Letters and Sciences Today - Fall/Winter 2019-2020

Letters & Sciences College of Letters and Sciences Highlights Vol. 14 - Fall 2019/Winter 2020

Ecological Restoration Symposium at Oxbow Meadows (page 8)

UTeach and Scholarships for STEM Teachers (page 3)

Also In this Issue

Tiara Brown—CSU Grad and Boxing Champ (page 5)

Blight Index Pilot Program (page 10)

Dean’s Column – 2 | UTeach – 3 | Alumni Spotlights – 4 | Innovative Courses – 6

Community Collaborations – 10 | In Memoriam – 12 | New Faculty – 13 | Faculty Spotlights – 14 | Scholarship Recipient - back cover

Dean’s Column Celebrating the Saunders Center for Laboratory Sciences

Dr. Annice Yarber-Allen, Interim Dean.

Although I am relatively new to the Columbus State University family, I have already witnessed the magic of this place.

That magic takes many forms, including dedicated professors who transform lives with their teaching and engaged students who dazzle with their discoveries of learning. Our donors also play a critical role as partners in pursuit of excellence in education at Columbus State University.

Saunders Center for Laboratory Sciences Donor Reception A reception was held in early December to honor the lead donors whose contributions supported the new Saunders Center for Laboratory Sciences and renovations in LeNoir Hall.

Donor support of the Saunders Center for Laboratory Sciences has had immediate, significant, and lasting impact. Since fall 2018: • Four hundred eighty eight (488) distinct labs across biology, chemistry, and earth and space sciences have been scheduled in the Saunders Center for Laboratory Sciences; • Six thousand and seven (6,007) students completed laboratory courses, with an additional 1,623 scheduled for Spring 2020; • Our students have been actively engaged in a variety of faculty-led research related to insulin, water quality, air quality, or potential anti-cancer agents. Further, some students have been involved in investigating microbes that cause dental cavities as well as the effects of caffeine and acrylamide on nerve activity in crayfish; and • Thirty five (35) students presented the results of their laboratory research at local, national and international conferences in such locations as Memphis TN, Columbus GA, Orlando FL, Phoenix AZ, Charleston SC, and Nice, France.

View of the new Saunders Center for Laboratory Sciences, an addition to Lenoir Hall.

During the event, donor recognition plaques and named areas were unveiled. The donors are listed alphabetically below with their naming opportunity shown in parentheses: • Georgia Power Foundation (Georgia Power Plaza) • Hardaway Foundation (Hardaway Foundation Environmental Science Laboratory) • Jean M. Hartin (Jean M. Hartin Study Area) • Anthony and Mary Jane Link (Link Family Natural Sciences Suite) • Mildred Miller Fort Foundation • Leonard J. Moore, M.D. (Dr. Leonard J. Moore Student Engagement Area) • Gerald B. and Charlotte A. Saunders Family (Saunders Center for Laboratory Sciences) • Mary W. Schley, M.D. (Schley Medical Sciences Suite) • Representative Richard Smith (Representative Richard Smith Study Area) • Glenn D. Stokes (Glenn D. Stokes Study Area) • Swift-Illges Foundation (Swift-Illges Foundation Geology Laboratory) On behalf of the students, faculty, and staff of the College of Letters and Sciences, I wish you a happy and prosperous 2020!

Letters & Sciences Today Writer and Editor – Barbara Hunt (Hunt_Barbara@ColumbusState.edu) Circulation Coordinator – Jill Carroll (Carroll_Jill@ColumbusState.edu) Graphics Specialist – Joseph Melancon

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UTeach UTeach and Scholarships for STEM Teachers There are more job openings in STEM teaching areas than there are public school teachers qualified to fill the positions. Although the school year has already begun, there are still 67 openings across the state of Georgia in fields such as math and science.

Nationwide, there is such a shortage of teachers of STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, math) that public schools often recruit abroad.

From 2012-2017, Columbus State was one of the state institutions stepping up to fill the gap between supply and demand by having an NSF Robert Noyce grant that allowed CSU to give $10,000 scholarships to juniors and seniors in its UTeach STEM program. When that grant expired, CSU reapplied and received the grant again. The new grant increased the scholarship amount to $15,000/ year for a maximum of two years— certainly an incentive to join UTeach and become a teacher in a STEM field! After graduating, scholarship recipients are required to provide two years of teaching in a highneed school district for every year of scholarship they receive. Thus, most recipients are required to teach for four years.

In the sciences, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project. The PI for this NSF Robert Noyce grant is Dr. Mike Dentzau (Assistant Professor of Science Education and Director of Oxbow Meadows); co-PIs are Dr. Kim Shaw (UTeach Science Co-Director and Professor of Physics, Earth and Space Sciences Department), Dr. Basil Conway (Assistant Professor, Mathematics Education) and Dr. Yesem Peker (Associate Professor, Computer Science).

