Randolph professor publishes more books in EasyGuide series

A Randolph professor has published two more books in the EasyGuide series designed to help students grasp technical topics related to psychology and other social sciences research.

This month, SAGE Publications released An EasyGuide to Research Design and SPSS and An EasyGuide to Research Presentations, both co-authored by Beth Schwartz, the William E. and Catherine Ehrman Thoresen ’23 Chair in Social Sciences and assistant dean of the College.

Dennis Goff, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology, was one of Schwartz’s co-authors for the book on research design.

These books follow An EasyGuide to APA Style, which Schwartz published in 2013. “It started as a single book, but when I talked with the publisher after the success of that first book, we decided it would be great to add some additional EasyGuides,” Schwartz said.

The EasyGuide books aim to make information more accessible to students by conveying technical information in a more conversational tone, as well as combining information from a variety of sources, Schwartz said.

“The books include step-by-step instructions, with screenshots when applicable, to help with the logistics of writing, conducting statistical analyses, and creating presentation slides,” Schwartz said. “The information is easy to read, includes some humor to make what can be dry material a bit easier to digest, and has easy-to-follow examples.”

Schwartz said she has already started discussing potential topics for more books in the EasyGuide series.

Randolph professor named archaeologist of the year

A statewide organization of archaeologists has recognized a Randolph professor as the Virginia Professional Archaeologist of the Year for 2013.

Lori Lee, the Ainsworth Visiting Professor of American Culture, received the award for her years of research at Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, where she has helped discover, document, and analyze the lives of slaves who lived on the plantation.

The Archaeological Society of Virginia (ASV) attempted to present the award to Lee at its annual meeting last year, but she was not present due to family commitments. When the organization notified her of the award, she was out of the country. She finally received the award in the mail recently.

“It was a great honor to be selected for this award,” Lee said, adding that her membership in ASV has helped her grow as an archaeologist. “I am very proud of this award and the social relationships and exciting collaborative work projects that resulted in receiving it.”

In addition to the honor of receiving the award, Lee was delighted that she was nominated by a professional archaeologist who was once a student in one of Lee’s archaeological field schools at Poplar Forest. “It was very meaningful to be nominated by someone who I worked with in an educational environment who has gone on to pursue a career in archaeology,” Lee said.

Maier exhibitions feature work of student curators and art professor's paintings

This spring, the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College features two exhibitions created by the Randolph community.

Five students curated The Modern Woman: Roles or Reality?, an exhibition that explores how women are depicted in art. The exhibition Fear and Wonder includes 19 works that art professor Jim Muehlemann painted during the 2012-2013 academic year.

Both exhibitions will open to the public with a reception from 6–8 p.m. on Friday.

Last semester, art professor Leanne Zalewski taught a curatorial seminar designed to teach students how to curate an exhibition, from selecting a theme to hanging the paintings. Monica Varner ’14, Ainsley Hoglund ’14, Thea Ezinga ’15, Katie Vance ’14, and Hannah Neifert ’14 took the class and decided to explore artistic depictions of women and think about whether the art is true to women’s psychological and physical reality.

“I hope that we can create a discussion with our exhibition and get people thinking about how women are represented in art,” said Neifert.

Each student found several paintings and drawings from the College’s art collection that relate to the theme. Together, they chose which works to include in the exhibition, wrote wall text, and hung the paintings.

"Angels" is one painting in the exhibition Fear and Wonder.

The students appreciated getting to practice curating rather than only reading about it. “I was very excited to be able to work in a curation class, since this is the field I want to go into,” said Ezinga. “To get to do this, and get hands-on experience while still an undergraduate, is really amazing.”

The paintings in Muehlemann’s Fear and Wonder exhibition were inspired by Japanese art that often portrays striking beauty intertwined with fearful, violent images. Most of the paintings juxtapose graceful birds flying on alarming backdrops such as burning skyscrapers or flying arrows.

“While the birds in his paintings may evoke fear and wonder, they also appear hopeful,” Zalewski said in an essay she wrote in the catalog for Muehlemann’s exhibition.

