Liberal Arts Achievements

Liberal Arts Achievements

Help us congratulate our students, faculty, and alumni for their dedication and hard work! If you have an achievement you'd like to share, please submit your story here.

Fall 2024

Dr. David Hitchcock, Chair of World Languages and Cultures Department: 

• Published an article titled Para descubir el mármol en la niebla: el teatro de Ruiz Pleguezuelos y el rechazo de la subjetivación tecnológica in the Spring 2024 edition of the journal Teatro: Revista de Estudios Escénicos (at Connecticut College).
• Currently editing Miscelánea indigesta, a collection of essays on the drama of José Moreno Arenas, scheduled for release in late September by Editorial Alhulia in Spain.
• Delivered a virtual keynote lecture, titled “Volviendo a conocer a una maestro después de un cuarto de siglo: reflexiones sobre el genio de Francisco Nieva,” through the Centro Dramático Rural (Mira, Spain) on September 21, in celebration of the centennial of the subject of his dissertation. 
• Presenting a paper on October 25 at Brigham Young University's Symposium on the Pursuit of Signs and their Meanings in Iberian and Ibero-American Literature Language, and Culture, titled Utopian Echoes: Considering Plays of Meaning Inspired by a Place Called New Harmony. 

Dr. Melissa Stacer, Director of Master of Arts in Criminal Justice, had a manuscript accepted by the Victims & Offenders Journal this year. She addresses the topic of incarcerated veterans creating and joining American Legion posts in their prisons.  

Stacer, M.J., and Solinas-Saunders, M. (OnlineFirst, print version forthcoming). American Legion participation among incarcerated veterans. Victims and Offenders. Accepted August 1, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564886.2024.2389414

Dr. Phillip Todd, Student Publications Advisor and Instructor in Journalism, is now a Board Member with the Society of Professional Journalists, Indiana Pro Chapter. 

Dr. Kristin LaFollette, Assistant Professor of English: 

• Presenting "Human Remains, Humanizing Language, and Bioarchaeological Reports," published in Technical Communication and Social Justice, at the Indiana College English Association Conference in October and the Conference on College Composition and Communication in April. 
• "Rehumanizing Rhetoric, Recuperative Ethos, and Human Specimens: A Case Study of the Indiana Medical History Museum" will be published in Rhetoric of Health and Medicine.
• LaFollette had a poem published in The Missouri Review in August: https://missourireview.com/a-recovery-by-kristin-lafollette
• LaFollette and Dr. Sukanya Gupta, Director of Master of Arts in English, are facilitating a workshop on developing a medical humanities program at the Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association in November. The theme of the conference is "Health in/of the Humanities." 

Anthony Rintala, Instructor in English and Faculty Advisor for FishHook: 

Volume 13 of FishHook, USI’s student-run journal of arts and literature is now available. It features poetry, prose and art by USI students and was edited by students as well, led by Editor-in Chief Denise McKenzie. 

Rob Dickes, Associate Professor of Photography and Digital Imaging: 

Dickes is organizing the MidWest Society for Photographic Education Photography Conference, titled Visions of Utopia, on-campus and in New Harmony, Indiana, October 17-19. Currently the MAC/PACE Galleries are holding a photography exhibition and will host a keynote speaker event with artist, Brooke Shaden. 

A documentary created by Dr. Leigh Anne Howard, Professor of Communication Studies, and Dr. Dave Black, Associate Professor Emeritus of Radio and Television, Art For Science’s Sake: Stalking John James Audubon, has aired in 19 states on 47 educational channels. 

Dr. Norma Rosas Mayén, Professor of Spanish, had an academic collaborative article published this year. 

• Godínez López, Eva Margarita y Norma Rosas Mayén, "¿Cómo termina el cuento? La reescritura como recurso para la enseñanza de los conectores en español L2 [How does the story ends? Rewriting as a resource for teaching Spanish L2 connectors]," Ciencia Latina Revista Científica Multidisciplinar, marzo-abril 2024, Vol. 8, Num. 2, p.3726-3741.

Susan Blankenship, adjunct in Political Science, had an article cited in the most recent issue of the Northwestern University Law Review.  

• Susan E. Blankenship and Ernest J. Yanarella, “Prison Recruitment as a Policy Tool of Local Economic Development: A Critical Evaluation,” 7 CONTEMP. JUST. REV. 183, 184–85 (2004)

Dr. Trent Engbers, Director of the Master of Public Administration Program, was named the recipient of the Harris Wolford Award and Americorps wrote a spotlight on Engbers to celebrate its 30th anniversary: https://americorps.gov/blogs/2024-09-19/americorps-30-lifetime-service-home-abroad

Yu-Li Alice Shen, Instructor in English, was recently named an Honorable Mention for the American Playwriting Foundation’s prestigious Relentless Award, which honors the legacy of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. Her play, Image May Contain, is in the company of works by winner Dave Harris and finalist Hansol Jung and was in select judges’ Top 8 – panelists of whom include such theatrical giants as Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Lynn Nottage, and Lloyd Suh. 

