Focus on Faculty & Staff

John Eagle

Shannon Dowd-Eagle

John Eagle and Shannon Dowd-Eagle, assistant professors in the School Psychology Program in the Counseling, Educational Leadership, and School Psychology Department (CEP) recently presented an invited workshop at the 5th Annual New England Conference on Positive Behavioral Supports, sponsored by the May Institute. The presentation was on family involvement in school-wide positive behavioral intervention and supports (SWPBIS) systems.

Dowd-Eagle and Eagle are members of the Rhode Island Statewide Leadership Team for the Implementation of School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. Their work in the area of SWPBIS is also completed in conjunction with the Paul V. Sherlock Center on Disabilities at Rhode Island College.
www.ripbis.org

Daniel P. Snowman

Daniel P. Snowman, professor of physics in the Department of Physical Sciences, has recently published a series of research articles appearing in “Physical Review E,” the “Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials,” and “Arxiv.org,” respectively.

Snowman is a theoretical physicist whose primary research concentration is in the subfield of statistical mechanics with a particular focus upon the use of renormalization-group and field theory methods to better understand the role of competition upon ordering in exotic magnetic systems.

Two sociology faculty members delivered papers at the August annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in San Francisco.

Mikaila Mariel Lemonik
Arthur

Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur, assistant professor of sociology, presented a paper entitled “Queering the Academy: Explaining the Emergence of Queer Studies in American Higher Education.”

Her paper shows that social movements within colleges and universities have pushed for such programs, and where they have been sufficiently organized and persuasive, colleges and universities have been willing to adopt programs.

She also organized and presided over a session titled “Developing Positive Relationships Between Journalists and Academia.” The session brought together award-winning sociologists with a track record of appearances in print and TV media along with a journalist to discuss how sociologists can learn to negotiate media appearances and build their media image.

The 2009 meetings marked the end of Arthur’s term as secretary-treasurer of the ASA Section on the History of Sociology; this year, she continues as editor of “Critical Mass,” the newsletter of the Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements. In 2010, she will begin serving as editor for the Sociology of Law in the ASA’s new digital teaching library.

Pamela Irving Jackson

Pamela Irving Jackson, professor of sociology and director of the Justice Studies Program, presented two papers at ASA. The first, “Race, Crime and Criminal Justice in France: Impact of Culture of Control on Minorities in France,” was part of the Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Paper Session, and has been accepted for publication in Race, Crime and Criminal Justice: International Perspectives, edited by Anita Kalunta Crumpton, and published by Macmillan-Palgrave.

At a session sponsored by the International Migration section at ASA, Jackson presented another paper (with co-author Peter Doerschler), titled, “Host Language Facility and Immigrant Integration in Germany: Cultural Securitization, Labor Market Involvement, Anti-Immigrant Hostility.”

She also participated in a one-day mini-conference organized by the ASA International Migration Section, and held at the University of California-Berkeley, on the day before the ASA meetings began. The mini-conference provided the opportunity for its 150 participants to discuss key issues of migration, and consult with each other on research and teaching efforts. Jackson contributed to the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) while she was in San Francisco, presenting her research on the impact of the securitization of immigration policies on the integration of minorities in France and Germany at sessions sponsored by two SSSP divisions: Crime and Juvenile Delinquency, and Global.

Chris Mulcahey

Chris Mulcahey, professor and art specialist at the Henry Barnard School, has published an article in the most recent issue of Young Children, the Journal of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The article, "Providing Rich Art Activities for Young Children," details how using exemplary artworks with preschoolers allows them to construct their own knowledge, teaches appreciation of diversity, encourages storytelling, and fosters imaginative and critical thinking skills. The article is based on her forthcoming book, "The Story in the Picture: Inquiry and Artmaking with Young Children," by Teachers College Press.

Shani D. Carter, associate professor of management, has published a paper detailing the student outcomes assessment process used in her department "A Ten Step Process for Creating Outcomes Assessment Measures for an Undergraduate Management Program: A Faculty Driven Process." The article appears in Professional File, volume 113, Midsummer 2009, pp. 1-15, published by the Association for Institutional Research.

Robin Kirkwood Auld

Kerri Tunnicliffe

Robin Kirkwood Auld, associate professor of health and physical education, wrote the chapter, “Developing Savvy Off-the-Ball Players,” for the 2009 book “TGfU…Simply Good Pedagogy: Understanding a Complex Challenge” (editors Tim Hopper, Joy Butler, and Brian Storey).

