Often collaborating with faculty mentors, advanced undergraduates and graduate students in the Lewis Department of Humanities are tackling a variety of interesting problems and questions in linguistics, technical communication, and related areas.

Our graduate students are also traveling to professional conferences, both as attendees and as presenters of research. And some are experiencing the thrill of seeing their work in print.

Read further for a sampling of research activities that eight students have undertaken this past year.

What happens when humans communicate with and through machines? As the recipient of a 2008

Undergraduate Summer Research Award from IIT College of Science and Letters, Susan Mallgrave (PTC, 4th year) studied social and cognitive perspectives on this question, co-supervised by professors Kathryn Riley and Matt Bauer. Reading widely in linguistics and related fields, Mallgrave analyzed nearly 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals and compiled an annotated bibliography of 60 of them.

By Susan MallgraveFay Sawyier believed in the value of teaching philosophy at an undergraduate level, especially within a technical curriculum. As a faculty member in the Department of Humanities for many years, she was enthusiastic about the benefits of grants for philosophy that benefactors such as the Mellon Foundation provided to the university during her tenure. Sawyier held a deep conviction on the importance of philosophy’s legacy and, in 2004, left a bequest of her own to IIT that supports this belief.

Continue reading about student research on page 4.

Continue reading about the Sawyier Predoctoral Fellowships and the Sawyier Lecture Series on page 3.

Professor Don Howard presents the fall 2008 Sawyier Philosophy Lecture in Science, Technology, and Society, “Einstein the Philosopher.”

Mallgrave [center] meets with professors Riley [left] and Bauer [right] during the summer of 2008.

The Legacy of Fay Sawyier: Sustaining the Discipline of Philosophy at IIT

Students Enter the World of Research

NOTA BENEN e w s l e t t e r o f t h e L e w i s D e p a r t m e n t o f H u m a n i t i e s Fa l l / W i n t e r 2 0 0 8

In This Issue: The Legacy of Fay Sawyier | Students Enter the World of Research

Faculty Engage Internationally | Humanities Updates | Find us online at: www.iit.edu/csl/hum

Kevin Harrington, professor of art and architectural history, traveled to Italy in March 2008 to give two invited lectures, “Skyscrapers” and “The Chicago School

of Architecture,” to the Architecture Program at the University of Salerno.

The University of Salerno is considered the first university in Europe, offering a medical school in the early Middle Ages. In 1988, a modern university campus approximately 10 miles inland from the city of Salerno was built in Fisciano. In contrast to Chicago, Salerno has as its western border the sea, with mountains inland. With a population of approximately 200,000 people, it has a local tradition of keeping buildings relatively short. Buildings of more than six stories are rare. Harrington says, “In nearby Naples, a new commercial center of tall buildings was constructed and was quickly determined to be a huge mistake,” influencing future

development in Salerno.Given the lack of skyscrapers in

Salerno, it isn’t surprising, then, that discussions following Harrington’s lecture focused not on the height of Chicago’s skyscrapers but on the foundations that hold these buildings in place. The foundations of Salerno’s buildings, built on a very rocky landscape, are basically secured to the underlying rocks. In contrast, the bedrock under Chicago’s

landscape is 100–150 feet underground, leading to the need for innovative architectural solutions for building foundations. One solution is that many low- to medium-height buildings are “floated” on the sand and other materials that make up the substrate lying between the surface and the bedrock. Harrington’s audience expressed great interest in the novelty of this type of foundation and in the evolution of solving foundation problems in Chicago.

Interest in innovative solutions for building foundations is not surprising for an audience in Salerno, since the city is in a region both seismically and volcanically active. According to Harrington, “Much of the population remembers a very damaging earthquake in 1980. They also know that Vesuvius itself is overdue for some type of volcanic activity, as is the region north of Naples. Harrington met several people who experienced the 1980 earthquake. They described the danger the people of Salerno and Naples [continued on p. 6]

Professor Susan Feinberg met Thea van der Geest, a professor of technical communication from the University of Twente (UT), at an IEEE conference in Seattle in October 2007. After conversing about their respective projects, they realized both of their universities could benefit from collaboration on their research. With a sabbatical planned for spring 2008, Feinberg felt it would be time well spent at UT working with van Der Geest and her team. This led to Feinberg’s two-month visit in April and May 2008 to UT, located in Enschede, a city in the eastern part of the Netherlands.

