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Your tax and tuition dollars at work: Marybeth
C. Stalp is an associate professor of sociology,
anthropology and criminology at the University
of Northern Iowa — you know, the university
that is going through a financial crisis so
severe that the faculty has voted “no confidence”
in president Ben Allen because he is trying
to solve the issue strategically.
Stalp earns $60,000 a year. But she won’t be
on campus teaching in the spring semester of
the coming academic year. Instead, she’ll be
collecting her salary in southern Ireland, conducting
“ethnographic research on women’s quilting and
knitting efforts.” She is one of 111 faculty
members at UNI, the University of Iowa and Iowa
State University who will be taking sabbaticals
in the coming year. Generally, sabbaticals mean
one semester off, with pay.
Quilting is “an important means of autonomy
and identity development for midlife women,”
the summary of Stalp’s application says, and
in her study Stalp will focus “on the meaning-making
processes in women’s cultural production efforts,
examining finished work from the perspective
of the maker as well as exploring a more complex
definition from within a sociological perspective
of what constitutes art.”
Of course.
But how will this help UNI students and the
state in general? “Iowa citizens, and specifically
quilters and knitters, can learn about similarities
and differences with Irish women.” As for UNI
students, “she will infuse her Sociology of
Gender and Sociology of Culture classes with
this newfound international comparative research,
and her Qualitative Methods course will improve
with the additional research experiences of
this project.”
Of course.
Her application also notes that since 2006 “she
has given eleven guest quilting lectures to
lay audiences.” That’s almost two lectures a
year.
Meantime, the University of Iowa’s Scott Schnell,
an associate professor of anthropology, will
spend the fall semester in rural Japan studying
the “traditional hunters of bear and other animals
in the forested mountains of Japan’s interior.”
This work will “promote better understanding
of Japanese culture,” and “the Japanese case
example, whether positive or negative, will
inform people’s approaches to similar problems
at home in Iowa and will promote interdisciplinarity.”
Schnell earns around $70,000 a year.
Professor Schnell’s colleague, Associate Professor
of Journalism and Mass Communication Frank Durham,
will spend the fall semester “analyzing news
coverage of partisan news ‘pranks’ by conservative
media activists Andrew Breitbart and James O’Keefe.”
The study will ask: “Who controls sourcing,
how has the process of cultural meaning production
changed, and what does partisanship mean for
the news as a site of consensus?” With not a
little bit of boasting, Durham says “the study
will gain prominence within national professional
and scholarly media circles.” Breitbart, incidentally,
died the other day. Durham earns around $75,000
a year.
And the university’s Kevin Kopelson, an $88,000-a-year
professor of English, will work on “Tales from
School,” a work of “creative nonfiction.” “The
book will be autobiographical yet imaginative
as well as both confessional and satirical.”
And, with that Iowa City boastfulness, he adds,
“When published, the book should attract (positive)
critical attention both within academia and
outside of it.” What’s more, the book — which
will be “easy to follow, informative and entertaining”
— “will be an exemplary instance of both creative
nonfiction and autobiography.” All that and
this: “When published, ‘Tales from School’ should
help its academic readers become better at their
jobs.”
While these profs are off on their ventures
in Ireland and Japan and India and elsewhere,
their colleagues in math and science and engineering
are taking off on projects to help make the
world a safer, healthier, more productive and
more understandable place. ...
Meantime, the 107 profs who went off on sabbatical
last year have checked in. The University of
Iowa’s Rene Lecuona, a professor of music, is
back from presenting piano master classes in
Brazil and Colombia. Associate Professor Helen
Shen completed her academic book project, “the
first book in the field that specializes in
second-language Chinese adult literacy issues
in the classroom environment.” And, continuing
the self-congratulatory style that infuses the
University of Iowa campus, she notes “it will
be highly welcomed by scholars in the area of”
second-language literacy development.
At Iowa State, Michael Bailey, an associate
professor of history, completed his book manuscript,
“Superstition in the Late Middle Ages” and also
wrote an article for inclusion in the Cambridge
History of Magic and Witchcraft. Aili Mu, an
associate professor of world languages and cultures,
“furthered her progress” on her book manuscript,
“Moment of Truth: The Chinese Short-shorts Phenomenon,”
a book that will explore “the popularity of
this literary genre in contemporary Chinese
cultures.”
And at UNI, professors Rebecca Burkhardt and
Cynthia Goatley are back after taking a full
year off to work on a musical about the life
of former Texas governor Ann Richards. So far,
they’ve written 120 pages, completed six songs,
have the lyrics for seven others and are working
on four more. ...
Update: That lawsuit pitting the University
of Iowa’s view of academic freedom versus a
would-be teacher’s view of discrimination is
ready for trial, both sides told the court during
a status conference March 2. Except for one
thing: Prospective witnesses, who are faculty
members at the university’s School of Law, are
off studying or frolicking or something this
summer, and “because of the uncertainty today
as to the start of the academic school year
for the University of Iowa College of Law, which
would impact on witness availability, defendant
is not in a position to agree to a date prior
to September 1.”
The plaintiff, Teresa Wagner, is suing former
dean Carolyn Jones, alleging the school turned
down the well-qualified Wagner for a job because
she’s a Republican. And a pro-choice one at
that. At the time of the lawsuit, there was
only one registered Republican among the 52
persons on the law-school faculty.
The status report didn’t say whether the witnesses
would be unavailable because they’re attending
the Democratic national convention. ...
Update: Trial now has been set for Oct. 15
in Davenport.
Media note: “Juice,” the Register’s publication
for young people who like pictures of themselves,
is looking for an editor, according to a help-wanted
ad. The applicant must have two to four years
of experience as a section editor and one to
three leading a team of reporters, which pretty
much puts him or her out of the target demographic.
...
“Creative nonfiction.” Sounds like Civic Skinny.
…
Or maybe it’s noncreative fiction.
Did someone say “Stephen Bloom?” CV |
