Faculty Notes

Amy Butcher

Amy Butcher, associate professor of English and director of creative writing, received numerous national reviews for her book Mothertrucker. The Wall Street Journal writes that the book is “shot through with poignant insights” and is “a rattling good story.” HarperCollins will publish a German translation of Mothertrucker in fall 2022 or spring 2023. The New York Times also published Butcher’s guest essay “I Know All Too Well How a Lovely Relationship Can Descend into Abuse,” on September 30, 2021. Columbus Monthly published her article “On Dangers Real and Imagined,” in November 2021. Butcher also delivered a lecture on her experience and the research that led to Mothertrucker with the Pace Women’s Justice Center, which provides legal aid and services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and elder abuse.

David Caplan

David Caplan, Charles M. Weis Professor of English, published American Poetry: A Very Short Introduction as the latest book in Oxford University Press’s highly regarded “Very Short Introduction Series.” The series features leading figures introducing their fields. According to The New Yorker: “The Very Short Introductions range from worth reading to wonderfully appealing. It helps that some volumes are the product of exceptional writers and thinkers.” Other writers in the series include Mary Beard on Classics, Jonathan Culler on literary theory, Peter Singer on Marx, and Terry Eagleton on the meaning of life.

Andrea Colvin

Andrea Colvin, associate professor of Spanish, published the article “Nuevas Voces por la Memoria, Verdad y Justicia: Una Entrevista con Cuatro Integrantes del Colectivo Argentino Historias Desobedientes,” in Hispanic Journal, Vol. 42 (2). It is an interview with four members of the Argentine organization Historias Desobedientes, whose members are descendants of individuals who perpetrated human rights violations during Argentina’s military dictatorship (1976–1982). The group was formed in 2017, and its members repudiate the actions of their family members and demand truth and justice, thereby breaking the silence imposed on them by their families and society.

Vicki DiLillo

Vicki DiLillo, professor of psychology, coauthored (with five others) the book chapter “Professional Women in Psychology: Integrating Your Values into a Full Life,” in The Portable Mentor: Expert Guide to a Successful Career in Psychology, Third Edition, M. J. Prinstein (Ed.), currently in press and scheduled to be printed this year by Cambridge University Press, New York.

Amy Downing

Amy Downing, professor of biological sciences, was one of many coauthors from institutions in North America and Europe on the articles “Current Water Quality Guidelines Across North America and Europe Do Not Protect Lakes from Salinization,” published in PNAS, Vol. 119 (9), and “Lake Salinization Drives Consistent Losses of Zooplankton Abundance and Diversity Across Coordinated Mesocosm Experiments,” published in Limnology and Oceanography Letters, 2022. The study, led by the University of Toledo and Queen’s University in Ontario, found that the salinity of freshwater ecosystems caused by road de-icing salts, agriculture fertilizers, mining operations, and climate change is increasing worldwide, and current water quality guidelines do not do enough to address the issue. Downing and her students conducted one of the 16 coordinated experiments in the United States, Canada, and Europe that contributed to the publications.

Bonnie Milne Gardner

Bonnie Milne Gardner, professor emeritus of performing arts, published The Seven Ages of WoMan, a reimagining of Shakespeare’s vision. The collection of dramatic pieces, published by Next Stage Press, portrays the stages of a woman’s life today. Her short play White Squirrel was performed in March by Playwrights Roundtable at the Marshall Ellis Theater in Orlando, FL. “Christina’s World,” a monologue based on Andrew Wyeth’s painting, received a December reading at Stage Brews Workshop in Asheville, NC. Splitting Butternuts will appear in a COVID drama anthology published by Flowersong Press June 2022.