The Modern Woman: Roles or Reality? and Fear and Wonder will be on view at the Maier through April 13.

Environmental poetry anthology garners great reviews

A poetry anthology co-edited by Randolph English professor Laura-Gray Street has been generating great reviews and conversations about the environment.

The Ecopoetry Anthology includes hundreds of poems about nature and the environment. The poems date from the mid-nineteenth century to today and include poets such as Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Ezra Pound, and Muriel Rukeyser. Street compiled the anthology with Ann Fisher-Wirth, a poet and professor at the University of Mississippi. The poet Robert Haas wrote an introduction, and Trinity University Press published the book in February.

The book has drawn significant interest and praise in reviews. “It’s a must-read for everyone concerned with our disappearing environment,” said one reviewer.

“Poetry might not derail the course we’re on, but the poems gathered here just might soothe what ails us,” stated another reviewer, who added that the anthology does a good job of portraying the way poetry responded to growing understanding of the world and the impacts human activity has on nature. “These poets wrestled with the radical shift in consciousness brought on by scientific breakthroughs, and promoted astonishing growth in the field of poetics.”

 “I’ve always thought poetry could change the world,” a third reviewer wrote. “With the best energies of Robert Hass, Ann Fisher-Wirth and Laura-Gray Street, and these assembled poets, I believe we have a chance.”

Street and Fisher-Wirth recently gave interviews that have been published in Poecology and Orion Magazine.

Street said that a substantial amount of her work on the anthology was completed during the Randolph College Summer Research program with the assistance of Ashley Hale ’08 and Anneka Freeman ’10.

New English professor publishes poem on first day teaching at Randolph

Gary Dop had good news to share on his first day teaching at Randolph College.

Dop learned today that a literary journal at Iowa State University just published his poem “The Last Thoughts of the Dying Girl.”

Dop wrote the poem for a series of persona poems that center around a murder. The poems are written from the viewpoints of a variety of people, such as the mother of the murder victim or the manager of her apartment complex. “The poem imagines the fractured thoughts of this girl as she's dying,” Dop wrote in a description of the poem. “I wanted what she said to mean nothing and everything, to sway between the moment and the dream of the moment, the dream of life.  I hoped it would be somewhat incoherent but to convey the gravity of the impending grave.”

You can read the poem here in Flyway.

Dop, an English professor, joins Randolph College after serving as the writer-in-residence at North Central University and the screenwriting faculty member in the University of Minnesota’s master of fine arts program. In addition to writing poetry, Dop dabbles in screenwriting, comedy, nonfiction, and playwriting. Father, Child, Water, his first book of poetry, will be published by Red Hen Press.

Art professor receives grants to support book

When did art collecting first boom in the United States? Leanne Zalewski, a Randolph College art professor, believes it happened earlier than many think, and she recently garnered two grants to support a book on the topic.

Her book, Before Impressionism: French Art in New York, 1867-1893, examines the history of postbellum art collections and what that history reveals about art and culture in New York and America as a whole, as well as how the increased interest in art collection changed the country.

Zalewski recently received a Diane and Trevor Morris Fellowship at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, to do research for her book, as well as a 2013 Mednick Fellowship Award from the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges.

Chemistry professor speaks at regional conference

Bill Mattson, a Randolph College chemistry professor, will present a speech about creative problem solving for a regional chemistry teachers’ conference this week, drawing on ideas he and his students have explored in chemistry classes and research at Randolph.

Bill Mattson talks with Emily Rist ’14 about a modified high-heeled
shoe she invented for one of his classes. Inventing solutions is one
form of creative problem solving he plans to speak about Friday.

The Middle Atlantic Association of Liberal Arts Chemistry Teachers (MAALACT) will begin its annual meeting on Friday, Sept. 28. Mattson will be the plenary speaker that night. His speech is titled “Creative Problem Solving in Chemical Research,” with its main focus being on the creativity he challenges his students to use when they approach problems.

