News & Media

Celebrating Scholarship at OWU

Catherine Cardwell, OWU’s director of libraries (right) is shown here presenting Kassel Galaty ’13 with a plaque and top prize for her research paper. (Photo by John Holliger)

It’s not terribly surprising that history and pre-medicine double major Kassel Galaty ’13 became fascinated by nineteenth-century epidemiologist Dr. William Budd’s advocacy of the germ theory of disease.

She pored over his letters and publications as most history aficionados would do. Galaty’s science and pre-med background, however, helped her to understand the important relationship between the rise of germ theory and development of epidemiology.

“Because Budd and others began to study disease in a new way, they were able to see the patterns and draw evidence-based conclusions that had not been previously possible,” says Galaty, whose research culminating in a paper titled “The Infected Man Has Been Altogether Lost Sight Of” took top honors at Ohio Wesleyan’s annual Celebration of Scholarship held on April 24 in the Bayley Room of Beeghly Library. Galaty won the Libraries Research Award, which includes a $500 prize and a plaque, for her exceptional work.

In presenting the award, Catherine Cardwell, OWU’s director of libraries, noted that Kassel’s paper “clearly demonstrates the academic values inherent in a liberal education, specifically connecting ideas that cross disciplinary boundaries. The author’s prose is artful and engaging; her argument well-constructed; [and] her use of primary and secondary sources expert.

“This year,” Cardwell continues, “the judges decided to do something a bit unusual. Confronted with such strong papers, [they] … [awarded] a second place or runner-up. … The judges agreed that the second-place paper was an excellent example of a work that tied theory to practice and that expertly articulated the results of an individual student project, the very kind of experience OWU provides to students.” Triple major—pre-med, neuroscience, and psychology—Megan Cook wrote about “Physiological and Psychosocial Effects of the Inclusiveness of Physicians’ Language on Heterosexual and Queer College Women.”

The judges this year included OWU librarians and faculty members Richard Edwards, Sally Livingston, David Markwardt, Alper Yalçinkaya, James Stull, Ben Daigle, Deborah Peoples, Jillian Maruskin, and Peter Szabo.

“We received 19 [student] submissions from all corners of the University,” says Cardwell, who coordinates the annual Celebration of Scholarship program that brings together the campus community for the purpose of recognizing all faculty and staff members who published a book or article, created a musical score or sound recording, exhibited art work, or produced a play with an imprint date during the past year.

The READ posters, which feature pictures of faculty members holding a favorite book, are popular attractions in Beeghly Library. This year’s group includes several additions: Michael Flamm, History; Nancy Gamso, Music; and Danielle Hamill, Zoology.

“The READ posters are the libraries’ opportunity to honor Ohio Wesleyan faculty and their contributions, in particular, to the Libraries and Ohio Wesleyan, and more broadly, their contributions to their scholarly or creative communities,” explains Cardwell. “The faculty highlighted in the READ posters truly bring the libraries and our collections to life for their students and demonstrate the kind of engagement we hope to impart to our students.”

During the Celebration of Scholarship program, Cardwell also recognized more than 40 faculty members for their significant contributions to students’ learning; their academic papers, publications, and other scholarly or creative work accomplished during the past year; and librarian Joy Gao, for compiling the online bibliography. Those faculty members recognized were: Mark Allison, English; Ellen Arnold, History; Harry Bahrick, Psychology; Melinda Baker, Psychology; Jeremy Baskes, History; Andrew Brandt, Psychology; Sarah Bunnell, Psychology; Ramon Carreno, Zoology; Ji Young Choi, Politics and Government; Theodore Cohen, Sociology and Anthropology; Michael Flamm, History; James Franklin, Politics and Government; Lee Fratantuono, Humanities-Classics; Robert Gitter, Economics; Gerald Goldstein, Botany-Microbiology; Lynda Hall, Psychology; Shala Hankison, Zoology; Robert Haring-Kaye, Physics and Astronomy; Robert Harmon, Physics and Astronomy; Frank Hobbs, Fine Arts; Craig Jackson, Mathematics and Computer Science; David Johnson, Botany-Microbiology; Sean Kay, Politics and Government; Scott Kelly, Zoology; Don Lateiner, Humanities-Classics; Sally Livingston, Humanities-Classics; Zackariah Long, English; Gulimina Mahamuti, Music; David Markwardt, Zoology; Jillian Maruskin, Libraries; Andrew Meyer, Economics; Blake Michael, Religion; Mark Mitton-Fry, Chemistry; Glenda Nieto-Cuebas, Modern Foreign Languages; Tami Panhuis, Zoology; James Peoples, Sociology and Anthropology; Sally Perret, Modern Foreign Languages; Juan Amando Rojas, Modern Foreign Languages; Goran Skosples, Economics; Caroline Stark, Humanities-Classics; David Walker, Geology and Geography; Chris Wolverton, Botany-Microbiology; Ching-Hsuan Wu, Modern Foreign Languages; and Jennifer Yates, Psychology.

“It is gratifying to see the remarkable scholarly and creative productivity of our faculty,” says OWU president Rock Jones. “Such activity is important, both for the disciplines represented and for the intellectual vitality of the OWU community. I also commend the students who submitted papers for consideration this year. I was impressed by the range of topics and the depths of research and analysis reflected in their work.”

In addition, Caldwell updated those attending the recognition program on several projects, including the two-year 2010 Mellon Next Generation Library Grant. An impressive 13 faculty-librarian projects listing can be seen online. The digitized The Transcript—dating back to 1874—has been completed as part of the grant.

“Almost as soon as we wrapped up the 2010 grant, we received another Mellon Grant focusing on digital scholarships with other libraries in the Five College of Ohio, Inc.” says Cardwell. The grant will provide more opportunities to involve students in research and scholarly projects with faculty and librarians, and to connect theory to practice.