CLASS Notes, May 2021

Around the College

• Lionel Hampton School of Music graduate piano students Emily Stoll and Abigail Silverberg gave presentations at the 2021 National Conference of the Music Teacher National Association. The presentations focused on the lives and piano works of Margaret Bonds and Florence Price, two 20th century Black women composers. Emily and Abigail are pursuing degrees in piano performance and pedagogy at the Lionel Hampton School of Music and study under Assistant Professor of Piano Eneida Larti. This summer, they will also present at the 2021 State Conference of the Colorado State Music Teachers Association.
• An album by Timothy Stoddard, Lionel Hampton School of Music alumnus, titled "Mortally Wounded" was released this winter. The work features English-language settings of three poems of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca and can be heard on Spotify.
• Assistant Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies Ashley Elizabeth Kerr’s book, “Sex, Skulls, Citizens: Gender and Racial Science in Argentina (1860-1910)” has received the 2021 Best Book Award in the 19th Century Section by the Latin American Studies Association. The work represents a significant contribution to academic knowledge on a nineteenth-century topic, according to the group.
• University of Idaho Journalism majors Angela Palermo and Cody Roberts won the Breaking News category in the Society for Professional Journalists 2021 Mark of Excellence Region 10 Awards for their coverage of anti-mask protests in Moscow. Their story, published by The Argonaut student newspaper, will compete for the national award.
• For her coverage of COVID-19 on KUOI FM, student journalist Angela Palermo was a finalist in the Society for Professional Journalists 2021 Mark of Excellence Region 10 Awards Radio News Reporting category. Finalists included Riley Haun in the Non-fiction Magazine Article and COVID-19 Coverage categories, and journalism major Brianna Finnegan and the staff of the Argonaut were finalists in the Best All-Around Student Newspaper category.
• The U of I Student Media’s Blot Magazine was a finalist in the Society for Professional Journalists 2021 Mark of Excellence Region 10 Awards for Best Student Magazine category, and The Argonaut editorial staff was a finalist in the Editorial Writing category.
• John Webb, broadcasting and digital media student in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications placed ninth in the national Hearst TV News Competition. Webb, of Wallace, was named among the top 10 finalists in the annual Hearst TV News Competition for his stories on the impact of COVID-19 shutdowns on schools and businesses in North Idaho’s Silver Valley. The winners were chosen from 77 entries submitted from 48 schools.
• Ciara Shuttleworth, who earned a Master of Fine Arts in 2011, published her first book of poems, “Rabbit Heart,” at the Stephen F. Austin University Press.
• Dilshani Sarathchandra and Kristin Haltinner, associate professors of sociology, published five articles this spring — one of which also features Professor of English Jenn Ladino — including “Feeling Skeptical: Emotions and Support for Environmental Policy Among Climate Change Skeptics” in Emotion, Space, and Society, “Predictors of Pro-environmental Beliefs, Behaviors, and Policy Support Among Climate Change Skeptics” in Social Currents, “Considering Attitudinal Uncertainty in the Climate Change Skepticism Continuum” in Global Environmental Change, “The Nature and Nuance of Climate Change Skepticism in the United States” in Rural Sociology and “A Survey Instrument to Measure Skeptics’ (Dis)Trust in Climate Science” in Climate.
• Theater Arts Department students Hannah Verdi, Brindle Brundage and Andrew Yoder were recognized with awards and scholarships at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, which they attended in February. Verdi received the Open Jar Institute scholarship and was a Musical Theatre Scholarship National recipient. Brundage won the Randy Lutz Allied Design and Technology Award, the National Excellence in Scenic Design Award and earned a one-week scholarship to the Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas. Yoder earned the National Excellence in Sound Design Award.
• University Distinguished Professor of Environmental Humanities Scott Slovic and his father University of Oregon psychologist Paul Slovic were interviewed by the chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins University for the podcast series Public Health On Call for the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. The podcast is titled “The Arithmetic of Compassion: How Psychology and Literature Help Explain the Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
• A pair of international studies students have been selected for participation in Project GO — a highly competitive language and culture training program for ROTC students. Milana DesRosier an Army ROTC cadet and international studies major at the Martin Institute – who is also on the U of I women’s soccer team – will attend the Russian Studies program at University of Pittsburgh, and Luke Jones a Navy ROTC midshipmen and international studies major with the Martin Institute will attend the Chinese Studies program at Indiana University beginning this summer.
• The University of Idaho’s Department of Politics and Philosophy’s MPA program was ranked by U.S. News and World Report in its 2021 rankings as the 164th best program nationally and the top program in Idaho.
• Michael Overton, assistant professor of political science and public administration, recently published “Data Science Literacy Toward a Philosophy of Accessible and Adaptable Data Science Skill Development in Public Administration Programs” in Teaching Public Administration, a peer-reviewed journal that focuses on teaching and learning in public sector management and organizations.
• Assistant Professor of English Michael McGriff's book of poetry “Eternal Sentences” won the 2021 Miller Williams Poetry Prize.
• Pianist Roger McVey, associate professor of piano at University of Idaho, has released two new albums including “Mavericks,” and “Music From Other Places.” Both albums were recorded in 2020 and feature music by leading American composers. Some of the pieces are written especially for McVey, who works in the Lionel Hampton School of Music.
• Kristina Cockerille was selected as the latest CLASS Lindley Award winner. The Lindley Award is presented each year to the top graduating senior in the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) who is deemed the most outstanding in scholarship and character. This is the highest award a student in CLASS can receive.

