Category: SharkBytes

NSU’s Department of Writing and Communication Faculty Co-Edit Special Section of Journal of Faculty Development

Two faculty from NSU’s Department of Writing and Communication (DWC) in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) served as guest co-editors of a special section of the May 2019 issue of the Journal of Faculty Development. Kevin Dvorak, Ph.D., professor and executive director of the NSU Writing and Communication Center (WCC), and Molly Scanlon, Ph.D., associate professor and first-year experience faculty coordinator, co-edited a special section that focused on faculty development for First-Year Experience (FYE) programs. The section included a co-authored article by Scanlon and Dvorak entitled, “The Importance of Faculty Development Programs for Teaching First-Year Seminar Courses.”

The special issue provides evidence-based approaches that collectively balance scholarship of teaching and learning with the pragmatics of operationalizing a successful faculty development program. The article highlights challenges First-Year Seminar (FYS) instructors face and shows why and how FYE programs should provide ongoing opportunities that help them to offer quality instruction. Among the other topics and techniques addressed in this issue are inclusive teaching methods, establishing classrooms as learning communities, and adapting professional development opportunities for faculty with varying levels of teaching experience.

The journal typically focuses on general professional development taking place in higher education and encourages a student-centered approach to teaching. In providing this context, Scanlon and Dvorak hope to illustrate why this special section of the Journal of Faculty Development is so needed.

Education Alumna Recognized for Peer Inclusion Program

Heidi Gomez

Heidi Gomez, graduate of NSU’s Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice, was recognized for her Peer Inclusion Program at Chamberlain High School (Tampa) at the Excellence in Action Awards ceremony.

The Peer Inclusion Program at Chamberlain High School was implemented at the start of the 2018-2019 school year with 30 peers. The peers are 10th – 12th grade students who are assigned to Heidi for one period, and earn credit and community hours. After an interview, they are assigned a specific classroom, and work in a variety of settings supporting students with disabilities. The peers engage in each lesson, and work with students in the areas of independent functioning skills, social emotional needs, and academics. The program has also changed the school culture. Peers and their students have become friends and feel included in ways they hadn’t before the program was implemented. They sit together at lunch, attend extracurricular events, and act as mentors.

Heidi has been recognized for numerous awards in her 12 years of teaching. She’s been named Teacher of the Year at Adams Middle School, Council for Exception Children (CEC) ESE Teacher of the year for Hillsborough County, the ESE Preceptor of the Year for her work with exceptional students, and the Ida S. Baker Distinguished Educator at Chamberlain High School.

She earned both her Bachelors and Master’s degree at the Abraham S. Fischler college of Education and School of Criminal Justice.

Darinka Obradovich Spring 2019 Daisy Award Recipient

Northwest Hospital & Medical Center in Seattle Washington honored ACON Alumni and Emergency Department Registered Nurse Darinka Obradovich, BSN, CEN with the Daisy Award. The Daisy Award recognizes and honors “extraordinary nurses” who provide “extraordinary compassionate care”. Darinka was nominated by the wife of one of her critically ill patients, not only for her patient care excellence, but for her holistic approach to nursing the family along with the patient.

Congratulations Darinka!

 

Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences Physical Therapy Student Awarded the 2019 APTA Minority Scholarship

Congratulations to Ashley Wilson, NSU’s Doctor of Physical Therapy (D.P.T.) Class of 2019, who is the recipient of the 2019 APTA Minority Scholarship. This is an annual award offered to minority physical therapist students by the physical therapy fund. The Minority Scholarship Award recognizes physical therapy students currently in their final year of an accredited program, and faculty members who are pursuing post professional doctoral degrees for their professional character and academic excellence. The Minority Scholarship Fund and voluntary contributions sponsor these awards.

NSU’s Department of Writing and Communication Faculty Co-Edit Special Section of Journal of Faculty Development

Two faculty members from NSU’s Department of Writing and Communication (DWC) in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) served as guest co-editors of a special section of the May 2019 issue of the Journal of Faculty Development. Kevin Dvorak, Ph.D., professor and executive director of the NSU Writing and Communication Center (WCC), and Molly Scanlon, Ph.D., associate professor and first-year experience faculty coordinator, co-edited a special section that focused on faculty development for First-Year Experience (FYE) programs. The section included a co-authored article by Scanlon and Dvorak entitled, “The Importance of Faculty Development Programs for Teaching First-Year Seminar Courses.”

