Category Archives: Faculty

New Edition of Top Nursing Book Released

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— The newest edition of the nation’s most popular health assessment textbook is now available from author Carolyn Jarvis of Illinois Wesleyan University.

The book, Physical Examination and Health Assessment helps prepare future nurses to assess patient problems. Now in it’s fifth edition, the text contains new additions, all geared to a generation weaned on the Internet.

“Technology is here, and I want to be on top of it,” said Jarvis. “Students are so savvy that it makes sense to go this route.” Along with expanding the accompanying CD and Web site information that were introduced in the fourth edition, a new companion book is available both in pocket form and for personal digital assistants (PDA). “The pocket companion fits perfectly in a lab coat, and a lot of nurses are now carrying pharmacology information on their BlackBerrys, so the electronic version would give them a reference through examinations,” said Jarvis.

Also new is a series of 13 DVDs that focus on the body systems and head-to-toe examinations of adults and children. Jarvis wrote the script for the video and oversaw production. “I was there to make sure everyone had their examining hands in the right places,” Jarvis said of the video shoots. Just like the video, Jarvis is involved in every aspect of producing and putting together the book including writing most of the nearly 900 pages of the book. She also oversaw the layout and design. “The photos have to appear on the printed page exactly where I say to avoid confusion,” said Jarvis of photography taken by IWU Professor of Art Kevin Strandberg. “If I want students to be able to identify heart sounds, and tell you to put your stethoscope in a certain place, that photo has to be exactly where my words are.”

Jarvis does what she can to keep the book relevant and accessible. “I want students to take the book to class and write in the margins, not keep it in their residence halls,” she said. With each new edition, Jarvis decides what will be updated in the text. For the fifth edition, she added a section on functional assessment of the older adult. “The Baby Boomers are aging now, so it’s a timely chapter on how to do an examination unique to an aging adult,” she said. Jarvis said some older items were excluded from this issue. “There are some examination techniques that fall into disuse,” said Jarvis, noting the use of a flashlight against the skin to detect sinus infection. “Nurses today rarely use that technique, so I removed that from the book.”

Rincker Receives Grant to Study Women’s Organizations in Pakistan

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The American Political Science Association has awarded Illinois Wesleyan University’s Meg Rincker a $3,500 grant to continue her research on women’s organizations in developing democracies. Rincker, a visiting assistant professor of political science at IWU, will use the funds to conduct surveys in Pakistan.

“In new and emerging democracies, political decisions are often made by local governments,” said Rincker, who has also conducted a similar survey in Poland. “The goal of the surveys is to discover if these local governments are more accessible to women’s groups than the national government.”

Rincker, who has been with IWU since 2005, will carry out the surveys through connections with two scholars at the University of Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan. “Scholars there will assist in carrying out the surveys in Pakistan’s four provincial capitals and the national capital of Islamabad,” said Rincker.

The surveys will assess the priorities of women’s groups across Pakistan, and whether recently empowered provincial governments are responding effectively, said Rincker. “We want to know what issues are most important to women,” she said, noting the surveys will ask about healthcare, female literacy and the practice of “honour killings,” where women are killed, often by male relatives, for bringing shame upon their families through perceived sexual immodesty.

Professor Explores African Expressive Arts

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Men dance in celebration, wooden ships race across the water and hands beat handcrafted drums. It is a celebration on the East African island of Lamu, and for Illinois Wesleyan University Associate Professor of Anthropology Rebecca Gearhart, it is an opportunity to learn.

“The expressive arts that I study are challenging to describe in words, which is why I use visual media,” said Gearhart, who has been exploring traditions off the coast of Kenya. “These traditions include the dance competitions performed during festivals and rituals, wood carving, handmade ship building – all visually spectacular Swahili expressive art forms.”

Although anthropologists often use photographs and video to illustrate their ethnographic research, Gearhart explains that it is rare for anthropologists to have been trained to use visual media as a methodology in a “visual anthropology” course. “There are very few of us who teach visual anthropology, which is why it is so unique for our anthropology program at IWU to be able to offer it to our students,” said Gearhart. “The issues that visual anthropology raises allow us to teach the visual methods course as a course on anthropological ethics.”

An instructor at Illinois Wesleyan since 1999, Gearhart explains to her students that taking a photo as a visual anthropologist is more than illustrating what you write about the society under study, it is part of a methodology used to gather information in a collaborative way. And taking images of people must always be done with the ethical implications in mind. “When an image of a person is taken, that person is often viewed as representing an entire culture and rarely if ever has any input on how the image is interpreted or used,” said Gearhart. “The best visual anthropology is collaborative in nature and allows members of the society under study to participate in their own representation.”

