June 29, 2020  |  News & Events, Provost's Updates, Timely Announcements

Good morning, colleagues. Here is this week’s update from Academic Affairs.

Kudos

Abbas Ourmazd (Physics) led an international team of researchers who created a tool for accurate assessment of fetal gestational age. Their paper was published last week in The Lancet, one of the top two international journals in medicine. This is quite an accomplishment, Abbas!

David DiValerio (History) received a 2020 Research Fellowship in Buddhist Studies from the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation for his study, “Mountain Dharma.” Congratulations, David!

Barry Liss (Communication) received the Media Ecology Association’s MEA Convention Top Paper Award in 2020 for his paper, “The Zossima Principle as an Axiomatic Ideal for Media Ecology Praxis.” The paper will be published in the MEA’s journal Explorations in Media Ecology. Well done, Barry!

Junjie Niu (Materials Science and Engineering) was recently awarded a $422,188 grant from the CBET Division of the National Science Foundation as single PI for his project, “Non-delaminated 2D MXene stacks modified Li surface: a reliable, scalable thin inter-layer-calated Li metal anode with improved cyclability and dendrite suppression.” Congratulations, Junjie!

Lisa Hager (English and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies) is the recipient of the Surridge Prize for best essay in the Victorian Review. Her essay, “A Case for a Trans Studies Turn in Victorian Studies: ‘Female Husbands’ of the Nineteenth Century,” was commended for the ways it compelled readers to rethink the familiar contours of the male/female opposition by way of a wealth of archival research and the analysis of newspaper archives. Well done, Lisa!

Rebecca Shumway’s (History) article, “Naming Our African Ancestors: Pushing, and Respecting, the Limits,” was published in the Journal of the Early RepublicCongratulations, Rebecca!

Tamicah Gelting (Occupational Therapy) was selected from among more than 180 applicants to a newly formed AOTA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force at the American Occupational Therapy Association. Well done, Tamicah!

Lisa Roth (Communication doctoral student) recently received a 2020 Research Development Grant from the Organization for Research on Women and  Communication in the amount of $2500 for her project, “Rhetorical Analysis of 1980s Lesbian Public Discourse: Reconstituting Lesbian Identity, Activism, and Community During the Rise of the New Right.” Lisa also was awarded the Florence L. Healy Scholarship in Women’s and Gender Studies based on her excellent record of scholarship and commitment to Women’s and Gender Studies. Kudos, Lisa!

Kimberly Blaeser (English and American Indian Studies) presented a virtual poetry reading and lecture for National Yat-sen University and the EALA (English and American Literature Association) of Taiwan on June 12 (June 13 Taiwanese time). A part of EALA’s summer series, the event, “Poetry Reading and the Role of Native Arts in Indigenous Resilience and Flourishing,” was moderated by Distinguished Professor Hsinya Huang and aired on Youtube. Well done, Kimberly!

In the News

In response to increased interest in equity, the Director of the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education, Dr. Margaret Noodin, gave the opening presentation at the second of five virtual public hearings hosted by the State of Wisconsin Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change this past Saturday, June 27. See information about future hearings. Margaret will also be part of an interview with Jane Hafen, author of Help Indians Help Themselves on the radio show Native America Calling on June 30.

The Week

The week is shorter and includes the furlough day on Friday. I have a limited number of meetings with my direct reports, a deans meeting, and also a number of Crisis Management Team meetings. There is also a UW System Provosts meeting on Wednesday.

Announcements

Milwaukee: Past, Present, Future

On July 6, we are launching a new, free, online, mini-course called, “Milwaukee: Past, Present, Future.” The course is a cross-campus collaboration of over a dozen UWM faculty from multiple disciplines, giving students a wide range of scholarly perspectives about Milwaukee’s rich history, complex present, and imagined future. See the overview.

We announced the course two weeks ago, and as of today, we have 2,500 registrants, representing more than 40 states and 19 countries. 400 of those enrolled are current students and admits. 800 are alums. A large number are just interested people who live in the Milwaukee area. We hope you, your families, and your students will join us too! To do so, just fill out this form.

In a related campaign, we also created videos you can share that give students a better idea of what it’s like to take one of our online offerings.

Given the level of interest “Milwaukee: Past, Present, Future” has generated, we have an opportunity here to build community, and create a digital iteration of the Wisconsin Idea. If you have any questions, please reach out to Dave Clark (dclark@uwm.edu).

Sabbatical Guidelines

The 2021-2022 Sabbatical Guidelines are now online.

From CETL

The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) is seeking instructors to submit exceptional teaching artifacts from their fully online courses to share through the Canvas Commons.

From the UWM Libraries

The UWM Libraries have created a list of research publications on the COVID-19 pandemic by UWM faculty and staff.

From UITS

Changes will be made to the network drives next week (July 7).

Teams Tips

Using emojis, GIFs, and stickers.

Other

Liverpool became Premier League champions after 30 year wait. My next Update will be July 13.

Take care,

Johannes

Johannes Britz
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs