Westmont Magazine Faculty Footnotes

Activities and awards for Westmont’s outstanding professors.

Professors from each academic division engaged in a conversation celebrating the installation of Provost Mark L. Sargent in October,“Awakening the Moral Imagination”: EILEEN MCQUADE (biology), WARREN ROGERS (physics) and NIVA TRO (chemistry) in the natural and behavioral sciences; CHANDRA MALLIMPALLI (history), EDD NOELL (economics and business) and JANE WILSON (education) in the social sciences; and DEBORAH DUNN (communication studies), TREMPER LONGMAN III (religious studies) and JIM TAYLOR (philosophy) in the humanities.

DAVID ANDERSON (economics and business), TATIANA NAZARENKO (dean of curriculum and educational effectiveness) and BILL WRIGHT (associate provost for planning and research) presented a poster,“Measurements Are Not to Provide Numbers but Insight: Assessing, Interpreting and Enhancing Student Learning in Relation to Critical Thinking and Written Communication Skills” at the Council of Independent Colleges’ Engaging Evidence Consortium in Washington, D.C., in August.

MARY BLACKWOOD COLLIER (French) was knighted by David Martinon, consul general of France, Los Angeles, as a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques in August, an honor awarded to individuals who make major contributions to French national education and culture.

STEVE CONTAKES (chemistry) gave a talk, “Exploring the New Atheists with Wilhelm Ostwald: Early Physical Chemistry’s ‘New Atheist,’” at the annual meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation in San Diego in July. He served on a panel discussing “Local Chapter Management: A Brief Tutorial” and chaired two sessions, both entitled “Teaching Science and Faith in the Curriculum.”

JESSE COVINGTON (political science), and TELFORD WORK (religious studies) spoke on “Religion in the 2012 Election: What Difference Is It Making?” at Westmont Downtown in October.

DEBORAH DUNN (communication studies) spent a week observing the Victim Offender Reconciliation program affiliated with the Fresno Pacific Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, which brings juvenile offenders together with the victims of their crimes.

MICHAEL EVEREST (chemistry) gave a talk at the national meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation,“Augustine, Radiometric Dating, and First-Year Chemistry: A Guided-Inquiry Exercise.”

CHARLES FARHADIAN (religious studies) led a Calvin Summer Seminar on Globalization and Worship with participants from Latin America, Asia,Africa and Oceania.

JAMIE FRIEDMAN (English) gave the “First Lecture” for incoming Westmont students on the book “Elizabeth and Hazel,” a study of two women in a provocative, desegregation-era photo.

ROBERT GUNDRY, scholar-in-residence, has written two articles:“The Hopelessness of the Unevangelized” for Themelios; and “Smithereens!,” a review of Chris Smith’s book on biblicism for Books and Culture. He gave a paper,“New Studies in the Synoptic Problem: A Partial Review,” at the national meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature.

ROBERT HAMEL (theater arts) designed props for the National Theatre of Bitola’s production of “Henry VI: Part 3” at the Globe Theater in May and later at Macedonian theater festivals.

MICHELLE HARDLEY ’00 has become Westmont’s new registrar. Previously, she served as director of academic advising and disability services.

WAYNE IBA (computer science) contributed a paper,“Searching for Better Performance on the King-Rook-King Chess Endgame Problem,” to the Proceedings of the 25th Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference.

TOM KNECHT (political science) delivered the Paul C. Wilt Phi Kappa Phi lecture in October, “You’reVoting Wrong! How Americans Get Elections Wrong and Why It Matters.” JESSE COVINGTON (political science) and WAYNE IBA (computer science) responded to the talk.

TREMPER LONGMAN III (Robert Gundry professor of biblical studies) published two books this summer: “Introducing the Old Testament: A Short Guide to Its History and Message” (Zondervan) and “Job,” a volume in the Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms series.

DAVID NEWTON (economics and business) will serve as provost of King’s College in New York City, his alma mater, beginning in January 2013. For the ninth year, he will serve as a master teacher of entrepreneurship at the EC-Forum at Oklahoma State University. He reviewed “The Shaping of an Effective Leader” by President Gayle D. Beebe for FieldNotesMagazine.com, Fuller Seminary’s online journal. He has submitted a paper, “Everybody’s Gone Serfdom, Serfdom U.S.A.: Why Hayeks’s Government Road Denies Spontaneous Order, Liberty, and Human Nature in the 21st Century Political Economy,” for the 10th Annual Free Market Forum sponsored by Hillsdale College in Houston in October.

