Letter from the Dean

Dear Friends of the College,

With the spring 2008 semester now in full swing, the College has planned many special events and activities designed to enhance our students' learning experiences both in and out of the classroom.

For example, the 2008 Villanova Literary Festival, sponsored by the Department of English, features many of our nation's finest authors and poets. Learn more about the 10th annual Literary Festival here. This series of events is one of the highlights of the spring semester. In addition, the Cultural Film Series, which is celebrating the launch of the new Institute for Global Interdisciplinary Studies in the College, now offers free admission to all students with valid University identification for the first time since the series began 30 years ago.

Also, the Department of Chemistry is proud to welcome Catherine T. Hunt, Ph.D., president of the American Chemical Society and leader of Technology Partnerships at Rohm and Haas, Co., to campus on Feb. 5. You'll learn more about this upcoming event in this issue of Inside A&S.

Films, lectures, discussions, and other intellectual enrichment activities complement what goes on in the classroom environment. Our hope is that our students, faculty, and staff take advantage of the wonderful academic and cultural events available on campus and beyond.

Be sure to check out the College's Web site for more useful information about the College, including more upcoming event announcements.

Thank you for continuing to read Inside A&S. We appreciate your continued interest in the life of the College, and, as always, we welcome your feedback.

Sincerely,


Rev. Kail C. Ellis, O.S.A., Ph.D.
Dean of the College
 

In College News …

211th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society Held Austin, Texas

Astronomy Faculty and Students Attend AAS Meeting, Present Research Findings

Villanova faculty and students presented eight poster papers at the 211th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) held in Austin, Texas, in early January 2008. Learn more about this successful meeting here.
 

Cultural Film Series Celebrates Launch of Institute for Global Interdisciplinary Studies

Free Admission for Students With Valid I.D.; Connelly Center Cinema Completely Renovated

The Cultural Film Series is pleased to celebrate the launch of the new Institute for Global Interdisciplinary Studies this semester. Films featured this spring include: Infernal Affairs, The World of Apu, House of Fools, Metropolis, Children of Heaven, Warrior Queen, Ringu, The World According to Shorts, La Promesse, and Paris, Je T’aime.

In addition, the Connelly Cinema has been completely renovated, with new projection and sound systems installed, to enhance the film-going (and viewing) experience.

Further, the series will now be free for students with valid University I.D. for the first time since the series began almost 30 years ago.

John O'Leary, Ph.D., director of the Cultural Film Series and an assistant professor of communication, said, "This will be a very exciting semester for the film series. I hope faculty members will encourage their students to take advantage of the series. I am especially excited about our slate of speakers this semester. One has just published a book on the horror film, and another is a Hollywood producer and writer."

For more information on the series, including upcoming films along with their dates, times, and locations, please visit the Cultural Film Series online.
 

Chinese New Year Film Festival Takes Place February 7 to 9 in Connelly Cinema

You are invited to attend the Chinese New Year Film Festival on February 7, 8, and 9 in the Connelly Center Cinema. Click here for more information.

New Display Case Installed in SAC During Semester Break

A new display case has been installed in the St. Augustine Center for the Liberal Arts. The attractive wooden case is located on the first floor of SAC. Faculty publications currently are on display. If you have any ideas regarding what should be displayed in the case in the future, please contact Kate Szumanski.

Office of Service Learning Launches New Web Site

The Web site of the Office of Service Learning contains valuable information related to service learning opportunities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The mission of the Office of Service Learning in the College is to engage students and faculty members in a process which integrates academics with service in order to enhance learning and to enable our students participate in critical and constructive thinking and action that promotes the common good. Learn more here.

One Book Villanova Presents "An Evening with Immaculée Ilibagiza"

This year’s One Book Villanova celebrations culminated with “An Evening with Immaculée Ilibagiza” on Tuesday, Jan. 29. Ilibagiza is the author of this year’s One Book Villanova selection, the critically acclaimed, Left to Tell. The entire day was dedicated to her story and filled with Rwandan culture. Read more here.

Political Science Professor Examines Arab Women and the Law

Catherine Warrick, Ph.D., an assistant professor of political science, delivered a lecture entitled, “Arab Women and the Law,” on Tuesday, Jan. 22. Read the full story here.

Freedom School Explores What Dr. Marin Luther King, Jr., Meant by Freedom

Villanova University hosted a series of lectures and discussions on Thursday, Jan., 24, in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, which was celebrated nationally on Monday, Jan. 21. Read the full story here.
 

