The Quad

Idris Raoufi, an undergraduate student in the Department of Architecture, Urban Planning + Design has won the first J.C. Nichols Student Prize for junior-level students in in the department. His winning proposal,The Brookside Promenade, earned him the $500 prize.

Nicole Emanuel, a former major in the Philosophy Department and the founder of the InterUrban ArtHouse in Overland Park, will manage the $150,000 award for this effort considered a national pilot for Creative Placemaking. The award to the Arts and Recreation Foundation of Overland Park is one of the 80 National Endowments for the Arts “Our Town” grant awards announced in July and only one of four to receive the maximum amount. For more on the awards see:

• www.nea.gov/news/news12/Our-Town-announcement.html

For more on the project see:

• www.artsjoco.org/artists/joco%E2%80%99s-next-big-thing-interurban-arthouse/

Nazgol Bagheri (Interdisciplinary Ph.D. candidate in Geography and Sociology) has won several recent awards. Besides her recognition by the Association of American Geographers (AAG) earlier this year, she recently received an American Dissertation Fellowship by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) is one of the largest and most prestigious sources of funding for graduate women and the competitions are highly competitive. This fellowship carries a stipend of $20,000 for a period of 12 months in which Nazgol will focus on publishing the results of her research in Tehran and finalizing her dissertation. For more see:

• (AAUW: http://www.aauw.org/learn/fellows_directory/ ).

Sharon Reeber, who completed her MA in Art History in May 2012, had an article accepted for publication in the Zeitschrift fuer Kunstgeschichte, a four-language scholarly journal published by the University of Basel. This article, titled “Finding Harmony: What Adolf Hoelzel Learned from European Sacred Art” was adapted from her thesis (thesis advisor, Frances Connelly) and research travel was funded by a Women’s Council grant.

Oluseun (“Seun”) Idowu, an interdisciplinary Ph.D. student in Geosciences and Statistics, has been selected as one of 10 students nationwide to serve on the Council of Students from 2012 to 2014 for The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. This is the nation’s oldest, largest and most selective collegiate honor society for all disciplines, and has more than 300 chapters across the United States, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. For more see:

• info.umkc.edu/umatters/2012/06/19/oluseun-idowu-ph-d-student-selected-to-serve-on-phi-kappa-phi-council-of-students/ .

The following graduate students in Economics have published.

Salewa Olawoye (edited along with L. P. Rochon), Monetary Policy and Central Banking, Edward Elgar, 2012.

Alex Binder, “Institutional Economics and Catholic Social Teaching”. Oeconomicus, 2012, vol. 12, p. 8-22.

Gyun Cheol Gu “Pricing and Prices” (with Frederic S. Lee) in The Elgar Companion to Post Keynesian Economics, 2nd ed., edited by J. King, Edward Elgar, 2012.

Scott McConnell, “Review of the book Post Keynesian and Ecological Economics: Confronting Environmental Issues, eds. Richard P.F. Holt, Steven Pressman and Clive L. Spash.” Review of Political Economy, January 2012.
Natalia Bracarense, “Development Theory and the Cold War: The Influence of Politics on Latin American Structuralism,” Review of Political Economy, (forthcoming in October 2012)

Brian Warner (Graduate Student, Economics) presented a paper on “The Problems of the Coase Theorem,” and was one of three winners in the Association for Institutional Thought Student Competition. He presented his paper at the Association’s annual conference in Houston on 11-14 April 2012 and received a prize of $300.00.

Benjamin Wilson (Graduate Student, Economics) was awarded a Fellowship by the Association for Social Economics to attend their Summer School June 19-20th, 2012 at the University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland. The value of the fellowship was $1,400.

Lola Oduyeru, Dean Vaught and Emalea Black

• http://cas.umkc.edu/trumancenter/Internships.asp.

