June 2007

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Rachel Slough, a 2007 graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University, has been offered a Fulbright grant to travel to Chile to teach English.

Operating in 150 countries worldwide, the Fulbright Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Envisioned by U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright in 1945, the program promotes a mutual understanding between people of the United States and other countries of the world. Since its inception, nearly 103,000 Americans have studied, taught or researched abroad with the program.

Slough received a grant through the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship Program to help improve English language abilities and knowledge of the United States abroad. “I’m very excited to work with students and have the chance to continue my research,” said Slough, who will leave in March 2008 and remain in Chile for 10 months.

An English and Hispanic studies double major from Charleston, Ill., Slough will be assigned as a language-learning assistant at one of eight host universities in Chile. Depending upon her destination, her duties could include teaching, tutoring and encouraging students to communicate in English. As part of her assistantship, Slough also will continue her research.

“I’ve been studying how detective novels evolve in Hispanic countries after the end of dictatorships,” said Slough, who wrote her Illinois Wesleyan senior honors research project on the subject. “Detective novels are typically a way for authors to voice their protests. The genre is particularly insightful because it employs popular culture and is read by a wide variety of citizens. Through the novels we can conceptualize the magnitude of change from dictatorship to democracy and the effects of this on daily life.”

Slough became interested in the subject while taking an IWU Spanish course that included a discussion of detective novels and films. While spending five months in 2006 studying and teaching English in Salamanca, Spain, she explored detective novels written after the reign of Francisco Franco. “I’m interested to see the similarities and differences between the novels in Chile and Spain,” she said of her plans to delve into novels of Chile written post-Augusto Pinochet.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan University School of Art will present an exhibition of three concurrent solo shows featuring the works of artists L.J. Douglas, Doug Johnson and Mark Sumner Forth on display in the Merwin Gallery, and the works of award-winners from the annual juried student show on display in the Wakeley Gallery. The galleries are located in the Joyce G. Eichhorn Ames School of Art Building (6 Ames Plaza West, Bloomington).

Free and open to the public, the exhibits will run from Sunday, June 10 through Sunday, August 19. During the opening, there will be a reception from 2 to 4 p.m. and, at 2:30 p.m., there will be a gallery talk with the visiting artists.

Summer gallery hours are Friday through Monday from noon until 3 p.m.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Michael Thompson, director of institutional research at The College of Wooster in Ohio, has been named assistant provost and the director of institutional research and planning at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Thompson succeeds Mona Gardner, the Adlai H. Rust Professor of Insurance and Finance, who will retire from Illinois Wesleyan at the end of July.

Illinois Wesleyan President Richard F. Wilson announced Thompson’s appointment, which is effective August 1, 2007. “We are delighted that Dr. Thompson will bring his expertise to Illinois Wesleyan,” said Wilson. “His knowledge and leadership skills will be strong assets to the university.”

In his role at Illinois Wesleyan, Thompson will report data to the federal and state governments, provide information to college guidebooks and conduct special data-collection and analysis projects for administrators and university committees. He also will work closely with the university Provost Beth Cunningham, the provost’s staff and the faculty on assessment initiatives.

Thompson earned both his master’s degree in sociology in 1997, and his doctorate in higher and adult education in the Department of Leadership in 2000, from The University of Memphis. He earned his bachelor’s degree in social science from Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tenn., in 1995, and his associate’s degrees in communications media and liberal arts in 1993 from St. Clair County Community College in Port Huron, Mich.

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