Humanities Faculty Report 2005-06
Faculty
Book Publications:
LaVern Rippley, German, The Chemnitzer Concertina: A History and an Accolade (St. Olaf College Press).
Mary Titus, English , The Ambivalent Art of Katherine Anne Porter (U of Georgia Press). Prof. Titus’ book was nominated for the 2006 Minnesota Book Award in the nonfiction category.
Charles Taliaferro, Philosophy, Love, Love, Love and Other Essays (Cowley Publishers).
Margaret Odell, Religion, Exekiel (Smyth & Helwys).
Anantanand Rambachan, Religion, The Advaita World View: God, World and Humanity (SUNY).
Philip Stolzfus, Religion, Theology as Performance: Music, Aesthetics, and God in Western Thought (T & T Clark).
Articles, Chapters, Presentations, Papers, Conferences, Professional Offices, Committee Assignments: too numerous to mention.
Tenure:
Steven Hahn, History.
Promotion:
Vicki Harper, Philosophy, to Associate Professor.
Steven Hahn, History, to Associate Professor.
Completed Dissertations:
Gregory Walter, Religion.
Jason Ripley, Religion.
Torild Homstad, Norwegian.
Tenure Track Hires:
Jenny Dunning, English (creative writing/fiction)
Jamie Schillinger, Religion (Islam).
Tenure Track Searches approved:
Philosophy, for a position in Philosophy of Science.
Religion, for a position in Judaism.
Resignation of Tenure:
Rick Fairbanks, Philosophy.
Sabbaticals:
- Anne Sabo, Norwegian.
- Dolores Peters, History.
- Mike Fitzgerald, History.
- Vicki Harper, Philosophy.
- Mark Allister, English.
- Karen Marsalek, English.
- David Booth, Religion.
- James Hanson, Religion.
Appointments/Reappointments:
Anne Groton, chair of Classics.
Mary Steen, chair of English.
Margaret O’Leary, chair of Norwegian.
Gordon Marino, Philosophy, completed his term as the O. C. and Patricia Boldt Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities. During 2005-06 the terms of the endowed chair were reconfigured; Diana Postlethwaite, English, was selected as the new Boldt Professor for the 2006-09 term.
Grants:
Sabbatical support, Anne Sabo, Norwegian, from the American-Scandinavian Foundation and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Judy Kutulas, History, was selected as the College’s nominee for a NEH Summer Stipend (for 2007).
Mary Trull, English, American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship for 2005-06.
The German Department received a grant from the Literary Society Foundation of New York for its “important work in the areas of German language and culture.”
Colin Wells, English, NEH Summer Stipend, 2005.
James Farrell, History, was selected as St. Olaf’s Lilly Scholar for 2006-07.
Dolores Peters and Eric Fure-Slocum, History, received curricular development support for 2006-07 from the Lilly grant to the College.
Jeanine Grenberg, Philosophy, received a Millicent C. McIntosh Fellowship through the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.
Gordon Marino, Philosophy, received a large grant for the Hong Kierkegaard Library from the Mellon Foundation.
Colin Wells, English, received a released time grant for 2006-07 from the College.
James Hanson, Religion, received a 2006 Summer Scholarly and Artistic Activity grant from the College.
James Farrell and the History Department received a Teaching and Curricular Development grant from the College for the project “Cows, Colleges, & Curriculum.”
Maggie Broner, Leon Narvaez and Romance Languages received a Teaching and Curricular Development grant for “Enhancing Articulation: From the 230-Level of Spanish to Gateway to the Spanish-Speaking World” from the College.
Jan Allister, English, received a Faculty Development grant, summer 2005 for the study of linguistics.
Mary Trull, English, received a released time grant from the College.
Notes:
Carlos Reyes, English, completed his year as the College’s Consortium for a Strong Minority Presence scholar.
Gordon Marino, Philosophy, organized the fifth International Kierkegaard Conference in June 2005.
Mary Titus, English, was selected to be a Center for Innovation in the Liberal Arts (CILA) Associate for 2006-07.
Mary Trull, English, was selected as the College’s Visiting Research Scholar to the Summer Research Institute, Harris Manchester College, Oxford, summer 2005.
Todd Nichol, History, was honored as an Officer of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit.
Margaret O’Leary, Norwegian, served as the Faculty Observer-Elect to the Board of Regents.
Mary Titus, English, was the Director of the Center for Integrative Studies.
Eric Lund, Religion, served as the Director of International and Off-Campus Studies.
James M. May, Classics, served as Provost and Dean of the College.
Solveig Zempel, Norwegian, served as the Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary and General Studies.
James Hanson, Religion, served as an Associate Dean of Students during 2005-06.
Steven Reece, Classics, delivered the annual Mellby Lecture on campus, “Homer, Jesus, and Bass Fishing in Minnesota,” on October 27, 2005.
Edward Langerak, Philosophy, delivered the Honor’s Day convocation address.
Gordon Marino, Philosophy, received the Gertrude Hilleboe Award from the College’s Residential Life division.
A STINT Fellow from Sweden, Patrik Mehrens from Uppsala University, was in residence at the College, in the English Department; he prepared a report on the American liberal arts college.
Departments/Programs:
Major speakers/visitors sponsored:
- Prof. Richard Miller of Indiana Univesity
- Prof. Deanna Thompson of Hamline University
- Prof. Ian Barbour, emeritus of Carleton College
- Prof. Karen Lebacqz
- Prof. Gilbert Meilaender of Valparaiso University
- Prof. Toril Moi of Duke University
- Kirsten Seaver
- Finn Bennestad, University of Oslo
- Crown Prince Haakon Magnus and Princess Martha Louise of Norway
- Ben Whitney, US Ambassador to Norway
- Prof. Thomas G. Palaima, University of Texas-Austin
- Prof. Eugene N. Borza, Pennsylvania State University
- Gary Clayton Anderson
- Andrew Isenberg
- Jonathan Lear, University of Chicago (Belgum Lectures)
Major faculty reviews completed in English, History, Norwegian, Religion, and Romance Languages.
Susan Jorgensen completed eight months as the Acting Director of the World Languages Center. In Febrary 2006 Renata Debska-McWilliams was appointed as the Director of the WLC. During 2005-06 the WLC staff worked on plans for moving to WLC to new quarters because of the Science project.
During 2005-06 the Great Conversation program expanded include 119 of the entering class of 2009 in two cohorts of students. Professors Elizabeth Galbraith, Religion, Anthony Rudd, Philosophy, Jeanine Grenberg, Philosophy, staffed the one cohort, while Professors Maggie Odell, Religion, Bryn Geffert, Library, and Karen Cherewatuk, English, taught in the second one.
Professors Edmund Santurri, Religion and Philosophy, Jolene Barjasteh, Romance Languages, Laurel Carrington, History, and Diana Postlethwaite, English, completed the second year of teaching in the program.
Prof. Santurri, Director, completed staffing assignments for the next years and began a program review. The Great Con year ended with a week-long workshop for new teachers.
Irina Walter, Russian and Russian Studies, and Wendy Allen, Romance Languages, divided the year as Directors of the Foreign Languages Across the Curriculum (FLAC) program. After graduation they conducted a workshop for new FLAC teachers (Douglas Casson, Political Science, Rika Ito, Asian Studies,
Tony Lott, Political Science, Kent McWilliams, Music, Gregory Walter, Religion, and Kathy Tegtmeyer-Pak, Asian Studies and Political Science). During 2005-06 Jolene Barjasteh, Romance Languages, taught the first FLAC course tied to the Great Conversation program (French).
Humanities Faculty:
CEPC and the Faculty revised the guidelines for the BTS-B and BTS-T General Education requirement.
There were no retirements in the Humanities Faculty.
Humanities’ departments planted campus trees in honor of David Wee, English, and in memory of Susan Lindley, Religion, and Lloyd Hustvedt, Norwegian.
Students:
Benjamin Heidgerken, a Religion and Philosophy major, was selected for a summer seminar on the “Catholic Intellectual Tradition” at the Erasmus Institute, University of Notre Dame.
Cristina Narvaez, a German major, received a DAAD Bundestag Award for 2006-07.
Kate Olson, a German major, was selected for the Rimbach Teacher Award, Martin Luther Schule, Rimbach, Germany.
Kathryn Sederber, a German major, received a Graduate School Experience Fellowship to the University of Pennsylvania.
During 2005-06 the College selected the first Summer Undergraduate Research award:
Jen Hatch, class of 2008, for writing, editing and research in philosophy of religion with Charles Taliaferro, Philosophy. The Classics Department awarded research grants to Michael Gulden and Emily Holm for the summer of 2006.
Emelie Heltsley, class of 2007, together with Prof. Timothy Howe, History, received the 2006 Magnus the Good Award for the collaborative project, “Battle Plan for Mediaeval Pedagogy,” through the Center for Integrative Studies at the College.
Keeley Esterhay, Kendra Olson, and Kirstine Wynn, Class of 2006, received Awards for Outstanding Accomplishment in Classical Studies from the Classical Association of the Middle West and South.
Jennifer Starkey, class of 2007, received a first prize in the Advanced Latin Translation Contest sponsored by the national Classics honor society, Eta Sigma Phi.
Prof. Timothy Howe, History, together with several history majors, established a Society for Ancient History on campus.
Overview:
The academic programs and departments in the Humanities Faculty are strong and healthy. Faculty teach full courses and design new ones, even as they maintain a breakneck pace of professional activities. Departments are refining strong majors and introducing new international courses. The same faculty that does the lion’s share of General Education courses also contributes the most to various interdisciplinary programs. Most Humanities majors are growing.
- Enrollment pressures. During 2005-06 the Humanities Faculty grew slightly in FTEs, to accommodate the expansion of the Great Conversation and to redress years and years of high enrollments. The decision of the Dean’s Council, to ensure that every first year have at least one intimate class setting (under 20), pressed the Faculty to be exacting on enrollment calculations and to adapt to some larger classes, often at pressure points in the curriculum. The “Rule of 19” touched the Humanities Faculty the most, as we have attempted to keep all FYWs, all Religion 121s, the History Seminars, and all sections of the three Conversation programs under 19; in addition, we have kept level I Philosophy courses and beginning language courses small. The move to make smaller level I courses in many departments has required adaptation on the size of many level II courses.
As the Associate Dean for the Humanities, I have worked with chairs and directors on these adaptations and, eventually, on a reduced staff plan for 2006-09, a plan in which some of the gains of the last years have been given up. There continues to be moderately heavy enrollment pressures on most courses in the Humanities, the faculty that delivers the most GE requirements at St. Olaf. While we have few large classes, we routinely have wait lists for popular and required courses, and first years and sophomores commonly find registration rather difficult.
- Disruptions of Space and Location. The prospect of disruptions of teaching and departmental/program space added a second pressure to the faculty. The start of the Science project appeared on the horizon suddenly and caught the College without sufficient planning and consultation. Quite a few Humanities programs and departments faced immediate disruptions in their locations: the World Languages Center, the Great Conversation, and Romance Languages particularly will face immediate relocations, while more generally all the faculty teaching in Old Main will feel the effects of the building project. Locating a new facility for the WLC proved to be the most difficult and time consuming task of the year, a task that remains under negotiations right now. Romance Languages has found decent housing in Old Main for its faculty members; regrettably, the Great Conversation will lose its home in Steensland after several years of enhancing of the classrooms there; the jury is still out whether the WLC will have dignified and appropriate facilities in the library. Meanwhile, the chapel project exploded on the Religion department, again without sufficient planning, preparation and consultation. The result has been a dirty, noisy, disrupted spring and summer for classes and office life. Of course, it is impossible to build and reconstruct major buildings without disruption; but with proper facilities planning, we might have saved ourselves much time and grief.
- Personnel Issues. Finally, I wish to note that I spent an inordinate amount of time with troubled faculty members and conflictive departments and programs. It is a mystery to me why there are many dysfunctional professors and many programs hampered by conflicts, but the signs of the trouble can be seen in the culture of entitlement and in endless and ready email complaints.
Not reporting: Great Conversation.
Charles A. Wilson
Associate Dean for the Humanities.
15 June 2006
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