September 2005

CLA UPDATE FOR FACULTY & STAFF

Tom Adler

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back, and I hope you have settled into your semester schedules.

On Monday we are celebrating the Yue-Kong Pao Hall of Visual and Performing Arts dedication, and we are thrilled that many of the donors who made this building possible will join us.

The new facility provides an amazing home for Visual and Performing Arts' faculty and students – as well as the thousands of other students who enroll in these classes. We now have a central place on campus where people can embrace creativity and design while exploring Liberal Arts.

Of course, the opening of the building's two new theaters will mean saying goodbye to the Experimental and Black Box theaters. I encourage everyone to buy tickets to see Purdue Theatre's farewell performances in these old venues and also to be the first to see performances in the Nancy T. Hansen Theatre and the Carole and Gordon Mallett Theatre in the spring.

One of the most exciting aspects of the new semester is meeting new faculty in the College of Liberal Arts. Take a look below, and you will see why we are honored to have such an outstanding group join our College.

Communication
Karen Myers, assistant professor, recently received her Ph.D. from Arizona State University. She researches organizational communication and focuses on member socialization, organizational identity and leadership.

Tyler Harrison, assistant professor, joins us from Kean University in New Jersey. He has a specialty in organizational communication, with special interests in conflict and dispute resolution.

Stacey Connaughton, an assistant professor who is from Rutgers University, examines identification and leadership in geographically distributed organizations, with a particular interest in political organizations.

Susan Morgan, an associate professor who was most recently at Rutgers University, studies creating persuasive public health campaigns for multicultural populations.

Professor Pamela Whitten, from Michigan State University, conducts research in the field of telemedicine and studies the use of communication technologies to provide health services.

English
Bill V. Mullen, professor of English and director of American Studies, is from the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he served as Director of graduate studies and co-chair of the American Studies program.

Assistant professor Christopher Lukasik, who specializes in early American and trans-Atlantic literature, spent four years on the faculty of Boston University prior to coming to Purdue.

Foreign Languages and Literatures
Nadege Veldwachter is an assistant professor who will teach Francophone literature and who specializes in writers of the French Caribbean. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Califonia at Los Angeles in 2005.

Health and Kinesiology
George Avery, assistant professor, will join us in January from the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health, where he recently completed a Ph.D. in Health Services Research and Policy with a supporting area in epidemiology. His interests center around healthcare quality, primarily focusing on medical laboratory quality and laboratory regulation.

Alice Wilcoxson, clinical assistant professor, served as a continuing lecturer in Purdue's Health and Kinesiology Athletic Training program last year after working at Eastern Kentucky University from 2001-2004. She oversees the clinical education of athletic training majors and also has a quarter-time appointment with Intercollegiate Athletics as the head trainer for the volleyball team.

History
Darren Dochuk, an assistant professor, joins us from the University of Notre Dame. He specializes in 20th-century U.S. political history since World War II, particularly the interaction of religion and politics.

Stacy Holden, an assistant professor, joins us from Boston University. Her research on the Arab-Islamic world focuses on the experiences of urban workers and food supply in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Juan Wang, an assistant professor, comes from Stanford University. She specializes in modern Chinese history and is interested in popular print culture.

Mike Ryan, an assistant professor, joins us from the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on the social, cultural and intellectual history of late medieval Spain.

Philosophy
Mark Bernstein, the Joyce and Edward E. Brewer Professor of Applied Ethics, joins us from the University of Texas at San Antonio. He specializes in animal ethics and has interests in environmental philosophy and contemporary metaphysics.

Daniel Frank, professor of Philosophy and Director of the Jewish Studies Program, joins us from the University of Kentucky. His teaching and research interests are in Islamic and Jewish philosophy and in the Greek philosophical tradition in the medieval period.

Political Science
Professor Bert A. Rockman is the new head of the Department of Political Science. He came to us from the School of Public Policy and Management at The Ohio State University. Rockman's research and teaching interests include the study of leadership (including the U.S. presidency), executive politics, political institutions and bureaucracy.

Psychological Sciences
Kim Kinzig, assistant professor, who joins us from Johns Hopkins University, conducts research on eating disorders and obesity, with emphases on neural and endocrine function.

Professor William Graziano joins us in Psychology after 13 years at Texas A&M and a brief stint as department head in Child Development and Family Studies. He does work on personality and interpersonal relations.

Sociology and Anthropology
Kevin Vaughn, assistant professor of Anthropology, received his Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2000, and has been teaching at Pacific Lutheran University for the past few years. He specializes in the archaeology of the Andean region of South America.

Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Professor Karen Iler Kirk is nationally known for her work on speech and language development in children with cochlear implants. She is from the Indiana University Medical Center.

