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Faculty Activities

Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

Xanath Caraza (Foreign Languages and Literatures) has been invited to present readings from her two recent books Corazón Pintado and Conjuro at the 2012 Obermann Humanities Symposium on “The Latino Midwest,” which will take place at the University of Iowa from October 11-13, 2012. This interdisciplinary symposium will examine the history, education, literature, art, and politics of Latinos in the Midwest. She also has been in Spain and Mexico this summer. She was awarded a writer’s residency in Spain, where she participated in a Poetry Festival in Barcelona at the 2012 Festival de Floricanto Barceloa: a Chicano-Charnego Encounter of Poetry. In Mexico, she was interviewed by Radio Universidad Veracruzana and one of her poems will be part of an art show at El Museo de Antropologia de Xalapa.

The Department of Art & Art History hosted two internationally-known visiting artists, Keith Achepohl and Lynn Manos, for a two week summer residency in July. Both artists gave lectures about their work in the Fine Arts Building located on the UMKC Volker Campus. The Department also held their first fall exhibition – the En Plein Air Painting Show.  This exhibition included artwork selected from the first annual Brush Creek Art Walk which was a public event held July 27 – July 29 along the scenic trail from Roanoke Road east to Elmwood. Painters registered for the event had three days to complete paintings en plein air (French for “in the open air”) along the creek. For more on the art walk, see: Brush Creek Art Walk. (These items first appeared in U-Matters.)

The Department of Architecture, Urban Planning and Design hosted a presentation by R. Crosby Kemper, Jr. in April to inaugurate the first in a series of presentations on how design happens in a city. According to their event announcement, “ A design patron is someone who challenges a professional designer to solve a pressing problem— be it furnishing a signature bank or leading a civic coalition to save a historic building.” They went on to say that R. Crosby Kemper, Jr. has exemplified what it means to be a design patron in Kansas City for well over five decades.

Michael Frisch (Architecture, Urban Planning and Design) has been elected to the governing Board of The Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), a consortium of university-based programs offering credentials in urban and regional planning.  Acting together, the ACSP member school faculties are able to express their shared commitments to understanding the dynamics of urban and regional development, enhancing planning practices, and improving the education of both novice and experienced planners. The other board members are from Cornell University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Memphis and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

The Theatre Department has announced a new program of discounted tickets for UMKC faculty and staff at $10 (with campus ID card). For more see:

The UMKC School of Social Work held its 2012 Field Day event in the Student Union on August 24, 2012. This event brought together students in the Masters of Social Work Program who are in the field placement phase of their programs of study with their Field Supervisors, other agency representatives and UMKC Social Work alumni employed in their profession in the area for a morning of presentations and discussions. About 200 were in attendance.

Beth Miller (Political Science) has published an article titled: “Exploring the Economic Determinants of Immigration Attitudes.” (2012). Poverty and Public Policy, Volume 4, Issue 2.

Sookhee Oh (Sociology) taught Social Organization of East Asian Cities this summer at the International Summer School at the University of Seoul, Korea. The course focused on urban issues in East Asia and the dynamic social contexts of East Asian Cities such as Seoul, Tokyo, and Shanghai. This 5-week intensive summer school program offers courses in English in the areas of Asian Studies, International Studies, and Korean language. The program draws hundreds of students and faculty from the Americas, Europe, and Asia who wish to explore the densely populated megacity, Seoul, South Korea, and other parts of East Asia. Students generally take two courses and participate in many extracurricular cultural activities including a four-day trip to either Beijing, China, or Jeju Island, Korea, and to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), as well as experience Taekwondo and K-pop culture. For more see:

The International students wear a traditional Korean dress in this photo.

 

The UMKC High School College Partnership held its 2012 Annual faculty Conference at the Student Union on July 20, 2012. Eleven A&S departments were among the 15 academic programs present at the session.

Max J. Skidmore (Curators’ Professor of Political Science and Thomas Jefferson Fellow) has been invited to join the Scholars’ Strategy Network that Harvard professors Ben Veghte and Theda Skocpol are forming. Professor Veghte has called Skidmore’s work on Social Security “fascinating,” and says that he and Professor Skocpol wish to highlight it on the new Network.

Erik Olsen (Economics) presented an invited Lecture at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, Department of Economics: “The Economics of Cooperatives, Employee Ownership and Self-management”, March 19, 2012.