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Scholarship recipients are also part of a mentoring “triad,” which pairs a classroom teacher in a high school or middle school with a scholarship recipient, and with an intern (a freshman or sophomore in the grant program, earning $500 for the internship). Each semester, the scholarship recipient and the intern work for approximately 2 hours per week in the teacher-mentor’s school setting, building relationships with the students and the other teachers, and allowing students to envision themselves as successful math, science or computer science teachers in such a setting (a high-need school).

The PIs also expect to have their largest number of new teachers yet this year, with 6 students earning teaching certificates this fall, and another 11 expected in the spring semester. This is a huge improvement, for before UTeach was established in 2012, CSU graduated an average of 4 math and science teachers per year.

UTeach students have 100% job placement to date, and most graduates remain in the classroom.

CSU’s UTeach program tends to have more students in Biology and Secondary Education and in Math and Secondary Education programs.

However, in spring, a third of its student teachers will be from Earth & Space Sciences. Because a Computer Science education program was added to the UTeach family in Fall 2018, it won’t be long until the UTeach program begins graduating teachers in Computer Science Education.

CSU is definitely helping to fill the gap between supply and demand by developing more teachers in STEM fields!

Daniel Bellware, a UTeach scholarship recipient, is an Earth and Space Sciences and Secondary Education major who will be student teaching in spring semester.

Photos show him engaged in a science experiment sure to amaze students.

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Alumni Spotlights 2019 Alumni Recognition Awards

By Jill Carroll Several COLS alumni were honored at last year’s Alumni Recognition Awards Luncheon hosted by CSU’s Alumni Association during Homecoming Week: Jason Armstrong, M.P.A. ‘16 – Distinguished Alumnus in Military/Public Service Mr. Armstrong is the current Police Chief for the City of Ferguson, Missouri. Prior to his service in Ferguson, he served the Forest Park community for nearly 18 years, where he became the first African-American Lieutenant, Captain, Interim Major and Interim Chief of Police in the department’s history. During his time in Forest Park, Mr. Armstrong received the Chief’s Certificate of Excellence.

Keith Howard, M.P.A. ‘95 – Distinguished Alumnus in Military/Public Service Mr. Howard has been an adjunct faculty member at CSU for over two decades and he played a key role in the creation of the Georgia Law Enforcement Command College at CSU. He had a prolific career as a criminal profiler and traveled internationally to review over one thousand cases. He has also been instrumental in the development of several new educational programs within his field. Mr. Howard currently serves as the Chief Deputy in Morgan County.

Ben Thames (B.B.A. ‘97; CSU Alumni Association President), Tom Kirkbride (B.A. ‘01 & ‘05; CSU Alumni Association Board Member), Jason Armstrong (M.P.A. ‘16; recipient of the Distinguished Military/Public Service Award), and CSU President Chris Markwood during the 2019 Alumni Awards Luncheon.

Tom Kirkbride (B.A. ‘01 & ‘05; CSU Alumni Association Board Member) congratulates Keith Howard (M.P.A. ‘95; recipient of the Distinguished Military/Public Service Award) on his award.

Timothy Bussey, B.A. PoliSci ‘12 – Young Alumni Award Mr. Bussey earned a M.A. in Political Science, Graduate Certificates in Feminist Studies and College Instructions, and his Ph.D. in Political Science from University of Connecticut. He serves as the Assistant Director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Kenyon College in Ohio. He is the first person hired to work exclusively with the LGBTQ+ community at Kenyon College. Recently, Mr. Bussey organized the inaugural Kenyon Queer and Trans Studies Conference.

The other awards presented during the luncheon were: Frank D. Brown Achievement & Leadership Excellence Award – State Representative Calvin Smyre Rep. Smyre has served Columbus in the Georgia House of Representatives District 135 for 45 years and he sits on the Appropriations, Higher Education, and Rules committees. He has been a long-time supporter of CSU, serving on the university’s Foundation Board of Trustees for many years, and he was instrumental in securing funding for several campus capital projects.

Thomas Y. Whitley Distinguished Alumnus Award – Barbara Motos, M.Ed. ‘84 Mrs. Motos served as an educator and administrator in the Muscogee County School District for over 30 years and was president of the Muscogee Elementary Principals’ Association. She has been an active member of the Columbus community throughout her career, working with many organizations such as the Miss Georgia Pageant, Springer Opera House, John B. Amos Cancer Center, and Salvation Army.

Alumni Service Award – Judy Nail, B.S.Ed. ‘73 & M.Ed. ‘76 Ms. Nail taught in the Muscogee County School District for many years and served as the Director of the Arts & Humanities Program from 2000-2007. She has been a long-time volunteer at CSU, where she currently serves on the Alumni Association Board of Directors and the Schwob School of Music GUSTO Committee.

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Alumni Spotlights Tiara Brown—CSU Grad and Boxing Champ

CSU Alumna, Tiara Brown, excels as a police officer and a pro boxer.

