Liza Wieland

Kirk St.Amant gave the invited lecture "The Ethics of Web 2.0 in the Global Economy" to faculty and students at the Aarhus School of Business on November 17.  The lecture was delivered virtually via Web 2.0 technologies (e.g., Skype and blogs), and the lecture focused on how content creation practices involving social media have created new ethical challenges associated with authorship, ownership, and the sharing of information in global environments. The lecture also included a discussion of strategies individuals and organizations can use to engage in ethical information creation and sharing practices using Web 2.0 technologies in international contexts. The Aarhus School of Business is located in Aarhus, Denmark, and is one of the oldest business schools in Europe.

Andrea Kitta presented "'Polio Pics' and 'The Doctor from Toronto': The Use of Vaccination Contemporary Legends by the Public and the Medical Community" at the American Folklore Society annual meeting in Boise, ID on October 21. According to Kitta: "Contemporary legends concerning immunization are prevalent both on the Internet and in the lay, alternative health, and medical communities. These legends inform medical decision-making and become the basis for medical information. Additionally, they are used as a method of training medical professionals and as a way to reinforce the beliefs of the medical community. Legends concerning contamination and disease spread are common; however, some of the most disturbing legends are often mundane at first appearance. The link between MMR and autism may be prevalent in the media and a cause of concern, but it is the stories concerning the refusal of education and medical treatments that may ultimately inform inoculation decision-making."

Anna Froula presented "The Steampunk Aesthetics of Terry Gilliam" at SAMLA in Atlanta, GA in November 6-8. Her presentation analyzed Gilliam's distinct vision. According to Froula:  "His cinematically dense, textured worlds are mundane yet absurd, hallucinogenic yet barren,and always chock-full of gadgetry and grotesquerie. Gilliam's animation and live-action production design and mise-en-scene regularly satirize modern dehumanization and apocalyptic dystopia via neo-Victorian design, absurdist medievalism, intestinal air ducts, and anachronistic technologies."

Stephanie West-Puckett along with members of the Tar River Writing Project LEEAP Team, including English graduate student Celestine Davis and English alumna Danielle Lewis Ange, conducted two workshops at the North Carolina English Teachers Annual Conference (NCETA Eastern Region) at Perquimans High School in Hertford, NC on October 17.  The first workshop titled "Creating a Culture of Inquiry" guided teacher-participants in exploring ways that teacher-research and school-based teacher-research collaboratives provide novel opportunities for faculty to meet and demonstrate proficiency in each of the five areas assessed on the state's new Teacher Evaluation Instrument. The second presentation "Exploring Equity in Teacher Research" focused on various interpretations of educational equity, prompted lively discussion of perspectives on equity, and encouraged Eastern NC teachers to imagine teacher research projects that would increase achievement and equity in their classrooms and their schools.

John Hoppenthaler presented readings from his poetry at Fairleigh Dickinson University, the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, and at Hudson Valley Community College in late November.   in his role as editor of A Poetry Congeries at Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, He has published his brief interviews with poets John Allman, Kathy Fagan, Richard Foerster, and Michael S. Harper.

Tom Douglass spoke on John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany at the Martin Memorial Public Library in Williamston, NC on November 17 as part of the "Let's Talk About It" series for the NC Humanities Council.