Faculty and Staff Activities

William Hopkins

William Hopkins, professor emeritus of psychology, recently received a Paul Harris Fellow award from Cortland Rotary for developing and facilitating the Cortland-Belize Partnership in Special Education. He presented the keynote address at the 60th Diamond Jubilee Annual Convention of the New York State Retired Teachers Association, along with a session on preventing stress.  

Robert Spitzer

Robert Spitzer, Political Science Department, is the author of a chapter titled, “Gun Control: Constitutional Mandate or Myth?” that appears in the just-published book, Moral Controversies in American Politics. The book is published by M.E. Sharpe.

Ryota Yaginuma,

Ryota Yaginuma, a visiting scholar from Japan, will study character education under the guidance of Thomas Lickona, Childhood/Early Childhood Education Department and Director of Center for the 4th and 5th Rs, through September 2011. Yaginuma is an associate professor at Gifu National University, Graduate School of Education in Japan, and has a Ph.D. in literature from Waseda University in Japan for the study of John Dewey’s pragmatism and educational theory.

Yaginuma has published numerous works, including John Dewey’s Pragmatism and Education (2002); The Problem-Solving Type Moral Teaching (2006); The Study of Moral Education (2007);  Rorty’s Philosophy and Education (2008); The Problem-Solving Type Moral Teaching -Case Study (2009); and Schooling and Moral Education (2010).

The goals of this visiting scholarship study are to write about character education for Japanese teachers and to translate important papers and books regarding character education, in particular, “Smart & Good High Schools,” written by Lickona and Matthew Davidson in 2005. Yaginuma will visit area schools that represent best practices of character education and make a comparative study of American character education and Japanese moral education.

Gregg Weatherby

Gregg Weatherby, English Department and local actor and poet, will perform the work of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21, at the 1890 House on Tompkins Street in Cortland. Thomas was well known for his dramatic readings during his lifetime, both on the radio and on tour, and is best known for the poems “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” and “Fern Hill,” as well as the play Under Milkwood. The performance, presented by Ad Hoc Theatre and The 1890 House, is free and open to the public. It will include the seasonal classic story “A Child's Christmas in Wales” featuring local actor and elementary school student Stuart Carr. Weatherby has published three volumes of poems, “Under Orion,” “Bone Island” and “Approaching Home.” His most recent acting credits include work with Ad Hoc Theatre and the Ithaca Shakespeare Company. 

Irena Vincent

Irena Vincent, Communication Disorders and Sciences Department, presented a poster session on “A Multisensory Approach to Teaching and Learning Speech Anatomy” at the 2010 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention held Nov. 18-20 in Philadelphia, Pa.

Eileen Gravani, Jacqueline Meyer and Deborah Wilson

Eileen Gravani, Professional Studies, and Jacqueline Meyer and Deborah Wilson, both from the Communication Disorders and Sciences Department, presented a poster session at the 2010 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention held Nov. 18-20 in Philadelphia, Pa. The poster was titled “Explicit Teaching of Narrative Structure to Preschool Children: A Pilot .”

Beth Shiner Klein

Beth Shiner Klein, Childhood/Early Childhood Education Department, was a co-presenter at the “Planning for Teacher Preparation in N.Y.S. ­­— Integrating Strategies into the Environmental Literacy Plan” pre-conference symposia at the North American Association for Environmental Education annual conference on Sept. 29 in Buffalo, N.Y. Also at the conference, she presented a session titled, “Integrating Sustainability Education into Preservice Elementary and Secondary Teacher Preparation."

In addition, Klein co-edited a book, The Inclusion of Environmental Education in Science Teacher Preparation, published by Springer and sponsored by the Association for Science Teacher Education. Co-editors are Alec Bodzin of Lehigh University and Starlin Weaver of Salisbury University.  

Jeremiah Donovan

Jeremiah Donovan, Art and Art History Department, was invited to exhibit his recent ceramic artwork at the Navio Artisans Gallery in New Bedford, Mass. The exhibition, “Circling into Now,” opened Oct. 1.

Mary Emm

Mary Emm, Communication Disorders and Sciences Department, along with a colleague, presented a poster session at the 2010 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention held Nov. 18-20 in Philadelphia, Pa. The poster was titled “Leadership in Teaching: Utilizing Student Perspectives on Administration and Supervision.”

Tiantian Zheng

Tiantian Zheng, Sociology/Anthropology Department, was recently nominated and elected to serve on the executive board of the New York Association of Asian Studies. She has also been serving on the executive board of Chinese Society of Women’s Studies since 2006.