CSU Alumna and D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Officer Tiara Brown began her pro boxing career in 2016.

She boxes in the super featherweight division and, in her last 9 bouts, has won all and KO’d 67% of her opponents. She tweets her mantra is “pray, train, eat, REPEAT.” She has been training and boxing for 18 of her 31 years. In a maledominated sport, she is used to being the only woman training in the gym she goes to near her workplace in the nation’s capital.

Most days she works out in the gym 5:30-8:30 pm, then goes home to get about 5 hours of sleep, before rising at 3:00 am, running on the treadmill in her apartment, then going to work to start a 10-hour shift. Brown’s beat is MPD’s sixth district, which she usually patrols by bicycle and which has one of the highest violent crime rates in the city.

By day, she is known as “Officer Friendly.” She believes in the principles of community outreach, including engaging in respectful interactions and having an upbeat attitude. She also believes that if people in a community know and trust their neighborhood law officer, they are less likely to engage in criminal activities and more likely to reach out to officers when the time comes.

By night and in the ring, she is known as “The Dark Menace,” a term given to her by her boxing admirers—and opponents. Brown has always been

Tiara Brown as “Officer Friendly”.

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into sports. When in high school, she participated in track and field events and played on the Fort Myers (FL) city basketball team. She attended CSU on a track scholarship and majored in criminal justice. She strives to be a positive role model in all she does.

Brown became interested in boxing because several of her cousins were amateur boxers and she liked watching them spar. Her claim to fame in the ring is a sharp left hook. She also likes to mix her stances from orthodox to southpaw so she can fight any opponent well.

Three times she has been a USA National Boxing Champion and, at the 2012 International Boxing Association World Championships in Qinhuangdao, China, she won a gold medal. She would like to fight in the Olympics but there are only three weight classes for women boxers, and she’s too light to qualify. If you want to see her box, there are more than 30 YouTube videos showing her in action.

In 2018 she gleaned all kinds of awards, including being honored as MPD’s “Officer of the Year,” being signed with a major boxing promoter out of New York, having a day (April 16) declared “Tiara Brown Day” by the city of Fort Myers, and receiving a key to the city for outstanding athletic and educational achievement. In 2019 she became the new North American Boxing Organization’s Junior Lightweight champion. And the accolades keep coming!

Tiara Brown as “The Dark Menace”.

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Innovative Courses Maymester Trip Thrills Earth and Space Sciences Students Seven students and three faculty from Columbus State University’s Department of Earth and Space Sciences (ESS) explored Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado in this year’s Maymester field trip. The purpose of the course was to chase tornadoes (they saw one!), study astronomy in the clear western skies, and study the geology of the Rocky Mountains. CSU professors Dr. Shawn Cruzen, Dr. Clinton Barineau, and Dr. Scott Gunter led the group.

One highlight of the course included the opportunity to safely observe severe thunderstorms in the western Plains, including formation of a small tornado in an evolving supercell thunderstorm in northeastern New Mexico.

Students also had the opportunity to meet with CSU alumni who now work in geology and astronomy.

Since 2011, the Department of Earth and Space Sciences has offered an annual Maymester field trip in which students learn about astronomy, geology and meteorology. As part of the field course, students can earn course credit for Area D core or upper level science courses taught through the Department.

Each year offers new experiences. To date, students in the course have traveled to the Rocky Mountains of

Wide-open vistas allowed students and faculty to study various cloud formations.

New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana; the Appalachian and Adirondack Mountains of Virginia, New York, and the New England states; the Great Lakes and Plains Regions of the central US states; the Colorado Plateau in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado; and the Pacific Northwest and Cascade Mountains of Washington, Oregon, and northern California.

Memorializing the Slave Trade: 400th Anniversary

Exhibits show how various groups would memorialize the slave trade.

In Fall 2019, Dr. Bryan Banks, Assistant Professor of History in the Department of History and Geography, did something quite different in his HIST 1112: World History since 1500 classes. His students tried to answer this question: How do we memorialize the trans-Atlantic trade in enslaved Africans?

In order to provide an answer, students researched the trans-Atlantic slave trade and prepared a memorial to the millions of enslaved Africans who lost their lives to slavery. This assignment was sparked by CSU’s 6

Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) led

by Mariko Izumi, a QEP that focuses on problem-solving in the classroom.

This project is especially poignant as the US commemorates the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first slave ship to the North American English colonies.

Groups of 3 or 4 students were responsible for reading and reflecting on a number of primary sources related to the trade as well as a couple of critical, theoretical texts that challenged students to think about the language they used to represent slavery. They then researched the trade in the Slave Voyages database (www.slavevoyages.org). Each student prepared an individual exhibit for their larger group memorial. Students researched questions related to the demographics of slave ships, as well as the geographic places of importance for the trade. Lastly, they designed a memorial that visualized

an important theme they uncovered in their research.

Student designs and exhibits were displayed at a Q&A with Dr. Robert Wright on November 8 in the Davidson Student Center. Dr. Wright is a Columbusite, an entrepreneur, a civil rights activist, and a key figure in the formation of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. The event was sponsored by the QEP along with the Department of History and Geography.

Dr. Robert Wright and Dr. Bryan Banks.

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Innovative Courses Developments in First-Year Composition In 2018, the First-Year Composition program (FYC) began collecting data for the Gateway-to-Completion (G2C) statewide initiative and reviewing course content and pedagogy for various ENGL courses taken in the first year of college, especially ENGL 1101 (English Composition 1). This year the FYC program—lead by FYC Director Dr. Rebecca Gerdes-McClain—has implemented several changes designed to improve the FYC course arc and student experience. This fall they have • Launched their revised FYC curriculum arc, which deliberately scaffolds writing instruction from ENGL 0999 through ENGL 1102. This curriculum was designed and piloted during previous academic years.

• Adopted Open Education Resources across all FYC sections. This move is predicted to save CSU students over $150,000 annually. While a few sections ask students to purchase supplemental materials, all sections are now either low-cost or no-cost.

English faculty discuss revising FYC courses. Left to right are Ms. Sheila Purser (part-time lecturer), Mr. Chris Matthews (full-time lecturer), and Dr. Scott Wilkerson (assistant professor).

• Partnered with the Faculty Center to provide professional develop to FYC instructors. The Center has offered several FYC-specific workshops within the Department of English, advertised other professional development across the university, and set up teaching triangles allowing FYC instructors to observe one another’s classes and reflect on the process.

Salsa Night!

In early October, CSU’s chapter of Sigma Delta Pi, the National Hispanic Collegiate Honor Society, organized a get together to share Latin American culture, music, and dance. First, the society showed a short film about the history of salsa and then offered salsa dance lessons. There were two groups--students who already knew how to dance salsa, and newcomers to salsa (the larger group). Dance instruction was led by a couple who dance professionally in competitions. In the spring, Sigma Delta Pi will offer a similar event and teach bachata. Dr. Alyce Cook is the faculty sponsor for Sigma Delta Pi.

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Cover story – Community Collaborations Ecological Restoration Symposium at Oxbow On October 24 and 25, Columbus meeting and symposium. Stacey The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in State University hosted an important Blersch assembled a robust agenda Georgia to look at restoring headwater symposium at Oxbow Meadows with restoration professionals from streams in Western Central Georgia.

Environmental Learning Center— across the southeast to speak about Dr. Blersch, Assistant Professor in that of the Society of Ecological their work. It was great to see so many the Department of Earth and Space Restoration (SER) Southeast Chapter. students interested in the subjects we Sciences, specializes in hydrology More than 60 restoration practitioners deal with in our varied professions,” (the movement, distribution, and and researchers from management of water) across the Southeast and ecohydrology (the and from eight interaction of water and universities attended ecological systems). this year’s symposium The ENVS 5555 course entitled “Restoration & introduced students Resiliency: Restoring to the principles of Disturbed Ecosystems in ecosystem restoration a Changing Climate.” of freshwater aquatic SER is an international systems. Both the organization of philosophical and ecosystem restoration scientific principles of professionals from restoration, emphasizing private, academic and the degree to which government sectors conservation versus whose mission is to restoration can achieve advance the science and desired ecological practice of ecological outcomes, are restoration. The local discussed using various Southeast chapter is local, national and Dr. Stacey Sloan Blersch’s ENVS 5555 students who presented at very active, with over international casethe symposium.

200 members who meet studies. The course bi-annually to network and to share said Kelly Sands, board member with attempts to use a “flipped” classroom results of their work.

Westervelt, Inc. as much as possible, requiring This year’s event featured an Those presenting included Dr. preparation outside of class to review evening student poster reception on Stacey Sloan Blersch’s students materials (videos, papers, etc.) so that Oct 24th at the Bo Bartlett Center. from ENVS 5555: Aquatic Ecosystem in-class time can be spent engaged Students from around the region, Restoration whose class project in peer-to-peer communication and including CSU students, presented involved restoration of a site near provide opportunities for debate and at the reception. “We were thrilled Buena Vista, GA. This course supports discussion. to have the participation of the CSU the ongoing partnership of CSU Earth faculty and staff for this annual and Space Sciences Department with Most of the students in the photo will be presenting at Tower Day in spring 2020 on their final results from this semester’s course. Their presentations at the symposium reflected a midway point for their class project and will pave the way for future monitoring efforts.

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Board members Stacey Blersch, Kelly Sands and Connie Bersok greet symposium attendees at the Marriott Downtown.

ESS undergraduate and graduate students (Juliana Giles, Lauren Moore, Mary Claire Halbrook) assessing downstream effects of small headwater dams in Little Pine Knot for TNC in Georgia.