Julie Bates, a German major with an art history minor, will teach English in Germany.  Sa Shea Gaston, a graduate student in romance languages, will teach English in Mexico.  The faculty member is Thomas Stroik (English) who will teach in Poland.  Once again UMKC and A&S do well in national scholarly awards.

Read more here:

• www.kansascity.com/2012/05/17/3617839/area-schools-celebrate-fulbright.html#storylink=cpy.

Liz Duval, Clinical Psychology Doctoral Candidate, has accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan.
 

Carrie Spresser, Clinical Psychology Doctoral Candidate, has accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
 

Sarah Williams, a Fall 2011 graduate of the Art History MA program, will attend the University of Missouri – Columbia’s Ph.D. program in Art History.  Her doctoral program is fully funded by a stipend and scholarships.
 

The Department of Psychology held its 1st Annual Poster Session on April 20th.  Nineteen students, undergraduate and graduate, presented their research.  Sofie Champassak was the 1st place graduate student winner and Mark Poirer was the 1st place undergraduate winner.
  

Sixteen Department of Psychology undergraduate students participated in the 12th Annual SEARCH Symposium for Research and Creative Achievements on April 19th, 2012.  The winner of the Behavioral Sciences division of SEARCH Symposium 2012 was Angela P. Gutierrez of the Department of Psychology! Her poster was titled “Effects of Priming Religious Words on a Measure of AIDS-Related Stigma.  Her faculty mentor is Kathy Goggin and her graduate student mentor was David Martinez.  Second Place in the Behavioral Sciences division went to  Mark Poirer.  His poster was titled “Emotional Valance and Depth of Processing: An exploration of the Positivity Effect in Older Adults.” His faculty mentor is Joan McDowd.  Congratulations to Angela, Mark and Sofie!
 

Are we the France of the Plains?

Assistant Teaching Professor, Lindsy Myers (Foreign Language and Literatures) posed this question to students of French 350 (French Civilization) during the Fall 2011 semester.  They attempted to answer it by researching French culture in the region.  Their answers were found in a variety of locations and resources off campus including the Nelson-Atkins, local schools and restaurants, the Chouteau Society and more. 

*Photo is of French students Kevin Linn and Nathan Hoffmann looking at the manuscript.

On campus, the class worked with Stuart Hinds and Teresa Gipson at the LaBudde Special Collections department at the Miller Nichols Library (library.umkc.edu/spec-col-home) to identify and contextualize a variety of original French language documents including a collection of poetry dedicated to Napoleon II*, posters, letters and political pamphlets.

Another source of original French documents was David Boutros at The State Historical Society of Missouri Research Center- Kansas City in Newcomb Hall (www.umkc.edu/whmckc/).  There, the students explored the Ecole des Beaux-Arts assignments of French architect E.J. Eckel who later moved to St. Joseph, MO.

Additionally, the class visited the Toy and Miniature Museum with Laura Taylor and Amanda Clark (www.toyandminiaturemuseum.org/) and were able to identify miniatures depicting elements of French architecture and style.

In the end, students created a blog with their findings and answers to the guiding question.  The conclusion?  There is much more living French culture here than anyone expected.

Brent Rogers, an undergraduate student in Mathematics and Statistics, won first prize in the “Biological and Health Sciences” category at the 12th annual SEARCH Symposium for Research and Creative Achievements in Pierson auditorium April 2012 for a project on “Mathematical Model to Quantify Dosing and Evaluate Effects of Modifications of Cancer Virotherapy.  His research was funded by a grant from SEARCH.  Swati DebRoy, Lecturer in the department of Mathematics and Statistics, mentored him for this project.  Further details can be found at

• cas.umkc.edu/mathematics/MathStudentAwardsUG.asp#2012ug.

