Faculty Scholarship and Achievements
Trinity's faculty maintain active scholarship in their fields. This page is regularly updated with news about faculty members' scholarship and achievements in their respective disciplines.
November 2009
Dr. Deonne Minto, Assistant Professor of English, was the Chair for the panel Gastrocartographies, Discursive Dance, the Resistant Reader, and Global Reparations: Performance and the Deconstruction of Caribbean Identities from the Table to the Stage and Beyond, at the 'Going Caribbean: An International Colloquium on Caribbean Literature and Art, sponsored by the University of Lisbon in Portugal. At this conference, Dr. Minto was invited to present her paper, "Transnationalizing the Rhythm/Remastering the National Dance: The Politics of Performance in Contemporary Caribbean Cinema."
Dr. Deborah Litt, Associate Professor of Education, is the Discussant for the paper session on Phonological Awareness and Invented Spelling, at the Literacy Research Council/National Reading Conference, Annual Conference in Washington DC.
Dr. Amy Brereton, Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education, presented "Signs of Inclusion: How Using Sign Language Fostered the Participation of Diverse Learners in an Urban Preschool", at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Annual Conference in November.
Dr. Sharon Shafer, Professor Emerita of Music, will present IN PARADISUM, at The Summer School Museum, Washington DC, December 4, 2009. The song cycle she composed, inspired by Gregorian chant melodies and Spirituals, will be presented concurrently with a series of drawings by Gene Markowski.
Dr. Deborah Litt, Associate Professor of Education, was named Chair of the Alternative Session, Promising Practices in Reading Teacher Education: What are Researchers of Reading Pedagogy Doing in Their Research, at the Literacy Research Council/National Reading Conference, Annual Conference in Washington DC.
Dr. Amy Brereton's article, "Alana: How one hearing child used sign language to move from 'disruptive' student to a classroom expert", was published in the Early Childhood Education Journal, November 2009, 36:461–465.
October 2009
Wendy Thorbjornsen's memoir, Finding Josie, was named as a finalist in the Autobiography category of the USA Book News 2009 National Best Book Awards.
Dr. Deborah Litt, Associate Professor of Education, will have a chapter entitled "Reread So You Know What to Write Next" published in Writing Strategies for All Primary Students: Scaffolding Independent Writing with 25 Differentiated Mini-Lessons, published by Jossey Bass (2011).
September 2009
Dr. Roberta Dorr, Associate Professor of Education, has been invited to serve another term as a National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) Board of Examiners. Dr. Dorr was recommended by both NCATE and Teachers of English as a Second Language (TESOL) for this role.
Dr. Carlota Ocampo, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Associate Professor, participated on a panel "Increasing Access to Higher Education for Disadvantaged Women." The panel was part of a conference sponsored by Women Administrators in Higher Education (WAHE), and the conference theme was "Celebrating 35 Years of Advancing Women in Higher Education." The discussion centered around how women-led, campus-based programs are increasing access to education for disadvantaged women. Topics included outreach, counseling, programs, scholarships, and other initiatives to increase access for these women.
Dr. Jacqueline Padgett, Associate Professor of English, presented her paper "Quomodo sedet sola civitas: A Lonely Faith, Homosexuality, and Mourning in Andrew Holleran's Grief" at the Conference on Christianity and Literature held at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. An abstract of the paper is available.
June 2009
Dr. Carlota Ocampo, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Associate Professor of Psychology, has had an article published in the flagship journal for the American Psychological Association. Her article "Dealing with Diversity Issues in the Classroom: A Survey of the STP Membership" appears in Teaching of Psychology. The citation is Prieto, L.R., Wittlesey, V., Herbert, D., Ocampo, C., Schomburg A., and So, D. (2009). Dealing with diversity issues in the classroom: A survey of the STP membership. Teaching of Psychology, 36, 2009, 77-83.
May 2009
Dr. Mary Lynn Rampolla, Associate Professor of History, will have the 6th edition of her text A Pocket Guide to History released this summer.
Finding Josie, a memoir written by Wendy Bilen Thorbjornsen, Assistant Professor of English, has been named the winner in the Autobiography/Memoir category for the National Indie Excellence Awards. The book won for biography/memoir in the 2008 Midwest Independent Publishers Association Awards following its selection last summer as a Midwest Booksellers Association "Midwest Suggestion" pick.
April 2009
Dr. Bill Beverly, Assistant Professor of English, presented at the 2009 National Popular Culture & American Culture Conference. His paper describes how collectors imagine and refashion themselves in stories they tell about collecting. He focuses in particular on beer and soda can collectors; also on his panel were papers on book collectors and vinyl record collectors. Dr. Beverly is contributing editor to the literary journal 32 Poems, which once again this year had work selected for inclusion in the Best American Poetry annual anthology. This year's anthology include's Lydia Davis's poem "Men."
Assistant Professor of Nursing Tarsha Jones, who serves on the Susan G. Komen Council for the Cure Advisory Council, participated in the Komen for the Cure Lobby Day for breast cancer research funding on Capitol Hill.
