Department of Humanities

Several of our English majors received honors at this year’s Honors Convocation. Ashley Zago, Francesca Miller, and Betsy Francis all received Academic Excellence Awards. Miss Miller also received the Jack Hattman English Liberal Arts Major of the Year Award, and Miss Francis was honored with the English Education Major of the Year Award.

Having graduated, Miller will be attending the WVU School of Law whereas Francis has accepted a teaching position at Wheeling Central Catholic High School.

Professor Continues Environmental Work

nnaegele — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:51:10 +0000

Dr. Dave Thomas, Professor of English, continued his work to improve our environment this year. In addition to writing a grant proposal for the Coca Cola/Keep America Environmental Program, Dr. Thomas was named to the President’s Council of Sustainability. He was also the chairperson of the Green Initiatives Committee, which sponsored the WLU Environmental Education program on campus this past April. The program invited presenters from organizations such as the Schrader Environmental Center and the West Virginia Master Naturalist Program to speak to the WLU community. Thomas is a recent graduate of the naturalist program and is now a Certified Master Naturalist.

In addition to his environmental work, Dr. Thomas has been active in preparing for the 2013 Wheeling Arts Fest for which he helped write the grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council. He will also be participating in the event in June.

Dr. Thomas’ work and his dedication to his students was further recognized this May when the WLU student body selected him as Professor of the Year.

Philosophy Professor Presents at Conferences

nnaegele — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:27:59 +0000

Dr. Aaron Harper, Associate Professor of Philsophy and Religion, has presented his work at several conferences over the past academic year. This past December, he presented “Playing with Nietzsche: Play, Nihilism, and Value Creation” at a conference offered by both the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport and the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association. In April, he presented the same paper at the Rockford College Sports Studies Symposium.

At the Indiana Philosophical Association conference in March 2013, Dr. Harper presented “The Sincerity of Valuing: Honesty as a Nietzschean Value Standard.” He was also a guest lecturer for the moral philosophy honors seminar at Swathmore College.

Adjunct Instructor Presents Papers

nnaegele — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:02:12 +0000

Adjunct instructor Diane Reynolds has been busy presenting at several conferences. In June 2012 she presented “Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Thomas Kelly: Monastic Parallels” at the Friends Association of Higher Education Conference in Wilmington, Ohio. Her work on Bonhoeffer and Kelly was also published in Quaker Higher Education last fall in an article titled “Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Thomas Kelly and the Politics of Community.”

Last October, she presented ”Gone with the Wind: Mitchell’s Misunderstood Irony Interrogates the Isms” at the Indiana College English Association Conference in Valparaiso, Indiana. The paper can read in an upcoming monograph called Civil Strife being published by the association.

This past February, she presented “Gone with the Wind: It’s Racist but not as Racist as you Think” at the College English Association Conference in Savannah, Georgia, and next month she will be presenting her paper ”Bursting into rhyme: Breaking the boundaries of Imagination in Dante’s Paradisio and the works 17th century Quaker women ‘poetesses’” at the Friends Association of Higher Education Conference in Canton, Ohio.

Department of Humanities Alum Receives Award

nnaegele — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:33:39 +0000

Alum Jacqueline (Bartels) Yahn recently received the 2013 Innovative Secondary Technology Teacher of the Year Award in the Lancaster (Ohio) City Schools System. In addition to teaching English classes in Lancaster, she is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program at Ohio University.

Recent Graduate Takes “Absolute Dream Job”

nnaegele — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:31:17 +0000

Betsy Francis, who graduated with an English Education degree this May, applied for and received a teaching position at Wheeling Central Catholic High School. An honor student and member of Sigma Tau Delta, Miss Francis impressed the hiring committee so much that she has been offered the opportunity to take over several of the school’s honors classes. Congratulations, Betsy! We know you will be a great teacher.