June 2007

The idea of spending a month abroad may bring to mind images of bus tours and cameras snapping away at majestic castles. But for students who travel with May Term courses at Illinois Wesleyan, there is more to discover than famous sites and guidebooks. They find themselves immersed in the differing cultures, peoples and ideas.

May Term is a month-long opportunity for IWU students to study a single subject intensively. The concept is designed for total immersion in order to erase the barrier between in-class and out-of-class learning. Illinois Wesleyan professors take students on a wide range of locales across the globe, such as sociology professor Teodora Amoloza, who journeyed to Hawaii with students to explore the cultural impact of immigration on a state has no majority group. Students of Scott Sheridan, associate professor of French, traveled to Italy to take in not only the art and artistry of Renaissance Italy, but the present-day lives of residents of the country.

This May Term, Professor of English Jim Plath took students to Ireland to study Irish poetry and art, which meant meeting with Irish artists. After visiting the tourist-friendly areas of Galway and Killarney, students stayed with Irish families in the remote village of Allihies. Near the village is the Allihies Language and Arts Center, where some of the country’s most noted Irish artists and poets came to speak to the students. “There are two things to do in Allihies—talk to the locals or commune with nature,” said Plath. “It’s kind of a hippie area where you find farmers and artists, a rugged and beautiful part of the country.”

Some of the students stayed with families who had no heat in their bedrooms or had to walk for 30 minutes to get to town, and cross a small river. “They all had their stories and adventures, and that’s what writers seek out,” said Plath, who believes the rural nature of the village drew students to the local culture and people. “When you rub shoulders with the locals and combine that with the dramatic beauty of the landscape—the wind, the rain, the mist—the students received an inspiration and an education that goes well beyond books,” he said.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill.—Illinois Wesleyan University President Richard F. Wilson announced that Professor Brian A. Hatcher of the Religion Department has been named the McFee Professor of Religion. This is the second endowed appointment announced at Illinois Wesleyan in the past week.

“The purpose of endowed professorships is to honor outstanding faculty who elevate the University with their teaching and scholarship,” said Wilson. “Receiving the McFee Professorship is a reflection of Dr. Hatcher’s excellent dedication and commitment to teaching and his ongoing scholarly work and to Illinois Wesleyan.”

The McFee Endowed Professorship of Religion was established in 1984 from the estate of Daisy McFee in order to honor her mother and father, Emma and Pulaski, and her brother, Alvin. It is one of 11 active named chairs and professorships at the University. The land, now known as the Illinois Wesleyan University McFee Farm, is located in McLean County, northwest of Bloomington.

A professor with Illinois Wesleyan since 1992, Hatcher graduated from Carleton College in Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1980. Earning his master’s degrees in divinity from Yale University in 1984 and in religion from Harvard University in 1986, Hatcher received his doctorate in the comparative study of religion from Harvard in 1992.

“I am honored and keenly aware I could not have risen to this appointment alone,” said Hatcher, a native of Minnetonka, Minn. “There are colleagues, teachers, family members and, of course, the institution of Illinois Wesleyan who must be considered as well.” Hatcher teaches various courses on religion at Illinois Wesleyan, and his scholarship focuses on the transformation of Hindu thought and culture in colonial and post-colonial India. An author of three books and more than a dozen articles and book chapters, his works are discussed worldwide.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— Illinois Wesleyan University Professor of Russian Studies and recent appointee of the Isaac Funk Professorship Marina Balina has received a research fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to continue her pioneering work with Soviet and post-Soviet children’s literature.

The $20,000 fellowship is jointly sponsored by the NEH, the American Councils for International Education and the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research. The NEH, an independent grant-making agency of the United States government, is dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation and public programs in the humanities.

Balina has earned an international reputation for her work with Soviet literature, yet she is one of the first to study children’s literature. “Soviet children’s literature has been dismissed as propaganda by Western scholars,” said Balina. “It is a new field to speak about Soviet and post-Soviet children’s works, and that is very exciting.”

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The concept of the fourth dimension can be a difficult one to comprehend. Although experimental physicists are now looking for ways to prove the existence of 4-D, often instructors do not approach the subject in class because they are not sure how to teach it.

Narendra Jaggi, Illinois Wesleyan University professor and chair of the physics department, and his student Andy Nelson are looking for ways to help bring the fourth spatial dimension into the classroom.

Jaggi draws two squares on a dry erase board in a classroom at the University’s Center for Natural Science. “You can’t really build a cube on a blackboard because the board is two dimensional and the cube is three dimensional,” said Jaggi, connecting the corners of the squares with lines. “But, you can draw a representation of a cube, so you have the perception of three dimensions.” Drawing on that idea, Jaggi and Nelson, an Illinois Wesleyan senior physics and religion double major from Mahomet, Ill., began to conquer the questions: Could there be a fourth spatial dimension and how can you display that in a three-dimensional world?

Jaggi and Nelson took the idea of creating a cube, and built upon it. “We wanted to create a model to replicate the fourth dimension in a spatial way. The goal was to create a teaching tool to help visualize 4D,” said Nelson.

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Marina Balina

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Illinois Wesleyan University President Richard F. Wilson announced that Professor of Russian Studies Marina Balina has been appointed to the Isaac Funk Professorship, a title that has not been given since 1921.

Named in honor of one of the University’s founders, the Isaac Funk Professorship was originally established in 1865—the first endowed professorship for the University. Instructors were named until funds were deemed no longer sufficient to maintain the professorship. In the fall of 2004, the Paul A. Funk Foundation made a major gift to re-establish the fund, with plans that the professorship would be awarded this spring.

“It is a priority of this University to build endowments to support faculty members and students, with generous support from donors such as the Paul A. Funk Foundation,” said Wilson. “Dr. Balina’s imaginative, innovative, and creative approach to teaching exemplifies an enduring commitment to education, which pays tribute to one of the founders of this University.” The Isaac Funk Professorship is one of 11 endowed professorships at Illinois Wesleyan.

“This is a wonderful honor,” said Balina, who will continue her pioneering work with Soviet and post-Soviet children’s literature. “This will give me the opportunity to stimulate research for my students by taking them to various conferences and workshops, strengthen my international contacts, and invite more renowned speakers to campus to offer our students diverse educational experiences.”

A native of Russia who earned her doctorate at Leningrad State University (now St. Petersburg), Balina joined IWU’s faculty in 1989 and is a member of the University’s Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures.

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