May 2021
Out of the Classroom
A newsletter of faculty activities and accomplishments
Katarina Riesing, Associate Professor Foundations, recently did an interview with the art publication It’s Nice That. The article and interview coincides with a group show, Magic Touch, currently up at Dinner Gallery in NYC.
Riesing also just presented at the 2021 FATE Conference (Foundations in Art, Theory and Education). Her presentation was titled
“Laundry Hampers, Tik Tok and the Kitchen Sink: Rethinking the Studio in the time of Covid.” In her presentation she spoke about the many challenges and successes of shifting our foundations art courses online last spring as they went virtual. She shared many examples of our amazing student work that came from the seven week experiment online.
Riesing’s presentation was part of a panel titled: “Please Do a Bad Job of Putting Your Classes Online: Letting Go in Remote Teaching and Learning.”
Bob Maiden, Professor Psychology, was recently voted Vice President of the Board of Governors for the Accreditation for Gerontology Education Council (AGEC). This is a small notation but a great honor for him as AGEC is the only accrediting agency for programs in gerontology at the associate, bachelor, and master’s level. He got started on this path through his work on the steering committee for university accreditation with the Middle States Commission of Higher Education.
The AGEC Board of Governors consists of at least nine (9) members representative of higher education gerontology programs. The Board of Governors has the role of determining the final program
accreditation decisions, while considering the recommendations received from the review teams and the site visitors in accreditation decisions.
The AGEC Board of Governors is committed to fulfilling the vision and mission of AGEC with integrity and professionalism. Gerontology programs intersect with AGEC in the work of promoting competency- based educational experiences to assure that those entering the field of gerontology are prepared to serve diverse older adults and care partners within their communities and global societies.
Dr. Kevin A. Curtin, Associate Professor Counseling, was an invited panelist on The nature cure:
Integrating nature into our lives as well as those of our clients, students, and supervisees, held on April 17th and sponsored by The American Counseling Association of New York. The focus of the discussion
was how counselors can incorporate nature into their professional work and personal lives in order to enhance the wellness of those they work with as well as their own health and wellbeing. Dr. Curtin spoke specifically on the positive aspects of mindful trail running, including the physical, spiritual, and mental health benefits, not to mention the picturesque scenery.
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In a collaborative effort, Dr. Mina Sedaghatjou, Dr. Anton Puvirajah, and Mohammad Azzam (University of Western Ontario, Canada) presented part of their research findings focused on exploring Computational Thinking (CT) for underrepresented students entitled: “Leveraging Acts of Authentication to Engage Recent Immigrant Children in Informal STEM.”
Dr. Sedaghatjou also attended the Florida GeoGebra Conference. The Conference served as a forum for teachers, researchers, and innovators to exchange ideas and present pedagogical and mathematical examples of research-based instructional strategies.
Dr. Mina Sedaghat Jou, Dr. Tim Nichols, and Ali Kooshyar hosted the fifth Global Educational Perspectives (GEP) webinar on April 19th, 2021. The invited international speaker, Dr. Husa Alangary, is a faculty member at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, KSA. Dr.
Alangary presented “Educational Perspectives and Challenges in Saudi Arabia.”
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Andrew Kless, Assistant Professor History and Global Studies, completed the inaugural US Army Monuments Officer Training in April, a joint course through the Smithsonian Institution’s Cultural Rescue Initiative and US Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command. The purpose of the course was to train a new generation of Army Reserve officers in the protection of cultural property in war zones, following the path of the "Monuments Men" of the Second World War. Kless will reenter the US Army Reserve as a Military Government Specialist in the Civil Affairs branch by direct commission later this year.
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Shelly Freyn, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Mina Sedaghatjou, Assistant Professor of Education and Sheree Rodney, Faculty of Education (Simon Fraser University- Canada), co-authored the
article “Collaborative Engagement Experience-Based Learning (CEEBL): A Teaching Framework for Business Education" in Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning.
This article represents the collaborative effort of the College of Business and College of Liberal Arts &
Sciences at Alfred University along with Simon Fraser University. The CEEBL framework was applied in business education and indicated positive results that could be utilized in either traditional or on-line classrooms. Studies using the CEEBL framework in other disciplines are currently underway with more research findings to come.
