ANTHROPOLOGY
Shahna Arps
Dr. Arps conducts anthropological research in coastal Miskito communities in eastern Honduras. She studies biological, cultural, political, and economic factors that influence maternal health in the region. As part of her dissertation research, she spent a year living in Honduras. In 2006-2007, she analyzed data collected during her fieldwork, wrote her dissertation, and graduated from The Ohio State University. Currently, she is working on publications that focus on maternal mortality, fertility, and indicators of women’s health. She plans to return to Honduras during the summer of 2008 to present research results and receive feedback from community members and local NGOs regarding her conclusions
Christine Avenarius
Dr. Avenarius is back from two months of ethnographic fieldwork in mainland China as part of her research project, “China and the Rule of Law: Conceptions of Fairness and Justice in Times of Change,” funded by the National Science Foundation. This was the second phase of fieldwork in mainland China in addition to five month spent there in 2006. Her cooperation partners are Dr. Qi from the Urban Studies Institute of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, researchers at the Hebei Academy of Social Sciences in Shijiazhuang, and Professor Dr. Zhao Xudong from the Department of Sociology at the College of Humanities and Development, China Agricultural University. She also travelled to Leiden in the Netherlands for a workshop in February and to Corfu in Greece in May 2007 to present her findings at the 27th International Social Network Conference. In late May she gave a lecture at the Philosphische Fakultaet of University of Cologne in Germany.
In cooperation with the Sociology Department at ECU and the Center for Aging under Dr. Jim Mitchell, she has organized a six month visit of Ms. Yan Xiaoping over the course of the fall semester. Ms Yan is a scholar at the Hebei Academy of Social Sciences in Shijiazhuang, China.
In July 2008 she plans to attend the 16th World Congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences in Kunming, China on Humanity, Development and Cultural Diversity.
Robert Bunger
During the summer of 2007, Dr. Bunger went to Taiwan supported by an Asian Studies curriculum development grant to study the contemporary worship of Taoist and Buddhist goddesses to augment the course content of Anthropology 3009 with first hand observations and research.
David Griffith
With Drs. Zamudio Grave, Isaula, and Villa Cruz, Dr. Griffith applied last year for a grant from the National Science Foundation to examine the relationship between migration and knowledge, comparing migrant with nonmigrant households in the two settings. This grant has been funded, and will last until 2010. Currently, he plans to visit Veracruz this coming October and Olancho this coming December to initiate this research.
In July 2007, with researchers from the University of Guelph (Guelph, Canada), Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Canada), Universidad de Jaén (Granada, Spain), Dr. Griffith participated on a panel on guestworker programs at the 2nd International Conference of the Social Sciences in Granada, Spain.
Finally, Dr. Griffith has participated in a limited way with researchers from Malaysia, where several of us in the College of Arts and Sciences have been considering forging research relations
Jami Leibowitz
Dr. Leibowitz is the lead faculty in ECU's Global Understanding project. Using ECU’s global classroom, this project connects ECU students with students from other countries for synchronous, real-time, live instruction in a virtual collaborative environment. Through the global understanding project, Dr. Leibowitz works with over 20 international universities from 18 different countries located over five continents. Most recently Dr. Leibowitz traveled to Monterrey, Mexico to recruit Universidad Regiomantana as our 21st international partner. For more information see: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/globalinitiatives/index.cfm
Laura Mazow
In the summer of 2007, Dr. Mazow was in Jerusalem at the W. F. Albright Institute for Archaeological Research, assisting in the preparation of an archaeological report for publication for the Tel Miqne-Ekron Excavation and Publications Project. The report documents the excavations of the Philistine site of Tel Miqne-Ekron during the 1980s and 1990s and is a joint project between the W.F. Albright Institute and the Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University. She is continuing to work on the project from ECU, with the assistance of Thomas Amato, an anthropology undergraduate student. She will be returning to Jerusalem next summer to complete the project.
While in Israel this past summer, she also worked on a revised version of her dissertation, Competing Material Culture: The Settlement of the Philistines at Tel Miqne-Ekron in the Early Iron Age.
