which appears in Sacred Texts and Human Contexts: A North American Response to A Common Word Between Us and You, ed. Muhammad Shafiq and Nathan Kollar (Rochester, New York: Hickey Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue at Nazareth College, 2014), pp. 256-269.

Dr. Mike Klein, Justice and Peace Studies Department, College of Arts and Sciences, and some of his students were featured in an Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities report, "Fair Trade and Catholic Higher Education," for incorporating fair trade into curriculum, for promoting of fair-trade products on campus and for advocating alignment of institutional operations with the university's Catholic mission.

Drew Puroway, Academic Counseling and Support, was elected to serve as chair of the Theory, Philosophy, and History of Advising Commission within the National Academic Advising Association for a two-year term (2015-2017).

Dr. Lisa Prevette, Chemistry Department, College of Arts and Sciences, and two of her research students presented their work at the 59th annual meeting of the national Biophysical Society, held Feb. 7-11, in Baltimore. Nick Benish’s poster, “Cell-penetrating Compounds Preferentially Bind Glycosaminoglycans Over Plasma Membrane Lipids in a Charge Density- and Stereochemistry-dependent Manner,” included Amber Schoenecker ’13 and Kristin Braden ’14 as co-authors, and was shared in the Biosurface Interactions subgroup. Chad Hewitt’s “Validating the Proton Sponge Endosomal Escape Mechanism in an in vitro Environment” was part of the Exocytosis and Endocytosis session. Prevette’s presentation to the Biomaterials community, “Effect of DNA and Delivery Agent Structure on Complexation Thermodynamics,” included UST student co-authors Kirsten Mueller and Ryan Smith.

Dr. Manjeet Rege is co-author of a paper, "Evolutionary Image Co-clustering with User Feedbacks," which has been accepted to appear in the proceedings of the 30th International Conference on Computers and Their Applications, held March 9-11, in Honolulu, Hawaii. He also is co-author of "Leveraging User Feedback for Automated Web Page Inline Linking," published in the International Journal of Multimedia and Image Processing, vol. 4, pp. 188-197.

James Rogers, Center for Irish Studies, is the author of an article in the current issue of Études Irlandaises, a publication of the University of Rennes. “Seán Dunne’s The Road to Silence: An Anomalous Spiritual Autobiography?” appears in a special issue devoted to religion in Ireland since 1990 (with articles in both English and French). It discusses a short memoir by the Cork-based poet Seán Dunne (1956-1995) and his embrace of Trappist spiritual practices after a long period of doubt. Rogers also was an invited speaker Feb. 10 at the launch of a new Institute for Irish Studies at Mary Immaculate College (MIC) in Limerick, Ireland. He was the first presenter in a daylong program of invited scholars. His talk was titled “Researching Diasporic Memoir: The Ethnic Fade that Didn’t Happen.” The program is reported on the MIC website here. The following day, Rogers spoke to a graduate class in the MA in English program at MIC, and was the featured poet that evening at the White House Pub, an event that claims to be longest-running weekly poetry reading in the world.

Dr. Lesley Scibora, Health and Human Performance Department, College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of "Skeletal Effects of Bariatric Surgery: Examining Bone Loss, Potential Mechanisms and Clinical Relevance," published in Diabetes Obesity and Metabolism, December 2014; 16(12): 1204-13.

Dr. Mark Stansbury-O'Donnell, Art History Department, College of Arts and Sciences, and CAS Dean's Office, is the author of A History of Greek Art, a textbook published by Wiley-Blackwell. The book emphasizes a contextual approach to the topic, including chapters on the development of the city and sanctuaries, narrative, the production and economics of Greek art, and gender and social identity, in addition to chapters on the major periods of Greek art.

Dr. Christian Washburn, The Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity, is the author of an article titled “The Catholic Use of the Scriptures in Ecumenical Dialogue,” published in Verbum Domini and the Complementarity of Exegesis and Faith (Grand Rapids, Michigan: W.B. Eerdmans Pub., 2014): 63-82.

Dr. John Wendt, Ethics and Business Law Department, Opus College of Business, received the Roberts-Reinhart Award and was inducted into the De La Salle High School Hall of Fame for his leadership as co-coach (with Bill Freeman) of the De La Salle High School Swimming and Diving Team from 1970-1979. At the time, the Minnesota State High School League had only one class, in which the De La Salle team, comprised of just five swimmers, defeated powerhouse schools including Minnetonka, Edina and Hopkins. It was the first time in the history of Minnesota since 1924 that a team from Minneapolis has won the title. None have won since.

Dr. Meg Wilkes Karraker, Sociology and Criminal Justice Department, College of Arts and Sciences, and Family Business Center Fellow, is the author of the chapter “Community Action to Alleviate Suffering from Racism: The Role of Religion and Caring Capital in Small City USA,” published in World Suffering and Quality of Life, R.E. Anderson, ed., New York: Springer (ch. 23; pp. 305-316).

Faculty from the Music Department, College of Arts and Sciences, presented at the Minnesota Music Education Association (MMEA) Midwinter Clinic, held Feb. 12-14 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Karen Howard, Ph.D., who was a conference headliner, presented three sessions: Popular Music and Choir – Finding a Middle Ground, World Music Pedagogy – Incorporating Diversity in the Music Curriculum, and Traditional Music and Dance of Tanzania, East Africa. Music Department adjunct faculty members Cindy Hall (headliner) and Matthew Mehaffey, D.M.A., as well as Graduate Program in Music Education alumni, gave presentations or conducted ensembles. The UST String Orchestra under the direction of Matthew George, D.M.A., performed an acclaimed concert on Friday morning. George also conducted the Grand Symphonic Winds, a community wind ensemble, in a Thursday evening performance.