Ken Novak (Criminal Justice and Criminology) published his paper “Racial threat, suspicion, and police behavior: The impact of race and place in traffic enforcement.” in Crime and Delinquency, March 2012, Vol.58, no. 2, pp. 275-300. See
His publication was highlighted by the Sentencing Project, which is a national organization promoting a fair and effective criminal justice system. See:Ken Novak (Criminal Justice and Criminology) published his paper “Racial threat, suspicion, and police behavior: The impact of race and place in traffic enforcement.” in Crime and Delinquency, March 2012, Vol.58, no. 2, pp. 275-300. See
His publication was highlighted by the Sentencing Project, which is a national organization promoting a fair and effective criminal justice system. See:
He also was interviewed by the AP in stories that appeared in the Washington Post and the Kansas City Star on the Trayvon Martin killing.
Xanath Caraza-de-Holland (Foreign Languages and Literatures) was the featured poet at Park University’s International Women’s Day on Thursday, March 8. The program tells us that Caraza won the 2003 Ediciones Nuevo Espacio International Short Story Contest in Spanish and was a 2008 finalist for the first international John Barry Award.
Mitch Brian (Communications Studies) had his play “A Bucket of Blood” open March 23, 2012 at The Living Room. This is his third play (the previous two now published by Dramatic Publishing) and, like the others, is a conversation between cinema and theater. Based on the 1959 Roger Corman cult classic “A Bucket of Blood”, a dark comedy about a put upon busy boy at a beatnik café who aspires to be an artist — and uses murder to achieve his dream. For more see:
Clovis Semmes (Director of Black Studies) lectured on “Regal (Theatre) Women in African American Business, Civic, and Entertainment Culture” to the Lorenzo Green Chapter of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) in February. See:
He also contributed a chapter, “The Problem of Race and Chicago’s Great Tivoli Theater,” to the forthcoming book, The Black Chicago Renaissance, edited by Darlene Clark Hine and John McCluskey, to be released this June by University of Illinois Press. See :
Greg Vonnahme (Political Science) presented two papers at the State Politics and Policy
Conference in Houston, February 16-18. “Inequities in Campaign Money and Contribution Mandates in State Legislatures” and “Election Day Vote Centers, Voter Participation, and the Spatial Distribution of Voting” For more see:
Pellom McDaniels (History) is featured in the PBS documentary “More Than A Month.”
McDaniels and the film’s producer, Shukree Tilghman, (http://kcur.org/term/shukree-tilghman) spoke with KCUR Central Standard’s Jabulani Leffall. McDaniels has an exhibit opening at Emory University on April 18th on the artist, Benny Andrews entitled “Like A Purple Haze Across the Land: The Art of Benny Andrews.” For the opening, McDaniels will be giving a paper presentation on the artist.
Finally, in honor of this summer’s Major League Baseball All Star Game, McDaniels is contributing to the creation of an exhibit at the National WWI Museum, entitled “WWI All-Stars: Sports and the Inter-Allied Games,” opening April 5th
Max Skidmore (Political Science) was interviewed March 19th on Ohio State University Public Media as part of an AARP program on Social Security and Medicare Reform. He joined the program by telephone See:
He also participated in the Sunday Dialogue on Equitable Health Care in The New York Times on March 24, 2012. See:
Beth Miller (Political Science) has done a number of interviews for Fox 4 News on the Republican Primaries this year. One of the more recent was on March 13th. See:
Stephanie Kelton, Randall Wray and William Black (Economics) who have been instrumental in developing and promoting a new school of thought that runs counter to the economics of the Chicago School have had their arguments appear internationally. The Economist magazine featured their contributions in its January issue. The Washington Post ran a feature story in February as did The Financial Times. See:
As a result of the buzz about their theory, and concerns over the on-going financial mess in Europe, Kelton and Black were invited to Rimini, Italy, where they addressed an audience of more than 2,100. They have also garnered attention for developing a top-ranked economics blog called New Economic Perspectives. The blog is currently ranked #17 in the world (out of more than 150 blogs). For more see:
Cathleen Burnett (Criminal Justice and Criminology), a nationally recognized expert on capital punishment, testified on February 15,2012 on Missouri House Bill 1520, to repeal the death penalty in Missouri, before the House Corrections Committee in Jefferson City, MO. See
Courtesy of the English Department’s most recent newsletter we learn of the following faculty activities.
Joan Dean has published “‘Getting Known’: Samuel Becket in Ireland in the 1950s,” in The Binding Strength of Irish Studies: Festschrift in Honour of Csilla Bertha and Donald E. Morse, edited by Marianna Gula, Mária Kurdi, and István D. Rácz, Debrecen: Debrecen University Press, 2011, 15-25. She also published “In the Classroom” in The John McGahern Yearbook 4 (2011): 96-105.