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New Roads to the Past

Working in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service on a project to enhance Idaho’s historic travel routes through interpretative signs and kiosks, Associate Professor Diane Kelly-Riley and her writing students, along with Director of Professional Writing Karen Thompson and her English students and Dennis Baird, documented historic travel routes on the Nez Perce Clearwater National Forest. The project was a recipient of the Regional Forester’s Award for Fostering Volunteerism and Partnerships, and recipient of the Chief’s Award and the Undersecretary’s Award. More

Hooked by Jazz

As an undergraduate music student in her home state of Utah and long before becoming a professor at the Lionel Hampton School of Music, Kate Skinner was introduced to the University of Idaho and its music school through the jazz festival. She was hired five years ago to teach in U of I’s school of music and now plays an instrumental role in the school and its festival. More

Stones Go Digital

The University of Idaho (U of I) Library and the U of I Alfred W. Bowers Laboratory of Anthropology will pursue a two-year project to digitize the Donald E. Crabtree Lithic Comparative Collection, a preeminent collection of lithic (stone) artifacts created by Crabtree as well as documents, slides, and photographs related to his work.

All collection materials will be digitized in 2D and made available via a specially created version of the library’s digital collection tool, CollectionBuilder.

One thousand exemplary artifacts will also undergo 3D photogrammetric digitization for inclusion in a “Virtual Lithics Lab,” giving site visitors a “hands-on” experience with these fragile artifacts. Making this hidden collection visible will reinvigorate interest in lithic technology and flintknapping (the creation of chipped lithic tools) among archaeologists, educators, students and the general public as well as facilitate community dialogue about the cultural appropriation of Indigenous knowledge.

Library faculty Jylisa Doney, Assistant Professor Marco Seiferle-Valencia and Alfred W. Bowers Laboratory of Anthropology Collections Manager Leah Evans-Janke were instrumental in securing a CLIR Digitizing Hidden Collections grant for the work. Associate Professor Robert Lee Sappington will serve as a key project staff member to advise and participate in outreach and promotion activities.

This project is supported by a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) and made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

An American Teacher in Paris

As a child growing up in Moscow and visiting relatives in Europe, Aléna Perriguey-Krings learned three languages.

But for Perriguey-Krings, who will earn bachelor’s degrees this month in French and public relations, the path to three-language fluency was less laissez faire than disciplined intellectual labor. Her foreign language prowess has earned her a stipend to teach English at the Academy of Créteil, a French high school in Paris. More

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