If you have any questions about study abroad opportunities please contact David Santogrossi, Associate Dean of Academic Services, or Michael Bittinger, study abroad advisor, in the Office of Study Abroad.

Also, I want to thank the members of the alumni board, as well as Liberal Arts alumni and students, who volunteered at the Oct. 15 Liberal Arts Homecoming celebration. It was a beautiful day, and this was a great opportunity for me and others to visit with alumni, and more importantly to give our students a chance to talk with graduates.

Our students will have another opportunity to hear from some high-profile Liberal Arts alumni during this year's Old Masters visit, Nov. 6-8.

Five Liberal Arts graduates will be meeting with students and visiting classes.

Liberal Arts' Old Masters are:

I would like to invite you to a reception honoring these Liberal Arts Old Masters, from 2:30-3:30 p.m. on Nov. 7 in Room 118 of the Purdue Memorial Union.

Also, don't forget the next Purdue Theatre performance. A drama titled Marisol is your last chance to watch a production at the Experimental Theatre, which is closing after 47 years and more than 245 productions. Two new theatres are opening in Spring 2006 in the Yue-Kong Pao Hall of Visual and Performing Arts. Marisol runs Nov. 10-20, and ticket information is listed below.

Thanks for supporting Liberal Arts.

Tom Adler

NEWS AND RESEARCH

Psychology professor encourages alternate treatments for men who abuse women

The ability to effectively treat men who repeatedly abuse women may be improved through individualized therapy rather than the traditional group treatment approach, according to a domestic violence expert.

Eckhardt

"We know that group treatments work for some men, but others will continue to physically, verbally, psychologically and sexually abuse women," said Christopher I. Eckhardt, associate professor of Psychological Sciences. "Our perspective is that treatment guidelines should focus on the individual's background, motivations for engaging in abuse, and readiness to change their behavior, rather than a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to treatment."

Eckhardt and Christopher M. Murphy, associate professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, are near the end of their four-year clinical study to evaluate the long-term use of individually based intervention for abusive men.

Eckhardt and Murphy developed a new treatment manual based on their earlier research. They also are comparing the effectiveness of their individual treatment versus a standard group therapy in a study, which concludes next summer, and is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Guilford Publications published the manual Treating the Abusive Partner: An Individualized Cognitive-Behavioral Approach ($35) in October. More

'Politics as usual' may result in guilty verdict from constituents

Even if a politician is found innocent of corruption in a court of law, what is perceived as unethical behavior can result in a guilty verdict in the court of public opinion, says a political expert.

"Politicians and government officials define corruption based on whether they are breaking the law, while citizens may think of corruptive behavior as something as simple as candidates on the campaign trail making promises specifically to influence a group of voters," says James McCann, associate professor of Political Science who studies public opinion.

"Former majority leader and Texas Rep. Tom DeLay declares that he is not guilty of the indictments brought against him for illegal fundraising and accepting gifts. But he may still be considered 'corrupt,' at least according to how voters defined what is politically corrupt behavior in our research."

McCann teamed with David P. Redlawsk, an assistant professor of Political Science at the University of Iowa, to study how corruption is defined and interpreted by American voters. The researchers' article appeared in September's Political Behavior. More

Indiana business, health care leaders assessing status of telemedicine

A communication expert organized an interactive meeting with Indiana health-care and business representatives on Oct. 20 to talk about the role telemedicine plays in how the state provides quality medical services.

More than 60 invited representatives from health-care systems in the state, telecommunication vendors and other state agencies attended the meeting in Indianapolis.

"Telemedicine – health care that is delivered through communication technologies such as the telephone, Internet or videoconferencing – can improve service by connecting health-care services and providers to patients who may be separated by geography," said Pamela Whitten, professor of Communication and Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering Faculty Scholar.

"When people think of telemedicine they often think about how it improves access to health care by providing patients living in rural settings a high quality and cost-effective way to communicate with their providers and specialists long distance," said Whitten, who started Kansas' telemedicine program through the University of Kansas Medical Center in 1995. "But, our whole health care system and patients would benefit."

Based on information from this working group, Whitten will evaluate how Indiana can benefit from telemedicine services, and she will release a summary in December. She will work with the Regenstrief Center and health providers throughout the state to consider telemedicine projects in Indiana. More

Presidential scholar: President sings second-term blues

The recent indictment of a top White House aide is feeding President George W. Bush's second-term blues that many recent re-elected presidents face, but the long-term implications are still unclear, says a presidential expert.