Media Criticism Focus of Philadelphia Theater Research Symposium

The hope of those that attended the Philadelphia Theater Research Symposium on Friday, Jan. 25, at the University is a simple one: that local theater will take notice of and be affected by the discussions. This year’s round table focused on media criticism and what critics think their job is. Read the full story here.

East Asian Studies Program Publishes Online Newsletter

Keep informed of all events and activities happening in the East Asian Studies Program. Read the program's latest newsletter here.
 

Department of Chemistry Welcomes the President of the American Chemical Society

Catherine T. Hunt, Ph.D., president of the American Chemical Society and leader of Technology Partnerships at Rohm and Haas, Co., will speak on campus on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008, at 4:30 p.m. in the Jenkins Lecture Hall in the Mendel Science Center on the concept of "Sustainability: From Innovative Chemistries to Science Policy." A reception will follow in Mendel 103. All are invited to attend. Learn more here.

Department of English in the College to Host 10th Annual Literary Festival

Learn more about the 10th annual Literary Festival here.

Women's Studies Program Hosts Series of Special Events

Learn more about the upcoming Women's Studies Program events here.

Explore iTunes University on the Web

Download faculty lectures and subscribe to podcasts all at iTunes University. Connect to what is happening at Villanova anytime, anywhere.
 

Visit Mideastwire.com Today!

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is pleased to offer to its students, faculty, and staff access to Mideastwire.com, an Internet-based news service that employs a team of translators from around the region to gather important stories from and about the Middle East. Learn more here.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Partners with the Financial Times

Providing Students With Global Perspectives on World Events

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has partnered with the Financial Times, internationally recognized for its authoritative news, comment, and analysis, to provide students and faculty with full access to the FT’s electronic edition and to FT.com’s Level Two subscription service. This partnership will enable the University to further educate its students on socio-economic and geo-political issues that affect everyone regardless of a student’s major.

How To Access the Financial Times Online

There are many ways to access the FT online:

• For resources for faculty, please click here.

• For resources for students, please click here.

• To access the digital version of today's newspaper, please click here.

• To access the Financial Times online, please click here.
   

IT Corner

• Faculty Web site Templates. The Liberal Arts and Sciences IT staff has provided Web site templates as a way to help those faculty members who would like to modify their personal Web site presence but don't know where to start (in terms of design). Please visit the A&S faculty template Web site to learn more about them.
   
• E-mail Backup. Learn how to backup your Outlook Personal Folders here.
   

Save the Dates!

Please mark your calendars for these important events:

Early Action Candidates' Day             Saturday, February 16, 2008 (Please note date change.)
Spring Break                                    March 3 to 7; classes resume March 10.
Easter Recess                                   March 19 to 24; classes resume March 25.
Candidates' Day                                Saturday, April 12, 2008
Final Day of Classes                          Thursday, May 1, 2008
Baccalaureate and Commencement    May 17-18

Please click here for the complete academic calendar.

Event Round-up

Be sure to visit the College's home page for a more complete rundown of upcoming events!
 

University Events Module Makes It Easy to Promote Special Events, Lectures, and Other Happenings
Posting an event on the University's Web site and College's Web site has never been easier. Simply enter all relevant information here.

Make Plans Now to Visit the Mendel Exhibit ... Coming to Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences
Villanova University and the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia proudly announce their partnership to present the traveling exhibition, “Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics,” which will visit the Academy at 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway from May 24 to September 28, 2008.

The exhibition will be available to only five tour venues in the United States through 2008: Philadelphia (Villanova and the Academy of Natural Sciences); Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Columbus, Ohio, and Memphis, Tennessee.

During the exhibition’s Philadelphia tour, all Villanova students, staff, and faculty who present valid identification will receive free general admission to the Academy of Natural Sciences. It is our hope that you will find this special exhibition informative and enjoyable.

To learn more about the exhibit, please visit http://www.fieldmuseum.org/mendel/. You also can visit the Academy of Natural Sciences to learn more. For more information, please contact Kate Szumanski.
 

Faculty Scholarship

• Margaret M. Grubiak, Ph.D., an assistant professor of architectural history in the Department of Humanities, has published an article entitled, "Educating the Moral Scientist: The I.I.T. and M.I.T. Chapels," in ARRIS: The Journal of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians 18 (2007): 1-14. She also organized and chaired the session, "Sacred Space in Controversy," for the 2008 Winter Meeting of the American Society of Church History in Washington, D.C.
   
