News & Notes - October/November 2009

Here are a few of the things some of our faculty are up to:

• Lisa Ruchti will join Rick Voss from Social Work on a panel titled, “Unionism and Excellence in Higher Education” for the APSCUF Labor in Higher Education conference in Harrisburg, October 17, 2009. She will discuss how she includes union organizing in her Gender, Labor, and Globalization course.
• Lisa Ruchti will be presenting a lecture on care ethics and intersectionality theory for the WCU Philosophy Forum on October 21, 2009.
• Lisa Ruchti has organized two student and alumni panels for the PASSHE Women’s Consortium November 5 and 6, 2009.
• Lisa Ruchti will present two papers at the National Women’s Studies Association meeting in Atlanta Georgia, November 12-15, 2009:
  
  
  1. Intersectionality, In/appropriate Intimacies, and Invisible Labor: Challenges in Nursing Ethics
  2. Care as Economic Exchange: How Nurses and Patients Shape the Purchase of Intimacy at the Intersections of Race, Gender, and Nationality
• Paul Stoller has been named Visiting Professor of Anthropology at Rhodes University in South Africa. He will teach there in July-August 2010.

Here are some things that may be of interest to our undergraduate majors:

• Undergraduates: Do you like sociological theory? Did you take Professor Leveille’s Soc 300 course? If so, you may be interested in taking his Soc 410 - Issues in Sociological Thought class this coming Spring 2010 semester. It is theory class that builds upon what you learned in Soc 300.
• Undergraduates: Are you interested in going to Peru over Spring Break? Academic Credits are available to do so. Contact Dr. Edmundo Morales (emorales@wcupa.edu) for more information.
• Undergraduates: The WCU College of Arts and Sciences Student Research Fund is accepting applications for fall awards (see attached information sheet and application). The deadline is Nov. 2, 2009. Talk to faculty if you are interested. Note also that the application is available on-line at http://www.wcupa.edu/_academics/sch_cas/CASStudentResearchFund.html
• Undergraduates, interested in presenting at the Eastern Sociological Society meeting in Boston in March? Here is some information about it. Contact any professor in the WCU Department of Anthropology and Sociology for more information. (If the faculty does not know about it, then contact Dr. John Leveille.) Here is the information:
  
  Below is information about Undergraduate submissions – posters, of course, but also a special and time-sensitive process for paper submissions. This information can also be found on the Annual Meeting page of our website (http://essnet.org). Please circulate to your colleagues and students who may be interested. We look forward to seeing you in Boston in March (March 18-21, 2010).
  

  Undergraduate Submissions Posters
  As has been the tradition, the standard method of presentation for undergraduates will be posters that will be displayed in several separate sessions during the heart of the conference. Undergraduates interested in participating should submit their poster themes using the Abstract Submittal System available on the ESS website (http://essnet.org) under the Annual Meeting tab. Please indicate that you are an undergraduate student and ensure that your submittal is entered by December 15.
  
  Paper Presentations
  Undergraduate students wishing to have their work considered for a regular paper session rather than the Undergraduate Poster Sessions must submit a completed paper, rather than an abstract, directly to:
  
  Dr. Jonathan M. White
  Assistant Professor of Sociology and Faculty Associate for Service Learning
  Burrill Office Complex
  Bridgewater State College
  Bridgewater, MA 02325

• Undergraduates, you might also want to consider the Pennsylvania Sociological Society annual meeting, to be held at Shippensburg on Oct. 23 and 24, 2009. Here is a letter sent by the President of the Pennsylvania Sociological Society describing this:
  

  To all Pennsylvania Sociologists,
  
  As President of the Pennsylvania Sociological Society (PSS), I invite you to join us for our 59th annual meeting to be held on the campus of Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, October 23 and 24, 2009. Karl Marx will return from the dead to visit us on Friday evening, October 23rd. Won’t you join us for this one-man play, Howard Zinn’s Marx in Soho performed by Bob Weick (see http://www.ironagetheatre.org/marx.html for more information).
  
  I’ve attached to this email our “call for papers,” information about our student paper and poster competitions and our conference registration form (Our deadline has been extended to October 8th). Our organization places a special emphasis on student involvement, significantly discounting student registration (which includes journal, lunch and other member benefits) and offering financial incentives as rewards for exceptional research and writing. We take pride in the inviting and collegial atmosphere of our annual meetings, and work hard to include as many voices in Sociology throughout the state as possible. This is why I am emailing you!
  
  We ask that you consider participating in our annual program and/or spreading the word to your colleagues and students about the professional development opportunities that PSS has to offer. Feel free to share with them our call for papers, student competition information, and registration form. More information can be found at www.pasocsociety.org.
  
  I thank you in advance for your time and attention. If there is anything else that you may need or wish to know, please do not hesitate to contact me at cmkimm@ship.edu or 717.477.1706.
  
  Kind regards,
  
  Dr. Chad M. Kimmel
  Associate Professor of Sociology
  Department of Sociology/Anthropology
  Shippensburg University of PA