The Department of Political Science and Justice Studies is looking forward to another exciting academic year in 2011-12. The Department welcomes four new faculty members: Dr. John Stogner and Dr. Laurie Gould in Justice Studies and Dr. Courtney Jensen and Dr. Kevin Ward in Public Administration.

In the last two years, members of the department's faculty have won the University's highest teaching award (Dr. Christine Ludowise) and research award (Dr. Richard Pacelle).  Dr. Ludowise  also earned the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences highest teaching award, and Dr. Catherine Marcum and Dr. Krista Wiegand earned the highest CLASS research awards . Dr. Wiegand also won the CLASS Award of Excellence, the College's highest award for a faculty member in his/her first ten years at Georgia Southern. Professors in the department published a number of books this year, and a number more are due for publication over the next two years. Students at other institutions across the country are reading the books and articles published by Georgia Southern faculty.

Faculty members are also working with local communities to help improve the quality of life in the region. Professors Adam Bossler, Michele Covington, and Cathy Marcum are working on a project with the Evans County Sheriff's Department. Professor Nathan Grasse is working with non-profit organizations in Savannah. Professor Sharon Tracy works with Statesboro and local communities in dealing with youth crime and gangs. Professor Debra Sabia was honored with an award for her work in the Latino community.

Our students continue to shine as well. Just one week before protests in Cairo and throughout Egypt began reshaping the destiny of that region, Professor Wiegand took fourteen students Egypt, where they immersed themselves in the local culture and did service work helping children with cancer.

Perhaps most notably, the students of Georgia Southern's Model United Nations delegation earned multiple honors at the world's largest Model U.N. simulation, which was held in New York City earlier this year. The National Model United Nations Conference included more than 600 delegations from every continent (except Antarctica). The Georgia Southern delegation was named an Outstanding Delegation and was recognized for Outstanding Position Papers. The numerous awards and recognitions the Georgia Southern University Model U.N. delegation received placed them in the top one percent of all the delegations who attended this year's event. In addition, the Georgia Southern delegates were chosen by their peers to address more than 600 students at the opening of one session of the Model United Nations General Assembly.

The Political Science Department had the largest contingent of Honors students at the May commencement, and a number of them, and our other graduates, will enter graduate programs and law schools this fall. Our alumni continue to distinguish themselves, serving in the State Department, Congressional offices, in key state and local positions, and throughout the business community. We welcome back our returning students and our freshmen, and we look forward to another banner year.

CLASS Department News  

Art 

The Eagle Nation on Parade public art project is under way.  Seven eagle sculptures arrived on campus on Monday, August 15, and they will soon be in the hands of selected artists who will develop these unique works of art.   

Communication Arts

Alumna Haley Higgs '11 has been elected Vice President of Regional Activity for the Public Relations Student Society of America.  

History  

Three faculty members in the Department of History have been invited to present their

research at international locations this fall.

•  Professor John W. Steinberg, a former Fulbright Scholar, has been invited to present "The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk from the Russian Perspective," at the German Historical Society's conference in London in October.
• Professor Laura Shelton, author of "For Tranquility and Order: Family and Community on Mexico's Northern Frontier, 1800-1850," published in 2010, has been invited by The Colegio de Sonora of Hermosilla, Mexico, to present and discuss her book.
• Professor Robert Batchelor will attend a colloquium organized around his rediscovery of the Selden Map of China, a unique document showing 17th century Chinese trade routes and navigational techniques, at Oxford University's Bodleian Library in September.

The international reputation of the University's history faculty continues to grow, providing increased learning opportunities not only for faculty, but for students interested in this area of study.

Literature & Philosophy 

Department Chair David Dudley received prestigious acknowledgment for his novel, Caleb's Wars, a work Kirkus Reviews calls "provocative and interesting."  The full review will appear in the September 1 issue of Kirkus Reviews. 

Music

Alumnus Brent Whitaker was named the 2011-2012 Bulloch County Teacher of the Year.  He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in music education from Georgia Southern University and is the Choral Teacher and Fine Arts Department Chairperson for Southeast Bulloch High School.  An honor society student at GSU, Whitaker was nominated by his professors to Pi Kappa  Lambda, a national musical honor society.  He has taught in Bulloch County since 2001.

Sociology & Anthropology

Camp Lawton produced amazing new artifacts that were unveiled this month.   

Alumnus Lee Berger, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, was featured this month in National Geographic for his findings among the Malapa (ancient human) fossils. Berger is the leader of a study, published in the journal Science, which suggests that a new human ancestor dubbed Australopithecus sediba may be the "key transitional species" between the apelike australopithecines and the first human species.

Writing & Linguistics 

Writing and Linguistics major Axel Wright of Baxley, Georgia, will receive this year's Brittany "Ally" Harbuck Scholarship during a public reading and reception Thursday, Sept. 8, at Georgia Southern University.  Wright was selected by novelist and memoirist Katharine Weber of Connecticut , who will present the award at 7 p.m. in Room 1005 Information Technology.

Georgia Southern University Professor and Fulbright Scholar Lori Amy, Ph.D. was selected to present her research in Iceland.

Department Chair Randall McClure's article "Mending a Fractured Department:
Strategies for New Chairs" was published as the lead article in "The Department Chair."  

The Department of Writing and Linguistics is pleased to announce the launch of its new online version of Fledge, the journal of outstanding first-year writing written by students at Georgia Southern University. You can view the journal at http://onlinefledge.wordpress.com/. 

Alumni News  

 News from the wire

Daniel E. Ellis '91 was recently appointed to the position of senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary of Carmike Cinemas. Employed previously at Lodgian since 1999, he brings extensive corporate experience to Carmike.

Mark Diamond '10 took first place in Houston Grand Opera's 23rd annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers in Feb. 2011. He has accepted an offer to join the Houston Grand Opera Studios in this fall.

Submitted news

Bill Muller '66 retired in 2000 from his position as director of the Bristol, Va., public library. After a short stint as director of the Albemarle Regional Library in eastern North Carolina, he and his wife, Pam, live in Creedmoor, N.C. He serves as president of the South Granville Rotary Club and as a member of the Granville County Public Library Board.

Vicki S. Harris '80 has returned to Wiesbaden, Germany, where she works as a human resources specialist for the Department of the Army. She is traveling the world with her 14-year-old son, Nicholas, enjoying life and providing Nicholas with great learning opportunities. "Working for the Army has been a great experience for both of us," she writes.

Derek Smith '80 is the author of a forthcoming book, "In the Lion's Mouth: Hood's Tragic Retreat from Nashville, 1864," to be published this fall by Stackpole Books. It will be Smith's sixth published book and his fourth on the Civil War. He resides in Williamsville, N.Y.

Kayla Rakestraw '11 is employed in Statesboro as a child advocate for Safe Haven.