Will Georgic

Will Georgic, assistant professor of economics, coauthored (with H. Allen Klaiber) the article “Stocks, Flows, and Flood Insurance: A Nationwide Analysis of the Capitalized Impact of Annual Premium Discounts on Housing Values,” in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Vol. 111, January 2022. Also, he coauthored (with Charles Towe, H. Allen Klaiber, and Joe Maher) the article “A Valuation of Restored Streams Using Repeat Sales and Instrumental Variables,” in Environmental and Resource Economics, Vol. 80, October 2021.

Marty Kalb

Marty Kalb, professor emeritus of fine art, presented the lecture “Degenerate Art Exhibition: Origins and the Nazi Response to Artistic Expression,” April 12, part of the Understanding the Holocaust series sponsored by the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center, the Ohio Council on Holocaust and Genocide Education, and the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage.

Sarah Kaka

Sarah Kaka, assistant professor of education, published Hollywood or History? An Inquiry-Based Strategy for Using Film to Teach about Inequality and Inequity Throughout History (Information Age Publishing). The book features 30 inquiry-based lesson plans that integrate Hollywood film clips to teach K-12 students about issues surrounding historical inequality and inequity. She also published the chapter “First Amendment Rights and Speech: Views from Students on News and Social Media in Schools” in At the Schoolhouse Gate: Stakeholder Perceptions of First Amendment Rights and Responsibilities in U.S. Public Schools, Patterson, N. and Chandler, P., editors, 2022. Kaka also published two articles: “Digital Practice Spaces and Clinical Practice in Teacher Preparation: Current Uses and Future Possibilities” in the Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, November 2021; and “Put on Your Oxygen Mask First” in the National Association of Elementary School Principals’ Communicator, November 2021. She presented two research sessions at the College and University Faculty Assembly of the National Council for the Social Studies’ virtual conference in November: “Social Studies Teachers as Instructional Gatekeepers for Issues of Race and Justice” and “The Unsettled Waters of Inquiry-Based Instruction: Social Studies Teachers’ Competing Perceptions and Practices.” She also presented two sessions at the Association of Teacher Educators Annual Conference in February with Education Department colleagues Jennifer Lisy and Michele Nobel: “The Long and Winding Road: One Teacher Preparation Program’s Journey to Prepare Antiracist Teachers” and “You Can Do Hard Things! Teaching Resilience to Preservice Teachers.”

Donald Lateiner

Donald Lateiner, professor emeritus of Classics, published the article “’Bad News’ in Herodotos and Thoukydides: Misinformation, Disinformation, and Propaganda,” in the Journal of Ancient History, Vol. 9. The article examines how the first ancient historians investigated dubious stories and how they identified innocent mistakes and labeled misleading information, slogans, and catchwords. Lateiner also presented a lecture at a conference at the Academy of Athens. His presentation examined nonverbal behaviors in the Aithiopika, a novel of Heliodoros. The papers will be published in a volume by deGruyter.

Barbara MacLeod

Barbara MacLeod, John J. Joseph Chair in Business Administration, conducted financial literacy training for future homeowners of Habitat for Humanity of Delaware and Union counties in January and February. Topics included principles of financial planning, developing SMART goals, budgeting, credit management, appropriate record keeping, and predatory lending.

Antron Mahoney

Antron Mahoney, assistant professor of Africana, gender, and identity studies, presented “Queering Black Fraternal Masculinity: Institutionality and MiAKAs on the Down Low” at the National Women’s Studies Association annual conference in November 2021. The paper was part of a panel on Queering Masculinities in Popular Culture sponsored by the NWSA Feminist Masculinities Interest Group. Mahoney also provided commentary for an article in The Columbus Dispatch on transgender rights in Ohio, “Ahead of May Primary, Transgender Rights Become Latest Culture War for Ohio Republicans,” January 24, 2022. He also delivered a Black History Month lecture at Western Carolina University in February.