Michael Heinz, assistant professor in audiology, comes from a postdoctoral appointment at Johns Hopkins University. His research interests are in neural coding in normal and impaired auditory systems and physiologically based models of auditory perception.

Mahalakshmi "Preeti" Sivasankar, who earned her Ph.D. from Northwestern University, is an assistant professor in the area of voice. Her area of expertise is the physiology of the vocal folds, especially as related to vocal fatigue.

Visual and Performing Arts
Professor Wenhai Ma joins us from the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. He previously was on the theater faculty of Duke University for 11 years. Ma holds an M.F.A. in scenic and costume design.

Again, welcome, and I wish everyone a successful semester.

Tom Adler

RESEARCH

Cold shoulder, silent treatment do more harm than good

Ostracism is more powerful now than ever because people have fewer strong family and friend support systems to fall back on when faced with exclusion in relationships, the workplace or even Internet chat rooms, says a social psychologist.

Kipling Williams

"The effects of ostracism are a health concern," says Kipling Williams, professor of Psychological Sciences who researches ostracism.

"Excluding and ignoring people, such as giving them the cold shoulder or silent treatment, are used to punish or manipulate, and people may not realize the emotional or physical harm that is being done. Some purposely hurt others by not inviting them to a party or ignoring them at work, and others may not even realize they are ostracizing someone when they ignore a new temporary employee or a friend after a disagreement."

This is one of the topics covered in Williams' The Social Outcast: Ostracism, Social Exclusion, Rejection and Bullying. Williams co-edited the book and also wrote a chapter about a theory of ostracism. The book ($75) was released by Psychology Press in June, and the co-editors are Joseph B. Forgas and William von Hippel. More

Prof examines factors affecting 'Cost of Being Poor' in urban areas

Many rust belt cities are turning to casinos to stimulate their economies, and an urban sociologist is looking at how this investment in the tourism industry will affect people living in poor urban neighborhoods.

Sandra Barnes

"Rust belt cities – such as Detroit and Flint in Michigan and Gary, Ind. – suffer because the primary industry, such as steel, is no longer driving the local economy," says Sandra Barnes, an assistant professor of sociology and African American Studies. "Using casinos and tourism as a way to bring money back to the communities is an option, but we know very little about how casinos affect people in these cities, especially poor people in urban areas."

Barnes is focusing on casinos in Gary, which have been mandated to provide money for community activities.

"For example, even though a casino is in an urban area, many of its employees may be from the suburbs or an outside area," she says. "And in most cases profits are shared with the state and county rather than being totally returned to benefit their inner city. We need to know how such dynamics affect the quality of life of residents – especially the poor."

Barnes begins to address this issue in her recent book The Cost of Being Poor: A Comparative Study of Life in Poor Urban Neighborhoods in Gary, Indiana The book ($24.95 paperback and $84.50 hardback) was published in July by State University of New York Press. More

Historian investigates double homicide in 17th century France

A History professor's latest book re-examines the case of a famous murder-mystery in 17th century France.

James Farr

"People in France are still talking about the Giroux affair, but no one knows what really happened," says James R. Farr, professor of European History. "Even though the story reads like fiction, this actually happened."

A Tale of Two Murders: Passion and Power in Seventeenth-Century France, (Duke University Press, $21.95) will be released in September.

"To start with, for several years no bodies were found – just two missing men making it difficult to know if murder acutally was committed," Farr says. "There were more than 30 alleged accomplices in this suspected dual murder, and those involved included some of the most distinguished ladies and gentlemen in Burgundy, as well as their servants and a doctor accused of poisoning patients. Even a prince was tied to the accused." More

Making movies about 9/11, other historical events

Hollywood has been generous in the amount of time it has waited to produce movies about 9/11 compared to other historical events, says a film expert.

"Just like a spouse mourning a death, there is a proper time to wait before one starts dating," says William J. Palmer, an English professor, who is working on a book about the history of film in the 1990s. "The same is true for Hollywood. With past events, such as the Vietnam War and Watergate, there was a two-year gap before films were produced. The trend is different for 9/11."

In July, Paramount Pictures announced that an Oliver Stone-directed movie is in pre-production. The film, based on a true story, will focus on police officers trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Center towers, which fell when two planes hit the buildings during a terrorist attack. The movie, which is the first big-screen production in the works about 9/11, does not have a release date. More

TV shows may tune our beliefs in supernatural

Americans' interest in the supernatural is only normal, but a mass media expert says television programs – like those in this fall's line-up – may influence what people believe about the spiritual world.

"This is a great form of entertainment, but it can be harmful when people are unable to sort out what is real and what isn't," says Glenn Sparks, professor of Communication who studies the effects supernatural television shows have on the way people believe and accept the supernatural. "For example, watching these shows could encourage people who can least afford it to start spending money on psychics."

