Pi Sigma Alpha Students Helping Professor Alexander Survey Presidential Electors

Several students who are active in Pi Sigma Alpha are in the process of helping Dr. Alexander conduct his quadrennial survey of presidential electors.  Alexander has been conduting these surveys since 2000, and has published articles about the institution.  His 2012 book on efforts to lobby electors to change their votes garnered considerable media interest during the last election.  Alexander has consistantly involved students in this effort and has included some as co-authors of articles.

GIS Alumnae Triumphant

Lindsy Ziegler, who minored in Geography with a concentration in Geographic Information Systems, was interviewed by the Lima News' Job Center page recently.  Ziegler is employed as a civil engineer by Poggemeyer Design Group in Bowling Green.  In the article, she mentions how important and useful the skills that she learned in her GIS minor are to her career as a civil engineer.  Creating a visual representation of data is a useful tool for persons interested in going into the field.  Ziegler had the chance to sharpen her GIS skills during an internship and these skills and understandings made her work much more efficient.

Professor Loughlin on the News

Dr. Michael Loughlin was recently interviewed by WLIO in Lima on the occassion of the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War.  The report began with an interview of a soldier who had fought there and believed the mission to liberate the Iraqi's was worth it.  Dr. Loughlin argued that many critics feel the idea of bringing democracy to Iraq was merely a justification, and that today's Iraq is sliding closer to Iran.  To sse the entire interview, visit the WLIO page.

Historiography Students Meet with Noted Scholar Gordon Wood

Photo provided by Lisa Bradley

Dr. Lomax's Historiography class had a special visitor today.  Noted historian Gordon Wood, on campus to deliver a talk to the university community, sat in on the class.  Wood has written several books including The Radicalism of the American Revolution, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History, among others, and The Creation of the American Republic, which won the Bancroft Prize.  

Students asked Professor Wood questions about his research methods, and told him about their research.  As usual, our students acquitted themselves well.  Their research projects are interesting and innovative, and the chance to share ideas and ask questions of such a prominent professional in their field was one that we hope they will remember as they progress in their chosen professions.

Wood will speak on his latest book, the Revolutionary Origins of the Civil War.  To give Professor Wood his full credit, Professor Loughlin sent the following email to students, faculty, and staff to publicize his talk.

Dr. Gordon S. Wood, the Alva O. Way University Professor Emeritus at Brown University, will discuss “The Revolutionary Origins of the Civil War” in the Ohio Northern University Freed Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, March 14, at 7 p.m.  Wood’s talk will attempt to explain how the American Revolution set in motion the forces that led to the sectional split and the resultant Civil War. The event is free and open to the public. ONU will bestow an honorary degree upon Wood at the lecture.  Wood is the author of many works, including “The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787” (1969), which won the Bancroft Prize and the John H. Dunning Prize in 1970, and “The Radicalism of the American Revolution” (1992), which won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize in 1993. “The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin” (2004) was awarded the Julia Ward Howe Prize by the Boston Authors Club in 2005.  Wood received his B.A. from Tufts University and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He taught at Harvard University and the University of Michigan before joining the faculty at Brown in 1969. His book “Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different” was published in 2006, and “The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History” was published in 2008. His volume in the Oxford History of the United States, titled “Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815” (2009), was given the Association of American Publishers Award for History and Biography in 2009, the American History Book Prize by the New York Historical Society for 2010, and the Society of the Cincinnati History Prize in 2010.  In 2011, Wood was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama and the Churchill Bell by Colonial Williamsburg. In 2011, he also received the Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Award from the Society of American Historians. In 2012, he received an award from the John Carter Brown Library and the John F. Kennedy Medal from the Massachusetts Historical Society. Wood is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Thank You Professor Wood and well done students! 

Phi Beta Delta: Waters and Waters on Teaching in the Czech Republic

The Phi Beta Delta International Forum sponsored a talk on the teaching, studying and traveling done by the Waters' family last summer in the Czech Republic.  Drs. Rob and Sarah Waters presented photos and stories from their 6 week adventure in and around Prague.  It is their hope that more ONU students become aware of how great USAC (University Studies Abroad Consortium) is, and how much they enjoyed their experience with the organization.

