News Briefs

Margaret Bellafiore, a visiting lecturer in the Art Department, is exhibiting her artist book, "First Aid," at the San Francisco Center for the Book, as part of Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here project. The exhibition runs through May 11. The project is an international response of book artists to the bombing of the street of booksellers in Baghdad in 2007. More information is at sfcb.org.

Dr. Phyllis Gimbel (educational leadership) published in the October 2012 issue of The National Teaching & Learning Forum an article titled, “The faculty fellowship: An opportunity to learn.”  She also published a paper on a three-year exploratory research study coauthored with graduate research assistant, David Mills. The article, “The value of rewriting in graduate educator preparatory programs,” appeared in The International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. With former BSU faculty member Dr. Michelle Cox, she published, “Conversations among teachers on student writing,” in Writing Across Disciplines: A Journal of Language, Learning, and Academic Writing. Along with Dr. Cox, and current BSU faculty members Drs. Nicole Glen and Robert Sylvester, she presented at the Fourth Biennial International Conference at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. The conference was, “New Vistas; WAC/WID Intersections in the 21st Century.”

Dr. Wing-kai To, professor of history and coordinator of Asian Studies, will present a paper, "Samuel Wells Williams' Views of Chinese Immigration and his Influence on the Chinese in America," at the International Symposium in Memory of the 200th anniversary of the birth of S. W. Williams: Relations Between East Asia and the United States in the 19th Century, at Beijing Foreign Studies University, on December 16. Samuel Wells Williams (1812–1884) is an important figure in the relations between East Asia and the United States in the 19th century. He is one of the earliest missionaries to China, and the first university professor of sinology in US who established the first Chinese program at Yale University in 1877.  In addition, Dr. To was also invited to give guest lectures at Beijing Jiaotong University, a partner institution with BSU, on Chinese and American cultural relations on December 18-19. During the spring semester, Dr. To will be a visiting scholar at both the American Studies Program at the University of Hong Kong and the History Department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center (MARC) cosponsored the second annual Stand Up Event, in which more than 5,000 students from Massachusetts and neighboring states came together to make a stand against bullying. The program was designed by a coalition of more than 50 organizations working with bullying prevention experts to educate, motivate and empower young people to actively promote social change in their schools and communities. Stand Up to Bullying uses a combination of educational information, entertainment and special recognition to motivate students to stand up to bullying in their schools and communities. Meghan McCoy, MARCs program director, along with graduate students and undergraduate students from the program were conducted a town hall meeting style session at the event.