MALS Newsletter Spring 2012

Master of Arts in Liberal Studies 505 Ramapo Valley Road Mahwah, NJ 07430 mals@ramapo.edu 201.684.7709

MALS Newsletter Spring 2012

Volume VI, Number 2

Spring 2011 MALS Graduates Present Theses

F

MALS Faculty Anthony Padovano, Director

Bernard Langer

Lisa Cassidy

Jennefer Mazza

Rosetta D’Angelo

James Morley

Ellen Dolgin

Hassan Nejad

Martha Ecker

Stephen Rice

Kay Fowler

Ellen Ross

Donald Fucci

Bernard Roy

Shalom Gorewitz

Edward Shannon

Howard Horowitz

Jeremy Teigen

Karl Johnson

Elaine Winshell

MALS Academic Committee

our MALS students presented their theses at this spring’s MALS Presentation Night and Reception.

Each semester a Presentation Night is given for graduating students who have completed their theses. The Dean, Director, presenting students, their families, MALS faculty mentors and any MALS students who would like to hear the presentations are welcome. Thesis presenters in the Spring of 2011 were:

Gregory DeMiceli Greg works for Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Suffern, NY. He is responsible for 60 people who can be “challenging: to manage.” The MALS program enabled him to bring an interdisciplinary approach to solving problems and driving change within the organization.

Greg is married and has two children.

His thesis was “Social Class and Wealth: A Historical View as Seen in Shays Rebellion and the Haymarket Affair.” Greg’s faculty mentor was Dr. Jeremy Teigen, Associate Professor of Political Science.

Dr. Anthony T. Padovano Dr. Lisa Cassidy Dr. Donald Fucci

Gregory Fenkart Greg currently works as the Program Coordinator in the Office of Student Life at Bergen Community College.

He has always enjoyed writing, and is grateful to the MALS faculty

MALS students presented their theses at a Student Presentation Night in April. From left to right: Cassie McKeefrey, MALS Director Dr. Anthony Padovano, Keith Lamber, Gregory Fenkart, SAIS Dean Hassan Nejad and Gregory DeMiceli.

for helping “tremendously in improving and expanding my skills in this area.” His thesis was titled “In Defense of Fear: Simulated Fear and Coping with Real Terror.” His faculty mentor was Dr. Lisa Cassidy, Associate Professor of Philosophy.

Keith Lamber Keith teaches sixth grade in Hackensack.

He writes that the MALS program has allowed him the opportunity to explore rich, meaningful subject matter, all of which has made him a better, wiser teacher. Keith saw the possibility in having 6th graders wrestle with some of the moral and ethical problems that have fascinated philosophers for centuries. For his thesis he developed “A Sixth Grade Philosophy Unit: Moral and Ethical Exploration in Middle School.”

His faculty mentor was Dr. Lisa Cassidy, Associate Professor of Philosophy.

Cassandre McKeefrey Cassie is a Social Studies teacher at Ramsey High School. She says that the MALS program has given her the knowledge to incorporate many different fields of study into classroom lessons and enrich the content of the curriculum. Her thesis was “The Girl Effect: Obstacles and Benefits of Educating Girls in Developing Countries.” Her mentor was Dr. Ellen Ross, Professor of Women’s Studies.

From the Director: Mortality and the Crisis of Limits

MALS Students Excel Academically

By Dr. Anthony T. Padovano Distinguished Professor, Literature & Philosophy

T

humility in the best sense of the word.

Literally. “Humility” comes from the Latin word for belonging to the “earth”.

he liberal arts enable us to take the measure of the human condition.

In searching for happiness, we seek success and expansion.

We want to grow, develop and live all we can. The liberal arts provide us with skills for achievement but also offer a context to understand and evaluate what happens to us as we succeed.

We reach for success, but inexorably, inevitably, we experience the crisis of the limits. Human life generates growth but it does this within boundaries not always of our choosing.

