February 2005

CLA UPDATE FOR FACULTY & STAFF

Toby Parcel

I hope the spring semester has started well for everyone.

Thanks to the work of Richard Johnson-Sheehan, a new associate professor in the English Department, the College of Liberal Arts will offer grant writing workshops later this semester. This is a great opportunity for many of us to benefit from Professor Johnson-Sheehan's experience and study of grant writing. Please watch for more information.

Thank you to those who attended Provost Sally Mason's meeting with Liberal Arts faculty last Thursday. Provost Mason heard presentations from our Departments of Communication and History and toured the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences.

I also encourage faculty members to be proactive in taking advantage of the Purdue News Service to publicize our work in Liberal Arts. Please send information about any upcoming research publications, such as books and major journal articles, to Amy Patterson-Neubert, Liberal Arts' contact at the News Service. It's important for our College to highlight the discovery that is taking place in all of our departments and programs. By publicizing this work, the Purdue campus and community will develop a better understanding of our College's achievements in our three signature areas – arts, values and culture; behavior, health and well-being; and institutions and social change.

Best wishes for a productive semester!

Toby L. Parcel

RESEARCH

Prepositions turn brain 'on' in different ways

Parts of the human brain think about the same word differently, at least when it comes to prepositions, according to new language research in stroke patients conducted by scientists at Purdue University and the University of Iowa.

David Kemmerer

People who speak English often use the same prepositions, words such as "on," "in," "around" and "through," to indicate time as well as location. For example, compare "I will meet you 'at' the store," to "I will meet you 'at' 3 p.m." These examples show how time may be thought of metaphorically in terms of space.

Just because it's the same word, however, doesn't mean the brain thinks about it the same way, said David Kemmerer, an assistant professor of Psychological Sciences and Linguistics in Purdue's College of Liberal Arts.

"There has been a lot of cognitive neuroscience research about how the brain processes language pertaining to concrete things, such as animals or tools," said Kemmerer, who also is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Iowa's Department of Neurology, where this research was conducted. "This is the first cognitive neuroscience study to investigate brain regions for spatial and temporal relations – those involving time – used in language. More

Women like women more than men like men

Even though men are often perceived to be at the top, especially in the corporate world, new gender research from Purdue shows that men are not generally the preferred gender.

Stephanie Goodwin

This new research shows that when adults' attitudes are measured, there are more positive feelings about women as a group.

"This seems contradictory to other research out there because men generally enjoy higher status," said Stephanie Goodwin, an assistant professor of Psychological Sciences who studies the social cognitive effects of biases and prejudices.

Goodwin, also a member of Purdue's Women Studies Program, conducted four studies measuring implicit attitudes of 379 adults. The results show that women prefer women, and men, on average, don't have a preference toward either gender. Although men, on average, did not show in-group favoritism, individual men's responses varied widely, with some men showing a preference for women and others showing a preference for men. The study appeared in the October issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation and Purdue's Department of Psychological Sciences. More

New approach helps stuttering children cope with bullying, teasing

William Murphy

A new book from a Purdue speech-language pathologist says more needs to be done to address the bullying that often results in more anxiety for children who stutter than the speech disorder itself.

"Working on techniques to cope with stuttering is not enough because children's hurt feelings are getting in the way," said William Murphy, who has worked for more than two decades on developing speech therapy in Purdue's Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences.

"Even the children who receive therapy to help them live with stuttering continue to have negative feelings as they grow older. Their ability to communicate is still hindered by the shame and embarrassment they feel about stuttering, which is often brought on from bullying and teasing."

Murphy, whose recent publications and presentations focus on the role of shame and guilt in stuttering, co-wrote Bullying and Teasing: Helping Children who Stutter. Murphy also collaborates on research in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences that looks at brain activity when people stutter. More

Watch for emotional effects of tsunami disaster images

Repeatedly watching the graphic images of the tsunami destruction in southern Asia can take an emotional toll, especially on children, says a Purdue media expert.

Glenn Sparks

"Given the unprecedented and continuing nature of the disaster, parents need to remain sensitive to the news coverage that their children are watching." More

Holiday traditions recall family history, values

Asking Santa for a happy family holiday season? Then start with tradition, says a Purdue cultural anthropologist.

