School Highlights
Prof Jason Jagemann, Mary Matalin & James Carville
The Todd Lecture Series presented “A Conversation with Washington Power Couple James Carville and Mary Matalin” in Plumley Armory on October 5. Approximately 900 students, faculty, staff and community members attended this stimulating event. Social Science’s own Associate Professor Jason Jagemann was the moderator.
Student Achievements
Study Abroad: Twenty-four Social Sciences students studied abroad during the Fall 2011 semester, including majors in Criminal Justice, International Studies, Political Science and Studies in War & Peace. The students attended universities in a variety of countries including Argentina, Australia, Chile, China, France, Germany, Italy, Peru and Taiwan.
Psychology Majors: Four psychology majors attended the annual Scientific Meeting of the Vermont Association for Psychoanalytic Studies (VAPS) on Saturday, 5 November 2011, at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, VT: Seth Thomas, ‘13 (who received a scholarship for this meeting), Cody Hamilton, ‘13, Emily Lobacz, ‘14 and Michael Robison, ‘15. The theme of the meeting was Idealizations and their underbelly: Some thoughts on analytic process and therapeutic outcome. Six psychology majors attended the 51st Annual Meeting of the New England Psychological Association (NEPA), 28-29 October 2011, at Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT: Kayla Carreau, ‘13, Shaylyn Quinn, ‘13, Benjamin Richards, ‘13, Tyeim Sackey, ‘14, Ryan Santos, ‘14, and Natalia Mendez, ‘15.
Aaron Cayer ’11 was accepted to UCLA to work with Dana Cuff, and was granted full funding and a nomination to work for her cityLAB research center as the sole doctoral researcher for 2012-2013.. He received a BS in Architecture with a minor in Sociology in May 2011 and is currently a Master in Architecture student at Norwich.
Stephanie Dorain ’12 did a summer research project Prosecuting Women as Witches: Haunted by the Sins of Eve? examining assumptions about women in manuals written for the identification of witches from the 15th – 178th centuries. Professor Emily Gray was her mentor.
Peter Marino ’11 is studying for his MA in International Economy & International Studies at the London School of Economics, UK. He received a BA in International Studies at Norwich.
T. Andrew Todd ‘14, a Summer Research Fellow, wrote a paper entitled, An Eye Still Gazes Toward Zion: The Israeli-Gaza War of 2009. He was mentored by Associate Professor Brucken.
Anna Bressor ’12, a History major with a minor in Business Administration did a summer research project in residence at King’s College, Cambridge on marriage and female monarchs, entitled Female Monarchical Marriages in Sixteenth Century England, comparing Mary Tudor, Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I. She was mentored by Assistant Professor Emily Gray.
Faculty Achievements
Criminal Justice
Robin Adler
-Presented Domestic Assault Recidivism in Vermont 2000-2004 and Domestic Case Processing in Vermont 2004-2008 at the 9th Annual Faculty Scholarship Celebration held at the Kreitzberg Library, October 24-28.
Anne Buttimer
-Attended the Community College of Vermont 2011 Faculty Summer Institute in Fairlee, VT.
-Attended US District Court Mediation Training in Concord, NH.
Dr. Elizabeth Gurian
-As a consultant with the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, Prof. Gurian assisted the Division of Policy Analysis and Public Affairs, Statistics and Surveys Section, with research for a global report on the crime of intentional homicide. The report was released in October and can be found at: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/statistics/crime/global-study-on-homicide-2011.html.
- Attended the 2011 American Society of Criminology (ASC) Conference in Washington DC. While there met with Senator Leahy’s aide to discuss funding for criminal justice programs along with the ASC and Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (AJCS) presidents.
-Presented Female Serial Murderers: Directions for Future Research on Hidden Population (International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology) at the 9th Annual Faculty Scholarship Celebration.