Creative problem solving is featured prominently in Mattson’s courses at Randolph College. For example, his seminar course for first-year students challenges students to solve a problem that bothers them. They start with a “bug list” that names problems that irritate them. “From such a list they often get an idea for an invention—a requirement for the course,” Mattson said.

In his chemistry courses, he challenges students to think about applications that chemistry has outside of the laboratory. “One of the ways one gets ideas is to observe a property that can be applied to something useful,” he said. Mattson’s speech will include an example of this creative process from a class where he placed a marshmallow in a vacuum. In the airless environment, the marshmallow expanded for some time, only to reverse and collapse. Mattson and his students then brainstormed applications for that observation.

They concluded that using a vacuum chamber could help produce polystyrene—a plastic used in products such as egg cartons and disposable cutlery—while using less of a polluting chemical, or to shell peanuts more quickly.

Although his audience this weekend is a group of chemistry teachers who would have interest in the specific chemical applications, Mattson said his speech will mostly emphasize the importance of creative problem solving. “It can certainly apply to people and groups who aren’t chemists,” he said.

How to succeed in graduate school: Psychology professor co-authors chapter

If you want to know how to succeed in graduate school for psychology, Holly Tatum has advice for you.

Tatum, a psychology professor at Randolph College, recently co-wrote a chapter for Your Graduate Training in Psychology: Effective Strategies for Success, published by SAGE Publications this year.

Her chapter, “Setting Your Path: Begin With Your Dissertation in Mind,” provides advice that could help students save time by maintaining focus. “Sometimes in graduate school you get distracted by all the little things,” Tatum said. “It may be several years before you write your dissertation, but your activities should be framed by that ultimate goal.”

She wrote the chapter with Daniel Corts of Augustana College. They drew on some of their own experiences and lessons learned in graduate school at the University of Tennessee. “It was a good chapter to write because I made a lot of the mistakes that we wrote about,” Tatum said.

Thinking about the long-term goal of a dissertation can help beginning graduate students select an advisor, choose courses, and develop research skills that will be necessary for the dissertation, according to the chapter.

Tatum said the opportunity to reflect on her experiences helps her prepare her students for graduate school, and the final book is a good resource, too.

Psychology is one of the most popular majors at Randolph, where professors are well known for helping students prepare for graduate school through a rigorous curriculum and intense research programs. Among all undergraduate institutions, Randolph ranks among the top 14 percent for the number of graduates who go on to receive a Ph.D.

Bunny Goodjohn wins poetry prize

Bunny Goodjohn teaches English, writes poetry
and fiction, and recently won a poetry prize

Bunny Goodjohn ’04 answered what she thought was a routine phone call, only to find out about an exciting honor she had not expected.

“I answered the phone and discovered I was on a conference call with the Reed Magazine editorial staff,” said Goodjohn, who teaches English and directs the College’s writing program and tutoring services. “The editor told me the good news.”

Goodjohn learned that she had won the Edwin Markham Prize for Poetry, a prize sponsored by Reed Magazine and San Jose State University. The award comes with a $1,000 prize and publication in the magazine. Then the editors added to her surprise and delight by reading the remarks that the contest’s judge, Kim Addonizio, had written about Goodjohn’s work. (Addonizio is a poet whose work Goodjohn admires.)

Addonizio praised Goodjohn for “an ability to tell a story not just for the sake of narrative, but to get at a deeper truth; sentences that were complex and layered, as well as musical; and a sense of real presence on the page.”

“To have her consider my work and find it worthy is such a tremendous honor,” Goodjohn said.

Goodjohn submitted several poems to the contest, including two that she wrote during graduate school, one that she wrote after a camping trip in West Virginia two years ago, and one inspired by Paula Rego’s painting Family. The newest poem she entered, titled “Running 24 North,” came to her after she saw two stray dogs stop traffic outside Rustburg, Virginia.

Goodjohn studied writing and wrote a novel during her time at Randolph, and then she completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Southern Maine. She then returned to the College as an English professor.

Her work has also been published in The Cortland Review (in 2002 and again in 2004), The Texas Review, Connecticut Review, and Zone 3.