HBS Roundup: Scholarly and Creative Works

HBS Roundup

Scholarly and Creative Works Fall 2022 Newsletter

Residency in Ameliasburgh, Ontario.

GREETINGS FROM THE DEAN

The research and creative work that faculty and students carry out in the School of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences is nothing short of the pursuit of happiness. What leads us toward happiness? Here are some concrete answers to the question: 1) Pursuing projects that personally matter helps individuals feel authentically themselves; 2) The perception that the investments of personal competencies matter to others translates as living

meaningfully; 3) Making a positive difference breeds satisfaction; 4) Leaving something of value grounds efforts in personal legacy. All are important facets of scholarly inquiry, and the positive relationship between teaching and research lies in the fact that doing something with one’s life that matters to others creates happiness.

Intellectual productivity and teaching effectiveness are inexorably linked. Our scholarmentors enhance the development of students with research that advances the development of new knowledge, and service that contributes to the growth of communities while conferring intellectual flexibility, a precursor for innovation and creativity. This belief is explicit in our newly

adopted Mission Statement.

Tapping into the power inherent in education, humanities and social sciences faculty are pursuing research, scholarship, and creative works that have real impacts on the world around us and transformative effects on our students. Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” Faculty research and creative works inspire our students in the Humanities and Behavioral Sciences daily. Please enjoy this small window into the many ways how.

School of Humanities & Behavioral Sciences MISSION STATEMENT

Together, Humanities and Behavioral Sciences faculty and students work to bring practicality, imagination, and depth to how we think, feel, and act. The faculty of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences unites diverse disciplines that generate new research, scholarship, and creative expression concerned with how and why shared human experiences matter. That work forms the basis of our innovative teaching and mentorship and of our commitment to discovering durable, practical ways to create and share knowledge about ourselves and others. Our methods instill curiosity, awareness, and resilience as core habits. These habits are foundational to the creative problem-solving, logical reasoning, and clear communication necessary for finding significance and success within a strong ethical framework, now and in a dynamic future.

Collectively, HBS Faculty provide 12 Majors and 18 Minors and teach all HPU students, enrolling 13,000 in seats.

Together, we staff just over 730 course sections and deliver more than 50% of HPU’s general education instruction.

What our students say about us

“I value the opportunities to interact with faculty who challenge me and prepare me to interact in a global environment.”

- Alex Zimmerman, ‘24 Psychology and English Major “I’m so glad I’ve been able to pursue my academic interests and form great relationships with the faculty and my peers.”

- James Faircloth, ‘23 Religion and Chemistry Major

“I like that the professors see value in the material itself rather than it being a means to an end.”

-Kate Venis, ‘23 Philosophy Major

WELCOME

TO

THE

FAMILY New Faculty Join Our Departments

Carmen Calhoun Instructor of Spanish

Autumn Grosser Instructor of English

Dr. Morgane Haesen Assistant Professor of French

MaryEllen Martino Visiting Instructor of English

Dr. Mark Plume

Associate Professor of Sociology

Visiting Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice

Dr. Gordon Ballingrud Assistant Professor of Political Science

The Production Effect

You may not be completely crazy if you talk to yourself. In fact, recent research shows that our memory’s ability to recall is enhanced when words are spoken aloud.

Drs. Kimberly Wear Jones and Stacy Lipowski, both associate professors of psychology, are diving deeply into understanding explicit memory. The goal of their research is to extend studies on the production effect.

“Production effect” was first defined in 2010 by researchers MacLeod, Gopie, Hourihan, Neary and Ozubko. It’s a term used to name the finding that people remember words better if they speak them out loud as opposed to reading them silently.

In Lipowski’s words, “It’s a basic memory effect. If a person produces a word by writing, speaking, or even whispering it, instead of passively or silently studying it, then they are more likely to remember it.”

Synergistically, Lipowski and Wear

Jones worked with six HPU students to extend the research to populations of children and older adults as well as examine the written effect within those groups for the first time.

