IN BRIEF

FACULTY AND STAFF

Deborah Compte and Augustin Otero, associate professors of Spanish, presented papers at the VI International Conference of Hispanic Studies in Playacar, México on March 7-9, 2007. Professor Compte’s paper was entitled "Captivities, Hybridities and Synergies: Cervantes's Comedia La Gran Sultana." Professor Otero’s paper was entitled “Reinvindicando el maquis. Representaciones de la guerrilla antifranquista en tres novelas españolas de los noventa.”

Holly Didi-Ogren, assistant professor of Japanese, attended the 10th Annual Symposium on Japanese Studies at Seton Hall University on March 30, 2007 and presented a paper entitled “Negotiating geographic and temporal ‘locality’ in rural Japanese women’s workplace settings.” She also recently participated at the IGALA (International Gender and Language Association) Gender and Politeness seminar in Valencia, Spain, presenting a paper titled, “Gender, politeness and power in Japanese women’s decision-making processes."

Jia-Yan Mi, assistant professor of Chinese and English, presented a paper entitled “Framing Ambient Unheimlich: Ecoggedon and Water Pathology in New Chinese Cinema”at the 59th Annual Convention of Association for Asian Studies on March 22-25, 2007 in Boston. At the same conference, he also organized a panel called “New Chinese Ecocinema and Ethics of Environmental Imagination.” Mi also published an article, "Entropic Anxiety and the Allegory of Disappearance: Hydro-Utopianism in Zheng Yi’s Old Well and Zhang Wei’s Old Boat” in the March edition of China Information.

Barbara Harmon, program specialist for the College’s Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF), was elected president of the New Jersey Educational Opportunity Fund Professional Association (NJEOFPA) on March 20 at a conference in Atlantic City. Harmon, a TCNJ EOF alumna, will begin her two-year term on July 1, 2007. NJEOFPA services all of the EOF staff who work with over 12,000 college students in New Jersey. 

On July 1, 2007 TCNJ Athletic Director Kevin McHugh will accept a position as the Director of Athletics and chair of the Department of Physical Education at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Currently in his 20th year at TCNJ, McHugh serves as the executive director for student development and campus programs, where he heads the Department of Athletics and oversees TCNJ's 20-sport intercollegiate program as well as intramural, club, and recreation sports. During his tenure at the College, TCNJ athletic teams have combined to win 28 NCAA Division III National Championships, while another 22 teams have finished as the NCAA Division III National Runners-up.

Byron Parizek, assistant professor of physics, was one of 25 polar ice experts from Europe and the United States that took part in a workshop on March 26-27 at The University of Texas to discuss the fate of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Recent thinning and acceleration of glacier flow in the Amundsen Sea Embayment is contributing to global sea-level rise. As part of the International Polar Year 2007-2008, the workshop was aimed at assessing these ongoing changes and providing a framework for improving our ability to predict the future sea-level contribution from this evolving outlet-glacier system in Antarctica.

Consuelo Preti, associate professor of philosophy, has been awarded a Franklin Grant for Research by the American Philosophical Society. Professor Preti’s current research program concerns a reinterpretation of the work of one of the three most important founding figures of 20th century philosophy, G.E. Moore. Preti’s current research  includes the publication of Moore’s unpublished papers (long opposed by a previous executor) and a monograph on Moore’s early philosophical development. 

Martha Stella, assistant dean of the School of Engineering, will lead the School of Engineering with the title of Acting Associate Dean from now until August 18, 2007 while George Facas is on administrative leave.

Jean Wong, associate professor of applied linguistics in the Department of Special Education, Language and Literacy gave two presentations at the 41st annual TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) convention held in March 2007. One paper, co-authored by Jean Wong and David Olsher of San Francisco State University entitled ‘Yeah’ and ‘Okay’: Lexical Responders in Oral Communication, formed part of a colloquium of three papers on the topic of Conversation Analysis and Applications to Language Teaching. Another co-authored presentation done by Wong and Olsher and by invitation of TESOL’s Applied Linguistics Interest Section, was entitled Conversation Analysis and the Teaching of Oral Communication Skills.

STUDENTS

Joanna De Leon and Tamaria Green, both sociology juniors, were accepted into the Minority Academic Career (MAC) Undergraduate Program.  Only 25 undergraduates at New Jersey institutions were accepted into the program for 2007-08.  As MAC Undergraduate Fellows, De Leon and Green will each receive a scholarship to be used toward senior year, as well as mentorship and training by faculty members at TCNJ.  They also have the opportunity to earn up to $80,000 in scholarship funding toward a doctoral program at one of New Jersey’s universities.  

Neil Hartmann Jr., a junior communication studies major was named the 2007 TCNJ Outstanding Student of the Year by the Office of Student Life.  The Outstanding Student Leader of the Year Award is presented annually to a student who exceptionally demonstrates the leadership traits needed to transform student life at the College. The criteria for selection includes: the ability to motivate others, well developed communication skills, a demonstrated commitment to improving the College community, strong academic performance, leadership in student organizations and service to others. A majority of Neil's work on campus involves his leadership of the Bonner Community scholars. Bonner Community Scholars at TCNJ are dedicated to providing community service as they develop their leadership skills through a variety of community-engaged learning activities.

Rebecca Hersh, sophomore history and elementary education student, has received a summer internship from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History as part of the institute’s scholars program. Rebecca was selected among a pool of 250 applicants from more than 150 colleges and universities in the country. Assistant Professor of History Alejandra Irigoin will serve as Rebecca’s mentor. The program, inaugurated in 2003, is a competitive summer scholarship program in American history for outstanding college sophomores and juniors. Based in New York City, it has been designed to reward undergraduates who have demonstrated superb research and writing skills in the field of American history and to provide an opportunity for the next generation of historians to engage in discussions with eminent scholars and in primary-source research. 

Keith Lucas, senior philosophy major, was awarded scholarships to attend Duke University, School of Law and the University of Virginia, School of Law. Both scholarships will cover his tuition and housing to each respective school. In addition, each school is ranked in the top ten for law schools this year, according to this year’s U.S. News and Rankings. 

Kenneth Lucas, senior philosophy major, was awarded a scholarship to attend New York University, School of Law. The scholarship will cover his tuition and housing. NYU Law is annually ranked in the top ten law schools (ranking 4th this year), according to U.S. News and Rankings. 

Anne Szklarski, a senior chemistry major, was selected by the U.S. Committee to International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) as one of the three 2007 Poster Prizes. Anne’s poster, titled "Enzymatic Synthesis of Dipeptides," comes from work that was carried out as part of a research experience for undergraduates program in the lab of Dr. Palangpon Kongsaeree at Mahidol University, in Bangkok Thailand. The poster was presented during the undergraduate research poster session for biochemistry at the American Chemical Society National Meeting last month.