Centre College Faculty News
2013
Professor Robert Martin was invited to speak at the University of California – Irvine on January 7, 2013 with Carter Hill on our “Measuring Baumol and Bowen Effects” paper.2012
Professor Robert Martin was invited to speak at the National Academies of Science and Technology on October 9, 2012 about “H R Bowen’s Rule” and higher education cost control. The conference was titled “Reimagining the University.” Click here for more.The Chronicle of Higher Education wrote an article about Professor Robert Martin's paper with Carter Hill of LSU on November 1, 2012. Click here for more. The paper is titled “Measuring Baumol and Bowen Effects in Public Research Universities.” This paper is also one of the top ten downloads in several categories at SSRN and can be downloaded here.
Professor Robert Martin published an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education titled “College Cost Too Much Because Faculty Lack Power” on August 5, 2012. Click here for more.
Professor William R. Levin (art history, emeritus) read a paper recently titled “Heroes and Heroic Narratives in Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise” at the twenty-eighth annual meeting of the Medieval Association of the Midwest, convened this year at Xavier University in Cincinnati. Subsequently he elaborated on the topic before students and faculty members of the Art Department of the University of South Carolina in an invited address titled “Conflict, Conciliation, Community, and Salvation in Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise.” While in Columbia Professor Levin also gave a public presentation on “Deciphering the Symbolic Codes in Western Art and Architecture” at the St. Andrew’s Regional Library within the Richland County (South Carolina) Public Library system. Lastly, he attended sessions and the business meeting of the Southeastern College Art Conference’s (SECAC) sixty-eighth annual meeting, held this year in Durham, North Carolina.
Professor James V. Morrison has published a book review in the Irish journal Hermathena: Graziosi and E. Greenwood (edd,), Homer in the Twentieth Century. Between World Literature and the Western Canon. Hermathena 187 (2009) 144-48.
David Anderson's article, "The Cost of Crime," appeared in Foundations and Trends in Microeconomics. He recenetly participated in the Advanced Placement program's Chief Readers meeting in South Carolina.
Professor James Morrison chaired a panel on Greek and Roman Historians at the biennial conference on "Orality and Literacy in the Ancient World" in Ann Arbor, Michigan 27-30 June 2012. Classical Review has just published his review of J. Lallot, A. Rijksbaron, B. Jacquinod, and M. Buijs (edd.). The Historical Present in Thucydides. Semantics and Narrative Function/Le Présent historique chez Thucydide. Sémantique et fonction narrative. Classical Review 62.2 (2012) 381-83.
Bob Martin, Boles Professor of Economics Emeritus, presented an invited paper, “Higher Education Governance as a Barrier to Cost Containment,” at the American Enterprise Institute in August. The paper is a chapter in a book to be published by AEI editors, probably in the spring of 2013. In addition, he will speak at a National Academies conference on higher education in October.
William R. Levin (art history, emeritus) contributed an op-ed article and was also interviewed and quoted at length for a regular column in the Boston Herald, both of which were published in the newspaper's print and online editions in mid May. His comments challenge the purported repentance and atonement of one of the convicted conspirators, a longtime fugitive from justice, in a notorious 1970 armed robbery/murder case in Boston that through the years has received national attention and continues to resonate and spark controversy in the media.
William R. Levin (art history, emeritus) published “Il Mantello della virtù in un affresco della Misericordia: Guida pratica di filantropia” in the Italian journal San Sebastiano, anno 64, no. 252 (July-September 2012), pp. 34-36. In addition, he wrote a letter to the editor that was printed in Brandeis Magazine (summer 2012), pp. 3-4, responding to an essay appearing in the previous issue of the same publication.
Tom McCollough and Lee Jefferson both presented papers at the Sewanee Medieval Colloquium held at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN on Mar. 30-31. Prof. McCollough's paper, addressed his recent work at Khirbet Qana. "Christian Imperialism and the Colonization of a Jewish Village in Lower Galilee: The Archeological Evidence from Khirbet Qana." Lee Jefferson presented a paper which discusses Christian iconography titled "The Enthroned Jesus and the Miracle-Working Christ: An Assessment of Post-Constantinian Christian Iconography."
Donna Plummer presented at the national conference of the National Science Teachers Association held in Indianapolis 29 March - 1 April. Her presentation "Children's Career Aspirations - Where are the Scientists?" was based on interviews with first- and fifth-grade children at a Danville elementary school.