At HPU, students are introduced to research at the undergraduate level and are given opportunities to attend conferences that drive the next generation of psychologists.

HPU students Hannah Tameling, Ethan Muckerheide, Catie Brooke, Ava Demonte, Jenna Ginther, and Samantha Riveros worked closely with Wear Jones and Lipowski to complete significant data collection and gain experience with special populations. Collectively, they gathered data from children in first, third, and fifth grades, as well as active adults who reside in independent living centers or utilize the Roy B. Culler, Jr. Senior Center in

High Point.

“It’s not just collecting data in the community, it’s also establishing good will and community outreach in High Point,” says Wear Jones.

From Nov. 17-20th, the group attended the 63rd annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society in Boston, MA to present two posters with their research results.

The Psychonomic Society meeting is the premier conference for cognitive psychology. Attendees travel internationally to hear the best and most prominent researchers present current data in the field. Lipowski and Wear Jones love that they can bring undergraduate students with them to present, learn, and network on behalf of High Point University.

It’s rare for undergraduates to go to a conference of this caliber. Most

of the students in attendance are at the graduate level because that’s where other universities focus their research opportunities.

HPU is different in that regard. Because our students receive an extraordinary education in an inspiring environment, Lipowski and Wear Jones are able to mentor students and focus on research opportunities that include undergraduate students, As a result, HPU students have discovered graduate programs and met future mentors while attending previous Psychonomic Society meetings.

HPU student Ava Demonte shares, “Being able to attend Psychonomics was a wonderful opportunity that I am grateful to have been a part of. It was an amazing learning experience!”

And if you want to know the results of their research, then you’ll have to ask Wear Jones and Lipowski if they remember.

Dr. Rick Schneid explains the rules for the Battle of St. Privat, August 18, 1870 scenario to seminar attendees.

Pedagogy of War Simulation

Inside Dr. Rick Schneid’s office is a 4 by 4 foot folding table that’s covered with the strategy game Axis and Allies Europe 1940. Game play has been paused while students attend class, but Dr. Schneid keeps it safe until they return.

As Department Chair & Herman and Louise Smith Professor of History, Dr. Rick Schneid is a firm believer in using simulations as a teaching method in the classroom. This summer, he shared that passion with 20 young scholars during a summer seminar hosted by The National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

Along with other military historians, Dr. Schneid was invited to give two lectures in his area of expertise. His first lecture, titled “War in the 19th Century: 1848-1900,” was a content lecture on the historiography of 19th century warfare.

His second lecture, titled “Pedagogy of War in 19th Century,” taught Fellows how to use military art and classroom simulations of battles to understand the changing nature of war and warfare. It was so fascinating that it brought the Fellows back for more.

Left: Students present their research posters at the 63rd annual Psychonomic Society meeting in Boston, MA.

The seminar was a joint venture between The Society for Military History and the Jenny Craig Institute for the Study of War and Democracy. Together, the organizations created a month long program where junior faculty and doctoral candidates were connected with and mentored by senior historians. The goal was to foster young scholars and teach them how to bring military history from 1600 to the present to life in their own curriculum.

Dr. Schneid reflects, “They enjoyed it so much that we played again after dinner and had a great time.”

Rev. Dr. Robert E. Moses, associate professor of religion, presented a paper at the 76th General Meeting of the Society of New Testament Studies (SNTS) in Leuven, Belgium on July 26, 2022.

The paper, titled “Disciplining an Erring Believer: Matthew and Paul in Conversation,” demonstrated the commonalities among early Christian approaches to dealing with offending members in believing communities.

The Society of New Testament Studies is an academic society founded in 1939 to advance the study of the New Testament internationally. To become a member, a scholar must be nominated by two current members of the Society. Members of the Society have made, and are expected to continue to make, creative and constructive contributions to New Testament studies in an international forum. Rev. Dr. Moses has been a member of SNTS since 2019.