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Students Mary Claire Halbrook (ESS graduate student) and Taylor Renne Vann (BIOL undergraduate) from ENVS 5555 collecting data in Little Pine Knot Creek near Buena Vista, GA.

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Community Collaborations Blight Index Pilot Program Neighborhood or urban blight refers to an area of a city in which some buildings are abandoned or in severe disrepair. Such structures are eyesores and often contribute to increased criminal activity. It is important for cities to identify blighted buildings and, if possible, raze them.

Students in GEOG 5215, an Advanced GIS class, are assisting in doing just that. GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems and is a way of collecting, storing, analyzing, and managing information in spatial form. With GIS, you can see maps of the input data and see where the blight areas are. The instructor of this class is Dr. Brad Huff, Associate Professor of History and Geography.

Since students in Dr. Huff’s class are required to perform a 30-hour internship with a governmental, commercial or university entity, they are working with Charlotte Davis— an MPA graduate of CSU and now Inspection Services Coordinator in Columbus’ Department of Building Inspections & Code Enforcement— to identify and code abandoned buildings using a Blight Index created by the city of Mobile to aid them in identifying the degree of disrepair.

The Index zeros in on the location and general condition of the property, whether the structure has utilities connected, whether windows and doors are open or broken or boarded, whether the structure has been damaged by fire, whether the yard has been maintained, whether there is junk in the yard, and so on.

Students are collecting the data using sophisticated GPS units that can locate, survey, and photograph candidate properties.

The city has set aside approximately $1,000,000 to deal with urban blight.

Razing such structures can reduce crime and health risks to those in the neighborhood while improving the property values to others in the neighborhood.

Once this data is collected it can be analyzed in many ways. For example, one might want to know if properties cluster in particular areas or what the spatial relationships of blighted vacant properties are to formerly blighted but now improved properties. This type of data is useful not only for developing a schedule of potential demolitions, but also for identifying where future blighted properties are apt to appear.

Two students in GEOG 5215 collect data on blighted structures for the city of Columbus.

Two Spanish Interns Translate for Local Organizations

Maria Marrero, CSU Spanish major.

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Some Spanish majors decide to add to their degree requirements the Certificate in Translation and Interpreting, a 24 credit-hour program that focuses on English and Spanish language pairing. By taking the required courses, students with a high-level ability in Spanish develop skills that allow them to advance in a career as a translator or interpreter.

The certificate program includes the option of taking an Internship class (SPAN 4698) that involves matching community partners who need translation or interpreting

assistance with capable students who have the appropriate skill sets. Two students who recently enrolled in such internships are Maria Marrero and Kayla Medina.

Maria’s 2019 summer internship involved working with the Hispanic Outreach Committee of Columbus, GA, a consortium of different public and private entities in the Columbus/ Phenix City areas. During Maria’s internship, she attended some Association meetings and accepted jobs from various members of the Hispanic Outreach Committee. (continued on next page)

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(continued from previous page)

She worked at the Sexual Assault Support Center, Paws Humane, and METRA. METRA was so pleased with the work that Maria did, they requested a fall intern who could continue working on the Title VI draft. The Dept of Modern and Classical Languages (MCL), the department that oversees the Spanish major and the certificate program, chose Kayla Medina to continue Maria’s work. For the most part, both Maria and Kayla worked from home, simulating how freelance translators work in the field.

After receiving source documents from the client, Kayla first sends her completed work to Eduardo Leon (her CSU faculty supervisor and the translation certificate coordinator) for review before sending her finalized version to the client. Although working remotely, Kayla is in constant contact with METRA and with Professor Leon.

As a translator, she employs machine aided translation with the human component needed for translating idioms and capturing mood and tone.

For example, if she were translating “he doesn’t cut the mustard,” she

would know that the expression has nothing to do with mustard or cutting.

The phrase can’t be translated literally.

The intent of that phrase is “he does not meet expectations.”

Learning by doing is definitely the point of these internships. After all, people with multilingual abilities and with the technical experience in translating and interpreting are in high demand in a variety of professions. The Department of MCL helps students learn practical skills and aids the community at the same time!

Psychology Externships The Department of Psychology offers its majors externships, which are similar to internships but are of shorter duration. Every Spring in PSYC 3565 (Selected Topics in Psychology), students are matched with a local non-profit that works with at-risk individuals. Literacy Alliance and Homeless Resource Network are two of the Department’s best partners. With both organizations, students commit 20 hours as externs, for which they receive training and provide hours to the facility. In addition, students coordinate with Dr. Diana Riser,

Associate Professor of Psychology, and the non-profit leaders to create a cumulative project that “gives back” to the community and to the organization.

For example, this year enrolled students compiled research on literacy in families as well as resources on how parents can begin teaching literacy early. They created infographicsstyled display boards (see photo) that Literacy Alliance could take to events to educate the community.

