Faculty write, present, perform

Faculty in education, the social sciences, arts and other fields have spent the past few months reading essays, presenting papers and engaging in other scholarly work.

Dr. Matthew Kropf, assistant professor of energy science and technology, published two chapters in the book “Low Temperature Materials and Mechanisms” published through CRC Press.

He also presented at the Venture Connection round of the inaugural Invent Penn State Venture and IP Conference. Additionally, he mentored a Pitt student in the University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute's Kuzneski Innovation Cup in preparation for his presentation in the final round.

Dr. Donna Dombek, associate professor of education, presented the paper “Therapy that Barks: The Role of Therapy Dogs in Developing Compassionate Classrooms” at the 45th Teacher Education Assembly in Harrisburg.

Dr. Shailendra Gajanan, professor of economics, and Rekha Gajanan, instructor, led the Pitt in the Himalayas program, visiting temples and climbing.

Dr. Tony Gaskew, associate professor of criminal justice, presented the paper “Incarcerated College Educators: Radicalizing Education Pedagogy” at the Sixth Annual Conference on Higher Education in Prison in Nashville, Tennessee.

Works by Dr. Joshua Groffman, assistant professor of music, were performed in New York and Italy. His work “Landscapes” for piano and electronics was performed at the New York City Electro-acoustic Music Festival held at the Abron Arts Center.

A premiere of a score to the 1921 silent film “High Sign” starring Buster Keaton by Donald Sosin with orchestrations by Groffman was performed at a film festival in Bologna, Italy.

Finally, Groffman also performed himself as a pianist with the New York City Composers Circle at Symphony Space in New York.

Dr. Tracee Howell, assistant professor of English, served as a reader for the 2016 Advanced Placement Language and Composition examination in Kansas City, Missouri.

She also presented the paper “From 'The White Girl' to 'Thicker than Water': Jewish Identity in Vera Caspary's Early 20th Century Fiction” at the 2016 Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association Annual Conference in Pasadena, California.

Dr. Michael Klausner, associate professor of sociology, presented the paper “Teaching Strategies that Enhance Students' Learning and Retention of Material: Sociological Applications” at the Pennsylvania Sociological Society's conference at Bloomsburg University.

Dr. Nancy McCabe, professor of writing, presented a paper on gender roles in “Anne of Avonlea” at the L.M. Montgomery and Gender Conference in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

She also served as a workshop leader at the Chautauqua Writers' Festival and was the writer-in-residence for Week Eight at the Chautauqua Writers' Center, where she also delivered a lecture and gave readings.

McCabe has also been publishing online. She published monthly articles on place and literature in the Ploughshares blog; an article on Laura Ingalls Wilder's ancestor Samuel Worthen Ingalls; an essay, “Breathing on Your Own: How to Break that Nasal Spray Addiction; and “Coming of Age with Nancy Drew.”

Dr. Mary Mulcahy, associate professor of biology, Dr. Denise Piechnik, assistant professor of biology, and Brittni Cumberland '15 presented a workshop at the 38th annual conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education at the University of Houston. The workshop was called “STEM Technology Applied to Biology Labs: Quantifying Cellular Respiration with Sensors and Arduino Microcontroller Technology.”

Additionally, a paper on the topic was published in the conference proceedings.

Finally, Klaus Wuersig, associate professor of engineering presented “Toward a More Practical Engineering Curriculum: A Sequel” at the annual symposium on Project Approaches in Engineering Education held at the University of Minho in Guaimares, Portugal.