Chris Modica

Chris Modica, assistant professor of psychology, published three articles: “Modeling the Associations Between Internal Body Orientation, Body Appreciation, and Intuitive Eating Among Early-Adult and Middle-Adult Men and Women: A Multigroup Structural Invariance Analysis,” in Body Image, 39, 2021; “Ethical Considerations in Supervising Undergraduate Internships Across Professions: Issues of Competence,” in The Ohio Psychologist, 68, 2021 (coauthored with Maria Alonso ’21, now a graduate student at University of Central Florida); and “Emotionally- Focused Couples Therapy and Gay and Lesbian Couples: Considerations for Pursuer-Distancer Patterns,” Journal of LGBTQ Issues in Counseling, 16, 2022 (coauthored with Karli Bigler ’21, now a graduate student at Northwestern University).

Franchesca Nestor

Franchesca Nestor, assistant professor of politics and government, published “Congressional Committee Demographics and Racially Salient Representation” in Politics, Groups, and Identities, October 2021. The article considers the impact of racial diversity among congressional committee members on committee behavior. New records show standing committees in the House with more Black members are more likely to hold racially salient hearings and hold more of such hearings.

Michele Nobel

Michele Nobel, assistant professor of education and director of OWU’s special education program, authored the book chapter “Challenging Deficit Thinking in Our Schools: It Starts During Educator Preparation” for the textbook, Handbook of Research on Challenging Deficit Thinking for Exceptional Education Improvement. In her chapter, Nobel explores why deficit thinking (framing situations or people in the negative rather than from a position of strength) exists in schools and what educator preparation programs can do to challenge deficit thinking and, subsequently, help students succeed.

Eva Paris-Huesca

Eva Paris-Huesca, associate professor of Spanish, published the article “Let Us Not Forget: Female Agency and Historical (Dis)remembering in Patricia Ferreira’s Cinema” in the Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies, March 2021. It provides original analysis of the film Sé Quién Eres in relation to female film discourses of the new millennium and the crisis of memory, two issues that the director explores throughout her filmography. In November 2021, Paris-Huesca was elected to a two-year term as president of AGSS, the International Association of Gender and Sexuality Studies.

Dustin Reichard

Dustin Reichard, associate professor of biological sciences, coauthored an article with Holly Keating ’21, “Seasonal Song Variation in Male Carolina Wrens (Thryothorus ludovicianus),” in The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, Vol. 133, 2021. They completed the project during OWU’s 2020 Summer Science Research Program.

Rosemary Riley

Rosemary Riley, part-time instructor in health & human kinetics, conducted a series of culinary medicine webinars titled The Three C’s, Cooking Skills, Curriculum, and Cultural Foodways through the Center for Obesity Prevention and Education at Villanova University. Dietitians and nurses from across the U.S. attended to learn about the cultural foodways of the Mediterranean diet, African heritage diet, Latin American heritage diet, and Indian (South Asian) foodways.

Goran Skosples

Goran Skosples, associate professor of economics, with Liz Knowlton ’19 and Bob Gitter, professor of economics, wrote the article “Is Anybody Home? Remote Working Opportunities and Employment During the COVID-19 Crisis,” published in Economics Bulletin, Spring 2022. The article concludes there is evidence that lack of ability to perform work from a remote location due to poor internet access significantly impacts the level of employment in the United States. Since one in eight U.S. households does not have internet access, this can limit employment during a pandemic.

Chelsea Vadnie

Chelsea Vadnie, assistant professor of psychology, published the article “The Suprachiasmatic Nucleus Regulates Anxiety-Like Behavior in Mice,” in Frontiers in Neuroscience, Vol. 15, 2022.

Chris Wolverton

Chris Wolverton, professor of biological sciences, was named co-chair of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s panel on biological sciences in space. The panel is one of three that makes up the Decadal Survey on Biological and Physical Sciences Research in Space 2023-2032. The survey will generate recommendations for a vision and strategy for a decade of transformative science intended to help NASA advance scientific knowledge, meet human and robotic exploration mission needs, and provide terrestrial benefits.

The deadline for receiving Faculty Notes submissions for the Fall 2022 OWU Magazine is August 1, 2022.