In The News
New Director of Faculty Development
Upon the recommendation of the Faculty Development Board, Kelly Dillon, associate professor of communication and digital media, was named Wittenberg’s new director of faculty development.
Recognized recently with the Omicron Delta Kappa award in 2020 and the Matthies Award in 2022, Dillon has emerged as an exceptional teacher-scholar in her time at Wittenberg, including making significant contributions to the development of the faculty. For the past two academic years, she has served as a mentor for newly hired faculty across various disciplines, and has created and disseminated multiple resources to help best use Moodle and other technology-based pedagogical tools.
During the application process for the director position, Dillon indicated a sincere desire to link faculty development across different divisions at the University and to leverage the Connections Curriculum as a laboratory for enhancing the faculty’s work as teachers and researchers.
2022-23 Laatsch Scholar
Based on the recommendation of the faculty of Wittenberg’s Department of Political Science, Heather Hadar Wright, associate professor of political science, was named the 2022-2023 Laatsch Scholar.
Named for Professor Emeritus of Political Science Melvin Henry Laatsch (1905-1974), this recognition is made possible through an endowment funded during the Defining Moments campaign by a group of scholars and friends to honor the important influence Laatsch had on hundreds of students during his 30-year Wittenberg career.
Names and accomplishments of potential recipients are shared with the provost each year by political science faculty. The honoree also receives a professional development award from the Laatsch Endowment.
Wright, who currently serves as the director of women’s studies at Wittenberg, received her B.A. from Smith College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Fordham University. Her research and teaching focuses on politics and literature, including popular culture, the history of political philosophy, and gender ideology. She has published on Machiavelli, Plato, Irigaray and Don Delillo, and is currently at work on “The Star is Smashed: Deconstructing Gender in American Alcoholism Films,” part of a larger project investigating the politics of addiction and the role of shame in securing neoliberalism.
Wright was a Fulbright professor in the Department of Transatlantic and Media Studies at the University of Łódź, Poland in 2010-2011, and received Wittenberg’s Collegium Award for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching in 2013.
Good Reads
The Underground Railroad in Ohio, by Kathy Schulz, retired director of Thomas Library, was published in January 2023 by The History Press. According to the publisher’s press release, “Author and native Ohioan Kathy Schulz accurately details the development and workings of Ohio’s Underground Railroad with true stories of Addison White, John Parker and others.” Schulz currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with her husband.
On The Air
H.O. Hirt Professor of History Scott Rosenberg and a group of Wittenberg students recently led a packing event for the Lesotho Nutrition Initiative (LNI) in partnership with the Anthony Muñoz Foundation and students at Taft Information Technology High School in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The packing event was covered by Cincinnati local television station WKRC Local 12. Making sure that thousands of children in Lesotho in Southern Africa are fed, the group packed 10,000 meals inside the commons area after school.
Also Honorary Consul for the Kingdom of Lesotho and the director of Peace Corps Prep Program at Wittenberg, Rosenberg, who oversees the non-profit Lesotho Nutrition Initiative on campus, said that over seven years LNI has provided more than three million meals. Lesotho is one of the 30 poorest countries in the world with an estimated 35 percent of children in Lesotho suffering from severe malnutrition and stunting.
“This was a wonderful opportunity for our students for a variety of reasons,” said James F. Loomis, Taft school counselor. “I appreciate the work of the Lesotho Nutrition Initiative. While it serves malnourished children in Lesotho, it also helps our students find their place in the world.”
To see the news story, go to:
https://local12.com/news/local/high-school-students-volunteer-hungry-ch…
LNI also received local media attention when Wittenberg’s football team came together to assemble 30,000 meals for the organization on Wednesday, Feb. 16. A story and photos were posted in a Springfield News-Sun web feature.
Shout-Outs
Julius Bailey, professor of philosophy, dedicated significant time and energy working on a series of recent public presentations. Bailey did six presentations during the months of January and February titled “Back on the Road: Loving While Black,” speaking at West Virginia Wesleyan College, Davis and Elkins College, Second Baptist Church in Warren, Ohio, the Trumbull County African American Achievers Association, and Wittenberg.
Gabe Courey, assistant professor of economics, and Andrew Graff, assistant professor of English, will serve as Wittenberg’s faculty liaisons to the Lilly Fellows Program and Network, revitalizing the University’s participation with the Lilly Network and exploring common issues of church-related institutions.