Coming to terms with limits leads to wisdom and grace. The limits bring us

We are bound to the earth in ways that exhilarate us. Consider the joy of the oceans and sunrise, the sharpness of winter. Ecology focuses on the beauty of being earth-bound.

There is not only exhilaration in our destiny with the earth but trauma. We perish as the planet and indeed the cosmos do. Time takes from us all that time once granted. We are defined (the Latin word for boundary) by the horizon of death, as the philosopher Martin Heidegger observes.

The role of the limits in our lives need not prompt us to rage against the dying of the light but to find purpose and meaning in the darkness and in the circumscription.

All of us suffer from what we eagerly desired and did not experience; but we also rejoice in the abundance of what did occur. Such a balance gives our lives richness and resilience.

Had we known only success, with no losses, we would have drifted into arrogance and become obtuse to the essential brokenness of reality. Success is worthy of the ardor and arduousness it requires. But vulnerability makes love a possibility (there is no love without it).

It is appropriate to love the life we have more than we dare to say. It is also fitting to surrender to the destiny of loss and to discover an abiding truth and value in this.

Anthony T. Padovano Director, MALS

MALS Class Schedule for Spring and Fall 2012 MALS COURSES SPRING 2012 US in Changing World (Core)

LIBS 60401

T

A108

6 - 8:30 p.m.

Ecker/

21317

A Sense of Place

LIBS 64001

R

A108

6 - 8:30 p.m.

Horowitz

21318

Darwin and Divinity

LIBS 65501

M

A108

6 - 8:30 p.m.

Saiff

21316

Thesis Research Tutorial

LIBS 710

Ind. Sec., CRNs

Thesis Writing Tutorial

LIBS 711

Ind. Sec., CRNs

Thesis Continuation

LIBS 712

Ind. Sec., CRNS

program immediately after graduation and received his M.A. in January, 2011.

MALS student Andrea Holmes came to the program in 2007 after her retirement from a varied career that included experience in office management, bridal consultancy, substitute teaching and real estate sales. An avid travel blogger and life-long learner, Andrea graduated from Ramapo College in 2006 with a BA in psychology. She chose the MALS program as her next academic challenge.

Deshawn’s Master’s thesis was titled “Coming Out: Race, Class, Gender, Literature and the Parallels Between the Coming Out and Grief Processes.”

He now works at Drew University in Madison, NJ, as the newly appointed Assistant Director of Residence Life, and has been accepted into their Doctor of Letters program for Fall, 2011, with a concentration in Teaching. His goal is to work in both Student and Academic Affairs and foster communities on college campuses that celebrate diversity while ultimately encouraging the success of underrepresented student populations.

Andrea’s interest in art and its role in society led her to work with her mentor, Dr. Shalom Gorewitz of the School of Contemporary Arts, to study Haitian art both before and after the 2010 earthquake. This independent study elective resulted in a paper based on the Ramapo College Rodman collection and called “Haitian Art of Courage: Border Crossing.” In consultation with Dr. Gorewitz, Professor of Video Art and New Media, the 2011 Schomberg Scholar in Residence Andre Juste, and the Director of Galleries, Sydney Jenkins, Andrea “used excellent examples of Haitian art to make a strong critical, art historical argument for her thesis.”

Dr. Gorewitz and Ms. Holmes have been invited to represent Ramapo College’s MALS program in the School of American and International Studies, and the School of Contemporary Arts at the 25th Annual National Conference on Liberal Arts and the Education of Artists, sponsored by the School of Visual Arts in New York City at the Algonquin Hotel. Congratulations to Andrea for this academic honor.

Deshawn Cook Enters Doctoral Program

MALS COURSES FALL 2012

2

Andrea Holmes and Dr. Shalom Gorewitz Present

Conquest of Caliban (Core)

LIBS 60201

R

A108

6 - 8:30 p.m.

D'Angelo

41669

Marriage & Relationships in Mod. Lit.

LIBS 64101

W

A108

6 - 8:30 p.m.

Roy

41670

Does Race Matter?