Feinberg’s project, “Law in the Public

Interest,” conducted through IIT’s Usability Testing and Evaluation Center (UTEC), studies ways for community-service organizations to assist clients online. Van der Geest’s parallel project, “Personalization of Governmental E-Services for Citizens,” focuses on government providing a simple, single online entry point for interactions with government offices about healthcare, student services, and social security.

Feinberg explains that the Netherlands is one of the first countries to develop a personalized online informational system: “The Netherlands’ governmental e-services project has an easier task of personalization in the first layer of bureaucratic services by virtue of the small size of the country. Citizens can fill out basic information so that government employees can then populate demographic fields, for example, in online healthcare sites.” When services such as at-home eldercare are needed, a family member can help input more personalized, narrative information. She

notes the need for healthcare records in the United States to be updated, observing that personalization of online records would especially help victims of the “digital divide,” such as the elderly, some immigrants, and those with disabilities. [continued on p. 6]

Cathedral Church of (St.) Matthew the Apostle in Salerno, Italy, begun in 10802

Feinberg in Holland

Humanities Faculty Engage Internationally in Research, Teaching

Harrington Speaks on “Skyscrapers” and “The Chicago School of Architecture” at University of Salerno

Feinberg Sabbatical Enables Collaboration with Dutch Colleague

[continued from cover]The most far-reaching legacy of Sawyier’s generosity is

the Sawyier Predoctoral Fellows Program, which funds the annual appointment of two doctoral students in philosophy who teach for the Humanities department while completing their dissertation work. As described by Robert Ladenson, professor of philosophy and trustee of the Sawyier endowment, this program is a gift to both the beneficiaries and the university: “There are few restrictions attached to the fellowship, which allows the recipient to focus mainly on his or her dissertation. The advantage to the university is that these young academics, who are in touch with the significant philosophical ideas percolating through graduate programs, can bring an infusion of these current ideas to our department. Our humanities professors meet regularly in colloquia, to try out ideas and have drafts of papers critiqued; to have seasoned faculty and young professors engaged in spirited dialogue advances the aims of philosophy.”

The latest recipients of Sawyier Predoctoral Fellowships are Christopher DiTeresi and Brett Fulkerson-Smith, both of whom began teaching classes at IIT in fall 2008. DiTeresi came to IIT from the University of Chicago and is excited to be teaching philosophy to students of technical disciplines. “I like exposing students who aren’t majoring in philosophy to the discipline. I find they initially feel there is a ‘right answer’ to all questions, and it’s enjoyable to introduce them to the concept of philosophy not being simply a correct answer or a personal opinion, but a matter of persuasive discourse and reasoned arguments.”

DiTeresi studied biology and philosophy as an under- graduate, then worked for two years as a biomedical engineer before his interest in “how we know what we know” led him to graduate study in philosophy of science. His current concentration is history and philosophy of biology, with a focus on developmental genetics, and his dissertation research is on how biologists from different fields of biology collaborate in cases when the theories in their fields conflict. He is currently teaching Age of Darwin and Philosophy of Biology and will teach Age of Pragmatism and Age of Darwin in spring 2009.

“Teaching gives me a different perspective on how to unpack material for my dissertation,” DiTeresi says.“The Sawyier Fellowship has made time available for this per-spective, as well as given me the structured time needed to work on my dissertation.”

Fulkerson-Smith’s initial reason for pursuing the Sawyier Fellowship was pragmatic as well, to give himself time to work on his dissertation. He was excited about working in the Humanities department of IIT, where the university’s emphasis on natural science and mathematics dovetails with his research in German Idealism. “The fundamental issue that animates my dissertation is how to make philosophy a science—a body of necessarily true propositions that are systematically connected. Specifically, my dissertation discusses how the role of experimentation in transcendental philosophy develops from confirmation modeled on natural science to discovery modeled

on mathematics,” Fulkerson-Smith says. But he also has a deep and abiding commitment to teaching, and believes that the “goal of education is to provide students with the means, not merely of surviving in, but of changing today’s world for the better. It’s primarily for this reason that I appreciate the Sawyier Fellowship.”

