Page 43 - Academic Report FINAL VERSION WEB

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

USG-supported role-playing game for students. a literacy project at Porter Elementary School in Ma-
The inaugural issue of the English Department con.

journal Culture in Focus was published in 2018, Dr. Chris Cairney was keynote speaker last Feb-
founded by Dr. Chris Cairney and Dr. Gul Celkan. ruary at the 11th World Conference on Educational
Dr. Clay Morton continued his outstanding work as Sciences held in Milan, Italy. Another outcome of the
director of the Honors Program. Dr. Mary Mears or- conference in Italy is that the English Department will
ganized a three-day series of academic lectures on be fostering and facilitating the research of Dr. Sevim
Africa last spring in coordination with her teaching Guneş from Dicle University in Turkey. Dr. Guneş will
Studies in African Literature. Dr. Lorraine Dubuisson spend part of June and July this year visiting the MGA
and Mr. Josh Hill were very active with the Georgia campus in Cochran to conduct a study of distance ed-
Philological Association, serving as president and ucation in the teaching of English in collaboration with
vice-president, respectively. Ms. Rhonda Crombie Dr. Nate Gilbert and other faculty and staff at MGA.
served as treasurer. Together, they organized a GPA
conference in May. Dr. Dubuisson also co-edits the In summary, the English Department enjoyed an
GPA journal. Ms. Susan Phillips, in her executive role active and successful academic year and looks for-
with the National Association for Developmental Ed- ward to continued growth, particularly with the recent
ucation (NADE), fostered a partnership between the approval of the M.A. in technical and professional writ-
MGA Department of Education and NADE to support ing.

Department of History

The Department of History continues to offer ex- Civil War Museum in Richmond. Micheal Williams is
cellent academic opportunities to undergraduates pursuing his Ph.D. in History at Florida State. Frank-
and to bring history to life with film and visiting schol- ie Bauer will soon begin work in a Ph.D. program at
ars. the University of North Carolina. Upon completing her
graduate studies in public history, Sherrie Raleigh will
Dr. Manis’ feature film project A Fire You Can’t begin working for the University of Georgia’s Arch-
Put Out, based on his award-winning biography of way Partnership. Raymond Batchelor continues his
civil rights leader Fred Shuttlesworth, has taken a work as a Ph.D. student at Texas A&M, and has re-
major step toward becoming a reality. The manage- cently published “Cast under Our Care: Elite Quaker
ment group responsible for such television programs Masculinity and Political Rhetoric about American
as Grey’s Anatomy and 24 and feature films such as Indians in the Age of Revolutions,” in a collection of
Black Panther and First Man (www.circleofconfusion. essays titled Quakers and Native Americans. Finally,
com) has taken on the project and will promote its Heather Capshaw recently won Educator of the Year
production. for GMC’s Warner Robins campus.

The annual History Undergraduate Conference
continues to provide students from across Georgia
the opportunity to present their work to an interested
audience. This year’s conference attracted students
from ABAC, Emory, GCSU, Columbus State, Georgia
Southwestern State, and elsewhere. MGA students
Benjamin Fincher, April Garner, and Suzanne Tetteh
participated in the conference, which culminated with
MGA IT students Ryan Ashford and Brandon Lew-
is hosting an interactive discussion on the history of
computers.

The department welcomed and served as host to
Dr. Allan Wu, Associate Professor at Minjiang Univer-
sity, during his stay at MGA as a visiting scholar. Dr.
Wu’s visit, arranged by Dr. Israel, provided faculty and
students the opportunity to learn much about China’s
academic culture.

Several recent graduates are continuing their edu-
cation in graduate schools across the country and are
putting their MGA educations to positive use. John
Legg is nearing completion of his M.A. in History at
Virginia Tech, and will be interning at the American

Academic Affairs Annual Report 2019 | Middle Georgia State University 39