Faculty and Staff Notes

Published June 24, 2014

Rebecca Martusewicz (professor, teacher education) was awarded a 2014 EMU Faculty Research Fellowship for her project entitled, A Pedagogy of Responsibility: Wendell Berry, EcoJustice and Education. Martusewicz intends to complete a book manuscript on the influence of renowned author/conservationist Wendell Berry on EcoJustice Education, and to explore his insights (within works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry) as they contribute to the foundations of a "pedagogy of responsibility." Focusing especially on Berry's work in conversation with a variety of other scholars interested in the critical intersections among social and ecological justice, the book will be the first to address Berry's influence on educational philosophy and practice.

Rhonda Kraai (assistant professor, special education) served as an Honors College Faculty Fellow during the fall 2013 and winter 2014 semesters.

Suzanne Dugger and Perry Francis (professors, leadership and counseling) co-edited a section on the Ward v. EMU court case of 2009 for the April 2014 edition of the Journal of Counseling & Development (JCD). JCD is the official journal of the American Counseling Association (ACA). To subscribe to JCD, visit the ACA's Counseling Journals site.

Francis recently finished leading a team of professional counselors and counselor educators on a three-year project to update and revise the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics.

Phil Smith and Jackie McGinnis (associate professors, special education) along with EMU students Ruth Salles and Michael Peacock, comprised a panel entitled, "She Be Acting Out Again": Mad and Neurodiversity Responses to People with Significant Reputations that presented at the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, on May 21-24. The panel described their work with students and adults with challenging behaviors.

Smith recently published Both Sides of the Table: Autoethnographies of Educators Learning and Teaching With/In [Dis]ability. The book includes a set of stories told by educators, including several current and former EMU students, about how their experiences with disability, personally and in the lives of family members, has affected their understanding of disability.

Deborah Harmon (professor, teacher education) attended meetings at the Young Educator's Society (Y.E.S.) Organization and also at the Detroit Public Schools Higher Education Consortium. These groups met regularly to review and discuss educational trends and needs in Detroit.

Ethan Lowenstein's (professor, teacher education) research results were published in the Teachers College Record article entitled, "A Randomized Controlled Trial of Professional Development for Interdisciplinary Civic Education: Impacts on Humanities Teachers and Their Students".

Lowenstein was also awarded the 2014 Dale Rice Award for Academic Innovation in Academic Service-Learning and Community Engagement.

Educational leadership students stand at the equator while studying abroad in Ecuador

Raul Leon (assistant professor, leadership and counseling) led twelve educational leadership students to Ecuador during the last week of May. This short-term study abroad program allowed students to explore Ecuador from a multi-disciplinary perspective with a particular emphasis on higher education. Through films, short articles, stories, local news papers, guest speakers, and field trips, students obtained a solid understanding of the reality of this Andean country.

Jerry Robbins (dean emeritus, College of Education) received the Outstanding Alumni Award in Education from the University of Arkansas.