A&S Letters, Summer 2016

Summer 2016

LET TERS Real-life lessons College of Arts & Sciences student, Jordan Thomas, takes proactive approach to anthropological education.

Dear Alumni and Friends, Summer in Manhattan is a special time. Campus is relatively quiet. It is a great time for reflection and recharging, which is something I’ve been doing lately.

I am very excited and energized to continue my new adventure as interim dean with you. When starting an adventure, I find it important to clearly identify three things: where you are, what challenges need to be addressed and what opportunities are available to pursue. As we prepare to head into the new academic year, I want to share those with you.

So, where are we today? Our college is strong, built on a solid foundation of outstanding faculty and students. There is a long list of highlights, but here are some of the most important examples: • Faculty: Two-thirds of K-State’s university distinguished professors come from our college. For the latest awards to our outstanding faculty, turn to Page 19.

• Students: More than 75 percent of K-State’s nationally competitive scholarship recipients (Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater and Udall) are ArtSci students, including Jordan Thomas, who is featured on our cover.

• Impact: 100 percent of the students who graduate from K-State take at least one course from the College of Arts & Sciences, including language classes like the one described on Page 14. We have an impact on every profession, just ask the Alumni Fellows introduced on Page 18.

Indeed, our strong history has put us in a good position for success, but there are always unique challenges that must be faced. For our college, some of those include: • Finances: State resources are down from 50 percent to 20 percent in the past 20 years.

• Faculty retention: Many of our faculty members are being heavily recruited by other universities. We don’t want to lose faculty like Dr. Matthew Brueseke, who teaches our geology students the value of hands-on fieldwork (Page 4), or Dr. Michael Young, who has found a “sweet spot” in creating a corporate partnership (Page 6).

• Cancer research: Replacing Dr. Rob Denell, who is retiring as director of the Johnson Cancer Research Center, will be monumentally important as we look forward to building on what Dr. Denell has achieved at the center.

• Geosciences education: The energy and water industries have more than a $4.3 billion impact on the state of Kansas alone, employing more than 26,000 people directly and indirectly. We need to provide strong educational opportunities for students interested in competing in these areas.

As we work to address those challenges, we also see some great opportunities to reach for. Some of my top priorities include: • Producing a diverse student population that is well-rounded with a comprehensive education and international experiences. Don’t miss Kimathi Choma, our multicultural catalyst, featured on Page 12.

• Endowing positions to retain top faculty who are poised to help solve society’s grand challenges, such as curing cancer.

• Providing quality collaborative lab and teaching spaces for the geosciences and STEM areas.

• Engaging corporate industry in funding and commercializing the high-end research being produced from our college, such as the desertArtLAB on Page 16.

I have no doubt we can build on our strong history, overcome these challenges and capitalize on our opportunities. As I reflect on all of this, I’m keenly aware of these facts: We would not have been successful in the past, nor will we be able to succeed in the future, without your support. I look forward to working with you to build on our outstanding legacy in the months and years ahead.

Hope to see you in Cat Town this fall!

Sincerely,

Amit Chakrabarti Interim Dean

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LET TERS Amit Chakrabarti, Interim Dean Louise Benjamin, Associate Dean Beth Montelone, Associate Dean Kimathi Choma, Assistant Dean Alison Wheatley, Assistant Dean Tom Roesler, Communications Coordinator Dean’s Office: 785-532-6900 artsci.k-state.edu artsci@k-state.edu

KSU Foundation Development Office: Sheila Walker, Senior Director of Development Eric Holderness, Director of Development Emily Mahoney, Development Officer Shelley Carver, Development Officer

Table of contents Why Alaskan summers rock.......................................... 4 A sweet deal................................................................. 6 Real-life lessons lead to Marshall Scholarship................. 8 Kimathi Choma A multicultural catalyst......................................................... 12

Are teens ruining language?

