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AQUA CHAMPS Men’s swimming scores two NCAA championships
They’re mum about complex questions that make faculty pull the duvet over their heads in the middle of the night. They’re all zipped lips about the mad pursuit of a result within reach. But mostly they give nothing, absolutely nothing away about the fluid and intense intellectual curiosity that characterizes our faculty. We’re here to remedy that. Turn the page.
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FALL 2015
PHOTO BY GREG PARKINSON, MONKEY LOFT STUDIOS
What intrigues chemistry professor Benny Chan? See page 25.
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A Curious Bunch.
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FALL 2015
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Lynn Braender ’82, assistant professor of accounting and information systems
Marci Zane ’03, education librarian
John Oliver ’99, information literacy librarian
Kathleen Fortner Rotter ’72, associate professor of special education, language, and literacy
Ann Marie Nicolosi ’92, associate professor of women’s and gender studies and history
Susan Leonard Mitchell ’76, assistant professor of nursing
Matthew Hall ’00, MEd ’02, assistant professor of special education, language, and literature
Stuart Carroll MEd ’95, associate professor of elementary and early childhood education
John Kuiphoff ’04, assistant professor of interactive multimedia
David Holleran ’95, associate professor of criminology
Jerry Petroff ’75, professor of special education, language, and literacy
Jill Schwarz ’02, MA ’04, assistant professor of counselor education
Colleen Quinn Sears ’01, assistant professor of music
Rosemary (Mimi) Cappelli ’73, assistant professor of nursing
Matthew Wund ’99, associate professor of biology
Jarret Crawford ’03, associate professor of psychology
Margaret Paterson Martinetti ’94, associate professor of psychology
Mind Mapping Throughout the year, faculty lead short-term study abroad programs. Here are a few such journeys. THE MAGIC OF ARCHIVAL RESEARCH IN CORNWALL Faculty: Michele Lise Tarter, English Inspiration: Her decades-long study of the archives in Cornwall’s Museum of Witchcraft. Student takeaway: Delve into centuries-old manuscripts by and about witches, the earliest healers, and connect with the past in meaningful ways. Stay in Tintagel, the birthplace of King Arthur; have class discussions in Merlin’s Cave; hike in Druid forests.
HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDE STUDY TOUR IN CENTRAL EUROPE AND ARMENIA Faculty: Cynthia Paces, history; Morton Winston, philosophy Inspiration: Marking the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Student takeaway: Explore genocide in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Armenia while examining the relationship between collective memory and national identity.
Cornwall
Central Europe
Armenia
Haiti
Galapagos Islands and Ecuador
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS AND ECUADOR Faculty: Donald Lovett, biology Inspiration: Lovett always marveled at how much Charles Darwin gleaned from his observations on the Galápagos Islands. Student takeaway: Read Darwin’s works, observe the same things he did, and then come to an appreciation of how evolution explains the existence of the unique species on these islands.
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South Africa
NURSING AND GLOBAL HEALTH IN HAITI Faculty: Sharon Byrne, nursing Inspiration: Byrne’s interest in doing humanitarian work abroad led her to participate in several medical missions with Explorers Sans Frontières, a nonprofit that delivers health care to regions of Port-au-Prince still recovering from the 2010 earthquake. Student takeaway: Examine global health care policy from legal and ethical perspectives, and gain experience providing primary care and health education in a resource-limited environment.
HISTORY OF APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA Faculty: Matthew Bender, history; Mindi McMann, English Inspiration: Bender’s desire to transform the South African history course he’s been teaching on campus into an immersive experience abroad and McMann’s interest in the narratives and ethics of reconciliation. Student takeaway: Understand what apartheid was and witness how its effects reverberate today.
