Winter 2021
CORNERSTONE MESSAGE FROM DEAN ALLISON S. DANELL Warm greetings to you! I hope this newsletter finds you well.
It certainly has been a busy fall semester in Harriot College. After a long hiatus, ECU was able to hold its first in-person student recruitment event, and I was truly energized to be around prospective students again. Much of my time with these high schoolers and their families was spent talking about the supportive environment we strive to provide at ECU. Providing such a sense of belonging is a key feature of the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) landscape we are collectively focusing on for the Chancellor’s DEI Commission. There are quantitative methods to measure diversity, and systemic approaches for ensuring equity. Inclusion is more a feeling, ensuring folks have a sense of belonging in Pirate Nation™. I am also proud to share with prospective students the exciting avenues they may take through the many academic programs we offer in Harriot College. These include new options like the Pharmaceutical Methods and Technology minor, the
Katherine Foster
Double Major in Geology and Biology (minoring in Physics) “Faculty and staff support for ECU students is unparalleled,” said Foster. “Everyone works with you to ensure you end up with beneficial opportunities and connections. My passions were always supported and encouraged.”
Earned a scholarship in geology created by longtime professor and donor C.Q. Brown, and a scholarship established to honor the memory of biology student Detlev Bunger Developed peer teaching skills as a student assistant in Introductory Biology Lab courses Performs undergraduate research in Biology professor Dr. Erin Field’s geomicrobiology lab, studying biominerals produced by proteobacteria, and cataloguing responses to various chemical environments Recipient of the prestigious N.C. Space Grant, awarded to engage the future STEM workforce in NASA-related research projects – a perfect fit for Katherine, who hopes to work for NASA in the future!
Environmental Studies concentration in our multidisciplinary bachelor’s degree, and an ever-expanding portfolio of programs allowing students to accelerate the timeline to complete a bachelor’s and master’s degree. For example, third-year students in the Bachelor of Science in Applied Sociology program can apply to the Master of Arts in Sociology program. On this accelerated pathway, the overall timeline for earning both an undergraduate and graduate degree can be as short as five years!
Chancellor Rogers stops by Harriot College’s special “Trick or Tacos” staff lunch to say Arrrgh! to Dean Danell.
Our faculty, ever driven to create and discover, so generously share their expertise in the classroom and beyond. Please enjoy reading more about collective successes in Harriot College in our Winter 2021 newsletter.
Dr. Robert Carels
Professor and Director of Clinical Training, Department of Psychology Public service runs deep for this researcher and healthcare provider who credits a positive work environment for the success of the doctoral students he mentors. “We have an outstanding program because we have an outstanding college that supports us.”
Research interests include developing more effective behavioral weight loss treatments, and understanding and combating weight stigma Works in tandem with physicians and healthcare providers through his joint appointment in the Department of Family Medicine in ECU’s Brody School of Medicine Fellow, American Board of Clinical Health Psychology Honored to serve a university community like ECU, whether through committee service or securing federal funding to support graduate psychology education
RETREAT IS NOT THE SOLE OPTION
Oldest African American Town in U.S. is Preserving History Amidst Environmental Calamities by Lacey L. Gray, University Communications
Harriot College faculty and students across disciplines are telling the stories of Princeville, North Carolina — the oldest incorporated African American town in the United States — and how residents are preserving the town’s history after devastating flooding events. The town, originally named Freedom Hill, was founded in 1865 by formerly enslaved Africans freed after the Civil War. In 1885, the town was renamed Princeville after one of the earliest residents and carpenter, Turner Prince, who built many of the town’s structures.
