October 9, 1998

Faculty/Staff Footnotes

Evangeline Abriel, clinical professor of law, spent two weeks this past summer in the Washington Regional Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Abriel is working with the UNHCR Washington Regional Office on the drafting of a paper on the detention of asylum seekers in the United States. The paper will be presented on behalf of the UNHCR Washington Regional Office at an international conference on the detention of refugees and asylum seekers, scheduled for the spring of 1999.

Ralph Adamo, assistant professor of English and editor of New Orleans Review, delivered a lecture this summer at the New Orleans in Europe conference at the University of Warwick, U.K., on New Orleans poetry. He taught 20 high school teachers 20th-Century poetry in an institute made possible by a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Three of his poems were included in the anthology Uncommonplace, a new publication from LSU press. Four of his poems were solicited for the new edition of The Made Thing: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern Poetry.

Betty Jean Anderson joined City College as an evening and weekend office assistant.

Billie Salisbury Baladouni, assistant director in the Institute for Ministry, published two articles in the 1998 interdisciplinary volume Readers Guide to Women’s Studies. The articles are titled, “Christianity: Post-Reformation” and “Saints.” This volume provides the reader with discussions of some of the best books on over 500 topics and individuals in women’s studies.

Jeffrey Brian Barron joins the Twomey Center as coordinator of regional development for the ECOnomics Institute.

The Rev. Peter J. Bernardi, S.J., assistant professor of systematic theology, presented “The Semaines Sociales, Social Modernism, and Maurice Blondel” at the C.T.S. annual meeting at Saint Louis University in May. Also, his article “Liberation Theology: Looking Back to the Blondel and Social Catholicism” was published in Theology: Expanding the Borders, the annual publication of the College Theology Society.

Carl Brans, chair of the physics department, gave a colloquium lecture, “Scalar Fields in Theories of Gravity and Cosmology,” at the University of Konstanz in Germany in July. Also in July, Brans conducted a three-day seminar on Scalar and Gravitation at the Institut fuer Theoretishce physik at the University of Cologne. He will pursue his research with the working group on relativity and gravitation and computer algebra at the Institute for Theoretical Physics. Brans is particularly known for his research in Einstein’s general relativity and in the Brans-Dicke theory, an extension of Einstein’s theory. Specifically, he will research the role of scalar fields in physics and the implications of differential topology for spacetime geometry.

Derek Bridges joined the main library as a public service assistant.

Charles R. Brown was hired in the Media Center as a media services assistant.

The Rev. David Boileau, associate professor of philosophy, and Bernard Cook, professor of history, directed Loyola’s sixth summer study program in Leuven, Belgium. Twenty-eight Loyola students participated in the program, which not only thoroughly introduced them to Belgium, but also took them to Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Aachen and Cologne in Germany, and Verdun in France. Boileau and Cook attended the conference of the International Society for the Study of European ideas at the University of Haifa. Additionally, Boileau presented a paper on Cardinal Mercier and Cook presented a paper on the Valdôtaine Movement and the Valle d’Aostan Autonomy.
Cook also gave a lecture on the French Revolution at the spring convention of E.D. Hirsch’s Core Knowledge Foundation in Atlanta and was asked by the web master of the Republic of Abkhazia’s web site to include his article on Abkhazia from his forthcoming Europe since 1945: An Encyclopedia on the site at http://www.abkhazia.org/home_def.html.

Carol Burns was hired in public safety as an administrative assistant.

Sylvia Isabel Cochran joined the Counseling and Career Services Center as a career counselor.

Dawn Savoy Combe was hired as a processing and binding assistant in the law library.

Michael Cowan, associate professor in the Institute for Ministry, conducted a workshop on reconciliation for Protestant and Catholic community leaders in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Part-time lecturer Stephen Danker’s orchestral work, “Hurricane” was performed by the National Symphony Orchestra on Labor Day in Washington, D.C., for an audience of 50,000.

Julia Deal was hired as an administrative assistant in Student Health Services.

Leif Ekland was hired as coordinator of the Crescent City Farmers Market.

Barbara C. Ewell, professor of English in City College, attended the Syllabus Education Technology Conference at the InterAmerican University of Puerto Rico in June. She also presented a paper, “Shifting the Grounds of Being: The Spiritual Geography of Chopin’s ‘Athe-naise,’” at the International Conference on the Short Story in English in New Orleans in June. Ewell acted as evaluator for a Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities summer seminar, “Reviewing the British Tradition,” at Southeastern University in Hammond, and she served as consultant for and appears in the Louisiana Public Broadcasting’s 30-minute feature, Kate Chopin: A Re-Awakening, which premiered in August.

Joan Hanson was hired as a custodian in the Danna Center.

Bobby Marzine Harges, professor of law, recently authored several articles and books, including Louisiana Evidence, Problems and Materials; Mediation Advocacy in the Wake of the Louisiana Mediation Act; and 1998 Supplement to Harges and Jones, Louisiana Evidence, 3rd Edition. Also, Harges spoke on the “New Louisiana Mediation Act” at the annual meeting of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the Louisiana State Bar Association, and he was elected chair of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section at the annual meeting of the state bar association.

