Other Faculty Updates
Drs. Bernard Duffy and Richard Besel published a new book, “Green Voices: Defending Nature and the Environment in American Civic Discourse,” with the State University of New York Press. The hardback edition was released in February and a paperback edition is due out in July. Duffy and Besel look forward to working on another book proposal.
Duffy’s other recently published university press book, “Will of a People: A Critical Anthology of Great African American Speeches,” published in 2012, has been praised in various scholarly outlets. The Howard Journal of Communication particularly commends the 22 critical essays that Duffy and his co-editor, Richard Leeman, wrote for the book: “[The book] contains solid and engaging textual analyses and promotes the study of eloquent oratory.” Choice, the main reviewing service for academic libraries, listed the book as one of the Significant University Press Titles for Undergraduates, 2011-2012. The journal, African American Studies, notes: “The speeches collected are inspirational, informative and worth studying as part of American cultural history, an oratorical history that continues to this very moment. Thus covering an impressive range, ‘The Will of a People’ will give readers much to think about, debate, and contemplate.”
Dr. Lori Jackson helped students enrolled in fall 2015’s Health Communication class implement their SunSafe Campaign. The campaign was directed toward increasing awareness of sun overexposure at Cal Poly. The team, consisting of seniors, Alyssa Howarter, Ava Lindberg, Charlotte Marinovich and Michelle Merritt, aimed their message at fellow students, informing them about the long-term effects of sun overexposure as well as the importance of using sunscreen on a daily basis. They created info-graphics, stickers, posters and other messages that the team shared at an information booth in the University Union. Additionally, local dermatology centers and Dignity Health provided free samples of the most effective sunscreens and lip balms (containing titanium oxide and zinc dioxide) for the team to distribute. The Sunsafe team hopes to leave their mark on campus by having sunscreen dispensers installed near the gym to remind students to be continuously “SunSafe.”
Martin Mehl continues his strong engagement in the academic community. Aside from being a founding member and faculty advisor for the ASI chess club, he was appointed to the Exceptional Student Service Committee and consulted for the Consortium to Promote Reflection in Engineering Education. Mehl and his co-principal investigator, Dr. Luanne Fose from Cal Poly’s Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology, have also been active in implementing and assessing their Digital Commentary Grading Project (DCGP), which focuses on whether video assessment can improve faculty feedback on student assignments. The project utilizes a simple video screen-casting tool for faculty grading and assessment by means of asynchronous video feedback. The study investigates whether such an approach positively affects students’ perception of constructive criticism by creating instructor transparency and personally focused mentoring. The research has a campus-wide scope, including faculty representing all six colleges. Among the faculty and departments that have applied the methodology on small, medium and large undergraduate and graduate courses, 100% have continued use of the method after the preliminary trial. Mehl and Fose presented their findings at the Online Learning Consortium Innovate Conference in New Orleans in April 2016.
Dr. B. Christine Shea presented a paper, “When Celebrity Trumps Science: Expert Responses to Suzanne Somers’s Medical Advice on Cancer Prevention and Anti-aging,” to the Health Communication Division at the National Communication Association conference in Las Vegas in MONTH. She also was a presenter on a panel, “Michael Sam and the Media: Embracing – and Exploiting – the Opportunities Presented by an Openly Gay NFL Player.” Shea served as a reviewer for the National Communication Association Feminist and Women’s Studies division and the LGBTQ Caucus. This past spring, Shea received recognition at the Cal Poly Cru faculty appreciation dinner. She also continues to serve on the university’s Human Subjects Committee and is a member of the Faculty Consortium for Diversity and Inclusivity. Outside of the classroom, Shea enjoys playing golf and reading research articles on social neuroscience, psychoneuroimmunology and epigenetics.
Jeremy Teitelbaum attended a summer program at Radboud University in the city of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. The program provided a course on the introduction to the study of language in cognitive neuroscience and had nearly 40 doctoral students and faculty members from 20 different countries in attendance. Following the course, Teitelbaum traveled to London where he presented his paper, “Diversity and Inclusivity in Classroom Projects,” at the International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences 18th International Academic Conference. The paper was based on a professional learning collaborative project completed with Cal Poly’s Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology in the spring of 2014.