The Princeville mobile museum. (Contributed photo)
Situated along the Tar River, Princeville almost was destroyed by two flooding events – Hurricane Floyd, in 1999, which devastated nearly 1,000 residential structures, and then again in 2016 because of Hurricane Matthew, when 500 homes flooded. No lives were lost during either event. After Floyd, the state offered widespread buyouts of homeowners. However, the town declined the offer and opted to rebuild. Dr. Susan Pearce, associate professor of sociology; Dr. Lynn Harris, professor of history; Dr. Mamadi Corra, professor of sociology; Dr. Cynthia Grace-McCaskey, professor of anthropology; and anthropology alumna Kayla Evans, are telling the town’s story through two parallel research projects and resulting public exhibits. In 2019, Pearce, Harris and Corra partnered with Freedom Organization (https://www. freedomorg. org/), an emerging nonprofit group in Inside The Voices of Princeville mobile museum. (Contributed photo) Princeville, to address the need for heritage preservation and public education surrounding the historic town. The collaboration was funded by a North Carolina Humanities Council Grassroots grant. ECU graduate students worked with the team to conduct interviews and archival research, and maritime studies graduate students, led by Harris, conducted snorkel and SCUBA surveys of the Tar River near Princeville and at Shiloh Landing to locate, map, photograph and draw submerged artifacts possibly associated with the town’s history. The results were presented to the public in a day-long workshop and exhibit about Princeville, held in ECU’s Joyner Library. Corra created Braille labels for each of the exhibit’s items, which included banners designed by Jeremy Borrelli, maritime studies
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staff archaeologist and ECU alumnus, that outlined Princeville’s cultural history and challenges. Exhibit materials were given to the Town of Princeville for both a permanent and mobile museum, and the collaboration also resulted in a project website at http://blog. ecu.edu/sites/princeville. Later in 2019 through 2021, Grace-McCaskey joined the team on a parallel project funded by ECU’s Engagement and Outreach Scholars Academy, in which she and her graduate student conducted oral histories of Princeville residents to better understand community perceptions of resilience. Under Grace-McCaskey’s mentorship, Evans conducted the oral history interviews, analysis of the data and used the research to write her thesis on Princeville’s community engagement. ECU anthropology alumna, Kayla Evans, conducted oral histories of Princeville residents for her thesis. (Contributed photo)
“In addition to the research skills Kayla learned, in communitybased projects like this one, I think students gain experience in listening and understanding the needs and goals of others,” Grace-McCaskey said. “They learn how to work with others to co-design projects that achieve both research goals as well as community goals; and that sometimes the community’s goals are more important.” Their project resulted in a mobile museum exhibit and coordinating website at https://www.voicesofprinceville.org. The mobile museum, currently located in Princeville, contains displays, stories, and QR codes “This project taught visitors may scan to listen to oral me the importance histories recorded by current of working in and former residents.
underrepresented
“The work we did in Princeville communities.” - Evans helped my education by providing an opportunity to conduct field work and learn leadership skills,” Evans said. “This project taught me the importance of working in underrepresented communities,” she added. “In the future, I plan to continue my education with the goal of performing community engaged research and applied anthropology.” Whether Evans’s career path takes her to academia or public health and community action, it is clear that her time working with the residents of Princeville has left a positive mark on her. In a continuation of the collaboration and service between ECU and Princeville’s Freedom Organization, undergraduate sociology majors in Pearce’s spring 2021 senior seminar wrote a successful grant proposal to the Kate B. Reynolds Foundation. The grant will allow Freedom Organization to hire a general operations manager, camp director and camp counselors for the next two years, to support one of Princeville’s local non-profit organizations, meaning the work of ECU faculty and student researchers, just like Princeville, will live on.
A FOLKLORIST’S TAKE
Dispelling Misinformation and Myth, Getting to the Science by Lacey Gray, University Communications
Dr. Andrea Kitta, professor of English and folklorist with a specialty in medicine, belief and the supernatural, spent a good portion of the COVID-19 pandemic sharing her other interests vaccines, vaccine hesitancy, contagion and disease. Kitta helps students and the public make sense of a massive amount of information. “I’ve always been interested in how people make decisions about their own health care, especially when urban legends, misinformation and disinformation become a part of that equation,” Kitta said. “Stories really affect us and are more powerful than facts, so we need to learn how to use stories to talk about scientific information.” Her research on vaccines and pandemics, including her book, “Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination and Folklore,” as well as a number of videos she produced during the pandemic,
including one on COVID-19 gossip and rumor, benefit more than just the academic community but the broader public. “It’s important to understand that misinformation doesn’t just appear, it’s traditional and it’s been passed around in one form or another for years. Disinformation is also based in traditional beliefs. If we know what those beliefs and stories look like, then we can predict what will happen. We must meet people where they are, not tell them they are wrong and expect them to fall in line,” Kitta said.
