Faculty Briefs

Office of the Provost

Cheryl Johnson-Odim, provost, has been elected to the Chief Academic Officers Task Force of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC). She also facilitated a workshop on the Chair/CAO relationship for the CIC in Louisville, KY, in May.

Rosary College of Arts and Sciences

Daniela Andrei, assistant professor of chemistry, presented her research at the 12th Tetrahedron International Symposium – Challenges in Organic and Bioorganic Chemistry, held in June in Sitges, Spain. She and her students also presented their research results at the 242nd American Chemical Society National Meeting in August.

Daniel Beach, department chair and professor of psychology, participated in a National Geographic expedition to Antarctica where he conducted a research project to assess the number and distribution of penguin species on the Antarctic Peninsula. Beach also was interviewed on WGN radio in June about the psychology of mob action in conjunction with a wave of mob violence in downtown Chicago.

Tonia Bernardi Triggiano, associate professor of Italian, published an article titled “Dante’s Heavenly Lessons: Educative Economy in the Paradiso” in Essays in Medieval Studies.

Judy Beto, professor of nutrition sciences, was a keynote speaker at the Hawaii Dietetic Association in May, lecturing on the value and impact of nutrition intervention. She also presented an interactive workshop, “Statistics 101: How to Evaluate Published Research,” at the spring clinical meetings of the National Kidney Foundation.

Alisa Beyer, assistant professor of psychology, wrote the article “Improving Student Presentations: Pecha Kucha and Just Plain PowerPoint,” published in the April 2011 issue of Teaching of Psychology. She also presented “Assessing the Validity of Peer Assessment of Oral Presentations: Has Psychology Arrived in Lake Wobegon?” at the American Psychological Association Conference in August. In April, she presented “Individual Differences, Associated Behavior and Language During Positive and Negative Valence Elicited Reminiscing Task (ERT)” at the Society for Research and Child Development Conference.

Richard Calabrese, professor of communication arts and sciences, recently completed his third year hosting a weekly series of seminars on enhancing work relationships at Alexian Brothers Medical Center.

Sr. Mary Clemente Davlin, OP, professor emerita of English, wrote the essay “God and the Human Body in Piers Plowman” as part of a festschrift for C. David Benson for Chaucer Review, vol. 46, in summer 2011. Her recorded lectures on Dante’s Divine Comedy were released on CD by Now You Know Media in 2011. She also published “In Memoriam Charles Muscatine (1920-2010)” for her former teacher, in Chaucer Review, vol. 45. Jennifer Dunn, assistant professor of communication, was awarded the top paper prize from the Rhetorical Theory and Criticism Interest Group at the Central States Communication Association (CSCA) annual conference for her paper “ Virginity for Sale: Problematizing Public Discourses of Virginity and Prostitution.” In addition, she advised three undergraduates who had papers accepted for presentation at the CSCA Undergraduate Honors portion of this year’s conference. She is also now the chair and program planner for the CSCA’s Media Studies Interest Group for 2011-2012.

Jennifer Dunn, assistant professor of communication, was awarded the top paper prize from the Rhetorical Theory and Criticism Interest Group at the Central States Communication Association (CSCA) annual conference for her paper “Virginity for Sale: Problematizing Public Discourses of Virginity and Prostitution.” In addition, she advised three undergraduates who had papers accepted for presentation at the CSCA Undergraduate Honors portion of this year’s conference. She is also now the chair and program planner for the CSCA’s Media Studies Interest Group for 2011-2012.

J. Brent Friesen, associate professor of chemistry, wrote an article, “Dehydration of 2-Methyl-1-cyclohexanol: New Findings from a Popular Undergraduate Laboratory Experiment,” in the Journal of Chemical Education. He also wrote “Phytoconstituents from Vitex agnus-castus fruits” in Fitoterapia (2011), a peer-reviewed journal. Friesen also attended the Teaching Guided-Inquiry Organic Chemistry Labs workshop at the University of Minnesota this summer.

Joseph Heininger, assistant professor of English, presented the paper “The Cosmopolitan and the Vernacular in Roddy Doyle’s The Deportees and Other Stories” at the national meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies in April.