Linguist studies changes in teen speech....................................... 14

Life in the desert......................................................... 16 Meet the 2016 A&S Alumni Fellows............................ 18 Faculty awards recipients...................... inside back cover

800-432-1578 or 785-532-6266 found.k-state.edu foundation@found.k-state.edu

Produced by Division of Communications and Marketing Kansas State University k-state.edu/vpcm

Photos by Tommy Theis and Jeff Moore Division of Communications and Marketing Matthew Brueseke Matt Garcia Jordan Thomas

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Use your smartphone to scan the QR code to link to our website at artsci.k-state.edu Notice of Nondiscrimination Kansas State University prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex (including sexual harassment and sexual violence), sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, ancestry, disability, genetic information, military status, or veteran status, in the University’s programs and activities as required by applicable laws and regulations. The person designated with responsibility for coordination of compliance efforts and receipt of inquiries concerning nondiscrimination policies is the University’s Title IX Coordinator: the Director of the Office of Institutional Equity, equity@k-state.edu, 103 Edwards Hall, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, (785) 532-6220. The campus ADA Coordinator is the Director of Employee Relations, charlott@k-state.edu, who may be reached at 103 Edwards Hall, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, (785) 532-6277.

@KStateArtSci

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Why Alaskan summers rock

by Matthew Brueseke

THE NEED: Fieldwork funding for geology faculty and students.

TO HELP: Contact Sheila Walker at (785) 532-7511 or sheilaw@found.ksu. edu or make a gift online found.ksu.edu/give/ fieldgeology.

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Most people go to Alaska in the summer to visit Denali National Park and see North America’s tallest mountain, ride the Alaska Railroad, take cruises to see wildlife and glaciers, or some combination of these.

But me and my colleagues from Bucknell University and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks have different ideas about an Alaskan summer. We go to Alaska to ride in Piper Super Cubs and small helicopters, hike in the backcountry in places where it’s likely that people have never set foot before, and collect lots and lots of rock samples — many of which get shipped to Kansas State University where they are studied in detail.

In February 2015, we started a three-year project funded by the National Science Foundation in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. It’s focused on understanding aspects of the park’s volcanic geology and tectonic evolution. WrangellSt. Elias is America’s largest national park and within the park are the Wrangell Mountains, the primary focus of our research. Mostly volcanic, these mountains are some of the tallest and largest in the United States and North America.

As a research group, we are focused on understanding the initiation of the Wrangell Volcanic Belt and how the volcanic/tectonic story of this belt has changed through time. What we gather will yield information on how the convergent margin tectonic boundary in this part of Alaska has changed through time since the Yakutat Block slammed into Alaska. This kind of information can be used for many scientific and educational purposes, including hazard mitigation efforts and public outreach in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve.

In the field, days are long partially because the sun really does not ever completely set, but also because we are out all day hiking through muskeg, up and down cliffs, and filling our backpacks up with rocks. We fly to our study locations — and back — via the Super Cubs and sleep in tents. Essentially, we trade food for rocks on each trip out and back.

Bear-proof food containers that were initially filled with food become filled with rocks, and each move to a new location means we resupply with new food and send out newly collected rocks. But, the “classroom” is stunning and the experience is one of a kind. The life of a geologist is full of rocks and beauty, and we love it!

Thus far, four K-State graduate and undergraduate students have participated in the project, which allows them to experience cutting-edge scientific research and, for two students, experience Alaskan fieldwork. We are studying the chemistry and physical characteristics of the rocks we collect. This information tells us about what part of the Earth the magma, which is now cooled rock, came from originally and how it erupted — e.g., volcano type.

Matthew Brueseke is an associate professor of geology in Kansas State University’s College of Arts & Sciences.

To read a more detailed description about Brueseke’s Alaskan project, visit artsci.k-state.edu/letters/alaska.

artsci.k-state.edu

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A sweet deal

by Stephanie Jacques

The chocolate industry, psychological science researchers and students have benefited from Kansas State University’s recent partnership with The Hershey Co. Michael Young, professor and head of the psychological sciences department in the College of Arts & Sciences, started working with Hershey’s to research consumer preferences for chocolate labeling.

Hershey’s provided the university with $50,000 for student researchers and with chocolate for research participants. In return, the university provided data that helped executives make some strategic decisions regarding the use of simple or organic ingredients and ethical sourcing.

The research, published in the April 2016 issue of Food Quality and Preference, also provides additional insight into consumer behavior that the researchers may not have discovered if it were not for the industryacademia partnership. For most participants, their choice behavior reflected minimal concern for ethical factors, whereas their public declarations in a focus group suggested otherwise.

“Focus groups were important to Hershey’s, but that was different than the way I tend to investigate judgment and decision-making,” Young said.

“It turns out that including the focus groups was very interesting because people acted quite differently in the two methods. That probably ended up being one of the biggest take-home messages of the entire project.”