The special issue provides evidence-based approaches that collectively balance scholarship of teaching and learning with the pragmatics of operationalizing a successful faculty development program. The article highlights challenges First-Year Seminar (FYS) instructors face and shows why and how FYE programs should provide ongoing opportunities that help them to offer quality instruction. Among the other topics and techniques addressed in this issue are inclusive teaching methods, establishing classrooms as learning communities, and adapting professional development opportunities for faculty with varying levels of teaching experience.

The journal typically focuses on general professional development taking place in higher education and encourages a student-centered approach to teaching. In providing this context, Scanlon and Dvorak hope to illustrate why this special section of the Journal of Faculty Development is so needed.

CAHSS Dance Major Stephanie Rivera’s Choreography Chosen for the Gala Concert at the American College Dance Association Southeastern Regional Conference

NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) is pleased to announce the successful participation of dance students at the American College Dance Association (ACDA) Southeastern Regional Conference, held at Kennesaw State University. During the four-day conference, the dance students presented three original pieces of choreography, performed, attended dance classes, and viewed numerous dance performances.  Senior Dance major Stephanie Rivera’s choreography, “Put Together”, was selected for the Gala Concert, for its “exemplary artist quality,” by a panel of nationally recognized adjudicators, including Ori Floman (International Choreographer, NYU Faculty), Debra Knapp, Ed.D. (Director of Dance, New Mexico State University), and Christina Johnson (Principal Dancer at Dance Theatre of Harlem).

Nine out of the approximately 50 faculty selected works performed at the conference were selected for the Gala. The panel of adjudicators described Rivera’s choreography as a “breath of fresh air” and “serious comedy,” and it was selected to close the show.  Please join CAHSS and the Department of Performing and Visual Arts in celebrating this success.

NSU Graduate Students and Faculty Present at the 2019 Pop Culture Association National Conference

Pictured left to right: Veronica Diaz, Melissa Bianchi, Ph.D., Darius Cureton, M.A., and Nichole Chavannes

Students and faculty from NSU’s Department of Writing and Communication (DWC) at the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) presented on four panels at the 2019 Pop Culture Association / American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) National Conference, hosted by the Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, D.C., Apr. 17-20. This group included:

  • two assistant professors from the DWC
  • two students from the CAHSS DWC M.A. in Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media (CRDM) program, who also serve as graduate assistant coordinators in the Write from the Start Writing and Communication Center (WCC)

About the Panels

Title: “Ocean Ecologies and Dinosaur Zoos: How Games Make Arguments about Nature”

Presenter: Melissa Bianchi, Ph.D., DWC Assistant Professor

Summary: In this presentation, “ecoplay” was proposed as a concept for understanding how video games simulate nature in ways that are distinctly rhetorical, using ABZÛ and Jurassic World Evolution as examples. Video games often attempt to capture the operation of real-world processes and systems, influencing how players engage with these processes, systems, and their governing ideologies through play. These games are well-suited for applying a theory of ecoplay because of their engagement with environmental topics and their apparent connections to other environmentally focused media and rhetorics.

Title: “The Korvac Saga: The Avengers Teach Writing, Defeat the Supervillains, and Save the Universe and the University (A Live Comic Book Performance)!”

Presenter: Darius Cureton, M.A., DWC Visiting Assistant Professor; with colleagues from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and East Stroudsburg University

Summary: In this session, the presenters brought to life a comic book story of superhero teachers struggling valiantly to help their students learn to write by employing the use of comic books and graphic novels in their composition classrooms. In the world of comic books, when a publisher wants to increase sales, they reboot the title by giving the superhero a new costume or changing the members of the super team. The presenters proposed the need to reboot composition, English studies, and the academy.

Title: “The Unforgivable Curse of Consumerism: How ‘Official’ Fan Spaces in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World Exploit Fandom”

Presenter: Nicole Chavannes, CRDM student and WCC graduate assistant

Summary: Since The Sorcerer’s Stone was released in 1997, the Harry Potter series has spawned seven books, eight film adaptations, a play, and a second film franchise, along with a handful of secondary texts. However, the franchise has expanded beyond offering content for passive consumption; participatory fan spaces exist both online and in-person. This presentation explored how Rowling’s wizarding world exemplifies both transmedia storytelling and transmedia world-building through “official” fan spaces, and how those spaces are inextricably linked with consumerism.