On May 2, 2012, the Mathematics & Statistics Department learned that Jesse Hamer, an undergraduate mathematics major, had won the Ninth Annual HOMSIGMAA (History of Mathematics Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America) contest for papers written in History of Mathematics courses across the country for his paper “Indivisibles and the Cycloid in the Early 17th Century.” Jesse’s paper will be posted on the HOMSIGMAA web site.  Students from the UMKC department had previously either won or co-won first place in this contest five times: in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, and 2011.  Jesse will receive an MAA student membership and some MAA books provided by HOMSIGMAA, a complimentary CSHPM (Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Mathematics) membership, and books donated by Johns Hopkins University Press.  His paper was written in Spring 2012 for Math 464 WI (History of Mathematics, Writing Intensive) taught by Richard Delaware.  For more, see: 

•  www.homsigmaa.org.

Michelle Mercado (a Sociology/Psychology double major) represented UMKC and the Sociology Department at the Undergraduate Day in Jefferson City in March (through the SEARCH program). Her project was entitled “The Impact of Funding Cuts on Kansas City HIV/AIDS Organizations and Possible Implications for Treatment Adherence.” She is one of only two students who were slated to represent UMKC at the event. She will also be presenting her project to the SEARCH Symposium in April. Her faculty advisor is Ann Wood (Teaching Assistant Professor of Sociology).

The Psychology Department reports that six Clinical Psychology doctoral students were placed at top psychology internship sites across the country. The internship is a one-year, intensive clinical training capstone required for graduation and licensure as a Clinical Psychologist. The students and their placements are: Jessica Hamilton: University of Kansas Medical School (Kansas City, KS); Laura Hancock: Rush University Medical Center (Chicago, IL); Starlyn Hawes: University of Washington (Seattle, WA); Amber Hinton-Dampf: Veterans Administration Eastern Kansas Healthcare System (Leavenworth, KS) Heather Kruse: Center for Behavioral Medicine (Kansas City, MO) and David Martinez: Veterans Administration Palo Alto Healthcare System (Palo Alto, CA).

They also noted that one of their Interdisciplinary Ph.D. students, Erin Moore published an article in the February 2012 issue of the Journal of American College Health titled: “F.O.R.E.play: The Utility of Brief Sexual Health Interventions Among College Students,” See:

• http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07448481.2011.584336.

She was also interviewed in their author spotlight on Facebook:

• http://www.facebook.com/notes/journal-of-american-college-health/author-spotlight-erin-moore/221505544609716.

Communications Studies reports that two of their former film students premiered works in the Kansas City area recently: Nick Everhart’s “Dorothy and the Witches of Oz” and Emiel Cleaver’s “Freedom is Now” which is a documentary about Freedom Inc., Kansas City’s pioneering African-American political organization. For more see:

• http://unews.com/2012/02/14/alumnus-lives-out-his-dream-in-film/ and
• http://unews.com/2012/02/28/congressmans-son-makes-documentary/.

The senior studio in the Department of Architecture, Urban Planning + Design is working on Troost Ave. Spring Semester, 2012 in conjunction with Mid America Regional Council’s “Creating Sustainable Places” initiative. In late February, it was announced that the Chamber of Commerce has selected Troost Ave. as its target for its initiative to improve an east side community as one of its BIG 5 Ideas Initiative.

The senior, urban planning + design studio is working with The Troost Corridor Group to effect change in the corridor. The Troost Corridor (the longest of the six corridors) is one of six corridors in the metro area MARC has chosen to target for federal funding through the Creating Sustainable Places initiative.

The senior studio’s focus has been to provide a baseline overview of current conditions for the group to build on when formulating a plan to address the area’s issues. The Troost Corridor Group will tackle these issues through three aims: creating a viable corridor, promoting the local economy, and place making. The students have provided a basic corridor-wide examination of the demographics, transportation, business mix, public facilities, and environmental domain as well as an analysis of existing city plans and projects that affect the area. For more:

• http://marc.org/sustainableplaces/troost.pdf.

AUP+D Students help UMKC Win Award
UMKC has been named to the 2012 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction by the Corporation for National Community Service. Among the three UMKC activities evaluated to gain this award was The Kansas City Missouri School District Repurposing Project of the College of Arts & Sciences Department of AUP+D. The description of the award winning activity is below.

