ANNUAL REPORT
2023–2024
COLLEGE OF ARTS, HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES
YEAR IN REVIEW
From Dean Zake
I am proud to present the Annual Report of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences for the academic year of 2023–2024! As you will learn, our faculty and students continued to excel in scholarship and creative activity by publishing, presenting, performing and exhibiting their work this past academic year. A number of them received national, even international, recognitions and significantly raised the University’s and College’s profile. In order to support our faculty’s work, this past year we took a careful look at the specific needs of those who are in the middle stages of their academic careers and are looking for new ways to grow as scholars, artists and educators.
In 2024–2025, we will begin implementing initiatives that came out of this exploration. The College also continued to update its curricula to make sure that we are keeping up with changes in student interests as well as job market expectations. The Department of Communication and Theatre reorganized existing programs to create a B.A. in Entertainment Technology and Theatre, prepared a proposal for a new minor in Media Studies and developed an online degree completion option in Public Relations. The Department of English and World Languages developed a proposal for an accelerated graduate program that allows students to earn both the bachelor’s and master’s degrees in five years.
With the generous help of our donors and with our faculty’s unwavering commitment to academic excellence, the College continues to provide the highest-quality education to our students. I hope that from this Annual Report you will be able to see that there are many reasons why we remain confident in and excited about the future of our College and its graduates.
Dr. Ieva Zake, Dean, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
National and International Recognition of Faculty
• Dr. Onek Adyanga (History) was presented with the 2023 Best Conference Paper award in the Africa category at the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa conference.
• Professor Morgann Davis (Music) was selected as a finalist for the national Instrumental Soloist Professional Division of The American Prize competition.
• Dr. Mícheál Houlahan (Music) was invited to serve as a visiting professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he presented eight lectures on topics of musicianship and pedagogy.
• Dr. Stacey Irwin (Communication & Theatre) was named national chair for the Alpha Epsilon Rho International Media Honor Society at the 69th annual Broadcast Education Association Conference.
• Dr. Xun Pan (Music) was inducted to the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame.
• Dr. Carrie Smith (Criminology, Sociology & Anthropology) was selected to receive a scholarship to attend the 10th Annual Pardee RAND Graduate School Faculty Leaders program.
Art Alumna’s Work Selected for a World-Class Exhibition
An alumna of the Art & Design department, Constantina Zavitsanos, was featured in the 2024 Whitney Biennial of American Art, which is the longest-running survey of contemporary art in the United States. The exhibit included two of her artworks. This level of recognition and exposure is a tremendous accomplishment for Zavitsanos.
The Whitney is the world’s preeminent institution devoted to collecting, preserving and exhibiting contemporary American art, with a particular focus on art of the 20th century and living artists.
(Left and Above Images)
Artist: Constantina Zavitsanos
Call to Post, 2019/24
Wood, two-channel sound and infrasonics, transducers, wire, and 400–450 nm light (blue-violet) 20 ft x 12 ft x 5 ft and
All the time, 2019
HD video: two channel open captions, overlapped dimensions variable
Installation: Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than The Real Thing, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Curators: Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli
Zavitsanos graduated from Millersville in 2000 and then completed her M.F.A. in sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.
She currently lives and works in New York, N.Y., and has been building an impressive and internationally acclaimed body of work. Prepared by Professor Shauna Frischkorn.
Journalism Alumna Wins Keystone Award for Her Writing
Mickayla Miller, a 2019 Millersville graduate, was recognized with two Keystone Media Awards for her journalism at LNP. She won first place in the “Lifestyle/ Entertainment Beat.” This award was for a portfolio of work Mickayla did on Lancaster’s diversity in the arts. She also won second place for a profile she wrote about Dominic Forte, “an incredibly sweet kid” who competed on the TV show “Lego Masters.”
“More than anything, my reporting is a love letter to Lancaster County and all of the people who make it the best place to live. For this award, I was up against reporters I highly respect from publications like the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Philadelphia Inquirer and PennLive/The Patriot-News,” Mickayla says. “It’s validating as a writer to be recognized.”
These were not Mickayla’s first Keystone awards, but they were the first that she won for individual work rather than group work in journalism. “It feels wonderful,” she says. Prepared by Dr. Robert Spicer.
