A&l newsletter final

Vol.4 Issue 1 Fall 2016

Whitt-Lambert named exemplary teacher

Why Liberal Arts?

I am continually struck by the extraordinary transformation that takes place in our students during their years at our university, and in the efforts of our faculty who strive to facilitate such growth. Yet, I still regularly encounter individuals who ask, “what is a School of Arts & Letters?,” or “what is a Liberal Arts degree?”

These are good questions for us to ponder. The term “liberal arts” dates back to at least the period of the late Middle Ages. It arose, as a reference to academic pursuits that were typically made available to an elite class, and differed from the more occupational training offered to those of lower social status.  CONTINUED. page 2

- Dr. Mark Hanshaw Dean, School of Arts and Letters

In this issue

Worthy Award................ 2 Music in Taiwan............. 3 Study Abroad................. 4 Faculty & Staff Profile...... 5 Stop Kiss......................... 6 Religion Faculty Books....7 Dean’s List...................... 8

Photo by Chuck Greeson Dr. Henderson (left) and President Slabach (right) present Connie Whitt-Lambert with her award.

Connie Whitt-Lambert has been with Texas Wesleyan University since 1989.

She said she was shocked to receive the Exemplary Teacher Award for the 2016-2017 school year from the United Methodist Church’s Division of Education.

“I had no idea I had ever been nominated,” she said.

“So, when the provost called to tell me I’d received the award, my initial reaction was one of total disbelief.”

Whitt-Lambert has produced more than a dozen

plays and directed more than 50 productions. She loves being at Wesleyan and teaching such classes as Intro to Theatre, Theatre History I and 11, playwriting and teaching theatre. Even though she enjoys all those subjects, her passion is playwriting and theatre history.

She is in charge of the department’s long-running Play Market series, which is a venue for Wesleyan playwrights and is in New York.

Being a part of theatre can be very tiring, Whitt-Lambert

said.

“It’s crucial that all theatre practitioners be collaborative and tireless,” she said.

She loves her job and loves to teach, and she looks forward to her classes and the interaction with her students.

Next semester she will be directing two productions back-to-back for the Theatre Wesleyan season: the musical Urinetown: The Musical in April as well as an original script for Wesleyan’s Play Market presentation at Rattle Stick Playwrights Theatre.

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Mass Communication students win Worthy Award Students in Texas Wesleyan’s Public Relations Campaigns class, MCO 4346, won an Award of Excellence at the Worthy Awards for the communication audit of Wesleynotes.

The class included six students: Dalise DeVos, Tabitha Buentello, Gracie Weger, Onyesonam Nolisa, Cenk Tuncel and Victoria Johnson. They worked together to complete the communications audit, which was designed to determine the effectiveness of the Arts & Letters newsletter.

Dr. Kay L. Colley, department chair and director of student media, led the

public relations class to receive a Worthy Award.

“I’m so very proud of our students,” Colley said. “They did a wonderful job with this communication audit, and we intend to use this audit as we continue to produce Wesleynotes for the School of Arts & Letters.”

The communications audit successfully evaluated the School of Arts and Letters’ newsletter, Wesleynotes.

Winners were announced at the Fifth Annual Worthy Awards Gala on Nov. 3 at the Fort Worth Club. More than 60 awards were presented to public rela-

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Araujo judges summer program in Taiwan

tions and communications professionals for strategic communications programs and campaigns. The awards are sponsored by the Fort Worth Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

DeVos said it was an honor to be around so many PR professionals.

“I was very grateful for not only receiving the award for all of my and my classmates’ hard work,” she said, “but for also the opportunity to network and meet so many hopefully future colleagues.”

This is the second time Texas Wesleyan students have been honored with a Worthy Award of Excellence.

Photo Courtesy of Dr. Ilka Araujo Students from the IPPEC pose with Dr. Araujo (center, back) in between practices and performances.

Photo Courtsey of PRSA Fort Worth Pictured from left to right are students Cenk Tuncel, Tabitha Buentello, Onyesonam Nolisa, Dalise DeVos and Gracie Weger.

Continued from page 1

The word liberal referenced the “unrestricted” nature of these pursuits and the term “arts” identified their topics of study that had to do with the cultivation of mental acuity, and included such areas as philosophy and law.

Today, while our world is much different than that of the Middle Ages, we still embrace liberal arts education. Why is this so?

Perhaps a recent American Association of Colleges & University study may help us answer this question.

The survey sought to identify core qualities being sought by prospective employers of new college graduates. Each of the most commonly cited qualities was linked to goals that underlie liberal arts education, and included: communication skills, critical thinking and problem solving abilities, intercultural awareness and the capacity to engage new ideas. Proudly, I can assert that these are precisely among the skills we seek to cultivate in our School.

Dr. Ilka Vasconcelos Araujo, Texas Wesleyan associate professor of musicology and piano, received an invitation from the International Piano Performance Examination Committee (IPPEC) to be a judge at its annual summer program in Taiwan.

