Wright State's Model Arab League club visited Miami University in Oxford last week to participate in the annual Ohio Valley Model Arab League conference.   The student organization, led by Faculty Advisor Vaughn Shannon, Political Science, and Head Delegate Georgina Liso, English/Political Science, had ten participating students representing two countries, Egypt and Bahrain. In just the third year of the group's existence, WSU Model Arab League came back with handfuls of awards acknowledging their hard work.  Wright State's Egypt group won Outstanding Delegation at the conference.  Mike Gross, International and Comparative Politics (ICP),  won Outstanding delegate in the Joint Defense Council. Allyson Clark, International Studies, won Outstanding delegate in the Palestinian Affairs Committee, and Kirsten Smith, French, won Honorable Mention. In the Environmental Affairs Committee, ICP students Kuyer Fazekas and Jonathan Maze won Outstanding Delegate awards, Dan Clark won Honorable Mention in the Political Affairs Committee, and Stephanie Dagher won Honorable Mention in the Social Affairs Committee. Wright State ICP Alum Josh Cummins won Outstanding Chair for his role in running the Joint Defense Council. In all, WSU affiliated participants won nine awards across all five committees at the conference - congratulations to Vaughn Shannon and the whole team for representing Wright State and CoLA so well!

WSU DELEGATES: (Front, left to right): Colby Berry, Kirsten Smith, Allyson Clark, Stephanie Dagher, Ummey Tabassum. (Back row, left to right): Kuyer Fazekas, Mike Gross, Jonathan Maze, Dan Clark, Alysa Birdsall, Georgina Liso

CoLA's Center of Excellence in the Arts, CELIA, is a major force for continuing the development of a highly engaged, inspired, and enthusiastic community of scholars and creatives on the Wright State campus. Through the CELIA Fellows Program, arts, humanities, and social science faculty develop amazingly innovative, multidisciplinary projects each year. Apply by April 3 for a 2015-16 CELIA Fellowship.  CELIA also provides a limited number of seed grants to faculty to develop or pilot collaborative and innovative projects and approaches to education and/or leadership in the arts. Grants are up to $2,500 in research support and are typically for one or two semesters. Apply by April 3 for a 2015-16 CELIA Seed Grant.   

Don't miss a whole week of fantastic events related to CELIA's project A Long, Long Way: Echoes of the Great War beginning March 9. This week-long celebration brings Distinguished Visiting Artist Maestro Keith Lockhart, conductor of the Boston Pops and the BBC Concert Orchestra, to Dayton for a variety of master classes in percussion, piano, and voice as well as open forums and lectures including Senior CELIA Fellow Paul Lockhart, History. The week culminates with Maestro Lockhart guest conducting Benjamin Britten's War Requiem with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra at the Schuster Center on March 14.  A complete listing of events can be found here.

This week's featured New Faculty is Paula Garrido. Paula was born in Cipolletti, Rio Negro, Argentina. She started teaching music to children when she was 18 while pursuing a Bachelor in Elementary Education from the Universidad del Comahue. She worked at elementary schools teaching Spanish and Social Sciences before coming to the United States in 2001. She started studying and teaching Spanish at the University of Cincinnati in 2006 where she obtained her Master's degree and her Ph.D. in Literature. Her doctoral dissertation deals with contemporary Argentine women's literature. She joined Wright State last fall and teaches beginning, intermediate, and advanced Spanish courses. Paula is interested in non-realist genres such as fantastic and magical realism narratives. She has presented papers in both national and international conferences on these topics, and has co-edited and co-written Espejos: Reconsideraciones sobre lo fantástico en la literatura hispanoamericana. Paula really enjoys working here and feels like Wright State pushes her to be the best teacher she can be. 

We will resume our CoLA Weekly after Spring Break.