James Allan, assistant professor of political science, has had his article titled “The Material Consequences of Welfare States: Benefit Generosity and Absolute Poverty in 16 OECD Countries” accepted for publication in Comparative Political Studies. The article was co-authored with Lyle Scruggs of the University of Connecticut.

Amil Anderson, associate professor of chemistry, attended the “Modern Biomolecular Crystallography” workshop at California State University, Fullerton, June 23-28, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Anderson learned more about the dominant method for determining the atomic-level, three-dimensional structure of proteins and DNA, as well as experiments suitable for the undergraduate curriculum.

Douglas Andrews, professor of statistics, led a special workshop on improving students’ verbal descriptions of data distributions and contextual interpretations of statistical analyses at the inaugural U.S. Conference on Teaching Statistics in May. In addition to establishing criteria and standards for evaluating student writing in statistical studies, the workshop illustrated the active, collaborative pedagogical techniques that Andrews has developed for using peer writing to improve student learning in introductory statistics courses.

J. Robert Baker, professor of political science, recently presented a paper titled “The Ties That Bond and Bridge: Social Capitalists and Variations in Social Capital Among Small-Town Activists” at the 2005 Western Social Science meeting in Albuquerque, NM, April 13-17.

Kristin Cline, associate professor of chemistry and department chair, presented a seminar titled “Effect of Surface Functional Groups on Electron Transfer Kinetics at Carbon Electrodes” for the chemistry department at Wright State University on May 13.

Kristen Scott Collier ’92, director of community service, served as a trainer for the first annual Volunteer Managers Training Series in May 2005. The training was sponsored by The Volunteer Managers Association of Clark County in conjunction with the Points of Light Foundation and the United Way of Clark and Champaign Counties. Collier presented a session along with Karen Packer, volunteer team leader at Mercy Medical Center, titled “Planning Your Volunteer Program.”

Warren Copeland, professor of religion and director of urban studies, recently traveled to Europe at the invitation of Wittenberg’s sister cities, Pitesti, Romania, Kragujevac, Serbia, and Wittenberg, Germany. Each city’s government hosted Copeland at their annual events. Copeland also used the time to write the first draft of his book about ethics and urban politics.

Keith Doubt, professor of sociology and department chair, has had two essays published in the Fall/Winter 2004 English edition of /Odjek/ [Echos], a Sarajevo culture and philosophy journal. The essays are titled “Socratic Medicine for Radovan Karadzic” and “Last Words, First Words.”

Mark Ellison, assistant professor of chemistry, has published an article in the peer-reviewed American Chemical Society journal. The article, titled “Interaction of Water with Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes: Reaction and Adsorption,” was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B and includes three student co-authors, Adam Good ’05, Carrie Kinnaman ’05 and Nick Padgett ’05. A fellow nanotechnology expert shared with Ellison how impressed he was that such research is being conducted by undergraduates.

Peggy Hanna, academic department assistant for sociology/geography, has published a children’s book titled Beetlebopper. The book began as an assignment while Hanna was in Professor of English Kent Dixon’s creative writing class. Her previous book, Patriotism, Peace and Vietnam: A Memoir, is currently being used in a class at Wilmington College and was the focus of a Reformation Day celebration in Michigan hosted by Lebanon Lutheran Church in Whitehall with The Rev. Doug Ogden ’82.

James Humphries, associate professor of theatre and dance, premiered his design of Man of La Mancha, May 6, at the Playhouse in the Square Theatre in Memphis, Tenn. In June, Humphries designed the regional premiere of Edward Albee’s 2002 Tony Award-winning play, The Goat or Who is Sylvia? at the Circuit Playhouse in Memphis. He is currently spending his 15th summer at the Texas Shakespeare Festival, where he has designed more than 32 shows, including Beauty and the Beast this year.

Daniel Kazez, professor of music, traveled to Bombay, India, to study the Hindi film industry (“Bollywood”) and to perform in a film orchestra, which was recording a film by Bombay music composer/director Anu Malik.

Artimus Keiffer, assistant professor of geography, traveled to Puerto Rico for his course on Middle America followed by a trip to Cuba where he visited the spot Columbus first came into contact with indigenous Americans in 1492. In April, Keiffer headed to Denver, Colo., for the AAG national geography conference where he presented in three sessions and on three panels. He is currently revising and editing a new text titled The Geography of Ohio and co-editing a book called The Geography of Art. He is also the consultant on a new text for the Ohio Social Studies Program for geography for fourth graders.

Timothy Lewis, professor of biology and department chair, has had a paper accepted in the Ohio Journal of Science on a 25-year study of forest diversity at Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm, co-authored with Joe Ullmer ’03 and an Audubon naturalist John Wilson.

David Mason, professor of biology, presented five research projects with students and colleagues at the Ohio Academy of Science in April, including the “Developmental Stages of the Moth Fly (Psychodida: Psychodida cinerea) in vitro and in vivo by Means of Light and Scanning Electron Microscopy” with Carmen Trisler, associate professor of education and director of environmental studies, and Kristen D. Rinehart ’05, along with numerous histological studies on human diseases and cancers by means of high resolution light microscopy, immunomicroscopy and transmission electron microscopy with Heather A. Griffith ’05, Elisabeth A. Schuller ’05 and Erin M. Mills ’06.

Chuck Novak, professor of education, secured a $15,000 summer grant from the Ohio Department of Education for enhancing the assessment of teacher education candidates as they progress through the various licensure programs offered through Wittenberg’s education department. Education faculty members will also be exploring ways to design and use assessments more effectively. An additional focus of the grant is geared toward improving the use of technology for summarizing and documenting assessment results for purposes of program improvement and ongoing accreditation.

James Noyes, professor of computer science, concluded his sabbatical year by making the third of three national-level conference presentations in computational science. In addition to presenting his paper “Modeling Paradigms for Computational Science” at the bi-annual conference on Computational Science and Engineering, sponsored by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) in Orlando, Fla., Noyes served as a session chair at the conference. He also represented Wittenberg at the governor’s first Ohio Nanotechnology Summit, held in Dayton, Ohio, March 2-3.

Tammy Proctor, associate professor of history, presented a paper titled “Between the Lines: Auxiliaries, Resistors and Spies in Europe and the Mediterranean, 1914-1918” at the 20th International Congress of Historical Sciences in Sydney, Australia in July. Proctor also conducted research at the Australian War Memorial at Canberra.

David J. Savola, visiting assistant professor of English, presented a paper titled “‘A Very Sinister Book’: The Sun Also Rises as a Critique of Pastoral” at the biennial conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment at the University of Oregon in Eugene,
June 21-25.

Pamela Schindler, professor of management, will have the ninth edition of her textbook, Business Research Methods, published by McGraw-Hill in August.

In April, Lowell Stockstill, professor of management, had his article titled “Multilevel Franchise or Pyramid Scheme?: Legal Guidelines for the Small Business Investor” republished by Amazon.com. The article originally appeared in the Journal of Small Business.

Molly Wood, assistant professor of history, who will be on sabbatical for the 2005-2006 academic year, recently chaired a session on “Vietnam Today” at the Asia Network Conference in California. In June, her article “The Politics of Domesticity and the Social Game in the U.S. Foreign Service, 1905-1941” was published in the Journal of Women’s History. Wood was also recently selected to receive the Edith B. and Frank C. Matthies Award, which she will use to determine how to bring public history into U.S. history courses and to promote study abroad among students.