Archives for March 2009

Retired . . . to a Sports Car

March 14, 2009 by
With my own retirement drawing near, I wonder about the situation of retired colleagues, friends who began teaching here when I did and have had the good sense to retire before me. One of these is Michael Patrick, Associate Professor Emeritus of English. Mike retired nearly twenty years ago. When I asked for news for the department newsletter, Mike replied with a generous amount of new, more than would fit into Panoply. For the interest of those who know Mike, perhaps took classes with him, here is a slightly edited version of what he sent.
Currently, he and his wife, Sheena, live in Fairhope, Alabama. Mike has continued scholarly activities focused the book,

Filed Under: Department, Faculty Tagged With: ,

Celebrating the Humanities at Missouri S&T

March 11, 2009 by

We do have Humanities at Missouri University of Science & Technology.While some may think of the Humanities as an ornament to educating engineers and scientists, the areas in Humanities – English, History, Philosophy, the Arts, Languages – are important areas of research in their own right. Scholars and creators in these areas create knowledge and experiences that benefit society beyond the bounds of the campus.

On March 18, the second event Celebrating Excellence in the Humanities will be held in St Pat’s B in the Havener Center. The event starts at 2:00 and ends about 3:00. The scholars being celebrated are Michael Bruening, History and Political Science, Kate Drowne, English and Technical Communication, Eric Bryan, English and Technical Communication, and Audra Merfeld-Langston, Arts, Languages, and Philosophy.

Each scholar will speak briefly on his or her research, topics as diverse as the Reformation, the flapper in American culture, Old Norse mythology, and responses to globalization in rural France. Publications by other members of each department will be on display.

Members of the public, as well as the campus community, are welcome. See you there!

Filed Under: Campus, Faculty, Research Tagged With: , , ,

An Outstanding Student

March 11, 2009 by

Laura Ward, an English Education major, was recognized as an outstanding English student at the Missouri English Conference in February, meeting at Tan-Tar-A at the Lake of the Ozarks. Laura is currently student teaching as she finishes requirements for her degree and certification. Join me in congratulating her!

Filed Under: Students

Floating Blue Squiggles

March 4, 2009 by

Really! A week ago – on Wednesday, February 25 – my wife and I saw blue forms – not exactly squiggles, what artists call “biomorphic forms” – forms that suggest living shapes.We saw shapes suggesting the human form -glowing blue shapes – shift, glide, float, zoom in a dark space. These blue shapes glowed as they moved individually or in combination.

We saw a performance by the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, an even in Missouri S&T’s Campus Performing Arts series in Leach Theatre. The company performed three pieces, each quite different from the other.

The first, “Sweet Fields,” choreographed by Twyla Tharp, used music from William Billings, the Shaker tradition, and Sacred Harp, a shape-note hymnal. The second, “1st Flash,” choreographed by Jorma Elo, to music by Jean Sibelius,

The third, Noir Blanc, is the one my opening paragraph deals with – a performance that is a culmination of movement arts over the last 100 years. (I’m thinking of Diaghilev and Nijinsky.) Those float blue biomorphs, were, of course, the dances of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. The skillful use of costuming and lighting gave the audience an experience difficult to represent in words. So I will stop with that; no, let me add that, if you have the opportunity to see this ballet company perform, I recommend that you do just that.

Filed Under: Campus, Observations

A Tech Com Grad at Work

March 2, 2009 by

Elizabeth Richardson (“Libby”) received her M.S. in Technical Communication in 2007. She has been working in the Republic of Korea, first teaching English as a Second Language, and now as a technical writer for Samsung. In a recent email, Libby brought us up-to-date:

“I’m in Suwon City, South Korea at the R&D complex, working with B2B products (Business 2 Business). Our marketing team is going to be launching the B2B web portal soon from our worldwide website.
“I’ve been editing all of the manuals for applications coming out of my division it seems. They are even having me write some pop-up messages for the applications. Right now I’m helping write a Java API (javadoc) for a major release we have coming up. It’s a challenge, but it’ll be worth it. I’m working with an engineer that’s in India to document the code. I also edit other stuff, too. I think within a few months I’ll probably be editng every piece of writing coming out of Samsung’s Digital Printing Division. Oh, I’m also working on getting a style guide up and going for our division. That’s in my ‘spare time’ though.
“Tell the current students to hang in there! The future isn’t completely bleak!”.
Filed Under: Alumni, Students