A total of 11 The University of Olivet students and faculty members were recently selected to present papers at the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts & Letters (MASAL) annual conference. This year’s event was held March 4 at Saginaw Valley State University.
“We are very proud of the students and professors who represented The University of Olivet at the 2016 MASAL conference,” said Karen Chaney, Ph.D., dean of faculty. “It is an honor for the college to be recognized in the greater academic community through the scholarship of these individuals.”
The Michigan Academy of Science, Arts & Letters is a regional, interdisciplinary professional organization that facilitates scholarly exchange through annual meetings and a quarterly journal of outstanding papers in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. MASAL member institutions consist of colleges and universities in the state of Michigan.
The organization’s annual conference, which covers topics ranging from chemistry, history and mathematics to political science, medieval studies, language & literature and more, is hosted once a year in March by a member institution. In addition to presenting at the conference, participants’ papers are also published in MASAL’s journal, the Michigan Academician.
The University of Olivet students and faculty who presented at this year’s conference include:
- Rebecca DeWeese ’15, of Charlotte, “Women at The University of Olivet From the Late 1800s to the 1950s” (faculty sponsor: Nikki Magie, Ph.D., archivist and assistant professor of social science)
- Pat Fields, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, “Initial Report of the Ponderosa Flora, a New Middle Miocene Megafossil Assemblage from Payette Lake, McCall, Valley County, Idaho”
- Kirk Hendershott-Kraetzer, Ph.D., professor of humanities, “It’s Joss Whedon’s World and We’re All Just Livin’ In It: Claustrophobia and the ‘Closed Frame’ in the Whedonverse”
- Dallas James, a senior from Roscommon, “Holistic Therapy Approach to Exercise and Well-Being” (faculty sponsor: Nancy Van Hoozier, associate professor of health and human performance)
- Victoria Mellino, a senior from Olivet, “Gone Viral” (faculty sponsor: Joanne Williams, associate professor of journalism and mass communication)
- John Moore, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology, and Nancy Ulrich, a senior from Union City, co-presented their paper, “Advising Instead of Empowering: An Examination of Conversation Analytic Research on Empowerment in Interaction”
- Rostam Sabeti, Ph.D., adjunct instructor of mathematics, “An Introduction to Tropical Geometry”
- Sahara Thayer, a senior from Battle Creek, “Cotton, the Catalyst of the British Industrial Revolution” (faculty sponsor: Magie)
- Bailey Tyler, a junior from Battle Creek, “The Influences of Coaches on Confidence” (faculty sponsor: Van Hoozier)
- LeeAnne Wonser, a senior from Mulliken, “Hannibal: A Horrific Attempt at Humanizing” (faculty sponsor: Hendershott-Kraetzer)
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