CAS Graduate Students Honored at Fisher Award Ceremony
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James Amemasor (center) with
Dr. Gary McGinnis (left) and
Dr. Tony Adedze (right) |
Three College of Arts and Sciences graduate students were recently honored at the sixteenth annual Fisher Thesis Award Ceremony. History master’s student James Amemasor was the overall University winner for his thesis, “A Taste of Freedom: The Benjamin Major Collection of Letters from Emancipated American Slaves in Liberia, 1836-1851.” “I’m glad that I came to study at this state university in the land of Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator,” said Amemasor, who came to ISU from Ghana. “As I step out of ISU, I promise to be one of its numerous ambassadors, and receiving this prestigious award is further motivation for me to do more, for no single achievement is final.”
"This is original and timely research that will be read by scholars and policy analysts interested in the conflict in Liberia and African and African-American relations when it is published,” said Dr. Tony Adedze, who directed Amemasor’s thesis. Amemasor’s thesis will now be submitted to the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) regional competition.
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Dr. Craig Cutbirth and Bryan McCann
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The ceremony also honored college-level award winners. Bryan McCann, from the Department of Communication, won the College award in the humanities division for his thesis, “Victim, Family, and Justice: Therapeutic Themes in Pro-Death Penalty Responses to Illinois Governor George Ryan’s Death Row Communications.” “I have a difficult time deciding which is Brian's strongest asset; his intelligence, his creativity, or his motivation. He possesses exceptional levels of each. They are a formidable combination that offer him a promising future," said Dr. Craig Cutbirth, advisor for McCann's thesis work. "He is already a star, but he will burn even more brightly in the years to come. I doubt this is the last award he will win from ISU.”
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Japhia Smith and Dr. Roger Anderson
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Japhia Smith, from the Department of Biological Sciences, won the College award in the physical sciences division for her thesis, “Vegetation Analysis and Restoration Plan for an Old-Growth Forest in Central Illinois.” "The purpose of Smith’s research was to provide sound ecological information for development of a restoration plan for a portion of Funks Grove, which is located 15 miles south of Bloomington-Normal, that had an unusually large number of fallen trees with little or no regeneration of oaks, increasing dominance by sugar maple trees, and declining tree diversity," said Dr. Roger Anderson, Smith's thesis advisor. "In addition to providing sound ecological information for the development of the restoration plan, Japhia’s work supports current ecological theories relating to interactions between forest trees and ground layer plants and, successional patterns in the central hardwood forest region of the United States."
The Fisher award is named in honor of alumnus and former ISU administrator James Fisher, who is president emeritus of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. He also is president emeritus of Towson State University in Maryland and currently is a consultant on higher education and a professor of Leadership and Philanthropic Studies at the Union Institute.
Written By: mdunn
Date Posted: 5/26/2006
Number of Views: 51105
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