—Susan Cousins Breen and Tony Marchetti
Pop Quiz
First Seminar* courses allow faculty to explore topics and themes outside their discipline. Can you match the course below to the professor who teaches it? Answers are on page 26. (No peeking!) COURSE
PROFESSOR
A. The Beatles and Their World Changes in pop music and society during the Fab Four’s heyday
1. Timothy Hornberger, elementary and early childhood education
B. Trenton Makes Music The region’s contributions to the music that set the world dancing
2. David Venturo, English 3. Thomas Hagedorn, mathematics and statistics
C. Exploring Amish Culture Perspectives of the ultraconservative Old Order Amish
4. Kathryne Speaker, special education, language, and literacy
D. Dance as an Art Form: From Ballet to Jookin The development and influences of dance
5. Kim Pearson, English
E. Economics and Everything A range of timely topics examined through the lens of economic theory
6. Andrew Bechtel, civil engineering
F. Does What We Eat Matter? The Culture, Politics, and Science of Food How our mealtime choices affect the world around us G. The Cultural Phenomenon of Harry Potter From Beowulf to the boy wizard, an examination of literary heroes
7. Amy Dell, special education, language, and literacy These classes, taken by all freshmen, teach critical thinking skills and foster intellectual curiosity.
*
The path to professorship can be circuitous.
THIS PAGE: OCHS, AMTZIS, AND PEARLSTEIN ILLUSTRATIONS BY JULIE McLAUGHLIN
Life rarely unfolds in straight lines. See what twists these three took.
MICHAEL OCHS Mathematics
ALAN AMTZIS Education
LARRY PEARLSTEIN
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ochs studied chemistry at Haverford College and
Amtzis attended film school and worked in the
Pearlstein came to TCNJ after a long career in the
Celtic literature at Harvard before completing a PhD
industry through his 20s, even starting a casting
high-tech sector, during which he accumulated
in physics from Brandeis. “I basically always followed
company. But as he approached 30, stability
60 patents. After earning a PhD in electrical
what I thought was the most interesting thing to do,”
beckoned. He tried his hand as a chef, but says the
engineering at Princeton in 1987, he became vice
he says. That approach led him to a large defense
12-hour days “diminished my love of cooking pretty
president of engineering at BioAutomation, where
contractor, a solar energy company, and a lab where he
quickly.” A friend told him about working as a special
he helped develop an automated DNA sequence
studied simian AIDS. Later he conducted statistical
education teacher. “It sounded important and fun,”
reader. While at Hitachi, he chaired the
research on cancer at the Fox Chase Cancer Center
he says. He taught (and was later principal) at a
specialists group that wrote the HDTV video
in Philadelphia and Johns Hopkins School of
therapeutic community for kids with drug and
standard for North America. After that, he looked
Medicine in Baltimore. In 2013 he arrived at TCNJ,
alcohol problems. A doctorate in curriculum and
to make another transition. He knew about TCNJ
where he’s teaching statistics courses and developing
instruction followed, and then, in 2005, an offer from
because his wife had received a nursing certificate
computational statistical methods for refining our
TCNJ. “Teaching,” says Amtzis, “feels like the thing
here. “So I knew what a terrific school it was,” he
understanding of cell signaling.
I was supposed to do.”
says. “I am really thrilled to be teaching here.”
—Christopher Hann
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Inquiring Minds Here’s the TCNJ course these professors would take if given carte blanche.
ANDREW CLIFFORD
DONKA MIRTCHEVA
Economics Don Vandegrift’s American Public Policy, which he co-teaches with political science faculty. The applied analytical projects his students work on seem fascinating.
DONALD VANDEGRIFT
Economics Janet Morrison’s Ecology and Field Biology The systemic quality of interactions among organisms and their environment seems to parallel the behavior of economic systems. Consequently, examining ideas and models from ecology could provide insight on the behavior of economic systems.
Mathematics and Statistics I took History of Jazz with Michael Conklin. I got to study a subject I know little about, and witness a great teacher with a passion for his subject.
DEBORAH HUTTON
Art and Art History Cynthia Paces’ Global Struggles for Social Justice It’s been 25 years since the fall of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe and the Tiananmen Square uprising. Examining what impact those events have had on history would be fascinating.
