Faculty Notes

Barbara Andereck

Barbara Andereck, professor emerita of physics and astronomy, published the article “A Room-Size Model of Lunar Phases,” describing an interactive demonstration she developed to help astronomy students visualize what causes the moon’s phases, how the phases change during the month, and what time the moon is above the horizon in different phases. The article was published in the January 2023 issue of The Physics Teacher.

Kira Bailey

Kira Bailey, asociate professor of psychology, coauthored the article “Effects of Media Use, Smart Phone Addiction, and Adult ADHD Symptoms on Wellbeing of College Students During the COVID-19 Lockdown: Dispositional Hope as a Protective Factor.” It was published in Frontiers in Psychology in December.

Mary Anne Lewis Cusato

Mary Anne Lewis Cusato, associate professor of world languages & cultures, wrote the article “The Djamila Phenomenon: How the Confinement of Two Algerian Revolutionaries Was Translated for a French and Global Public, 1956-1962.” It tells the story of female Algerian revolutionaries Djamila Bouhired and Djamila Boupacha, who were captured by French troops in Algeria, tortured, tried, and sentenced to death before both their cases went abroad. These women and their cases became the canvases upon which French media and intellectuals reflected on Algeria and the right to self-determination, as well as existential notions of freedom and constraint, nuances of second-wave feminism, and even France’s own nationhood and identity. The article will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association. In March, she published the essay “3 Key Ways to Connect Courses and Careers” in Inside Higher Ed. In the essay, she argues that all faculty can start with the following three steps to connect coursework and career: teach students to think about skills, not just content; maintain strong relationships with our recent graduates and connect them with our current students; and encourage interdisciplinarity. Finally, she also published a book review of Joseph Ford’s Writing the Black Decade: Conflict and Criticism in Francophone Algerian Literature in the Bulletin of Francophone Postcolonial Studies.

Nick Dietrich

Nick Dietrich, assistant professor of data analytics, coauthored the article “How Governance Shaped Military Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic,” which was published in European Political Science Review. The article presents original data on global military deployments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most countries deployed their military to combat the pandemic, but the shape and scope of these missions varied; some countries deployed the military for logistic operations, and others deployed the military to enforce lockdowns, for example. The article explores these differences and their relationship to governance. The article was published online March 1, and the print edition is forthcoming.

Rich Edwards

Rich Edwards, professor of performing arts, has directed several music events and groups. In the fall, he led the largest enrollment of the OWU Marching Bishops to 14 performances, including their first away game. He was the featured high school honor band conductor at the Tri-County Band Festival, which included a performance by the OWU Symphonic Wind Ensemble with guest conductor Chris Lizak. As director of the OWU Music Festival, Edwards managed a 2-day event in February featuring six large ensembles with over 270 band and choir students from 52 middle and high schools across Ohio. He also is collaborating with over 30 OWU students and staff to prepare the OWU Summer Music Camp (June 18–23) for band, choir, and orchestra students in grades 6-12. Learn more at owu.edu/SummerMusicCamp.

Michael Flamm

Michael Flamm, professor of history, returned to Buenos Aires to co-teach a Fulbright seminar on “The USA Today” for a select group of Argentine lawyers, journalists, educators, and officials. He also will continue to serve on the Finance Committee of the Executive Board of the Organization of American Historians, the largest and most important professional association dedicated to the teaching and study of U.S. history. Finally, he gave several presentations as part of OWU’s Lifelong Learning Institute.

James Franklin

James Franklin, professor of politics & government, published the article “Human Rights in Latin America” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies in January.

Eric Gangloff

Eric Gangloff, assistant professor of biological sciences, along with a team of student researchers, conducted a project on wall lizards in the summer of 2021, supported by Summer Research and OWU Connection funds. The experiment they conducted, on the relative importance of body shape, claw shape, and temperature on the ability of lizards to climb and cling, is now published as the article “Climbing and Clinging of Urban Lizards Are Differentially Affected by Morphology, Temperature, and Substrate” in the journal Integrative Organismal Biology 5, Feb. 2023. Gangloff also coauthored (with Neil Greenberg) the book chapter “Biology of Stress” in Health and Welfare of Captive Reptiles, 2nd Ed. In this chapter, Gangloff and Greenberg review research on stress biology in reptiles for a wide audience, including captive managers and research biologists.

Bob Gitter

Bob Gitter, professor emeritus  of economics, gave the keynote address at the Economics, Social Sciences, and Humanities section of the 11th International Congress of the Investigation in Basic Science and Agronomics at the Universidad Autónoma Chapingo in Mexico in September.  He spoke on “The Path to El Norte: The Causes and Effects of Mexican Migration to the United States.” Migration issues have been the main focus of his research in recent years, and he was excited to share his findings on Mexican immigrants in the United States with Mexican scholars from many fields.

Hanliang Guo

Hanliang Guo, assistant professor of math and computer science, coauthored the paper “Spontaneous Phase Coordination and Fluid Pumping in Model Ciliary Carpets,” which was published in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in November. In the same month, he also delivered a presentation titled “Periodic Trajectories of Rotating Micro-cylinders in a Confining Geometry” at the annual meeting of American Physical Society, Division of Fluid Dynamics.

Shala Hankison ’95

Shala Hankison ’95, associate professor of biological sciences; Eric Gangloff, assistant professor of biological sciences; and eight OWU students and recent graduates—Breanna Fry ’21, Alena Arnold ’23, A.J. Lashway ’23, Jenell Betts ’20, Sandra Otap ’22, Katherine Walter ’23, Makenna Juergens ’23, and Alax Crawford ’21—published the article “Effects of Reliance on Stored Sperm on Reproduction in the Sailfin Molly Poecilia Latipinna” in the Journal of Fish Biology.

Sarah Kaka

Sarah Kaka, assistant professor of education, and Michele Nobel, assistant professor of education, coauthored the article “Preparing Antiracist Teachers: One Teacher Preparation Program’s Journey,” which was published in the journal The Teacher Educator in November. This paper chronicles the journey that one teacher preparation program has embarked upon to intentionally prepare antiracist teachers who promote justice and equity in their classrooms.

Kaka also presented the paper “‘Divisive Issues’ Legislation: Teacher Perceptions of Curricular Autonomy as Related to Practice” at the College and University Faculty Association of the National Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA, in December. She also presented a poster session on “Using Online Simulations to Assist Teachers in Facilitating Controversial Discussion” at the same national conference. In February, she presented a paper titled “‘Divisive Issues’ and Collateral Damage: The Evolving Needs of Teachers Entrenched in the Culture Wars” at the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, IN.

Chris Modica

Chris Modica, assistant professor of psychology, was one of 10 faculty presenting mini-lectures at the 2022 i³ event in October. The popular event returned for the first time since 2019 and attracted a crowd of about 800 in Gray Chapel. Modica presented “Tolerating Uncertainty: What OCD Can Teach Us about Facing the Unknown.” Other faculty covered topics such as the knowledge of plants and the role of teaching in preserving democracy. You can see videos of the presentations on OWU’s YouTube channel. Photo by Paul Vernon

Chris Modica, assistant professor of psychology, and Vicki DiLillo, professor of psychology, coauthored two articles that were published in Body Image, 44 (2023): “A Structural Invariance Analysis of the Acceptance Model of Intuitive Eating across Black, Hispanic, and White Young-Adult Women”; and, with Viren Swami, “Measurement Invariance of the Broad Conceptualization of Beauty Scale (BCBS) across Black, Hispanic, and White Women in the United States”. The first article tests whether a theory of intuitive eating is valid among Black and Hispanic women in the United States. The second article tests whether a scale of conceptualizations of beauty is valid among Black and Hispanic women in the U.S.

Dustin Reichard

Dustin Reichard, associate professor of biological sciences, Abbi Turner ’20, and Mark Hauber, a professor at the University of Illinois, published the article “Twenty-two Years of Brood Parasitism Data Do Not Support the Mafia Hypothesis in an Accepter Host of the Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater)” in Journal of Field Ornithology 93(4):4, Nov. 2022. Turner conducted the research with Reichard as an independent study before she graduated.

Shari Stone-Mediatore

Shari Stone-Mediatore, professor of philosophy, published the article “Unsettling the Paradigm of Criminal Justice” in Radical Philosophy Review 25(2). She also received a grant from the Illinois Humanities Envisioning Justice program to complete a book of interviews of people with life sentences, which she is producing together with Karli Walsh ’24 and Athena Vakaleris ’22. In February, Stone-Mediatore co-organized and co-led a series of educational workshops on campaigns for fair parole review for people with long sentences. She also is serving as educational director for the decarceration organization she co-founded, Parole Illinois.

Samantha Tucker

Samantha Tucker, part-time instructor in English, published the book (with Amy Spears) Collective Chaos: A Roller Derby Team Memoir, which examines the evolution of the sport through the historical lens of Ohio Roller Derby, one of the founding leagues of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. Part sports autobiography, part cultural critique, the book offers the collective experience of a tenacious group of nontraditional athletes who play, officiate, plan, schedule, market, and manage the business of a (mostly) women’s amateur sports team.