Development of a Strategic Plan and Implementation Guidebook to reconnect Kansas City, Missouri School District schools and repurposed facilities to the community they serve.

In the spring of 2010, the Kansas City, Missouri School board voted to close 24 schools in an unprecedented attempt to meet a projected $40 million budget shortfall and consolidate a dwindling student population in fewer buildings to maximize the capacity of existing facilities. All the remaining middle schools were closed and grades 6, 7 and 8 redistributed to elementary or high schools; historic Westport High School was closed, 17 elementary schools were closed and several hundred more teachers and building staff were recently terminated. Patrons, neighborhood residents, and parents have expressed great concern about the sweeping changes being attempted in a 6 month period and concern about vacant buildings being left to deteriorate in neighborhoods already challenged by poverty, crime and inadequate housing. At least fifteen of the district’s buildings were closed in previous years, leaving almost 40 vacant buildings in the community.

The studio examined a comprehensive and strategic approach to the challenge of repurposing the closed facilities and solutions for reconnecting all the KCMSD facilities, both open and closed to the neighborhoods they serve. By studying the history of the District, its relationship to the central core of the city, and relevant data and analysis, the studio produced a Guidebook, including a community engagement process to assist the District in strategic decision-making about the future of its facilities and their impact on the community.

See:

• http://www.nationalservice.gov/pdf/2012_hr_withdistinctionawardees.pdf.

Asheka Jackson, Jennifer Goodwin, Michael Davis and Scott Finley (graduate students in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology) individually presented original research at the annual meetings of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in New York City March 15 and 16, 2012. For more information see:

• http://www.acjs.org/pubs/uploads/2012_ACJS_Final_Annual_Meeting_Program.pdf.

Eight A&S Students to Receive Campus Awards
The selection committee has chosen eight students from the College of Arts and Sciences – Candace Brown, Jay Devineni, Angela Fitle, Asheka Jackson, Bethany Mullinex, Lola Oduyeru, Chelsia Potts and Melanie Somogie – as Spring, 2012, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Honor Recipients. The committee was impressed with their academic achievements, leadership roles, and service to the University and community. They were nominated by their departmental faculty and department chairs.

English Department GTA’s Play Wins Award Nicholas Sawin’s play “Unnamed Lands” was named a National Semi-Finalist at the 2012 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Region V Ten-Minute Play Festival. KCACTF was held in Ames, Iowa, January 15-20, 2012 and ended with a concert reading of his play. The sixteen Semi-Finalist plays from across the nation will be read by a new group of respondents, who will pick four to have concert readings at the Kennedy Center.

The History Department Student Exhibit, “BBQ, Baseball and Jazz” will be installed in the Lincoln Building on the corner of 18th & Vine next month. It was previously displayed at Miller Nichols Library. See:

• http://info.umkc.edu/umatters/2011/12/13/bar-b-que-baseball-and-jazz-on-exhibit-until-jan-29.

Although it took a while to get all of the logistics in place (A&S began to plan for this in February 2011) since it requires appropriate space, a number of workers and the availability of a Community Blood Center collection crew that numbered eight technicians, we did it and we did well! We will let Melanie Somogie, President of UMKC Psi Chi tell you about it as well as express our collective thanks to all who turned out to donate. Here is the thank you message she composed for the students who were there.

“Every day the Community Blood Center (CBC) needs 580* donors to meet the local needs of hospitals. This number seems huge and overwhelming, but on January 23rd the A&S community came together to provide the CBC with 7.5% of that need. This success was because of students like you who were willing to give a little to save the life of a person they don’t know, and will never meet… that’s incredible!

Over 55 students, faculty and staff came to the 5-hour blood drive ready to give the gift of life. That’s 11 potential donors per hour! The turnout was so great that some opted to return for future drives, or donate at the CBC’s location at 4040 Main Street, because the line was so long! We obtained 42 units of blood from those who were able to donate. And we had 29 first-time donors which I hope will translate into regular donors in the future.