According to Gearhart, taking photographs of people is a great way to build rapport. “Giving people copies of the photos you take of them is an important way to earn their trust, especially since most visitors promise to send photos but never do.” In addition, Gearhart uses photographs in the interview process. “You need to talk with the people in the photos, so they can explain what’s going on in the image,” said Gearhart. “It sounds simple, but those conversations provide detailed information that leads to a greater understanding of the culture.”

IWU Librarian Honored for Contributions to Downtown

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan’s University Librarian Karen Schmidt was awarded the Jean Anderson Downtown Improvement Award by the Downtown Bloomington Association and the City of Bloomington in recognition of her contributions to the downtown.

In presenting the award on Nov. 5, Bloomington Mayor Steve Stockton cited Schmidt’s work “to build a stronger, vibrant downtown and her tireless efforts to connect people and resources to secure a bright future for a vital city and city center.”

A member of the City Council, Schmidt represents the city’s Sixth Ward, which includes much of downtown. She joined Illinois Wesleyan in August 2007, following 25 years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The Jean Anderson Downtown Improvement Award is named in honor of alderwoman Jean Anderson, who served on the Bloomington City Council from 1989 until her death in 1996. Her dedication and leadership set the stage for a downtown renaissance by pioneering the idea of public and private involvement in downtown Bloomington.

Schmidt is actively involved with many non-profit and community organizations, including the Old House Society and the Bloomington Center for Performing Arts. She is the 2002 winner of the YWCA Women of Distinction award.

“Downtown Bloomington would not be where it is today without the leadership of Karen Schmidt,” said Greg Koos, president of the Downtown Bloomington Association and executive director of the McLean County Museum of History. “Her commitment to the economic strength and viability of the downtown is immeasurable. We are thankful for her dedication and devotion to this area and to the entire city.”

Team to Discuss Groundbreaking China Research at Asian Studies Colloquium

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Three Illinois Wesleyan University students and a professor who traveled to China this summer will speak about the groundbreaking work of their team at the Asian Studies Colloquium Series on Tuesday, Nov. 13, from 12:10 p.m. to 1 p.m. in Room E 103 of the Center for Natural Sciences (201 Beecher Street). The event is part of International Education Week on campus, and the public is invited to attend.

The Series is an opportunity for faculty and students to share findings from their specialized research on Asia. The presenting research team, led by Thomas Lutze, associate professor and chair of history at Illinois Wesleyan, journeyed to the Chinese cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Peking and Hangzhou, to explore urban planning in post-Revolutionary China. It is an area that has been relatively untouched in the field of Chinese history, according to Lutze.

“This is a significant research topic in modern Chinese history that has been overlooked in Western literature, and not very widely researched in China,” said Lutze, whose team investigated how the Communist government of 1949 addressed the chaos of post-war China. “After eight years of World War II and three years of Civil War, the infrastructure of urban China had been pretty much destroyed. There were a lot of people who were in desperate need of housing, of health care, of schooling.”

In order to explore the issue, the team received an ASIANetwork Freeman Student Faculty Fellows Grant that allowed them to travel for nearly three and a half weeks in June and July to universities, archives and sites in the three cities. The five IWU students on the team were each assigned a topic to research: pollution, education, housing, sanitation and health care. “We were able to go into the stacks and look up articles, with the help of translators of course,” said Christy Ivie, a junior sociology major who studied efforts of the government to provide housing. “We walked through the housing built by the government. It was incredible to actually see what we were researching right in front of us.”

Scholar At Risk Joins Illinois Wesleyan Faculty

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— When militaries overrun governments and dictators rise to power, it is most often the universities and centers of learning that are the first to become targets, said Taye Woldesmiate, visiting associate professor of political science at Illinois Wesleyan University. “Education is key to any democratic process. Education leads to questions and to knowing your rights. Autocrats are always against education. It is their way of defending their powers.”

Woldesmiate should know. He spent six years in an Ethiopian prison after speaking out openly against the government, and now comes to Illinois Wesleyan as a Scholar at Risk (SAR). “Any armed group who comes to power is not going to give it up with an election,” said Woldesmiate, who joined the IWU faculty this fall as a visiting professor. “They can always try to come back with a bogus election, but an educated electorate will refuse that. That is why autocrats are afraid of education.”

Illinois Wesleyan is a founding member of the Scholars at Risk Network, an international group of over 80 colleges and universities in the U.S. and around the world that promotes academic freedom and defends the human rights of scholars worldwide. Scholars at Risk institutions provide sanctuary for persecuted educators, such as Woldesmiate, by hosting them as visiting professors, lecturers, researchers or students.