Photo: Greg Carideo
AHSS 2024–2025 FELLOW
The 2024–2025 recipient of the AHSS Fellowship is Mariana Ladrilleros, a history and anthropology student. The Fellowship aided Mariana’s 2024 summer internship, which was part of “The Mapping Freedom Research Experience for Undergraduates” program at the University of Southern Mississippi. This multidisciplinary program funded by the National Science Foundation involves fields such as history, digital humanities and computer science and centers on Mississippi’s history during the Civil War and Reconstruction era.
As part of the program, interns utilize the digital archival website “The Civil War & Reconstruction: Governors of Mississippi” and collect letters as primary resources to aid them in their research. In this internship, Mariana also uses innovative technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to
create maps as an interactive visualization tool to accompany her research topic. Mariana’s focus is the history of Civil War hospitals, their supplies and conditions, and how the Southern railroads transported their necessities.
At the end of this eight-week program, she will have a workable rough draft paper and will complete a professional symposium on her findings. After the internship, she plans to continue revising her work and to submit a poster for presentation at a professional conference. Mariana selected this summer internship program to develop her research skills. Through this research experience, she is learning how to produce innovative research, which is integral to academic work and important to Mariana particularly because she hopes to pursue a graduate degree in museum studies.
Mariana was also very intrigued by the prospects of gaining skills in GIS. There is a growing demand for this technology in various humanities fields as an aid in research. Mariana’s goal is to equip herself with as many skills as necessary to become a formidable candidate in the workforce. She thanks Millersville University, her professors, internship advisor Dr. Ron Frankum and the AHSS Fellowship Committee for making this rich learning experience possible.
STUDENT AND FACULTY TRIUMPHS
Select Faculty Accomplishments in Scholarship and Creative Activity
• Dr. Nicole Pfannenstiel (English & World Languages) published a book, Web Writing (First), with the Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks (PA-ADOPT).
• Dr. Kirsten Madden (Economics) coauthored a book, Building a Social Science: 19th Century British Cooperative Thought, by Oxford University Press, and published an article, “Anna Doyle Wheeler: Gender Equality and the Need for a Cooperative Economic System,” in the peer-reviewed journal Feminist Economics.
• Dr. Jessica Hughes (Communication & Theatre) published her coedited volume Disability in Dialogue with publisher John Benjamins.
• Dr. Greg Seigworth (Communication & Theatre) published his coedited volume The Affect Theory Reader 2: Worldings, Tensions, Futures with Duke University Press.
• Dr. Robert Bookmiller (Government, Policy & Law) published the second edition of the book The United Nations as part of the Global Organization series by Chelsea House/Infobase.
• Prof. Heidi Leitzke (Art & Design) exhibited her paintings at the Delaware Contemporary Gallery in Wilmington, Delaware, and had an exhibition at the acclaimed Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia.
• Dr. Katarzyna Jakubiak (English & World Languages) edited the Polish translation of James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time by Mikolaj Denderski, published by Karakter Publishers in Poland.
• Three photographs by Prof. Shauna Frischkorn (Art & Design) were exhibited at the Glasgow Gallery of Photography in Glasgow, Scotland.
• Dr. Barry Atticks (Music) produced a video, “Winter Holiday”, with music department students and students from the Music for Everyone elementary school program in Lancaster city.
• Dr. John Kaiser Ortiz (Philosophy) published an article, “Ghosting Humanity: In Search of an Ethics for the Disappeared,” in the peer-reviewed journal Wagadu.
• Dr. Greg Seigworth (Communication & Theatre) published an article, “’There Is No Direct Evidence of Anything’: Mediation in Lauren Berlant and Raymond Williams” in the peer-reviewed journal Media Theory.
• Dr. Jennifer Jester (Music) contributed a book chapter to Teaching Instrumental Music: Contemporary Perspectives and Pedagogies, published by Oxford University Press.
• Dr. Victoria Khiterer (History) published a book chapter in “Kyiv as a Center of Soviet Jewish Culture in the 1920s–1930s” in Jews and Urban Life, edited by Leonard J. Greenspoon.
• Prof. David Cullen (Music) released a solo guitar recording entitled Revival.