JANET MORRISON
Biology Deborah Hutton’s Arts of the Islamic World I love art of all types and want to know more about the Islamic world given the current state of political affairs.
DEBORAH THOMPSON
Elementary and Early Childhood Education Elizabeth Borland’s Visualizing (In)equality I’ve always been interested in how photography has been and can be used to study human activity.
A Course Not (Yet) Taken
JEANINE VIVONA, Psychology Poetry. I’ve written and spoken about the language in poetry, especially connections between language as used in poetry and language as used in psychotherapy. But I don’t know anything about the study of poetry.
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KEVIN H. MICHELS, Marketing and Interdisciplinary Business Artificial Intelligence. I developed the School of Business’ Center for Innovation and Ethics, and while AI presents unrivaled innovation opportunities, it also presents ethical questions. Will AI eliminate jobs? Or alienate us from our work?
ILLUSTRATIONS BY JULIE McLAUGHLIN
A faculty wish list
MICHAEL CONKLIN
Music Cultures and Canons with Piper Kendrix Williams I study African-American culture, and it would be fascinating to learn from someone whose expertise is in the literary canon of the black community.
GLENN STEINBERG
English I’d study 20th-century German history with Cynthia Paces, because I’m interested in the social and political problems of Weimar and Nazi Germany, and the nature of authoritarian regimes. I’d also take any class with Jo Carney, who has a reputation among students as “the best.” I’d love to learn from her how to be a better teacher.
ELIZABETH BORLAND
Sociology and Anthropology Any Asian art history class with Deborah Hutton I want to hear her amazing lectures and see the diverse images she shows in class. Her History of Photography course also sounds fascinating.
CYNTHIA PACES
History Jo Carney’s Shakespeare class Recently, I read Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies—modern novels set in Shakespeare’s time—and Jo explained what Mantel was doing with language. My colleague has a warmth and enthusiasm for literature, and I would love to see Shakespeare through her eyes.
PIPER KENDRIX WILLIAMS
MICHAEL ROBERTSON
English Introduction to Astronomy with Thulsi Wickramasinghe For me, the best part of Boy Scouts was getting my merit badge in astronomy. I’m ready to plunge anew into the wonders of the night sky.
English Michael Robertson’s The Utopian Tradition in Western Literature I want to expand students’ worldviews on race, class, and justice, and my colleague’s course, in which TCNJ students take class alongside prisoners, would immediately help complicate their perspectives.
BENNY CHAN, chemistry Woodworking. I recently discovered that the engineering school has a course to design woodworking projects and train in the machine shop. I haven’t taken any of these courses since middle school and would love to get back into it.
JO CARNEY
English Any course taught by Jo Ann Gross (history), because I’d learn a good deal about our ever-changing global landscape and because she epitomizes TCNJ’s notion of the teacher-scholar.
DIMITRIS PAPAMICHAIL, Computer Science Number Theory.
It’s just plain fun!
NINA PEEL, Biology Calculus. I neglected math in high school, which was a bad idea. My research students keep encouraging me to take some classes, and I just might when I get time.
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Compound Interest
There’s no denying the multidimensional talents of TCNJ’s faculty. THE FICTION-WRITING FORENSIC CHEMIST Professor John Allison had been writing short stories, plays, and monologues for decades when he published his selfdescribed “quirky” first novel, Saturday Night at Sarah Joy’s, in 2013. An avid boater who enjoys sailing Barnegat Bay, Allison donated royalties from the book to Hurricane Sandy relief. “Some people might look at what I write and roll their eyes, but to me it’s an academic endeavor to create something new,” says Allison.