Sheldon Tapley's works are featured in the May issue of The Artist's Magazine, in an article titled "Master of The Not-So-Still-LIfe".
William (Beau) Weston gave an invited address on "Presbyterian Distinctives" to the presidents conference of the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities in Nashville on March 23rd.
William (Beau) Weston gave an invited address "Happiness and Faith," at the Christian Life and Witness conference at Georgetown College on January 24. This draws on his sabbatical project, developing a new course on "The Happy Society."
In October William R. Levin (Art History, emeritus) presented a formal account of his recent research at Wellesley College, outside Boston, in a paper titled “Unifying Themes in Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise.” In November he lectured at Agnes Scott College, near Atlanta, on “Origins, Analogues, and Redemption Theology of the Nursing Madonna Image-Type.” In addition, he gave introductory remarks, titled “Open Door, Open Mind, Open Heart,” and was one of three featured participants responding to questions on pedagogical and other professional issues in the session “The Art of Education: A Panel Discussion with the SECAC 2010 Excellence in Teaching Award Winners” at the sixty-seventh annual meeting of the Southeastern College Art Conference, convened this year in Savannah, Georgia.
Tom McCollough gave the keynote address at Morehead State University to inaugurate their international studies week. The address was entitled, “A Season of Intifadas: Exploring Revolutionary Movements in the Contemporary Middle East.”
Bill Crummett has been named Associate Director for the University of Kentucky’s Center for Advanced Materials. He is in charge of matters with the Center’s associated colleges and universities. The other associate director is Todd Hastings, a 1996 Centre College physics graduate who received his Ph.D. from MIT and is currently an engineering professor at UK.
2011
Rick Axtell presented a paper on the HOPE VI public housing program in Louisville, "The Other Side of Hope" at the University of Louisville's Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research on Oct. 5, 2011. Axtell, with co-author Michelle Tooley from Berea College, presented "The Other Side of Hope: Deconcentration of Poverty and Social Networks" in Louisville's HOPE VI at the annual meeting of Anthropologists and Sociologists of Kentucky at Nothern Kentucky University on Oct. 22, 2011.Rick Axtell co-led a roundtable discussion at the annual meeting of the Anthropologists and Sociologists of Kentucky entitled "Displacing Injustice: Public Policy Research and Positive Social Change" at Northern Kentucky University on Oct. 22, 2011.
Professor James Morrison lectured on "Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War" at Trinity University (in San Antonio, Texas) on Sept. 27, 2011.
Professor James Morrison participated on September 24 in the biannual Bluegrass Ancient Studies Seminar (BASS) at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. The topic this fall was "Death and the Afterlife in Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Chinese Cultures."
Professor James Morrison has published an article, "Divine Voice, Literary Models, and Human Authority: Peter and Paul in the Early Christian Church," in Sacred Words: Orality, Literacy and Religion (Brill 2011) 371-88.
Professor Conrad Shiba presented an invited talk on New Zealand volcanoes and the monitoring of volcanoes on White Island and Mt. Ruapehu for the Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes while participating in a 3-week field course on volcano monitoring on the Big Island of Hawaii during July and August.
Students Andrew Augustus and James Melloan andprofessor Mykol Hamilton attended and presented a poster
at the International Congress of Psychology and Law.
William (Beau) Weston's article, “The College Class at Work and at Home” has been published in Society. Vol. 48, no. 3 (April, 2011). This study compares the work and family values of corporate managers, professionals, and intellectuals. It grew out of an independent study with Olivia Fitzpatrick '10, Scott Meltzer '10, and Kate Pedersen '10.
Senior math major Ryan Curry presented a talk entitled “Elliptic Curve Cryptography—Cracking the K(0,13) Code” at the annual meeting of the Kentucky Section of the Math Association of America in Richmond in March, 2011. Professors Christine Shannon and Marian Anton also made presentations arising out of collaborative student research projects conducted last summer. Professors Jeff Heath, Joel Kilty, and John Wilson attended the meeting along with over 100 math faculty and students from across Kentucky. Jeff Heath was elected to a three-year term as treasurer of the organization.
Professor James Morrison has published a book review of Greenwood, E. Afro-Greeks. Dialogues between Anglophone Caribbean Literature and the Classics in the Twentieth Century in Classical Review 61 (2011) 291-294.
Professor James Morrison presented a paper, "Shipwrecks, Survival, and Storytelling in Homer, Shakespeare, Defoe, and the Modern World," at Oberlin College on March 8.
