In Print
 
Robert Ariel coauthored a research paper titled "Are there sex differences in confidence and metacognitive monitoring accuracy for every day, academic, and psychometrically measured spatial ability?" that was published in Volume 70 of the journal, Intelligence.  
 
Alain Gabon 's article "The 2018 Turkish Elections in Mainstream French Media" was published in Milestones: Commentary on the Islamic World. In addition, Alain Gabon was also cited as a reference in "Why is Tariq Ramadan Imprisoned" on Counterpunch.org and in "On the Tariq Ramadan Affair" by UCLA Law Professor Khaled Abou El Fadl on aljazeera.com.   
 
Travis Malone , along with Jane Duncan and Bradley W. Griffin, published "Theatre Assessment for Teaching and Learning" in New Directions in Teaching Theatre Arts, a book that reflects the changes in technology and educational trends.
 
Dan Margolies' article "The Magical Fiddling of Belen Escobedo of San Antonio," was published in the Fall 2018 issue of Fiddler Magazine. In addition, Dan Margolies' article "Felipe Perez: Old School Accordion Master of Corpus Ch ri sti" was published in the Spring 2018 issue of Tonantzin, the magazine of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center of San Antonio, Texas. 
 
Gabi Martorell
completed "Life, The Essentials of Human Development ." Life is designed with a focus on diversity, cutting-edge research and practical applications , a nd wa s d eveloped in conjunction with extensive online content and tools. Among the to ols are longitu dinal video clips following Gabi's daughter from 2 weeks to 6 years and illustrating develop mental principles in the real world.
 
President Scott Miller actively writes for a number of publications. He authors a monthly higher education column for The Virginian Pilot, including the most recent " Keeping the pressure on a free press" (August 2018). He regularly authors columns for College Planning and Management ( Enrollment Management, July/August 2018) and Enrollment Manager ( Planning for Growth: Making the Most of a Transitional Period, July 2018). He edits the presidential thought series "President to President," available online at president2president.com. And, he maintains a daily blog about campus life at prezscottmiller.blogspot.com.  
   
Presentations and Panels  
 
Benjamin Dobrin presented a talk entitled: "Hurricane Preparedness: Pro tecting Our Community, Protecting You," where he discussed the public health implications of hurricane preparations and response at Eastern Virginia Medical School's Public Health Grand Rounds.
 
Joyce Easter presented "Integration of scientific process skills and green chemistry into organic chemistry laboratory" and facilitated the Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) Project workshop "Writing POGIL Activities - An Introduction" at the 25th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend. As a member of a strategic planning working group, she also participated in the 16th Annual POGIL National Meeting in St. Louis, at which she collaborated with colleagues to further the mission of The POGIL Project and attended a mix of plenary, oral, and poster sessions. In addition, Joyce Easter participated in the National Collegiate Honors Council "Best Practices in Honors Assessment" Faculty Institute in Lincoln, Nebraska, which is designed for directors, deans, and other honors personnel that play a role in defining and measuring the goals and outcomes for their honors programs or colleges.
 
Sue Erickson was a panelist at the Virginia Library Association - College and Research Libraries (VLACRL) summer workshop.She talked about the "Read, Research, Respond" course that Hofheimer Library developed in collaboration with the VWU Writing Coordinator. Hofheimer Library hosted this event, which drew academic librarians from Richmond to Tidewater. In addition, Sue Erickson and Gardner Campbell (VCU) presented "OpenLearning 17 and 18: Connected Learning as Faculty Development" at the Connected Learning Summit at MIT. Sue Eric kson will be the Hub Director for OpenLearning '19, which will run in the spring.
 
 
Benjamin Haller attended the first two days of the International Conference,"Thucydides the Atheni an " at College Year in Athens, featuring presentations on new discoveries in the field of fifth centu ry BCE Athenian history.
 
 
 
Kellie Holzer, Rebecca Hooker, and Joyce Easter participated in the 18th Annual Faculty Institute, "Reacting to the Past" at Barnard College in New York City.
 
Terry Lindvall was the keynote speaker for the International Conferenc e of the National Association of Congressional Christian Churches (NACCC) in San Diego, spea king on "Acts 1:8, the Nature of Witness and Martyr." 
   
Lisa Lyon Payne spoke on a panel about "Teaching digital media in low income communities" at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention in Washington DC. The session addressed challenges of getting students access to technology and teaching tools to cover the stories in their community. In addition, Lisa Lyon Payne co-presented a paper entitled "I am a Journalist: Understanding Communities of Practice in Student Newsrooms" at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference in Washington DC. Co-authors are Elizabeth Smith of Pepperdine, Kirstie Hettinga of California Lutheran and Jean Norman of Weber State. The session was sponsored by the Scholastic Journalism Division.
 
