Master of Arts News

Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:22:21 GMT

Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg was recently selected as one of the 2012 BlogHer Voices of the Year for her article "The Path That Chose Me." The piece will be honored at the 5th annual Voices of the Year Community Keynote in the Identity category along with a total of 120 honorees worldwide in the six categories.

Rachel’s Master of Arts studies focus on cultural representations of disability. She shares her reflections and analysis in her powerful and thought-provoking new blog. In her latest musing she states, “The myth that we can control our bodies against difficulty, illness, injury, aging, and death is simply a blanket denial of physical reality, but the more I look, the more I see this myth all around me.” She links this mainstream myth promotion to the reason more money is spent on preventing the inevitable than in helping disabled people to have a better quality of life.

Shirley Rossi-Rivera

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:19:58 GMT

Shirley Rossi-Rivera recently returned from the 46th Annual Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, MI. New to the field, she found the 3000 plus attendees quite daunting; however, she encourages anyone interested in attending a conference in their field to “go for it.” “It can be intimidating at first,” she explains, “but you have to remember that you are among like-minds who offer a wealth of information."

Shirley’s favorite part of the conference was being able to attend presentations by some well-known Crusades scholars whose work she has read and cited. One such presentation was given by Dr. Carole Hillenbrand, an extremely well respected historian. She reports, “When Dr. Hillenbrand spoke you could have heard a pin drop. The reverence she was paid was mind-boggling."

Although Shirley’s own research into Christian and Muslim women and the Crusades only began a year ago, she discovered that her focus is unique. In fact, her topic has attracted serious attention from a well-known publisher who proposed a contract to publish her manuscript when it is finished. Not knowing how seriously to take such offers, she sought the advice of UI&U faculty. The advice given to her was to read Thinking Like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction and Get it Published by Alfred Fortunato. While she is not quite ready to tackle a manuscript, we look forward to hearing more about her book in the future .

Rudolph Ryser, Ph.D.

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 15:39:27 GMT

Professor Rudolph Ryser reported the content of an intervention to the Adhoc Working Group on the Kyoto Protocols (AWG-KP) summit in Durban, South Africa, in support of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC). His report stressed the urgency of strengthening the Kyoto Protocol and cutting greenhouse gas emissions to protect Indigenous Peoples, especially in Africa, who are already suffering from the impacts of climate change..

His report warned that pressures to weaken the Kyoto Protocols could result in at least 5 degrees warming, and could lead to the destruction of cultures and the ecocide of territories. The intervention called for the AWG-KP to incorporate safeguards for adaptation and mitigation measures that are negatively impacting Indigenous Peoples. The formation of such an Indigenous Peoples’ Expert Group under the Kyoto Protocol must include Indigenous Peoples to be certain their rights are protected: rights to lands, territories and resources, full and effective participation, as well as the right to free, prior and informed consent, in line with applicable universal human rights instruments, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Professor Ryser is currently lecturing in Mexico under a Fulbright Scholarship Grant regarding the application of traditional knowledge to food security adaptation strategies in response to the adverse effects of climate change.

Loree Miltich, Ph.D.

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 15:35:59 GMT

The March 2011 Exhibit at the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids, MN, featured Migration, a collaborative project by poets Loree Miltich and Susan Hawkinson, photographer Jackie Solem, and calligrapher Meridith Schifsky. Jackie Solem exhibited photographs from her travels that she explains changed her as she experienced diverse cultures of the world. Loree and Susan wrote in response to the photographs using a form that Loree calls “double-voiced” poetry. With Susan’s voice in the left column and Loree’s in the right column, the poem is also intended to be read line by line across the page to offer greater possibility. Follow this link to experience the poem.

Woden Teachout, Ph.D.

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 15:32:01 GMT

Among Pulitzer Prize-winning historians and other eminent speakers chosen for the First Wednesdays Humanity Lecture Series in Vermont, Woden Teachout presented Imagining America to a packed house. Using famous drawings, photographs and literature, Teachout led the audience through unfolding conceptualizations of America across four centuries. The country has been represented as a dangerous wilderness; through Norman Rockwell’s famous paintings of freedom of speech, of worship, from want, from fear; and, in a recent Egyptian cartoon, as an oversize Uncle Sam lolling on a recliner. Teachout emphasized the fact that America looks very different depending upon who does the imagining. Her speech drew on Benedict Anderson’s famous idea of the nation as an “imagined community” to question the very idea of America. She challenges us to actively choose how we imagine America and shape that vision into being.

The most recent publication of Dr. Teachout, Capture the Flag: A Political History of American Patriotism, has been reviewed by many national publications, including The Wall Street Journal.

Patricia Monaghan, Ph.D.

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 15:23:38 GMT

Patricia Monaghan's book of poems, "The Grace of Ancient Land," has been published by the Voices from the American Land project, established to "revive and amplify a dominant tradition in American letters — the poetry of place, whether urban, rural, or wild." Monaghan's book portrays the little-known Driftless Area of Wisconsin, named for its lack of glacial soil or "drift" and the only area of the Midwest that has been untouched by glaciation for the last half-million years. Of the book, editor Renny Golden said, "Her work falls in the tradition of Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic.” Yet it is a subversive moral vision in the tradition of Eavan Boland’s ethic of “powerful ordinariness.” Monaghan thus genders her land ethic. Monaghan does not mythologize the land but embodies its beauty and bounty in the luminous ordinary of planting, canning, the fleeting presence of deer and hawk. She implicitly links seasonal change to the cycle of birth and death. When she sees the hawk circling for field mice, she reminds us of the mortal path we trod and bids us to pay attention to what grace offers: the quickening unbidden moment." More information atwww.voicesfromtheamericanland.org.

S. Amy Desjarlais, M.A. 2012

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:53:29 GMT

A graduate of the M.A. and Center for World Indigenous Studies partnership program, Amy Desjarlais’s final project was a journey of both self-discovery and research into culturally-appropriate consultation methods. The thesis, “Emptying the Cup: Healing Fragmented Identity: an Anishinawbekwe Perspective on Historical Trauma and Culturally Appropriate Consultation,” addresses how historical tribulation continues to impact daily lives. Desjarlais explains that she uses the metaphor “Emptying the Cup” to describe the healing process: “The healing that takes place is akin to pouring the negative, self-defeating, and DANGEROUS ideals out of the vessel in order to make way for new things to replace it with. I sought out wisdom-keepers who could help me fill my vessel with teachings of our people, ways of healing and learning how to practice our way of life.”

The Canadian government has mandated consultation with First Nation peoples, which led Desjarlais to ask, “How can two completely different cultures successfully communicate, let alone consult, when the frameworks are so profoundly at odds with each other?” Her thesis is an exploration of the ways to bridge the worldviews, so individuals can come together to determine common goals, objectives, and understandings. The first step is to "translate" the consultation discussion so that the intent for all involved is similar. Desjarlais points out that building a culturally appropriate consultation will be unique for each group consulted.

Concetta Spano, M.A. 2010

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:48:51 GMT

Concetta Spano, alumna of the History and Culture Concentration, recently received the 2012 New Jersey Governor’s Teacher Recognition Award for the Hopatcong School District. More importantly, she reports, “The greatest gift was my students telling me that I am the best teacher and many saying I am ‘awesome.’ It brought tears to my eyes.

Spano first became interested in becoming a teacher while she was in high school. Inspired by President Herbert Hoover’s quote, “Children are our most valuable resource,” she chose to volunteer at a middle school to help troubled adolescents. There she discovered she has a real talent and passion for teaching. She went on to complete her bachelor’s degree in elementary education (K-8) and began to work for Hopatcong Middle School. Spano lives by Dr. Robert H. Shaffer’s philosophy on teaching: “We must view young people not as empty bottles to be filled, but as candles to be lit.” She enjoys each child and encourages their individual gifts. Spano’s pupils exclaim, “Mrs. Spano we love that you come every day and just listen to us.”

Amber Fellure, M.A. 2011

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:26:01 GMT

Amber Fellure strengthened ties with her grandmother, Ann Brown, during her archival research locating primary sources for her final document. Their shared passion for genealogy made the discovery journey fun for both of them. Fellure focused her study on the “French 500” who settled in her town, Gallipolis, Ohio. These French aristocrats, fleeing from the French Revolution, purchased deeds to the area around Gallipolis from land speculators. However, those that survived the shipwreck and other hardships to reach this promised land discovered their deeds were worthless. Fellure dug into their original accounts of how they managed to survive on the Ohio frontier and created a fascinating final document.

Amber Fellure, J.D., is the assistant city prosecutor for Gallipolis. After graduating from the M.A. Program, she began to teach history, law, and criminal justice classes at her local community college.

Jan Hurndon, M.A. 2011

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:20:06 GMT

Jan Hurndon started a blog as part of her Applications course to document her European travels that brought her up-close-and-personal with the subject of her research, French Gothic art and architecture. Hurndon’s primary focus has been on the use of light in the architecture. She explains,

The builders of the great Gothic cathedrals sought to recapture the holy light of creation in a literal and figurative sense, to recreate the Heavenly Jerusalem for the earth-bound believer. The Gothic cathedral would also serve to illumine the mind and transport the spirit of the medieval pilgrim in a way that no physical structure before or since has been able to do. It is a seemingly immortal testimonial to faith, as imposing and inspirational in its quiet presence as it was nearly a millenium ago.

The Chartres workshop was led by leading French researchers and restoration archaeologists, and provided the inspiration for her own research. Hurndon’s final document for her MA degree was titled From Lux to Inluminare: Light as agent of enlightenment in the labyrinth and related elements of the French Gothic cathedral. She credit Union’s experiential and personalized approach with encouraging her to combine her interest in various disciplines – language, European history, her Christian faith, and Gothic architecture – into a culminating project that she found both academically challenging and personally enriching. Hurndon now teaches Western Art Appreciation on the college level and hopes to share that same cross-disciplinary focus and hands-on passion with her own students.

For more information about Hurndon’s travels, please visit her blog.

Elizabeth Jacquet, M.A. 2011

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:17:17 GMT

Elizabeth Jacquet focused her Final Document on the lesser-known civilization of the Etruscans, contemporaries of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Through careful examination of the artifacts these people left behind in burial chambers, Jacquet seeks to debunk the slanderous claims made by their Roman enemies. One of the most fascinating aspects of the Etruscan culture that Jacquet reveals is the equity between men and women. Iconography in the hand mirrors, for example, honors women as brides, wives, and mothers. Some reflect men and women reading together or competing as equals in games. One mirror shows a man and a woman playing a board game wherein the inscription reads “I’m going to beat you” above the woman, and “I do believe you are” carved above the man. Based on this and other iconography, Jacquet asserts that the hand mirrors are “Not just a tool, but a gift for a bride and a dedication to the deceased. The uniquely Etruscan bronze hand mirror demonstrated the power and equality of Etruscan women."

The M.A. degree from UI&U has not only enhanced Jacquet’s career as a history teacher, it has also given her the courage to start a high school summer program in France, called "L'Atelier au Chateau," with her husband. Although the curriculum emphasizes the fine-arts, creative and scholastic thinking are intertwined in each lesson. “I believe that my work at Union has given me the edge to stand behind such scholastic and artistic pursuits, and to confidently represent our program as a professional and scholar,” explained Jacquet enthusiastically. For more information, view their website at drawinginfrance.com.

Daniel Van Horn, M.A. 2011

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:16:16 GMT

Daniel Van Horn made an exciting historical discovery during his Applications course of a cache of original drawings and letters from the first official WWI artist commissioned by the U.S. government, J. Andre Smith. Not only did he focus his final document on J. Andre Smith’s role in the war, Van Horn’s find also resulted in his being asked to design a new, permanent exhibition at the Maitland Art Center in Florida.

Van Horn’s discovery showed the steadfast leadership of J. Andre Smith as he guided the “Art Squad” engaged to document the Great War. Smith operated under the belief that the Art Squad’s role was to faithfully create historical documentation of the war through their works of art. However, others felt the true purpose of the Art Squad was to roll out propaganda for use in the government’s ongoing struggle in the battle of public opinion. Smith’s perspective won out and, for the 8 months they were engaged before the end of WWI, the Art Squad’s drawings revealed the unsensational business side of war.
A House in Badonviller by J Andre SmithFor example, Smith admired the soldiers’ complacency around death, and documented soldiers relaxing in the bombed building remains as if the war “was a thousand miles away and not just the other side of the next building."( J. André Smith, In France with the American Expeditionary Forces (New York: A. H. Hahlo, 1919), 59.)

The scope of this primary source is so vast that Daniel Van Horn was able to use only a small part of it for his final document, and is continuing his research into Andre Smith to develop a complete biography. Based on his serious academic scholarship and successful museum exhibit of the life and work of Smith, Van Horn has been approached about other research and book opportunities.

David Gentilini, M.A. 2010

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:12:56 GMT

David Gentilini focused his studies at UI&U on how to create a relevant and accessible museum experience ̶ making the museum the "lung of a city." He continues his imaginative programming through his involvement in collaborating with five Columbus art galleries to produce On Display ’10 at Capital University Museum's Schumacher Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. The five galleries that displayed at the museum each represented their own niche in the art world, so they are able to collaborate to draw attention to the collective galleries and Ohio artists in general. The display was designed to introduce the general public to the galleries and spark further interest in art. For more information, see Columbus City Scene Magazine ’s article: “Five Visions.”

Glenda Taylor, M.A. 2010

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:12:14 GMT

Eminent cultural historian Glenda Taylor describes herself as a “griotte,” a mistress of words and music. Her master's thesis was published in 2011 and is available through Amazon.com: The Jalimuso’s Drum: African American Female Entertainers as Cultural Historians/Griottes. Using autobiographical lenses of African American celebrities, Taylor explores Civil and Human Rights Movements within twentieth century America through their diverse perspectives.

Other books she has written include Blind Light, The Secrets of Success: Quotations by African American Achievers, The Secrets of Success: The Black Man’s Perspective, and Truth Beyond Illusion: African-American Women 1860s-1950s.

Melanie Diedrich, M.A. 2009

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:40:12 GMT

Melanie Diedrich in the lab

Upon graduating from UI&U, Melanie Diedrich founded Archaeological Macroflora Identification (AMI), a subcontracting business serving archaeologists. She explains, “Macrofloral analysis from archaeological excavation is an important component of the overall analysis of a site.” Diedrich has been hired for this specialized work by such organizations as the Washington State Department of Transportation, Drayton Archaeology Research, and Rain Shadow Research, Inc., and Cultural Resource Consultants, Inc.

Diedrich’s successful academic career at UI&U resulted in articles published in both the Journal of Wetland Archaeology and Archaeology in Washington Journal. The articles Diedrich authored in Journal of Wetland Archaeology, Volume 9, focus on the site work she completed at Sunken Village Archaeology Site on Sauvie Island, Oregon, during her application courses. Her thesis work, "Pacific Northwest Paleobotany: Native Seeds and the Creation of a Comparative Library," was published in Archaeology in Washington Journal and describes the importance of sampling for botanical material in Pacific Northwest Archaeology, her efforts to design a seed-key, and the digital photography of native seeds as a comparative library for research.