Tag: Halmos College of Arts and Sciences

Halmos Political Science Majors Present at Research Conference

From left, David Holger Mahnke, Kiara Colman, Gabriella Fidanze and Casey Homorody

Political science majors from the Department of Humanities and Politics in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center presented original research at the Pi Sigma Alpha National Student Research Conference in Washington, D.C.

Ransford Edwards, Ph.D., faculty member in the department, accompanied the students and chaired panels. The students gave the following presentations:

  • Kiara Colman: “Unspoken. Unseen. Unprotected. An Analytical Investigation into the Public’s Perception on Immigration Levels”
  • Gabriella Fidanze: “Too Tough on Crime? The Relationship Between State Political Ideology and Incarceration Rates”
  • David Holger Mahnke: “The ideal of Olympic Peace: Can Sport Help Bring the Ukraine War to a Swift End?”
  • Casey Homorody: “Compulsory Voting and Governmental Effectiveness: How Mandatory Voting Improves Democratic Function”

The first night of the conference featured a career reception where the students met professionals in fields such as government and nonprofit management.

In addition to the conference, the group visited some of the highlights of Washington, including the National Mall, the White House, the Capitol and several museums.

Posted 03/17/24

Halmos Faculty Featured Speaker for USTA Florida on Conflict Resolution

McKay

Judith McKay, J.D., Ph.D., director of the doctoral program and faculty member in the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies (DCRS) in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center, was the featured speaker for the United States Tennis Association (USTA) in Florida. McKay spoke to a group of adult play coordinators on conflict resolution on and off the tennis courts.

McKay is the faculty adviser to the Social Justice Roundtable and works with students in the community through Community Resolution Services, a practicum and volunteer site for DCRS. Community Resolution Services hosts Story Café, the We Love our Families series and The Women’s Roundtable, and offers workshops for Broward County’s crisis intervention teams and other events for community groups and organizations.

McKay’s scholarly interests include conflict coaching, strategic community planning, violence prevention, and intervention in family, neighborhood and organizational conflicts. For more information about Community Resolution Services, contact McKay at mckayj@nova.edu.

Posted 03/17/24

NSU Dance Presents Student Choreography Showcase, April 12-13

NSU’s Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts and its B.A. in Dance program present a student choreography showcase performed by NSU students and choreographed by dance majors and minors.

  • Dates: Friday and Saturday, April 12-13
  • Time: 7:30 p.m.
  • Location: Performance Theatre, Don Taft University Center
  • Cost: Free and open to the local community

For more information, contact Elana Lanczi at lanczi@nova.edu.

Posted 03/04/24

NSU Music Presents Spring Concert, April 19

NSU’s Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts and its B.A. in Music program present the spring concert “A Million Dreams” featuring the NSU Mako Band and the Bossa Nova Chorale. The student musical ensembles, directed by NSU music faculty, will perform music with a rock twist, including songs from Heart, Annie Lennox and Aerosmith.

  • Date: Friday, April 19
  • Time: 7:30 p.m.
  • Location: Rose & Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center
  • Cost: Free and open to the local community.

For more information, contact Bill Adams at wadams@nova.edu.

Posted 03/04/24

Halmos Grads Present Research Work at Ocean Sciences Meeting

NSU graduates Alfredo Quezada, M.S.; Breanna Vanderplow Ph.D.; and Megan Miller, M.S. at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans

Three Fall 2023 Halmos College of Arts and Sciences graduates Breanna Vanderplow, Megan Miller and Alfredo Quezada attended a major oceanographic meeting and presented their thesis and dissertation work conducted at the Physical Oceanography Laboratory. Supported by a grant from the Office of Naval Research, students’ studies were devoted to important areas of research for Florida including rapid intensification of hurricanes and coral reef hydrodynamics.

The Ocean Sciences Meeting is an international event, which takes place every two years, and is attended by thousands of research scientists and engineers. Participants can also meet there and connect with representatives from the U.S. federal funding agencies. This year the meeting was held in New Orleans, La.

Professor Alex Soloviev, who leads the Physical Oceanography Laboratory, said, “The paper presented by Breanna Vanderplow that is based on her Ph.D. dissertation contributed to the understanding of rapid intensification of hurricanes. The existing forecasting models still cannot reliably predict this dangerous phenomenon. An example is Hurricane Maria in 2017 that intensified from Category 2 to 5 within 12 hours and left Puerto Rico unprepared for major devastation.

“The MS projects of Megan Miller and Alfredo Quezada were on coral reef hydrodynamics using computational fluid dynamic methods and robotic ocean instrumentation. They presented papers on physical oceanography of upwelling of the deep cold and nutrient-rich water that can affect coral reef health on the East Florida shelf. Such events are believed to be responsible for the suppression of coral reefs north of West Palm Beach.”

All three papers presented by the NSU graduates were well received by the ocean science community. After graduation, Miller is now with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Quezada with the FAU Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute.

Posted 03/04/24

Students Write in Wilderness Through Special Topics Course

Students at the Anne Kolb Nature Center

Students in the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts are visiting local wilderness areas this winter and investigating the ways in which writing can help improve them.