In June, Dr. Adam Winkel, associate professor of Spanish, presented a paper at and helped organize the 10th annual International Conference of the Hispanic Association for the Humanities (Asociación Hispánica de Humanidades or AHH).

The AHH is an academic and cultural nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting Hispanic humanities in the United States and other countries. It organizes a biennial conference in collaboration with a Spanish university across different cities in Spain. This year’s conference was held at the Universidad de Málaga, in Málaga.

While attending the conference, Dr. Winkel presented a paper, titled “Fútbol y fascismo en el cuento español de los sesenta” (“Football and Fascism in Spanish Short Stories of the 1960s”) as part of a panel on authoritarianism in the Hispanic world.

He has also been treasurer of the AHH since 2017 and was on the organizing committee for AHH conferences in 2018 and 2022.

In April, Dr. Claudine Davidshofer, assistant professor of religion and philosophy, traveled to Vancouver to give a presentation at the American Philosophical Society Conference. Her presentation focused on the work of the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard and the German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel.

Dr. Davidshofer’s goal was to decode and gather together Kierkegaard’s various critiques of Hegel in order to analyze why he disagrees with Hegel’s dialectical method, and why his critiques are important for understanding both his and Hegel’s larger philosophical projects.

Since Hegel can be a bit difficult to follow, she brought a small whiteboard and dry-erase marker, which she used to map out the logical structure of Hegel’s dialectical method and Kierkegaard’s critiques as she spoke. This helped the audience follow along and give good feedback on her presentation. Dr. Davidshofer plans to incorporate that feedback into an article, titled “Kierkegaard’s Critique of Hegel’s Dialectical Method” by next spring.

In April, Director of the Spanish Program & Associate Professor, Dr. Hayden Carron, was invited to three events in the Dominican Republic.

First, Dr. Carron presented “The Historical Fiction in the Dominican Republic” at a conference hosted by the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo. This lecture was wellattended by graduate students and university officials of the Humanities School.

Afterwards, he traveled to the Universidad Pontificia Madre y Maestra where he spoke to approximately 40 PhD candidates, along with professors and deans from the history and education departments, in a Q and A session about his awardwinning novel “Orlando, humano y ajeno.”

Before departing the Dominican Republic, Dr. Carron was invited to read from his novel by the Centro Cultural de España as part of the Santo Domingo International Book Fair.

On the Bookshelf

In October, Dr. Laura Alexander added another book to her list of published accomplishments. Women Writing Trauma in Literature features 16 essayists who explore trauma, literary theory, and psychoanalysis in women’s writing from around the world.

Dr. Alexander, associate professor of English, began researching trauma and women writers in 2003. Since then, she has authored four books and written more than thirty articles appearing in books and journals. This most recent work brings together a collection of scholars who investigate traumatic experiences within the writings of authors such as Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), Toni Morrison, Sedef Ecer, and Rupi Kaur.

Dr. Alexander has plans for a second collection of essays to be published in 2023.

“This literature can be as healing for readers as for writers. Perhaps that is the true function and meaning of literature, to heal a wounded world and to heal ourselves.”

- Dr. Laura Alexander

What are you reading?

Dr. Matthew Schneider, Associate Dean, Director of CITL, and professor of English shares his most recent read

The Philosophy of Modern Song, by Bob Dylan. Simon and Schuster, 2022.

The title of Bob Dylan’s new book—his first since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016—is a bit misleading. Instead of offering a systematic analysis of popular music, Dylan explores the life lessons and practical wisdom contained in more than sixty songs from nineteenth-century lieder to contemporary country and rap. Entertaining and enlightening, The Philosophy of Modern Song confirms what many fans have always suspected: Dylan’s creativity is fueled by an astonishingly wide and deep appreciation for all forms of music.

Pressing Matters

Overlooking Robin Lake in Ameliasburgh, Ontario is an A-frame cottage known for its stories.

