Last month, several Lee University students presented at the annual national conference of Pentecostals and Charismatics for Peace and Justice (PCPJ).

Pradip Subedi and Rachel Stern at Acting on AIDS booth

The mission of PCPJ is to encourage, enable, and sustain peacemaking and the search for justice as an authentic and integral aspect of the Pentecostal and Charismatic community.  As well, they wish to inform people of national and international issues regarding injustice and oppression, and to facilitate action that encourages peace. 

Six students from the Behavioral and Social Sciences Department had the opportunity to present at PCPJ through the Council on Revolutionary Endeavors (CORE), which is composed of three groups: Invisible Children, Acting on AIDS, and the International Justice Mission.

Ellie Morse presenting at PCPJ

PCPJ has offered to the students involved in CORE an opportunity to published on the PCPJ website in order to promote a continued relationship with the student organization. Dr. Murl Dirksen said that he hopes students will continue to be involved. 

“I think anytime students can make presentations at conferences professionally, it is good for students and Lee.  People are exposed to the quality of students we have here.  We have great students, and I’m always proud of them going to conferences,” he said.

Ellie Morse, Katie Johnson, and Amanda Mitchell at Global Gift Shop display for PCPJ

 In reference to the PCPJ conference and the students’ concern with social justice, Dirksen continued, “I think Lee students were happy to be affirmed that what they are doing is right and valuable.”

This year, new faculty joins the College of Arts and Sciences.  Professor Jeff Ringer, Dr. Wendy Steinberg, and Professor Alan Wheeler are new additions in the English, Psychology, and Anthropology discipline respectively.  

Professor Ringer, pictured middle, at his wedding

Professor Jeff Ringer is a Lee alum finishing his Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition through the University of New Hampshire while teaching here at Lee.  His dissertation is on Evangelical Identity and Academic Writing, which he says is an important reason he is here.  “Part of the reason that attracted me to coming back here was teaching students who were the subject of my dissertation.  I hope to continue researching and help design courses and programs that involve students and writing majors with research.”

Dr. Steinberg teaching her Statistics class

Dr. Wendy Steinberg, who taught previously at Eastern University, feels her charge is to teach Statistics and Research Methods effectively.  The class is her passion, and as many students are afraid of statistics, her goal is “to help them find it enjoyable, fun, and useful.”  To her, that is the definition of success, and she believes it’s possible. She is the author of Statistics Alive, an introductory text on the subject.

Professor Wheeler with Byamba

If he were to accomplish anything while here at Lee, professor Alan Wheeler says, it would be to give students a broader perspective of the world while encouraging them to draw closer to Jesus.  He always felt called to be a missionary, but God had other plans.  He became an anthropologist because he has a “natural love for the exotic, the distant, the unusual.”  Here, he is pictured with Byamba in one of Mongolia’s remotest regions, only accessible traveling by moose trails for over 100 miles.  The only contact this tribe had prior to Wheeler’s visit was Hungarian scientist 40 years ago. Wheeler is working on a doctorate from the University of Cambridge.

This past July, nine Lee University students participated in the survey and excavation of an important historical site in eastern Tennessee.  Each summer for the past three years, anthropology professor Dr. Richard Jones, and Quentin Bass, Archaeologist for the U.S. Forest Service, have teamed up to teach the Archaeology Field Methods course as an archaeology field school doing real culture resource management projects in the Cherokee National Forest.

This year, Quentin Bass arranged for Dr. Jones and the students from Lee to work under the direction of Brett Riggs and Stephen Davis, both well-known archaeologists from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  The site they worked on was established in the 1830’s as a military camp to keep settlers lured by the gold rush out of Cherokee lands.  During the same decade the fort was used to collect the Cherokee for removal, and, in that sense, it is part of the beginning of the Trail of Tears.

The summer field school participants. Back row, from left to right: Quentin Bass, Stephen Davis, Johann Furbacher, Ward Jones, Lance Greene, Brett Riggs, and Richard Jones. Front row: Sarah Anderson, Ali Carlton, Felicia Wright, Tona Headrick, and Stacy Cohl.

Lee students were trained in a variety of archaeological techniques, after which they assisted in detailed surveying and mapping of the site, and assisted in the excavation of several site features.  One student participant, Stacy Cohl, said about the experience, “We were able to actually dig in the dirt.  What I was expecting was a lot of fetch and carry work.  A lot of ‘Hey you, inexperienced student, haul this dirt over there!’  What I got was completely the opposite.  We, the students, were the ones getting down in the dirt and doing the digging.”

Students also learned that excavating in the Cherokee National Forest involved digging through thick root mats, avoiding yellow jacket nests, getting chigger bites, doing a tick check at the end of each day, and always smothering oneself in insect repellent, which did not seem to deter the mosquitoes. Cohl said, “Despite all the ticks and gnats and rain—and partially because of them—we were able to really experience the field and understand what this ‘archaeology’ thing was all about.  We could actually call ourselves archaeologists by the end of it.”

Dr. Jones said, “Being invited to participate in research at such an important historical site offers an extraordinary opportunity for our students to be involved in significant archaeological research.  At most institutions, undergraduates are rarely afforded such opportunities.”

Students at the salt mines in Germany

This past summer, thirteen trips from various departments inside the College of Arts and Sciences participated in a cross-cultural experience.  Dr. Jeffrey Sargent co-led the third annual Psychology trip to Europe with Dr. Heather Quagliana.  Twenty-nine students visited Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, and were able to see the salt mines of Germany, visit Freud’s office, and attend a lecture at the Carl Jung Institute.  The Italy trip, led by Dr. Matthew Sims and Professor John Simmons, took twenty-two students to Rome, Orvieto, Florence, Venice, and Milan to study Renaissance art, Baroque Italy, and Ancient Rome.