David Anderson gave a series of lectures on ethics, sustainability, and environmental policy at Yamaguchi Prefectural University in Japan and the Iolani School in Hawaii.
William R. Levin (art history, emeritus) participated in the symposium on Renaissance Painting and the Venetian Style, held recently at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta in conjunction with the loan exhibition titled “Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting: Masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland.”
Tom McCollough organized and chaired a session on The New Testament and Archaeology at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Atlanta. Among those presenting papers in the session was Kimberly Bauser a recent Centre graduate and now a Ph.D. student in New Testament studies at Boston College.
McCollough also presented an invited paper at the Symposium on The Gospel of John, Jesus and History on the archaeological excavations at Khirbet Qana and the Gospel of John’s references to Cana of Galilee. The symposium was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. The paper will be published by Eerdmans Press in a volume on the Gospel of John and History.
2010
James Morrison gave a talk, "Shipwrecks and the Re-invention of Self in Homer, Shakespeare, Defoe, and the Modern World," at the PAMLA (the Pacific meeting for the Ancient and Modern Language Association) in Honolulu, Hawaii on November 13, 2010; he also chaired a panel on "Shipwrecks in the Ancient World."David Anderson gave a speech on economic education at the Richmond, Virginia Federal Reserve Bank as part of the International AP Economics Teachers Conference.
Steven Beaudoin presented a paper entitled “Microhistory and the Study of Parliamentary Debates: Victorien Sardou’s Thermidor and the Theater of Politics,” at a special colloquium devoted to the study of parliamentary debate, “Faire Parler le Parlement/Making Parliaments Speak,” in Paris, France in October of 2010.
Beau Weston's history of the college, Centre College: Scholars, Gentlemen, Christians, was released at Homecoming. Click here for more.
A paper submitted by Brent White and six former students has been published in the December issue of the peer-reviewed journal American Journal of Primatology, 2010, vol. 72, pages 1082-1091. This research has implications beyond the study of primates. It reveals some problems with how we process urine samples when we are using them to estimate the blood concentration of hormones, drugs, toxins, or other compounds. Title: Specific gravity and creatinine as corrections for variation in urine concentration in humans, gorillas, and woolly monkeys. Authors: Brent C. White, Keri M. Jamison, Cassie Grieb, Drew Lally, Cloe Luckett, Katie S. Kramer, Justin Phillips. Article first published online: July 20, 2010. DOI: 10.1002/ajp.20867. ©2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
At its recent annual meeting, convened this year in Richmond, Virginia, the Southeastern College Art Conference named William R. Levin as the recipient of two citations: the Award for Excellence in Teaching, granted each year to a member "who demonstrates an exceptional command of his or her discipline through the ability to teach effectively, impart knowledge, and inspire students;" and the occasionally bestowed Award for Exemplary Achievement, "the organization's most prestigious award, given in recognition of personal and professional development as well as long-standing service to SECAC." Encompassing twelve states but with a firmly established national membership, the Southeastern College Art Conference is the largest regionally based visual-arts organization in the United States, numbering art historians, artists, museum and gallery personnel, art educators, and visual-resources curators as well as institutions of higher education (including Centre College) among its members.
The article “Linking Science and Literacy,” by Donna Plummer , Betty Jo Davis (Toliver Elementary), and Tori Brazier ’08, has been accepted for publication in Science Activities, a journal for K-12 teachers.
As part of their work on the proposed Linguistics Minor, professors Phyllis Bellver, Jennifer Asmuth, Mark Rasmussen, and James Morrison attended a conference (24-26 September) on "Linguistics Programs in Undergraduate Education" in Bjorklunden vid Sjon, Wisconsin, hosted by Lawrence University and the Associated Colleges of the Midwest.
—October 12, 2010
Milton Reigelman was the featured speaker at the August 20-22 Michigan Literary Festival celebrating the life and work of John T. Frederick, the subject of Reigelman’s early book. A fiction writer himself, Frederick taught the first course ever on contemporary American literature, was key in making creative writing a respected endeavor at universities and paved the way for the Iowa Writers Program, and from 1915-1933 edited The Midland, the pioneering “little magazine” that H. L. Mencken called “the most important magazine ever published in America.”
—August 31, 2010
David Anderson traveled to Washington, D.C., to give two presentations at the National AP Conference. His editorial introduction on crime costs appeared in the journal Criminology and Public Policy.
—August 31, 2010
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