"Every administration experiences some kind of scandal, just different kinds," says Bert A. Rockman, professor of Political Science and co-editor of and contributor to a series of books evaluating the presidencies of George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

For example, Clinton's scandal involving a relationship with a White House intern was personal. Former President Ronald Reagan had to deal with the Iran-Contra hearings about an illicit money-laundering scheme to supply arms to rebels in Nicaragua.

"What's happening now with the vice president's former chief of staff, I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, is being compared to Watergate because of the possible involvement of other government officials," says Rockman, head of the Department of Political Science. "Could the reasons for leaking a CIA covert agent's name to the media be similar to the Nixon administration covering up the Watergate break-in? Is there an effort, in other words, to undermine opposition to administration policies through the use of illegal methods? We don't know yet." More

Professor says today's vampires are more about style than gore

The real Count Dracula wasn't quite the pretty face that today's vampires boast in books, movies and at Halloween parties, says a classics professor.

"Stories and traditions vary over time, and the Western world shifted from portraying vampires as repulsive and horrible to more human creatures that are sexually desirable and even sympathetic," says John T. Kirby, professor of Classics and Comparative Literature.

This dramatic change really began with Anne Rice's remarkable series of vampire novels in the 1970s and other novels, films and television shows that followed her lead, Kirby says.

"While people are having fun with this new image of vampires, it's important to remember the historical figure who inspired vampire legend as we know it in the West today," says Kirby, who is teaching an honors class this spring on vampires in folklore, fiction and film, as well as leading a study abroad program during spring break to Transylvania, which is in modern-day Romania. More

Middle East basketball champs visit Purdue to pursue peace in sports

The West Asia championship junior national basketball team from Lebanon is visiting Purdue and other Indiana universities to learn how sports can be a part of the peacemaking process.

Two coaches and 12 players, ages 17-18, will be at Purdue Nov. 6-10. During their stay they will attend college and professional basketball games, meet the governor of Indiana, participate in leadership training at Purdue, tolerance training at the University of Notre Dame and sportsmanship training at the NCAA. The visit is part of USPORT, Unity Through Sports, an Indiana-based sports diplomacy program sponsored by the United States Department of State.

"Their visit is partially an award for winning the West Asia Basketball Championship by beating all other national basketball teams in the Middle East," said Donald W. Mitchell, a professor of Comparative Religions who is an expert in interfaith religions. "These teenagers are from a region that is marred by violence, and it is important their positive involvement in sports with leadership and tolerance is reinforced. During their visit to Purdue, Notre Dame and Indiana universities, the players and coaches will learn more about tolerance and leadership, and of course, American basketball." More

OTHER EVENTS

Purdue Theatre will bring down the final curtain of the Experimental Theatre with Jose Rivera's Marisol, Nov. 10-20.

Marisol

Jeff Casazza, visiting instructor of theater, is directing the production. The play is about Marisol Perez, a young Latina woman who takes an extraordinary journey through the war zone that was once New York City and discovers that the only way to save the earth is for society to rediscover compassion for the human race.

Marisol opens at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 10 with additional 7:30 p.m. performances Nov. 11-Nov. 12 and Nov. 16-19. Two matinees will be offered at 3 p.m. Nov. 13 and Nov. 20.

Admission is $16 for the general public, $12 for seniors (62 and over) and $9 for students. Tickets may be purchased at the Loeb Box Office in Stewart Center or by calling 494-3933. More

The Purdue Galleries will present a participatory exhibit of designs for paper sculptures and photographs illustrating the physical properties of water in two new exhibits that will be on display now to Dec. 4.

Paper Work Glove

"The Paper Sculpture Show," featuring designs for three-dimensional paper sculptures by 29 international artists and artist teams, will be presented in the Robert L. Ringel Gallery in Purdue Memorial Union. The artworks are completed only when visitors have assembled them. The artists' designs, along with instructions, will be stacked on work tables in the gallery along with a limited set of tools – such as scissors, a utility knife, tape and glue – to be used in the "transformation" of the work.