Fulkerson-Smith is teaching Great Philosophers: Immanuel Kant and Industrial Culture this semester and will teach 19th Century Philosophy and Industrial Culture in spring 2009. He obtained his master’s degree from Boston College and will earn his doctoral degree in philosophy from the University of Kentucky this year. As a historian of philosophy, Fulkerson-Smith has come to appreciate the influence of philosophy not just on religion, but also on politics, art, and science—“a complicated network from which to tease out threads of thought.”

Thanks to Fay Sawyier’s conviction and generosity, significant “threads of thought” will continue to be examined and discussed at IIT.

Sawyier Predoctoral Fellows: Christopher DiTeresi [left],

Brett Fulkerson-Smith [right]

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The Legacy of Fay Sawyier: Sustaining the Discipline of Philosophy at IIT

Another legacy of Sawyier’s endowment is support of the Sawyier Philosophy Lectures in Science, Technology, and Society, two annual public lectures sponsored by the Humanities department. The fall 2008 lecture featured Professor Don Howard (Department of Philosophy, Program in History and Philosophy of Science, University of Notre Dame). Howard spoke on “Einstein the Philosopher,” noting that Einstein made important contributions to philosophy as well as science in the twentieth century. These include influential views on the structure of theories, method, and the role of simplicity in science. Einstein’s philosophy of science was connected not just with his physics but also with his moral and political philosophy, and even his theological views.

The spring 2009 lecture, tentatively set for April 17, will feature Alison Wylie of the University of Washington; check www.iit.edu/csl/hum for details.

Sawyier Philosophy Lecture in Science, Technology, and Society

3

[continued from cover]Mallgrave focused on three areas that affect machine-mediated

communication: comprehensibility problems encountered by nonnative speakers, the presence or absence of multiple modalities, and human-technology interaction.

“I enjoyed the research because I find any issue about communication intensely interesting,” says Mallgrave, a straight-A student who in 2007 won the Edwin H. Lewis Prize for Fiction and the Molly Cohen Poetry Prize in IIT’s 42nd Annual Writing Contest. Mallgrave’s work provides a foundation for further research into machine-mediated communication.

“The project addresses research questions that have both an intrinsic interest within linguistic and psycholinguistic theory, as well as applications to practical problems within professional and business environments,” says Riley. Examples range from voice-recognition software being tested by the Chicago Transit Authority to serve patrons who are unable to see screen displays; to speaker systems used to communicate with customers at drive-through windows; to voices used in children’s toys.

Karl Stolley, assistant professor of technical communication, and Freddrick Logan (TECH, Ph.D. candidate) presented a paper on “Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Distance Education” at the 35th annual conference of the Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (CPTSC), October 4–6 in Minneapolis. They offered arguments for open-source software as a tool for teaching technical skill and achieving digital literacy, as well as an invaluable resource for technical communicators. Their research was supported by a CPTSC grant awarded to Stolley.

Professor Susan Feinberg and Laura Batson (TECH, Ph.D. candidate) also presented a paper at CPTSC, “How Service-Area Populations Shape Program Design and Delivery.” They called on other scholars and colleagues to create sustainable research groups between undergraduate and graduate students in technical and scientific communication.

Batson and Feinberg also published “Managing Collaboration: Adding Communication and Documentation Environment to a Product Development Cycle” in a 2009 collection from Baywood Publishing, Connecting People with Technology: Issues in Professional Communication, edited by George F. Hayhoe and Ellen M. Grady. Batson and Feinberg describe a communication and documentation model used to produce e-learning computer games. Their model provides a process for managing a project with a high turnover rate of multidisciplinary specialists.

Halcyon Lawrence (TECH, Ph.D. student) presented “Beyond Binary: Technical Communication and the Knowledge Student” at the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference at Concordia University in Montreal in July 2008. The conference focused on opening the information economy and exploring “communication-based aspects of the information economy,” including perspectives on teaching and training.

A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Lawrence presented a case study of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of the West Indies. Her paper argued that traditional forms of post-secondary engineering education are insufficient to meet the needs of the knowledge student, especially in developing economies. A written version of her paper appears in the conference proceedings.

