September 5, 2003

Convocation serves as an annual tribute to faculty

University President Bernard P. Knoth, S.J., and Provost and Academic Vice President Walter Harris, Ph.D., recognized faculty members celebrating 25 years of dedicated service to the university. Knoth and Harris honored Vernon Gregson, Ph.D., professor of religious studies; John Mahoney, professor of music; William Thornton, Ph.D., professor of sociology in City College; and Lydia Voigt, Ph.D., assistant provost and professor of sociology at the August 18 convocation.

Gregson's work ranges broadly over matters of ethics, psychoanalysis, and law. He holds a doctorate in theology from Marquette University, a juris doctor from Loyola School of Law, and a graduate certification as a psychoanalyst from the Tulane University School of Medicine. Gregson has authored Lonergan, Spirituality and the Meeting of Religions and editor co-author of Desires of the Human Heart. He directs the psychiatry and religion course at LSU Medical Center Department of Psychiatry and serves on the Medical Research Committee of Touro Infirmary.

Mahoney performed for six years throughout the United States with artists such as Sal Nistico, Joe Ramono, and Andy Fusco. As a performer and composer, he has participated in studio recording sessions and film scoring sessions, and he has several original compositions published by Walrous Music Publishing. Mahoney is the director of the award-winning Loyola Jazz Band. His first compact disc recording In From Somewhere, released in 2001, features all original material performed by the John Mahoney Big Band. He holds a bachelor of science degree from SUNY at Potsdam and a master of music degree from the Eastman School of Music.

Thornton is director of the criminal justice program in City College. He is the author or co-author of several books, chapters, and articles in the area of criminology, juvenile delinquency, and crime prevention. He is a forensic criminologist specializing in crime foreseeability and premise defense liability civil litigation. He has served on numerous local and state commissions that have examined crime and safety issues in Louisiana. Thornton received a doctorate from the University of Tennessee.

Voigt, Distinguished University Professor, most recently served as interim provost and academic vice president for two years. An acclaimed teacher, administrator, and scholar, Voigt received the Dux Academicus in 1997. Her main field of expertise is criminology including applies criminology. She is co-author of seven books and numerous publications including monographs, chapters, articles reviews, grant reports, and evaluations and has given more than 60 presentations at professional forums. She holds a doctorate and master's degrees in sociology from Boston College and a bachelor of psychology degree from Boston University.

The University Faculty Senate awards

Also at the convocation, the University Faculty Senate honored five of its colleagues with awards. Faculty Senate Chair Nancy Dupont, Ph.D., head of the broadcast sequence in Department of Communications, presented awards in four categories: teaching, advising, research, and community service. Recipients were nominated by faculty members, staff, or students, and were selected for their superior performance in the particular area and the strength of the nomination letters. Peter Burns, Ph.D., a professor of political science, and Maureen Shuh, Ph.D., assistant professor in biological sciences, both received the teaching award; Jerry W. Dauterive, Ph.D., associate dean of the College of Business Administrations and director of the MBA program, received the advising award; Patrick L. Bourgeois, Ph.D., William and Audrey Hutchinson Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, received the research award; and Deborah Poole, public services coordinator in University Library, received the community service award.

Peter Burns' teaching and research interests include American politics, urban politics, race and ethnicity, public policy, and other courses within the American government subfield. In 2001, he was named a Norton Long Young Scholar by the American Political Science Association's organized section on Urban Politics for his innovative work in urban politics. His research has appeared in Political Science Quarterly, Journal of Urban Affairs, Social Science Quarterly, and the Southeastern Political Review. He is working on a book-length manuscript on the causes and consequences of state takeovers of urban education in Compton, California; Hartford, Connecticut; and Newark, New Jersey. This project investigates how state government gains the support of residents, in general, and African-American and Latino citizens, in particular, when it takes over urban education. He also examines urban public safety policy.

Shuh recently published articles in Molecular Pathogenesis of HTLV-I, Virology, and The New Biologist. Her research interests are in the mechanism of cancer development and the biology of the human retrovirus HTLV-I using molecular and biochemical approaches. Presently, Shuh's research interests involve identifying the mechanism of T-cell transformation as mediated by the HTLV-I oncogenic protein Tax, especially the modification of cellular transcriptional activity. Shuh holds a doctorate in cell and molecular biology from Brown University, a bachelor's of arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and was a post-doctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute from 1996 ­ 2000.

Dauterive has served as associate dean of the CBA since 1990. He has published numerous books, articles, and chapters in scholarly publications. He has been invited to make presentations at a number of national conferences and forums. Most recently, Dauterive and Walter Block, the Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Chair in Economics, presented "The Fall and Rise of the Iron Law of Wages," at the Austrian Scholars Conference in Auburn, Alabama, and he published "A Venture Capital for China: Opportunities and Challenges," with Wing Fok, associate professor of management. Dauterive received a bachelor and doctorate from Texas Tech University.

Bourgeois has been on the philosophy faculty at Loyola since 1968. He specializes in 20th-century continental philosophy, Kierkegaard, pragmatism and phenomenology, and philosophical theology. Bourgeois has written nearly 100 articles in addition to many book reviews in these areas, and has authored/co-authored eight books, among which are: Philosophy at the Boundary of Reason, Volume I Ethics and Postmodernity [first of three volumes, SUNY Press, 2001], The Extension of Ricoeur's Hermeneutics (Martinus Nijhoff, 1975); The Religious Within Experience and Existence: A Phenomenological Investigation (Duquesne University Press, 1990); Mead and Merleau-Ponty: A Common Vision, with Rosenthal, (SUNY Press, 1991); Thematic Studies in Phenomenology and Pragmatism, with Rosenthal (Grüner, 1983). He has edited, and is presently editing, a number of volumes in contemporary philosophy as well as being a regular reviewer for a number of journals. In numerous professional societies, he has served as an officer and has been active on many committees. Bourgeois received Loyola's Dux Academicus Award in 1993.

Poole has a masters of library and information science degree from Louisiana State University, and a bachelor of arts in English and theatre arts degree from Humboldt State University. She has been coordinator for public services since 1996 and a member of the Loyola community since 1988. She is working on an application for the ACRL 2003 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award (which was bestowed on the library last spring). She and Darla Rushing, associate professor in the library are working on the article, "The Role of the Li brary in Student Retention," in Making the Grade: Academic Libraries and Student Success, (Chicago: American Library Association, 2002). She and Trish Del Nero, associate professor, wrote the article "It's Tudor Gothic on the Outside, but State of the Art Within." (LLA Bulletin, 61, 277-278, 1999).

On receiving the community service award, Poole says, "I'd like to thank the academeI always wanted to say that. But seriously, I am deeply honored to receive this award for service and I am so thrilled to be in the company of the other faculty members who were honored by the Senate. My parents, who were immigrants to this country, taught me to value education, work, and above all things being a good person and doing for others.

"As a librarian I have been privileged to work with so many amazingly creative, professional, and knowledgeable people. I have learned so much and I have had so many opportunities to learn and to grow. I hope that I have given back half of what I have received as a librarian, educator, and colleague."