During the spring of 2008, she will be traveling to Cyprus to give a paper entitled “Weaving Together the Strands of Evidence: Bathtubs Reconsidered” in the IVth International Cypriological Conference. The conference is scheduled from April 29-May 2, 2007, in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Megan Perry
During the summer of 2007, Dr. Perry was the director of a 3-week archaeological field project in southern Jordan, the ”Wadi Ramm Cemetery Project.” Along with Dr. Kenneth Nystrom, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at SUNY New Paltz, and Jessica Walker, an undergraduate Anthropology major at ECU, she excavated the remains of a Roman period cemetery and a ca. 1st century A.D. domestic area at Wadi Ramm. They also excavated soundings confirming the results of a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey conducted in 2005 to discover the extent of the ancient site at Ramm. The artifacts from the excavation will be processed and analyzed during the 2007-2008 school year with the assistance of Timothy Shortley, an ECU anthropology graduate student.The results from this field season will be presented at the Society for American Archaeology meetings in Vancouver, BC in March. This project was made possible by the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman, and ECU, and was funded by a grant from the Joukowsky Family Foundation.
While in the field, Dr. Perry and Jessica Walker also spent time analyzing human skeletal remains recovered from a cistern at Qasr Hallabat, one of the Early Islamic “desert castles” in eastern Jordan. Dr. Perry also spent a few weeks before and after the field project at the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman working on publications and analyzing ancient human skeletal material recovered from Tell Hesban.
Benjamin Saidel
In July 2007 Dr. Saidel (Dept. Anthropology) and Dr. Erickson-Gini (Israel Antiquities Authority) co-directed excavations of an abandoned Bedouin tent camp at the site of Nahal Be’erotayim West in the Negev desert, Israel (Figs. 1, 2). The goal of our project is to excavate a number of Bedouin tent camps from the Ottoman period in order to ascertain the similarity between archaeological and ethnoarchaeological data. For example, does the patterning of artifacts found at Ottoman period tent camps correspond with spatial patterns of artifacts recorded in ethnoarchaeological studies. Preliminary analysis of the data indicates that we excavated a Bedouin tent camp dated between the late 19th to early 20th century. Intrusive lithics were collected and processed by Yacob Vaardi, a Ph.D. candidate at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Be’ersheva, Israel). Other members of this project included, Yunis Hamam, Hammam Daya, Auda Gildan, and Salme Gildan. LOCATION EXCAVATIONS STAFF PHOTO
Dr. Saidel also continued his collaborative publication project with Dr. Mordechai Haiman.
Linda Wolfe
During the summer of 2007 Dr. Wolfe presented a paper on ethnoprimatology at a interdiscipilary social science conference in Granada. She also spent a few days with the Barbary macaques of Gibraltar, UK.
BIOLOGY
Robert Christian
Dr. Christian serves to direct the Coastal Global Terrestrial Observing System (C-GTOS). This is a program through the UN with the secretariat in the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "The primary goal of the Coastal Module of the Global Terrestrial Observing System is to detect, assess and predict global and large-scale regional change associated with land-based, wetland and freshwater ecosystems along coasts." http://www.fao.org/gtos/tems/mod_coa.jsp As part of his activities in 2007, he fostered relationships with other international programs.
Alex Georgakilas
Dr. Georgakilas has focused in several collaborative activities in the field of clustered DNA damage. He has submitted two multidisciplinary grants, one to NASA and one to DOE (Low Dose Program) involving except ECU groups, NASA and Purdue University teams. He has continued his work on the field of the role of complex DNA damage in breast cancer and submitted a collaborative grant to DOD and Biotech Center with Dr. Sigounas. Three manuscripts have been accepted for publication in Radiation Research and several manuscripts pending.
Enrique Reyes
Dr. Reyes is now participating as member of theOrganizing Committee for the Workshop “The Current State of Knowledge of the Setiu Wetlands” sponsored by The Institute of Oceanography (Universiti Malaysia Terengganu) & East Carolina University. December 2nd – 3rd, 2007.
Dr. Reyes is also a member of the editorial board of the journal Hidrobiologica, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México, and of the journal Universidad y Ciencia, Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco.