Visitors are encouraged to allow their creations to remain on display after they leave (to be picked up after the show closes) to enable the exhibition to grow and change throughout its presentation. More

The Patti and Rusty Rueff Galleries will feature works from Industrial Design and Photography, as well as other Fine Arts areas during its November schedule.

"Recent Works" by Photography professors Karen LaVallee and Cheryl Yun, and Tim Fuller, a lecturer in the Division of Art and Design, will be featured through Nov. 11 in the East Gallery.

The West Gallery schedule includes:

Four fellows from the College of Liberal Arts' faculty development centers will discuss their research during two symposiums on Nov. 9 and 15.

On Nov. 9, Charles Gick, associate professor of Visual and Performing Arts, will present "Exhaustion: A Multisensory Video Installation" and Donald Platt, associate professor of English, will present "Poetry Reading from Sky Blues (a jazz epic for two kazoos, slide whistle, cap gun and biplane)." The presentations are at 3:30 p.m. in the Jaques Building, second floor, 314-316 West St., West Lafayette.

On Nov. 15, Emily Allen, associate professor of English, will present "Introducing VPO: Victorian Pedagogies Online" and Kristina Bross, associate professor of English, will present "Raiders of the Lost Archives: An Undergraduate Humanities Research Practicum." The presentations are at 3:30 p.m. in Stewart Center, Room 313. More

– Nov. 2. 8 to 9:30 p.m., Krannert Building, Room 140. Jewish Studies Lecture Series. Shimson Zelniker, director of the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem, Israel, "Israel and World Politics: Reflections on the Post-Oslo and Post-Gaza Situation."

– Nov. 3. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Purdue Memorial Union, Room 118. "The Politics of Religion: Nation, Identity and Difference" symposium.

The speakers will address current religious issues in South Asia. The speakers are Sumit Sarkar, professor emeritus of History at Delhi University; Tanika Sarkar, professor at the Center for Historical Studies at Jawarharlal Nehru University in New Delhi; Barbara Metcalf, professor of History at University of Michigan; and Ali Riaz, professor of Politics and Government at Illinois State University.

The event is sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Liberal Arts, the Office of the Vice President for Human Resources, the Departments of English and History, and the interdisciplinary programs of Religious Studies, Women's Studies and Asian Studies. For more information, please contact Tithi Bhattacharya, assistant professor of South Asian History.

– Nov. 3. 4 p.m., Stewart Center, Room 322. Richard Strier, Frank L. Sulzberger Professor of English at the University of Chicago, and editor of Modern Philology, will present "From Idiosyncrasy to Blankness: The First Person Pronoun from Montaigne to Descartes." This talk is part of the 2005 Renaissance Comparative Prose Conference. A reception will follow the event.

– Nov. 3. 7:30 p.m., Wells Center, 638 North St., Lafayette. Mark Yakich, an assistant professor of English at Central Michigan University, will read from his poetry. He is the winner of the 2003 National Poetry Series. The reading is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts, the Department of English and the Master of Fine Arts program in English.

– Nov. 7. 4-5:30 p.m., Stewart Center, Room 314. Jon Pahl, professor of the History of Christianity in North America at The Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, will present "The Desire to Acquire or Why Shopping Malls are Sites of Religious Violence." This talk is sponsored by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, American Studies, and the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center.

– Nov. 9. 2 p.m., Krannert Building, Krannert Auditorium. Department of Political Science lecture. Thomas E. Mann, Averill Harriman Chair in the Governance Studies Program of the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. will present "American Democracy in a Partisan Era." He is former director of the Governmental Studies Program at Brookings and a former executive director of the American Political Science Association.

– Nov. 10. 8 p.m., Rawls Hall, Room 1057. David Parrish, professor of Visual and Performing Arts, will present "Ancient Mosaics in Turkey." Parrish's lecture is sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Classics Program and the Purdue Classics Association.

– Nov. 10. 4:30 p.m., Beering Hall of Liberal Arts and Education. Hud Hudson, professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy at Western Washington University, will present "Extended Simples." The lecture is part of Purdue's Department of Philosophy 2005 Fall Colloquium Series.

– Nov. 12. 2-5 p.m., Stanley Coulter, Room 239. Purdue's third Chinese Speech and Performance Contest. The event is sponsored by the Purdue China Center, the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and the Purdue University Chinese Student and Scholar Association.

