College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Recognizes Outstanding Faculty, Students
Contact: Kathryn Olmstead, (207) 581-3844, George Manlove (207) 581-3756
ORONO — The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will present its 2005 faculty and student awards April 22 in the Buchanan Alumni House on the University of Maine campus.
Dean Ann Leffler will host the award ceremony, scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. in the McIntire Room. She also will introduce faculty members recently promoted to full and associate professor.
Faculty awards will honor outstanding achievement in three areas. Psychology professor Douglas Nangle will be recognized for teaching and advising, English professor Constance Hunting for research and creative activity and history professor Alexander Grab for service and outreach.
The college’s Outstanding Graduating Senior Award will be presented to Dawn Norris of Hampden, a double major in sociology and psychology. Physics major Stefan Meister of Dortmund, Germany, will receive the Outstanding International Student Award, and Bethany Sallinen of Rockport will be honored as the Outstanding Graduate Student for her work in psychology.
Nangle, associate professor and director of clinical training for the Department of Psychology, receives high marks for teaching, despite the rigor of his courses. He teaches abnormal psychology, senior seminar, directed research and field experience courses at the undergraduate level and core courses for the doctoral training program, extending his teaching beyond the coursework in one-on-one work with students. A 1986 graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he received his master’s and doctorate degrees from West Virginia University, Morgantown.
Hunting balances her role as a teacher of creative writing with a career as an editor, publisher and literary scholar. Her poetry has been collected into volumes published by Scribner’s, the University of Maine Press, the National Poetry Foundation and New York-based Moyer Bell. Choosing to focus on Maine, she founded the Puckerbrush Press in 1971, a one-person operation that has become a forum for Maine writers producing more than 80 books and a biannual magazine, Puckerbrush Review. Her critical essays reflect her interest in writers such as May Sarton and Virginia Woolf.
Grab’s commitment to service springs from his specialties as a teacher and researcher, which focus on the history of Europe, the Middle East and the Holocaust. He has delivered more than 50 lectures on the Middle East on campus and throughout the state. An Israeli by birth, he is often interviewed by local media on tensions in the Middle East, as well as the Holocaust. A graduate of the University of Tel-Aviv, he earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Norris was nominated by the Department of Sociology for her academic excellence and her talent as a researcher. Her senior thesis explores the political efficacy of individuals at a local homeless shelter, where she worked as a volunteer and conducted 30 in-depth interviews. Her professors praise her intellectual curiosity and eagerness to digest knowledge, as well as her commitment to sociology that extends beyond the classroom.
Meister will graduate with a major in physics and a minor in mathematics. He has done sophisticated experimental and theoretical studies in the Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology and earned high praise for his work on a project at National Semiconductor in South Portland. A peer tutor for calculus and mentor for new international students, he led the department’s Society of Physics Students, organizing help sessions for undergraduates and coordinating outreach to high schools.
Sallinen is a clinician-scientist whose research examines social anxiety in children and their parents. She has conducted innovative studies exploring the relationship between parental behavior and excessive shyness in children, the results of which have been presented at numerous conferences and published in several papers and a book chapter. Currently on an internship in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Florida Medical School, she has been an effective teacher, mentor and member of the Graduate Student Association at the University of Maine.
Dean Leffler also will announce faculty promotions effective Sept. 1, 2005. Promoted to full professor are Marie Hayes, psychology; Harvey Kail, English; Tom Mikotowicz, theatre; Eric Peterson, communication and journalism; Dan Sandweiss, anthropology; Sandra Sigmon, psychology, Phil Trostel, economics; and Anatole Wieck, music. Promoted to associate professor with tenure are Raphael DiLuzio, new media; Marcia Douglas, theatre; Steve Evans, English; Benjamin Friedlander, English; Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei, philosophy; Andrea Mauery, art; and Jane Smith, French.
“We welcome the occasion to celebrate these extraordinary members of the liberal arts and sciences community,” Leffler says.