Title: “The Beguiled: Blurring the Line Between ‘Gothic Misogyny’ and Contemporary Female Rage”

Presenter: Veronica Diaz, CRDM student and WCC graduate assistant

Summary: Adaptations offer authors and audiences the ability to reinterpret controversial themes in a different context, contributing to the additive comprehension surrounding a particular text or genre. This presentation explored the affective and effective elements at play in all three iterations of The Beguiled – the original 1966 novel by Thomas P. Cullinan, the 1971 film by Don Siegel, and the 2017 film by Sofia Coppola – that offer audiences transmedia via multiplicity, with drastically different retellings of the same story.

 

NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Alumnus is Investigative Analyst in Criminal Investigations Division at BSO

Ryan Johnston, M.S.

Ryan Johnston, M.S. 2018 graduate of NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS), is an investigative analyst for the Criminal Investigations Division at the Broward Sheriff’s Office. He started work a few months after completing the M.S. in National Security Affairs and International Relations. Johnston reports that he is excited to take on this new challenge. “I will be able to put skills that I acquired from my time as a graduate student to good use. The NSAIR program was instrumental in my getting this job because it gave me an opportunity to get professional work experience through networking and internship opportunities.”

As a graduate student, Johnston completed an internship for credit with the Broward Sheriff’s Office. He also was able to tap in to the program’s facilitation of networking with current and former students working in the field of national security. Johnston distinguished himself during his time at NSU by founding the graduate student led Department of History and Political Science Leadership Council. He also served as the DHPS representative on the CAHSS Graduate Student Government Association.

College of Education and School of Criminal Justice Graduate Authors Book on Christianity

David P. Diaz, Ed.D., graduate of NSU’s Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of

Criminal Justice (FCE&SCJ), recently authored the book, “The Genesis Labyrinth: Investigating Alternatives in the First Eleven Chapters of Genesis.” The book is a thought-provoking account that contains teachings taken from the book of Genesis that define its essence upon the Christian faith.

Diaz is an author and retired college professor. His writings have spanned the gamut between peer-reviewed technical articles to his memoir, “The White Tortilla”, which won the 2006 American Book Award. He holds B.S. and M.S. from California Polytechnic State University and earned his doctoral degree from FCE&SCJ in 2000.

NSU CAHSS Assistant Professor and Writing & Communication Center Faculty Coordinator Named SWCA Vice President

Janine Morris, Ph.D., CAHSS Department of Writing & Communication Assistant Professor and NSU Write from the Start Writing and Communication Center (WCC) Faculty Coordinator, was elected 2019-2020 Vice President of the Southeastern Writing Center Association (SWCA). The SWCA’s mission is to “advance literacy; to further the theoretical, practical, and political concerns of writing center professionals; and to serve as a forum for the writing concerns of students, faculty, staff, and writing professionals from both academic and nonacademic communities in the southeastern region of the United States.” In 2020, Morris will become SWCA President.

At NSU, Morris is one of three faculty coordinators in the WCC and oversees many graduate student initiatives, including a professional development and writing workshop series and weekly writing group for graduate and professional students. Morris has worked specifically with graduate and professional students for the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; College of Pharmacy; College of Medical Sciences, Fischler College of Education; College of Osteopathic Medicine; and the College of Psychology. Along with supporting graduate and professional students, she is also the faculty advisor for the WCC’s social media (@nsuwcc).

Morris is currently working with WCC faculty coordinator, Kelly Concannon, Ph.D., on an edited collection on affect and emotion in writing centers. “This is a wonderful opportunity for Dr. Morris to demonstrate leadership to NSU and to the larger writing and communication center community,” said Kevin Dvorak, Ph.D., executive director of the WCC.

Outside of the WCC, Morris is the Alumni Relations Manager for the Department of Writing and Communication and is the co-PI on a 2018 College of Composition and Communication research initiative grant to study how online first-year writing students’ backgrounds and expectations inform their experiences in first-year composition classes.

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