Margaret Heller, web services librarian, presented the talk “Chicago Underground Library’s Community-Based Cataloging System,” at Code4Lib in February. She also presented the lecture “Using the READ Scale to Track the Effort of Assessing Electronic Resource Access Issues” at Electronic Resources in Libraries in March and the paper “The Library Catalog as Social Glue” at Media in Transition in May.

Alexis Howe, assistant professor of Spanish, presented the paper “Inconvenient Truths: Disappearance and Miguel Littín’s film Dawson, Isla 10” at the CineLit Conference held at Portland State University in February.

Rogelia Lily Ibarra, assistant professor of Spanish, wrote the article “Gómez de Avellaneda’s Sab: A Modernizing Project” for the fall 2011 issue of Hispania, the official journal of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP). She was awarded a Dominican Faculty Research Summer Grant to continue her project: “Annotating Romance: The Function of the Footnote in Gómez de Avellaneda’s Guatimozín.”

Bill Jenkins, assistant professor of theatre arts and technical director of the Performing Arts Center, presented “Impact of Homicide on Families of Murder Victims” at the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty’s national conference in January. He also presented “How Victims Experience Defense Team Contact” at the National Alliance of Sentencing Advocates and Mitigation Specialists conference in March. Over the summer, he provided training on working with victims of trauma to victim advocates and state prosecutors in Illinois, North Carolina and Louisiana. He is also volunteering as theatrical consultant for the renovation of the Madison Street Theatre in Oak Park.

Hugh McElwain, professor of theology and chair of the department of theology and pastoral ministry, presented the lecture “Hunger: Politics and Morality” at the Irish-American Heritage Center in May. The lecture explored themes in the film about Irish patriot Bobby Sands and the hunger protest that resulted in his death.

Caren Messina-Hirsch, visiting lecturer of nutrition sciences, led the Dominican University nutrition sciences team to victory again this year by achieving third place in the Third Annual Burger Throwdown competition in June. Her team’s “Abodanza Burger” featured an innovative layered presentation of the regions of Italy, including polenta, basil chutney, Italian salsa, salami and Italian sausage, with an all-beef patty on tomato foccacia bread.

Nkuzi Nnam, professor of philosophy and director of the Black World Studies program, was presented the 2010 International Scholastic Development Award by African Lifestyle Magazine. In April, Nnam presented a paper, “Igbo Work Ethic,” at the 9th Annual Conference of The Igbo Studies Association at Howard University Law School. In addition, he read a paper, “Ofo Na Ogu: Igbo Ethical Teachings,” at the 35th Annual Conference of National Council for Black Studies in March. He also presented a paper, “Igbo Women: The Year 2000 and the Decade Thereafter,” at the 19th Annual Conference of The National Association of African American Studies in February. He also organized Dominican’s first annual Black World Music Festival this summer.

Valerie Rangel, adjunct professor of apparel design and merchandising, presented a paper titled “Tailored for Twitter: Fashion as Spectacle in the Digital Age” at the 2011 National Pop Culture Association & American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) conference in San Antonio, TX. Susan M. Strawn, associate professor in apparel design and merchandising, published a chapter titled “Entrepreneurial Applications” in the book Artisans and Fair Trade: Crafting Development by Mary A. Littrell & Marsha A. Dickson, (Kumarian Press, 2010). She also was a featured guest speaker on the NPR program “On Point” with Tom Ashbrook in February. The program’s topic was the relationship between social media and revivals of contemporary handcraft.

Mickey Sweeney, professor of English, edited the 2010 issue of Essays in Medieval Studies, an interdisciplinary journal of medieval studies featuring papers delivered at the annual meeting of the Illinois Medieval Association. She also published an article in the spring 2011 issue of Enarratio.

Tina Taylor-Ritzler, assistant professor of psychology, wrote the article “A Catalyst-for-Change Approach to Evaluation Capacity Building” in the spring 2011 issue of the American Journal of Evaluation and the article “Development and Validation of the Cultural Competence Assessment Instrument: A Factorial Analysis” in the winter 2011 issue of the Journal of Rehabilitation. She also presented a panel presentation titled “Culture/Diversity Courses: What to Cover? What do Students Learn?” at the Midwestern Psychological Association Conference in May.

