2009

Mr. Thomas Luscomb, Assistant Professor, and Dr. Tetyana Kyrylova, Lecturer, Department of Applied Technology, presented Effectively Using the Internet at the 2009 spring conference of the Oklahoma Association of Community Colleges in Midwest City, Oklahoma.

Dr. Gregory J. Thompson, Professor and Department Head, Department of English and Humanities, published a book chapter, Art and Religion: The Power to Persuade in the book Popular Culture Values and the Arts: Essays on Elitism versus Democratization, edited by Ray B. Browne and Lawrence A. Kreiser, Jr. He also wrote a book review of Peter Williams most recent edition of Americas Religions for the Journal of American Culture. He presented a paper, titled Therapeutic Culture and the Study of Religion in the United States, at the Oklahoma, Speech, Theatre, and Communication Association annual conference. In December 2008 Dr. Thompson was awarded a Masters of Arts from the School of Theatre at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Thompson directed the play, Reverse Evolution, for the fall 2008 10 minute play festival at RSU. In the fall and spring semesters he was an actor in the workshop and staged readings of Quietly Standing in the Shade, a new play by Judilee Oliva. In April he edited and directed the production of Shakespeare's R3: Richard III.

Denny Schmickle, Assistant Professor, Department of Fine Arts, has had a two page spread of his rock poster work published in Gig Posters magazine. This volume is titled, Rock Show Posters of the 21st Century, which contains 208 pages of the best examples of the genre. To see examples of the magazine and a sample of the interior, go to http://irreference.com/gig-posters-volume-1/.  

Dr. Emily Dial-Driver, Professor, Department of English and Humanities, is Co-editor with Sally Emmons, Jim Ford, and Carolyn Taylor: The Truth of Buffy: Essays on Fiction Illuminating Reality. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. “Preface.” The Truth of Buffy: Essays on Fiction Illuminating Reality. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008.1-3. “Texting Buffy: Allusions of Many Kinds.” (with Jesse Stallings.) The Truth of Buffy: Essays on Fiction Illuminating Reality. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. 142-57. “What’s It All About? Victor Frankl and Buffy.” The Truth of Buffy: Essays on Fiction Illuminating Reality. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. 9-23.  She gave presentations of “Telling a Story Is Hard, but Getting It Ready to Publish Is Harder: Putting Theory into Practice and Readying Material for Publication,” 6th International Conference on the Book, Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., 27 Oct. 2008. Chair, Panel “’Everything Old Is New Again’: The Humanities Extant in Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses, Henderson State College, Arkadelphia, Arkansas. 7 June 2008. “Texting Buffy: Allusions of All Kinds.” Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses, Henderson State College, Arkadelphia, Arkansas. 7 June 2008. Invited to present. "Living in the Viscera: Gutsy Women Tell All." 17th Annual Cultural Studies Conference: Extremism and the Excluded Middle. Kansas State University. Manhattan, Kansas. 7 March 2008. (with Sally Emmons-Featherston). “Selections: Heartland.” Tuesday Study Club. Claremore, OK. 8 Jan. 2008.

Dr. Gregory J. Thompson, Professor and Department Head, Department of English and Humanities was appointed to a three year term as Department Head. He proposed, and OSRHE  approved, an American Studies Minor and four new American Studies courses. Dr. Thompson wrote a book review of  Caroline Picart’s book From Ballroom to DanceSport: Aesthetics, Athletics, and Body Culture. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006. Published in The Journal of Popular Culture.  He also published a book chapter, written with Dr. Sally Emmons-Featherston, “’What Shall Cordelia Say?’ Buffy as Morality Play for the Twenty-First Century Therapeutic Ethos” in the book The Truth of Buffy:  Essays in Fiction Illuminating Reality.  He wrote, directed, and produced  An Evangelist Drowns -- performed at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center in January.  In the spring semester of 2008 he was an actor in the premier of Lime Green Jackals at RSU. In April he edited the text directed a production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest which included a live radio broadcast of the play on KRSC 91.3 (April 23, 2008). In the fall semester 2008 he directed the Oklahoma premier of Reverse Evolution for the “10 minute play festival” and he participated as an actor in the playwriting workshop of the new play, Quietly Standing in the Shade. In March he served as Area Chair for two panels on Shakespeare and Popular Culture.  Presented on one of the panels:  “’Exit Pursured by a Beare:’ Notorious Stage Direction or Genre Clue” at the National Meeting of the Popular Culture Association in San Francisco.  This past December Dr. Thompson was awarded a Master’s of Arts from the School of Theatre at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