Margit Schmidt
Dr. Schmidt is continuing her research collaboration with Dr. Zora Housley in Switzerland.
John Stiller
In August of 2006, Dr. Stiller was invited to give a plenary talk at the annual meeting of the “International Society for Evolutionary Protistology” in Wroclaw, Poland. Since then he has collaborated with Dr. Andrzej Bodyl, at the University in Wroclaw, on questions related to the origins and evolution of plastids (chloroplast). They recently published an article in Trends in Microbiology entitled “The intracellular cyanobacteria of Paulinella chromatophora: endosymbionts or organelles?” (2007, 15:295-296).
Dr. Stiller also has an ongoing collaboration with Dr. Rebeca Rosengaus at Northeastern University. Dr. Rosengaus studies social behavior in tropical termites, with field sites in Panama and the Virgin Islands. Stiller's lab is developing molecular techniques to characterize the microbial communities (bacteria and fungi) associated with different habitats, which will help Rosengaus understand how these microbes affect social behavior in the termite colonies themselves. Caitlin Mattos, an undergraduate researcher in the ECU Honors Assistantship Program, carried out preliminary analyses and her results were published in the premier issue of Explorations, the new NC journal for undergraduate research. ARTICLE
Last summer, Dr. Stiller was one of four Principal Investigators on a recently funded proposal to the Joint Genomics Institute (JGI) of the Department of Energy, to sequence the genome of the red alga Porphyra purpurea (the black wrapping around sushi) The same group has submitted a Research Coordinating Network (RCN) grant to the National Science Foundation to better develop the science of Porphyra genomics once the sequence is completed. Committed participants include researchers from Canada, Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia/New Zealand. ECU is slated to host the second annual meeting of the “Porphyra Genome Network”, which will attract scientists from all over the world.
Kyle Summers
Dr. Summers and his graduate students work mainly on the evolution and ecology of poison frogs from the family Dendrobatidae in Peru. They are currently funded by NSF and by an ECU internal research grant. Current projects include: 1) Reproductive strategies in two closely related species in the genus Dendrobates with different patterns of parental care (uniparental versus biparental); 2) Tadpole deposition strategies in two species in the genus Epipedobates; Mimicry in the poison frog Dendrobates imitator; and 4) The occurrence and prevalence of fungal infection (chytridiomycosis) in frogs across Peru. http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cas/biology/summers_kyle.cfm
Yong Zhu
International Conferences:
The 5th European Zebrafish Genetics and Development Meeting, Amsterdam, the Netherlands,July 12-15, 2007.
Zebrafish Workshop-Model Systems for Infectious Disease and Cancer in Zebrafish, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, July 16-18, 2007. PHOTOS
International Conference of Comparative Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology & 6th Chinese Comparative Physiology Conference, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, October.10-14, 2007.
Invited Presentations:
1. Membrane receptors mediate nongenomic actions of progestin in zebrafish (2007)International Conference of Comparative Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology & 6th Chinese Comparative Physiology Conference, Hangzhou, China, October 10-14, 2007.
2. Do members of growth hormone and prolactin superfamily have any physiological roles during the development-recent discoveries in zebrafish.Instituteof Aquatic Economic Animals, School of Life Sciences, Zhongshan (Sun- Yat-sen) University, Guangzhou, China. October 6th, 2007.
3. A model for studying nongenomic and genomic actions of steroid –the members of a novel GPCR family and classical progestin receptors in zebrafish (2007) Institute of Aquatic Economic Animals, School of Life Sciences, Zhongshan (Sun- Yat-sen) University, Guangzhou, China. October 5th, 2007.
4. Identity of Maturation-Inducing-Substance Receptors in Vertebrates-Members of A novel GPCR Family or Classical Steroid Receptors? (2007)Department of Biology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, October 4th, 2007.
Articles Published In International Journals
1. Zhu Y, Song D, Tran N, Nguyen N (2007) The effects of the members of growth hormone family knockdown in zebrafish development. General and Comparative Endocrinology 150: 395-404.