In collaboration with the Pawtucket Red Sox, Auld, Kerri Tunnicliffe, associate professor of physical education, and nine physical education majors developed and implemented activities to integrate baseball into the teaching of math, science, social studies and language arts. On May 19, 300 K-12 students from Rhode Island schools came to School Celebration Day prior to the PawSox game to sample movement activities on the field and classroom activities that are part of the PawSox/Rhode Island College Curriculum Guide (written by RIC educators Auld, Robert Cvornyek, Bennett Lombardo and Tunnicliffe).

George Ladd

George Ladd, assistant professor of psychology and a faculty member within the Chemical Dependency & Addiction Studies Program, is working this summer with researchers from Brown University School of Medicine and the Department of Emergency Medicine at Rhode Island Hospital on a research project intended to evaluate the effectiveness of a drug misuse intervention strategy with hospital emergency department patients. Drug misuse is an important problem in Rhode Island and carries with it serious economic, health, social and familial consequences. Interventions that focus on patients in emergency departments may yield a positive impact as drug misusers frequently receive medical care from emergency departments for relief of health problems relating to their drug use and because they are more likely to have inadequate health care access and less socioeconomic resources.

Ladd and Karen Friend of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation’s Decision Sciences Institute in Providence recently published the article “Youth Gambling Advertising: A Review of the Lessons Learned From Tobacco Control” in the refereed journal Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy.

Expenditures on gambling advertisements and promotions in North America have increased to unprecedented rates. Youth are particularly vulnerable to pro-gambling messages, and underage gambling has become a critical public health crisis the solution of which necessitates an environmental approach. In this paper, Ladd and Friend examine an analogous situation, the advertising and promotion of smoking to youth. They then discuss the extensive empirical literature focusing on public policy solutions to the tobacco issue to highlight comparable strategies that can target underage gambling advertising and promotions. The authors conclude by offering suggestions for future research that might help to address this significant social concern.

Elizabeth Dalton

Elizabeth M. Dalton, assistant professor of special education and assistive technology coordinator for the Paul V. Sherlock Center at RIC, recently presented her doctoral dissertation research at the annual Council for Exceptional Children Convention in Seattle, Wash. The dissertation is titled “The Relationship Between Assistive Technology State Standards, Assistive Technology Implementation, and Student Performance.”

Dalton has received recognition from Kappa Delta Pi, International Honor Society in Education, for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation of 2009, an honor shared with her cohort member, Sharon Bissonette. Dalton, together with major advisor Susan Roush of the University of Rhode Island, will present this research in July at the International Association for Special Education Biannual Conference in Alicante, Spain.

At the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC 2009) in June in Washington, D.C., Dalton will accept the nationally elected position of member-at-large for the Special Education Technology (SET) special interest group of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). She will serve on the SET Board for the upcoming year, contributing to the development of policy, research and professional development in the field.

Peter Allen

Peter Allen, professor of anthropology, was recently elected to the board of the Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at Brown University. The Haffenreffer Museum, located in Bristol, provides opportunities for graduate student research on major archaeological and ethnographic collections, and for communicating to the community at large through exhibitions, a school education program and lecture and publication series.

Thomas Cobb

Thomas Cobb, professor of English and director of performing and fine arts at RIC, has won the Jesse H. Jones award for best work of fiction in 2008 from the Texas Institute of Letters for his novel “Shavetail.”

The highly regarded award was presented April 18 at the Texas Institute of Letters annual convention in Waco, Texas. It is given annually for the best book of fiction from a Texas-connected author and is intended to spark interest in Texas letters and to recognize distinctive literary achievement. Previous winners include Cormac McCarthy, Larry McMurtry, and Dagoberto Gilb.

“Shavetail” has also been honored by the Western Writers of America for its Spur Award as the best long novel (over 90,000 words) for 2008. Established in 1953, the awards celebrate a wide range of distinguished writing about the American West. Past Spur winners include McMurtry and Tony Hillerman. The award will be presented at the WWA convention in Oklahoma City in June.

The film version of Cobb’s first novel “Crazy Heart” is headed to Cannes in May as an official entry in the fabled festival. The film, written and directed by Scott Cooper, starring Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Colin Farrell, and scored by T Bone Burnett, is set for a November 2009 release.

Date Posted: April 6, 2009

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