The mutualistic partnership not only gave the researchers and industry executives an interesting insight into consumer behavior, but also gave valuable experience for the three students who conducted the research. One of the students was Anthony McCoy, doctoral student in psychological sciences, Albion, Michigan, who helped co-author the journal article.

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THE NEED: Flexible research dollars for faculty and students.

TO HELP: Contact Emily Mahoney at (816) 309-6899 or emilym@found.ksu. edu or make a gift online found.ksu.edu/give/ PsychResearch.

“One of the big advantages of bringing in resources from Hershey’s is that it allowed us to support student research,” Young said. “When we think about the goal of teaching at a university, it is not just what happens in the classroom; it is also these other experiences that the students are able to get.”

Young said working with a land-grant institution like K-State provides valuable and affordable services to corporations, but there is a learning curve for both researchers and industry professionals.

“One of the biggest challenges when dealing with a corporation on research is the very different expectations,” Young said. “A lot of it is making it very clear with the students and with any faculty members right up front that they understand what the expectations are when working with a company.”

Young, who worked for Procter and Gamble early in his career, said corporations have hard-and-fast deadlines that researchers will need to respect, but that industry professionals

need to be aware that academic researchers will need projects that can fit into semester or academic year blocks of time because the student workers’ availability is heavily influenced by the academic calendar.

“Corporations are getting relatively inexpensive labor when they come to a university but, in essence, they are subsidizing student training while getting the data that they need,” Young said.

Establishing contract language that works for both sides also is part of the learning curve, Young said.

“Researchers need to understand that they cannot disclose corporate strategy, but industry professionals also need to understand that academic researchers need to be able to publish their findings,” Young said. “Finding the middle ground when negotiating contract language can be challenging but doable if both parties understand the other’s vantage point.”

The partnership with Hershey’s helped Young and other faculty understand how to better work with corporations and may have cleared a path for future partnership opportunities. Young advises researchers to look to their alumni and vice versa as sources for partnership.

“Many of our alumni would appreciate having access to the skills we bring to the table,” Young said. “It seems that both sides are reluctant to ask because they don’t want to take advantage of the other, but I think there are excellent mutually beneficial partnership opportunities there.”

Anthony McCoy and Michael Young (right)

artsci.k-state.edu

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Real-life lessons lead to Marshall Scholarship

by Stephanie Jacques

Hitchhiking and biking from Kansas through Central America was the only option for Jordan Thomas, May 2016 bachelor’s graduate in anthropology in the College of Arts & Sciences, if he really wanted to answer his many questions and understand different cultures along the way.

“I admire Jordan’s ability to step outside his comfort zone in order to explore his world, gain new perspectives and cultivate his goals,” said Jim Hohenbary, director of Kansas State University’s Office of Nationally Competitive Scholarships.

“Jordan has repeatedly engaged with new and unfamiliar communities during his time at K-State.”

Thomas, Kansas State University’s newest Marshall Scholar, took a gap year— a break from traditional school — in 2014 to explore other cultures. That time improved his leadership and ambassadorial skills, two criteria for the Marshall Scholarship, which provides graduate study in the United Kingdom. He ignored repeated warnings — some very graphic — about traveling through many perceived dangerous territories of Central America.

“My mom was certainly scared, and she was not happy I was going,” Thomas said. “Her best friend asked if I was crazy. I wasn’t crazy; I just had questions. Not going wasn’t an option.”

Thomas blogged about his trip. In it, he mentions some of his fears and a few scary moments, but he also wrote about the great people who helped him along the way — a key point he refers to anytime he speaks about the trip. He went on the trip because he believes the world is good and everyone should explore it to learn more about the people in it.

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THE NEED: To enhance the Nationally and Internationally Competitive Scholars Program.

TO HELP: Contact Sheila Walker at 785-532-7511 or sheilaw@found.ksu.edu or make a gift online found.ksu.edu/give/KSUCompetitiveScholars.

“For every one creepy person I met, I met hundreds of amazing people — and not just in the United States but in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador,” Thomas said. “These places become dangerous when they lose that sense of humanity that comes with real human connection. I think if you open yourself up to the world, the world will receive you.”

Thomas has spoken about his adventures at several universitywide events — such as the Innovation and Inspiration Campaign kickoff, Spotlight K-State and TEDxMHK — often mentioning the kind and generous people he met. He said his experiences have given him a better understanding of cultures and how cultures influence food systems.