Built in 1957 by Canadian poet Al Purdy and his wife, the cottage is home to the Al Purdy A-frame Residency Program. For six months out of the year, selected poets are invited to be writers-in-residence for one to four weeks at a time. During each residency, writers are given space and time to dive deep into their personal projects while being surrounded by Purdy’s books and records.

This year, HPU Associate Professor of English Dr. Charmaine Cadeau was chosen to be the writer-in-residence from June 12 - July 1. For three weeks, Dr. Cadeau worked towards her goal of completing her manuscript. She drafted 25 new poems, fully revised five poems, and created a body of working notes from reading and journaling.

Along the way, she collected inspiration from the natural beauty of the land. Soon, images of the resident heron and the sunsets over the lake were making their debut into her work. Before she departed the A-frame, she gifted the program administrators with two sets of 45 editions of mini-broadsides as well as a set of monoprint cards.

The most enjoyable aspect for Dr. Cadeau was the community service component that allowed her to share Purdy’s work in a hands-on way.

For one day of her residency, Cadeau hosted a printmaking event at the Picton Public Library. When she arrived at the library, she discovered that the elevator and ramp leading into the library were closed due to renovations. Improvising, Dr. Cadeau set up her printmaking event on the street in front of the library. As people passed by, she invited them to make prints with her. About 25 people accepted the invitation

and created gelli prints using flora and fauna that came from the A-frame’s yard.

On another day, she installed temporary public art in three

Above: Cadeau’s floral gelli prints

Below: Cadeau snaps a picture of a work in progress

locations around the county. Inspired by Purdy’s poems about rain, Cadeau created stencils from her cutting machine to quote him. She then used Rainworks, an invisible and water-resistant spray paint, over each stencil. The result was a pleasant surprise of art that only appears when it rains.

“When I think back to the gift of the A-Frame, it became a place where the work of poetry was, more than ever before for me, also the work of being in the world.”

Ritual and Guinea Pigs

Chavín de Huántar dates to 1200 BC and is famous for its labyrinthic galleries and supernatural images carved on stone. As one of the earliest temples in South America, Chavín is an ideal place to study ancient ritual practices. Dr. Silvana Rosenfeld, assistant professor of anthropology, has been working at the site to understand ritual artifacts, differential food access, and how interregional exchange played a role in the expansion of sociopolitical inequality in the ancient Andes.

Pulling from her expertise in ritual, Dr. Rosenfeld applied to and was selected for the workshop Coding the Past: The Challenges and Promise of Large-Scale Cultural Databases at the Santa Fe Institute in October. The Santa Fe Institute is the world’s leading research center for complex systems science.

The workshop was limited to 20 international scholars across disciplines of archaeology, history, and cultural evolutionary theory. For two days, the group provided feedback on a new open source research database for religious history. They explored converting qualitative information into the database as well as pedagogical uses in the classroom. Dr. Rosenfeld is excited to be part of new collaborative projects that will lead to publications, and to introduce the database to students for researching rituals and religions.

Shortly after returning from the workshop, she was notified that her ethnographic project, “Of Guinea Pigs and Mines: Changing Access to Animal Consumption at Chavín de Huántar (Peru),” would be published in The Latin Americanist this March. In this article, Dr. Rosenfeld explores how Chavín community members lost a traditional way of maintaining social ties through a ritual exchange of guinea pigs once a mining company began gifting them as part of their community development project.

Students gain real experiences

Survey Research Center

Political Science

Connecting classroom theory with real-world scenarios is one of HPU’s core values. With an abundance of opportunities for students, our Political Science department delivers an Experiential Learning environment that is getting noticed on our campus and within our community.

In November, Political Science was chosen as HPU’s Major of the Month. The accolade comes from HPU’s Office of Career & Professional Development and serves to highlight what students can do within a specific major. With 2022 being a midterm election year, our students had a plethora of hands-on experiences to choose from.

Students taking the Service Learning class, PSC 3332 Campaigns and Elections, with Dr. Martin Kifer completed 25 service hours by working with non-partisan organizations or specific candidates and political parties. Outside of the classroom, students learned how to run a polling center through HPU Poll in the Survey Research Center or met with U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R) and U.S. Representative Kathy Manning (D) during a Maymester in Washington, DC.