National Science Foundation Grant to Expand Psychology Studies

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.- The National Science Foundation has awarded a $100,000 grant to Joseph Williams, associate professor of psychology at Illinois Wesleyan University, which will go toward purchasing an EEG acquisition machine, or electroencephalography machine, to expand research within the Psychology Department.

“EEG technology can help us understand how the brain processes information, and why problems might arise in memory or critical thinking,” said Williams, who teaches courses in behavioral neuroscience. “For instance, we can map out how changes in brain activity allow us to better encode and recall visual information or how changes in brain activity relate to mistakes in remembering information. The new EEG recording system will allow IWU students more in-depth exploration of the complex interaction between brain and behavior.”

EEG readings record cellular activity in the brain, which allows us to see how the brain actually processes information. “We know what can affect behavior before the tests begin – influences such as self-esteem, age, even physical fitness. We can also observe decisions. Using the EEG machine fills in the blanks in the middle, allowing us to watch subjects’ brain activity as they make decisions,” said Jason Themanson, assistant professor of psychology at IWU.

Currently, the University has an EEG acquisition machine, but Williams said its capacity is limited. “The EEG acquisition machine we have can analyze three regions of the brain at once. The new machine will be able to look at 64 regions at once,” said Williams. “This is a giant leap in our ability to answer important research questions that our students are interested in studying.”

Illinois Wesleyan Is All About Being ‘Green’

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – As late summer rains turn the Illinois Wesleyan campus literally green with thriving foliage, a contingent of students, faculty and staff are hatching plans to turn the campus still more green in the environmentally friendly sense.

Sixteen representatives of the University attended the biennial Greening of the Campus conference at Ball State University in early September, quite possibly the largest delegation of any of the 173 participating institutions. IWU representatives included members of the Sierra Student Coalition, students and staff from the Office of Residential Life (ORL), and a group of faculty and staff who delivered a presentation, “Integrating Sustainability Into Higher Education at Illinois Wesleyan University,” based on a 2006 campus workshop and its outgrowth in curriculum development and sustainability efforts among participants. “Sustainability,” which reaches beyond environmentalism to social justice and economic concerns, is the concept of meeting the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

While at the conference, IWU representatives agreed to join the Focus the Nation project that will culminate on Jan. 31 with symposia held at universities and other venues throughout the country, centered on collaborative discussion about “Global Warming Solutions for America.”

Five Books to Read Before You Die

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – It seemed a simple request – ask Illinois Wesleyan University English professors what one book they would recommend people read before they die. Perhaps it would be something moving, profound – a book with which you would want to be buried so the words could remain close to you.

Even in their kind responses, there were questions. What if everyone says The Bible? Do you mean every book ever written? How do we choose JUST one book?

In the end, several brave faculty members overcame all worries and submitted their suggestions, even in the midst of preparing for their fall 2007 semester classes. Their replies, as rich and fulfilling as the books they chose, may offer insight into their personalities, perspectives and interests. Or perhaps they are simply a great introduction to the diverse and wondrous English faculty at Illinois Wesleyan.

Professor Publishes Critical Edition of Picaresque Novel

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – When Hispanic Studies Professor Carolyn Nadeau began teaching a new advanced Spanish literature course in the spring of 2005, she discovered that the influential novel she wanted to teach didn’t exist in a text geared toward undergraduate study.

She soon contacted the publishing house Cervantes & Co. and had a contract to produce such a text herself.

La vida del Buscón, her critical edition of the 17th-century Spanish novel El Buscón by Francisco de Quevedo, was released this summer. El Buscón follows the misadventures of Pablos, son of a thief and a prostitute, as he pursues a lifelong dream of rising above his lowly upbringing and becoming a gentleman. As is typical of its genre, the novel is heavy with social criticism.

“El Buscón is one of the most important of the picaresque novels, which is a genre that started in Spain,” Nadeau said. The genre differs from literature before it, she explained, “because it deals with marginal characters who are – hopefully – inferior to the reader, where most books, from Greek myths to chivalric romances, have characters who are greater than the average reader: superheroes, gods, and knights who are like these James Bond characters. Other genres dealt with the aristocracy or bucolic ideal life. Then this (genre) comes along and deals with people who are just surviving, trying to find their way and having to turn to perhaps some immoral or illegal activities just to survive. It was new for readers.”

She also finds Quevedo’s novel a good choice for students because of his beautiful writing.

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