Shen also lent her voice to Daughters of Shandong, the debut novel by international civil rights lawyer Eve J. Chung, published by Penguin Random House. The audiobook was released in May and topped Oprah Daily’s Cool Audios for Hot Days list. 

Spring 2024

A documentary produced by Dr. Leigh Anne Howard, Chair of Communication and Media Department, and Dr. Dave Black, Associate Professor Emeritus of Radio and Television, Art for Science's Sake: Stalking John James Audubon, has been accepted by the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA). NETA is a national educational distributor for public education broadcasting, making out documentary accessible nationally through so local/regional PBS stations nationwide.

Howard will also co-lead a working group on performance pedagogy and public policy at Performance Studies International (PSI) in London this summer. PSI is the most prestigious performance studies association globally. 

Dr. Amie McKibban, Chair of the Psychology Department; Dr.  Zach Pilot, Assistant Professor of Psychology; Dr. Jay Dickerson, Director of USI’s Master of Social Work Program; and Dr. Del Doughty, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, traveled to Indianapolis, Indiana, to be highlighted in the launch of Project Playbook to improve access and reduce barriers to mental health care.  

Also, 13 students presented original research at the Mid-America Undergraduate Research Conference at Ball State. 

Dr. Alexandra Natoli, Assistant Professor of French, was selected to attend a writing retreat in the Virginia countryside. Organized by the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), this opportunity will support work on her writing project, 'Excuse my Expression': Remembering the Auschwitz-Birkenau Latrines in Oral Testimony. Natoli’s participation in the writing retreat will come on the heels of her work in the USHMM’s Virtual Writing Group, a competitive opportunity running from February-June 2024. 

• In June, Natoli and Dr. Todd Schroer, Chair of Criminal Justice, will take part in a leadership seminar in Atlanta, Georgia, organized by the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights (TOLI). As graduates of previous TOLI programming, Natoli and Schroer will travel to Atlanta to begin preparing a TOLI Holocaust pedagogy seminar that they will host on USI’s campus along with Dr. Oana Popescu-Sandu, Chair of English Department. Tentatively titled Cultural Legacies of the Holocaust, the USI seminar will bring together high school and university educators across the region interested in incorporating Holocaust pedagogy and remembrance topics into their classrooms.

Dr. Greg Blair’s, Assistant Professor of Art and Design, article, Street Art and the Disruption of the Expected, will be published in the next issue of the Visual Inquiry journal (13:1). 

Robert Millard-Mendez, Professor of Art, won an Honorable Mention Award at the nationally juried Garbled Guise exhibition at the Indianapolis Art Center. https://indyartcenter.org/exhibitions/

Dr. Kristin LaFollette’s, Assistant Professor of English, article, Rehumanizing Rhetoric, Recuperative Ethos, and Human Specimens: A Case Study of the Indiana Medical History Museum, was recently accepted for publication at Rhetoric of Health and Medicine. This project is the result of a research trip she took last summer with support from a CLAFDA, and she presented this project at the beginning of April at the 2024 Conference on College Composition and Communication in Spokane, Washington. 

LaFollette was also recently asked to serve as chair of the Humanities Committee at The Blood Project (TBP), an educational platform out of Harvard Medical School that works toward bridging the gap between evidence-based medicine and patient care. 

Rosalie Moffett, Assistant Professor of English, had four poems published in the April issue of POETRY Magazine. 

Dr. Todd Schroer, Chair of Criminal Justice, presented Genocide and the Criminal Justice System: National Socialist Policing, Courts, Corrections, and Theory during the Holocaust at the Annual Midwest Sociological Society’s meeting in April. Schoroer has also been accepted for two summer fellowships: 

• Journey to Justice, an eight-day tour this June through Southern Cities to study the history of the Civil Rights Movement. Stops include Montgomery, Birmingham, Selma, Memphis and Louisville. 
• In June, Schroder and other USI faculty members will attend a leadership seminar in Atlanta, Georgia, organized by the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights (TOLI)

Dr. Ngoc Nguyen, Assistant Professor of Social Work, was granted an Early Career Faculty award for her research proposal titled, Factors Contributing to Learning Motivation among Social Work Students in Vietnam. Nguyen also had two oral presentations and one published article as follows: 

• Nguyen, N.N., Paulson, J., & Opatrny Pease, M. (2024) Examining the relationships between religiosity and E-cigarette smoking and alcohol drinking among college students in Vietnam, Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, DOI: 10.1080/15426432.2024.2331538 
• Ngoc N. Nguyen & John Paulson. (2024, April 17th). The Impact of Religiosity and Violence Prevention Programs on Violence amongst Adolescents in the U.S. ORAL presentation for the 28th Annual Research, Evidence-Based Practice, and Performance Improvement in Healthcare Conference at the University of Southern Indiana. 
• Ngoc N. Nguyen. (2024, Mar 1st). A Comparative Analysis of Social Work in Vietnam and the United States. Oral session at the Social Work Conference, University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, Indiana. 

Dr. Kristalyn Shefveland, Assistant Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Associate Professor of History, recently had her book, Selling Vero Beach: Settler myths in the land of the aís and Seminole, published. 

Shefveland, K. M. (2024). Selling Vero Beach: Settler myths in the land of the aís and Seminole.