Activities and Achievements
Jennifer Phegley (English Language and Literature) delivered the keynote address to the Victorian Popular Fiction Association at the University of London on July 19. She organized and chaired a roundtable discussion on teaching with Victorian periodical databases for the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals at the University of Canterbury on July 23. See:
Barry Anderson (Art and Art History) has had an active autumn. Two video pieces, Pigeon (2001)
and Janus (2) (2011)
will be featured in The Big Reveal, a group exhibition of recent acquisitions at the Kemper Museum
of Contemporary Art in Kansas City. The exhibition opened September 23 and will be on view until April 15, 2012. He also will be giving a lecture at the museum on November 22. The current issue of KC Studio Magazine features
an article on the exhibition and highlights his work. Two images from his video Junk Yard are currently featured on the
Missouri Bank Artboards in the Crossroads Arts District in Kansas City. The billboards will be on view for the remainder of the year.
Maude Wahlman (Art and Art History) lectured and signed copies of her book Signs and Symbols – African Images in African American Quilts at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego in conjunction with their exhibit of quilts BOLD EXPRESSIONS. For more see:
The Department of English Language and Literature reports that the department’s Fall 2011 Newsletter is available at:
The many recent activities and achievements of their students, faculty and alumni can be found documented there.
The Department of History reports that U.S. Department of Education has granted a two year extension (2011-2013) of the Teaching American History grant ($260,000) to the Blue Springs School District for which Louis Potts and Cynthia Jones are the lead historians in this program for high school teachers. They also report that Jessey Choo was awarded a University of Missouri Research Board grant and a Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation grant, which will allow her to spend the 2011-2012 academic year in Taipei and in mainland China pursuing her book-length study of death rituals in medieval China.
George Gale (Philosophy) had his new book, Dying on the Vine: How Phylloxera Transformed Wine, reviewed by The Economist this past summer. For more see:
Kathy Krause (Foreign Languages & Literatures) presented a paper at the European Science Foundation’s Humanities Exploratory Workshop on “A European commercial Trinomial: Italy-Champage-The Netherlands (12th –14th c.)” in Rome, Italy, October 13-15, 2011. Her paper, entitled, “Les Voies de Transmission de “La devisions des foires de Champagne”, explored the complicated manuscript transmission of a small text in Old French about the Champagne merchant fairs. For more see:
The Hand Print Press of the Department of Art and Art History held its national print exhibit in September and October, 2011. The exhibition included works by artists around the country whose pieces combine a variety of media with traditional printmaking processes. Juror for the exhibition was Leesa Fanning, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art for The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and adjunct professor in UMKC’s Department of Art and Art History.
Clovis E. Semmes (Black Studies) presented a paper entitled “Black Cultural Entrepreneurs and White Ownership of Black Culture” at the 96th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in Richmond, Virginia, in October, 2011. His paper was part of the session on New Studies in African American Business History. Semmes also published an article, “Charitable Collaborations in Bronzeville, 1928-1944: The Chicago Defender and the Regal Theater,” in the Journal of Urban History, November 2011 37: 975-991. For more see:
He also was an invited speaker for the program, “Constructive Lessons From 9/11,” sponsored by the Institute of Interfaith Dialog, Kauffman Foundation Conference Center, Kansas City, Missouri, September 22, 2011.
The Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology reports that it had about 140 people attend its open house in September. The CJC Department provided food, T-shirts and program information. Several students also decided to apply to UMKC’s chapter of Alpha Phi Sigma — the largest official criminal justice honor society in the U.S. For more about the activities and achievements of the CJC Department, visit