About the conference, Lawrence noted, “The entire experience was an invaluable one. Ultimately, it gave me an opportunity to understand the process involved in developing a proposal, researching and writing a conference paper, and having it reviewed and accepted.” She encourages all graduate students in the technical communication program to engage in this process: “It was also a great opportunity to network with people who currently work in the field of technical communication and with students in similar programs around the world.”

Carrie Hannigan (TECH, Ph.D. student) recently published Kaplan Technical Writing: A Resource for Technical Writers at All Levels, a 624-page textbook coauthored with Diane Martinez, Tanya Peterson, Carolyn Stevenson, and Carrie Wells. Technical writing is presented as an essential form of communication that allows readers to accomplish real-world tasks. The textbook applies technical

writing principles to a host of purposes including interoffice memos, email, proposals, reports, and other forms of professional communication.

In June 2008, Hannigan participated in a panel at the Online Teaching Conference in Oceanside, Calif. Her presentation, “Facilitating Small Group Work Online,” focused on how online instructors need to consciously assist students in group work assignments to make sure every student is reaping the benefits of this type of interaction.

Of the conference, Hannigan said that it was inspiring to be able to exchange ideas and experiences with online instructors from elsewhere. Further information about the conference can be accessed at www.cccone.org/08Conference.

How you can help: Presenting conference papers is a critical activity for graduate students as they begin their research careers, in addition to increasing IIT’s visibility. To help support graduate student conference travel and professional development, a Graduate Student Travel Fund has been established by department chair Kathryn Riley and her husband, Frank Parker of Parlay Press.

Additional contributions from donors will help to sustain this fund. To make a contribution of any amount, please use the form on page 11 of this newsletter.

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Students Enter the World of Research

Halcyon Lawrence [right] participates in a workshop at the IEEE IPCC conference in Montreal.

Christopher Lam (TECH, Ph.D. student) presented a paper, coauthored with Professor Matt Bauer, on “Incorporating Experimental Designs in Business Communication Research” at the Association for Business Communication (ABC) conference in Lake Tahoe, Nev., October–November 2008. Lam found the ABC conference especially helpful because each presenter had his or her own timeslot, allowing for more extended interaction between presenters and attendees. A spirited question-and-answer session followed Lam’s presentation, and he was able to gain important feedback from the attendees about their attitudes toward and experiences with experimental research. Overall, he described the conference as a great opportunity to share his work with peers from around the country. A written version of Lam and Bauer’s paper has been accepted for the conference proceedings.

Joyce Lofstrom (TECH, Ph.D. student) also presented at the ABC conference, speaking on “A Collaborative Approach for Media Training Between Technical Communication and Public Relations.” Based on her own experience in conducting media training, Lofstrom advised professional communicators about

how to conduct media training for subject-matter experts. She provided an outline of workshop materials for such training, as well as examples of “do and don’t” encounters between subject-matter experts and the media.

James Maciukenas (TECH, Ph.D. student) attended Nielsen Norman Group’s (NNG) User Experience 2008 in Chicago in November. Website design guidelines arrived at using data collected from more than 1,000 websites were discussed and demonstrated. These guidelines stressed the growing importance of search engine optimization as well as the basics of good website design, such as clear and concise writing. Donald Norman presented the keynote lecture on “Sociable Design,” in which he stressed that observing the paths that people leave behind them while using the Internet may be more important than attempting to design the experiences they find while visiting websites. Norman acknowledged his abstract concepts may be more useful in provoking novel approaches rather than having immediate practical application.

Students Enter the World of Research

If you’ve ever gotten home from a drive-through restaurant only to find that you didn’t get exactly what you ordered, help may be on the way. In fall 2008, IPRO 343, an Interprofessional Project (IPRO) course led by Professor Matt Bauer, investigated acoustic factors that affect order accuracy in drive-through stations.

Based on input from executives in the quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry, the IPRO team learned that order-takers struggle to understand customers amidst background chatter from other employees and customers. As a result, an order for “small fries” might be misheard as a “small Sprite.” Drawing on research in speech perception, the team hypothesized that masking background chatter with white noise (broadband noise between 100–10,000 Hz, similar to TV static) might enhance order accuracy. In other words, more noise, but of a particular type, might actually help order-takers understand customers better.