• Charles H. Helmetag, Ph.D., a professor of modern languages and literatures, has published “Arthur Schnitzler im amerikanischen und französischen Film: Von ‘The Affairs of Anatol’ (1921) bis ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ (1999)” in Germanistik im Konflikt der Kulturen: Akten des XI. Internationalen Germanisten-Kongresses (Bern: Peter Lang, 2007), pp. 323-328; “Galilei für heute” in Das Blättchen: Zweiwochenschrift für Politik, Kunst und Wissenschaft, 10.14 (10 July 2007): 18-21; and “Paul Heyse (Nobel Prize for Literature 1910)” in Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature. Part 2, Faulkner-Kipling. Dictionary of Literary Biography, v. 330 (Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2007), pp. 351-367.
   
• Timothy W. Kirk, Ph.D., the Catherine of Siena Fellow in Ethics and Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy, was elected to a three-year term on the executive board of the International Philosophy of Nursing Society. The society is a group of scholars world-wide that conducts research in the philosophical foundations and implications of nursing practice.
   

• Robert Langran, Ph.D., a professor of political science, chaired and was the discussant at a panel on "The Constitution and Constitutional Interpretation" at the annual meeting of the Northeastern Political Science Association in Philadelphia in November 2007.

• Alain J. Phares, Ph.D., a professor of physics, and his collaborators, Francis J. Wunderlich, Ph.D., a professor of physics, and David W. Grumbine, Jr., Ph.D., at St. Vincent College, have published an article in Langmuir, Volume 24, pages 124-134 (Jan. 2, 2008). Dr. Grumbine is a '92 Villanova graduate. The title of the article is "Monomer Adsorption on Equilateral Triangular Lattices with Attractive First-neighbor Interactions." Langmuir is an interdisciplinary journal of the American Chemical Society, reporting on surfactants and self-assembly, dispersions, emulsions, foams; adsorption, reactions, films, forces; biocolloids, biomolecular and biomimetic materials; nano- and mesostructured materials, polymers, gels, liquid crystals; interfacial charge transfer, charge transport, electrocatalysis, electrokinetic phenomena, bioelectrochemistry; and sensors, fluidics, patterning, catalysis, photonic crystals.

• Alain J. Phares, Ph.D., a professor of physics, submitted to the National Science Foundation, Medium Resource Allocation Committee, a grant proposal on "Surface Adsorption on Terraces and Nanotubes," requesting 56,200 service units to be spent on the Cray XT3 of the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to pursue his research on Surface Chemistry. Dr. Phares submitted the proposal on Oct. 10, 2007. This was a renewal of his supercomputing grant first awarded and without interruption since 1991. The renewal for the calendar year 2008 has been granted as requested. Learn more here.

Faculty in the News

• David M. Barrett, Ph.D., a professor of political science who has written extensively about Congressional oversight of the CIA, was featured on WHYY's Radio Times on Wednesday, Dec. 12. Listen to the show here.
   
• Lara M. Brown, Ph.D., an assistant professor of political science, was featured in a recent article in the The New York Times entitled, "As I Was Saying Before I Left Office." Read the full article here.
   
• Bill Cowen, faculty in the communication department and director of the public relations and VCAN programs, was recently named winner of the Public Relations Society of America’s prestigious Frank X. Long Award, which honors “exceptional creativity, writing skills, and passion for public relations." Cowen is a previous winner of PRSA’s Fulginiti Award for excellence in PR education.
   
• Karyn Hollis, Ph.D., an associate professor of English and director of the concentration in writing and rhetoric, testified in Congress on the use of "Robocalls in Federal Campaigns" on December 6, 2007. Dr. Hollis was called to testify by the House of Representatives' Committee on House Administration regarding her complaint to the FCC about misleading and false information in robo calls she received at her home regarding Lois Murphy, a candidate for congress in the fall of 2006.
   
• Edward Jaworowski, Ph.D., a professor of classical studies, was featured in a recent news article in the Daily Gazette on the subject of fly-fishing and fly-casting. Read more here.
   
• John Immerwahr, Ph.D., a professor of philosophy and a senior research fellow at Public Agenda, has co-written an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled, "What Colleges Must Do to Keep the Public's Good Will." Learn more here. A subscription is required to access premium content online at The Chronicle of Higher Education.
   