It was a fantastic experience to assist in this project and see the outpouring of support from our academic community. I would like to thank everyone who assisted in this project: those who coordinated the event, created promotional materials, posted flyers and table toppers, announced the event to their classes, signed-up potential donors, volunteered to help at the event, and especially those who were able and willing to donate! Every person’s contribution, even if they were unable to donate, made this event a success.

I’m excited to hear of plans to continue and grow these efforts in the future. I encourage all students, student organizations, faculty and staff to consider what role they can play to help in future drives. A relatively small effort gives people in our city, in your neighborhood, a chance at life. Those in need of blood donations are our family members, friends, classmates and co-workers. 1 in 55 Americans need a blood transfusion every year, how many people that you know will likely be that person?”

The College would also like to express its thanks to the faculty and staff who donated; to UMKC Parking Services for its assistance in finding parking for the CBC truck and staff vehicles; to the UMKC Bookstore for donating a $25 gift card as one of the raffle prizes and to the staff of the Student Union for working to make this event go smoothly in their space. We especially want to thank Melanie Somogie and Psi Chi (the International Psychology Honor Society) for their assistance. And last, but not least, we thank Jane Vogl, Assistant to the Dean of the School of Computing and Engineering, who invited us to observe their drive last year, created much of the publicity for this year; managed our donor sign-up site and came early to place signage in strategic places to generate walk-in donors. It was a team effort and we won! (Photos courtesy of Melanie Somogie.)

   
*Numbers came from the CBC’s website and www.redcrossblood.org

Students from the Department of Architecture, Urban Planning & Design made a presentation on November 17, 2011 on what makes a resilient Joplin. The public presentation was sponsored by the Kansas City Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA) and the Kansas City Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and took place at the AIA office in Kansas City, MO. For more see:

. cas.umkc.edu/pdfs/11-17-11%20AIA%20Event%20Flyer.pdf.

The Planning and Design Student Organization of AUP+D hosted a Regional Transit Forum on December 6 where city and county officials discussed the future of regional transportation for the KC area. For more see:

. info.umkc.edu/aupd/2011/11/29/regional-transit-forum/

Theatre Department lighting and scenic design graduate students are the focus of an exhibit titled “Form Follows Function”

. www.theboxgallery.org/?p=154.

The exhibit runs through February 24 at the Box Gallery which is in the Commerce Bank building at 1000 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO. The exhibit is open from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is free and open to the public. “Form Follows Function” is curated by Sarah Oliver, assistant professor of Costume Technology and Lindsay Davis, associate professor of Costume Design.

Three of the five graduating students who were selected as the Fall 2011 Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Honor Recipients were from A&S.  According to the notice in UMatters, the selection was based on the students’ high academic achievements, leadership roles and service to the university community. We add our congratulations to these students.

Emma L. Frank Nominated by Dr. Kathleen Kilway	Ramanda Hicks Nominated by the late Dr. Carol Koehler	Anthony McDaniel Nominated by Dr. Eric Grospitch

Chris Fowler (Psychology doctoral student) earned a student research award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Schizophrenia Special Interest Group for his poster presentation: “How skill knowledge and capacity influence real-world skill performance in persons with serious mental illness.” Co-authors on this project were Psychology graduate students Amy Barnes and Meghan Murphy, and their faculty mentor, Melisa Rempfer. For more see

. www.abct.org/Members/?m=mMembers&fa=SIG.

