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News About Your Colleagues Around the World

Amy Ackerberg-Hastings, who teaches history for UMUC’s School of Undergraduate Studies, was invited to present “Francis Nichols: Philadelphian, Bookseller, Mathematical Critic,” to the Philadelphia Area Seminar on History of Mathematics, sponsored by Villanova University, October 23, 2003.

Laurie Coltri, who has taught courses in legal studies for UMUC since 1998, recently published Conflict Diagnosis and Alternative Dispute Resolution (Prentice Hall, 2003).

Cher Compton, who teaches art in UMUC’s School of Undergraduate Studies, exhibited her work September 6–28, 2003, at the pastels-only national juried competition of the Pastel Society of America Gallery in Gramercy Park South (East 20th St.), New York, New York. She won an honorable mention at the 2003 MFA Chesapeake Regional open self portrait competition, curated and judged by Carolyn Carr, deputy director and chief curator of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. John Ruppert, chair of the art department at University of Maryland, College Park, awarded her the Juror’s Choice Award at the Maryland Federation of Art Circle Gallery in the 2003 small works exhibition. Finally, she received the Reserve Champion and first-, second-, and third-place awards for pastels in the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival Fine Art Competition for 2003. Her private students collected nine other awards at the same exhibition.

Steven T. Edwards, who has taught in UMUC’s fire science program since 1992, currently serves as director of the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute, and previously served as fire chief for Prince George’s County, Maryland, recently received the prestigious President’s Distinguished Service Award from the University of Maryland, College Park. It is only one of many awards bestowed on Edwards, who earlier received the Distinguished Public Service award from the Prince George's County Council of American Legions and an award for meritorious service from the Prince George's County Chamber of Commerce.

Tobe Levin, a collegiate professor for UMUC–Europe and winner of a 2002 Presidential Award, published “Female Genital Mutilation and Human Rights,” in Vol. 1, No. 3 (2003) of the journal Comparative American Studies. She published “Between the Feasible and the Transformative,” a book review of Shirin M. Rai’s Gender and the Political Economy of Development: From Nationalism to Globalization (Cambridge, 2002), in Vol. 10, No. 3 (2003) of The European Journal of Women’s Studies. She published “Die Wuerde des Menschen ist Unantastbar” [Human Dignity is Inviolable], in Weibliche Genitalverstuemmelung—Eine fundamentale Menschenrechtsverletzung (Mabuse Verlag, 2003). Finally, she published "Netzwerkerfahrungen mit WISE: Moeglichkeiten, Grenzen, Perspektiven" [Networking with WISE: Possibilities, Limitations, Perspectives], in Perspektive: GLOBAL! Inter-nationale Wissenschaftlerinnenkooperationen und Forschung. Dokumentation der achten Wissenschaftlerinnen-Werkstatt der Promovendinnen der Hans-Boeckler-Stiftung vom 9. bis 12. September 2001 (Band 75, 2003). Because of her work editing the first contemporary women’s movement collection of essays on female genital mutilation published in Germany, the book Weibliche Genitalverstuemmelung—Eine Fundamentale Menschenrechtsverletzung [Female Genital Mutilation: A Human Rights Violation] (Mabuse Verlag, 2003), was dedicated to her.

Diane M. T. North, who teaches history in UMUC’s School of Undergraduate Studies, presented a paper entitled “The Boundaries of Patriotism,” as part of a panel on “The Great War, the West, and Patriotism,” at the 2003 annual meeting of the Western History Association in Fort Worth, Texas, held October 9, 2003. In June 2003, she chaired and provided commentary on a session at the Society for the History of Childhood and Youth.

Eugene Rubin, chair of UMUC’s Master of Distance Education program in the Graduate School; Christine Walti, an Oldenburg University faculty member who teaches courses in the UMUC partnership with Oldenburg; and three UMUC students, provided information for an article entitled “Learning Online to Teach Online” that appeared in the October 31, 2002, issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education. Two of the featured students teach online at Maryland higher education institutions, and the third is employed at a private firm that creates IT support services. All three see the Master of Distance Education program as helping them stay competitive in their fields.