"Also, teenagers' belief systems are still forming, so they are more susceptible to being influenced by these shows. Parents should talk to their children about what they are watching, and the networks should consider posting disclaimers about the reality of the shows." More

Read between the lines when learning how to use e-books

Universities, libraries and schools are asking more people to use electronic books, and an English expert offers a few tips to help users get a handle on this technology.

"Even though more people are using electronic books for school and pleasure, understanding this new technology can be a struggle," says David Blakesley, associate professor of English and Director of Purdue's Professional Writing Program.

Electronic books, known as e-books, are growing in popularity on college campuses, in school districts and at public libraries because they cost less – 40 percent to 60 percent less – than print books. Blakesley, who is founder and publisher of Parlor Press LLC, says e-books are cheaper to produce, store and distribute. More

Students live in retirement center to better understand aging issues

If graduate students are going to study issues facing older adults, then the average 20- to 30-year-old has a lot to gain from living in a retirement center, says a gerontology expert.

Two Liberal Arts students moved in July into Westminster Village, a retirement center north of campus, to spend the next year getting to know what health and social issues many 70- and 80-year-olds face.

"Many of the college students and scholars studying aging issues today find themselves decades apart from their subjects," says Gerry C. Hyner, professor of Health and Kinesiology and coordinator of the Purdue Gerontology Program. "While this living-learning arrangement exists in other universities' graduate programs, it is a rare opportunity for students because rooms in these facilities are at a premium, thanks to the growing older-adult population." More

Students should put away technology to make friends

The amount of technology helping college students today stay in touch with family and friends back home can be a blessing and a curse, says a mass media effects expert.

"Twenty years ago when students left for college, they realized they were leaving home to establish new friends and contacts at college," says Glenn Sparks, professor of Communication in the College of Liberal Arts. "Today, some people never really leave home even though they are hundreds of miles away. The first thing many college students do when they arrive on campus is hook up their computers and cable television and use their cell phones to call their friends at home."

Technology, including computers, e-mail and cell phones, gives students a way to keep in touch and "keep their relationships warm," says Sparks, who studies how mass media, such as television, affect people's relationships. More

Post Cold War, students are studying Russian again

Russian language studies are rebounding even as current events attract more students to Arabic and Spanish, says a language expert.

"Learning languages, especially Russian, is often motivated by what is happening politically and economically around the world," says Zinaida Breschinsky, associate professor of Russian who has been teaching at Purdue for 30 years.

That's why Arabic language programs are seeing their enrollments increase since 9/11, and interest in Spanish continues to increase with the growing native-speaking population in the United States, she says.

"In the 1990s, as the fall of the Soviet Union ended the Cold War, followed by the chaotic years of President Boris Yeltsin, the number of students learning Russian was the lowest I had ever seen," Breschinsky says. "In the last eight years, that number has been increasing." More

Professor uses 'novel' way to teach advanced public relations

Purdue public relations students are learning that fiction can prepare them for reality.

"I traded in textbooks for novels in three of my advanced public relations classes," says Josh Boyd, associate professor of Communication. "Even though the stories are fiction, the characters and plot can reinforce theories, ethics and the realities of working in a career such as public relations."

Boyd also assigned two novels, Carl Hiaasen's Native Tongue and Christopher Buckley's Thank You for Smoking, for class discussions and papers. More

OTHER NEWS

Purdue anthropologists are inviting the public to learn more about archaeology while viewing artifacts from a recent excavation at a Sept. 14 open house.

2005 Archaeology
Field School

The Archaeology Lab, Room 218, at Stone Hall, will be open from 10 a.m. to noon and 1-3 p.m. to celebrate the 10th annual Archaeology Month in Indiana.

"Archaeology is about so much more than just digging," says Deborah Rotman, assistant professor of Anthropology and Director of the Field School. "By opening the lab to visitors, people can learn about the behind-the-scenes work that contributes to where and how we excavate a site, as well as how we process and identify the artifacts we find."

Artifacts, such as glass marbles, buttons, keys, ceramic fragments and glass fruit jars, will be on display from the 2005 archaeological field school dig. Rotman and about a dozen students spent six weeks this summer excavating the yard of a home in Mulberry, Ind., that was occupied by wealthy families in the late 1800s. More

History, Political Science celebrate first national day devoted to Constitution

Purdue will utilize interactive displays, lectures, various exhibits and even quiz shows to educate the public about American history on Sept. 15-16 during its observance of the first Constitution and Citizenship Day.

Congress passed a provision in 2004 declaring Sept. 17 Constitution Day, and all federally funded schools were asked to develop educational programs to commemorate the day. The Constitution was signed Sept. 17, 1787, in Philadelphia.

The first public event, "The U.S. Constitution: What's It Got to Do with Me?" begins at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 15 in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall and will include: