Visiting Instructor of Management Steve Wilkerson was honored by the Susquehanna University Student Government Association (SGA) with the 2004 Dorothy Anderson SGA Faculty of the Year Award. The award recognizes a faculty member with at least three years of service who has provided distinguished service through instructional excellence, community involvement, and outstanding teaching, both in and out of the classroom. He teaches business statistics in the Sigmund Weis School of Business and is advisor to the new, award-winning student group Students in Free Enterprise. The Student Government Association established the award in honor of Dean of Student Life Emeritus Dorothy Anderson ’62 for her distinguished service to Susquehanna University. Anderson served as the Student Government Association Senate advisor from 1967 to 2002.

Assistant Professor of Management Shruti Gupta

James Brock, dean of the Sigmund Weis School of Business, presented “Developing Study Abroad Programs: Small School Successes and Challenges” at the AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business-annual Deans’ Conference in Newport Beach, Calif., February 2004. His presentation focused on the school’s London Program and its growth in recent years to the point where currently more than 50 percent of Susquehanna business majors spend at least one semester studying abroad.

Paul Dion, associate professor of management, along with Shruti Gupta, assistant professor of management, presented papers at the American Marketing Association Summer Marketing Educators’ conference in Boston, Mass., August 2004. Dion delivered the paper “Relationship Commitment Determinants in B2B Services: The Situational Influence of Buyer Dependency” and Gupta presented “The Strategic Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in Generating Customer Loyalty and Brand Trial” at the conference. Gupta also presented the paper “Maximizing Company-Cause-Customer Fit in Cause-Related Marketing—A Social Identity View” at the third international conference of the Corporate Identity/ Associations Research Group, sponsored by the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and Annenberg School for Communication.

Assistant Professor of Geological and Environmental Sciences Jennifer Elick presented the paper “Updating the geology lecture: Virtual field trips for smart classrooms using digital video” at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Seattle, Wash., November 2003.

Associate Professor of Sociology Simona Hill

Gary Fincke, professor of English and creative writing and director of The Writers’ Institute, published Amp’d: A Father’s Backstage Pass. The book follows Fincke’s son as he pursues a career as a rock musician. Fincke has published 17 books of poetry and short fiction, including Writing Letters for the Blind, a collection of poems, which won the 2003 Ohio State University Press/The Journal Book Award. His collection of stories Sorry I Worried You, which won the 2003 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, was published in the fall of 2004. In addition, Fincke won the book manuscript competition at the University of Arkansas Press for his collection of poems Standing around the Heart, which will be published in 2005.

Simona Hill, associate professor of sociology, was named Faculty Mentor of the Year for 2004 by the Susquehanna University chapter of Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership Honor Society. This annual award is presented to outstanding faculty who excel both in the classroom and around campus. Hill presented at Temple University’s Department of African American Studies inaugural “Sisters Defining Sisters” conference, March 2004. She delivered a paper, “Black Women Inventing Transformative Pedagogy Among White Privilege.” At the 24th Annual Mid-Atlantic Undergraduate Social Research Conference, Hill delivered the keynote address, “So You Want to Be a Millionaire? Factoring Social Justice into Social Research,” held at Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pa., April 2004. Susquehanna University sociology majors and anthropology minors Stephanie Scafa ’05 and Jonathan Stepansky ’05 presented ethnographic research with the guidance of their advisors Shari Jacobson, assistant professor of anthropology, and Hill. Assistant Professor of Political Science Andrea Lopez attended the conference with international studies major Lara J. Eschbach ’04 and political science major Kristen Lopko ’04, who also presented.

Drew Hubbell, assistant professor of English, served as session chair for the Nineteenth Century Studies Association meeting, March 2004, where he presented a paper titled “Globalized Food, Nationalism and Taste in Romantic Literature.” Hubbell delivered the paper “Picnicking, National Identity, and Resistance to Globalization” at the interdisciplinary “Cooking Culture” conference held in July 2004 at the Institute of English Studies in London, England. He also presented a paper at the Wordsworth Summer Conference in Grasmere, England.