While in Guatemala, Thomas said there were political discussions about terminator seeds, which are genetically modified to produce sterile plants during harvest. Since the plants are sterile, the terminator seeds need to be purchased every year. Laws often are established to prevent other seeds from being used.

“I was at a traditional Mayan religious ceremony and the shaman led a discussion about how they were going to fight legislation to bring terminator seeds to Guatemala,” Thomas said. “They view their heritage seeds — seeds passed down through generations — as their connection to their identity, while terminator seeds are a violation of their religious rights.”

This experience, along with many other national and international endeavors, has encouraged Thomas to focus his research on environment and social sustainability with a particular interest in food systems. With the help of the Marshall Scholarship, Thomas will continue his cultural anthropology research as part of his graduate degree in the U.K. “Questions have played a very important role in my life,” Thomas said. “I haven’t answered all of my questions, and I hope I never do. The world that we live in retains a beautiful diversity of people, places and culture with infinite complexities and ageless traditions. If you don’t explore the world, you won’t question.”

artsci.k-state.edu

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Regarding the route we took:

by Jordan Thomas

My brother, friend and I left from Atchison, Kansas.

We biked to Lawrence, Kansas.

Down to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Dallas, Texas.

Austin, Texas.

San Antonio, Texas.

McAllen, Texas.

We crossed the border at Reynosa, Mexico.

We took a bus to the Pacific Coast city of Mazatlan to avoid some dangerous areas and bike the coast.

My friend headed home at this point, so it was just my brother and me.

We followed the coast through the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Nayarit and Colima.

We took a bus through the state of Michoacan to avoid some dangerous areas.

In the city of Acapulco, we turned away from the coast and bicycled to the city of Chilpancingo in the state of Guerrero. We then went to Tehuacan, Puebla; Huautla de Jimenez, Oaxaca; Oaxaca City, Oaxaca; Tuxtla, Chiapas; and then San Cristobal, Chiapas. This is where my brother and I parted ways.

Next, Guatemala and Huehuetenango, Lake Atitlan, Antigua and Santiago Sacatepequez.

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I started hitchhiking and riding worker buses at this point to Juayua, El Salvador, and then San Salvador, El Salvador.

I crossed into Honduras at El Amatillo.

Then it was quickly into Nicaragua near Somoto; on to Managua, Nicaragua; and then to Granada, where I met with my brother for his final week.

Next was San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.

I then crossed into Costa Rica at Penas Blancas and headed to Quepos, Costa Rica.

I went into Panama at Pasos Canoas.

I hiked into the mountains near San Felix, Chiriqui, Panama, then went to Panama City.

I took a small plane over the Darien Gap — hundreds of miles of cartelfilled roadless jungle separating North and South America — and landed in Medellin, Colombia. I stayed in Colombia for several months.

Read more about Jordan’s trip on his blog: jordancthomas123.blogspot.com.

Atchison

Lawrence

2015 Mexico Peace Index

Tulsa

Most peaceful

Least peaceful

Dallas

Austin San Antonio

Crossed the border

McAllen Reynosa

economicsandpeace.org

Mazatlan

Friend headed home

Tehuacan Chilpancingo Acapulco

Huautla de Jimenez Oaxaca

Tuxtla

Lake Atitlan

Parted ways

San Cristobal Huehuetenango Guatemala City El Amatillo Juayua Antigua

San Salvador Hitchhiked

Somoto Met with Managua brother Granada San Juan del Sur Penas Blancas Quepos Panama City Pasos Canoas San Felix Hiked

Chiriqui Darien Gap

Medellin Stayed for months

Part of the graphics created by kesaryvamshi from the Noun Project.

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Kimathi Choma A multicultural catalyst

by Tiffany Roney

Kimathi Choma is a catalyst. Like the catalyst in a chemical reaction, Choma brings together the reactants and makes the reaction work to produce change.

As the College of Arts & Sciences’ assistant dean of diversity, recruitment and retention, Choma has formed partnerships with organizations across campus and worked with faculty, staff and students to broaden and enhance programs intended to increase the diversity of the college and promote recruitment and retention of all students.

During Choma’s tenure, the college has expanded its diversity committee and advanced several programs like the diversity lecture series and the student diversity summit. Since joining the deans’ office in 2014, the college has also established new diversity programs, including a civil rights teach-in offered during the university’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Observance Week and a pre-health mentoring program for first-generation students, many of whom belong to underrepresented groups.