(Contributed photo)
Kitta currently is working on a co-edited collection of conspiracy theories and additional articles about COVID. More of Kitta’s videos on folklore, COVID and misinformation may be found on her YouTube page by searching Dr. Andrea Kitta.
BUILDING RESILIENCY, STUDENT SUCCESS
ECU’s Water Resources Center Receives $5 Million to Strengthen Coastal Communities by Doug Boyd & Lacey Gray, University Communications
In the past three years, faculty associated with ECU’s Water Resources Center (WRC), housed in Harriot College, have secured more than $14 million in research funding to address water-related issues in the region. This includes a new $5 million National Science Foundation 2021 Coastlines and People Awards grant to support researchers and students as they work to strengthen resilience in communities along the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary system of coastal North Carolina. “Our communities in eastern North Carolina face major challenges from water-related issues,” said Dr. Stephen Moysey, professor of geological sciences, director of the WRC and principal investigator on the study. “Increasingly extreme weather conditions are making floods and droughts more common. Discharges throughout our watershed lead to events like harmful algal blooms. Sea level rise is contributing to increased salinity in freshwater regions, transforming ecosystems and collapsing agricultural productivity. (Contributed photo)
“These problems are a shared responsibility and burden that impact both coastal and inland communities,” he said.
Over the next five years, Moysey and his team will assess the sources of these hazards, their vulnerability to risk and approaches to collaborative decision-making to adapt to a changing coastal environment. “Research on climate change and sea level rise has been conducted extensively at ECU for more than three decades,” said Dr. Steve Culver, chair of geological sciences. “More recently, comments from the public, coastal managers and political leadership have made it clear that the question now is ‘OK, change is happening, but what can we and what should we do about it?’ The new grant coming to Dr. Moysey and his interdisciplinary team is a huge step toward providing answers to that question.”
(Contributed photo)
In addition to community research, Moysey provides students a unique opportunity to prepare for the workforce through ECU WaterCorps, a student-focused organization that takes on environmental projects for clients outside of ECU. Students also participate in professional development and networking activities to prepare for success after graduation. For more information about all the research conducted and services provided by the WRC, visit water.ecu.edu.
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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Randy Marfield, Ph.D. in Rhetoric, Writing and Professional Communication, ‘16; MA in Multicultural and Transnational Literatures, ‘07
Randy Marfield is a professor of English and cultural rhetoric, and chair of the Department of Languages and Literature at the University of Belize, in Central America. In his roles as chair and professor, Marfield assists students and instructors in information gathering, locating resources, and planning and organizing seminars and meetings. Marfield completed his two degrees from East Carolina University® through financial aid and waivers, and also served as an English tutor and later taught freshman composition and research methodology in ECU’s department of English. He said his degrees and experiences at ECU has made him extremely confident in his knowledge and abilities in rhetoric, writing and literature. “Both my masters and Ph.D. degrees prepared me for the field, and I am able to keep up as the knowledge evolves,” he said. While earning his degrees, Marfield attended numerous professional, literary and writing conferences, including one
in Romania in 2012 and one in Florida in 2014, where he was able to meet several well-known authors and researchers. In addition, he was an active member of ECU’s African Students Association and International Student Association, where he served in the roles of secretary and vice president. “We were all about making international students feel welcomed, have a community to be a part of and a voice,” he said. Marfield said his career highlights have included publishing his work as a doctoral student and finishing his dissertation. He still plans to publish in the future, and said, “I believe there is much that needs to be said from the perspective of developing nations in this new age of writing and communication.”
Consider supporting Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences by making a donation online at www.ecu.edu/give. Stay in touch with Harriot College by phone at 252-328-6249 or email at thcas@ecu.edu.
Visit our website at https://thcas.ecu.edu
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