The students also spent hours in Columbus’ local elementary schools,

practicing reading and spending time with children doing one-onone reading. The fun thing about this partnership is that the Literacy Alliance coordinator is a graduate of CSU’s Department of Psychology.

In the Homeless Resource Network, students have created brochures, helped with fundraising events (such as the annual wine fundraiser), spent hours helping hands-on at the facility, and helped acquire donations of important hygiene resources for the homeless.

Literacy Extern Sydney Spight.

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In Memoriam The Passing of Dr. Bill Frazier Dr. William James “Bill” Frazier, retired chair of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences, died October 1. With degrees from Furman University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he taught geology at CSU for 41 years.

In an interview in 2016, he said the best compliment he ever received as a teacher of geology was when a student said she had “learned more about teaching” from him than from any course she had ever taken, even though the course was not a pedagogy class. She was able to separate the subject (geology) from Frazier’s pedagogy and was praising him on how he taught the course, a distinction that pleased Frazier immensely.

He put students first and it showed.

His teaching awards included the Golden Apple Award given by WRBL, the Educator of the Year Award (1985), and Advisor of the Year Award (2000).

He chaired the Presidential search committee that hired Frank Brown as president of CSU, was executive officer of the Faculty Senate in the late 80’s, co-authored an award-winning science reference book, and served in several leadership roles that helped shape the current Department of Earth and Space Sciences.

Dr. Frazier was held in high esteem by not only students but by faculty as

well. One of his colleagues, Dr. Clint Barineau said, “He was one of the most quick-witted, but contemplative people I have ever met. I valued his opinion and I could always count on a very thoughtful answer to any question. He was quick to laugh, but

had a sharp tongue when provoked.

Perhaps one of the things I admired most about him was that nearly everyone I’ve ever spoken with about Bill had an incredible amount of respect for him as a person. In my mind, to be held in nearly universal high regard by such an eclectic and opinionated group of faculty, alumni, and students speaks volumes.”

Dr. Shawn Cruzen, Executive Director of the Coca-Cola Space Science Center and Professor of

Earth and Space Sciences, said this: “Bill was one of the founders of the Geology, and later ESS, programs at CSU. To say his role at this institution was pivotal is a great understatement.

He was a cornerstone of our department and our university for portions of 5 decades! He served in almost countless leadership roles, both academically and administratively.

He also was loved by his students and colleagues, which is the most important testament of all. He truly will be missed.”

Years ago, when asked what he would have been if he had not been a geologist, he quickly replied “historian,” which was his first major in college. He was particularly fond of reading anything relating to ancient Rome, including the Masters of Rome series of historical novels by Australian author Colleen McCullough. His lifelong hunger for learning extended to other subjects as well, including music, literature, and sciences other than geology.

Bill’s wife Sandra Barton Frazier preceded him in death. He is survived by a daughter, a son, and a grandson.

Donations in his honor can be made to the William J. Frazier Scholarship in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at CSU.

The Passing of Mrs. Marilyn Satlof Mrs. Marilyn Satlof, a retired professor of English, died in late August at the age of 92. She taught in the Department of English for more than 25 years, retiring in the mid-1990s.

In addition to literature, Marilyn’s

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passion was social causes. She was active in many organizations, including the American Association of University Women, women’s groups at both Shearith Israel Synagogue and Temple Israel, the Wynnton Family Network, the Columbus Alliance for Battered Women, the National Council of Christians and Jews, and the Democratic party. She was an eager campaigner for JFK at a time when the state party did not endorse him.

Marilyn especially devoted herself to causes in support of Jewish people and the State of Israel, including Zionist organizations such as Hadassah and Zionist summer camps for children such as Camp Brandeis, Camp Judaea and Camp Tel Yehudah.

She is survived by her husband of 68 years, Melvin, and by two of their three daughters. Donations in her memory can be made to Hadassah at www.hadassah.org.

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New COLS Faculty Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology Asha Ralph – Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Dr. Asha Ralph received her doctorate degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Old Dominion University. Her research interests include race/ethnicity and crime, juvenile delinquency, and women and crime. Additionally, her dissertation research explored the school disciplinary experiences of African American girls within the public-school setting. Her work has been funded by the Division on People of Color and Crime Helen Taylor Greene and Vernetta D. Young Graduate Fellowship

Jennafer Vondal – Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice Dr. Jennafer Vondal earned her Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from North Dakota State University and her M.S. in Criminal Justice and Human Services from the University of Cincinnati. She has taught courses on criminological theory, punishment, death penalty, and corrections. In addition, she has experience coordinating internship opportunities for students as well as managing a criminal justice student organization. Her dissertation, entitled “Chasing the Dragon: The Social Construction of the U.S. Opioid Epidemic,” investigates the role and impact of claims-making groups in the social construction of the opioid crisis. Her research interests include: opioid epidemic, biosocial criminology, life-course and transitional criminology, criminological theory, intervention and prevention program evaluation, and policy analysis.

