New Perspectives in Public Management

The students in PLSC 391 Public Administration turned the tables, literally, on Dr. Alexander this week. Alexander told the class early in the week that diverse perspectives in organizations can facilitate institutional creativity, and since then, the students have been rearranging themselves each day around the classroom.

Their practical application of the theory culminated Friday when the students physically rearranged the seats and the classroom podium so that Alexander and presenting students had to speak from the back of the classroom. Alexander reported that the diversity in this class has indeed spurred innovation, particularly in the students!

Western Civilization Series Adresses the Law of War

Dr. Michael Lewis of the Pettit College of Law addressed students on the law of war Tuesday afternoon. Lewis has published on the subject and also served in the U.S. Navy as a fighter pilot during the Gulf War (1991) before earning his law degree.

Lewis outlined the evolution of the law of war from St. Augustine's theory of a just war to the Geneva Accords and the United Nations Charter. In addition to the theoretical background, he discussed how the law of war had been observed, or ignored, in various wars, including the Battle of Verdun in World War I, the Rape of Nanking, and the Battle of Stalingrad in World War II. He also told students that the United States has had difficulty accepting the Geneva Accords in the past due to those accords failure to define who a combatant is.

Alexander Presents at Conference on Teaching and Learning

Professor Rob Alexander (seen here with wife Shelliegh during the "snowmegeddon" that blanketed the East Coast) attended a recent conference in Philadelphia on Teaching and Learning sponsored by American Political Science Association and presented his ideas on how honorary societies such as Pi Sigma Alpha can integrate its efforts with student learning.

Along with Alexander's session, the conference featured speakers such as former U.S. Senator and Governor of Florida Bob Graham and Rogers M. Smith from the University of Pennsylvania. Graham, who now directs the Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida, delivered the opening address entitled "Salvaging Citizenship: A Partnership for Pols and Scholars." Professor Smith is the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor and was a former Vice President of the APSA Council. His Keynote Address was entitled "Teaching as Redemption."

Alexander's gave his talk during the Pi Sigma Alpha session on "The Honor Society's Role in Student Education and Professional Development," which focused on topics such as increasing submissions to PSA's scholarship programs; encouraging inactive chapters to resume initiating students and encouraging chapter activity and student learning.

Alexander was able to tell attendees about the many activities that ONU's chapter has been involved in under his guidance. Students here have taken part in surveys of presidential electors, some have co-published articles with him and have presented their own papers at conferences, including the prestigious Midwest Political Science Association. Last year, the ONU chapter was awarded with a Model Chapter award by PSA's national organization for all of their efforts.

Lomax Presents at Star-Studded Conference

John Phillip Lomax, Professor of History, delivered a paper entitled “Faithless?: Gregory IX and Frederick II , 1227-1241” at a conference in honor Professor Peter Landau of the University of Munich. The conference on the topic of “Church, Law, and Society in the Middle Ages” took place at Millersville University of Pennsylvania on January 29-30, 2010. The conference was sponsored by Millersville University and the Society of Medieval Canon Law.

Professor Landau is a leading historian of medieval law and the head of the Stephen Kuttner Institute of Medieval Canon Law in Munich. His student, Dr. Mary E. Sommar of Millersville University, organized the conference. Many of the top scholars of medieval law from all over the world came to honor Dr. Landau, including Brian Tierney of Cornell University, who is widely regarded as the dean of medieval legal and ecclesiastical historians in North America. Others included Uta-Renate Blumenthal and Kenneth Pennington of the Catholic University of America, Richard Helmholz of the University of Chicago, Anders Winroth of Yale University, and Tatsushi Genka of Tokyo University.

Dr. Lomax’s paper examined the issue of fidelity, both religious and feudal, as it played out in the thirteeth-century conflicts between the papacy and Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen. Lomax argued that papal and imperial encyclicals and letters show that these adversaries attempted to gain political and military support with appeals based on the canonical, civil, and feudal jurisprudence that dealt with secular and spiritual infidelity. These polemics deployed shocking charges of perjury and a heresy to draw the prelates and princes of western Christendom into the political dance of death that Gregory’s excommunication of Frederick set in motion in 1239.

Dr. Lomax has been a member of the Ohio Northern University faculty since 1988. His research focuses on the church-state conflicts of the high Middle Ages. He teaches Western Civilization, ancient history, medieval history, legal history, and military history at the university. He is a member of the Medieval Academy of America, the American Historical Association, and the Society of Medieval Canon Law.