At small colleges, faculty members wear multiple hats. Among them are teacher, scholar and mentor. On Thursday, 16 of them demonstrated all three during the 24th annual Faculty Research Symposium.
The presentations represented a wide array of disciplines and included ongoing research and faculty development projects. The symposium is held annually as a precursor to the Minds @ Work Student Research Conference, upcoming in April. It is a forum to inform the campus community about faculty research and scholarly interests as well as demonstrate to students how to present so they can apply the techniques to their own presentations.
This year, a group of faculty who comprised the first Faculty Learning Community through the Center for Teaching Excellence, presented the results of their work as a cohort. Each of the presenters – Dr. Courtney DeMayo Pugno, Dr. Ginny Gregg, Dr. Marc O’Reilly, Dr. Justin Pruneski, Dr. Aaron Roerdink, Andrea Roerdink and Stephen Svoboda -- talked about their individual experiences accessing and revising a first-year or gateway course. They shared techniques that works, techniques that didn’t, assessment instruments and data, and next steps.
Two faculty members, Dr. Doug McConnell and Stephen Svoboda, did double duty on Thursday when they presented A Curious Collaboration. On the eve of the opening of the Heidelberg play, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, for which Doug composed the original music score and which Stephen is directing, they shared their interesting collaboration and how it transpired.
Other faculty presenters and their topics included:
- Dr. DoHee Kim-Appel -- Measures of Global Citizenship, Social Dominance, Political Orientation, and Personality
- Dr. Aaron Sell -- The Evolution of the Anger Face
- Dr. David Kimmel -- Preliminary Models for Hybrid Fiction
- Dr. Barry Devine -- Adding Illness to Injury: Sean O’Casey, Tuberculosis, and the Irish Revolution
- Dr. Ginny Gregg, Dr. Aaron Roerdink and Andrea Roerdink -- The Use of Resource Materials in Gateway Courses
- Dr. Justin Pruneski -- Toward a More Student-Centered Intro Bio course (BIO 123)
- Dr. Greg Ramsdell -- Paradise Lost and Regained: Poetic and Musical Images of Paradise, Sin, and Redemption in Benjamin Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia
- Dr. Diane Monaco -- Natural Disaster Recovery and the Business Cycle
- Dr. Salil Khetani -- The Counteractive Effect of Taboo: How Taboo Associations Can Fuel Rather Than Suppress Indulgence in Desirable Activities