– Nov. 15. 7:30 p.m., Stewart Center, Fowler Hall. History Forum. Mary Elizabeth Berry, professor of History from University of California at Berkeley. "The Samurai Cult and the Need for Heroism."

– Nov. 16. Noon, Stewart Center, Room 311. Stacy Weida, lecturer in the Department of English, will present "Sexual Economies: The Intimate Link Between Globalization and the Sex Work Industry." The lecture is part of the Women's Studies Noon Series.

– Dec. 1. 4:30 p.m., Beering Hall of Liberal Arts and Education. Barbara Herman, professor of Philosophy at the University of California at Los Angeles, will present "Reasoning to Obligation." The lecture is part of Purdue's Department of Philosophy 2005 Fall Colloquium Series.

– Dec. 1. 7:30 p.m., Hicks Undergraduate Library, Bookstall. Cathy Day, an assistant professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of Circus in Winter, and will be reading from her fiction. The reading is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts, the Department of English and the Master of Fine Arts program in English.  

FACULTY & CLA HONORS

Liberal Arts faculty members received university teaching honor

The Purdue Teaching Academy, which provides leadership for the improvement of undergraduate, graduate and outreach teaching, inducted a new Liberal Arts fellow and an associate fellow at a recognition ceremony on Oct. 24.

Fellows and associate fellows are chosen by the academy's executive council from nominations by each college or school. Every college and school is allowed to nominate one faculty member annually for membership as a fellow in the Teaching Academy and one graduate student or staff member for membership as an associate fellow.

Winners are chosen based on their outstanding contributions to teaching and learning on the campus.

Janet M. Alsup, associate professor of English education, is a new fellow, and Lynette A. Osborne, graduate student in Sociology and Anthropology, is a new associate fellow. More

Other items

Communication professors Howard Sypher, Mohan Dutta-Bergman, Glenn Sparks, Steve Wilson, Melanie Morgan and Erina MacGeorge, along with graduate students Beth Gill and Rebecca de Souza, visited Belgium's Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in September to facilitate partnering efforts between both universities' areas of communication research.

In May 2004, Purdue's President Martin C. Jischke signed a memorandum of understanding that allows the two universities to work together on collaborative research, combined programs and curricula, and student and faculty exchanges.

Purdue's Department of Communication has already begun to develop joint research efforts and expects to begin supporting graduate student and faculty exchanges next year as part of the universities' partnership. During the group's visit, the Purdue representatives also participated with the Leuven faculty in formal opening ceremonies, said Sypher, who also is head of the Department of Communication.

The University was founded in 1425 and is officially named "Katholieke Universiteit Leuven" or "KU-Leuven" in reference to its heritage as the Catholic University of Leuven. The school, located in Flanders, 12 miles east of Brussels, has 30,000 students from 100 different countries. Leuven also is the oldest Catholic university in the world still in existence.

Recipe winner

Suzanne Fournier, a graduate student in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, won the Family Circle Magazine College Cook-Off. Fournier, originally from Redding, Calif., won $3,000 worth of prizes for her barbecue chicken wings recipe. Her recipe and others can be found at Family Circle. Fourier is a first-year doctoral student, and she earned her master's degree from Purdue in December 2004.

EXPERTS IN THE NEWS

Indianapolis Star –
Scooters provide mobility, freedom
(Andrew Buckser, Department of Sociology and Anthropology)

Indianapolis Star –
Fat or fit? New devices measure what part of body's weight is fat.
(Darlene Sedlock, Department of Health and Kinesiology)

United Press International –
Count Dracula was no pretty boy
(John T. Kirby, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures)

News-Press (Ft. Myers, Florida) –
Getting the cold shoulder
(Kipling Williams, Department of Psychological Sciences)

Shargh (Tehran, Iran) –
Marx on Pre-Capitalist Societies
(Kevin Anderson, Department of Political Science, and Janet Afary, Department of History)

KBTV4 (NBC affiliate in Beaumont, Texas) –
Happy Halloween!
(Melinda Zook, Department of History)

Journal and Courier –
Local perspective: President should take his time
(James McCann, Department of Political Science)

Indianapolis Star –
Experts: Career-driven moves fray families' sense of place
(Glenn Sparks, Department of Communication)

Any story ideas or news tips can be sent to Amy Patterson Neubert at the Purdue News Service, 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu