Update

Earth to Kenzie, a youth opera by librettist Jessica Murphy Moo, marketing & communications, and composer Frances Pollock, premiered in Chicago this fall, with public family performances in November. After Kenzie and her mom are displaced from their home, Kenzie relies on her imagination, the wild and funny antics of her video-game avatar, her mom, her teacher, and a new friend from the family shelter to get through a tough time. The show also involves Fortnite dance moves and space kitties. See these links for more.

Jessica Murphy Moo was also asked by Portland Monthly to write about her predecessor, the late Brian Doyle, on the occasion of a new collection of his essays (One Long River of Song: Notes on Wonder) being released by Little, Brown on Tuesday, December 2. See the article at this link.

Philip Vue, Clark Library, received a $12,720 Oregon Heritage Commission Grant from Oregon Parks and Recreation Department in November 2019.

Simon Aihiokhai, theology, presented “Achieving Success in College,” a talk given at the National FGEN Day at the University of Portland, organized by the Shepard Academic Resource Center, November 8, 2019.

Rachel Wheeler, theology, was elected as secretary/treasurer of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality in November 2019. She presented “The Revelatory Tide: Desert Spirituality and Contemporary Water Crises” and “Reading Luce Irigaray for an Elaboration of the Shared as Ascetic Practice” at the American Academy of Religion, San Diego, CA, November 2019.

The University of Portland received a grant from the Oregon Heritage Commission to support digitization of The Beacon. The commission has awarded $379,785 in grants to 32 organizations throughout the state to help fund a variety of projects including collection preservation and access, research, education, exhibits, and film projects. Award amounts ranged $2,020 – $20,000. This competitive grant program is for qualifying organizations, and is offered once per biennium for projects that conserve, develop or interpret Oregon’s heritage. Philip Vue and Xan Arch are credited with securing the grant.

Aziz Inan, Shiley School of Engineering, published his article titled, “A Once-a-Century Double Consecutive e Days to Celebrate Number e” in +Plus online mathematics magazine, published as part of the Millennium Mathematics Project (MMP), a collaboration between the faculties of mathematics and education at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, UK. The MMP is active across the UK and internationally, and aims to help people of all ages and abilities share in the excitement of mathematics and understand the enormous range and importance of its applications to science and daily life.

Geneviève Brassard, English, has published the article “’A Person of Large Appetites’: From Promiscuity to Matrimony in Janet Flanner’s The Cubical City” in Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 48 (8): December 2019. (accessible online at this link).

Christine Weilhoefer, biology and environmental studies, presented an invited seminar, “Factors influencing algal biomass and diversity in streams – a structural equation modeling approach” at a special session on Stream Hydrology at the Symposium of Integrative Biology: World Tour”, Kyoto, Japan.

Two faculty members from international languges and cultures participated in the Pacific and Ancient Modern Language Association (PAMLA) conference November 15-17 in San Diego. Maria Echenique presented “Yolanda Bedregal: On Women’s Writing” and served as presiding officer and chair of the panel “Spain, Portugal, and Latin America: Jewish Culture and Literature in Trans-Iberia.” Matthew Warshawsky presented “Inquisition Trials as Crucible for the Forging of Iberian Crypto-Jewish Identity in the Early Modern Era” and served as presiding officer and chair of the panel “Spanish and Portuguese (Peninsular).”

Ian Parkman, business, was quoted in the Portland Business Journal in an article entitled, “Nike’s next chapter: Incoming CEO inherits a financial powerhouse recovering from scandal.”

Jeffrey Gauthier, philosophy, presented “Prostitution and the Grounds for Sexual Consent,” 71st Annual Northwest Philosophy Conference, Pacific University, October 26, 2019.

Alexa Dare, communication studies, presented “Developing an Entangled Pedagogy: Decentering the Human in the Environmental Humanities” (with Sarah Weiger) at the National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA, November 2019.

Rachel Wheeler, theology, reviewed In the Eye of the Animal: Zoological Imagination in Ancient Christianity by Patricia Cox Miller (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) in Spiritus 19, no. 2, November 2019.

Sarina Saturn, psychological sciences, gave a presentation on “Representing criminal defendants and considering trauma responses” with attorney Kasia Rutledge, at the Women in Prison Conference by the Oregon Justice Resource Center in Portland, OR, November 16-17, 2019.

Ami Ahern-Rindell, Biology, participated in onsite campus visits during  October 29 – November 1 to review several PUIs (Predominantly Undergraduate Institutions) in Oklahoma who together are recipients of an NIH-INBRE Consortium Award. This multi-million dollar grant provides funding for 5 years to improve biomedical research across the state of Oklahoma collaboratively between research intensive universities, PUIs, and Community Colleges.

