MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Courtesy of the president’s office, here’s a look at recent accomplishments and publications by Middlebury College faculty and, in some cases, their students.
Burke Rochford (Sociology/Anthropology, Religion) and his student Kendra Bailey (class of 2006) have won the 2006 Thomas Robbins Award for Excellence in the Study of New Religions for their co-authored article, “Almost Heaven: Leadership, Decline and the Transformation of New Vrindaban.” The paper appeared in February 2006 in Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, published by the University of California Press. The Thomas Robbins Award is sponsored by the Association for the Academic Study of New Religions.
Nicoletta Marini-Maio (Italian) has been promoted to the rank of assistant professor of Italian, having completed her Ph.D. in November.
Tom Moran’s (Chinese) book, Dictionary of Literary Biography: Chinese Fiction Writers, 1900-1949, was published by Thomson Gale this past October. It includes essays on the lives and careers of 34 writers from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Moran edited the book and wrote the introduction and the essays on Ding Ling and Zhang Tianyi.
Tatiana Smorodinskaya (Russian) co-edited the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Russian Culture, which has been published by Routledge.
Kevin Moss (Russian) has had two articles published, one in both English and Croatian, “ ‘Ja nisam prava žena:’ Gender and Sexuality in Two Memoirs from Beograd,” in Hodžić A. & J. Postić (Eds.) Transgressing Gender: Two is not Enough for Gender (E)quality: The Conference Collection; and “Who’s Renting These Boys? Wiktor Grodecki’s Czech Hustler Documentaries,” in InterAlia: An Online Journal of Queer Studies 1 (2006).
Paul Sommers’ (Economics) latest publication, “Promotions and Attendance in Minor League Baseball,” co-authored with Lorna S. Gifis ’05, was published online and will appear in the December 2006 issue of the Atlantic Economic Journal.
Ophelia Eglene’s (Political Science) article, “Challenges and Strategies for Conducting International Public Management Research,” has been published in the November 2006 issue of Administration & Society.
Jeff Byers (Chemistry & Biochemistry) has published two articles recently that describe the invention of new chemical methods for the assembly of complex molecules: one, with N.J. Janson ’05, “Radical Additions to (n6-Styrene) Chromium Tricarbonyl,” in Organic Letters; and the other, “Radical Reactions Mediated by Cyclobutadieneiron Tricarbonyl,” in Organometallics, with Steve Sontum (Chemistry & Biochemistry) and Middlebury students and recent graduates Tina Dimitrova ’05, Sumaya Huque ’06, Yong Zhang ’04, and Ben Zegarelli ’05.
Heidi Grasswick (Philosophy) has had an article, “Feminist Social Epistemology,” published in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Barbara Hofer (Psychology) has published two articles: “Domain specificity of personal epistemology: Resolved questions, persistent issues, new models,” in the International Journal of Educational Research; and “Beliefs about knowledge and knowing: Domain specificity and generality,” in Educational Psychology Review. Also, her updated chapter, “Motivation in the College Classroom,” has been published in the new edition of W.J. McKeachie & M. Svinicki’s McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers, published by Houghton Mifflin. In addition, Hofer has been elected to a three-year term as secretary of the American Psychological Association, Division of Educational Psychology.
Suzanne Gurland (Psychology) has been awarded a grant from the Spencer Foundation for research that will examine children’s expectations about their teachers and how these expectations affect the child-teacher relationship. At least two undergraduate students will be involved in this research project, which is titled “Child Expectancy Effects in the Child-Teacher Relationship.”
John Huddleston (Studio Art), has received a grant from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation to support the publication of his book, Healing Ground.
Louisa Burnham (History) has published an article, “Reliques et Résistance chez les Béguins de Languedoc” (“Relics and Resistance Among the Beguins of Languedoc”) in Les Annales du Midi: revue de la France méridionale. The special issue, titled Regards américains sur le Midi médiéval, features four articles by American medievalists.
Sunhee Choi and Jim Larrabee (Chemistry & Biochemistry) have published an article, “Kinetics and Mechanism of the Oxidation of Guanosine Derivatives by Pt(IV) Complexes,” in the December 2006 issue of Inorganic Chemistry. Their four student co-authors are Livia Vastag ’07, Darcy Knowles ’08, Adam Beard ’06, and Chin-Hin Leung ’05.