• Dr. Caleb Corkery’s (English & World Languages) play “Street Poet” was selected as a finalist for the national Waterworks Festival in Charlottesville, Virginia.
• Prof. Jonathan Strayer (Communication & Theatre) participated in a Performance as Research study and performance in Theatrical Mask and Clown at the Pig Iron Theatre Company in Philadelphia.
STUDENT AND FACULTY TRIUMPHS
Select Scholarly Presentations
• Dr. Christine Filippone (Art & Design) presented “From Social Action Theory to Cine Accion” at the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts conference at Arizona State University.
• Dr. Madeleine Darmiento (Music) presented on reviving the violoncello da spalla at the College Music Society 2023 International Conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, and the 2024 American String Teachers Association National Conference.
• Dr. Carrie Smith (Criminology, Sociology & Anthropology) presented “Theorizing Lived Experiences as Professional Expertise” at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.
• Dr. Jennifer Jester (Music) presented “Practice Smarter Not Harder” at the International Tuba Euphonium Association’s annual conference.
• Dr. Marco Antolin (English & World Languages) presented “Hemingway’s Narration in ‘The Spanish Earth’: A Romantic View in His Search for Transatlantic Empathy” at the Association of Literary Critics, Writers, and Scholars annual conference at Houston University.
• Dr. Kirsten Madden (Economics) presented “Anna Doyle Wheeler on the Conditions and Consequences of Gender Equality” and “William Thompson (1775–1883): Transforming Bentham through Owen, Building a Materialist Theory of Cooperation” at the Allied Social Science Association meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
• Dr. Caleb Corkery (English & World Languages) presented “Using Propaganda and Rhetorics of Resistance to Define the American White Man” at the Northeast Modern Language Association’s conference in Boston, Massachusetts.
• Prof. Anne Stuart (Music) presented “Encourage a Sense of Belonging –Mentoring Student Teachers” at the Maryland Music Educators Association’s and Pennsylvania Music Educators Association’s state conferences.
• Dr. Ron Baker (Economics) presented about active-learning techniques at the Journal of Economics national-level teaching symposium.
• Dr. Greg Seigworth (Communication & Theatre) presented “In and Out of Sync: Affect in Motion” at the conference (E)motion in Changing Worlds, hosted by Aristotle University, Greece.
• Dr. Barry Atticks (Music) presented “Speed-testing in Audio Education: An Imperative Assessment Tool” at the European Audio Engineering Society’s annual conference.
Students in the Stagecraft course under the guidance of Professor Boyer.
STUDENT AND FACULTY TRIUMPHS
Select Student Accomplishments and Awards
• Ollie Wampler (Entertainment Technology) won one of the two 2023 Live Event Scholarships provided by the Rock Lititz business community.
• Amy Edwards (Art & Design) received the Juror’s Choice Award for her piece, Shakespeare’s Starling, at the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum’s 45th Annual Contemporary Crafts exhibition.
• Fine Arts Metals students Connor Gautieri, Zachariah Severn and Amy Edwards (Art & Design) were juried into an exhibit, Handmade Horizons, at the Brockway Center for Arts and Technology.
• Vanessa Anders, Steven Armstrong, Erin Funston, Georgea Hall, Katie McKelvey and Krisn’ Parmer (Communication & Theatre) were named Radio Advertising Bureau Student Scholars at the Broadcast Education Association Convention.
• Theater and Entertainment Technology students were recognized at this year’s KCACTF for their work on The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] (Again): Excellence in Acting; Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship nominees were Charlie Duvall, Nathaniel Hawley and Dustin Schneider; and Certificate of Merit recipients were Nathaniel Hawley, Ollie Wampler and Rachel McFadden.
• Music Industry students received awards at the National Association of Teachers of Singing Eastern Region student auditions: Elizabeth Allen (first place, commercial music), Zach Simmons (second place, commercial music), Chris Beehler (third place, commercial music), Brett Devlin (second place, musical theatre) and Chris Beehler (third place, musical theatre).
• Mary Miller (English & World Languages) was recognized at the 2023 Keystone Awards Luncheon in Harrisburg and awarded a Gold Keystone for her news release titled “Rats on Campus.”