HPU Votes is yet another way students can practice community-based research and active problem-solving. Managed by the Center for Community Engagement, HPU Votes is an effort to register as many students as possible and then get them to the polls. The turnout rate was so high that High Point University has been recognized by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) as a 2022 ALL IN

Most Engaged Campuses for College Student Voting.

The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge empowers colleges and universities to achieve excellence in nonpartisan student democratic engagement. Campuses that join the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge complete a set of action items, with the support of ALL IN Challenge staff, to institutionalize nonpartisan civic learning, political engagement, and voter participation on their campus. The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge currently engages over 9 million students from more than 960 institutions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

and produce real outcomes at HPU’s

STUDY ABROAD

Peru

This summer, Drs. Matt Sayre and Silvana Rosenfeld led a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded archaeological excavation at Chavín de Huántar, Peru. This UNESCO World Heritage site is nestled high in the Peruvian Andes and its elaborate temple structures have intrigued researchers for over a hundred years.

Two HPU undergraduates, Corey Palubinski and Zyncli Ramirez, accompanied Drs. Sayre and Rosenfeld to conduct research funded by the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates Fellowship. While their research was cut short this summer due to unforeseen circumstances, they will get the chance to return next summer to complete their projects.

Highlight of the trip: Hiking up to 14,000 feet elevation and looking down on a gorgeous blue glacial lake below them.

Nineteen students traveled with Dr. Amanda Allen (History) and Dr. Scott MacLeod (Music) for 4 weeks-to experience England. They visited: Westminster Abbey, The Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Golden Hinde Ship, and the Globe Theatre.

All of these locations had connections with the rise (and sometimes fall) of the Tudor dynasty and the move of England from the Middle Ages to the modern era.

Highlight of the trip: Experiencing the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, which celebrated her 70 years on the throne. It was the first Platinum Jubilee England has ever had and is likely to be the last for quite some time. So, students got to be a part of history!

Sicily

TWENTY-six adventurous Italian Studies students traveled to the island of Sicily in May with Drs. Tessa Gurney and Anna Love. The group narrowly avoided both Scylla and Charybdis as they sailed by hydrofoil to the Aeolian Islands, examined the Necropolis of Pantalica’s system of 5,000 honeycomb tombs, and attended Davide Livermore and the National Institute of Ancient Drama’s production of Agamemnon in the 5th century BC Greek Theater.

SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES &

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Dean Ken Elston, professor of theater, presented “Mentoring New Leaders” at the Council of Colleges of Arts & Sciences annual conference in D.C. in November and led a workshop in presentations and storytelling for the Virginia U.M.C. Center for Clergy Excellence in Richmond, VA He attended the international summit on wellbeing in Bilbao, Spain in June and the annual conference of the WISE Network, Project Wellbeing’s Higher Education initiative.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Dr. Scott Ingram, associate professor, will publish Constitutional Inquisitors: The Origins and Practice of Early Federal Prosecutors through Johns Hopkins Press in September 2023.

ENGLISH

Dr. Bryan Vescio, Department Chair and professor, presented “Redemption without Salvation” at The Cormac McCarthy Society Conference in Savannah, GA on September 22, 2022. While attending the conference, he was elected to serve on the Editorial Board of the society.

Dr. Justin Cook, Director of HPU Writing Center & assistant professor, published “Standing Outside Success: A Re-Evaluation of WPA Failure during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” The article was co-authored with Dr. Jackie Hoermann-Elliot of Texas Woman’s University and is appearing in the 2022 Fall edition of WPA: Writing Program Administration.

