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Nova Southeastern University
Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences
3301 College Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314
Phone: 954-262-8408
Fax: 954-262-3930
www.undergrad.nova.edu
Highlight Reports for the NSU Board of Trustees
The Office of the Dean provides periodic reviews of college activities and initiatives. These Board Highlights are distributed to the Nova Southeastern University Board of Trustees, the College of Arts and Sciences Board of Advisers, and others in the community.
January 2008 | March 2008January 2006
The Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences has experienced very positive growth in student enrollment as well as a growth in the quality/caliber of students enrolled. The College has added several new faculty positions to support student enrollment, and (despite challenges from hurricanes and scheduling) these new faculty members are already making significant positive contributions in curriculum and student engagement.
The following highlights reflect significant events and achievements for students, faculty, and the college.
College News and Events
The Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences announced two new honor societies in its Division of Humanities:
At a Study Abroad Showcase organized by the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences in November, students and faculty members talked about past study abroad programs and about upcoming courses that will incorporate international components. Future destinations include Eastern Europe, Ireland, the Amazon, and Greece, among others.
Stanford University Egyptologist Kara Cooney, Ph.D., who served as curator for the King Tut exhibit in Los Angeles (now at the Museum of Art/Ft. Lauderdale), visited campus in early December to share her experiences working on excavations in Egypt. Cooney spent time with students in the University School’s lower division and gave a talk on main campus in which she discussed the cultural and religious traditions that inspired ancient Egypt’s elaborate burial practices. The event was sponsored by the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences and the University School, with special thanks to Board of Trustees member J. Kenneth Tate.
Ars Flores, NSU’s orchestra in residence, has announced its schedule of upcoming concerts in the Miniaci Performing Arts Center. Ars Flores is a unique center for musical education. Made up half by seasoned professional musicians and half student “fellows” from colleges and high schools, Ars Flores has become a home for mentoring the next generation of professional musicians. The orchestra provides musical education and collaborative opportunities for the Nova Singers and other campus arts organizations. The schedule includes:
The Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR) has announced its winter semester field trip schedule. The ILR, housed in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences, is an educational outreach organization offering programs for the South Florida senior community — including lecture courses, workshops, discussion groups, and field trips — that showcase NSU faculty members and visiting experts in the humanities, sciences, healthcare fields, and government. The schedule includes:
Student News
When it comes to growing up, many college students don’t often get a chance to sit down with senior citizens for frank discussions about how much has changed in the last 60 years. That’s not the case for a group of psychology undergraduates who took part in an October discussion group about aging with seniors from NSU’s Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR). The students were part of a course on Adolescence in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences taught by psychology professor Marcia Silver, Ph.D. The goal of the intergenerational project — organized by Silver, psychology professor Ellen Flynn, Ph.D., and ILR director Ed Aqua, Ph.D. — was to create a useful video guide for seniors that demonstrates critical aspects of healthy aging. For the video’s production, the students interviewed their senior citizen partners for reflections about their youth, as well as for insight into how to lead a healthy, long, and productive life.
Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences biology students Christine Lilja, Shani Kagan, and Lyubov Vayner were the co-authors on a December poster presentation with Scott Schatz, O.D., a professor in the Health Professions Division College of Optometry. The poster, “Prevalence of Dry Eye in a Haitian Clinic Population,” was presented at the American Academy of Optometry meeting in San Diego. Their collaboration is the result of ongoing undergraduate involvement in graduate school research projects, a critical way for undergraduates to gain a solid foundation and appreciation for research and scholarship.
Faculty News
Ben Mulvey, Ph.D., has been promoted to assistant dean for curriculum and instruction. In his new role, Mulvey will provide college-wide leadership on curricular quality, adjunct instruction, program assessment, and college communications. He joined the faculty of the Department of Liberal Arts (Humanities) in 1988 and has served as its director since 1997. Marlisa Santos, Ph.D., will serve as interim director of the Division of Humanities, where she has been the division’s assistant director and a faculty member since 2001.
The Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences has begun a new Faculty Lecture Series that will showcase faculty research and other interests. The series’ inaugural lecture will be “What Do We Really Know, Anyway?”, Tuesday January 10, noon–1 p.m. in the Parker Lobby. In the talk, Allison Brimmer, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Humanities, will discuss the evolution of conceptions of personal identity. The diverse topics of other faculty lectures scheduled for the winter semester will range from American prisons, U.S. foreign policy, and stingray biology to presentations about college study abroad activities.
Elizabeth Swann, Ph.D, director of the Athletic Training Education Program in the Division of Math, Science, and Technology, was named an editor of a new column in Athletic Therapy Today, a bimonthly journal for certified athletic trainers. The column, "Sports Medicine Omnibus," will begin in 2006. Athletic training assistant professor Patricia McGinn, Ph.D., in conjunction with Swann, has spearheaded a new quarterly newsletter highlighting students, events, and general program information for the athletic training program. Athletic training faculty and certified athletic trainers within NSU’s Department of Athletics contributed their time and knowledge to review and submit articles for the inaugural September 2005 issue.