Araujo said her credentials helped her to get recommended to the IPPEC. “I did a program at Mississippi State University a few years ago, and they liked very much what I did there,” she said. “I taught and I played concerts and all that, so they recommended me to this committee [IPPEC].”

The IPPEC, a nonprofit educational organization, was initiated in 1989 to serve the needs of Taiwanese music students. Based in Taiwan, the IPPEC exists to provide academic-oriented evaluation systems and a complete educational consultation in terms of further studies in music. Every year the organization invites an accredited individual to be the judge at its annual program. The invited judge critiques the musicians while teaching them how to improve their

music by covering the topics of technique, style, musical ideas and choice of sounds. The judge is also required to test the participants’ knowledge through preset questions created by IPPEC on music history, music theory, and the participants’ ability to read sheet music.

During the six-week program, which ran from July 1 to Aug. 7, Araujo worked with a total of 1,849 students, listening to approximately 60 to 100 students play in an eight-hour shift.

Most of the students came from Taiwan, but a few came from the Philippines, China, Korea and Japan.

“I really enjoyed working with the students,” Araujo said. “They were very motivated and interested in learning. They worked hard and wanted to hear more ideas. So that part was actually very rewarding.”

Working with the IPPEC allowed her to take the name of Texas Wesleyan to Taiwan. The IPPEC was so pleased with Araujo’s work they asked her to recommend people for next year. Araujo has recommended two of Wesleyan’s profes-

sors, Dr. John Fisher, professor of piano, music theory, and women composers, and Jose Cubela, an adjunct piano instructor, and they have both been selected to be judges for the summer of 2017.

Araujo said that by creating this connection, Texas Wesleyan may gain more students in the future.

“Some of these students are very young, and all of them want to study in America at some point because it’s very prestigious for them to have a degree from the United States. So, if they ever come this way, then at least they know Texas Wesleyan is another option for them,” Araujo said.

Araujo really enjoyed learning about a different culture she had never been exposed to and plans to be a judge once again.

“They have a rule that you can only go after three years because they don’t want you to remember any of the candidates, even though [with] 1,800 [students] you’re not really going to remember, but they want it to be really fair,” she said. “So in 2019, I am going back there again.”

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Theatre Wesleyan presents: Stop Kiss Theatre Wesleyan’s Stop Kiss won over its audience.

The play, directed by senior theatre major Colton Mallory, is a humorous yet emotional production that discusses love and the trials that it might lead to.

Mallory said his favorite part of directing Stop Kiss was getting to see all the aspects and collaboration of people in the department come together.

“With an ever-changing society, especially here in 2016, I think this show and its subject matter is as relevant, if not more relevant, than it was being set in 1995,” Mallory said. “I want people to know that love is love; it doesn’t matter what race, what gender, what religion, it doesn’t matter, love is love and nobody should be persecuted for that; so, that’s really what I want the students to feel, especially with America today.”

Several members of the LGBTQ community have suffered fatal attacks this year, and Mallory said the play rein-

forces the struggles that members of that community can face while they struggle for equality.

Senior theatre major Jasmine West played the role of Sara in this production.

West said this story is something that is very relevant, especially in this year and with all that is going on. This year’s election was one that emphasized two very different opinions on the LGBTQ community.

“I hope the audience learns to value and appreciate those close to them and really pay attention to what they feel because I feel like, in the show, there was a lot of emotions being suppressed by the two girls, and I feel like time is short so they need to learn to allow themselves to feel the love, and feel the emotions, and act on it,” West said.

West said that her favorite part of the production process was getting really close with her cast members and con-

stantly supporting each other.

Sophomore Kimberly Owen was the understudy for the role of Callie and got the chance to play this role for the first couple of shows.

“It was really amazing to watch the entire department come together to rally around one person when I learned that I had to take on the role,” Owen said.

“Everyone has been extremely supportive, from the audience, to the dressers, to the designers. It has been amazing to see everyone come together and make this happen. My department can do anything. Together we can make magic happen. I am very proud to be a part of Theatre Wesleyan.”

Stop Kiss was the second production of Theatre Wesleyan’s current season.

Be sure to look for Theatre Wesleyan’s upcoming production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which runs February 9-19, 2017.

Photo courtesy of Jacob Sanchez Jasmine West (left) and Giselle Saucedo played Sara and Callie in Theatre Wesleyan’s fall production of Diana Son’s Stop Kiss.

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Religion faculty members pen three books Four of Texas Wesleyan’s religion faculty members have written or collaborated on the production of three separate books in the past two years.

Dr. Bruce McDonald, professor of religion, will be using his textbook Western Religions in his course in REL 2322 Mediterranean Religions this Spring.

The book, published by Kendall Hunt, carries a 2016 copyright, but was still in the process of being published at the Thanksgiving break.