To test this hypothesis, IPRO 343 devised an experiment, under Bauer’s guidance, in which participants played the part of an order-taker in a simulated QSR drive-through station. After having its research protocol approved by IIT’s Institutional Review Board, the team recruited 78 IIT students for the research study. Each participant took 84 prerecorded fast-food “orders” from “customers” while simultaneously hearing prerecorded background chatter. The orders were presented in both high- and low-quality formats, with white noise masking the background

chatter in half the orders. Participants wore headphones that played individual orders on one side and background talk and white noise on the other, just as drive-through employees use headsets that cover just one ear.

Team members then analyzed the data from the experiment and found that order accuracy improved when background chatter was masked with white noise, just as predicted. They also found that white noise had essentially the same benefit on order accuracy as did a signal of high quality. In short, a white-noise generator or similar device might be a viable tool to improve order accuracy in the QSR industry, providing the same benefits as a major overhaul of audio hardware, but at a fraction of the cost.

IPRO 343 garnered several honors at the December 5 IPRO Day, which showcased the work of more than 40 teams. Co-team leaders Halcyon Lawrence (TECH, Ph.D. student) and Kevin Arnold (PS, 4th year) received one of three Team Leadership awards; faculty advisor Matt Bauer received the Outstanding Faculty award; and the team’s exhibit placed first in its track.

The team will pass on its records of methodology and findings to the spring 2009 IPRO 343 team, who under Bauer’s direction will continue to examine acoustic and cognitive factors that affect the understanding of speech in noisy and distracting environments.

IPRO Team Undertakes Experimental Research

[Left to right] Matt Bauer, Halcyon Lawrence, Susan Mallgrave, Shaun Doran, Scott Justus, Shavanna Pinder, Karen Hong,

Matthew Campen, Sarah Johnson, Kevin Arnold, Russell Ucci

Test participants are observed by IPRO 343 moderators.

Team members greet visitors to their exhibit on IPRO Day.

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—Susan Mallgrave

[continued from p. 2]face, where a cataclysmic event might claim more than 1 million lives.

Were Vesuvius to erupt, Salerno, and Italy in general, has a system of sensors in place for seismic or volcanic activity, which should provide as much as 48 hours of warning. This advance warning might dwindle to 12–24 hours if activity were to occur in the Campo Flegrei region north of Naples, an area not as well understood as Vesuvius. Even with advance warning, moving people out of Salerno would prove difficult, in part because the mountains come right up to the sea. Therefore, Harrington says, “There is a kind of fatalism in the populace living in such a seismically and volcanically active region.”

When asked if the architecture of Salerno expressed this fatalism, Harrington responds, “Oh, no, no, in fact, the idea of the people on the [University of Salerno] campus is that these are problems that can be addressed and possibly solved.”

While in Italy, Harrington visited ancient and new architecture, including the construction site of English architect David Chipperfield’s new Palace of Justice; the Italian architect Paolo Soleri’s Ceramica Artistica Solimene, a ceramics design, manufacturing, and sales building in Vietri sul Mar, Italy; and the work of Luigi Cosenza, a very well-regarded modernist Italian architect.

Describing his visit to Salerno, Harrington inquires, “Do you know the line, ‘See Naples and die?’ This is a standard line from the Grand Tour, beginning in the seventeenth century. The site of Naples is extraordinarily beautiful, and many aspects of the city are likewise extraordinarily beautiful. Combine the city, the Bay of Naples, and facing the end of the world when looking at Vesuvius—these are amazing things. Also between Naples and Salerno is the Sorrento Peninsula, which has places like Sorrento and Ravello, Amalfi, Positano…

“These are fabulously famous resorts that have been well known since the Roman Empire and maybe even before. These places are physically so beautiful that it is not surprising that someone would build a summerhouse there. At the end of the peninsula is the Isle of Capri, another famous resort. So there is this combination of big cities and intense urban development set within one of the most spectacular and beautiful landscapes in the world, where you can be swimming in the sea and see snow on the mountaintops…” at which point a smile crosses his face.