Judy Ancel (Economics) attended the United Association for Labor Education meeting in, March, 2012 in Pittsburgh. She organized and chaired a plenary discussion on Global Union Alliances Step by Step with Leo Girard, President United Steelworkers, Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, President, Los Mineros, Bruce Klipple, President United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers, and Benedicto Martinez, co-President, Authentic Workers Front.

W. Robert Brazelton (Emeritus, Economics) published “Towards a Synthesis of Institutional and Post Keynesian Economics” (with Charles J. Whalen), in Financial Instability and Economic Security after the Great Depression, edited by C. J. Whalen, 2012, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar. For more see:

L. Randall Wray (Economics) gave a presentation at the Institute for Global Law and Policy Pro-Seminar, Harvard University, June 2012. He was Co-organizer of conference, “Global Financial Fragility and the Development of Capitalist Finance”, Nankai University, Tianjin, June 2012, and also gave the plenary lecture. He was co-organizer of the Hyman P. Minsky Summer Seminar at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, June 2012; at which he gave two lectures.

Frederic S. Lee (Economics) published a number of items recently including “Heterodox Economics and its Critics,’ Review of Political Economy, 24.2 (2012) and “Pricing and Prices” with G. C. Gu in The Elgar Companion to Post Keynesian Economics, 2nd ed., edited by J. King, Edward Elgar, 2012. For more see:

and

He also presented a paper at the Political Economy and the Outlook for Capitalism Joint Conference 2012 on “The UK Research Assessment Exercise and the Narrowing of UK Economics”.

UMKC ‘Border Wars’ Workshop Draws Educators from Across the Country

A teacher’s workshop entitled Crossroads of Conflict: Contested Visions of Freedom and the Missouri-Kansas Border Wars was held in late July 2012. Sponsored by the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the workshop is part of The National Endowment for the Humanities’ Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops for Teachers and was funded by an $180,000 federal grant from the NEH. The workshop, directed by Diane Mutti Burke (History), drew a total of 80 educators for its two sessions. The group aimed to better understand the clash of cultures that played out on the Missouri-Kansas border. For more see:

New Books

Monday, April 23rd, 2012

Alberto Villamandos (Foreign Languages & Literatures) published two books in 2011:

<img class="alignleft wp-image-1806" src="http://info.umkc.edu/thequad/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/64-71-large1.jpg" alt="" width="85"Alberto Villamandos (Foreign Languages & Literatures) published two books in 2011:

El discreto encanto de la subversión: Una crítica cultural de la Gauche Divine. (The Discreet Charm of Subversion: A Cultural Critique of Barcelona’s Gauche Divine.) Pamplona (Spain): Laetoli, 2011.

At the end of the 1960’s, under timid and new social liberties allowed by Franco’s regime a group of progressive but privileged intellectuals flourished in Barcelona. The book analyzes the cultural production of the group, especially literary and visual works that reflect the evolution of the Western intellectual in a new consumer society. It has been reviewed at the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia:

He also co-editied with Dr Rosalía Cornejo (University of Ottawa, Canada) Un hispanismo para el siglo XXI: Ensayos de crítica cultural. ( A Hispanism for the 21st Century) Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 2011.

 

 

Jeff Bennett (Sociology) has published his book entitled When the Sun Danced: Myths, Miracles, and Modernity in Early Twentieth Century Portugal, University of Virginia Press, 2012. This is a study of the relationship of a religious movement and Portuguese politics in the early 20th century. For more see:

 

Kristi Holsinger (Criminal Justice & Criminology) published her book, Teaching Justice: Solving Social Justice Problems through University Education, Ashgate: 2012. An international analysis of how teaching can impact matters of social justice. For more see:

height=”135″ />El discreto encanto de la subversión: Una crítica cultural de la Gauche Divine.  (The Discreet Charm of Subversion: A Cultural Critique of Barcelona’s Gauche Divine.) Pamplona (Spain): Laetoli, 2011.

At the end of the 1960’s, under timid and new social liberties allowed by Franco’s regime a group of progressive but privileged intellectuals flourished in Barcelona.  The book analyzes the cultural production of the group, especially literary and visual works that reflect the evolution of the Western intellectual in a new consumer society.  It has been reviewed at the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia:

He also co-editied with Dr Rosalía Cornejo (University of Ottawa, Canada) Un hispanismo para el siglo XXI: Ensayos de crítica cultural. ( A Hispanism for the 21st Century) Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 2011.