Dr. Erica Horhn, instructor, co-authored a book chapter with colleague Sharon Lassiter, PhD. The chapter is called “Lost and Found: A Tale of Two Black Women Seeking Solidarity within Academia” in the book The Ivory Tower: Perspectives of Women of Color in Higher Education

HISTORY

Dr. Amanda Allen, assistant professor, collaborated with HPU students and library to

SEEN & HEARD

Presentations, Publications, & Podcasts

create Sitting with History, Vol. 1.

POLITICAL SCIENCE

Dr. Mark Setzler, Director of International Relations Program & professor, co-authored, “Gender, American Identity, and Sexism” with Dr. John Graeber. The article will be published in Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 137, Winter 2022.

PSYCHOLOGY

Dr. Kirsten Li-Barber, Department Chair & associate professor, showcased four posters at the Association for Psychological Science conference in Chicago this May. Two were collaborations with associate professor Dr. Kelly Curtis. Together, they presented “Personality Traits, Alexithymia, and Psychological Predictors of Health-Related Quality of Life” and “Parental Emotional Availability and Attitudes of Emotional Expression Predict College Student Symptoms of Alexithymia and Susceptibility to Stress.”

RELIGION & PHILOSOPHY

Rev. Dr. Chris Franks, Owen D. and Mattie Holt McPherson Associate Professor & Department Chair, visited Furman University to present “Make Friends, Not (Only) Donations” on April 19. He also published a book review of Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism, by Kathryn Tanner, in the July edition of the International Journal of Systematic Theology

Rev. Dr. Joe Blosser, Executive Director of the Center for Community Engagement & associate

professor, published an extended entry in the Encyclopedia of Religious Ethics titled “Consumption and Production.”

Dr. Carl Helsing, instructor, published the essay titled, “Zhuangzi’s Moral Psychology of Humor: The Playful Liberation of Self, Others and Society,” in the collection The Moral Psychology of Amusement. He also presented “Zhuangzi’s Epistemological Imagery: Border Paths, Ox-Bones, and Rabbit Snares” virtually at the International Society for Chinese Philosophy.

Dr. Beth Hupfer, assistant professor, presented “Ineffective Charity” at the North American Society for Social Philosophy Conference in July. Her scholarly article “Humanitarian Nations” was published online by the Journal of Global Ethics.

Dr. Caroline Mobley, instructor, presented “Moral Responsibility for Amusement” to the International Association for the Philosophy of Humor at the American Philosophical Association in Chicago, IL in February.

Rev. Dr. Preston Davis, Minister to the University, was featured on the Means of Grace podcast this summer. He spoke about the rise of fear and anxiety in young adults and the importance of college ministry to address such issues.

SOCIOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY

Dr. Rodney Reynolds, assistant professor, sponsored guest speaker Dr. Ayesha Ahmad from St. George’s Medical School University of London in collaboration with HPULearning

Communities, Cultural Programs Committee, and Faith Action Intl.

WORLD LANGUAGES, LITERATURES, AND CULTURES

Dr. Daliang Wang, Department Chair & associate professor, was invited by the NJ Chinese Teachers Association and the Fujian Students and Scholars Association of Greater New York to host a virtual lecture, titled “The Philosophies of Yangming through Taiji and Daoism” on April 3rd.

Dr. Sara De Nicolas, assistant professor, published the article “Looking for votes: a comparative study of political advertisements of the US presidential campaign of 2020 targeting the Latinx community” in the journal Revista de Lingüística y Literatura. On October 21st, she spoke at Georgetown University.

Dr. Denis Depinoy, assistant professor, presented the paper, “Des sentiers impossibles: La construction de l’espace médiéval dans Johan et Pirlouit de Peyo” at the 2022 Kentucky Foreign Language Conference in Lexington, KY.

Dr. Tessa Gurney, Director of the Italian Studies Program & assistant professor, spoke at the Carolina Conference for Romance Studies in Chapel Hill.

Dr. Benoit Leclercq, assistant professor, chaired a panel titled “Denaturing Narrative” and presented a paper on piétinement narratif in Les Misérables at the 2022 Kentucky Foreign Language Conference in Lexington, KY.