LIBS 63401

M

A108

6 - 8:30 p.m.

K. Johnson

41676

Thesis Research Tutorial

LIBS 710

Ind. Sec., CRNs

Thesis Writing Tutorial

LIBS 711

Ind. Sec., CRNs

Thesis Continuation

LIBS 712

Ind. Sec., CRNS

As a 2007 graduate of Ramapo College with a major in Psychology, Deshawn Cook leaves a good impression wherever he goes. Outgoing and personable, he served as a Resident Assistant, and was a scholarship and Dean’s List student. His work for Global Kids, a non-profit which sponsored a series of workshops on values for inner city children, shows his interest in the wider community. He entered the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS)

Andrea Holmes

An accomplished poet, Deshawn integrated his own poetry into his thesis, including some selections he read on the thesis presentation night in December 2010. He writes on various forms of identity and self-exploration with a focus on the experiences of those who identify with the LGBTIQQ community.

All of us at Ramapo congratulate Deshawn on his accomplishments and wish him well in his doctoral studies and teaching career.

Deshawn Cook

Shabnam Tobaccowala Graduates with a Doctorate After her children had grew up and left home, Shabnam Tobaccowala came to Ramapo College’s MALS program, and was a member of its first MALS graduating class in 1997. Her MALS thesis was titled “The Silent Minority: The Immigrant Experience and Second Generation Indian Americans.”

A Ramapo adjunct in sociology for ten years, she teaches courses in sociology, focusing on social issues, and Sociology of the Family in SSHS. In 2006 she entered a doctoral program at Walden University, earning her doctorate in Human Services, with a specialty in Family Policies and Intervention Strategies, in 2011. Her dissertation was titled: Divorce Phenomenon: The Experience Of Divorce And The Perceived Impact Of Education On The Decision To Divorce Among Divorced Women Of India.

Shabnam Tobaccowala

Our congratulations to another MALS graduate who has continued her academic journey successfully and enjoys contributing to the academic community at Ramapo College.

3

From the Director: Mortality and the Crisis of Limits

MALS Students Excel Academically

By Dr. Anthony T. Padovano Distinguished Professor, Literature & Philosophy

T

humility in the best sense of the word.

Literally. “Humility” comes from the Latin word for belonging to the “earth”.

he liberal arts enable us to take the measure of the human condition.

In searching for happiness, we seek success and expansion.

We want to grow, develop and live all we can. The liberal arts provide us with skills for achievement but also offer a context to understand and evaluate what happens to us as we succeed.

We reach for success, but inexorably, inevitably, we experience the crisis of the limits. Human life generates growth but it does this within boundaries not always of our choosing.

Coming to terms with limits leads to wisdom and grace. The limits bring us

We are bound to the earth in ways that exhilarate us. Consider the joy of the oceans and sunrise, the sharpness of winter. Ecology focuses on the beauty of being earth-bound.

There is not only exhilaration in our destiny with the earth but trauma. We perish as the planet and indeed the cosmos do. Time takes from us all that time once granted. We are defined (the Latin word for boundary) by the horizon of death, as the philosopher Martin Heidegger observes.

The role of the limits in our lives need not prompt us to rage against the dying of the light but to find purpose and meaning in the darkness and in the circumscription.

All of us suffer from what we eagerly desired and did not experience; but we also rejoice in the abundance of what did occur. Such a balance gives our lives richness and resilience.

Had we known only success, with no losses, we would have drifted into arrogance and become obtuse to the essential brokenness of reality. Success is worthy of the ardor and arduousness it requires. But vulnerability makes love a possibility (there is no love without it).

It is appropriate to love the life we have more than we dare to say. It is also fitting to surrender to the destiny of loss and to discover an abiding truth and value in this.

Anthony T. Padovano Director, MALS

MALS Class Schedule for Spring and Fall 2012 MALS COURSES SPRING 2012 US in Changing World (Core)

LIBS 60401

T

A108

6 - 8:30 p.m.