• Satya Pattnayak, Ph.D., a professor of sociology and political science and director of the Center for Latin American Studies, was quoted in an article entitled, "Jindal has few ties to ancestral homeland," which appeared in The Times-Picayune. Read the full story here.
   
• Colleen Sheehan, Ph.D., an associate professor of political science, was quoted in an article entitled, "DeWeese vows to push agenda," which appeared in The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Read more here.
   
• Catherine Warrick, Ph.D., an assistant professor of political science, was featured in a recent Courier Post article entitled, "Jury hears of alleged spousal abuse, sexual assault." Dr. Warrick served as an expert witness for the prosecution on gender law in the Middle East. Read the full story here.
   
• French-language interviews between students in Seth Whidden's course on French popular music and professionals in the French music industry have received the attention of the French webzine "The French Touch." Seth Whidden, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures.
   

Students in the News

• Six recent astronomy and astrophysics graduates -- Ryan Hamilton, Joel Urban, Elysse Voyer, Sara Lakatos, Adric Reidel, and John Marcy -- have published a scientific paper under the supervision of Edward M. Sion, Ph.D., a professor of astronomy and astrophysics, entitled, "An International Ultraviolet Explorer Archival Study of Dwarf Novae in Outburst," which appeared in the November 1, 2007, issue of The Astrophysical Journal, the world's leading peer-reviewed journal in astrophysics. Each student was assigned space ultraviolet spectra of three dwarf nova binary systems to analyze with computer models as part of their undergraduate research course, "Undergraduate Research II." All of the students are continuing with graduate studies at institutions across the country.
   
• Angela Allen, '08, presented a paper entitled, “A Game for Knights: Chivalry and Misogyny in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep,” at the Undergraduate Conference in Medieval and Early-Modern Studies hosted by Moravian College on December 1, 2007. Learn more here. 
   

• Carrie Chapter, '08, GS, Theatre, has won first place in the Critics Institute at the American College Theatre Regional Festival. She will now attend NCI workshops at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and compete with other regional winners to attend the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center during the national playwriting conference this summer.

• Carolyn McCreary, '08, GS, MPA, has been named the new Plumstead Township Manager. According to the article in The Intelligencer: "It was a professor at Villanova who first suggested she apply for the manager's position in Plumstead." Learn more here.

Alumni in the News

• Peter T. DuBois, '92, who earned a dual bachelor's degree in Honors and English, was featured in a recent article in the Boston Globe entitled, "Peter DuBois has always been moved by theater." Read the full story here.
   
• Navy Cmdr. Richard Haidvogel, a 1987 graduate of Villanova who earned a bachelor of science degree in computer science, has passed along command of the ship USS Reuben James and taken a new post in San Diego as maritime operations officer for Carrier Strike Force Training Pacific. Learn more here.
   
• Angela B. Nader, '91, who earned a master's degree in human resource development, has been names a Vistage Chair in Philadelphia. Learn more here.
   
• Anne Marie Pisano, '95, who received a bachelor's degree in Honors, was named a principal in the law firm of Goldberg Kohn in Chicago. Learn more here.  
   
• Michael K. Reilly, '95, who earned a bachelor's degree in political science, has been elected partner at Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP in Wilmington, Delaware. Learn more here.
   
• Steven Runk, '85, who received a bachelor's degree in art history, was named the new executive director of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Learn more here.
   
• Tim Ryan, '67, who earned a bachelor's degree in political science, has been appointed CEO of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA). Learn more here.
   
• Jessica L. Stagon, '98, who graduated with a degree in elementary education, has become the coordinator of the Project Extra Mile coalition in central Nebraska. Learn more here.
   
• Paul C. Vitrano, '92, who earned a bachelor's degree in political science, was named executive vice president of the Specialty Vehicle Institute of America. He also has been named general counsel for the SVIA, the Motorcycle Industry Council, and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation.
   

Send Your News Items and Event Notices for Publication

Is your upcoming event not listed in this e-newsletter? Do you wish it was? Do you need help broadening your outreach efforts, publicizing events, and getting the word out about the accomplishments of your faculty? Learn more here! Please submit your announcements or events via our online submission form or directly to Kate Szumanski. Kate will include it in the next issue of the College’s e-newsletter.