THE GUITAR-PLAYING COMPUTER SCIENTIST
THE GREEN-THUMBED SOPRANO Being a master gardener isn’t unlike being a college professor, says Associate
Associate Professor Dimitris
Professor Suzanne Hickman: Both fields
Papamichail started playing classical
require a love of learning, research, and
guitar at age 9, and later earned a college
teaching. “We answer people’s questions
degree in it. He’s performed in Greece
about turf, trees, shrubs, plants, food
and the U.S., but plays only for fun these
crops, and critters, and our information
days. His favorite musician? Johann
must come from reputable, science-
Sebastian Bach. “Anyone who plays
based sources,” she says. “Educating
music at some point falls in love with
ourselves and the community is our
Bach,” says Papamichail. “His music is
first priority.”
very playful, the way it hides a melody and then revives it. That ingenuity hasn’t been matched since.”
THE BACH-SINGING BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEER Associate Professor Christopher
THE FENCING BIOLOGIST
Wagner sings tenor in The Bach Choir of
Associate Professor Jim Bricker, who’s
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and has toured
been fencing for 53 years, competes in
nationally and internationally with the
tournaments in the U.S. and Canada; last
ensemble, the oldest such choir in the
winter he won silver in the men’s foil in the
U.S. “After a day of teaching, grading,
Veteran 70s & Older age group at the
reading scientific papers, and preparing
North American Cup held in Dallas.
experiments, singing is a release for me,”
“Fencing is called physical chess,” says
says Wagner.
THE SCENE-STEALING MATHEMATICIAN Associate Professor Cathy Liebars has been acting, singing, and dancing in theater productions for so long that she jokingly calls it her “second career.” She’s picky about what roles she’ll take. “Ultimately I want to learn something from the parts I play,” says Liebars. Take, for example, her recent role as Hermann Goering’s wife in a staged reading of
Bricker, explaining the attraction. “It’s fun
2: Goering at Nuremberg. “I got to study
and exciting, fulfilling and strenuous.”
German accents and research that period of history.”
Answers to the quiz on page 23: A-2; B-5; C-1, D-7, E-6, F-3, G-4.
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FALL 2015
—Tony Marchetti
I go to class with a professor. How Socratic is that?
In the Interdisciplinary Faculty-Student Research Seminar, a professor and a student pair up to explore topics around a theme (this past semester, five pairs tackled “Justice”). Once a week, sustained by bagels and juice, the pairs settle in around a conference table as equal partners in freewheeling discussions of their work. We asked collaborators Steven Thompson ’15 and Michael Robertson, professor of English, what the experience is like. ROBERTSON: The seminar has been extraordinary in bringing everybody in contact with people with different perspectives. I, or somebody else, will bring up an issue and Steven will point out, “Well, that’s true from a middle-class perspective. But if you’re poor in this country, your experience is going to be different.” THOMPSON: The thing I love about the seminar is that in terms
of discussion, nothing is off limits. When we start a conversation it can go in any direction and you don’t have to worry about people being uncomfortable or, more importantly, about people being uninformed. Everybody in that room is very intelligent and, above all, eminently curious.
ROBERTSON: What you identified there is that lack of hierarchy where the professor is the authority and everyone else is the learner. In the justice seminar, we’re all learners. THOMPSON: If you have a
ROBERTSON: This seminar is about exposing and illuminating different ideas about justice. It’s not about bringing people toward one, true theory. It’s about a lively, intellectual debate that does not have an easy resolution. It is the most democratic academic space I’ve ever been in. The only comparison I can make: I spent my last sabbatical as a visiting fellow in the Department of Religion at Princeton University, and my only duty was to participate in a weekly seminar of professors and graduate students. This seminar is completely equivalent to the one at Princeton.
—as told to Dustin Racioppi
THIS PAGE: ILLUSTRATION BY JULIE McLAUGHLIN
disagreement with somebody [in the seminar], especially with a professor, you can just
go at it for 20 minutes. And generally the way that breaks down is, nobody emerges a clear winner, but everyone has their understanding of the issue tempered. You are forcibly moderated in the literal meaning of that word. You are left with a more moderate perspective because people force you to look at aspects of an issue that you were not willing to consider before.
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