Summer 2013 Kudos

Modes of Learning book cover

Promotions, publications, grants, awards and other noteworthy accomplishments.

Promotions

The following were promoted to the rank of professor: Neil Diamant, Asian law and society; Carol Ann Johnston, English; and Karen Kirkham, theatre.

The following received tenure and were promoted to the rank of associate professor: David Ball, English; Alex Bates, Japanese language and literature;Shawn Bender, East Asian studies; Christopher Bilodeau, history; Scott Boback, biology; Catrina Hamilton-Drager, physics and astronomy; Elizabeth Lee, art history; John MacCormick, computer science; and Mariana Past, Spanish.

Publications

George Allan, professor emeritus of philosophy, published Modes of Learning: Whitehead’s Metaphysics and the Stages of Education. A highly accessible reading of Alfred North Whitehead’s writings on education and their connection to his metaphysics, Modes of Learning discusses a series of analogies between Whitehead’s ideas about how we learn and key concepts in his later metaphysical writings.

William G. Durden ’71, president of Dickinson from 1999 to 2013, publishedLiving on the Diagonal and Other Selected Writings, a collection that features the original essay “Living on the Diagonal: Notes to a 21st Century College Student From a Retiring College President,” as well as selected op-eds, speeches and Dickinson Magazine columns.

Melinda Schlitt, professor of art history and William E. Edel Professor of Humanities, published an article, “ ‘...viri studiosi et scientifici...’ Pietro Antonio Cecchini, Michelangelo, and the Nobility of Sculptors in Rome,” which appeared in the volume she edited, Gifts in Return: Essays in Honour of Charles Dempsey. She also received an $8,000 grant from the Lila Acheson Wallace-Reader’s Digest Publications Subsidy at Villa I Tatti to help underwrite publication costs for the volume.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Amy Steinbugler published Beyond Loving: Intimate Racework in Lesbian, Gay, and Straight Interracial Relationships. In her book, Steinbugler examines interracial intimacy as a lens for thinking about contemporary issues of race and racism in the United States.

Grants and Awards

Andrea Lieber, associate professor of religion and Sophia Asbell Chair in Judaic Studies, received a $3,000 grant from Repair the World Foundation. The funds will help support a service-learning project that will give students a hands-on opportunity to apply technology in a religious setting and study the history and people of the Harrisburg Jewish community.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded $4,500 to Tullio Pagano, associate professor of Italian, to participate in its five-week Summer Seminar: Italy in the Age of the Risorgimento—New Perspectives.Carolina Castellanos, assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese, also received an NEH award of $3,300 to participate in its Summer Institute: Brazilian Literature—Twentieth-Century Urban Fiction.

Assistant Professor of English Jacob Sider Jost’s Prose Immortality, 1711-1819 received the 2012 Walker Cowen Memorial Prize at the University of Virginia Press, which is awarded to the author of a scholarly book-length manuscript in 18th-century studies.

Sharon Kingston, assistant professor of psychology, received a community mini-grant of $1,200 from the Society for Community Research and Action. The grant supports a project that will target inhalant use among middle-school youth in Cumberland and Perry counties in Pennsylvania. The project includes partnerships with the Cumberland/Perry Drug and Alcohol Commission, the Youth Advisory Board and the Cumberland/Perry Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition.

Presentations and Lectures

Wendy Moffat, professor of English and author of E.M. Forster: A New Life, joined fellow innovative biographers Sarah Bakewell, Sir Michael Holroyd and Max Saunders to discuss the future of literary biography. The event was hosted by the Institute of English Studies and Stephen Spender Trust in partnership with the Centre for Life-Writing Research, King’s College, London.

Published July 24, 2013