Funk Professorship Re-established After 86-Year Absence

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.

2007 Alumna Offered Fulbright Grant

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.

Merwin and Wakeley Galleries to Present Artwork by Visiting Artists and Students

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.

Director of Institutional Research and Planning, Assistant Provost Named at Illinois Wesleyan

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.

School of Nursing Faculty to Participate in Development Workshop

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – A faculty team from the Illinois Wesleyan University School of Nursing has been selected through a national competition to participate in a series of education events to enhance the teaching of undergraduate public health education. The events are part of the first joint education collaboration of the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) and the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research (APTR).

The IWU faculty team is composed of Cindy Kerber, professor of nursing, and Laurine Brown, professor of environmental studies and health. Kerber will attend the Public Health and Liberal Education Faculty Development Workshop to be convened in Washington, D.C. on July 9-10. The workshop participants will tailor the experience to their own needs and interests by focusing on one of three breakout sessions: Public Health 101, Epidemiology 101, and Global Health 101. Each content area will provide curricular frameworks and syllabi illustrating the types of materials that can be used as well as successful teaching techniques. The workshop will offer hands-on participatory exercises designed to provide practice using and critiquing a range of approaches to teaching and curriculum design.

A member of the faculty team will also have the opportunity to participate in a one-day skills building institute held in conjunction with the APTR Annual Meeting in February 2008. The entire team will participate in an expanded faculty development institute schedule for July 2008 in Washington, D.C.

Professor Wins Templeton Grant For New Approach on ‘Reduction-Emergence’ Debates

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University Associate Professor of Philosophy Carl Gillett has been awarded a John Templeton Foundation Grant to write about his new approach to debates over ‘reduction’ and ‘emergence’ within the sciences and philosophy.

The mission of the John Templeton Foundation is to serve as a philanthropic catalyst for discovery in areas engaging life’s biggest questions. These questions range from explorations into the laws of nature and the structure of the universe, to questions on the nature of love, gratitude, forgiveness and creativity.

“My work seeks to widen our understanding of these views and their implications about the world we live in and our own natures,” said Gillett.

Over the last 80 years, science has developed what Gillett calls a “reductionist” point of view, contending that all objects composed can be reduced down to their components, such as atoms. However, at the turn of the 21st century, scientists in a range of disciplines are once again embracing an “emergentist” view that opposes scientific reductionism, accepting that all things, including humans, are thoroughly composed.

“Professor Gillett’s work is unusual in the debate over reduction and emergence in that he begins by taking both “sides” seriously,” said the John Templeton Foundation Director of Life Science Programs Paul Wason. “It is also unusual in its ambition and promise–to produce a serious philosophical work that will also be valued by scientists for their own work.”

Professor Takes Students to France Via Internet

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Right now, Illinois Wesleyan University Associate Professor of French Christopher Callahan should be walking up the steps to the Solesmes Abbey with the chants of the Benedictine monks echoing all around. Callahan planned to bring students to France and England to explore Gothic and Romanesque cultures, but he was halted in his plans by the high cost of travel.

“We could not make the trip financially feasible. The dollar is not doing well against the cost of the euros and pounds,” said Callahan from his office overlooking IWU’s Eckley Quadrangle in Bloomington, Ill., which is a long way from the castles and abbeys where he hoped to travel with students this spring during the University’s May Term. “It’s difficult for Americans to get abroad right now.”

Callahan estimated it would take 24 students to make the trip affordable, but fell short of that. Instead of canceling the class, he decided on another option. While researching material for his class, The Plantagenet World: France and England 1100-1400, Callahan discovered Web sites that included virtual tours.

Now sitting at his computer, he uses the mouse to pan 360 degrees to tour through the breathtaking Conques Abbey in southwestern France. The image on the screen angles up to the impossibly high ceilings and Romanesque arches. “With the help of the Internet, we can even go where tourists usually don’t,” said Callahan, maneuvering the image to peer down from a balcony onto the altar below.

Callahan plans to take his class on several virtual tours, including sites in Paris, London and the Loire Valley of France. “This is something that was not conceivable even two years ago,” said Callahan.

New Study Examines Impact of Islamic Religion on Muslim Youth

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – In the days since al-Qaeda became a household word, Westerners have grappled with the distinction between radical Islam and Islam as practiced in mainstream Muslim culture. To gain insights into the impact of religion on Muslim youth, the first phase of a long-term study has found that social success is strongly linked to religious involvement within the Islamic majority nation of Indonesia, according to the study’s co-author Doran French, professor and chair of psychology at Illinois Wesleyan University.

This study of Muslim 13-year-olds found a correlation between religious involvement across many indices of social competence or success. French and his collaborators found that adolescents with higher degrees of spirituality and religious practice were more popular with peers, had greater academic achievement, displayed more prosocial behavior (being helpful to others), had greater self-esteem, and were more able to regulate their behavior. Those with higher religious involvement were less likely to exhibit deviant behavior or experience negative “internalizing behavior” such as depression or anxiety.

French suggested that a key to interpreting these findings is understanding the context of a homogenously religious culture, where religion permeates society and is a public, community identity rather than a compartmentalized, private experience as in the U.S. For example, he said, the team’s research assistants would stop meetings to observe the call to prayers, for which television shows also are interrupted.

“I think within a homogeneous religious society, being a competent person, being a successful person also means being a religious person,” French said.

Nine Students Joining the Teach for America Corps

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Nine Illinois Wesleyan University students will join Teach For America, the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates who commit to teaching low-income students in urban and rural public schools for the next two years. This is the highest number of students from Illinois Wesleyan accepted into the program in one year.

“So many students and corps members have told me this is a life changing experience,” said Bix Gabriel, regional communications director of Teach for America. “The students have the opportunity to make a real impact every day.”

The students will be sent across the United States this fall to assist in classrooms.

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IWU Students Take Lead On Publications

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The titles of the articles sound like they belong in the pages a lengthy government study or a high-gloss national magazine: School Vouchers: Does Increased Competition Benefit the Masses? A Study on Obesity and its Relationship to Socioeconomic Background and Current Earnings.

Yet these titles are in fact part of a unique publication, an economics journal produced and edited completely by undergraduate students at Illinois Wesleyan University, known as The Park Place Economist.

“It’s very rare to have an entire publication generated solely with the work of undergraduates,” said Robert Leekley, publication adviser and chair of the IWU Economics Department. “We’ve actually used it when we recruit faculty. It’s very impressive.”

Taking its name from the street that runs through Illinois Wesleyan’s campus, The Park Place Economist has been publishing for the last 15 years. Undergraduate students are responsible for gathering submissions, choosing articles, editing and proofreading and layout for the publication. The journal, published annually in print and online, acts a learning tool for the students.

“The look and feel of each year varies, depending upon the decisions of the students,” said Leekley. “But the experience students gain is the same. Working as a team and putting together the journal may be as important as anything they edit. The whole idea of the journal is to promote responsible writing, and hope the students learn the difference between what is good, and not so good research.”

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