Student and Faculty Activities in March

Dr. Kaye Adkins  presented her poster "The Air Raid Warden's Handbook as Risk Communication"  at the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing conference in Las Vegas.

Dr. Ana Bausset-Page delivered a paper, "Hologramas en algunas obras de Elena Poniatowska" ("Holograms in some works of E. Poniatowska”) at the 38th International Symposium of Hispanic Literature at California State University-Dominguez Hills).

Dr. Bob Bergland gave a presentation, "Methodology for College Media Research" at the Spring CMA College Media Convention in New York City. Bergland, editor of College Media Review, also hosted a workshop on contributing to the journal.

Dr. Michael Charlton presented his paper "The Adaptations of Tintin: Filming Herge's Comics and Handling Cultural Controversies" at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts.

Dr. Elizabeth Latosi-Sawin presented a poster session with Dr. Russ Phillips and Greg Kriewitz called "The Added Value of an Outdoor Study-Away Experience in Higher Education" on March 22 at the Conference on Applied Learning in Higher Education sponsored by Missouri Western State University. The collaborative study reported the positive results of research on the well-being and life satisfaction of students who participated in three multi-disciplinary Outdoor Semesters offered by Missouri Western in 2006, 2007 and 2009.

Ms. Dawn Terrick, Director of Developmental Writing, presented her paper "Legitimizing Basic Writers: A Public Conversation" at the 64th Annual National Convention of the Conference on College Composition and Communication in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Ms. Anita Ford, MAA candidate in Written Communication, presented her paper, "Does Current Technical Communication Curriculum Prepare Graduates for the Real Needs of the Job Market?"

Anita's accomplishment is especially notable, as her paper was in competition with those of leading scholars in the field, and the acceptance rate this year was below 30%.

Ms. Sarah Puett and Ms. Anita Ford, graduate students in the Technical Communication option of the Master of Applied Arts in Written Communication attended the Conference on College Composition and Communication, a conference where thousands of writing faculty meet to share research and

teaching innovations. both women participated in the Women in Technical Communication Luncheon, sponsored by ACM SIGDOC, a professional technical communication organization.

Dr. Susie Hennessy collaborated on a celebration of the French Origins of St. Joseph with the Alliance Française on March 23rd. The French language immersion day was based in large part on the research of Dr. Frances Flanagan, (professor emeritus of Missouri Western), centered on Joseph Robidoux and the Sacred Heart Convent. The event attracted participants from throughout Northwest Missouri.

Prairie Lands Writing Project and administrators from the Hamilton, Braymer and Breckenridge school districts attended the i3 College Ready Writers Program (CRWP) Launch Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia on March 8-10, 2013. Dr. Jane Frick, Kathy Miller , and Tom Pankiewicz represented Prairie Lands.  Troy Ford, Superintendent of the Hamilton R-II School District; Don Regan, Superintendent of the Braymer C-4 School District; and Linda Gaines, lead teacher from the Breckenridge R-1 School District represented the districts which will receive professional development for the first two years of the three-year program. 

Tom Pankiewicz, Missouri Western English instructor and Prairie Lands Writing Project site director, attended the National Writing Project’s Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C. on March 20-22, 2013. At the meeting, Pankiewicz along with directors and teacher consultants from the other Missouri Writing Projects (Missouri Writing Project [MU-Columbia], Greater Kansas City Writing Project [UMKC], Gateway Writing Project [UMSL], and Ozark Writing Project [MSU]) met with the education aides of Senator Claire McCaskill, Senator Roy Blunt, Representative Emanuel Cleaver, and Representative Sam Graves to share our work and to urge continued support for federally-funded literacy programs. The meeting also included workshops on preparing for college-ready writers programs such as Prairie Lands’ SEED and i3 work.