Faculty Publications, Presentations and Reports
Donald Ryan, Faculty Fellow in Humanities, has a new book: “Time-Traveler’s Guide to Sightseeing and Survival in the Land of the Pharaohs.” A detailed description of the book may be found: here.
Dr. Ryan, an Egyptologist and archaeologist, has spent more than twenty years excavating in the Valley of the Kings.
Steven Sobeck, Visiting Instructor of Art and Design, was featured in the April/May 2011 edition of SouthSound “Craftsman Unknown – Carving Meaning from Clay” by Allen Cox. Professor Sobeck has created hundreds of hand-sized stoneware bowls that he has given to PLU students with international travel plans, giving them instructions to leave their bowl at a place or with a person of their choosing. The stipulation is that the student must photograph the bowl in the hands of the recipient or in the place where they left it. The bowls are unsigned and undated. Sobeck explains that his project teaches students the concept of philanthropy. It also imparts the message that there’s something more important in the act of creating than the ego or even the artist’s identity.
An article titled “Restricted Mothering: Parenting in a Prison Nursery,” by Kate E. Luther, Assistant Professor of Sociology, and Joanna Gregson, Professor of Sociology, was been published in the International Journal of the Sociology of the Family, 37(1) 85-103. This project started as student-faculty research when Kate was Joanna’s student.
Lauri McCloud, Assistant Professor of Sociology and co-authors Rachel Dwyer and Randy Hodson had their article “Youth Debt, Mastery, and Self-Esteem: Class-Stratified Effects of Indebtedness on Self-Confidence,” published in Social Science Research 40(3): 727-741.
Tamara Williams, Professor of Hispanic Studies, is the co-editor of a recently published book:“Literatura a ciencia cierta: Homenaje a Cedomil Goic”, Newark and Delaware: Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs (2010).
Bridget E. Yaden, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies and Director of the Language Resource Center, was the Montana Association of Language Teachers keynote speaker at their spring conference in April. Professor Yaden also conducted a workshop at the conference.
Vidya Thirumurthy, Associate Professor of Instructional Development and Leadership, was awarded a Fulbright faculty fellowship to conduct an ethnographic case study of a group of children and their families from Muslim and Hindu communities in Chennai, India over a period of 7 months. The focus of her research will be on the everyday socio-cultural and sometimes mundane activities and their possible affect on the cognitive development of children. She will be looking for hidden academic concepts and skills in their everyday rituals as well as the interactions that take place in those contextualized activities. She will perform this work while on her sabbatical in 2011-12.