Department of English Leslie Haines – Lecturer of English Dr. Leslie Haines earned her B.A. in English from the University of Tennessee (2007), her M.A. in English from Clemson University (2010), and her Ph.D. in English from Auburn University (2019).

Along with a teaching focus in first-year composition, her other areas of specialty include nineteenthcentury British literature, literary theory, and gender studies. Before attending university, she worked as an actor and ballet dancer. Most recently her work has been focused on androgyny in nineteenthcentury poetry. Her article titled, “Exploring the Possibilities of Greater Livability: Doing and Undoing Gender in Coleridge’s Christabel” has been accepted for publication in Humanities, “Special Issue: Romanticism and Contemporary Literary Theory.” Framed by contemporary gender theory, her projects explore the tension between how some nineteenth-century poetic representations of androgyny produce both restrictive and revolutionary performances of sex, gender, and sexual identity.

Department of Modern and Classical Languages Anna Dimitrova – Lecturer of French Dr. Anna Dimitrova holds a Ph.D. in Film Studies with a Concentration in French from the University of Pittsburgh. She has taught French language and culture at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Iowa, and Western Illinois University. She specializes in 20th and 21st century French and Francophone Literature and Film. In her research she investigates the connections between language and space through an examination of the verbal communication of marginalized protagonists in French and Francophone novels and films. Her article “Silent Bilingualism in Olivier Masset-Depasse’s film Illégal” appeared in Mise au Point journal. Recently, she contributed an article on Multiple Language Version films in the book Le grain de la voix dans le monde anglophone et francophone (Peter Lang 2019).

Letters & Sciences Today

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Faculty Spotlights Dr. Guihong Fan Sponsors Session on Mathematical Biology at Conference Dr. Guihong Fan, Associate Professor of Mathematics at CSU, co-organized a special session on “Differential Equations in Mathematical Biology” at the American Mathematical Society (AMS) Sectional Meeting at Auburn University in spring 2019.

A total of 24 speakers from around the world participated in this session which spanned three days, March 15-17. Institutions of higher education represented were University of Miami, University of Louisiana, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, Vanderbilt University, Princeton University, McMasters University, Tennessee State University, University of Alberta (Canada), and University of Bordeaux (France), among many others.

Topics ranged from the mathematics of predator-prey systems, to the within-host dynamics of cholera, the spatial and temporal dynamics of viral infections, modeling HIV cell-to-cell transmission, and mosquito insecticide resistance on malaria dynamics.

CSU mathematics faculty excel in the application of math to real-world problem solving. For example, Dr. Fan has achieved a national reputation through her work with mathematical models for population dynamics and the spread of West Nile virus. In the past, she has received a travel grant from the Association for Women in Mathematics to study models for vector-borne diseases.

CSU in Oxford—British History and Culture in the ‘60s

By Dr. Gary Sprayberry In my CSU in Oxford course (HIST 3555), we examined British history and culture during the 1960’s. We took an interdisciplinary approach, using music, art, photography, film, fashion, and history to explore this tumultuous decade.

In our readings and discussions, we focused on a variety of themes and topics, like the music of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the rise of “permissive society,” British pop art, the drug culture, the anti-war movement, political scandals, and the conflict between the Mods and the Rockers. Nine students were enrolled in the class.

Dr. Ryan Lynch (History & Geography), a graduate of Oxford University, served as the site director.

During our stay in Oxford, we took two field trips to London and one trip to Liverpool. During our first field trip to London, we visited the Tate Modern museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, and we saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.

During our trip to Liverpool, we took the “Magical Mystery Tour” of sites related to the history of the Beatles, we visited the Tate Liverpool Museum, and we saw a John Lennon and Yoko Ono exhibit at the Museum of Liverpool. For our final trip to London, we visited Abbey Road, the Tate Britain Museum, and we did a tour of Soho, which included a visit to Carnaby Street and the site of the Beatles’ famous rooftop concert in 1969.

CSU students and Dr. Sprayberry (standing, fifth from left) taking the “Magical Mystery Tour” in Liverpool.

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Letters & Sciences Today

Faculty Spotlights Dr. Martin Ruehl—Visiting Fort Scholar in European Studies In Fall 2019, Dr. Martin Ruehl was the Fort Scholar of European Studies and was hosted by the Department of History and Geography. He is Senior Lecturer in German Intellectual History at the University of Cambridge (England).

His research to date has focused on the ideas and ideologies that shaped German society and culture in the period between Bismarck and Hitler, in particular the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and its reception since the 1890s.

He has published books and articles on Nietzsche, Burckhardt, Thomas Mann, Ernst Kantorowicz, German historicism and grecophilia (love of Greece or Grecian things).