"Tradition is very important because we rely on it to define ourselves and our values," says Andrew Buckser, associate professor of anthropology, who studies ritual, culture and religion, specifically in Judaism in Europe. "It's how we tell our story. Holiday rituals are really a kind of play, and everyone is always rewriting the script. Each of us is our own character, and we each have something we want to say."

Many people think rituals are only associated with so-called primitive societies or religious activities, but everyone, even non-religious people in the Western world, participates in rituals, he says. Holiday rituals are especially important because they represent a connection of our personal pasts to our lives today. More

Children sought for summer program to study behavior

A Purdue University professor of Psychological Sciences is seeking 45 children for a summer program that will research how children's self-concept relates to their behavior.

This year, two sessions of the Children's Research Summer Program will be offered for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, known as ADHD, and also for children who have no significant behavior problems. The first session is May 31 to June 10, and the second will run June 13-24. Children ages 8-10 can attend one of these sessions from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each weekday.

The program, run by Betsy Hoza, will be held in Purdue's Department of Psychological Sciences. More

OTHER NEWS

Purdue Theatre excels at regional competition

Purdue Theatre earned several awards at the recent Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region III competition, which took place Jan. 11-15 at Illinois State University in Normal, Ill.

Scene from Buried Child

Purdue's presentation of its fall 2004 production of Buried Child, which was part of the festival's showcase, earned the entire theater company the Golden Hand Truck Award for outstanding load-in and strike of a production set.

Also, seven student actors and designers from Purdue Theatre's other 2004 productions earned individual awards at the regional festival, which featured outstanding collegiate theater performances from a five-state region in the Midwest.

"The performance of our theater students at the festival was truly outstanding," said Russ Jones, division chair of Purdue Theatre. "The experience our students get by presenting their work at the regional festival is extremely beneficial. The festival also has become an important conduit for the faculty in recruiting undergraduate students into our graduate programs." More

FACULTY AND HONORS

– Lyle L. Lloyd, a professor in Purdue's Departments of Educational Studies and Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, is one of four people awarded fellowship status by the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication at the society's biennial conference in Natal, Brazil. Lloyd is the first American to be awarded fellow status, one of the society's highest awards. Lloyd's contributions have been primarily in the area of preparing professionals and researchers in the field of augmentative and alternative communication and for his extensive publications in the area. His recognition also honors his contributions to the group, including an eight-year tenure as the editor of the society's journal.

– Purdue's Writing Lab was honored this fall by the Conference on College Composition and Communication. This national association, which promotes the teaching and study of college composition, honored 11 programs with the Writing Program Certificate of Excellence. The honor acknowledges services provided by the Writing Lab and the professional development opportunities it offers its student staff, as well as its online version known as OWL. In 2003, OWL received more than 23 million hits from more than 125 countries. The Writing Lab, housed in the Department of English, provides handouts on editing and revising, and online workshops on resumes, cover letters, Web research and research papers. Users also can e-mail questions to a tutor or call the grammar hotline at 494-3723.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Books & Coffee series: Grammar, fiction and biography

The 2005 Books & Coffee series begins with a discussion about the international bestseller that celebrates the rules of punctuation and disparages the grammatically challenged.

On Feb. 3, Victor Raskin, professor of English and interim director of Interdisciplinary Programs in Liberal Arts, will discuss Lynne Truss' Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.

Thomas P. Adler, professor of English and interim associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts who is coordinating the series, says, "Originally a publishing sensation in England, Truss' quirky and humorous approach to grammar has been on American bestseller lists for nearly a year."

The Thursday afternoon programs will be in Stewart Center, rooms 302 and 306. Coffee and tea are available beginning at 4 p.m., with the half-hour talks starting at 4:30 p.m. The programs are free and open to the public.

The other discussions include:

Feb. 24, Venetria Patton, associate professor of English and director of African-American studies, reviews Edward Jones' The Known World. More

Liberal Arts faculty lecture on historic documents

The lecture series featuring artifacts from the Remnant Trust exhibit continues through Feb. 15.

Remnant Trust

The talks, which are free and open to the public, are scheduled for 4:30-5:30 p.m. every Tuesday in the Purdue Memorial Union's East and West Faculty Lounges during the exhibit's six-week run. The exhibit, Individuals & Society: Many Voices, Many Views, will run through Feb. 20 and also is free and open to the public.