Dr. Donna Summerlin led nine students on the American Ethnic Studies trip which focused on the ethnic diversity of the South, including African American history and the Civil Rights movement.  The Modern Europe trip, led by Dr. Steve Swindle and Dr. Jeff Golden, took twenty-four students to Brussels, Paris, Munich, Salzburg, and Budapest to study Humanities and Political Science; while there they were able to see NATO, the Eagle’s Nest, Dachau, and many museums.

Students at a grill in Hiroshima

Dr. Trevor Milliron and Dr. Robert Fisher led another psychology trip to Japan; twenty-five students traveled for eleven days to Tokyo, Osaka, and Hiroshima, along with some trips into the countryside.  Twenty-five students participated in the Argentina Spanish Institute trip led by Dr. Alexander Steffanell and Professor Carmen Guerrero to Montevideo, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires.  There, they visited museums and held a language café at the Universidad de la Empresa.

On these trips, students are able to experience life outside of Lee University, as well as become more acquainted with their professors.  Beth Thompson, Director of the Global Perspectives program says, “What better academic pursuit is there than having a student learn hands-on the meaning of their own Christian values and how those relate to another cultural perspective.  As faith based educators we have an ethical responsibility to teach our students there are other ways of knowing and thinking.”

Lee University’s play therapy center, directed by Trevor Milliron, was recently featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press. The program has now been in existence for twelve years, and has met a good deal of success recently.

Play therapy may be used to help children who appear to be reacting to abuse, dealing with attention deficit disorder, and confronting fears they have difficulty expressing.

Karen Mundy went to the Salzburg Global Seminar in Austria from September 7-12.  The topic of the seminar was “Peace-Making and Peace-Building: Securing the Contributions of Women and Civil Society.”  The Mellon Foundation provided funding for the trip.  

The conference mostly focused on Resolution 1325, adopted by the United Nations Security Council in October of 2000.  The resolution recognizes the need to incorporate more women in peace-building and peace-keeping, believing that women have a lot to offer in ending hostilities. The seminar also discussed Resolution 1820, passed by the Security Council in June of 2008, which reaffirms the commitment to Resolution 1325 and calls on nations to evaluate whether they have accomplished any of their goals for implementing it.

Also in attendance were men and women from different governments, NGOs, and peace-keeping teams around the world.  The U.S. had no official delegates, as they have made no steps to implement Resolution 1325.  Mundy commented that this made it awkward to be an American in that context.  However, she also noted that it was a fascinating, powerful experience.

Posted by Amber Mear

University professors Dr. Randy Wood and Dr. Ollie Lee have recently been appointed chairs of the Department of History and Political Science and the Behavioral and Social Sciences Department respectively.

Wood takes his place as department chair after Dr. Murl Dirksen steps down from this post after 14 years of service. “Dr. Wood has coordinated our humanities program for several years and just completed a sabbatical in which he did research for a book on the family,” said Dr. Carolyn Dirksen, vice president of Academic Affairs. “He is an excellent teacher, scholar and administrator, and we believe he is a perfect fit for this position.”

Dr. Ollie Lee will replace Dr. Robert Graham as chair of the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences after Graham accepted a new post at Waynesburg University in Pennsylvania. “Dr. Lee is a veteran administrator at Lee having served as department chair, associate dean, and vice president for Academic Affairs,” said Dirksen. “We are very fortunate to have someone with Dr. Lee’s experience serving in this position.”

Jonathon Gulledge, assistant professor of psychology, recently published an article in the International Journal of Comparative Psychology (IJCP), “A Species Difference in Visuospatial Working Memory: Does Language Link “What” with “Where”?”

In conjunction with a team of researchers from Georgia State University, Gulledge used a computerized version of a popular children’s memory game, “Concentration,” to test the role of language in the memory of humans, apes, and monkeys.

Participants were required to find matching pairs of pictures by “flipping over” computer-generated cards, and to remember which images had been seen (“memory for what”) and where each was hidden (“memory for where”). All participants were able to locate the pairs, but the animals were consistently and significantly worse than the human participants.

When the computer-generated cards displayed no words (language), the humans’ performance declined. When they displayed meaningful symbols, the chimpanzes’ performance improved.

According to Gulledge and his team, these data suggest that language itself provides an important function in memory, linking “memory for what” with “memory for where.” (Washburn, et. all “A Species Difference in Visuospatial Working Memory”)

Lee University psychology professor Susan Carter is conducting an internet safety program in public school systems called “Get Smart: Internet Safety Strategies for Middle-School Students.” She is also training school counselors to deliver the program to their students and families.

“Get Smart” was developed with the help of Lee graduate students in the school counseling program and presented for peer review at the 2007 American School Counseling Association National Conference, the 2007 American Counseling Association National Conference, and the 2007 National Center for Youth Issues Healthy Choices for Youth Conference.

According to Carter, the need to teach internet safety to children and parents is apparent. Increasing numbers of middle and high school students use the Internet on a daily basis.

Sexually explicit materials are readily available online and as many as 50,000 sexual predators at any given moment are searching for children and teens who will respond and interact with them through the Internet.

“Get Smart” is designed to meet the need not only to inform parents, guardians, and students about the dangers of cyberspace, but also to teach specific strategies for internet safety.

“Get Smart: Internet Safety Strategies for Middle-School Students” has been developed specifically for school counselors to use in their local schools and communities to address internet safety issues and provide skill-building opportunities for students and their families.

Each individual session includes activities and resources that provide information and build skills. Students learn skills such as how to create a “safe” MySpace page and ways in which they can protect themselves from predators while online.