2. Thomas P, Pang Y, Dong J, Groenen P., Kelder J, de Vlieg J, Zhu Y, Tubbs C (2007) Steroid and G Protein Binding Characteristics of the Seatrout and Human Progestin Membrane Receptor Alpha Subtypes and Their Evolutionary Origins. Endocrinology 148: 705-718.
Abstracts Presented At International Conferences
1. Zhu Y, Hanna RN, Harris C, Daly SCJ, Broekhuis J, Schaaf MJM, Spaink HP, Thomas P (2007) The membrane receptors that mediate nongenomic actions of progestin in zebrafish. International Conference of Comparative Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology & 6th Chinese Comparative Physiology Conference, Hangzhou, China, October 10-14, 2007.
2. Zhu Y, Nguyen N, Song D, Tran NT, Rhinehart JE, Susan M. Tobiasson SM, Yang PN (2007) Physiological functions and molecular mechanisms of prolactin in zebrafish embryogenesis. International Conference of Comparative Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology & 6th Chinese Comparative Physiology Conference, Hangzhou, China, October 10-14, 2007.
ECONOMICS
Okmyung Bin
Dr. Bin presented a paper, titled "Measuring the Impacts of Climate Change on North Carolina Coastal Resources," at the Ecosystem Sustainability & Health of Threatened Marine Environments Forum held in May 2007 in Terengganu, Malaysia. He was involved in the field site visit and faculty exchange with the University of Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), Malaysia, to strengthen collaborative research efforts between UMT and ECU. In July 2007, with the support of an ECU Asian Studies Course Development Grant funded by the US Department of Education, Dr. Bin visited China Agricultural University, Beijing, China, to develop a course module that integrates Asian topics into his teaching. In August 2007, He visited the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Korea, regarding the partnership with the Global Academic Initiatives at ECU. Dr. Bin continues as a member of the Korea America Economic Association.
ENGLISH
Michael Aceto
The results of Dr. Aceto’s fieldwork in St. Eustatius have recently been published in an issue of World Englishes. His fieldwork data from Dominica is currently being analyzed and is slated to appear as a chapter in a book to be published by Cambridge University Press. Aceto’s latest project is examining the interface between linguistic theory and Tibetan Buddhism.
Seodial Deena
Dr. Deenacoordinated the setup of the Gay Wilentz Memorial Library at the University of Belize Library, Belmopan, Belize; and directed the ECU Summer Study Abroad Program in Cultural Studies in Belize.
Dr. Deena also made a presentation as an invited speaker on “The Global and Diasporic Expansion of the Caribbean through Carifes,” at the First Annual Carifes Convention in New York, N.Y.; and as invited speaker to the Third Conference of SLI in Akure, Nigeria: “A Comparative Exploration of a Biblical View of the Kingdom of God and a Postcolonial View of the Kingdom of Britain,” and “Pauline Epistles.” Dr. Deenaalso organized and chaired two sessions, and presented, “Guyanese Culture,” at the First Annual Guyanese Friendship Forum in Fort Caswell Beach.
Slobodanka Dimova
For the academic year of 2007-08, Dr. Dimova is scheduled to present at the International Association of World Englishes Conference, Regensburg, Germany, October 2007.
Thomas Douglass and Larry Boyer
During the week of Sept. 1, Tom Douglass and Larry Boyer traveled to Ludlow in the west of England to review the rare literary collection of Stuart Wright who also collected the unique AR Ammons collection now housed in Joyner Library thanks to Reid Overcash.
Stuart Wright is an expert collector of first editions, manuscripts, letters, rare and fine books, photographs, and memorabilia of many notable writers of the 20th century. His press, Palaemon, published rare editions of Robert Penn Warren, Peter Taylor, Eleanor Ross Taylor, Richard Eberhart, et al. Wright was the definitive bibliographer for the works of Robert Penn Warren, Peter Taylor, Randall Jarrell, and Richard Eberhart. In addition, his close relationship with the Warrens introduced him to Eudora Welty, Walker Percy, William Styron, Harry Crews, Barry Hannah, George Garrett, Mary Lee Settle, William Goyen, Katherine Anne Porter, Randall Jarrell, Robert Lowell, Merrill Moore, and many writers of the Agrarian movement -- Allen Tate, John Crowe Ransom, Cleanth Brooks – all became the subject of his collector’s passion. His interests also include the work of John Updike, John Ciardi, Malcolm Cowley, Wright Morris, Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Moore – major literary figures of mid-century.