Ecker/

21317

A Sense of Place

LIBS 64001

R

A108

6 - 8:30 p.m.

Horowitz

21318

Darwin and Divinity

LIBS 65501

M

A108

6 - 8:30 p.m.

Saiff

21316

Thesis Research Tutorial

LIBS 710

Ind. Sec., CRNs

Thesis Writing Tutorial

LIBS 711

Ind. Sec., CRNs

Thesis Continuation

LIBS 712

Ind. Sec., CRNS

program immediately after graduation and received his M.A. in January, 2011.

MALS student Andrea Holmes came to the program in 2007 after her retirement from a varied career that included experience in office management, bridal consultancy, substitute teaching and real estate sales. An avid travel blogger and life-long learner, Andrea graduated from Ramapo College in 2006 with a BA in psychology. She chose the MALS program as her next academic challenge.

Deshawn’s Master’s thesis was titled “Coming Out: Race, Class, Gender, Literature and the Parallels Between the Coming Out and Grief Processes.”

He now works at Drew University in Madison, NJ, as the newly appointed Assistant Director of Residence Life, and has been accepted into their Doctor of Letters program for Fall, 2011, with a concentration in Teaching. His goal is to work in both Student and Academic Affairs and foster communities on college campuses that celebrate diversity while ultimately encouraging the success of underrepresented student populations.

Andrea’s interest in art and its role in society led her to work with her mentor, Dr. Shalom Gorewitz of the School of Contemporary Arts, to study Haitian art both before and after the 2010 earthquake. This independent study elective resulted in a paper based on the Ramapo College Rodman collection and called “Haitian Art of Courage: Border Crossing.” In consultation with Dr. Gorewitz, Professor of Video Art and New Media, the 2011 Schomberg Scholar in Residence Andre Juste, and the Director of Galleries, Sydney Jenkins, Andrea “used excellent examples of Haitian art to make a strong critical, art historical argument for her thesis.”

Dr. Gorewitz and Ms. Holmes have been invited to represent Ramapo College’s MALS program in the School of American and International Studies, and the School of Contemporary Arts at the 25th Annual National Conference on Liberal Arts and the Education of Artists, sponsored by the School of Visual Arts in New York City at the Algonquin Hotel. Congratulations to Andrea for this academic honor.

Deshawn Cook Enters Doctoral Program

MALS COURSES FALL 2012

2

Andrea Holmes and Dr. Shalom Gorewitz Present

Conquest of Caliban (Core)

LIBS 60201

R

A108

6 - 8:30 p.m.

D'Angelo

41669

Marriage & Relationships in Mod. Lit.

LIBS 64101

W

A108

6 - 8:30 p.m.

Roy

41670

Does Race Matter?

LIBS 63401

M

A108

6 - 8:30 p.m.

K. Johnson

41676

Thesis Research Tutorial

LIBS 710

Ind. Sec., CRNs

Thesis Writing Tutorial

LIBS 711

Ind. Sec., CRNs

Thesis Continuation

LIBS 712

Ind. Sec., CRNS

As a 2007 graduate of Ramapo College with a major in Psychology, Deshawn Cook leaves a good impression wherever he goes. Outgoing and personable, he served as a Resident Assistant, and was a scholarship and Dean’s List student. His work for Global Kids, a non-profit which sponsored a series of workshops on values for inner city children, shows his interest in the wider community. He entered the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS)

Andrea Holmes

An accomplished poet, Deshawn integrated his own poetry into his thesis, including some selections he read on the thesis presentation night in December 2010. He writes on various forms of identity and self-exploration with a focus on the experiences of those who identify with the LGBTIQQ community.

All of us at Ramapo congratulate Deshawn on his accomplishments and wish him well in his doctoral studies and teaching career.

Deshawn Cook

Shabnam Tobaccowala Graduates with a Doctorate After her children had grew up and left home, Shabnam Tobaccowala came to Ramapo College’s MALS program, and was a member of its first MALS graduating class in 1997. Her MALS thesis was titled “The Silent Minority: The Immigrant Experience and Second Generation Indian Americans.”