• Julia Fallows (English & World Languages) received the English Association of Pennsylvania State Universities Outstanding English Major award at the annual conference.
• Francesca Calautti (Communication & Theatre) was recruited by the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and accepted into their two-year Conservatory of Professional Study.
• Nanga Lin (Music) was accepted into the premier music institution Manhattan School of Music with a prestigious scholarship for piano performance.
Archaeology students engaged in hands-on learning in discovering and preserving historic artifacts.
UNIQUE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
Philosophy Department Hosts Student Research Symposium
On March 15, the philosophy department hosted the inaugural Ethics and Society Multidisciplinary Student Symposium, where undergraduate students from across varied academic disciplines were invited to participate by presenting papers and having discussions with the audience on a wide spectrum of contemporary moral issues from their respective fields of study. Presentation topics ranged from challenges of artificial intelligence in education to environmental crises and ethics. Some of the titles of the presentations were “The Future Seeing Civilization,” “Argument for Reproductive Cloning and Its Potential,” “Attack of the Clones: An Examination Into the Ethics and Production of AI Pornography and Its Current Regulations Within the Justice System” and “Food Label Ethics.”
The symposium also featured keynote speaker Dr. Shane Epting (Missouri University of Science), who spoke on the topic of future cities. Students from Pennsylvania State University, Wester Chester University and other institutions along with our passionate and committed philosophy majors made this symposium an exciting and well-attended daylong event. The philosophy department organized several student-centered and community-building activities last year, including a celebration of World Philosophy Day and a class field trip to the Kadampa Buddhist Meditation Center in Baltimore.
However, the symposium was especially effective in drawing together students and faculty to engage in dialogue on current ethical issues. In addition to the many students and faculty, we were also thrilled to see some parents in attendance. Given how successful the symposium turned out, the philosophy department looks forward to hosting such events again in the future. Prepared by Dr. Jen Miller.
Acclaimed Artist Meets With the Art & Design Students
The Department of Art & Design has partnered with the Echo Valley Art Group to bring distinguished artists to the region through annual public artist lectures. The Echo Valley Art Group was established in 1945 with a membership of studio artists who work and create in the Lancaster County area. This group also includes six Millersville University alumni.
As the Lancaster area continues to grow into a vibrant art community and destination, the speaking series serves to expand connections between our students, local art professionals and the wider public. The first artist in the series to visit the campus this past academic year was Philadelphia-based artist Stacey Lee Webber, who gave a guest lecture and met with the students. Prepared by Professor Shauna Frischkorn.
Sculpture students learn how to safely pour molten bronze under the direction of Professor Line Bruntse.
Industry Leader Loans Cutting-Edge Equipment to the Live Audio Program
Clair Global, a leading international provider of live audio equipment, loaned three state-of-the-art consoles for a month to the Tell School of Music. These high-end consoles were made available for training purposes for the students in the Live Audio concentration in Music Industry. The consoles on loan, DiGiCo SD12, DiGiCo Q225 and DiGiCo SD5Q, are renowned for their exceptional quality, versatility and advanced features. Having access to this equipment was an incredible learning opportunity for our students, and it signified a significant milestone for the Music Industry program. It showcased our faculty’s commitment to cultivating a dynamic and innovative learning environment that offers exceptional professional preparation.
Dr. Jennifer Jester, the Tell School of Music’s Live Audio program coordinator responsible for organizing this equipment loan, led an overview session by Millersville alumnus Sam Kelly. This session allowed the Live Audio students to gain insights into the consoles’ functionalities and expand their knowledge in the field. Dr. Jester also organized a workshop for the students who had completed necessary preparation in their Live Audio courses.
This collaborative effort with Clair Global was a monumental step forward for the Tell School of Music as it works to ensure that our graduates are a cut above others when entering the competitive and growing audio production and engineering field.
Nationally Recognized Jazz Flutist Teaches the Art of Improvisation
One of the most distinguished figures in the jazz flute world, Ali Ryerson, spent multiple days working with the Tell School of Music students. During her residency, Ryerson generously shared her knowledge, boundless enthusiasm and captivating career journey with students. She also led engaging practical training sessions on jazz styling with the students in the flute studio.