Dan Margolies delivered a paper titled "Ministry of Oil of the Republic of Iraq v. 1,032,212 Barrels of Crude Oil Aboard the United Kalavrvta and the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Kurdistan Regional Governate of Iraq," for the Law, Power, and U.S. Foreign Relations round table at the annual meeting of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. He also chaired a panel on "Immigration Policies and Migration Patterns"  for the annual meeting of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, which was broadcast on CSPAN.  
 
Kathy Merlock Jackson served as a resource scholar for the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Summer Research Institute at the Ray and Pat Browne Library for Popular Culture Studies in the Jerome Library at Bowling Green State University. She also presented as part of a panel titled "Exploring Methodology in Popular Culture Study."
 
Stu Minnis presented a paper titled "Presentational Romanticism: Style and Authenticity in Online Hiker Videos" at the 2018 University Film and Video Association conference in Las Cruces, NM.
 
Craig Wansink led a follow-up
 
event to his national webinar for the Office of Civil Rights (U.S. General Service Administration) entitled "Why Religious Diversity Matters in the Workplace." In addition, Craig Wansink, CSRF Student Fellow James Batten, and Kelly Jackson led 25 Westminster-Canterbury residents on a "Face Time with Neighbors" travel seminar to the Chua Dong Hung Buddhist Temple in Virginia Beach. Participants met with monks, experienced the temple, and toured the grounds.
   
GRANTS
 
Ben Haller received a grant from the Council of Independent Colleges and Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies to attend a Center for Hellenic Studies seminar on Pausanias in Athens, Nafplio, Olympia, and Delphi, Greece. 
 
   
 
 
 
Terry Lindvall and Stu Minnis received a $400,000 grant from the NCF to produce andedit a documentary feature film on " Hollywood, Teach Us to Pray: A Century of Prayers in Hollywood Films ."
 
 
OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS 
 
Elaine Aird
and her mother Rita Swan, Kristi Lafoon and Wyatt Lafoon, Sue Erickson, Robin Takacs, and Kathy Stolley represented VWU at the Western Bayside Community Day, where more than 3,500 free meals were serve d and 1,300 free backpacks with school supplied were distributed.
 
  Benjamin Dobrin co-taught a Public Safety diving course to members of th e
Chesapeake Police Dep artment, C hesape ake Fire Department,Portsmouth Police Department, and Virginia Marine Police. He also attended th e Virginia Volunteer Rescue Squads' Rescue College and finished his apprenticeship and became a Swiftwater Rescue Instructor. He gave a talk about boater safety that was aired on WCTV , Ches apeake Television, A Closer Look. 
   
Joyce Easter accepted a position as a POGIL session editor for the facilitation sessions within the POGIL workshop curriculum. Session editors are tasked with ensuring that workshop curriculum materials are relevant and effective by reviewing feedback from workshop participants and editing session materials. She also began a two-year term on the POG IL summer workshop coordination team. In addition, Joyce Easter served as an online reviewer of the ACS Student Chapter annual reports and then, onsite at the American Chemical Society headquarters in Washington, DC in July, served on the Faculty Decision Panel, which reads the online reviewer feedback, provides an integrated review for the chapter, and determines the level of award given to the chapter.
 
Maggie Henderson and Sophie Rondeau were selected to participate in The Hampton University Forum on Minority Recruitment and Retention in the Library and Information Science (LIS) Field. The forum was an opportunity to discuss issues of recruitment and retention of diverse peoples in the LIS profession and to identify strategies going forward.
 
Kathy Merlock Jackson was interviewed in Washington, D.C., by a New Orleans-based film crew for a documentary titled "Ghost Empire: The Forgotten Story of Harvey Comics." Best known for characters such as Casper, Wendy, Hot Stuff, Spooky, Richie Rich, Little Audrey, Little Lotta, and Little Dot. Harvey was one of America's top publishers of comics during the baby-boom era.
 
Brian Kurisky was elected to another two-year term to the Govern ing Boa rd of Sigma Pi Fraternity, International at the Biennial Conference held in Niagara Falls, NY and will c ontinue to serve as the Secretary to the Board until 2020.
 
Jas on Squinobal
participated in the Minnesota Song project of the Source Song Festival where he gave a p ublic clinic on performance aspects of his original compositions. Additionally, five songs from his most recent song cycle, "A Way of Things," were performed by an internationally recognized vocal/ piano duo on the final evening concert of the Source Song F estival.
 
Governor Ralph S. Northam reappointed Michelle Albert Vachris to the Joint Advisory Board of Economists.
 
Craig Wansink and Kelly Jackson have been invited to be part of a new Kettering Foundation Religious Organization Research Exchange in Dayton, Ohio that involves the role of faith-based organizations in community building.
Read the current issue or archives of Virginia Wesleyan University's  Faculty Focus