Christie Hodgen’s short story, “The Drip,” appears in The Southern Review 48.1 (Winter 2012). See:
Lindsey Martin-Bowen’s poems, “Mary Todd Lincoln’s Obsession” and “Spring River Swimmers” appear in the new issue of Little Balkans Review 16.1 (2011). Her review of Denise Low’s poetry collection, Ghost Stories of the New West, appears in the current issue of Flint Hills Review Issue 16 (2011, Emporia State University).
John Barton’s essay, “‘The Necessity of an Example’: Chesnutt’s The Marrow of Tradition & the Ohio Anti- Lynching Campaign,” appears in the Arizona Quarterly 67:4 (2011): 27-58.
Michelle Boisseau, published two poems in the January 2012 issue of Poetry: “Death Gets into the Suburbs” and “Among the Gorgons”. See
She reads these poems on the Poetry Foundation’s podcast and the editors discuss her and other poets’ poems in the January issue
Jennifer Phegley was on KCUR’s “Up to Date” with Steve Kraske on February 6 to discuss her book Courtship and Marriage in Victorian England (Praeger 2011). The interview is archived at
She also gave a talk at the Kansas City Public Library on 3 February 9 that focused on alternative Victorian courtship practices. Audio and video recordings from the event can be found at
Jeff Rydberg-Cox has published an article “Social Networks and the Language of Greek Tragedy” in the Journal of the Chicago Colloquium on Digital Humanities and Computer Science 1.3 (2011), available at
He gave a lecture at the Hall Center at the University of Kansas in November called “Social Networks as a Tool for Visualizing Linguistic Data in Greek Tragedy.” He taught a workshop on Statistical Methods for the Humanities at KU in September with a tutorial on-line at
Rydberg-Cox was awarded a $2,000 Teaching Enhancement Grant from FACET with the title, “Online Spaced Repetition Exercises for Ancient Greek.”
Tom Stroik and Michael Putnam (Penn State University) have just co-edited a special issue of Linguistic Analysis 37.3-4 (2011), entitled “Sharpening the Edges.” The issue offers five essays on derivational syntax, including one written by the co-editors, titled “Syntax at Ground Zero.” See:
He also was interviewed by the AP in stories that appeared in the Washington Post and the Kansas City Star on the Trayvon Martin killing.
Xanath Caraza-de-Holland (Foreign Languages and Literatures) was the featured poet at Park University’s International Women’s Day on Thursday, March 8. The program tells us that Caraza won the 2003 Ediciones Nuevo Espacio International Short Story Contest in Spanish and was a 2008 finalist for the first international John Barry Award.
Mitch Brian (Communications Studies) had his play “A Bucket of Blood” open March 23, 2012 at The Living Room. This is his third play (the previous two now published by Dramatic Publishing) and, like the others, is a conversation between cinema and theater. Based on the 1959 Roger Corman cult classic “A Bucket of Blood”, a dark comedy about a put upon busy boy at a beatnik café who aspires to be an artist — and uses murder to achieve his dream. For more see:
Clovis Semmes (Director of Black Studies) lectured on “Regal (Theatre) Women in African American Business, Civic, and Entertainment Culture” to the Lorenzo Green Chapter of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) in February. See:
He also contributed a chapter, “The Problem of Race and Chicago’s Great Tivoli Theater,” to the forthcoming book, The Black Chicago Renaissance, edited by Darlene Clark Hine and John McCluskey, to be released this June by University of Illinois Press. See :
Greg Vonnahme (Political Science) presented two papers at the State Politics and Policy
Conference in Houston, February 16-18. “Inequities in Campaign Money and Contribution Mandates in State Legislatures” and “Election Day Vote Centers, Voter Participation, and the Spatial Distribution of Voting” For more see:
Pellom McDaniels (History) is featured in the PBS documentary “More Than A Month.”
McDaniels and the film’s producer, Shukree Tilghman, (http://kcur.org/term/shukree-tilghman) spoke with KCUR Central Standard’s Jabulani Leffall. McDaniels has an exhibit opening at Emory University on April 18th on the artist, Benny Andrews entitled “Like A Purple Haze Across the Land: The Art of Benny Andrews.” For the opening, McDaniels will be giving a paper presentation on the artist.