Several students of ALLAN NISHIMURA (chemistry) have published an article, “Temperature Dependent Excimer Luminescence of Naphthalenes on Alumina,” in the Journal of Luminescence: Samantha Gardner ’13, Laura Selby ’11 and Rachel Teranishi ’12. Shanan Lau ’13 and Hannah Ryan ’13 worked on “Laser Induced Fluorescence Decay of 2-Methyl, 2-Methoxy, and 2Ethynaphthalene on Alumina During Temperature Programmed Desorption,” published in the Journal of Spectroscopy along with “The Effect of Water on the Excimer Fluorescence Decay Rate Constant of Naphthalene on Alumina” in the Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research. Collaborators from Point Loma Nazarene University also contributed.

HELEN RHEE (religious studies) traveled in Asia during the summer, where she participated in an International Faculty Development Seminar in Shanghai,“China: Economic Development and Urban Transformation.” She presented a paper,“Every Good and Perfect Gift Comes from Above:The Episcopal Control of Charity and Christian(–ized) Patronage,” at the Asia-Pacific Early Christian Studies Society conference at the Presbyterian Seminary in Seoul. She spoke on “The Book of Revelation and the Four Dimensions of Counter-Cultural Discipleship: Worship, Power, Sex, and Money” at New Harvest Ministry in Seoul and served as an adjunct professor at Torch Trinity Graduate University in Seoul, teaching on “Wealth and Poverty in Christian Traditions.” She has published a book,“Loving the Poor, Saving the Rich: Wealth, Poverty, and Early Christian Formation” (Baker Academic, 2012) and two articles:“The Authority and Function of Jewish Scripture in the Acts of Peter and the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies” in “Soyez des changeurs avisés’: Controverses exégétiques dans la littérature apocryphe chrétienne” (Cahiers de Biblia Patristica 12; Strasbourg, Université de Strasbourg); and “A Patristic View of Wealth and Possessions,” Ex Auditu:An International Journal of Theological Interpretation of Scripture.

STEVE ROGERS (psychology) presented a paper, “Acceptance in Spiritually-Oriented Psychotherapy,” at the American Psychological Association convention in Orlando, Fla. Two students, Sara Humes and Beth Lazor, presented research posters at the conference.

JEFF SCHLOSS (T.B. Walker professor of natural and behavioral sciences) is Witherspoon Fellow in Theology and Natural Science at the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton University this fall. He wrote an article,“Whence Atheists: Outliers or Outlaws?,” for Religion, Brain, and Behavior and two book chapters:“Hovering Over Waters: God’s Spirit and the Ordering of Creation” for“In The Spirit of Creation and New Creation” (Eerdmans); and “Theism and Evolution” for “Routledge Companion to Theism” (Taylor & Francis). Recent talks include: “Moral Beliefs:What Biology Does, Doesn’t Yet, and Can’t Ever Answer” at the Conference on Challenges to Religious and Moral Belief: Disagreement and Evolution, Purdue University; “Neither Angel Nor Brute: Biology and the Human Spirit” at the International Conference on the Science and Religion Dialogue: Past and Future, University of Heidelberg; “Divine Handiwork: Faith as a Conclusion from or Lens to See God’s Design in Nature,”Wheaton College Science Symposium on Evolutionary Theory: Implications for Science and Christian Belief; and “Evolutionary Accounts of Morality: Explaining the Normal but Not the Normative,” International Conference on the Evolution of Morality:The Biology and Philosophy of Human Conscience at the International School of Ethology and the Ettore Majorana Center for Science and Culture in Erice, Sicily.

RUSSELL SMELLEY (kinesiology) copresented a paper,“Mental and Emotional Preparation for Competition: Having a Coaching Philosophy that is Effective for Athletes,”at a Global Coaches House meeting during the London Olympics.

AMANDA SPARKMAN (biology) coauthored a paper,“Pack Social Dynamics and Inbreeding Avoidance in the Cooperatively Breeding Red Wolf,” for the journal Behavioral Ecology.

DAVID VANDER LAAN (philosophy) has been appointed to the Board of Editorial Consultants of the journal Faith and Philosophy, published quarterly by the Society of Christian Philosophers. Vander Laan and fellow philosophy professors MARK NELSON and JIM TAYLOR participated in a symposium with Oxford University scholar Richard Swinburne,“The Current State of Natural Theology,” at Biola University.

JANE WILSON (education) and research assistant Anna Beebe ’15 collaborated on two projects: a presentation at the International Christian Community for Teacher Education at Azusa Pacific University; and a professional development video,“Intrinsically Motivational Discourse: Let’s Turn Up the Volume,” featuring six educators (three are Westmont alumni: Melissa Blackford Ewart ’95, Laura Trudelle ’09 and Deedee Mahn Underwood ’88). The Association of Christian Schools International will distribute the video.

TELFORD WORK (religious studies) has published two chapters:“Hope” in “Prophetic Evangelicals: Envisioning a Just and Peaceable Kingdom” (Eerdmans, 2012); and “Pneumatology” in “Mapping Modern Theology” (Baker, 2012).