The grant-funded special topics course, taught by Professor of Writing Claire Lutkewitte, Ph.D., is called “Writing in the Wilderness.” It tours locations in Broward County, including Anne Kolb Nature Center, Fern Forest Nature Center, Long Key Natural Area and Nature Center, and Tree Tops Park, allowing students to observe the ways writing can have an impact in these areas.

“My hope for this class is that students not only sharpen their writing skills but that they also learn writing matters to the preservation of wild places,” Lutkewitte said.

Guest speakers throughout the semester visit the class to discuss ways writing can help improve wilderness areas, and students complete writing projects, including proposals, informative texts and presentations.

For more information about Writing courses and the Writing minor offered through the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts, click here.

Posted 03/03/24

Explore Dangers of Confusing Memory with History, March 6

The Farquhar Honors College and the Alvin Sherman Library present “The Open Classroom: History and Memory.”

Join us for a discussion about the differences between history and memory and the rise of censorship in education when talking about the past.

  • When: Wednesday, March 6 at noon
  • Where: Cotilla Gallery, Alvin Sherman Library, 2nd floor
  • Free and open to the public
  • Register here

David Kilroy, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Humanities and Politics and professor at the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, will be the speaker at the event.

The Open Classroom series features conversations with scholars from various disciplines who share their expertise on important issues and provide insightful perspectives rarely seen in the media.

Posted 02/23/24

Halmos Workshop Series Dedicated to Helping Faculty

Janine Morris, Ph.D., and Eric Mason, Ph.D.

NSU Writing & Communication Center (WCC) faculty coordinators Janine Morris, Ph.D., and Eric Mason, Ph.D., have wrapped up the last of a series of workshops to help faculty in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences (HCAS) who are planning to apply for promotion in 2024. Morris and Mason are associate professors in the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts.

The workshops are one example of how the center serves faculty. They were designed to be an accessible and inspiring opportunity to support faculty as they wrote pieces of their dossier, including a reflective narrative, summary of accomplishments and curriculum vitae. Halmos Dean Holly Lynn Baumgartner, Ph.D., and Charles Zelden, Ph.D., Halmos promotion and sabbatical committee chair, spoke at the workshops about best practices and common pitfalls.

“The HCAS Promotion Workshop series has been a positive way to increase faculty preparedness for the application, understanding of the expectations for review and successful completion of the process, thereby achieving promotion,” Baumgartner said. “The WCC has been instrumental in organizing the myriad pieces that make for a strong dossier. It was important to me to be one of those pieces and inform faculty of what I look for in their materials.”

Students and faculty can come to the WCC to get help on their professional journeys, receiving feedback on their job search documents, professional portfolios and more. To learn more about the NSU Writing and Communication Center, visit nova.edu/wcc

Posted 02/18/24

Halmos Professor Recalls Receiving Martin Luther King Jr. Award

In honor of Black History Month, the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center are pleased to share the honor bestowed upon Neil Katz, Ph.D., before his appointment at the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies.

During his tenure at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, Katz received one of the highest honors bestowed by Syracuse University and the Syracuse community.  He was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Award by Andrew Young, one of King’s chief associates, at a ceremony at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse before a crowd of more than 10,000 guests.  The award was “in honor of Dr. Katz’s life’s work in teaching, research, training and consulting on non-violence for community, cultural, religious and educational groups,” and his “commitment to the principles embodied in Dr. King’s life and work.”

In addition to academic and training activities, Katz also led several research and applied projects with community and activists’ groups such as helping to establish the first city of Syracuse New Justice Mediation Center. He also facilitated research projects helping non-violent activist groups such as the Clamshell Alliance who were protesting nuclear power in Seabrook, N.H. He aided groups protesting cruise missiles at the Griffis Air Force Base in Rome, N.Y., He advocated for the use of mediation in the “Great Peace March,” urging expanded use of King’s non-violence principles and strategies.

His areas of teaching and research interests include negotiation theory and practice, group dynamics and organizational conflict.

Katz reflected on his peace work and receiving the award.

“The award was very meaningful to me, my family and all my students and colleagues affiliated with the Program in Nonviolent Conflict and Change (PNCC) at Syracuse University,” he said. “At the time, the award recognized my effort to both initiate and lead PNCC for the past 27 years — as well as my additional efforts to honor and keep alive the principles embodied in Dr. King’s life and work.”

Posted 02/18/24

NSU Theatre Hosts Intimacy Workshop

Nicole Perry

NSU’s B.A. in Theatre program and the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts hosted Certified Intimacy Director and Coordinator Nicole Perry for a workshop with the cast and crew of the theater production “Gruesome Playground Injuries” last Jan. 20.

During the workshop, titled “Protecting the Performance: Boundary and Closure Practices for Cast and Crew,” Perry taught students, faculty and staff supportive practices they can implement during rehearsals and performances.

“How do we create a space where everyone is respected?” Assistant Professor of Theatre Alex Alvarez asked. “Very often in a hierarchical structure, people silence themselves, because they don’t want to be perceived as sensitive or difficult. By providing this workshop, we’re reminding students, faculty and staff that each of us is a full human being even at work, that ‘no’ is a complete sentence and that we can tell people when they’ve crossed a boundary. It’s empowering to us all.”

Learn more about Arts events here.   

Posted 02/18/24

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