Finally, in honor of this summer’s Major League Baseball All Star Game, McDaniels is contributing to the creation of an exhibit at the National WWI Museum, entitled “WWI All-Stars: Sports and the Inter-Allied Games,” opening April 5th
Max Skidmore (Political Science) was interviewed March 19th on Ohio State University Public Media as part of an AARP program on Social Security and Medicare Reform. He joined the program by telephone See:
He also participated in the Sunday Dialogue on Equitable Health Care in The New York Times on March 24, 2012. See:
Beth Miller (Political Science) has done a number of interviews for Fox 4 News on the Republican Primaries this year. One of the more recent was on March 13th. See:
Stephanie Kelton, Randall Wray and William Black (Economics) who have been instrumental in developing and promoting a new school of thought that runs counter to the economics of the Chicago School have had their arguments appear internationally. The Economist magazine featured their contributions in its January issue. The Washington Post ran a feature story in February as did The Financial Times. See:
As a result of the buzz about their theory, and concerns over the on-going financial mess in Europe, Kelton and Black were invited to Rimini, Italy, where they addressed an audience of more than 2,100. They have also garnered attention for developing a top-ranked economics blog called New Economic Perspectives. The blog is currently ranked #17 in the world (out of more than 150 blogs). For more see:
Cathleen Burnett (Criminal Justice and Criminology), a nationally recognized expert on capital punishment, testified on February 15,2012 on Missouri House Bill 1520, to repeal the death penalty in Missouri, before the House Corrections Committee in Jefferson City, MO. See
Courtesy of the English Department’s most recent newsletter we learn of the following faculty activities.
Joan Dean has published “‘Getting Known’: Samuel Becket in Ireland in the 1950s,” in The Binding Strength of Irish Studies: Festschrift in Honour of Csilla Bertha and Donald E. Morse, edited by Marianna Gula, Mária Kurdi, and István D. Rácz, Debrecen: Debrecen University Press, 2011, 15-25. She also published “In the Classroom” in The John McGahern Yearbook 4 (2011): 96-105.
Christie Hodgen’s short story, “The Drip,” appears in The Southern Review 48.1 (Winter 2012). See:
Lindsey Martin-Bowen’s poems, “Mary Todd Lincoln’s Obsession” and “Spring River Swimmers” appear in the new issue of Little Balkans Review 16.1 (2011). Her review of Denise Low’s poetry collection, Ghost Stories of the New West, appears in the current issue of Flint Hills Review Issue 16 (2011, Emporia State University).
John Barton’s essay, “‘The Necessity of an Example’: Chesnutt’s The Marrow of Tradition & the Ohio Anti- Lynching Campaign,” appears in the Arizona Quarterly 67:4 (2011): 27-58.
Michelle Boisseau, published two poems in the January 2012 issue of Poetry: “Death Gets into the Suburbs” and “Among the Gorgons”. See
She reads these poems on the Poetry Foundation’s podcast and the editors discuss her and other poets’ poems in the January issue
Jennifer Phegley was on KCUR’s “Up to Date” with Steve Kraske on February 6 to discuss her book Courtship and Marriage in Victorian England (Praeger 2011). The interview is archived at
She also gave a talk at the Kansas City Public Library on 3 February 9 that focused on alternative Victorian courtship practices. Audio and video recordings from the event can be found at
Jeff Rydberg-Cox has published an article “Social Networks and the Language of Greek Tragedy” in the Journal of the Chicago Colloquium on Digital Humanities and Computer Science 1.3 (2011), available at
He gave a lecture at the Hall Center at the University of Kansas in November called “Social Networks as a Tool for Visualizing Linguistic Data in Greek Tragedy.” He taught a workshop on Statistical Methods for the Humanities at KU in September with a tutorial on-line at
Rydberg-Cox was awarded a $2,000 Teaching Enhancement Grant from FACET with the title, “Online Spaced Repetition Exercises for Ancient Greek.”
Tom Stroik and Michael Putnam (Penn State University) have just co-edited a special issue of Linguistic Analysis 37.3-4 (2011), entitled “Sharpening the Edges.” The issue offers five essays on derivational syntax, including one written by the co-editors, titled “Syntax at Ground Zero.” See:
Jennifer Lundgren (Psychology) is one of the editors of a new book, Night Eating Syndrome: Research, Assessment, and Treatment, to appear in August. It will be published by Guilford Press. For more see: 
David Westbrook 
Michelle Wimes 
I am excited to have the opportunity to serve as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. I have enjoyed being able to work more closely with so many talented faculty over past few months while serving as interim dean. The College truly has an amazing collection of scholars who provide tremendous resources for the campus and the community. As Dean, I will work to ensure that our scholarly activities are recognized by the community and strive to secure the resources necessary to further the mission of the College. I believe there are some exciting times ahead for UMKC, and for the College of Arts and Sciences.
As we approach the May 2012 A&S Spring Commence- ment, we thought it would be of interest to see what went into making that special moment for graduating students and their families happen. So we talked with Rosa Nuñez who has been the A&S Commencement Coordinator since Fall 2007 in addition to serving as a staff member in the A&S Advising Office.
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.
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: