Provost News
March 2022
Getting the band back together!
The provost’s and president’s offices have been physically reunited with the move of the provost’s office from the Camp Building to the lower level of Teel Hall. Prior to the closure of the Library/Admin building in fall 2019, both offices were located across the hall from each other in the administration building. The president’s office was briefly located in Camp, while the spaces in Teel B10 were prepared, while the provost’s office moved to Masters Hall in 2019, and then to the Camp Building in 2020. With some opportunity for renovating in Teel, the provost has moved to B10 with the president. The administrative staff supporting the offices are located in B4 and B1.
Albright professors granted promotions
The following faculty colleagues have been approved for promotions in 2022. Promotions include advancement to Assistant Associate Professor (with tenure) and advancement to full Professor.
Promotion to Full Professor:
Arcana Albright, Ph.D. – French
Matthew Garrison, M.F.A. – Art and Digital Media
Christian S. Hamann, Ph.D. – Chemistry and Biochemistry
Katherine J. Lehman, Ph.D. – Communications
Paula Trimpey, M.F.A. – Theatre and Fashion
Promotion to Associate Professor (with tenure):
Lennie Amores, Ph.D. – Spanish
Michael A. Armato, Ph.D. – Political Science
Erin Ventresca, Ph.D. – Biology
Professors approved for 2022-23 sabbaticals
Eight associate professors and one assistant professor have been recommended and approved for sabbaticals during the 2022-2023 academic year. Four will take sabbaticals during the fall of 2022, and six will take sabbaticals during the spring of 2023.
Fall 2022:
Arcana Albright, Ph.D. — Modern Languages and Literature
Teresa Gilliams, Ph.D. — English
Brian N. Glaze, M.F.A. — Art and Art History
Julia Heberle, Ph.D. — Psychology
Spring 2023:
Michael A. Armato, Ph.D. — Political Science
Teresa Gilliams, Ph.D. — English
Heidi Mau, Ph.D., M.F.A. — Communications
Stephen G. Mech, Ph.D. — Biology
Nicholas A. Piro, Ph.D. — Chemistry
Brittany Shelton, Ph.D. — Mathematics
We celebrate the opportunity that these colleagues will have to spend time focusing on their research and professional development and look forward to hearing their reports on their activities upon their return.
Save these dates!
As we approach the final weeks of the spring semester there will be several important upcoming events. See below and mark your calendar!
Honors Week
May 9–13
Jacob Albright Ceremony
Saturday, May 14, 11:30 a.m.
McMillan Center dining hall
Baccalaureate
Saturday, May 14, 4 p.m.
MPK Chapel
Commencement
Sunday, May 15, 10 a.m.
Santander Arena
New School of Professional Studies programs
Albright trustees have approved four new majors, three new minors and five new certificate programs for the School of Professional Studies (SPS) under the leadership of Dean Boric Vilic, and SPS Academic Council Chair, Lisa Hain. The newly approved fields of study include Addiction Studies, African American History and Music, and more. See below for a full list of the new academic programs.
Undergraduate:
Interdisciplinary Studies — creates an option for post-traditional students to pursue a flexible and personalized interdisciplinary education. This program, which closely aligns the educational pursuits of SPS students with the needs of a diverse workplace and a dynamic world, will enable students to seamlessly incorporate certificates and other micro-credentials into their major program of study.
Addiction Studies — meets the needs for professionals such as certified addictions counselor, clinical/medical social worker, pastoral counselor, and mental health professional. The program capitalizes on the long history of SPS offerings in psychology and combines the existing coursework in psychology (bachelor’s degree) and addiction studies (certificate program).
Graduate:
Master of Science in Applied Psychology — capitalizes on the strength of SPS and traditional day offerings in psychology at the undergraduate level and positions the college to respond to growing demand for graduate education and continuing professional development.
Master of Science in Athletic Leadership — positions Albright to respond to the growing demand for professional development of coaches, scouts, athletic trainers, fitness trainers and instructors. This program builds upon the strengths of existing faculty and staff expertise in psychology and athletic training.