“Kansas State University is a public institution, so we have to serve the Kansas citizenry,” Choma said. “K-State should reflect the Kansas population, potentially in the same percentages that are out in the community.”

The college is particularly focusing recruitment efforts on schools with large enrollments of students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds, such as Junction City High School.

Choma is also working with the Kansas Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, which partners with community colleges in southwest Kansas and urban Kansas City, Kansas, to encourage students to transfer to K-State.

“With education, you can reduce poverty. If students have a bachelor’s degree, their earning power is greater, so we are promoting the recruitment of all students, and especially multicultural students,” Choma said. “We want to see them get involved in programs that set them up for success, and then go on to graduate.”

Looking to the future, Choma would like to collaborate with faculty and staff to establish a curricular overlay regarding diversity and cultural competency.

“Students are going out into a diverse world, and whether they’re in art, aerospace or any other field, there’s a basic level of knowledge about people who are different from you that you need in order to be successful,” Choma said. “Our students may go on to travel the world and interact with people from a variety of cultures, so we have a responsibility to educate them about cross-cultural interactions.”

Choma is in the process of starting a chapter for the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science, and he hopes to eventually launch a black male initiative to retain and graduate more African-American men. He also serves as liaison from the College of Arts & Sciences to the Black Faculty and Staff Alliance, Alianza and the newly established Indigenous Alliance, an interdisciplinary organization for Native American faculty and staff.

“We’re eager to promote diversity in the College of Arts & Sciences and to partner with others at K-State who are also working to recruit and retain multicultural students,” Choma said.

“We’re all about supporting students.”

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THE NEED: To increase diversity in the college and promote recruitment and retention of all students.

TO HELP: Contact a member of the development team at (785) 532-7603 or (800) 432-1578 or make a gift online found.ksu.edu/give/ OppsforAS.

artsci.k-state.edu

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by Jennifer Tidball

Are teens ruining language?

Linguist studies changes in teen speech If you’re too “basic” to “YOLO” or think that slang is never “on fleek,” fear not: How teenagers speak IRL is not ruining the English language, according to Kansas State University linguistics research.

In fact, teenagers may not be causing language change the way that we typically think, said Mary Kohn, assistant professor of English. Kohn studies language variation and how language changes over time.

Kohn’s latest research found that teenagers are not solely causing language change. Rather, language changes occur throughout a lifetime and not just during the teenage years.

“Our research has shown teens are being dynamic with language, but not necessarily in a consistent way,” Kohn said.

“We aren’t eliminating the possibility that teenagers are driving sound change, but we might be grossly overstating the role of teenagers.”

Kohn found there was not a consistent language path that a person took from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. Language change is more individualistic and varies for each person, she said.

“Very commonly, people think that teenagers are ruining language because they are texting or using shorthand or slang,” Kohn said. “But our language is constantly developing and changing and becoming what it needs to be for the generation who is speaking it. As a linguist, I find this really exciting because it shows me that our language is alive.”

Kohn used the Frank Porter Graham project, which is a database that followed 67 children from infancy to their early 20s. The database includes audio and interview recordings from nearly every year of the children’s lives and also has recordings of family members, friends and teachers — all valuable information for understanding how language changes as individuals grow up, Kohn said.

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Using this database, Kohn studied sound waves — a precise measurement of how people pronounce words. She focused on 20 individuals during four different time periods: fourth grade, eighth grade, 10th grade and post-high school at age 20. Kohn measured pronunciations to see if the participants dramatically changed during the teenage years.

Her longitudinal approach offered a before and after look at linguistic pronunciation during the teenage years.

“The teenager subgroup did not stand out as a group from the rest of the subgroups, meaning there was nothing special about being a teenager,” Kohn said. “Just because you are a teenager doesn’t mean you will change your language. Perhaps our stereotypes about how teenagers speak are often based on subgroups of teenagers that stand out to us as most distinct. We notice the kids who make bold fashion statements, so we also might notice the kids who are making dramatic linguistic changes.”

Other subgroups experience language change, Kohn said, and she suggests that sources of language change may happen in younger children. Children turn away from adult influence when they get to school, which may be the crucial point when language starts to shift.

During high school, teenagers often explore their own identities and may again choose to change their pronunciations and use language as a part of their identities. When these teens grow up and graduate from college or get a job, they may change their language again to sound more professional and meet the demands of their jobs and pressures of the workplace, Kohn said.

