Peter Boltuc, associate professor of Philosophy, is now co-editor of the American Philosophical Association's Newsletter on Philosophy and Computing.
Fall 2006: Julie Chapman, assistant professor of Library Instructional Services; Karen Moranski, interim associate vice chancellor for undergraduate education; Debbie Parker, composition coordinator for the Capital Scholars Honors Program; and Pinky Wassenburg, Dean of the College of Public Affairs and Administration presented two papers 
at the recent Association for Integrative Studies National Conference. Chapman, Moranski, and Wassenburg made a presentaion on the use of librarians as teaching faculty in the course CAP 121 How Do You Know? Parker and Moranski also made a presentation on the CAP Honors writing courses.
Professor Emerita Jan Droegkamp and Peggy Cormeny, District 186 Parent Coordinator and SSU graduate, participate in a U.S. State Department Office of Citizen Exchanges program for educators, parents, trainers, and community leaders in Bangladesh from October 25 to November 8, 2006. Eleven Bangladeshi participants came to the U.S. in 2005; this is a reciprocal visit for American participants to observe and give mini-workshops. The program is facilitated through World Learning, based in Washington, D.C.
Ethan Lewis, associate professor of English, gives pre-show 
presentations on T.S. Eliot before five performances of Cats at the Hoogland Center for the Arts in October 2006. Lewis, an Eliot scholar, discusses Eliot's poetry, especially poems from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, which inspired the musical.
Holly McCracken, director of CLAS Online programs, co-presented a web-based training event in September 2006 titled "It Takes a Virtual Village: Practical Strategies for Improving Online Learning Retention Rates" for Innovative Educators. Other co-presenters for this event include Dr. Vince Schreck from Portland State University and Anita Crawley from Montgomery College.
Fall 2006: Willam Siles, associate professor and chair of the History 
program, has been elected to the board of directors of the Museum of Funeral Customs in Springfield. Siles has an extensive academic and professional background in historic preservation and museums. He has served as a consultant to numerous organizations including the New Philadelphia Project, Springfield Children's Museum, and Illinois State Museum. He notes that the museum's multicultural exhibits document an important but undertold story of the everyday experience of death and burial. The museum also offers traveling exhibits, educational programming, and a library and archives, and facilitiates research.
Fall 2006: Mohammed Shahidullah, an adjunct faculty member in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, recently returned from a six-month Fulbright Visiting Scholar grant at the James P. Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. While there, he taught biostatistics to MPH students from 11 countries, developed and taught a course on online learning to several Bangladeshi faculty, gave guest lectures on introductory sociology, and led several seminars and workshops on public health program evaluation and online learning.
October 2006: Deborah Kuhn McGregor, in conjunction with the UIS Women's Center, presents a lecture on her work, titled The Ecology of Childbirth: Vitamin D Deficiency Rickets and Cesarean Section. In this work, McGregor explains the history of obstetric medicine in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when doctors first began developing cesarean section surgery. Dr. McGregor teaches in the UIS History, Women's Studies, and African-American Studies programs.
October 2006: Mattilou Catchpole was one of 18 recipients of the prestigious President's Call to Service Award, which was presented by Health Volunteers Overseas. One of our emerita faculty in Women's Studies, Catchpole has made 21 trips to 17 developing countries since 1990. She has taught anaesthesia to nurses in countries that are in need of vital health care training and educational support services.
September 2006: The Association for Computing Machinery and its Special Interest Group on Computers and Society has awarded Keith Miller with its Outstanding Service Award for his many professional contributions and extensive activity in the international communities of philosophy and computer science disciplines. According to Miller, "My chief claim to fame in computer ethics is that so many of the people truly important to the field have been kind enough to work with me on one project or another. They've made me part of the family, and for that I am deeply grateful."
August 2006: Peter Boltuc delivered a presentation on teaching Philosophy online at the
North American Philosophy and Computing Conference at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. In Fall 2006 Dr. Boltuc is teaching the first-ever blended online/on-campus Philosophy course at UIS.
Summer 2006: Rosina Neginsky delivers a public reading of her cultural history/literary biography, Zinaida Vengerova In Search of Beauty: A Literary Ambassador between East and West. The publication has begun its second printing (University of Heidelberg series, Peter Lang).
May 2006: UIS faculty Jan Droegkamp, Kamau Kemayo, and Sandra Mills led a UIS Global Experience 
Seminar in Jamaica. Students in attendance visited Jamaican children's schools, worked alongside Jamaican community organizers and citizens, and participated in the Calabash Literary Festival. Dr. Kemayo delivered a lecture at this festival. Dr. Droegkamp has led several student trips abroad and has spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Jamaica.