A Ramapo adjunct in sociology for ten years, she teaches courses in sociology, focusing on social issues, and Sociology of the Family in SSHS. In 2006 she entered a doctoral program at Walden University, earning her doctorate in Human Services, with a specialty in Family Policies and Intervention Strategies, in 2011. Her dissertation was titled: Divorce Phenomenon: The Experience Of Divorce And The Perceived Impact Of Education On The Decision To Divorce Among Divorced Women Of India.

Shabnam Tobaccowala

Our congratulations to another MALS graduate who has continued her academic journey successfully and enjoys contributing to the academic community at Ramapo College.

3

Master of Arts in Liberal Studies 505 Ramapo Valley Road Mahwah, NJ 07430 mals@ramapo.edu 201.684.7709

MALS Newsletter Spring 2012

Volume VI, Number 2

Spring 2011 MALS Graduates Present Theses

F

MALS Faculty Anthony Padovano, Director

Bernard Langer

Lisa Cassidy

Jennefer Mazza

Rosetta D’Angelo

James Morley

Ellen Dolgin

Hassan Nejad

Martha Ecker

Stephen Rice

Kay Fowler

Ellen Ross

Donald Fucci

Bernard Roy

Shalom Gorewitz

Edward Shannon

Howard Horowitz

Jeremy Teigen

Karl Johnson

Elaine Winshell

MALS Academic Committee

our MALS students presented their theses at this spring’s MALS Presentation Night and Reception.

Each semester a Presentation Night is given for graduating students who have completed their theses. The Dean, Director, presenting students, their families, MALS faculty mentors and any MALS students who would like to hear the presentations are welcome. Thesis presenters in the Spring of 2011 were:

Gregory DeMiceli Greg works for Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Suffern, NY. He is responsible for 60 people who can be “challenging: to manage.” The MALS program enabled him to bring an interdisciplinary approach to solving problems and driving change within the organization.

Greg is married and has two children.

His thesis was “Social Class and Wealth: A Historical View as Seen in Shays Rebellion and the Haymarket Affair.” Greg’s faculty mentor was Dr. Jeremy Teigen, Associate Professor of Political Science.

Dr. Anthony T. Padovano Dr. Lisa Cassidy Dr. Donald Fucci

Gregory Fenkart Greg currently works as the Program Coordinator in the Office of Student Life at Bergen Community College.

He has always enjoyed writing, and is grateful to the MALS faculty

MALS students presented their theses at a Student Presentation Night in April. From left to right: Cassie McKeefrey, MALS Director Dr. Anthony Padovano, Keith Lamber, Gregory Fenkart, SAIS Dean Hassan Nejad and Gregory DeMiceli.

for helping “tremendously in improving and expanding my skills in this area.” His thesis was titled “In Defense of Fear: Simulated Fear and Coping with Real Terror.” His faculty mentor was Dr. Lisa Cassidy, Associate Professor of Philosophy.

Keith Lamber Keith teaches sixth grade in Hackensack.

He writes that the MALS program has allowed him the opportunity to explore rich, meaningful subject matter, all of which has made him a better, wiser teacher. Keith saw the possibility in having 6th graders wrestle with some of the moral and ethical problems that have fascinated philosophers for centuries. For his thesis he developed “A Sixth Grade Philosophy Unit: Moral and Ethical Exploration in Middle School.”

His faculty mentor was Dr. Lisa Cassidy, Associate Professor of Philosophy.

Cassandre McKeefrey Cassie is a Social Studies teacher at Ramsey High School. She says that the MALS program has given her the knowledge to incorporate many different fields of study into classroom lessons and enrich the content of the curriculum. Her thesis was “The Girl Effect: Obstacles and Benefits of Educating Girls in Developing Countries.” Her mentor was Dr. Ellen Ross, Professor of Women’s Studies.