Humanities Faculty Engage Internationally in Research, Teaching

[continued from p. 2]Feinberg greatly enjoyed her time in the Netherlands,

remarking, “Travel in other countries makes you aware of issues that are similar to those in your own country and some that are very different. All countries wrestle with the issues of e-government, but not all countries wrestle with the sea encroaching onto their land.” She visited the countryside on the North Sea coast and called the famous dykes an “eye-opening hydraulic achievement.” After driving for miles on them, she muses about their application in areas of the United States that have been devastated by the ocean’s invasions.

An avid cyclist, Feinberg was delighted with the outdoor culture she found in the Netherlands. “The climate is tempered by proximity to the ocean and is very like that of Seattle. People play outside, rain or shine, and bicycling is deeply ingrained in

the culture. There are dedicated bike lanes on every street, often with a second passing lane, and cyclists always have first priority in traffic.”

Feinberg describes the research partnership between IIT and UT as continuing at both the faculty and graduate levels. Feinberg is dissertation advisor to Kevin Smith, an IIT graduate student currently involved in an intercultural collaboration with Lex van Velsen, a graduate student at UT. Smith and van Velsen hope to set up an experiment to run simultaneously in their two countries that relates to personalizing the intake process online for government services.

—Susan Mallgrave

—James Maciukenas

Cathedral Church of (St.) Matthew the Apostle in Salerno, Italy, showing the entry to the courtyard of the cathedral with the façade in the distance 6

Feinberg Sabbatical Enables Collaboration with Dutch Colleague

Harrington Speaks on “Skyscrapers” and “The Chicago School of Architecture” at University of Salerno

Humanities Faculty Engage Internationally in Research, Teaching

Dabbert Teaches in 2008 Summer in Paris Program Senior Lecturer of English James Dabbert spent June 2008 in Paris as a faculty member in IIT’s fifth annual Summer in Paris program, sponsored by IIT College of Science and Letters. Dabbert offered participating IIT undergraduates a course in American Artists and Their French Teachers.

Explains Dabbert, “As the center of the art world in the second half of the nineteenth century, Paris was a magnet for American art students following our own Civil War to the outbreak of World War I. American artists played their role in Paris from the Salon de Refusé of 1863 to Winslow Homer’s triumph at the 1900 Exposition Universelle. By the late 1880s, more than a thousand American students were studying in Paris, half of them permanent residents. As American artists re-crossed the Atlantic and returned home, they saw the new world and created art filtered through their own involvement with French aesthetics.”

His course dealt with 12 American artists and their eight French teachers, who worked together in Paris from 1865–1914. The American artists included two women and an African-American man who later became major influences in American art: George P. A. Healy, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Mary Stevenson Cassatt, Cecilia Beaux, John Singer Sargant, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Frederick Childe Hassam, and Robert Henri.

To complement classroom presentations focusing on American artists, students took weekly visits to various museums to see both French and American works of art.

Power Visits Research Archives in Puerto Rico History Professor Margaret Power was awarded a Franklin Research Grant from the American Philosophical Society (APS) to research archives on the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. Since 1933, the APS has awarded grants to support the cost of research leading to publication in all areas of knowledge.

Power’s grant supports her research into the Archives on the Nationalist Party at the University of Rio Piedras in San Juan, Puerto Rico; the Ralph Templin Papers at the United Methodist Church Archives at Drew University in Madison, N.J.; and the Ruth Reynolds Papers at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York.

In May 2008, Power traveled to the Center for Historical Studies at the University of Puerto Rico. Among the people she interviewed while in Puerto Rico were 100-year-old Isabel Rosado, a member of the Nationalist Party and a former political prisoner in Puerto Rico. She also spoke with Heriberto Marin and Estanislao Lugo, both of whom also were political prisoners in Puerto Rico. Like Rosado, they participated in the 1950 uprising led by the Nationalist Party to call attention to and end United States colonial occupation of Puerto Rico.

Power’s research interests include the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and gender, politics, and transnational connections between the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and Latin America, Ireland, and India. In support of the goal of the Franklin Research Grant, Power’s research will lead to a series of articles, a presentation at the 123rd Annual Meeting of the American History Association, and a possible book publication.