“All languages, throughout history, change as generations grow up and move through life,” Kohn said. “As long as there are people who are living and breathing and speaking, we’re going to invent new words.

We’re going to invent new ways of speaking.”

Kohn recently published the research in a monograph, “The way I communicate changes but how I speak don’t.” The research was a collaboration with researchers at North Carolina State University, including Walt Wolfrom, Janneke Van Hofwegen, Charlie Farington and Jennifer Renn.

artsci.k-state.edu

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Life in

the DESERT

by Tom Roesler

Forty percent of the global population lives in expanding dryland regions, which means water and other resources traditionally seen as vital to produce food and sustain human communities are becoming increasingly scarce. Two faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences are doing something about it.

April Bojorquez, instructor of American ethnic studies, and Matt Garcia, assistant professor of art, created desertArtLAB, which is dedicated to a social art practice that explores the connection between ecology, culture and community.

“As scholars who study aesthetics, we’ve learned that, at times, our understanding of aesthetic value can be in conflict with realities of our ecological place,” Garcia said. “For us, ecological space is cultural space, whether it’s a grass lawn or vacant dirt lot or flourishing desert ecosystem.

We try and ask ourselves, ‘What is that culture?’”

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As their work progresses, others are taking notice.

Earlier this year, Bojorquez and Garcia received the prestigious Creative Capital Award, which will fund a new project, The Desertification Cookbook.

“While working with native dryland ecology we’ve, of course, learned a great appreciation for the beauty, reliance and complexity of these often misunderstood systems,” Bojorquez said. “But we’ve also learned an ethic that can transcend the created ecological growth to your daily living and thinking.

These systems take so little and give so much back.

This is also what the cookbook is about.”

Only 46 artistic projects in the nation were selected to receive a Creative Capital Award in 2016. Each project receives up to $50,000 in direct funding and additional resources and advisory services. Drawing on venture capital principles, Creative Capital seeks out artists who are bold, innovative and genre-stretching, then surrounds those artists with the tools they need to realize their visions.

The Desertification Cookbook will visually rebrand the concept of deserts, not as a postapocalyptic growth of wasteland, but as a culinary and ecological opportunity.

In summer 2016, Bojorquez and Garcia will launch the first desertArtLAB field site at a deteriorated lot in the high deserts of southern Colorado. The field site will act as a space to test the cultivation of various dryland flora and to investigate how the reintroduction of native desert flora will impact overall soil health. Once established, the field site will rely solely on annual natural precipitation as a water source.

April Bojorquez is a faculty member in the American ethnic studies department and an assistant curator at the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art. Formerly, she was the curator of art at the National Hispanic Cultural Center and a fellow of the Smithsonian Institution’s Latino Museum Studies Program. Bojorquez works within the intersection of art and anthropology. She has worked in the museum field nationally and internationally, exploring new approaches to museum practices in an increasingly multicultural society. Influenced by participatory practices and social sculpture, Bojorquez employs diverse strategies to produce immersive and interactive environments exploring place, identity and museum practices.

Matt Garcia is an assistant professor of digital/experimental media in the K-State art department. His artistic practice investigates ecology, its relationship to knowledge systems and how media can connect communities to a reclaiming or reimagining of lost epistemology. Garcia’s work has been presented nationally and internationally at venues such as Ecole Nationale SupÊrieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris France; International Symposium on Electronic Art, Vancouver, Canada; European Research Network Sociology of the Arts, Vienna, Austria; Balance-Unbalance Festival, Noose, Australia; and Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory, or HASTAC, Lima, Peru.

artsci.k-state.edu

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Meet the 2016 A&S Alumni Fellows

Susan Williams

Dennis Cook

Staff physician at the Cleveland Clinic in the endocrinology department.

Professor and director of the School of Statistics at the University of Minnesota.

Susan Williams is currently a staff physician at the Cleveland Clinic in the endocrinology department. She is a nationally recognized expert in the diagnosis and treatment of metabolicrelated complications and is one of four experts in metabolic bone disease practicing in the Cleveland Clinic’s Endocrine Calcium Clinic.

Williams earned her bachelor’s degree in music education from Kansas State University in 1979. After teaching public school for two years, she attended the University of Rhode Island where she earned her master’s degree in food science and nutrition. She then accepted an Air Force commission and completed her dietetic internship and distinguished herself as a registered dietician.