Rachel Wheeler, theology, served as facilitator for Day of Reflection, Ascension Catholic Church, Portland, OR, National Pastoral Musicians Portland Chapter, November 2019.

Simon Aihiokhai, theology, serves as a reviewer for Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, November2019-Present.

Nicole Ralston, education, had her piece, titled “Investigating the impacts of a collaborative language teacher professional development”(with Jacqueline Waggoner, Rebecca Smith) published in Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (TESL-EJ), 24 (2), 1-14, August 2019.

Hannah Highlander, mathematics, presented “My career in biomathematics and mathematical modeling, driven and sustained by my undergraduate research collaborators,” at a special session on Research and Successful Collaborations of Mothers in Mathematical Biology, Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in the Sciences (SACNAS) , Honolulu, Hawaii.

Laura Dyer, biology, and her research students Pia Fornell and Cole Malibiran, attended the Murdock College Science Research Conference (November 8-9) where Malibiran gave an oral presentation titled “Coronary artery maturation in response to shear stress.” Fornell received the best poster award for developmental biology/physiology for her poster, “Identifying how sonic hedgehog signaling affects cardiac neural crest migration following fetal alcohol exposure.”

Patricia McDonald and Frances Pimentel, marketing and communications, received awards at the annual UCDA (University and College Designers Association) Design Awards for “Excellence in the Integrated Campaign” category: University of Portland Wonder Admissions Campaign, and honorable mention in the “Campaign Strategy” category for University of Portland Pilots Give Campaign.

Aziz Inan, Shiley School of Engineering, had his brain teaser, Letter: Analyzing Bill Gates’ Birthday, published in the Columbian on November 6, 2019.

Valerie Peterson, mathematics, gave an invited presentation in the Center for Computing in Science Education at the University of Oslo in Oslo, Norway on October 14 entitled, “Institutional Change in STEM: The Role of Peer Observation in the Adoption of Evidence-Based Instructional Practices,” based on joint work with the REFLECT Project team: Eric Anctil (education), Heather Dillon (engineering), Carolyn James (mathematics), Tara Prestholdt (biology), and Stephanie Salomone (mathematics).

Rebecca Smith, education, wrote “The impact of attending an equity-based conference on one teacher educator: Five pedagogical changes of practice” in Northwest Journal of Teacher Education,  November 2019.

Andrew Guest, psychological sciences, was awarded a regional travel grant through his Fulbright core scholar award in Tanzania to visit three educational institutions in the Republic of Malawi during October 2019: Emmanuel Teacher Training College, Lilongwe Teacher Training College, and the Malawi Institute of Education. Each visit included a presentation on “Culture and Best Practice in Activity Based Youth Development: Exemplar Programs in Sports, Arts, and Service?”

Hannah Highlander, mathematics, presented “My career in biomathematics and mathematical modeling, driven and sustained by my undergraduate research collaborators” at the Special Session on Research and Successful Collaborations of Mothers in Mathematical Biology, Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in the Sciences (SACNAS) , Honolulu, HI,  November 2019.

Tshombé Brown, program manager for community partnerships in the Moreau Center, gave the keynote address at the 2019 Association of Higher Education Parent/Family Program Professionals Family Engagement in Higher Education Conference on Tuesday, November 5, in Portland, OR. Tshombé spoke to an audience of 200 attendees on the topic, “The Power of Story,” in alignment with the conference theme, “Sharing Our Stories.”

Jeffrey White, international languages and cultures, presented “A Collaboration Mardi Gras: Working with Your Campus for Success” as a panelist for a roundtable discussion at the national conference of the College Reading and Learning Association, New Orleans, LA, November 2019.

Terry Favero and Jacqueline Van Hoomissen, both of biology, published “Leveraging Undergraduate Research To Identify Culturally Relevant Examples in the Anatomy and Physiology Curriculum” in Advances in Physiology Education (https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00023.2019). Their work was supported by a grant from the Provost’s Initiative on Diversity and Inclusion.

On Thursday, October 24, Bohn D. Lattin, communication studies, conducted two public speaking workshops for “Young Leaders from Africa with World Oregon.” Each year, World Oregon, in conjunction with the United States Department of State, hosts several youth leadership exchange programs which bring young leaders from around the world to the U.S. for a three-week leadership development courses. The public speaking workshops were a part of the “Young Leaders from  South America” leadership development courses. Students from Bolivia and Peru attended.

Dave Houglum, Franz Center, presented “Developing Courageous Moral Leaders Through Innovative Pedagogical Practices” at the 21^st Annual Global Leadership Conference of the International Leadership Association, October 26, 2019, in Ottawa, Canada.

Matthew Warshawsky, international languages and cultures, had his review of Esther in Early Modern Iberia and the Sephardic Diaspora: Queen of the Conversas, by Emily Colbert Cairns (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), published in Calíope: Journal of the Society for Baroque and Renaissance Poetry (24.2, 2019): 194-196.

Laura McLary, international languages and cultures, had her paper, “The Freedom to Travel, the Limitations of Borders: Teaching Global Perspectives of the Long-Nineteenth Century,” (with student coauthor Emma Scheve) published in Die Unterrichtspraxis ,vol. 52, no. 2, 2019, pp. 161-166, a special edition on “The Global Turn in German Studies,” November 2019. She reviewed The Long Shadow of the Past: Contemporary Austrian Literature, Film, and Culture by Katya Krylova in Studies in Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Literature,vol. 43, no. 2, 2019. See a citation here. McLary also presented “A Genre-Based Approach to Increasing Literacy Among Intermediate-Mid to Intermediate-High Students of German,” German Studies Association, Portland, OR, October 2019.

Tara Prestholt, biology, won the 2019 Excellence in Teaching Award at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Association of College and University Biology Educators (ACUBE). The award is offered annually to honor faculty who both practice and promote effective, innovative teaching in the biology classroom.

Rebecca Smith, education, presented “Using forgiveness poems to promote inclusion: A hands-on writing workshop” (with student co-presenters Cameron Beasley, Julian Benavente, Claire Breiholz, Patrick Cornell, Timothy Sebring, and Brooke Zimmerle) at the Oregon Council of Teachers of English (OCTE) annual conference, Portland, OR, October 2019.

Amber Vermeesch, nursing, co-presenters Mark Stoutenberg and Ashley Falcon, and student co-presenters Yerin Woo, Emma Sampson, and Meg Bender-Stephanski were accepted for a poster presentation at American Public Health Association Annual Meeting and Expo – “Creating the Healthiest Nation: For science. For action. For health.” Philadelphia, PA, November 2019.

John Orr, English, served as judge and commentator, FLTRP-ETIC Cup English Public Speaking Contest for Jilin Province, China, October 2019. He presented “The American West and the Myth of the Cowboy,” Jilin University, Changchun, China, October 15, 2019 and “Willa Cather, the Critical Case Against Her, and the Institutionalization of Literary Modernism,” Jilin University, Changchun, China, October 21, 2019.

Simon Aihiokhai, theology, wrote “Priestly Formation and Sexual Abuse in The Roman Catholic Church: In Dialogue with The Nigerian Church” in The Journal of The Black Catholic Theological Symposium, vol. XII (2019) pp. 105-126. He also wrote a book review of Jezebel Unhinged. Loosing The Black Female Body in Religion and Culture by Tamura Lomax, Durham/London: Duke University Press, 2018 in The Journal of The Black Catholic Theological Symposium, vol. XII (2019) : pp. 173-174.

Cara Hersh, English,  had an article published entitled “Spitting Images:  Embodying Theories of Disgust in The Prioress’s Tale” in Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching 26.2 (Fall 2019), pp. 9-16.

Martin Cenek, Shiley School of Engineering, presented “Open-Source IoT Framework for Mobile Household Water Reuse System” (with Aaron Dotson and student co-presenter Gregory Michaelson) at the IEEE Global Humanitarian technology Conference (GHTC2019), October 17-20, 2019. Seattle, WA.

Giannina Reyes-Giardiello, international languages and cultures, presented “Lo inservible de delimitar: enfermedad y periferia en Distancia de rescate de Samanta Schweblin” (“It is useless to contain: disease and periphery in Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin”) at Argentina Transatlántica, Universidad del Salvador/Brown University. Buenos Aires, Argentina, October 16, 2019.

Aziz Inan, Shiley School of Engineering, had his article, “Bob Newhart’s birthday, by the numbers” published in OakPark.com.

Geneviève Brassard, English, along with colleagues Jay Dickson from Reed College and Paula Derdiger from U of Minnesota-Duluth, organized and led a peer-selected seminar titled “Public/Private Aftermaths” at this year’s Modernist Studies Association conference, held in Toronto, Canada, October 17-20.

Christine Weilhoefer, biology and environmental studies, presented a seminar entitled “The response of benthic microalgae to excess nutrients in aquatic environments” at the Center for Ecological Research at Kyoto University. She is currently a visiting researcher at the Center for Ecological Research at Kyoto University.

Eric Anctil, education, presented “Intentionally Human: The Race to Save Humanity in a TechnoHuman World” as the closing keynote at the National Association of State Judicial Educators 2019 Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado, on October 21, 2019. Anctil acknowledges the hyperbolically dramatic title, but offers no apology.