Fr. Richard Woods, OP, professor of theology, wrote the book, Meister Eckhart: Master of Mystics, which recently was released in the United States by its publisher, Continuum. He also presented a paper titled “Mystical Union in the Teachings of Ibn ‘Arabi and Meister Eckhart” at the Conference on Philosophy and Mysticism between Europe and Asia, held by the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy at Notre Dame University-Louaize in Beirut, Lebanon, in May. The paper will be published in the proceedings of the conference. Woods also was named to the editorial board of Medieval Mystical Theology, now the official journal of the Eckhart Society. His series of 12 recorded lectures on “Celtic Spirituality” was released on CD by Now You Know Media in September.

Brennan School of Business

Peter Alonzi, professor of economics and finance, presented the paper “Universal Life Insurance – Has It Always Simply Been a Question of Duration?” at the Academy of Economics and Finance in Jacksonville, FL, in February.

David Aron, associate professor of marketing, co-authored with Wayne Koprowski, assistant professor of management, the article “Caging the Guerrilla Consumer: The Report from Illinois” for the Journal of Academic and Business Ethics. He and Koprowski also presented “Alternatives and Implications: Legal Remedies for Guerrilla Consumer Behavior” at the 2011 MBAA International Conference in March.

Dan Condon, professor of economics and quantitative methods, presented a paper, “ Religious Contributions: A Historical Perspective,” at the international conference of the National Business and Economics Society in March.

Robert Irons, associate professor of finance, Peter Alonzi, professor of economics and finance, and Dan Condon, professor of economics and quantitative methods, presented a panel discussion titled “We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us” for the Brennan School of Business’s U.S. Bank Center for Economic Education in March.

Michael Kruger, adjunct assistant professor of marketing science, and Arvid Johnson, dean and professor of management, presented a paper titled “A Comparison of Distributional Assumptions for Rapid Screening of Retail Sales Data” at the 2011 meeting of the International Academy of Business and Public Administration Disciplines. The paper was published in the conference’s peer-reviewed proceedings.

Kathleen Odell, assistant professor of economics, moderated the panel discussion “ Does Microfinance Really Work?” at the 7th Annual Chicago Microfinance Conference, held at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in May.

Kathleen Prunty, adjunct professor, presented “Values Centered Learning: A Philosophy of Innovation and Excellence” for the Chief Learning Officer LearningElite Forum National Webinar in June. She also presented “Enhancing the Customer Experience: Philosophies and Strategies for Success” at the Nancye B. Holt Management National Symposium in March. Prunty also received the LearningElite Award from Chief Learning Officer magazine in March.

Khalid A. Razaki, professor of accounting, published the article “The Feasibility of Using Business Process Improvement Approaches to Improve an Academic Department” in the spring 2011 issue of the Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice. The paper was presented at the 19th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences in February 2011. Razaki also co-published with Wayne Koprowski, assistant professor of management, an article titled “Coming of Age for a Consulting Company: An Entrepreneurial Transition Case Study” in the Journal of Business Cases and Applications. Razaki and Elizabeth Collier, assistant professor of ethics, published an article titled “ Ethics: The Soul of a Business Capstone Course” in the Journal of Academic and Business Ethics.

Carol Tallarico, associate professor of economics, and Arvid Johnson, dean and professor of management, co-authored the article “The Implications of Global Ecological Elasticities for Carbon Control: A STIRPAT Formulation” for the fall 2010 issue of the Journal of Management Policy and Practice. They also presented a paper titled “Ecological Impact Elasticities for Fossil Fuels in OECD Countries and Their Policy Implications” at the 2011 annual meeting of the Midwest Decision Sciences Institute. The paper was published in the conference’s peer-reviewed proceedings.

K.R. Vishwanath, clinical assistant professor of management, and Arvid Johnson, dean and professor of management, co-authored the article “Servant Professorship and Its Implications” for the winter 2011 issue of the International Journal of Education Research.