Through her guidance, the entire studio embarked on learning the art of improvisation, thus pushing boundaries in their musicianship. To finish out her residency, Ryerson orchestrated a memorable performance opportunity for the flute studio and performed at the Jazz at the ‘Ville concert.
Her visit left an indelible mark on students, inspiring them to explore new musical endeavors and foster a deeper appreciation of the art of jazz. Ali Ryerson’s contribution to the Tell School of Music was a true testament to the transformative power of mentorship and collaboration in nurturing aspiring musicians.
Live Audio students receive training on the cutting-edge equipment from Clair Global.
CONNECTIONS AND COLLABORATIONS
Conference Offers Critically Important Training to Area Teachers
Millersville University’s 39th Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide was held on March 21 under the theme Reimagining Education About the Holocaust and Genocide. This day of in-person workshops and Alan & Linda Loss Keynote Lecture, which met on the main Millersville University campus, was geared toward secondary educators as well as the Lancaster area and Millersville University communities. Act 48 (required continuing education) credit was available for teachers.
The conference opened with comments by State System of Higher Education chancellor Dr. Daniel Greenstein; MU president Dr. Daniel Wubah; provost Dr. Gail Gasparich; and the chair of the Conference Committee, history professor Dr. Tanya Kevorkian. The first workshop session was “History of Holocaust Education in America” by Dr. Tom Fallace of William Paterson University, followed by Dr. Jameson Sweet of Rutgers–New Brunswick, who offered an introduction to the less familiar topic of “Genocides of Native Americans.”
Following lunch, a panel of four Lancaster County public school teachers reflected on lessons they have learned from teaching courses and units on the topics of the conference: Mary Nolt, Social Studies department chair at Manheim Central High School; David Trok, Social Studies, Garden Spot High School; Melissa Kreider, English Language Arts, Landisville Middle School; and Eliot White, Communication Arts, McCaskey High School.
Finally, noted author Dr. Dara Horn discussed “Bringing Living Jewish Culture Into Holocaust Education.” Breakout portions of the last two sessions prompted especially active engagement by the area teachers, advanced MU education students, other students, MU faculty and community members in attendance.
Dr. Horn’s bold and imaginative keynote address, “Reimagining Education About the Holocaust,” prompted the audience of community members, MU faculty, staff and students to think of new ways to teach about the Holocaust and to ask a variety of questions. Prepared by Dr. Tanya Kevorkian.
Audience at the MU Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide on April 21, 2024.
Faculty Member Invited to Speak About a Newly Released Movie
Dr. Marlene Arnold, Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Criminology, Sociology & Anthropology, was invited as a discussant for WITF’s “Sneak
Peek – The American Buffalo: A Film by Ken Burns – Advanced Preview Screening and Community Conversation,” held at Willow Valley Communities and moderated by The Spark’s Scott LaMar.
The film explores the mythic and heartbreaking tale of the American buffalo by following more than 10,000 years of North American history that traces the buffalo’s evolution, its sacred connection to the indigenous people of the United States and national efforts made to save the animal from extinction. Dr. Arnold served on the panel of experts along with Sandi Cianciulli, of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, who is cochair of the Committee on Native American Ministries of the United Methodist Churches, and Charles Under Baggage, Oglala Lakota Nation, who is an activist, artist and photographer.
In her presentation, Dr. Arnold drew on the anthropology course on North America Indians that she has been teaching for the past 20 years. She pointed out that the animal being discussed was really the American bison and that Ken Burns chose to follow the common American usage of referring to these animals as buffalo. In the early decades of European settlement, English settlers saw buffalo on the east slope of the Appalachians, from New York state, the present site of Washington, D.C., to Georgia. A conservative estimate was that there were 75 million buffalo across North America prior to European settlement, with 40 million on the Great Plains. By 1902, fewer than 100 wild buffalo roamed the Great Plains, while the last herds to survive in the mountains of Pennsylvania were out of existence already by 1801. Nonetheless, the buffalo survives as a potent symbol of Plains Indian life long after its elimination as the principal source of food and shelter. Prepared by Dr. Marlene Arnold.
Students Connecting to the Local Bookstores
There’s nothing quite like walking into a good bookstore – many people feel a great sense of solace when they’re surrounded by old books and the ideas, imaginings and potential these tomes contain.