Matthew He, Ph.D., director of the Division of Math, Science, and Technology, has been invited to become a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Systems. He was also invited to serve as series editor of "Using Bioinformatics in the Exploration of Genetic Diversity" for the Henry Stewart Talks Series.
Emily Schmitt, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Math, Science, and Technology, is advising honors biology student Maria Farrell's Honors Research Thesis, "The Effects of Aluminum on gene expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae". This is one of the first departmental-level research projects sponsored by the college’s Undergraduate Honors Program. Farrell and other biology students have been working for several years to incorporate genetics research tools, such as gene chip technologies, into their undergraduate curriculum under Schmitt’s direction. Maria Farrell was awarded a research grant from Beta Beta Beta, the national Biological Sciences Honor Society, for her project. She and Schmitt attended Cambridge HealthTech Institute's Fifth Annual Total Microarray Data Analysis and Interpretation Conference in Washington, D.C. in August to present their poster, "Investigating effects of aluminum on Saccharomyces cerevisiae: A model for laboratory-based investigative teaching".
Venkatesh (Vic) Shanbhag, Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Math, Science, and Technology, is serving as the chair of the South Florida section of the American Chemical Society (SoFLACS). The SoFLACS has a membership of more than 1100 chemists. Shanbhag attended the American Chemical Society's August meeting in Washington, DC, where he was the meeting co-chair for the Division of Chemical Education, which hosted more than 1200 talks and posters in 30 different symposia, including undergraduate chemistry research posters. Shanbhag also organized a symposium on "Nanotechnology in Undergraduate Education.” and participated in efforts to generate an ACS standard exam for General Chemistry, the exam will be released nationwide in early 2007. Shanbhag was also the co-organizer of NSU’s one-day Chemical Sciences Research Symposium in November. Three main talks and more than twenty research posters were featured on the theme of "Earth, Sea, and Air.”
Eileen Smith, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences, presented a paper at December’s International Conference on Social Science Research in Orlando. Her paper, “Black Churchgoers, Environmental Activism and the Preservation of Nature in Miami, Florida,” was part of a panel about “Race in America.” It involved research that Smith performed in Liberty City, Overtown, and Goulds, Florida to connect interviewee perceptions about the natural environment with their own history, sense of place, spirituality, and concern about public access to public lands. In addition, Smith was the chairperson of a conference panel on “Environment and Social Science Research” that included papers on ecotourism efforts as well as economic approaches to nature-based tourism. Smith was also the guest speaker at the Miami Sierra Club’s November meeting, where she spoke on the topic of “Diversity in Environmental Activism and Attitudes in South Florida.”
Jim Doan, Ph.D., a professor in the Division of Humanities, has been invited to give two lectures, “Ulster Scot Immigration to America” and “The Irish in the Caribbean,” at Murray State University, Murray, KY in April as part of a series on the Irish Diaspora. In addition, his paper, “Images of British Unity and Disunity in Shakespeare’s Later Plays,” has been accepted for a conference in Aberdeen, Scotland next summer that focuses on Icons and Iconoclasts: The Long Seventeenth Century, 1603-1714.
Division of Humanities assistant professors Tim Dixon, Ph.D. and Gary Gershman, Ph.D., discussed the implications of Congress possible renewal of sunset clause provisions in the USA Patriot Act. "Beyond the USA Patriot Act: Issues Facing Libraries and the Community," which took place in early November, was also sponsored by the Sherman Library.
Mark Duncan, Ph.D., assistant professor of theatre in the Division of Humanities, took part in West Palm Beach’s Rude Mechanical Productions’ December presentation of The Eight: Reindeer Monologues by Jeff Goode. Duncan portrayed the reindeer Comet in this dark comedy of true confessions at the North Pole.
Chick Lit: The New Women's Fiction, a volume of essays co-edited by Suzanne Ferriss, Ph.D., Division of Humanities literature professor, was published in October by Routledge Press. Ferriss also taught an honors seminar on chick lit during the fall semester. In its August 8 issue, Publisher’s Weekly listed Chick Lit as one of five “Titles to Watch” this fall.
Lorraine Stanchich, an adjunct writing professor in the Division of Humanities, read from her poetry and participated in a panel of authors as part of the Miami Book Fair International in November. Stanchich is the author of Witness, a collection of her poetry published in 2003 by Epic Press.
Darren Hibbs, Ph.D., an assistant professor of philosophy in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences Division of Humanities, delivered a paper, “Hegel on Idealism,” in November at the 51st Annual Conference of the Florida Philosophical Association in Cocoa Beach. The paper offered a critical assessment of Hegel’s concept of idealism and how the concept has been employed by historians of philosophy.
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