Dr. W. Travis Morris
-Presented a paper at the American Society of Criminology conference in Washington DC entitled Examining Prognostic and Diagnostic frames in neo-Nazi and Violent Jihadi propaganda. He also discussed funding for criminal justice programs with Senator Leahy’s aide and the presidents of ASC and ACJS.
-Presented Formal and Informal Justice and Punishment: Urban Law and Rural Mediation Rituals in Yemen (Race and Justice) and Towards a Phenomenology of Terrorism: Implications for Research and Policy (Crime Law and Social Change) at the 9th Annual Faculty Scholarship Celebration.
History
Dr. Rowland Brucken
-Mentored T. Andrew Todd, a Summer Research Fellow (see Student Achievements above).
- Testified in the cases of two Zimbabwe asylum seekers, both of whom received asylum.
- On October 20 gave a presentation entitled Facing Horror: Responding to Human Rights Atrocities at Castleton State College as a presenter for the Vermont Humanities Council.
- His book, tentatively entitled “A Most Uncertain Crusade: The United States, the United Nations, and Human Rights, 1941-1954” is under contract by Northern Illinois University Press.
-Presented Starving the Mill of Soviet Propagandists (Florida Conference of Historians) at the 9th Annual Faculty Scholarship Celebration.
Dr. Emily Gray
-Travelled to Augsburg, Germany in July to present an hour-long public lecture in German on the history of the Lutheran Holy-Cross Church and its relationship with the neighboring Catholic parish church, part of a series of talks by historians in honor of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s first visit to Augsburg in 1511. The lecture series coincided with the release of a book on the early Reformation in Augsburg’s parish churches. Dr. Gray’s presented Die Reformation bei Heilig Kreuz: Die Ottmarskapelle als Gemeindekirche” an essay appearing in the book Im Ringen um die Reformation edited by Rolf Kießling, published by Bibliotheca Academica Verlag, 2011, The publication was also presented at Norwich’s 9th Annual Faculty Scholarship Celebration.
-Mentored summer research projects by seniors Anna Bressor and Stefanie Dorain, and visited Anna at King’s College.
Dr. Jack Hayes
-His book, tentatively titled A Change in Worlds on the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands: Politics, Economies, and Environments in Northern Sichuan is under contract with Rowman & Littlefield Press (Lexington Imprint).
- Co-edited a special e-publication series in October on water management and issues in the Himalaya with friend and colleague Tashi Tsering (University of British Columbia) titled an “Introduction: Water, Scarcity, and Frontiers on the Tibetan Plateau” & “Water Conservation on the Tibetan Plateau,” Asia Pacific Memo, bi-weekly e-publication, Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia.
-Had the paper “四川火灾历史：四川民族地区民族关系与环境生态
” [History and Fire Disasters in Sichuan: Sichuan’s Minority Areas, Ethnic Relations and Natural environment]. 西南民族研究 [Southwest China Ethnicity Research] (Chengdu, PRC) accepted for publication.
-Participated in a roundtable discussion on Water Quality, Water Quantity and Water Security and presented Rocks, Trees and Grassland on the Borderlands: Tibetan and Chinese Perceptions and Manipulations of the Environment along Ecotone Frontiers, 1911-1982 (Joint Conference on Undergraduate Research) at the 9th Annual Faculty Scholarship Celebration.
Dr. Gary Lord
-Attended the Fort Ticonderoga Seminar on the American Revolution, September 24-25.
Dr. Christine McCann - In August presented a paper at the XVth Conference on Patristic Studies at Oxford University. The paper was entitled, “Incentives to Virtue: Jerome’s Use of Biblical Models in Spiritual Mentoring Letters.” While there she took a fresh look at the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum. Dr. McCann also visited a special exhibit at the Ashmolean Museum, “Heracles to Alexander the Great: Treasure from the Royal Capital of Macedon, A Hellenic Kingdom in the Age of Democracy.” Seeing the exhibits helped her prepare for teaching HI 201 Ancient Greece and Rome in the fall.