As dedicated lovers of books, our Department of English & World Languages hosted its first Lancaster Bookstore Crawl on April 20, including four independent bookstores as well as the Lancaster Public Library and Heritage Press Museum. Crawlers met at
Read Rose Books near Central Market to kick off the event that sent students out to explore Lancaster’s literary offerings. Dog Star Books, FARBO Co, Pocket Books Shop and Lancaster Troll Market were the stops along the way after we departed Read Rose.
The event closed at Lancaster’s Southern Market so students and faculty could share their finds and have a bite to eat. The reports from the field were glowing, with students, faculty and community members feeling fortunate to have had this experience.
Our thanks go to our community partners and to Dr. Emily Baldys and the department’s Student Leadership Council for organizing the event. We hope the Lancaster Bookstore Crawl becomes a tradition. Until next year, we have some reading to do.... Prepared by Dr. Justin Mando.
FRIENDS OF THE COLLEGE
Featured Donors and Gifts
Over the last three years, two highly respected members of the Lancaster community – Alan Loss, a successful local business owner and personal wealth manager, and his wife, Linda Loss – have generously supported the Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide by sponsoring the Alan and Linda Loss Keynote Lecture. Their generosity has allowed the College to host world-renowned speakers whose presence on our campus would not have otherwise been possible – artist and writer Art Spiegelman, historian of world genocides Dr. Norman Naimark and a powerful voice in Jewish literature and nonfiction writing, Dara Horn.
Alan and Linda Loss’s commitment to the continued success of the Holocaust Conference is truly inspirational. Their gift is transforming our students’ experiences and bringing notable speakers to the broader Lancaster community. The Alan and Linda Loss Keynote Lecture attracts attention outside of the College and raises the profile of the institution as a site of rigorous and compelling conversations about the history of the Holocaust and the importance of remembrance.
The College is fortunate to have among its friends and supporters two exceptional alumni – Joseph ’90 and Elizabeth ’91 Garner. In appreciation of Millersville University’s contribution to their professional and personal success, they have set up two transformative student scholarships – one to an outstanding student pursuing a major in history and another to a student in a leadership role at the student-run investment organization, the Marauder Fund.
Mrs. Garner, a history graduate and an experienced archivist, is passionate about advancing students who are serious about historical research. The Lafferty History Scholarship is set up in the name of her parents and celebrates the importance of the study of history.
Mr. Garner together with economics professor Dr. Michael Gumpper were founders of the Marauder Fund – a unique University Foundation–supported investment fund that is run entirely by the students. Mr. Garner has not only wholeheartedly supported this amazing learning opportunity at the University, he has also been a dedicated mentor to the Marauder Fund students beyond the University.
As a successful business leader himself, Mr. Garner has provided internship and job opportunities to our students. Through the generous Marauder Fund Scholarship, Mr. and Mrs. Garner are making an invaluable contribution to the preparation of future business, investment and finance leaders in this region.
Dr. Dara Horn’s presentation during the Alan and Linda Loss Keynote Lecture on April 21, 2024.
2023–2024 members of the Marauder Fund.
Over the last two years, two alumni of the programs in AHSS – Jason ’98 and Therese ’01 Wicht – gifted the College with two substantial donations in support of our Media Arts Production and Music programs. Their generosity allowed us to provide students with cutting-edge equipment and learning technology.
However, their commitment to supporting Millersville’s students did not end there. During this past year, Mr. and Mrs. Wicht have made a pledge for an extraordinary gift that will cover a substantial portion of the costs to renew and upgrade TV Studio 1 in Bassler Hall. To honor their generosity, Studio 1 will be renamed the Jason R. Wicht ’98 and Therese A. Wicht ‘01 Studio. This facility is one of the College’s premier teaching labs that offers students exceptional hands-on learning opportunities in a reallife television studio setting.
In his professional career, Jason Wicht has worked in the marketing area of one of the largest media companies in the world, Comcast, where he has reached the position of EVP for Growth Strategy and Operations. Therese graduated from the Public Relations program (with a marketing minor) and was an active member of MUTV and the National Broadcasting Society while on campus. Afterwards, she worked for the PA Association of School Business Officials early in her career and has been working as a homemaker along with donating her time and support to various charitable organizations over the last several years.