Graduate School of Library and Information Science

John W. Berry, professor, was named an “Illinois Library Luminary” by the Illinois Library Association in February, joining 19 other distinguished colleagues for significant contributions to state, national and international librarianship.

Janice Del Negro, assistant professor, received the 2011 Storytelling World Resource Award for Storytelling: Art and Technique, a book she co-wrote with Ellin Greene.

Mary Pat Fallon, assistant professor, wrote the article “The Status of the Irish Research eLibrary,” published in the April 2011 issue of World Libraries.

Chris Hagar, associate professor, was a member of the program committee and track chair for the education and training panel of the 8th International Association for the Study of Information Systems for Crisis Response & Management conference “From Early-warning Systems to Preparedness and Training,” held in Lisbon, Portugal in May 2011.

Ken Haycock, professor, gave the annual Follett Lecture on “Advocacy Revisited: New Insights Based on Research and Evidence.” He also wrote the articles “Exemplary Public Library Branch Managers: Their Characteristics and Effectiveness” for Library Management, “Connecting British Columbia (Canada) School Libraries and Student Achievement: A Comparison of Higher and Lower Performing Schools with Similar Overall Funding” for School Libraries Worldwide, and “ Designing and Evaluating Library Leadership Programs: Improving Performance and Effectiveness” for Australian Library Journal. Haycock also was named the incoming chair of the American Library Association’s Committee on Accreditation.

Kate Marek, professor, wrote the book Organizational Storytelling for Librarians: Using Stories for Effective Leadership, published by the American Library Association in January. Her book chapter “The Role of Organizational Storytelling in Successful Project Management” was published in Convergence of Project Management and Knowledge Management by Scarecrow Press in December. In April, Marek delivered the keynote address for the Kansas Beta Phi Mu annual meeting, the organization’s first-ever to be held via web conferencing system.

Christopher Stewart, assistant professor, was named editor-in-chief of World Libraries, the international journal of the Dominican University Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Stewart was also named editor of the Metrics column for the Journal of Academic Librarianship. Stewart was a featured speaker and panelist for the program “The 21st Century Academic Library Building: A Forum on Recent Planning, Design, and Construction of New Library Space” at the 2011 annual conference of the American Library Association.

Tonyia J. Tidline, associate professor and director of the PhD program, presented a paper at the refereed First Annual Conference on Information and Religion, hosted by Kent State University in May. The paper, titled “Speaking of Spirituality,” explores information practices inherent in The What Matters Colloquium, a series of discussions created to familiarize new faculty with the university’s mission and administrative structure.

Ed Valauskas, instructor, presented several lectures at libraries and museums in conjunction with the National Library of Medicine exhibit, “Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic and Medicine,” in spring 2011. He also presented “Open Access Scholarly Journals, Libraries, Scholars, and Research: Content Creation and Preservation on Campus,” at the LIBRAS Annual Membership Program in May. He gave two lectures, “Plants in Print: The Age of Botanical Discovery,” and “Treasures: The Rare Book Collection at the Lenhardt Library,” at the Lenhardt Library of the Chicago Botanic Garden in May. Valauskas also published the introduction to the first issue of Uncommon Culture, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal on cultural activities in Europe, for which he also serves as co-editor and advisory board member. In May, he celebrated the 15th anniversary of First Monday, a monthly peer-reviewed open-access journal dedicated to research about the Internet, for which he serves as chief editor.

School of Education

Greg Harman, assistant professor, wrote the article “An Hour in the Classroom: Pushing & Pulling Students Towards Ideas” for the fall 2010 issue of Teaching & Learning: The Journal of Natural Inquiry. He also wrote the article “Turn With Students: Making Conversation a Priority in Teacher Education” for the summer 2011 issue of Critical Questions in Education.

Anita Miller, assistant professor and coordinator for online learning, presented “ Collaborative Action Research: Teacher-Researchers Coming Together Virtually to Enhance Student Learning” at the 2011 Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education (SITE) International Conference in March.