Dr. Gary Marché, Associate Professor, Department of Business had a paper accepted for publication and forthcomming in the journal Crime, Law, and Social change titled: "Integrity, Culture, and Scale: An Empirical Test of the Big Bad Police Agency."

Cathy Coomer, Instructor, Department of Communications, is serving her 4th year as the RSU faculty representative with the state-wide educational organization OBEA (Oklahoma Broadcast Education Association). This year, she is also co-chairing the OAB (OK Association of Broadcasters) & OBEA Student Awards that will be awarded to students for excellence in TV, Radio and Scriptwriting among 15 OK universities, colleges and community colleges. Awards will be given to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners for 16 categories in Television including TV commercials, magazine talk programs, hard news stories and sports play-by-play as well as 11 categories in Radio including promotions, documentary series and personality airchecks. RSU students have entered in 12 of those categories; two in Television and 10 in Radio. This year's judging competition will be held at the University of Oklahoma with the awards ceremony to be held April 17th during the annual OAB convention at the Renaissance Hotel in Tulsa. To commemorate the university's centennial, Cathy is also writing and producing a number of 30-second Centennial Moments about RSU's history based on John Wooley's book "100 Years on the Hill". She is asking RSU faculty and staff to record these announcements that will be airing all year long on RSU Radio.

Mike Miller, Instructor, Department of Health Sciences, recently taught an off-campus Basic EMT Course for the City of Jenks Fire Department. Ten out of eleven firefighters passed the National Registry Exam the first time upon completeion of the course. That is over a 90% pass rate for initial examination and a clear indication of the quality of instruction that they received. Mike Miller was commended for his efforts by the Fire Chief Gary Friedel and the City of Jenks.

Dr. Tuberville, Coordinator of Developmental Studies, Department of English & Humanities will be presenting a paper at the upcoming Conference on College Composition and Communication in San Francisco, CA, as part of a panel addressing issues facing basic writing instruction.

Dr. Guido Arze, Assistant Professor of Spanish, Department of English and Humanities, has written two books: (1) historical novel titled “Chacales, Novela Historica,” and (2) His critical approaches to Latin American literature titled “La novela revolucionaria. Contribución a la crítica literaria.” The novel is a metaphoric representation of the political violence in Latin America. This novel also embraces the ethical, political, and spiritual dimensions of fiction in order to restore the truth in contrast with the official version of the Latin American history. Dr. Arze with his other book, a literary research and analysis of the historical novel, offer us a new genre: the Latin American revolutionary novel. In that book, the author also employs new critical technique and method. Both books were published by X-libris, Pennsylvania, in October 2008.

Bryce Brimer, Assistant Professor, Department of Fine Arts, presented his paper “Teaching Art in the Bible Belt” at the School of Visual Arts 22nd Annual National Conference on Liberal Arts and the Education of Artists in New York City.

Dr. Juliet Evusa, Assistant Professor, Department of Communications, contributed a chapter titled “Children’s Television in Kenya: The Need for a Comprehensive Media Policy Regulating Children’s Content” in the book “African Media, African Children,” recently published by Nordicom.

The American Society for Microbiology has announced the publication of an activity in the Curriculum Collection of the Microbe Library titled “Modifying the Kirby-Bauer Antibiotic Susceptibility Exercise to Promote Active Learning” by Dr. Sue Katz, Associate Professor, RSU Department of Biology, and Dr. Kathryn Leyva, Department of Microbiology, Midwestern University, Glendale, Arizona. The Curriculum Collection provides undergraduate educators with access to peer-reviewed resource materials. Classroom activities and laboratory exercises include inquiry-based, field-tested materials, student-active learning activities, and ideas for projects or research approaches.