We are grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Wicht for their generous support to ensuring that our students can grow as future media professionals at top-notch learning facilities.
We are excited to recognize Mayda Sharrow for her wonderful donation to the Eckert Art Gallery, honoring the artistic legacy of her mother, Sheba Sharrow (1926–2006), who explored the depths of human emotion in her richly layered painting and works on paper.
In spring 2022, Eckert Art Gallery presented the exhibition “Painted Poetry, the work of Sheba Sharrow” in conjunction with “Remembering
Through the Arts, the 37th Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide.”
During her long career, Sharrow was concerned with addressing the horrors of war and genocide. Her works of art are evocative, hauntingly beautiful and provide a powerful example of the way an artist can bear witness and give voice to victims. Sharrow taught in the Millersville University Department of Art & Design for over 20 years.
Following the success of the 2022 exhibition, Madya Sharrow determined that Millersville University would be a good home for “Three Graces,” painted by Sheba Sharrow in 1992, and donated the painting along with a substantial gift to support the Eckert Gallery in 2023. “Three Graces” is now on display at the Winter Visual and Performing Arts Center, enriching the experience of our students, faculty and guests for years to come. Prepared by Professor Heidi Leitzke.
Media Arts Production students learning show production skills at the control room of the Jason ’98 and Therese ’01 Wicht Studio.
Donor Mayda Sharrow next to her donation of Sheba Sharrow’s painting to the Eckert Gallery.
$50,000+
Jason ’98 and Therese ’01 Wicht
$15,000–$49,999
Mayda Sharrow • Joseph ’90 and Elizabeth ’91 Garner
$7,000–$14,999
Gerald and Susan Eckert • Alan and Linda Loss • Music for Everyone
$3,000–$6,999
Jewish Community Alliance of Lancaster
Max Kade Foundation • Nicholas F. Selch
Schwab Charitable Fund – Thomas A. & Georgina T. Russo
$500–$2,999
Roma J. Sayre • Gail E. Thomson • Melisa L. McKelvey ’93
Scott A. Deisley ’90 • Helene J. Robinson ’90 • Elaine B. Jones
J. Samuel Walker • Sylvia Shellenberger ’74
Emerald Asset Management • Darryl L. Landis ’85
PA Society of Sons of the Revolution – Lancaster Chapter
Carol A. Hollis • Cornerstone Advisors Asset Management
J. Eric Miller ’76
• Dr. Osman Suliman • Prof. Nancy R. Mata
Kharmia DeLemos Powell • Janet A. Simon ’65
A GIFT TO AHSS Every gift, no matter the size, can make a difference in the lives of our students. To make a gift, call 717-871-7520 or visit millersville.edu/give.
Professor Jeri Robinson and Interactive and Graphic Design students in action.
Select Faculty-Led Study Trips Funded by Our Donors – The Hagarman Endowment and the Student Engagement Fund
Music Industry students worked behind the scenes at the Iceland Airwaves Festival in Reykjavík.
Teacher candidates attended the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association’s Annual Conference in Erie, PA.
Art students participated in the Contemporary Craft Show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Students attended the conference of the National Association of Music Merchants in Los Angeles, CA.
Students attended the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, TX.
Students visited the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum of Art in Washington, D.C.
Fine Metals students participated in the national Metals Symposium at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC.
Media Arts Production students attended the international Cinema Ritrovato Film Festival in Bologna, Italy.
WHERE DISCOVERY HAPPENS
The College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences is known for its broad range of majors and interdisciplinary programs. Our programs are built on a strong foundation of liberal arts education, which we believe prepares students for a wide variety of successful career paths.
We offer a transformative curriculum that enables our graduates to reason effectively, write clearly, speak persuasively, think critically and ethically, express themselves creatively, work collaboratively and have a broad perspective on diverse cultures and contexts. Many of our programs offer unique opportunities for hands-on learning in our state-of-the-art facilities.
All of our programs incorporate numerous opportunities for internships, research with faculty, service learning projects, participation in professional conferences and competitions, and study abroad. Our graduates leave equipped with a wide array of transferable skills as well as breadth and depth of knowledge that will allow them to adapt and evolve as lifelong learners.