His essay on aesthetic fundamentalism in the writings of the George Circle appeared in Weimar Thought: A Contested Legacy (Princeton 2013). His monograph The Italian Renaissance and the German Historical Imagination, 18601930 (Cambridge 2015) was shortlisted for the Gladstone History Book Prize of the Royal Historical Society.

The recipient of a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship, Ruehl is currently writing a book on German debates about slavery and unfree labor from the eighteenth century to the Third Reich. In 2017, he was awarded the Pilkington Prize for Teaching Excellence.

While at CSU in fall 2019, Dr. Ruehl gave special lectures on campus and in the community. For example, on September 24, he gave a public lecture on ““How (Not) to Be a Nation of Immigrants: The Case of Germany.” He also taught two classes. HIST 5575U was titled “Fascism: A Global History” and was about the rise, fall, and rebirth of fascism across the globe from the 1920s to current time. The purpose of the course was to help students understand fascism’s powerful appeal and its tremendous destructive potential.

Another class he taught, HIST 3126 History on Film, was subtitled, “Film as a Weapon: Cinema in the European Civil War, 1918-1945.” According to the course syllabus, “Art has always been political…Nowhere was this instrumentalization more visible than in film which was fast becoming the most popular art form by the end of the 1920s. The rise of Bolshevism and Fascism, in particular, brought about an instant and acute politicization of European cinema.

French and British film-makers followed suit, not least after the outbreak of World War 2.” The course approached “film as a reflection of—or window into—a particular moment of European history; and, at the same time, as an active agent and shaping force in that historical moment.”

My Sabbatical in Medieval Studies

By Shannon Godlove, Associate Professor of English During the period of my sabbatical leave (Fall 2018-Spring 2019) I conducted research at libraries at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Oxford in the UK. I completed several major research projects, including writing and submitting two journal articles and completing and submitting for peer-review a manuscript of an edited collection on the early medieval English missionary to the Germans, St Boniface. I also conducted in-depth reading and research for my ongoing book project, Authorship and Apostolic Identity in Old English Religious Literature.

The highlight of my sabbatical was serving as site director at the Spencer House in Oxford during Hilary Term 2019. In addition to helping CSU’s study abroad students get settled in their new home in the UK, I was able to explore beautiful, historical Oxford, visit museums, and see the once-in-a-lifetime exhibit “Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms” at the British Library in London, where all the treasures of early medieval English art and literature were on display, together for the first time.

While in Oxford, I conducted research at the Bodleian Libraries toward my book manuscript and completed an article for a collection on Architectural Representations in Medieval English Literature. I was honored to be invited to give a talk at a meeting of the Early Medieval Britain and Ireland Network at Oxford University on the subject of that article. The scholarly community in medieval studies at the University of Oxford is large, welcoming, and very active in hosting lectures and seminars on all sorts of topics in early medieval literature. I am grateful for the opportunity to get to know many of the scholars working in my field In September 2002 Mr. and Mrs. at Oxford, and to have been able to attend so many fascinating talks, J. Kyle Spencer provided funds to enable CSU to purchase a house seminars, and conferences while I was there. I am looking forward to at 182 Woodstock Road in Oxford. returning to Oxford as Site Director in Spring 2020.

Columbus State refurbished the My sabbatical allowed me to devote myself to intensive reading and house, built in 1913, and opened it in December 2002 as the Spencer writing, and to complete the Boniface volume, plan new research projects House at Oxford. CSU maintains a for the future, and explore the “Scholarship of Teaching and Learning,” site director there at all times. which I know is something we especially value at CSU. Letters & Sciences Today

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Scholarship Recipient Mason Hale Receives Chemistry Scholarship On Friday, October 18th, a reception was hosted by the Department of Chemistry and the Interim Dean of the College of Letters and Sciences, Dr. Annice YarberAllen, to honor Mason Patrick Hale, the 2019 recipient of the Royal Crown Cola International Prem Virmani Scholarship. The scholarship was established in 2015 in honor of the company’s former Senior Vice President for Science and Research, Mr. Prem Virmani.

The scholarship provides $2,000 per year to a CSU chemistry major and is part of a growing relationship between the department and the local beverage and food industry. The scholarship selection committee consisted of Mr. David Ragland and Ms. Kitty Stevens from Refresco (formerly Cott International) and chemistry faculty.

Mason is the fourth recipient of the award. His passion for chemistry and his work as a chemistry ambassador were highly valued by the selection committee. He is a research student in Dr. Wade Holley’s lab and has presented his results at local and regional conferences. After graduation, Mason plans to pursue a graduate degree in analytical chemistry.

Annice Yarber-Allen, Interim Dean of COLS; Mason Hale, scholarship recipient; David Ragland, Site Director over Manufacturing and Technical Affairs, Refresco North America; Kitty Stevens, HR Director, Refresco North America; Floyd Jackson, Chair, Department of Chemistry at CSU.