Category: Professional Notes

Jim Groom, director of the Division of teaching and Learning Technologies, delivered the keynote presentation at James Madison University’s 9th Annual Teaching and Learning with Technology conference (you can see video of the presentation here). This presentation focused more specifically on the questions of universities outsourcing their expertise, how to design for online education, and how to build community online. The theme of the presentation was the overstatement of the death of higher ed in the media currently and how we can start to shed some of the reactionary rhetoric and start returning teaching and learning innovation to the colleges and universities rather than corporations like Pearson.

Slides from the presentation along with links are available below:

Assistant Professor of Biology Theresa Grana recently had her article “A Genome-wide Functional Screen Shows MAGI-1 Is an L1CAM-Dependent Stabilizer of Apical Junctions in C. elegans” published in the journal Current Biology. The article was co-authored by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, State University of New York at Geneseo, the University of Aberdeen Institute of Medical Sciences in Scotland, and Queen’s University in Canada.

Deborah O’Dell, associate professor of biology and president-elect of the Virginia Academy of Science, presided over the Virginia Academy of Sciences Undergraduate Research Meeting on Saturday, Oct. 27 at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College.  Deborah Zies, associate professor of biology, was the invited speaker and spoke on “Smith-Magenis Syndrome: An Investigation of a Human Genome Disorder.” Lynn Lewis and Kathryn Loesser, professors of biology, served as judges for the research grant recipients along with Deborah Zies, Deborah O’Dell and Carleitta Paige, adjunct faculty member of biology. Faculty sponsoring students in competition for a $500 undergraduate research grant were: Lynn Lewis who sponsored Kathleen Blevins and Ryan Green, Theresa Grana, assistant professor of biology, who sponsored Sarah Marzec and Daniel Browne, and Andrew Dolby, professor of biology, who sponsored Abbigal Kimmit and Michael Carlo.  Ryan Green was awarded a grant for his research project “A Study of Chloroquine’s Antiretroviral Characteristics.”

Chad Murphy, assistant professor of political science, was a featured guest on Voice of America on Thursday, Nov. 1. In the segment “Unemployment Remains Key Factor for U.S. Voters,” Murphy argued that U.S. voters would look at the overall unemployment trends during the election.

Murphy also provided live political analysis on election night for Al-Jazeera’s English television network.

Associate Professors of Psychology Miriam Liss and Holly Schiffrin’s research article “Maternal Guilt and Shame: The Role of Self-Discrepancy and Fear of Negative Evaluation” appears in the Journal of Child and Family Studies, published online on Oct. 19, 2012. Liss and Schiffrin co-wrote the article with Kathryn Rizzo ’12.  The study shows mothers who compare themselves to other mothers and fear that others are judging and evaluating them experience the emotions of both guilt and shame – emotions that have been shown to lead to negative mental health consequences.