On Friday August 25, 2011 more than 500 students from UMKC and several area high schools took part in the Department of Physics’ Physics Phest held in labs and classrooms of Flarsheim Hall and on the Quad. Organized by members of the department’s faculty and staff, this event allowed the attendees to have opportunities to ask professional and student scientists about their research, tour research labs, watch physics demonstrations and try hands-on physics-based activities. They were able to meet faculty from the Physics Department as well as from Mathematics & Statistics, Chemistry, Geosciences and the School of Computing and Engineering. Others present included science teachers from area high schools and members of the Astronomical Society of Kansas City.  As the accompanying photos attest, the event kept everyone busy and was given a “thumbs up” encouraging the Department to plan for an even better Physics Phest for next year. (Parts of this article were previously used by U-Matters in one of their stories.)

The Department of English Language and Literatures reports that Sarah Ashlock was awarded first place in the Arts and Humanities Division of the annual SEARCH Symposium with her poster, “Literacy as Independence: The Writing of Hattie Reynolds, 1870-1927” while Jaquelyn Hoermann took second place in the division with her poster, “Speaking Without Words: Silence and Epistolary Rhetoric of Catholic Women Educators on the Antebellum Frontier, 1828-1834.”

The Honors Program also sent us information on Jaquelyn Hoermann who was selected to represent UMKC at Undergraduate Research Day at the State Capitol in Jefferson City.  She was among 40 students selected from the four UM campuses to share their work with legislators and other stakeholders.  Jackie received a SEARCH grant to conduct archival research on women’s rhetorical performances.  In addition, Jackie presented her research at the 45th annual National Collegiate Honors Council conference held in Kansas City fall 2010.

The Honors Program has also reported that Tamara Kamatovic, a German major in the College has won a National Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship.

The Lynn and Kristen Morrow Missouri History Student Prize was awarded  in 2011 to Clinton McDuffie, an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Student in History and English  for the paper, “Sport and Nationalism: The 1904 St. Louis Olympics and National Identity” the State Historical Society of Missouri at the 53rd annual Missouri Conference on History held in Kansas City, April 14-15, 2011.

Joy Swallow (Chair, Architecture, Urban Planning +Design) reports that AUP+D’s senior student’s planning studio – Meta –participated in a public “charrette” October 13th  and 14th,  hosted by the American Institute for Architects at Forest Park Baptist Church in Joplin, Missouri. This intense period of design activity was held to stimulate ideas and further involve the public in the planning and design process and included a review of work by the Citizens Advisory Recovery Team on the 13th with a final public presentation on the 14th.  For more on AUP+D and  the re-building of Joplin see the following links:

• http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x2021664107/Architectural-group-drawing-vision-of-Joplin

Main Street redevelopment a focus of group, at:

• http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x2021665812/Main-Street-redevelopment-a-focus-of-group.

Citizens Advisory Recovery Team Continues, at:

• http://www.fox14tv.com/category/146037/fox-14-video-on-demand.

She also reports that one of AUP+D’s students, Colton Mabis, was awarded a Greenbuild Student Scholarship to attend a conference to further his knowledge of the green building profession. For more see:

• http://usgbckansascity.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=280%3Astudent-greenbuild-scholarship-winners-summarize-their-trip&catid=36%3Ahome-public&Itemid=54

Two UMKC geology students presented their graduate research at the annual meeting of over 6000 international participants at the Geological Society of America in Minneapolis during October 9-12, 2011.  Doctoral student, Alivia Alison, presented “Paleoseismic Trenching Along the Dead Sea Transform in the Taba Sabkha in Wadi ‘Arabah, Jordan” and MS student, Julie Galloway, presented “Paleoclimate reconstruction of the Gulf of Aqaba using foraminifera as a proxy”. Both students are supervised by Tina Niemi in the Department of Geosciences.