In 2003, she earned her medical degree from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. While completing a residency and fellowship she began investigating the unique metabolic complications related to bariatric — weight loss — surgery.

The work led her to coin the phrase “bariatric osteomalacia,” characterizing reversible bone loss common in this population.

She co-authored a book published in 2013 on osteoporosis, “DXA Primer for the Practicing Clinician,” that has become a well-recognized reference text published in several languages.

Williams continues to practice, teach, inspire, mentor and publish.

She has faculty appointments at two medical schools, and serves on the board of directors of the National Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists and the American Board of Obesity Medicine.

She is a fellow of the American College of Nutrition, American College of Physicians and American College of Endocrinology.

Dennis Cook is professor and director of the School of Statistics at the University of Minnesota. He manages a school with 300 undergraduate, 70 master’s and 45 doctoral students majoring in statistics. Previously, he served as chair of the department of applied statistics and director of the Statistical Center.

Perhaps best known for “Cook’s Distance,” a now ubiquitous statistical method, he has authored more than 225 research articles, two textbooks and two research monographs. He received the 2005 COPSS Fisher Lectureship and Award, one of the highest honors conferred by the statistics profession, and is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.

He began his statistics career in high school working after school and summers at an agricultural experiment station until he received his Bachelor of Science from Northern Montana College in 1967. He went on to Kansas State University, receiving his doctorate in 1970.

Cook and his wife, Jami, live in the Twin Cities region. They have two sons, Jason and Christopher, and four grandchildren.

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Four faculty members receive the college's top awards Stamey Awards for Undergraduate Teaching and Advising William L. Stamey is a mathematician and served as dean of the College of Arts & Sciences from 1970-1987. In recognition of Dean Stamey’s outstanding record in recruiting excellent faculty to Kansas State University and in recognition of the

continuing need to foster excellence in teaching and advising, the College of Arts & Sciences established the William L. Stamey Award in 1990. This year’s recipients are:

Undergraduate Advising Awards

Undergraduate Teaching Awards

Dr. Sabri Ciftci Associate Professor, Political Science

Dr. Lauren Ritterbush Associate Professor, Archaeology

Ashok Aryal Graduate Teaching Assistant, Mathematics

Sarah Buchanan Undergraduate Academic Advisor, Psychological Sciences

Eight faculty receive university awards Carlos Castellanos Assistant Professor of Art Big 12 Faculty Fellowship Award

Soo-Hye Han Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Presidential Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

Saugata Datta Associate Professor of Geology Big 12 Faculty Fellowship Award

Heidi Mehl Graduate Student in Geography Presidential Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

Theodore Morgan Associate Professor of Biology Big 12 Faculty Fellowship Award

Richard Zajac Professor of Physics Presidential Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

Nathaniel Birkhead Assistant Professor of Political Science Commerce Bank and W.T. Kemper Foundation Outstanding Teaching Award

Amit Chakrabarti Department Head of Physics and Interim Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences Presidential Award for Outstanding Department Head

113 Eisenhower Hall 1013 Mid-Campus Drive North Manhattan, KS 66506-1005 650-001

Tailgate with us!

The College of Arts & Sciences will host a tailgate party in Cat Town prior to each home football game this fall, and we are extending an invitation to the entire ArtSci family to join the fun and connect with your college!

Date

Opponent

Tailgate Start

Kickoff

Last year, nearly 500 college alumni and friends made this the best pregame party in Cat Town. We hope you’ll join the fun in 2016!

Department

Sept. 17

Florida Atlantic

11:30 a.m.

1:30 p.m.

Geography | Chemistry | Comm. Studies Mathematics | History

Sept. 24

Missouri State — Band Day — Family Day

3:30 p.m.

6:10 p.m.

Biology | Music, Theatre, and Dance American Ethnic Studies | AFROTC

Oct. 8

Texas Tech

TBA

TBA

Psychological Sciences | Modern Languages English | Geology | Johnson Cancer Center

Oct. 22

Texas — Homecoming

TBA

TBA

BMB | Political Science | Women’s Studies | SASW

Nov. 5

Oklahoma State — Fort Riley Day

TBA

TBA

Physics | Philosophy | Stats | ARTOC

Nov. 26

KU

TBA

TBA

Art | Economics | JMC Online RSVPs: found.ksu.edu/rsvp/as-cattown