Dr. Deonne Minto, Assistant Professor of English, has been awarded a grant to attend the summer seminar sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH): "Roots: African Dimensions of the History and Culture of the Americas (through the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade."
Dr. Roxana Moayedi, Associate Professor of Sociology, has had her article "Friendly Critique of Service Learning and an Innovative response: Cross-Institutional Collaborations for Community Based Research" published in Teaching Sociology, a peer-reviewed quarterly journal of the American Sociological Association: the piece is co-authored with C. Wright Mills of Georgetown University.
Dr. Saundra Oyewole, Professor of Biology, was honored by the Northeast Association of Advisors for the Health Professions for over 25 years of service in health professions advising. Dr. Oyewole has been appointed by the President of the Association of American Medical Colleges to serve on the 21-member committee charged with conducting the fifth comprehensive review of the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). She is one of the four undergraduate faculty members on the Committee: the others are medical school administrators and faculty.
March 2009
Dr. Eirini Gouleta, Assistant Professor of Education, presented two papers, "Bilingual Education in China: The Tibetan Experience" and "Quality Assurance: Student Learning Outcomes in Teacher Education" at the National Association for Bilingual Education Conference.
Dr. Deborah Harris-O'Brien, Associate Professor of Psychology, and Dr. Stacey Baugh, Assistant Professor of Psychology, presented at the Eastern Psychological Association Conference held in Pittsburgh. Their presentation was part of the "Teaching of Psychology" session, in which they discussed adapting a psychology course as a Critical Reading Seminar, one of Trinity's requirements in its General Education Requirements for the College of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Liliana Losada, Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Biology, has received a highly prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology Fellowship, a distinction earned through a rigorous application process. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, which publishes the journal Science, serves 262 organizations globally and is the world's largest scientific society. The program in which Dr. Losada will participate has the goals of involving scientists and engineers in policy making and having policymakers become more knowledgeable about scientific issues. Dr. Losada will work in the area of bioterrorism and will participate in the program through work in one of the relevant agencies (Defense, Homeland Security, or the Federal Bureau of Investigation) during the 2009-2010 academic year. Additionally, Dr. Losada presented two papers on Aspergillus fumigatos at the 25th Fungal Genetics Conference: "Construction of a Gene Replacement Resource for Aspergillus fumigatus using MultiSite Gateway Pro Technology" and "Killing of Aspergillus funigatus conidia and germlings by Phagocytic Cells is Dependent on Initial Cell to Cell Adherence." She published an article in Medical Mycology about secondary metabolites in A. fumigatos: "Effect of Competition on the Production and Activity of Secondary Metabolites in Aspergillus Species." Among the piece's co-authors is Olufinmiloa Ajayi, a graduate of Trinity's Biology program.
Dr. Robert Maguire, Assistant Professor of International Affairs, discussed the complex issues surrounding Haiti at the invitation of The Cabral/Truth Circle, a combination film festival and book club that focuses on the history and political movements of Africa and the African Diaspora. "Haiti in the Next Administration: Infrastructure, Debt, Food Crisis, Organic Democracy" was the theme of the March Cabral/Truth Circle at which Dr. Maguire was the featured panelist. Dr. Maguire also has had an article published in FOCALPoint, a monthly news brief on developments in Latin American and the Caribbean published by the Canadian Foundation for the Americas, arguably Canada's leading think tank on Latin America and the Caribbean. The article can be accessed at http://www.focal.ca/pdf/focalpoint_march09.pdf.
Dr. Deonne Minto, Assistant Professor of English, presented her paper "Passing on Canada's Color Line in Tessa McWatt's Out of My Skin" at the American Comparative Literature Association meeting held at Harvard University. Dr. Minto's paper was part of a seminar entitled "Transnational Encounters: Twentieth Century Writers in Dialogue," and she joined distinguished scholars from the University of Pennsylvania, Purdue University, and the University of Minnesota in presenting her work during this session.
Dr. Minerva San Juan, Associate Professor of Philosophy, was interviewed on Radio America regarding President Obama's executive order on embryonic stem cell research. Dr. San Juan has been featured several times on Radio America, most recently as a Spanish-speaking expert on bioethics.
Dr. Sharon Shafer's paper "The Women of Tin Pan Alley" has been selected for presentation at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference of the College Music Society, to be held March 20-21 at George Mason University. Dr. Shafer is Professor Emerita of Music.
February 2009
Dr. Ray Adomaitis, Assistant Professor of Counseling, has been selected to be this year’s recipient of the C. Harold McCully Counselor Educator Recognition Award to be presented at the 44th Annual Conference of the District of Columbia Counseling Association. Dr. Adomaitis will also be a part of a panel on Crisis and Trauma Counseling, while students in Trinity's Counseling Program, which Dr. Adomaitis directs, will also participate in the March conference held in the District.
Dr. Deborah Harris-O'Brien, Associate Professor of Psychology, was an invited panelist for a forum sponsored by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. The series was titled "Women Artists/Women Healing: Multicultural Narratives of Trauma and Survival," and the session in which Dr. Harris-O'Brien participated was "Intimate Betrayal: Voices of Survival."