While there, the Waters saw many interesting historical spots, including attending an opera in Vienna, visiting a Medieval castle, and taking a side trip to Budapest, Hungary, where they were given a private tour of the city by HPJ Professor Emeritus Andy Ludanyi.  The touring also had a dark side as they visited the headquarters of the Stasi - the East German secret police, a monument to those killed by communists in Prague, and a Cold War Museum in BudaPest that contained displays on the 1958 Hungarian Revolution that was brutally suppressed by the Soviets.  These were timely in that Dr. Rob Waters was teaching a course on the Cold War for USAC.

For 30 years, USAC has provided university students with affordable, valuable study abroad programs and contributed to the internationalization of universities in the US and abroad; USAC currently has 41 program locations in 26 countries with many locations unique for study abroad. Students from any university are welcome to participate; students from more than 700 universities around the world have studied on USAC programs over its thirty-year history.

USAC’s mission is to provide students with the opportunity to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to succeed in the global society of the twenty-first century. USAC strives to provide an authentic, quality context in which students may grow into engaged citizens of the world, not only in the classroom but also through field trips, integrated living and academic experiences, sports, internships, and volunteer and service learning opportunities.

Phi Beta Delta: Bluffton Economics Professor Speaks on Economic Disparity

Ohio Northern University’s Gamma Upsilon chapter of Phi Beta Delta and CASE (Committee on the Arts and Special Events) presented Jonathon Andreas, economics professor at Bluffton University, in the Dicke Forum on Thursday, Feb. 21.  The title of Andreas’ lecture was “Mutilitarianism: How the Ethics of Economics Enriches Elites at your Expense.” The event is free and open to the public. 

The presentation was preceded by the opening part of the film "Park Avenue: Money, Power, and the American Dream". The film shows how Park Avenue extends into the Bronx where it crosses the Harlem River. At one end of Park Avenue live billionaires who fund our political parties (legalized "criminal" activity); at the other end live many in extreme poverty who are often associated with traditional and unacceptable criminal activity. Some people living on Park Avenue are doing quite well by the current system and they want to reinforce it; others, are a bit less bullish.

Andreas’ presentation proposed replacing the most common welfare measurements with a simple new ethical system that deals with inequality more justly and responds to longstanding criticisms of welfare economics by philosophers and measurement theorists. This presentation is a popular version of a research paper Andreas first presented at ONU for the Ohio Association of Economists and Political Scientists conference in 2012.

Andreas had little interest in economics when he was an undergraduate in American Studies at Grinnell College. But after graduation, he spent three years working in and touring Asia and Latin America, where he became fascinated with economics while observing the radically different outcomes that different economic systems produce in people’s lives. After his travels, Andreas obtained his doctorate in economics in 2010 at the University of Illinois at Chicago under the direction of Joseph Persky and Deirdre McCloskey. 

Phi Beta Delta is the honor society for international scholars. Founded in 1987, the nominees for membership in the Gamma Upsilon chapter of Phi Beta Delta include outstanding faculty, staff, students and alumni. The society hopes to integrate those who possess a deep commitment to international affairs, education and research. One of the functions of the Gamma Upsilon chapter has been to create a regular forum in which international affairs can be discussed using University sources and by seeking prominent individuals with varied experience in international affairs recruited from beyond the University community.             

Pat Badertscher Retires as Department Administrative Assistant

HPJ faculty and staff gathered last Friday to say so-long to Pat Badertscher who retired after 23 years of service to the department and to ONU.  The Department presented a brick from Hill Building to her with an inscription naming her as the "rock" of our department.  Dr. Scott presented her with a sweater that she knitted for the long time adminstrative assistant.

Students have been a part of our department will no doubt remember the numerous times that she helped them with various problems, and the faculty will certainly miss Pat, not only for the top quality work that she provided, but also for the fun that she brought to the department.

Happy Trails Pat!  We will miss you!