-Attended the 38th Annual New England Medieval Conference in Lewiston, ME October 21-22.
-Presented Physician of the Soul: St. Augustine and Spiritual Meaning (Studia Patristica) and Incentives to Virtue: Jerome’s Use of Biblical Models (16th International Conference on Patristic Studies, Oxford) at the 9th Annual Faculty Scholarship Celebration.
Dr. Reina Pennington
-Presented Communists, Fascists and the Western Way of War: The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany in the Second World War (Society for Military History 78th Annual Meeting) at the 9th Annual Faculty Scholarship Celebration.
Dr. Thomas Taylor, Dean
-Attended the fall conference of the National Social Sciences Association in New Orleans, LA, October 9-11.
-Attended the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa conference, November 3-5 in Washington, DC.
Ray Zirblis
-Has been serving on the Vermont Digital Newspaper Advisory Committee 2009-2011, as part of the National Digital Newspaper
Archive initiative being undertaken by the Library of Congress under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. They are currently applying for a supplementary NEH grant to continue the work of scanning historic periodicals for the next two years.
-Has given presentations on the abolition movement in New England and Quebec to the Vermont OSHER community in Rutland and Stowe, and was interviewed on Vermont Public Radio last month regarding the Friends of Freedom: the Vermont Underground Railroad Survey report he presented to the Vermont Legislature in 1996.
Education
Dr. Diane Byrne
- Attended the National Social Science Association Professional Development Fall Conference, October 9-11, 2011 in New Orleans, LA. She presented her paper entitled: The Effects of Service-Learning and Reflection on Pre-Service Teacher Education Student’s Emotional Intelligence (ICERI 2010 Madrid). The paper was also presented at the 9th Annual Faculty Scholarship Celebration.
Political Science
Dr. Jason Jagemann
-Presented Abortion Politics in the Courts: New Judicial Federalism or the Federal Courts (Vermont Bar Journal) at the 9th Annual Faculty Scholarship Celebration.
Psychology
Peter Burmeister
- Coordinates a weekly psychology-oriented “Brown Bag Lunch” presentation for faculty, students and staff. On Sept 29 Prof. Burmeister spoke about “The Bat, the Seagull and the Thornbush”— Revealing the Archetypal Psyches of Organizations.
Dr. Kevin Fleming
-Presented Measuring Perceived Outcomes of Craniofacial Surgery for Children with Oral Clefts (24th Annual Conference of the Association of Psychological Sciences) at the 9th Annual Faculty Scholarship Celebration.
Dr. Mel Miller
-Presented Mature Transformations in Adulthood Facilitated by Psychotherapy and Spiritual Practice (Oxford Handbook of Reciprocal Adult Development and Learning) at the 9th Annual Faculty Scholarship Celebration.
Dr. Kurt Peters
- Co-authored a paper Fearing the future of empirical psychology: Bem’s (2011) evidence of psi as a case study of deficiencies in modal research practice that was accepted for the December issue of Review of General Psychology (in press).
Dr. Johnnie Stones
-Attended the workshop “The neuroscience of personality: Brain savvy insights into personality type, [featuring Dario Nardi, UCLA]” Vermont Association of Psychological Type, 10 November 2011, South Burlington, VT.
Sociology
Dr. Aimee Vieira
-Attended the 9th Biennial WREI Conference on Women in the Military at the Women in Military Service to America Memorial at Arlington Cemetery, Arlington VA October 27-28.
-Participated in an ACE curriculum review of an AmeriCorps VISTA training program.
Dr. Wendy Fuller
-Was asked to become the new Institutional Representative for the Vermont Women in Higher Education.
Studies in War and Peace
Dr. Steven Sodergren
-In October gave a presentation at the Sullivan Museum entitled “Treason and Loyalty: Choosing Sides in the Opening Days of the Civil War” as part of the “Lunch n’ Learn” series.
-Received a Charles A. Dana Category I Grant for the 2011-12 academic year.
