To learn, research and innovate: Faculty members awarded 2014-15 sabbaticals
A dozen UW-Green Bay faculty members will use 2014-15 sabbaticals to conduct research, enrich themselves academically and eventually return to the classroom with additional knowledge and insight.
Associate and full professors from nine departments across campus will take semester-long or full-year sabbaticals to pursue a variety of projects and initiatives, said Julia Wallace, UW-Green Bay Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
“Sabbaticals allow our faculty the needed time to engage in research and/or academic projects to ensure they are current in an ever changing academic world,” Wallace said. “Providing this opportunity is professionally important for faculty, and ensures that the instructional materials and academic programs we offer our students are most relevant to their future degree.”
The faculty members who have been granted semester-long or full-year sabbaticals for 2014-15 are as follows:
Scott Ashmann, Associate Professor of Education: Ashmann’s sabbatical will focus on environmental education, including conducting a literature review, refining an iPad application currently under development and collecting data at the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary’s nature-based 4-year-old kindergarten program. Ashmann also may take a trip to Turkey during his sabbatical.
David Coury, Professor of Humanistic Studies: The focus of Coury’s yearlong sabbatical is strengthening and enriching UW-Green Bay’s Center for Middle East Studies & Partnerships, for which he serves as co-director. He will be researching and developing a new course, a new joint minor/certificate in Middle East Studies and a new book proposal.
Adam Gaines, Associate Professor of Music: Gaines will spend is fall 2014 sabbatical living and working as a musician and performer in Slovakia. The focus of his time there will be a performance and recording with the Slovak Philharmonic and a teaching position at the Jan Albrecht Music and Art Academy. This will allow Gaines to address elements of UW-Green Bay’s select mission and further the University’s goals of international education.
Derek Jeffreys, Professor of Humanistic Studies: Jeffreys will use his yearlong sabbatical to write a book on the ethics of incarcerating mentally ill individuals. Drawing on philosophical, historical and sociological sources, the book will explore debates about the nature of mental illness. Jeffreys has written extensively about incarceration and related issues, including his most recent book “Spirituality in Dark Places: The Ethics of Solitary Confinement.”
Katia Levintova, Associate Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs: During spring semester 2015, Levintova will work as an editor and contributor on an edited volume analyzing gender issues in teaching and learning political science. Her sabbatical supports the UW-Green Bay Select Mission values of diversity and engaged citizenship, and also contributes to intercultural knowledge and competence, interdisciplinary activities and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Jennifer Mokren, Associate Professor of Art and Design: Mokren’s yearlong sabbatical will be used to create a new body of interdisciplinary collaborative work to solicit galleries for a solo exhibition, as well as creating teaching materials for photographing finished work, and alternative gem and found object settings. Her sabbatical fulfills UW-Green Bay’s Select Mission and the UW System Shared Learning Goal of creative thinking.
Cristina Ortiz, Associate Professor of Humanistic Studies: Ortiz will be on sabbatical during spring semester 2015, developing two distinct courses — a travel course and a semester-long regular course. She also will complete a chapter for the book “Peninsularidades.” The goal of the sabbatical projects is to analyze the role that religion historically has played and plays today in Spain and Latin America. The two proposed courses will be interdisciplinary in nature.
Laura Riddle, Professor of Theatre and Dance: During a spring semester 2015 sabbatical, Riddle will learn how to use voice analysis software and develop a plan to incorporate it into the Theatre and Dance curriculum. UW-Green Bay has purchased the new technology, which is able to analyze the human voice for tone, breath, rhythm and melody. The software provides a graphic representation of the voice and an objective measure of improvement. It will be used in the Voice for the Actor sequence required of Performance majors.
Ellen Rosewall, Professor of Arts Management: Rosewall will use her spring 2015 sabbatical to continue her work on developing and improving undergraduate arts management curriculum. Her forthcoming book, “Arts Management,” is the first arts management undergraduate textbook. She will continue to be involved on an international level in developing arts management academic standards, and her books reflect the latest in research and practice.
Jolanda Sallmann, Associate Professor of Social Work: Sallmann’s yearlong sabbatical will allow her to undertake three interrelated activities. She will conduct a classroom study examining the impact a graduate diversity course has on students’ levels of cultural competency, along with a community study using local service providers to inform the development of regionally responsive, culturally competent curricular materials. Sallmann also will mentor graduate students on diversity research projects. The trio of activities promotes teaching and learning of human cultures and intercultural knowledge and competence, among providing other benefits.
Michael Zorn, Associate Professor of Natural and Applied Sciences: During fall semester 2014, Zorn will spend the bulk of his sabbatical time collaborating with a company called WET Labs on research and development of in situ chemical sensors. He also will conduct other activities to further enhance his teaching and scholarship abilities, contributing to a variety of UW-Green Bay and UW System collaborative, technological and teaching goals.