 

 

Jeff Bennett (Sociology) has published his book entitled When the Sun Danced: Myths, Miracles, and Modernity in Early Twentieth Century Portugal, University of Virginia Press, 2012.  This is a study of the relationship of a religious movement and Portuguese politics in the early 20th century.  For more see:

 

Kristi Holsinger (Criminal Justice & Criminology) published her book, Teaching Justice: Solving Social Justice Problems through University Education, Ashgate: 2012.  An international analysis of how teaching can impact matters of social justice.  For more see:

New Books

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Three A&S faculty are among co-authors of an interdisciplinary book on Germany.

THE HAPPY BURDEN OF HISTORY: From Sovereign Impunity to Responsible Selfhood. Andrew Stuart Bergerson, (History) K. Scott Baker, (Foreign Languages and Literatures, Clancy Martin, (Philosophy) and Steve Ostovich ( College of St. Scholastica)

The Happy Burden of History takes an integrative approach to the problem of responsible selfhood. Exploring the lives and letters of ordinary and intellectual Germans who faced the ethical challenges of the Third Reich, it focuses on five typical tools for cultivating the modern self: myths, lies, nonconformity, irony, and modeling. It was published by: De Gruyeter, March 2011.

For more see:  

http://www.degruyter.com/cont/fb/li/detailEn.cfm?id=IS-9783110246360-1&ad=he

Steve Dilks (English) has had his new book Samuel Beckett in the Literary Marketplace published by Syracuse University Press.

. http://www.syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu/spring-2011/ samuel-beckett.html

For a review of Dilks’ book see:  http://www.kansascity.com/2011/04/23/2817381/readorama-umkc-professors-book.html

For more activities and achievements of the English Department see: 
http://cas.umkc.edu/english/documents/Newsletter–Spring%202011%20Issue%202.pdf

What Bird Was On Your Office Window Ledge?

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Ray Coveney, Jr. (Geosciences) has been a bird watcher and photographer for many years. He has compiled the photos in this video on “The Birds of 64110” over the past fifteen or so years. To see the video, go to:

 http://cas.umkc.edu/geosciences/video/Birdsof64110_RCoveney.wmv

 

BkMk Press Author Wins Poets’ Prize

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011
BkMk Press is delighted to announce that Tongue of War: From Pearl Harbor to Nagasaki, by Tony Barnstone (BkMk P, 2009), has been awarded the Poets’ Prize, one of the nation’s top awards for a book of poems.  The prize is awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award year.  Publishers of recent Poets’ Prize books include Houghton Mifflin, W.W. Norton, Alice James Books, TriQuarterly Books, Penguin, Viking, and Counterpoint—a list that now will include UMKC’s own BkMk Press. 

Books for this award are nominated by a prize selection committee and voted on by a panel consisting of many of the na­tion’s top poets.  The Poets’ Prize comes with a $3,000 cash award for the author.  An award ceremony will take place on Thurs., May 19, 2011, at the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City. 

For more information about Tongue of War: From Pearl Harbor to Nagasaki visit BkMk Press’ Web site at

 http://cas.umkc.edu/bkmk/catalogue/978-1-886157-71-2.html

To purchase a copy of Tongue of War or other BkMk titles, call (816) 235-2558.

A&S Research and Grants 2009

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

Extramural research grant activity in calendar 2009 as reported by the UMKC’s Research Services totaled $3,404,389 for the College of Arts & Sciences.

Architecture, Urban Planning+Design $ 7,999
Arts & Sciences Dean’s Office $ 200,000
Chemistry $ 217,432
Criminal Justice & Criminology $ 41,211
Economics $ 137,358
English Language & Literature $ 88,802
Geosciences $ 228,956
History $ 168,981
Mathematics & Statistics $ 21,300
New Letters $ 121,347
Physics $ 959,009
Psychology $ 1,057,763
Social Work $ 132,731
Sociology $ 15,000

More Warko

Monday, April 26th, 2010

For a more recent look at the Warko on Royall Hall as well as notes on restoration work see:
www.unews.com/2.4805/take-it-from-an-expert-umkc-s-observatory-sees-stars-1.656819

Warkoczewski Observatory on Royall Hall. Photo by Ashley L. Butler

Fast Fact

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

In 2009, A&S faculty obtained over $3,400,000 in external grants. There were 50 grants awarded to 31 individuals in 13 academic departments, the Dean’s Office and New Letters.

Fast Fact

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

In 2006-07, A&S awarded 75 scholarships in the amount of $47,000. For 2009-10, 142 scholarships worth $292,000 were awarded.

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