Kathy Merlock Jackson, Kathy Shepherd Stolley, and Lisa Lyon Payne have published a new book, Animals and Ourselves: Essays on Connections and Blurred Boundaries, which includes their essays, "Mister Ed, 1960s Television and the Horse Who Was Not Just a Horse," "Body Boundaries: Animal Body Adornment, Lifestyle Holism and Cosmetic Surgeries," and "From Tusk to Tail: Understanding the Animal Attraction to College Mascots," respectively. The edited volume contains chapters by other Virginia Wesleyan luminaries. Terry Lindvall wrote "Blurred Laughter: How Disney and Pixar Animated Films Teach Children to Laugh Like Animals," and George Jackson contributed "Animals and the Law: Persons or Property?" The late Mort Gamble, who held a lifelong love of the circus, is represented by "The 'Soul' of the Circus: What Animals Under the Big Top Continue to Teach Their Audiences," his last published academic essay. Animals and Ourselves explores the relationship between humans and animals, which has always been strong, symbiotic, and complicated, and demonstrates the various ways that human and animal lives are intertwined and constantly evolving.

Sue Erickson and Amber Gruszeczka published an article in the journal Against the Grain titled, "Innovative Cross-training and Cross-functional Staffing at a Small Liberal Arts University."

President Scott D. Miller regularly contributes to Enrollment Manager, most recently authoring "Leading Change During Turbulent Times – Steps for Building Dynamic Leadership" (September 2020). He also edits the presidential thought-leadership series President to President, launching the 16th year of this publication with the 2020-2021 series titled "Fostering a Culture of Innovation." Chapter One, "Leveraging Institutional Culture to Foster Innovation" by Eduardo M. Ochoa, Ph.D., is now available here. His daily blog about campus life, Dialogue, can be found at prezscottmiller.blogspot.com.          

Joyce Easter's "Designing assignments for cognitive and communication skill development" abstract was accepted for presentation at 2020 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education. Due to the global pandemic, the conference was terminated by the Executive Committee of the Division of Chemical Education, American Chemical Society; and, therefore, this presentation could not be given as intended.

A conference presentation by Gabi Martorell entitled "Interactive Learning in a Hybrid Class" was accepted by the Psychology One Conference at Duke University that was scheduled for June 2020. The conference was cancelled due to COVID-19.

Gabi Martorell remotely held an invited presentation on "The Relevance of Human Development Research for Psychology Professionals" at the Universidad Carlos Albizu in San Juan, Puerto Rico in September of 2020.

Robert Ariel served as a panelist for a webinar titled "Online Research Tools and Techniques" conducted by the Association for Psychological Sciences. A recording of the webinar is available here.

Kathy Merlock Jackson was one of four panelists on the "Redefining Popular Culture After Ray Browne Roundtable" at the Midwest Popular Culture Association Conference, held virtually this year. Kathy is currently serving as president of the Popular Culture Association.

Mandy Reinig has been appointed as a Trainer Corps Preparation Program Team Trainer with NAFSA: Association of International Educators. This two-year appointment will start January 2021. The Trainer Corps Preparation Team plays a crucial role in the training and orientation of new Trainer Corps members with NAFSA as well as leading enrichment opportunities for all Trainer Corps members.

What does effective advocacy for social issues look like? That is a question underlying The Artist and Society, a Batten Honors College course team taught by Sally Shedd, Bryson Mortensen, Joyce Howell, and John Rudel of the Fine and Performing Arts Department. Student teams identify social issues they are passionate about, and the class as a whole studies social advocacy in modules on the arts. One module investigates music as a vehicle for protest and for raising awareness, and has students experiment with using music as a tool to augment messages about social issues. In the theatre module students participate in theatre games related to the work of artists who have developed theatrical techniques to address social justice. A visual arts module explores strategies used in public art and social media imagery. At the end of the course teams present creative projects on their social issue, for example: “See You Later Turtles,” in which ocean trash was used to create a large, three-dimensional jellyfish; “Spot the Difference,” photographs in which students costumed themselves to spotlight racial stereotypes; a satire of The Office focusing on sexism in the workplace, and “Adventures in the World We Have Made,” a climate-change parody of a children’s picture book.

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