Minors:
African American History
African American Music
Sustainable Business
Education certifications:
Behavior Specialist
English as a Second Language Program Specialist
Health and Wellness Education Specialist
PK-12 Instructional Technology Specialist
PK-12 Online Instruction Program Endorsement
Creative and innovative ACRE projects
During the interim 2022 session, 13 Albright students pursued ACRE projects across eight disciplines. The projects cover a wide variety of topics, ranging from diversity in the Freedman gallery to the relationship between pattern perception and COVID-19 conspiracies. Check out the details of their projects below.
Brigette Amendano ’22 | “Mapping of the Trigeminal Nerves in Avian”
Majoring in Biology
Faculty advisor: Ian Cost, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology
Hearst Foundation Grant
Dylan Cope ’22 | “Digital Democracy”
Majoring in Political Science
Faculty advisor: Nathan Henceroth, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Political Science
Elyse Eckert ’22 | “The Influence of 2D and 3D Presentation of Stimuli on the Hollow Mask Illusion”
Majoring in Business Administration and Psychology
Faculty advisor: Keith Feigenson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology
Ryan Janowski ’22 | “Digital Democracy”
Majoring in Business Administration: Economics and Political Science
Faculty advisor: Nathan Henceroth, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Political Science
Taylor Lanier ’22 | “Measurement of the Variability of the Apparent Brightness of Stars”
Majoring in Physics and French
Faculty advisor: Brian J. Buerke, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physics
Hearst Foundation Grant
Gabrielle List ’22 | “Effects of Media Messaging and Media Outlet on Acceptance of COVID-19 Public Health Precautions”
Majoring in Health Psychology
Faculty advisor: Bridget A. Hearon, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology
Regina McCarter ’22 | “Empathy and Moral Judgements about Autism Spectrum Disorder using Virtual Reality”
Majoring in Psychology and Public Health
Faculty advisor: Justin J. Couchman, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology
Patt Family ACRE Scholar
Megan Misurelli ’23 | “Cross-Cultural Circuitries of Grit: A Critical Examination of Resilience”
Majoring in Biochemistry
Faculty advisor: Teresa Gilliams, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English
Phuong My Chau ’22 | “Comparing Tooth Wear in North American Bats with Different Diets”
Majoring in Biology
Faculty advisor: Ian Cost, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology
Hearst Foundation Grant
Gillian Pierce ’24 | “The Technique of NOE Can Distinguish Between Hydrogen Atoms in Organic Compounds”
Majoring in Biochemistry
Faculty advisor: Ian J. Rhile, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Hearst Foundation Grant
Abigail Platero ’23 | “Deaccessioning for Diversity Within the Freedman Gallery”
Majoring in Arts Administration and Psychology
Faculty advisor: David Tanner, M.P.A., Director of the Center for the Arts
Mikhayla Reilly ’22 | “Investigation of Nitrene Transfer to a Ferrocenyl Copper Complex”
Majoring in Chemistry
Faculty advisor: Nicholas A. Piro, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Hearst Foundation Grant
Zuul Woodson ’22 | “The Effects of Illusory Pattern Perception on COVID-19 Vaccination Conspiracy Beliefs”
Majoring in Psychology
Faculty advisor: Keith Feigenson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology
Woomert ACRE Scholar
ELCDC update
The Experiential Learning and Career Development Center (ELCDC) held a successful Graduate School and Professional Day outdoor event in the fall, its first large scale event in quite a while. This semester the ELCDC will hold four Coffee, Careers and Connections (C^3) events for students to network with employers and alumni. These events are major-specific and will replace the general career fair held in past years. Seniors will have the opportunity to conclude their Albright career with a “Road to the Real World” event which will include networking and an etiquette dinner.
Study abroad is returning! We currently have a combined faculty-led course to Costa Rica (Mech, Osgood, and Woodward) and another, our largest yet at 24 students, to France (Oh-Ranck, Burdalski, Tran) traveling in May. We also have several students planning to study abroad in the fall semester.
The Global Scholars Program is a new initiative which will bring in a small cohort of freshmen who will live and learn together at Albright during their entire first year. The cohort will study abroad during the January interim as well. This initiative was made possible by an IDEAS grant from the U.S. Department of State.
The Higher Education Council of Berks County (HECBC) will hold its annual conference at Penn State Berks this April 23. The deadline for students to submit abstracts is April 1. Albright will provide transportation to students who need it.
Faculty activities
Jon Bekken spoke to a Temple University graduate class on research methods in communications history in February. He has entries in two encyclopedias being issued this year: “Cultura Obrera,” “Industrialisti,” and “Sam Dolgoff” in Paul Buhle, editor, Encyclopedia of the American Left 3rd Edition, Verso Publications. “Advocacy Journalism,” “Free Daily Newspapers,” “Media Monopoly” and “Trade Magazines” in Gregory Borchard, editor, Encyclopedia of Journalism 2nd Edition. Sage Publications. The following book reviews have been accepted for publication or published in the past year: “Newspaper Confessions: A History of Advice Columns in a Pre-Internet Age” Choice, forthcoming; “Free Speech and the Suppression of Dissent During World War I” American Journalism 38:3 (2021), pages 367-369; “In the Name of Liberty: The Argument for Universal Unionization” Choice 59:4 (2021), page 1192. And a conference presentation: “Do Four (or Five, or Six) Firms Control the American Media? Revisiting the Media Monopoly” Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication, August 2021, Virtual Conference.
Katherine Brown published “‘Los aposentos de la cabeza’: Architecture and Madness in the Quijote” in the Hispanic Issue of Modern Language Notes. Brown organized a panel titled “Architectural Spaces and the Construction of Authority in Early Modern European Literature” and presented a paper titled “Divine Architecture and Cosmological Chaos: Decentering the Human in Cervantes’ Persiles” at the 2022 Modern Language Association Convention in Washington, D.C. Brown will be presenting a paper titled “Holes in the Story: Architecture, Materiality, and Meaning-Making in the Captive’s Tale” at the 2022 Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting in Dublin, Ireland (March 30-April 2, 2022).
Soma Ghosh presented a paper “Has COVID-19 Changed our Consumption Patterns and Priorities?: An analysis of Sustainable Consumption through SDG 12” at the Northeast Business and Economics Association Annual Conference, Nov 2021 in Atlantic City, N.J.
Chris Hamann, Ian Rhile, and Nick Piro published a paper with Olivia Frey ’22 and Mallory (Maskornick) Savakinas ’13, in the Journal of Chemical Education titled “Expanding the Scope of an Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution Discovery Experiment Including Hydride and Methyl Shifts.” This work was supported by the ACRE program and the Hearst Foundation.
Adam Hersperger presented at two conferences during the summer of 2021. He presented a poster at the annual meeting of the American Society for Virology and delivered an oral abstract presentation at the International Poxvirus, Asfarvirus, and Iridovirus conference. Additionally, the work from a long-term project in his laboratory was published last fall in the journal Virology. The manuscript has four student co-authors and is titled “The epidermal growth factor ortholog of ectromelia virus activates EGFR/ErbB1 and demonstrates mitogenic function in vitro.”
Karen Jogan recently made virtual presentations for IV Bialystok– Kiev Conference on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics. “Use of Nominal noun pre- modifiers by Spanish L1 EFL Teachers.” Bialystok Poland. December 2021; Asociación Nacional Universitaria de Profesores de Inglés Annual Conference (ANUPI Mexico). Building Channels of Communication beyond ELT Classroom. “Mapping and Assessing Authentic Tasks for the ELT Classroom and Beyond.” Acapulco, November 2021; Regional Chilean EFL Teachers Conference, Universidad de Arturo Prat. Breaking Down Frontiers Beyond the Pandemic. “Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Successful Assessment.” Iquique Chile October 2021; Peru Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Association Annual Conference. Opening Plenary speaker: “Lesson Plan Bonanza: Finding that Needle in a Haystack” Trujillo Peru, July 2021. As a member of the Peru TESOL Association Board of Directors, Jogan is an affiliate representative to the TESOL International Conference, Pittsburgh 2022. She has been a key organizer for the Peru TESOL Association International virtual conferences in 2021 and 2022. Jogan was also elected to her second term as commissioner for the Middle States Commission of Higher Education. She is vice-chair for the committee on applicant and candidate institutions and a member of the committee on follow-up. In April, she will receive the Henry P. and M. Page Laughlin Educator alumni award from Ursinus College for outstanding contributions in the field of education.