The book looks at Western religions from a historical background and how they are shaped today. McDonald was asked to do the text by Kendall Hunt and encouraged to do the text by Dr. Mark Hanshaw, Arts & Letters interim dean, who had, himself, just co-authored another text with Dr. Lili Zhang, associate professor of religion.

“I knew I had some books in me, but I wasn’t sure how to get started, and this was a great start,” McDonald said.

When Hanshaw encouraged McDonald to do the book, he had just completed the second edition of his book, this time collaborating with Zhang to reshape the text. The book, From East to West: A Comparative Study of the World’s Great Religions, also published in 2016, was published in Spring. Hanshaw said that the volume responded to a void existing within the available mass market of textbooks on world religions.

“We think this textbook is somewhat unique in the marketplace right now,” Hanshaw said. “Having the twin perspectives of scholars born on opposite sides of the globe and steeped in the history of both Eastern and Western religious systems, this volume helps students better understand and examine the diversity of spiritual viewpoints from around the globe.”

Working together, Hanshaw and Zhang revised the textbook to include case studies and primary materials that offer students an opportunity to directly engage varied traditional and contemporary religious perspectives. The duo had collaborated before on a video proj-

Second Edition

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Photo courtesy of Dr. Mark Hanshaw One of the three books written by faculty memers in the last two years.

ect, “A Day with the Tao: The Ritual Life in a Taoist Temple,” which won a silver award at the annual World Fest-Houston International Independent Film Festival in 2015.

“That ran very well,” Zhang said. “Not just the film was good, but this kind of collaboration was very pleasant.” The collaboration has spun off more ideas between Hanshaw and Zhang resulting in upcoming projects for books and research articles.

Another collaborative effort between Dr. Kendra Irons, associate professor of religion and Dr. Melanie Springer Mock, started with a blog that resulted in the book, If Eve Only Knew, published in 2015. The book takes a look at evangelical representations of women in religion

from a feminist perspective.

Irons and Mock were colleagues at George Fox University and became interested in the topic of messages that conservative culture conveys to women. The book continues to be popular among churchgoers, and has led Irons to work with church groups throughout the nation.

With all of these publications from faculty in the religion department, it’s clear that something special is happening on the third floor of Polytechnic United Methodist Church.

“It is the hope that these texts will inspire future scholars, future collaborations and lines of research, extending well beyond our campus,” Hanshaw said.

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Last Name

School of Arts & Letters

Dean’s Honor List First Name

Loya Roberto Luker Stephanie McDermott Emily McIntyre Amber Mendoza Lorena Mentesana Alexa Messenger Emily Morris Mattie Muns Karan Murillo Clarissa O’Donnell Heather Oge Justin Olmedo Isabel Olson Issac Owen Kimberly Owens Sarah Park Sarah Hyun Pendelton Jessica Petry Joan Phillips Carolyn Phillips Clayton Phillips Lauren Poche Shannon Puga Jaclyn Quinones Antonio Rivers Cathy Saheb Zahraa Salazar Crystal Sample Rebecca Sanchez Lilia Sims Kimberlee Smith Katherine Szamatulski Kasey Terry Bruce Trevor Daniel Tunnell Devon Turner Mark Vaughn Avary Villa Rolando Villararreal Nadan Wade Brittany Williams Casey Williams Sarah

Last Name

Bailey Barrera Bowers Bradford Brown Brueggemann Bunch Byerly Caledron Carter Cheng Coile Collier Collins Conlon Cruz Dawson Devos Dixon Dunlap Durham Espinoza Fillingim Fitzgerald Fitzhugh Flores Frankel Golemi Green Griffin Guse Hernadez Huebner Jayaratne Johnson Johnson Kerzman King-Nelson Lassker Lehr Levy Lopez

First Name

Shanna Aleksei Tamera Rachel Mckenzie Michelle Caleb Cameron Luis Christina Youngxu Jared Ryan Dexter Johnathon Lucia Kevin Dalise Lauren Cassandra David Valeria Andrew Amanda Edward Jorge Katherine Nikoelota Robert Tobin Tyler Enriqueta Benjamin Sachiko Calvin Dapril Jenny Lori Jan Rowan Rachel Alexander

Wesleynotes is the official newsletter for the School of Arts and Letters at Texas Wesleyan University. It was produced by students in MCO 3351 and MCO 3320 at Texas Wesleyan University.

Interim Arts and Letters Dean: Dr. Mark Hanshaw For more information, contact the Dean of Arts and Letters office at 817-531-4900 or come by Polytechnic United Methodist Church, 256.

Contributors: Mattie Morris Oni Nolisa April Suarez Olvera Alexander Gudac Karan Muns Shaydi Paramore Marisol Amaya Dr. Kay Colley Editor: Caroline Kajihara Special Thank You to Chuck Greeson and Dr. David Ferman

Got a story idea? Something you’d like to hear about? Let us know what you think about this edition of Wesleynotes.We would love your feedback.

Contact Dr. Kay Colley via email at kcolley@txwes.edu or phone at 817-531-6525