Assistant Professor of English Drew Hubbell

Assistant Professor of Economics Katarina Keller delivered a paper on “Education Measures and Inequality” at the opening session of the International Economics conference hosted by Yaroslavl State University, Russia, December 2003. She also presented at the session on Contemporary Educational Technologies and New Quality of Education. Keller co-taught a class with Keith Howe, senior lecture r at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. Howe lectured on free trade areas and Keller on the roles of trade, growth and education in economic development.

Amanda Meixell, assistant professor of Spanish, presented “Merlin, the Royal Legitimizer of the House of Austria? Ironic Prophecy in Lope’s La imperial de Otón” at the Association of Hispanic Classical Theater Conference held in March 2004 in El Paso, Texas. She also co-authored an entry, “Merlin in Spanish Literature (Golden Age),” for the 2005 Arthurian Encyclopedia. Assistant Professor of Management

Leann Mischel co-authored the paper “When Cultures (Egos?) Collide: Turbulence at Assurance,” which she presented at the Western Casewriters Association Meeting, in April 2004, in Anchorage, Alaska. Mischel also developed an expanded summer Business Challenge workshop at Susquehanna for top high school students in the East, repositioning and renaming it Leadership Institute for Entrepreneurs (LIFE).

Assistant Professor of Biology Matt Persons attended the National Council on Undergraduate Research annual meeting in Indianapolis, Ind., April 2004. At the meeting, he co-presented research on wolf spider behavior with Susquehanna students Nicola Haverstick ’04, Alexis Oetting ’04 and Ken Schonewolf ’04. At the same meeting, Professor of Biology David Richard collaborated on research presentations involving reproductive development in the fruit fly with Eric Burghoffer ’04, Kristi Koch ’04, Julie Merkle ’04 and Wade Znosko ’04; Assistant Professor of Biology Alissa Packer and Ashley Shade ’04 also presented research on fungal interactions with black cherry trees.

Assistant Professor of Theatre Erik Viker

Antonin Rusek, associate professor of economics, attended the conference “Economic Integration of Europe,” in Lodz, Poland, June 2004. He presented the paper “Toward the European Union: Polish Economy 1993-2002” and served as the conference co-chair. Rusek presented a paper, “Financial Integration and Growth in the Global Economy,” at the 57th International Atlantic Economic Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, March 2004. He also published a paper, “Economic Growth in the ‘New Economy’ Era,” in the Atlantic Economic Journal, Vol. 32, No. 1, March 2004.

Assistant Professor of Political Science David Schwieder presented a paper, “Ignorance is No Excuse: Political Knowledge and Policy Compliance,” and Assistant Professor of Political Science Andrea Lopez presented the paper “Peacekeepers, Peacemakers, and Nation-Builders: The Role of International Organizations in Conflict Termination of Civil Wars” at the Annual Meeting of the Northeastern Political Science Association, held in Philadelphia, Pa., November 2003. In addition, Schwieder delivered “Ignorance and Principle: Two Paths to Policy Compliance” and Lopez presented “Counterinsurgency, Peacemaking and Peacekeeping: Operational and Tactical Similarities” at the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association in New Orleans, La., January 2004.

Assistant Professor of Theatre Erik Viker chaired a panel titled “Realizing The Vision: Artistic Director/Scenic Designer/Technical Director Relationships in Academic Theatre” at the annual Association for Theatre in Higher Education conference in Toronto, July 31-August 1, 2004. The session explored strategies for modeling collegiality between theatre practitioners, focusing on integrating theatre design and technology education into an overall artistic goal. Viker also wrote an article on scenery production equipment that appeared in the February 2004 issue of Stage Directions, a national theatre technology publication. The article presented planning and organization options for theatre companies with limited resources.

Associate Professor of Biology Tom Peeler

Several Susquehanna faculty and staff participated in the 2004 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities which was held in Washington, D.C., January 2004. President L. Jay Lemons and Provost and Dean of Faculty Linda McMillin were part of a panel presentation, along with four other college leaders, titled “Collaboration between Presidents and Chief Academic Officers in Leading Institutional Change.” In addition, Dean of the School of Natural and Social Sciences Terry Winegar, Linda McMillin, and Associate Professor of Biology Tom Peeler were presenters in a session titled “Translating Mission and Planning into Action: A Case Study of Faculty/Administrative Collaboration.”