Thomas Herron
In July 2007 Dr. Herron gave series of lectures on “Shakespeare, Spenser and Marlowe” for the English Seminar of University of Tuebingen in Germany. Dr. Herron also presented a conference paper on Despair, Warfare and Edmund Spenser at a conference on “Cultures of War” at Newtown Powys, Wales (Oct 13-15). In addition, he gave an invited lecture, "Where is Ireland in the Renaissance?" as a Graduate Research Seminar paper for the National University of Ireland-Maynooth on Oct 18, 2007.
Ilce Irizarry
Dr. Irizarry will present a single authored paper entitled “Geographies of Home: Writing Dominicana Migration,” at the MESEA (Society for Multiethnic Studies Europe and Americas) conference in Leiden, the Netherlands, from June 25-28.
Debra O'Neal
Prof. O'Neal served as a lead teacher for a section of INTL 1050 which linked through video conference technology to Russia, the Czech Republic and the Gambia 6 sessions with each group. Her students discussed issues of concern and curiosity through the video links, through live chat sessions and through on going e-mails. This also was very enlightening for all students. The link for the project run by Dr Poe and Dr Chia is http://falcon.aos.ecu.edu/gu/
Wendy Sharer
Prof. Sharer made a presentation entitled, “Grammar in the Writing Curriculum: Embracing the Politics of Rules and Conventions,” at the Fifth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities, in Paris, France, July 17-10, 2007.
C. W. Sullivan III
Dr. Sullivan will be reading a paper, “’Old Timey’ Tobacco Farming in Eastern North Carolina” at the 2007 American Folklore Society meeting in Quebec, 17-21 October 2007. AFS is holding the meeting jointly with the Association canadienne d’ethnologie et de folklore/Folklore Studies Association of Canada
He also has a Fulbright fellowship to Hungary for spring 2008. ARTICLE
Sandra Tawake
Dr. Tawake published an article in World Englishes this past year on New Zealand Maori Witi Ihimaera and his novel The Uncle’s Story placing it in the context of literatures written in English by Pacific Island writers. She delivered a paper at the International Arts and Humanities Conference in Honolulu in January 2007 on narrative structure in Kalimantaan, a novel written by C.S. Godshalk set in Borneo in the early 19th century.
She is planning to attend the International Arts and Humanities Conference again this year. She may also attend the International Association of World Englishes (IAWE) conference being scheduled for summer 2008, but both conferences are still in the planning stage.
FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
Juan Daneri
Dr. Daneri presented a paper, “When Business Prevails: Ethnicity and Economy in 17th Century Colonial Tlaxcala,” at the Latin American Studies Association Congress in Montreal, Canada.
Katherine Ford
Dr. Ford conducted research in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in August 2007, on the use of violence in Eduardo Pavlovsky’s and Griselda Gambaro’s theater. She made a presentation entitled “Hacer historia con un látigo: El José Jacinto Milanés de Abelardo Estorino” at the meeting of the Grupo de Estudios de Teatro Argentino e Iberoamericano (GETEA), Universidad de Buenos Aires, August 9, 2007. She also made a presentation entitled “Identities In-Between: Caridad Svich’s Iphigenia: A “rave” fable” at the Latin American Studies Association meeting in Montreal, September 7, 2007.
John Given
Dr. Given presented a paper entitled, "Aristophanic Mimesis in Euripidean Monologues," at the Greek Drama IV Conference in Wellington, New Zealand on 5 July 2007.
John Stevens
A book chapter by Dr. Stevens, "Platonism and Stoicism in Vergi's Aeneid" recently appeared in Platonic Stoicism – Stoic Platonism. The Dialogue between Platonism and Stoicism in Antiquity. Edd. Mauro Bonazzi and Christoph Helmig. Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, De Wulf-Mansion Centre Series I, Dir. Carlos Steel, vol. XXXIX (Leuven University Press 2007) 87-107. This chapter resulted from an international colloquium last spring.
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}