Dr. Robert Maguire, Assistant Professor of International Affairs, recently published a United States Institute of Peace Brief describing the challenges needed to end poverty in Haiti.
Dr. Jacqueline Padgett, Associate Professor of English, presented her paper "En-graving and the Incarnational Aesthetic of Toni Morrison" at Howard University's Heart's Day Conference on Toni Morrison.
Dr. Sharon Shafer's "Breaking the Glass Ceiling: From Domestic Music to Pulitzer Prize" will be published in the Winter issue of Pan Pipes, the magazine of Sigma Alpha Iota Music Fraternity. Dr. Shafer is Professor Emerita of Music.
Assistant Professor of English Wendy Thorbjornsen's piece "Black and White Like Us" appears in the February 5 issue of UrbanFaith.com.
January 2009
Dr. Deborah Harris-O'Brien, Associate Professor of Psychology, along with Trinity student and chapter president of Psi Chi Nzinga Lawrence, was honored in being selected by Psi Chi, the National Honor Society in Psychology, to attend a Leadership Conference held in Nashville. An article about the conference and its participants will be published in the quarterly journal Eye on Psi Chi.
Dr. Stephanie Holaday, Director of Nursing Programs and Assistant Professor of Nursing, has had a chapter published in the highly-respected nursing publication Annual Review of Nursing Education, edited by M.H. Oermann and K. Gaberson and published by Springer (2008). The piece is a review of her clinical evaluation tool kit which is used in nursing programs throughout the country.
Dr. Kerry Luse, Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Mathematics, gave a colloquium talk ("Techniques in Knot Theory") at the Naval Academy in the Fall and presented another talk ("A Transition Polynomial for Signed Feynman Diagrams") at a special session of the Joint Mathematics Meeting in January.
Assistant Professor of English Wendy Bilen Thorbjornsen has received notification that she will have a teaching tip published in the upcoming revised edition of Remix, published by Catherine Latterell. Additionally, Professor Thorbjornsen has been selected to be a reader for the AP English examinations.
December 2008
Dr. Stephanie Holaday, Director of Nursing Programs and Assistant Professor of Nursing, passed the certification examination for the specialty area of advanced practice nursing as "Certified Nurse Educator." This certification is recognized as the mark of leadership and distinction for nursing faculty; Dr. Holaday's achievement brings significance to Trinity's nursing program since few nursing programs nationally have faculty with this certification.
Dr. Deborah Litt, Assistant Professor of Education, presented to an audience of Orlando, Florida educators about the implications of recent literacy research following her attendance at the National Reading Conference.
Dr. Robert Maguire, Assistant Professor of International Affairs, had an op ed piece published in the Haitian Times, a newspaper published weekly in New York.
A piece profiling Assistant Professor of English Wendy Bilen Thorbjornsen's memoir Finding Josie appeared in http://77square.com/arts/books/story_317880, which is the arts section of Madison's Capital Times.
November 2008
Dr. Amy Brereton, Assistant Professor of Education, has had her article "Sign Language Use and the Appreciation of Diversity in Hearing Classrooms" published in the most recent issue of Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development.
Dr. Stephanie Holaday's article "Addressing Challenges in Nursing Education through a Clinical Instruction Model based on a Hybrid Inquiry-Based Learning Framework" is due to be published in the November-December issue of NLN: Nursing Education Perspectives. Dr. Holaday also wrote "Processes and Stages of Labor and Birth," a chapter in the eighth edition of the textbook Maternal-Newborn Nursing and Women's Health across the Lifespan, edited by M.R. Davidson, M.L. London, and P.W. Ladweig and published by Prentice Hall. Additionally, Dr. Holaday contributed to the online outcomes assessment MyNursingLab that supplements the text. She contributed to the chapter pre- and post-test questions, answers, and rationale. This online tool combines assessment, reporting, and personalized study to students and instructors. Dr. Holaday is the Director of Trinity's Nursing Programs.
Dr. Robert Maguire, Assistant Professor of International Affairs, was one of three featured speakers at a United States Institute of Peace (USIP) event on "Haiti after the Storms: Weather and Conflict." In mid-November, Dr. Maguire will travel to Princeton, New Jersey to give the keynote address at a conference on Haiti. Immediately following this presentation, he will travel to the Caribbean island of Dominica to give a presentation on his work on Haiti: he will present at the University of the West Indies University Centre.
Dr. Sharon Shafer, Professor Emerita of Music, recently participated in a concert sponsored by the Friday Morning Music Club and presented at the Ellipse Gallery in Arlington: the performance included her playing the piano and singing in a program "The Women of Tin Pan Alley" based on her research regarding the contributions of women composers to the early twentieth-century development of popular song. The program will be repeated this month in Bethesda, MD at a benefit sponsored by The City Choir of Washington and again at the Sumner Museum in Washington, DC in February.
Assistant Professor of English Wendy Bilen Thorbjornsen gave a campus reading from her book Finding Josie, recently published by Wisconsin Historical Society Press. The reading was one of several Professor Thorbjornsen has given from this unique memoir about her grandmother.