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| Dr. Augustus Norton | Middle East scholar Augustus Norton will give a public lecture, titled “Avoiding the Perfect Middle East Storm," on Tuesday, September 5 at 7:00 pm in Schroeder Hall 130 on the ISU campus. A decorated career Army officer, Dr. Norton retired as a Colonel and as a Professor of Political Science at the U.S. Military Academy before assuming his present position as Professor in the Departments of International Relations and Anthropology at Boston University. His talk will address the tough dilemmas facing the U.S. in the Middle East today, including the tumult in Iraq, the challenge of Iran, and the rise of militant Islamist movements across the region.
Dr. Norton is co-editor (with Dale Eickelman) of the Princeton University Press Muslim Politics series and is contributing editor to Current History. His many publications on Lebanon include Amal and the Shi’a (University of Texas Press, 1987) and Hizballah of Lebanon (Council on Foreign Relations, 2000). His new book on Hizballah and Shi’i politics in Lebanon will be published by Princeton University Press in early 2007. Among his latest publications are “Pity the Nation,” in The Nation and “Ritual, Blood, and Shiite Identity: ‘Ashura in Nabatiyya,” in The Drama Review.
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| Students at work | The College of Arts and Sciences' 2006 Expanded Summer School Program was an unqualified success, according to College officials. CAS provided opportunities for over 3500 students in 180 course sections—an increase of nearly 1000 students compared to last year's summer enrollment. Courses were offered at both the undergraduate and graduate level, providing expanded opportunities for students university-wide. The widespread success of the program is also evident in the fact that students from other universities were drawn to ISU. "Our goal is to serve the student," said Associate Dean Sally Parry, "and this year's line-up of courses was of great help to all of them."
Students participating in the program were able to take advantage of a number of options. Some completed course requirements in general education, while others advanced in their plans of study in their academic majors. A number of students sought to transfer credits to other institutions. Mark Vegter, the academic advisor in English, noted that "Expanded Summer School really allows us to offer more courses in the major, thus helping students to graduate in a timely fashion."
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| Dr. Stephen D. Perry | Dr. Stephen D. Perry, Associate Professor of Communication, has been selected Editor of the prestigious journal Mass Communication and Society by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). Perry was the only candidate out of seven whose name was forwarded by the nominating committee to the division members attending the annual AEJMC business meeting for a vote on August 3rd in San Francisco. Perry's editorship will officially begin with the first issue of 2008 and continues for a three-year term. In order to publish his first issue, however, Perry will begin receiving manuscripts as early as this fall. "The blind-review process can take several months to complete," said Dr. Perry. "So the work really must be going full speed by the start of 2007 in order to have that first issue to the publisher in time for the Winter 2008 issue.
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| Dr. Kasia Stadnik | Kasia Stadnik, Director of the Intensive English Program at the English Language Institute, has been elected President of the Illinois TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)/Bilingual Education Association (ITBE). She will serve as President of the nearly one thousand member professional association for the next year. Its mission focuses on strengthening instruction and research in the teaching of English to speakers of other languages and in bilingual education. Stadnik, whose term began July 1, will preside at the organization's annual convention March 9-10, 2007 in Naperville, Illinois. In explaining why the association is important, she observed, “ITBE provides a forum to express common interests, voice concerns, and share values and experiences. By doing so, we can increase the effectiveness of our teaching.”
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| Dr. Joseph Armstrong | Dr. Joseph E. Armstrong, Professor of Botany and Head Curator of Illinois State's Vasey Herbarium, received the esteemed Centennial Award from the Botanical Society of America (BSA) to honor his exemplary services to the plant sciences and the Society. With this recognition, Armstrong joins a select group of distinguished scientists working in the field of botony. BSA began in 1906, and today is one of the world's largest societies devoted to the study of plants and allied organisms. Dr. Armstrong's research focuses on floral biology, prairie community organization, and tropical flowering plants. Besides research trips to South Africa and Thailand, he has conducted field research in Rain Forest Ecology with Illinois State students in LaSelva, Costa Rica.
Armstrong earned his Ph.D. and M.A. from Miami University. He holds a B.A. in biology from the State University of New York at Oswego.
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| Dr. Isabel C. Botero | Isabel C. Botero joins the School of Communication as an assistant professor. Previous to coming to Illinois State, she taught at the University of Minnesota at Duluth and Michigan State University. She was a sports reporter for Noticias U.N.A. in Colombia. Dr. Botero's research interests include voice and silence behaviors in organizations, information exchange in teams, and leadership. Her dissertation research focused on the effects of leader-member relations on employee upward influence behavior. Dr. Botero earned her Ph.D. and M.A. from Michigan State University and her bachelor's degree from Universidad de Antioquia.
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