Linda E. Patrik, professor of Philosophy, has been awarded a Contemplative Practice Fellowship to develop a new philosophy course, “Contemplative Social Ethics,” from the American Council of Learned Societies in its 2006-2007 fellowships competition. The course will be offered in spring term 2008, and the grant will support three class field trips to non-profit organizations in New York state that base their social work on contemplation. Students in the course will also learn and practice the contemplative methods used by the social workers, who administer these non-profit organizations related to job opportunities in urban areas, prison reform and anti-violence strategies for teenagers. The Contemplative Practice fellowship program seeks to restore and renew the critical contribution that contemplative practices can make to the life of teaching and scholarship. The fellowships support individual or collaborative research leading to the development of courses and teaching materials that integrate contemplative practices into courses.
Rudy Nydegger, professor of Psychology and of Management and Psychology at Union Graduate College, has received an award for best paper in the Management Section of the Southwest Academy of Management Annual Meeting in San Diego for his paper, “A Theoretical Approach for Dealing With Organizational Conflict.”
Lori Marso, professor and chair of Women’s and Gender Studies, and co-editor Michaele Ferguson of the University of Colorado discussed their new book, “W Stands for Women: How The George W. Bush Presidency Shaped a New Politics of Gender” (Duke University Press) on The State of Things on WUNC, an NPR member station. Joining them was David S. Gutterman, assistant professor of politics at Willamette University and author of one of the articles in the book. Listen to the audio at http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/sot0830a.mp3/mediafile_view. Marso's article for the book is titled "Feminism and the Complications of Freeing the Women of Afghanistan and Iraq." Also included is a piece by Andrew Feffer, associate professor of History, titled "W's Masculine Pseudo-Democracy."