Lynn Vogel Koplitz, associate professor of chemistry, recently published a paper, “Impact of Industrial Effluent Diversion on Bayou Trepagnier, Louisiana,” in the journal Environmental and Engineering Geoscience, with co-authors from Tulane, LSU, and UNO.

Anthony Ladd, chair of sociology, returned from a year-long sabbatical at Duke University where he was a visiting professor in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Department of Sociology and conducted research on the social and environmental impacts of corporate swine production in North Carolina. During the year, he co-authored and presented papers at the meetings of the Association for Humanist Sociology, the National Land Loss Summit Academic Conference, the “Louisiana Environment ’98: Law, Science and the Public Interest” Conference at Tulane University Law School, and the Southern Sociological Society meetings. His recently co-authored “The ‘Female’ at Risk in Nature and Nurture” will appear in a forthcoming special issue of Proteus devoted to “Humans and the Environment.”

The Rev. A.R. Marlow, S.J., professor of physics, presented a paper, “The Small Scale Structure of Spacetime,” to the seventh U.K. conference on mathematics and conceptual foundations of modern physics at the University of Nottingham in England.

Janet R. Matthews, professor of psychology, recently returned from the annual convention of the American Psychological Association in San Francisco. While there, she also attended meetings of the International Association of Applied Psychology. She is currently one of six at-large members of the Board of Directors of the American Psychological Association, an organization of over 150,000 members and student affiliates. She attended meetings of both its board of directors and council of representatives during the convention. She has been elected to fellow status in the Division of International Psychology. Fellow status requires evidence of unusual and outstanding performance in the field of psychology.
During the convention, Matthews was honored by the Section on Clinical Psychology of Women of the Division of Clinical Psychology with their annual Mentoring Award for her work in guiding women into the discipline. She also served as personal host and chair of a discussion by authors Jonathan and Faye Kellerman.

Lee H. Matthews, adjunct associate professor of psychology, recently attended the 106th annual convention of the American Psychological Association in San Francisco. While there, he learned of his election to fellow status through the Division of Clinical Psychology. A member elected to fellow status must have demonstrated evidence of unusual and outstanding contribution or performance in the field of psychology as well as in the specialty in which the fellow status is granted.

Nobue Matsuoka joined the main library as a part-time service assistant.

Andrew Macdonald, associate professor of English and Gina Macdonald, visiting professor of English, recently published an article, “Beyond the X-Files: Kojak and the Cassandra Complex,” in the fall 1998 edition of Creative Script Writing.

Patrick N. McNeil was hired in information technology as a service technician.

Cathy Rogers, assistant professor of communications, presented a refereed paper, “Public Relations in the Kennedy White House,” to the history division at the annual national convention of Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in Baltimore.

Mark D. Rubinfeld, assistant professor of sociology, presented a paper, “Plotting Inequality: A Structural Analysis of the Four Hollywood Love Stories,” at the annual meeting of the American Sociology Association in San Francisco.

Ronald Schroeder, director of the Small Business Development Center, recently participated in the Total Community Action Program for Youth Entrepreneurship by volunteering to teach several courses to the students. Additionally, Schroeder coordinated the guest speakers on such subjects as peer pressure, entrepreneurship, and business ethics and practices. The program trains New Orleans youth on the value and methods of business ownership and management through classroom techniques and hands-on training with computers and business software. More than 80 students participated this summer and completed a successful final project: a student-run, organized, and marketed store for discount school uniforms and bundled household supplies. The money generated by these sales will fund next year’s program. For information on this program, call Schroeder at ext. 3187 or Fay Wooten at Total Community Action at 827-2282.

Ted Quant, director of the Twomey Center for Peace through Justice, was named an “Outstanding Person” by the Family Services of Greater New Orleans.

William F. Walkenhorst, assistant professor of chemistry, was awarded a Louisiana Board of Regents Support Fund grant in the amount of $102,000 over three years to fund research in the area of “Molecular Recognition in Model Protein Systems.”

Catherine Wessinger, chair of the religious studies department, appeared on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Talk TV” to discuss “cult” as a pejorative word. She also published a foreward to a new book on Jonestown.

Leslie Wilson, associate professor of chemistry, and Ryan Wall, senior biology major, have co-authored a paper, “Molecular Surface Electrostatic Potentials of Anticonvulsants Drugs,” with Jane S. Murray, Fakher Abu-Awwad, and Peter Politizo of the Department of Chemistry at UNO, and Allan S. Troupin of the Department of Neurology at LSU Medical School.

Nikki Alia Wilson, graduate assistant in education, attended the Dance and Community Partnership Workshop at Jacob’s Pillow in Mississippi. The workshop immerses its participants in the potential and power of the connections between dance and community life. Wilson also received a scholarship from Jacob’s Pillow.