2010-2011 Highlights and Accomplishments

College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

Plan Day - August 16, 2010. Lunch served at 12:15 pm in the Wood Building, first floor. Dean Nelson's presentation will begin at 1:00 pm in the Twomey Auditorioum. See invitation.

New Faculty - This fall the college welecomed four new faculty members and introduced a new department chair to the Music Department. Below are the new faces within our college:

Dr. Haroon Sattar, Dr. Alan Zabriskie, Dr. Jessica Cannon, Dr. Steven Moore (from left to right)

• Dr. Haroon Sattar is the newest faculty member in the Arts & Design Department.
• Dr. Alan Zabriskie will be joining the Music Department as their new Assistant Professor and Choral Director.
• Dr. Jessica Cannon is the History Departments newest faculty member.
• Dr. Steven Moore has joined the Music Department as their newest Department Chair and Professor of Music.

Faculty recently selected for Tenure-Track Positions in the Communication Department

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Promotion and Tenure Results: This January seven faculty members within the college were granted tenure and/or promotion. Below is a listing of the individuals and their departments.

2009-2010 Highlights and Accomplishments

College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

New Faculty - Last fall the college welcomed four new faculty members and introduced a dance program into the Theatre Department.

Dr. Kristy Boney, Dr. Jacob Sentgeorge, Ms. Ashley Miller, Dr. Ho-Seop Cha (from left to right)

• Dr. Kristy Boney is the newest faculty member in the Modern Language Department. Kristy is teaching German I, II, Composition and Cinema this Spring.
  
  
• Dr. Jacob Sentgeorge is now a faculty member of the Music Department. He was an adjunct professor last year and this semester he is teaching Voice I, II, and III as well as Opera Theatre.
  
  
• Ms. Ashley Miller is the Theatre Departments newest faculty member. Ashley is part of the new dance program being offered here at UCM.
  
  
• Dr. Ho-Seop Cha has joined the Geography Department as a full-time faculty member. He is currently teaching World Geography, Cultural Landscape and GIS II.

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Holiday Open-House: The Dean hosted the 2009-2010 Holiday Open House on December 9, 2009 in the Martin-Highlander Theatre Lobby. Music and refreshments were essential to the festivities as the faculty and staff reminised about the year and prepared to ring in the new year.

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Promotion and Tenure Results: This January nine faculty members within the college were granted tenure and/or promotion. This represents a 100% selection rate for the college. Below is a listing of the individuals and their departments.

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Published Faculty: In February the college held two book receptions for faculty who have recently published books.

Europe’s Greece evaluates Greece’s European membership and finds that it has been largely successful. Despite its reputation of a southern laggard with very little improvement, Greece has behaved much like any other members of the EU, pushing its interests and stumbling upon the large issues that are associated with membership. Societal development has improved Greek society but has drawn out the same resistance that is evident in the larger more powerful members. Economic development has greatly improved incomes but now attracts waves of economic immigrants from the Balkans and beyond. The most successful area of improvement for Greece is foreign policy, considering the avalanche of problem Greece faced after the collapse of Yugoslavia. Finally, the book suggests some strategies of overcoming the problem associated with this successful EU membership.

About the Author

Akis Kalaitzidis is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Central Missouri.

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This book explores discourses on disability, social identity, and autism through an examination of the artwork of three boys diagnosed with autism. The author draws on her experiences as an art teacher and artist to inquire into how these three boys are defined by autism, and within this examine the frames that are used to understand autism and their being in the world. The author explores discourses on art, disability, and social interaction in understanding the ways in which autism is situated within other “discourses of difference”. Interwoven with these boys’ stories and her own, the author explores the pertinent issues revolving around the art of autistic students, and connects this to a more inclusive method of teaching all students. Through their artwork, the boys offer a counter-narrative of art, valorizing a different kind of meaning than that usually valued by teachers. The topics and content are pertinent to arts specialists, special education teachers, parents, and others who work with children experiencing autism.

About the Author

Rahila Weed, Ph.D., University of Iowa; Assistant Professor and Program Director of Art Education at the University of Central Missouri. Dr. Weed continues to work in the areas of art and autism, serving as a visual arts consultant for a regional autism center. Previously, she taught elementary art at a public school.

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Arts & Events : Movies & Film
UCM faculty win awards with documentary
May 5, 2010, 8:45 PM

Susan Arthurs and Doug Underwood, producers of the documentary film “It Is Epilepsy: The Challenges and Promises of Automated Seizure Control” brought their award-winning documentary to UCM Monday afternoon.

During a gathering at the University of Central Missouri’s James C. Kirkpatrick Library, Arthurs and Underwood presented copies of the film to the university’s library and Trails Regional Library in Warrensburg to be used for public viewing.

Receiving the copies of the documentary were Mollie Dinwiddie, UCM dean of library services, and Anita Love, assistant director for human resources and collection development for the Trails Regional Library system.

Arthurs, a UCM alumna and former faculty member in the UCM Department of Aviation, and Underwood, an associate professor of communication at UCM, explained how the project of creating the documentary began nine years ago in an effort to educate the public about epilepsy and the need for support of ongoing research.

After her career as an airline pilot ended with a diagnosis of epilepsy, Arthurs moved to Warrensburg to pursue a master’s degree in aviation safety management at UCM, eventually joining the UCM faculty. She also decided to take a proactive stance toward understanding and managing epilepsy by founding the Alliance for Epilepsy Research, a non-profit organization dedicated to generating funding for research into the automated methods of predicting seizures.

“After meeting with my neurologist and working with alliance board members in the Kansas City area, it became obvious that we also needed to educate people about epilepsy and how it can affect patients and their families,” Arthurs said. The documentary film was the best tool available.

As the project progressed, interviews were completed and film footage created, but she found herself in need of someone to pull it all together into a finished product. That’s when she found Underwood, a fellow UCM faculty member.

Arthurs and Underwood collaborated over a period of four years on the finished product. Arthurs, who had relocated to Michigan, traveled to Warrensburg and stayed with friends during Underwood’s breaks from the classroom. The result was a documentary that has received a variety of international awards.

Following its world premiere at the Women’s Film Festival in Miami, the documentary earned a Gold Kahuna Award for Excellence in Filmmaking, which was presented to Arthurs and Underwood at the 2010 Honolulu Film Festival April 25. “It is Epilepsy” premiered in Kansas City, Mo., May 1, at an appreciation reception for donors, and will have its European premiere at the Swansea Bay Film Festival in Wales, May 12.

Copies of the documentary are available to be checked out by patrons at Trails Regional Library in Warrensburg and the James C. Kirkpatrick Library on the UCM campus.