Martin Cenek, Shiley School of Engineering, presented “Machine Learning and Data Science ABMs: How to build cognitive, spatially aware, adaptive agents from limited data” (with Maxwell Franklin and student co-presenters Cory Shaeffer and Henri Thomas-Morgan) at the International Society for Ecological Modeling Global Conference 2019 (ISEM2019), October 1, 2019, in Salzburg Austria. He also presented “The data-science driven model construction of coupled socio-ecological system dynamics: development of the decision support tools to study the salmon and caribou subsistence harvest in Alaska” (with Maxwell Franklin and student co-presenters Cory Sheaffer and Henri Thomas) at the 10th Annual Northwest Climate Conference, October 8-10, 2019, Portland, OR.

Randy Hetherington, education, published “Partnering with school leaders: Principal assessments of completers” in the Journal of Education & Social Policy 6 (3), 1-7, October 2019. Coauthors are James Carroll, Jacqueline Waggoner, Hillary Gaudio, and Bruce Weitzel.

Jacqueline D. Van Hoomissen, biology, attended the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society’s mid-year Board of Directors meeting in Atlanta, GA, October 11-12, 2019. She is the secretary of the board of directors and past chair of the 2019 Annual Conference Planning Committee.

Aziz Inan, Shiley School of Engineering, had is article, “Carter facts add up,” published in The Columbian on October 5, 2019.

Dean of admissions Jason McDonald was quoted in an article titled “Cooperation across school lines” in the October 7 edition of the Catholic Sentinel.

Michael Prendergast, adjunct instructor in theology and music, gave five presentations at the Catholic Educators Conference in Boise, Idaho October 4-5, 2019.  He delivered talks on the Eucharist, Liturgical Year, Mariology, and preparing liturgies for the sacraments of First Reconciliation, Fist Communion, and Confirmation.

Patricia Morrell, Sally Hood, and Erik Mellgren, education, had their paper, “A First-Year Middle School Science Teacher’s Experiences Navigating Science Content in a Dual Language Immersion Program,” printed in the latest edition of the online journal Heliyon (Volume 5, Issue 10).

Dawn Lee Garzon Maaks, nursing, will be inducted into the American Academy of Nursing on October 28 in Washington, DC.

Hannah Highlander, mathematics, presented “Using Agent-Based Modeling to Investigate the Existence of Herd Immunity Thresholds for Infectious Diseases on Randomly Generated Contact Networks” (with student co-presenter Owen Price) and “It Takes a Village: Delivering Education and Enabling Research in Mathematical Biology via an Organized Community Approach” (with co-presenter Olcay Atman) at the International Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research, La Crosse, Wisconsin, Oct. 2019. She served as Chair and Organizer for invited session “Open and Accessible Problems for Undergraduates in Mathematics,” for the International Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research, June-October 2019.

Jenda Johnson, Earth Sciences Animated, and Bob Butler, professor emeritus of environmental studies, published “Central America – Earthquakes and Tectonics.”  This animation explores the plate tectonics and history of major earthquakes and tsunamis in Central America, a region of very high earthquake and volcanic activity. Animation can be found on the IRIS website or on YouTube.

Norah Martin, philosophy and environmental studies, was recently elected as Chair of the Collegium Board of Directors for a one-year term beginning July 1, 2020.

Lars Larson, English, delivered a paper on the “domestic uncanny” in horror films by Stanley Kubrick and Ari Aster titled “The Uncanny Space of Home, from The Shining to Hereditary” at the Western Literature Association Conference, Sept. 20, in Estes Park, Colorado.

Nick McRee, sociology & social work, published “The Effects of Polarizing Messaging on Nationalism, Patriotism, and Views of Immigration” (with Mark Setzler and John Graeber) in Sociation , 18(2), 1-19, September 2019.

Sarina Saturn, psychological sciences, and Deirdre Katz, education, are mentoring UP students’ research projects and poster presentations at the national and annual Society for Psychophysiological Research conference in Washington DC from September 25-29, 2019:

• Allie Keil ’20, psychological sciences and sociology, is presenting her project on, “The Relationship between the Mother-Daughter Bond and a New Mother’s Physiological Response to Her Baby.”
• Sabrina Legaspi ’20, psychological sciences and sociology, and Rachel Mehlman ’20, psychological sciences, are co-first authors on their presentation entitled, “Cardiac Vagal Activity and Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) in Relation to Resilience and Notions of Love and Affection in Mother-Daughter Dyads.” Co-authors and contributors include students Brie Pfeifer, biology; Val Truong, biology; Sabrina Arquieta psychological sciences, and Khushi Gupta, Saturday Academy.

Simon Aihiokhai, theology, received an Interfaith Starter Grant from Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) to support his former student, Matthew Nelson, to take young adults in his parish in Vancouver, Wash., to visit Buddhist temples and mosques in the city ($500.00).