Julie Galloway

We have just learned that two A&S students have been Gilman Study Abroad award recipients in recent months: Michael Stobaugh, a senior German major, went to Bonn for the summer. Matthew Parish, a junior Computer Science major and Spanish minor, will spend the Fall 2011 semester studying in Granada, Spain. Matthew also received a Hy Vile Study Abroad award from the Truman Foundation earlier this year; he will be able to combine the two scholarships for his semester in Spain. The award announcement from Gilman noted that “during the Fall 2011 application cycle, the Gilman Scholarship Program reviewed more than 2,500 applications for over 960 awards. This was a very competitive application cycle.” The Gilman is available to Pell Grant recipients with the avowed purpose of supporting students who might otherwise not be able to study abroad because of financial constraints. The program also seeks to promote diversity in study abroad by selecting students who are in traditionally under- represented disciplines such as computer science and engineering. More information and the full list of Fall 2011 awards can be seen at

• www.iie.org/gilman.
   

On May 23, 2011, the Mathematics & Statistics Department learned that Paul Stahl, an undergraduate mathematics major, had won the eighth annual HOMSIGMAA (History of Mathematics Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America) contest for papers written in History of Mathematics courses across the country for his paper “Kepler’s Development of Mathematical Astronomy.” In addition, Rick Hill, also a mathematics major, was one of two runners-up based on his paper “Thomas Harriot’s Artis Analyticae Praxis and the Roots of Modern Algebra”. Paul’s paper will be posted on the HOMSIGMAA web site. Students from the department have either won or co-won first place in this contest four times before in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2010. Paul will receive an MAA student membership and some MAA books provided by HOMSIGMAA, a complimentary CSHPM (Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Mathematics) membership, and books donated by Johns Hopkins University Press. Both students’ papers were written in Spring 2011 for Math 464 WI (History of Mathematics, Writing Intensive) taught by Richard Delaware. For more, see:

• www.homsigmaa.org.
   

The Psychology Department reports that it had many undergraduate students participate in UMKC’s 2011 annual research symposium in April. Nine psychology undergraduates presented their research at SEARCH, with most working with faculty in the department. The Psychology Department had two students win first and second place in the division of Behavioral and Social Sciences. Nicholas Cale, whose research mentor is Melisa Rempfer, won first place. Melanie Somogie, whose research mentor is Jared Bruce, won second place. For more on UMKC”s SEARCH, see:

• www.umkc.edu/searchsite/symposium/index.shtml

The Criminal Justice and Criminology Club sponsored a viewing of the KC Murder Factory, and used this as an opportunity to raise funds for the Ad Hoc Group Against Crime. The viewing was well attended – the theater (capacity 350) was nearly full.. Audience members included students, alumni, community members, as well as many victims of violent crime who were interviewed in the documentary.

  http://videos.kansascity.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=56576601

Congratulations to Psychology Department graduate students Alisha Adams and Liz Duval who were recipients of 2011Women’s Council Graduate Assistance Funds!   They were honored at the annual GAF Luncheon on March 15, 2011.  A description of their projects is below:

Alisha’s funding was awarded to cover the expenses of her thesis and to present her data at the upcoming APS Convention in May.  Her thesis examines the relation between perceptions of discrimination and health-related quality of life.  She collected data from over 200 Hispanic adults in the KC area. Alisha’s research mentor is Dr. Kym Bennett.

Liz’s award will provide funding for an exciting pilot study that is an extension of her dissertation. The funds will allow her to collect brain imaging data on a small sample of people with diagnosed social anxiety Dr. Filion and Dr. Lovelace are Liz’s mentors on the project , along with Dr. Cary Savage from the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center of University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMED) and Dr. Lisa Hale from the Kansas City Center for Anxiety Treatment and KUMED.

Jessica Bernard, (Mock Trial Coach) reported that mock trial team placed first at the Creighton Blue Jay Invitational in Omaha, Nebraska.  The team went undefeated (which means all eight judges gave them the win over our opponent) against some of their biggest competition in the Midwest, including Washburn, the University of Kansas, Creighton and Northwest Missouri State.  This was their second win of the season as the team placed 1st at Washington University’s Arch Invitational in December.  She says they have also received numerous compliments from schools that attended their invitational competition in January.  The New Student Union and the law school served to be excellent venues and all in attendance gave the students the highest praise for putting on an exceptionally well-organized tournament.