Beth Kiester co-authored a paper with a student, Jennifer Vasquez ’22: “A Virus Without Papers: Understanding COVID-19 and the Impact on Immigrant Communities” in the Journal on Migration and Human Security (2021). She recorded a piece for the NPR podcast, Academic Minute, aired on May 11, 2021; co-authored a paper: “Do gender differences lead to unequal access to climate adaptation strategies in an agrarian context? Perceptions from coastal Bangladesh” Local Environment 26(5); and authored a textbook chapter: 2021. “Chapter 10: Health and Immigration” in Introduction to Health Inequalities: A Social Science Perspective eds. Miranda Reiter and Abigail Reiter: Kendall Hunt Publishing.
In 2021, Irene Langran published “Challenges to Global Health Governance from the International Trade in Organ Transplants” in Global Governance. She also gave a luncheon presentation to the World Affairs Council of Greater Reading, “The World Health Organization and Global Health Governance: Lessons from the Pandemic.” She published and is about to publish several book reviews in New Global Studies that address the current pandemic. For the sixth year, she delivered the Public Health Keynote Address to the Freedoms Foundation Service Learning in Public Policy Program.
Steve Mech published a paper with Abbi Brown ’20 based on her ACRE and senior thesis work. The citation for the paper is Brown, A. S., S. G. Mech, and J. M. Drasher. 2021. Effects of anthropogenic habitat disturbance on the home range size and habitat preference of the Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina). J. Pennsylvania Academy of Science 95: 28-42. In that same issue, Mech published a memoriam to Carl R. Pratt Jr. Mech has served as the interim co-editor for the Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science since March 2021.
David Osgood published “Vulnerability using High-Resolution Hyperspectral Imagery” in Remote Sensing 12:2938-2959 (2020) with colleagues from RIT: Goldsmith, S., C. Lapszynski, G. Badura, D. Osgood, C. Bachmann, A. Tyler.
David Osgood and Steve Mech are working with the Berks County Parks and Recreation Department and Berks Nature to establish deer and rodent exclosures at Antietam Park. This will be a long-term study to explore how recently-implemented deer population control measures will impact forest regeneration. This project should result in several collaborative student projects over the next several years.
Suzanne Palmer was acknowledged as a reviewer in Anne T. Lawrence ET AL., Business and Society: Stakeholders, Ethics, Public Policy (17th ed. 2022).
Gwendolyn Seidman co-authored a paper with undergraduate student Brooke Schlott ’21, titled “Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry and Reactions to Romantic Breakup,” published in February in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
Matt Sonntag had three papers published this year. Two manuscripts were published in the Journal of Chemical Education, one paper was co-authored with Wil Adams ’18 and another paper with Lorena Tribe of Penn State Berks. This past summer Sonntag joined the Primarily Undergraduate Nanomaterials Cooperative, a group of professors advocating for the materials science research being performed at small liberal arts colleges. The group published a perspective in ACS Nanoscience to champion the research and community building being done at institutions like Albright. Much of this work was funded by the ACRE program.
Matt Sonntag, Chris Hamann, and Nick Piro are presenting at the Spring 2022 American Chemical Society meeting, March 19-24, 2022. Students and alumni presenting or co-authoring include Wil Adams ’18, Kyle Gockley ’22, Daniel Petersheim ’21, Mikhayla Reilly ’22, Kyle Smith ’21, Tyler Stauffer ’21, Etsub Tolossa ’22, and Sidney Walker ’22. Much of this work was funded by the ACRE program, the Hearst Foundation, the National Science Foundation and the Petroleum Research Fund.