February in review: College of Arts & Sciences major highlights
Explaining the discovery of gravitational waves, faculty awards and the naming of an interim dean are just a few of the things that happened in February in the College of Arts & Sciences.
The following are highlights from an exciting month:
A.Q. Miller School of Journalism & Mass Communications: Thomas Hallaq served as executive producer for five student-made videos communicating the work of National Science Foundation-funded researchers at K-State to the general public featured in Science 360 News. Also aired:
- Feb. 19: Maize Mosaic Virus (Winner: BEA, Best of Festival, 2016)
- Feb. 25: Sage Vaca
Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics: Lawrence Davis was part of an international consortium that received a $300,000 grant from NATO for a project entitled “New Phytotechnology for Cleaning Contaminated Military Sites.”
Division of Biology: R. J. Clem published Arboviruses and apoptosis: The role of cell death in determining vector competence in the Journal of General Virology. doi: 10.1099/jgv.0.000429. [Epub ahead of print]
English: Steffi Dippold, Tosha Sampson-Choma, and Shirley Tung received Faculty Enhancement Awards from the College of Arts & Sciences.
Geography: J.L. Commerford (graduate student), B Leys, and K.K. McLauchlan, et al, published Great Plains vegetation dynamics in response to fire and climatic fluctuations during the Holocene at Fox Lake, Minnesota (USA) in The Holocene 26(2): 302-313.
Modern Languages: Three faculty members published three peer-reviewed articles in three different languages: Sara Luly, German, "Polite Hauntings: Same-Sex Eroticism in Sophie Albrecht’s Das höfliche Gespenst" in Seminar: A Journal of Germanic Studies 52.2 (2016) 60-79.; Rebecca Bender, Spanish, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (volume 93, issue 2): "Theorizing a Hybrid Feminism: Motherhood in Margarita Nelken's En torno a nosotras,"; and Li Yang, Chinese, “Learning to express gratitude in Mandarin Chinese through web-based instruction” in Language Learning & Technology.
Physics: Understanding Einstein: Cosmologist Lado Samushia explained the discovery of gravitational waves.
Physics: Amit Chakrabarti was selected to serve as interim dean of College of Arts & Sciences.
Political Science: Sabri Ciftci was invited to Princeton University to present his research at a two day workshop (March 3-4) entitled “After the Uprisings: the Arab World in Freefall, Fragmentation, or Reconfiguration?” Dr. Ciftci will present his research paper “Human Development, Corruption, and Political Satisfaction in Arab Societies: A Sub-National Analysis.”
Psychological Sciences: Kimberly Kirkpatrick and a colleague published Associative learning and timing in Current Opinion in Behavior Sciences, 8, 181-185.
School of Music, Theatre, and Dance: Paul Zmolek, Dance, presented "Global Corporeality: Collaborative Choreography in Digital Space" at the 24th Festival of Original Theatre: Staging Realities, Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Toronto. Feb 5-7, 2016.
School of Music, Theatre, and Dance: Jennifer Vellenga, Theatre, presented FORWARD by Chantal Bilodeau, a play on climate change, in the Purple Masque Theatre Feb. 4-14, 2016. This project is the culmination of research in Norway and play readings in Oslo and Chicago.
School of Music, Theatre, and Dance: Under the direction of Julie Yu, Music, the K-State Collegiate Chorale performed as the invited prelude choir for the 20th Anniversary celebration concert of the North Texas Metroplex Children's Chorus at the Meyerson Symphony Hall in Dallas, TX.
