2006 Accomplishments
The July premiere of "Local Wonders" at the Nebraska Repertory Theatre in Lincoln included the talent of Robin McKercher, Doane's director of theatre. McKercher directed the theatre piece, a musical adaption of poetry and Nebraska reflections by U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Ted Kooser. "Local Wonders" combines monologues, readings and music, blending Kooser's poetry and "exquisite observations of ‘the good life' in Nebraska." Repertory artistic director Virginia Smith and Paul Amandes, a musician, actor and playwright from Chicago, adapted the piece. State Senator David Landis of Lincoln played the poet in the production, along with wife, Melodee. Performances were in July.
Amy H. Moorman, J.D. associate professor of business, presented a paper entitled "Let's Roll: Applying Land-based Notions of Property to the Migrating Barrier Islands" at the annual conference of the Mid-Atlantic Academy of Legal Studies in Business in Baltimore, MD March 24-25, 2006. She delivered a presentation entitled "Preparing for Your Professional Life with a Liberal Arts Education" at Broadwater Academy in Exmore, VA
Les Manns, professor of economics, and John Janovy Jr., Professor of Biological Sciences at UN-L led a discussion of "Darwin's Nightmare" as part of the Movie Talk series at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center in Lincoln, NE
Philip Weitl, instructor of English, published an essay "Ten Days in June" in the May/June 2006 issue of Nebraska Life. He has been selected to present an essay "Two Rows of Corn" at the Eleventh International Conference on the Literature of Region and Nation at Kansas State University in July, 2006.
Valerie Knobel, instructor in art, had several works accepted into The Upstream People's Gallery, an online juried show.
David Swartzlander, assistant professor of journalism, won the Harpst Award from the Nebraska Press Association for his work with the 2005 interterm class "Covering the Inauguration". He has been chosen to serve this summer as a fellow in the American Society of Newspaper Editors' Institute for Journalism Excellence, one of 20 professors nationwide.
Evelyn Haller, professor of English, will present "Her Quill Drawn from the Firebird: Virginia Woolf and the Russian Dancers Continued" at the 16th annual Conference on Virginia Woolf at the University of Birmingham, England in June 2006. She will serve as a Fellow a the Eleventh International Willa Cather Seminar in Paris and Avignon in June 2007.
Liam Purdon, professor of English, read a paper on Chaucer's The Knight's Tale at the Southeastern Medieval Association in October 2005.
Brad Johnson, assistant professor of English, presented a paper, "Masking, Confinement and Privacy in Southworth's The Hidden Hand " for the Cultural Studies Conference at Kansas State University. He presented a paper "Regional Violence as Reconciliation in Thomas Nelson Page's 'Marse Chan'" at the April 2006 annual conference of the College English Association in where he also chaired a panel on early American literature.
Jay W. Gilbert, professor of music, served as clinician for the Kansas State University Concert Band Clinic in January. His latest composition, "Let Everything that has Breath" was premiered by the Sacred Heart High School in Salina, KS.
Roy Scheele, associate professor of English and poet in residence, published an interview with Rhina P. Espaillat in Texas Poetry Journal along with several poems by Scheele. He has poems in Hummingbird, Iambs & Trochees, Measure, and Prairie Schooner. His translation of a poem by Christopher Meckel, on which he collaborated with Dr. Peter Reinkordt, Professor of German, has been published in Circumference, a journal of translation.
Andrea Holmes, assistant professor of chemistry, received an EPSCOR grant to study a possible detection system for flunitrazepam, the "date rape" drug.
Chris Masters, professor of mathematics, serves as Governor of the Nebraska-Southeast South Dakota Section of the Mathematical Association of America.
Molly Rozum, assistant professor of history, chaired a session "Episodes in American Environmental History" at the 40th annual Northern Great Plains History Conference in Wisconsin. She reviewed the book Challenging Frontiers: The Canadian West by L. Felske and B. Rasporich for Great Plains Quarterly.
Steve Gunkel, associate professor of sociology, presented a paper on "A Third World Country Revealed at Home: Disaster Mitigation and Conservation Biology in the American South" at the annual meeting of the Southern Sociological Society in New Orleans in March. He co-authored an article with A. Wahl and B. Shobe on "Becoming Neighbors or Remaining Strangers? Latinos and Residential Segregation in the Heartland" in Great Plains Research.