Schmaus Presents Invited Talk in BrazilOn November 14, Philosophy Professor Warren Schmaus presented an invited talk at an international seminar in São Paulo, Brazil, honoring the 150th birthday of the sociologist Emile Durkheim. The title of his talk was “Durkheim, Jamesian Pragmatism and the Normativity of Truth.” The seminar took place from November 11–14 and included scholars from the United Kingdom, France, Canada, the United States, and Brazil. It was hosted by the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters, and Human Sciences of the University of São Paulo. A conference volume will be published in Portuguese, and a Web page with videos of the conference, containing simultaneous English translations, is under construction.

Schmaus Elected HOPOS Vice President Philosophy Professor Warren Schmaus has been elected vice president of The International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science (HOPOS). Schmaus begins a two-year term on January 1, 2009. The vice president of HOPOS is also the president-elect for the society. Schmaus will become president on January 1, 2011.

[From left] Amy Sissala, Sarah Bowes, Beth Nielsen, Andrea Gore, Nina Samuels, Sara Sustersic, Lisa Nielsen, Rafal Stawarz, Chelsea Miller

The Eiffel Tower as seen from the northeast belfry of Notre Dame Cathedral

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43rd Annual IIT Writing Contest

For the 43rd year, the annual Lewis Department of Humanities Writing Contest brought out a wide-ranging display of talent from across all disciplines within IIT. Each spring, the contest offers three top prizes in each of four separate categories: Freshman Essay Prize, Edwin H. Lewis Prizes for Non-Fiction and Fiction, and the Mollie Cohen Poetry Prize. The nine winning pieces for spring 2008 were chosen from more than 70 entries.

In the Freshman Essay category, Julia Rybakova (BA/AS, 1st year) won first prize for the essay “Amidst Darkness and Light: Crane’s Henry and Cimino’s Michael,” Anam Moin Khan (CE, 1st year) placed second for the essay “As You Deem Right,” and Urba Mandrekar (PYSC, 1st year) took third prize for the essay “The Value of Life.”

In the Edwin H. Lewis Non-Fiction division, Heather Selby (BME/HUM, 4th year) claimed first place for “Women As Body,” Sarah Crites (EE, 3rd year) took second place for “The Forgotten Women of the Depression,” and Dave Curtin (CHEM, 4th year) won third prize for “Changing Lives in Laguna.”

In the Edwin H. Lewis Fiction category, the first-prize winner was Crites, who submitted a modern tale entitled “Her Mother’s Daughter”; the second-prize winner was Selby, for a creative piece she named “Longed for Him. Got Him. Sh*t”; and the third-prize winner was Rybakova, for a short story called “Fluke.”

In the Mollie Cohen Poetry category, Bethany Zanke (CHEM, 2nd year) took first place for her collection of poems called “Untitled,” Jeffrey Yang (BIOCHEM, 1st year) won second place for his poem called “My Hat is on My Shelf,” and Christian Osswald (BME, 2nd year) claimed third prize for a group of poems called “Tears, Ten-Minute Short, Stars.”

When asked about what the process of writing means to them, the first-place winners offered varying answers. For some, writing is “a great way to relax,” and most mentioned writing being an emotional, therapeutic outlet, an escape from stress. One of the winners has a folder of intriguing passages she has copied at various times, so that she can read excerpts as a warm-up to her own writing. All have been writing for a large part of their lives, and one of them mentioned an affinity for plays on words. Some offered regrets about not having enough time to write for pleasure; most of the entries had been done for classes.

All contest entrants were honored on April 22 with a luncheon reception in the MTCC Welcome Center, hosted by the Department of Humanities. The winning writers were greeted and announced by Humanities Chair Kathryn Riley and Associate Chair Greg Pulliam. Dean of Students Doug Geiger then presented each winner with his or her prize money and a certificate. Entrants also received an IIT mug emblazoned with “Wriiter.”

[Left to right] Associate Chair Greg Pulliam; contest winners Sarah Crites, Urba Mandrekar, Anam Moin Khan, Bethany Zanke, Julia Rybakova, Jeffrey Yang, Christian Osswald, Dave Curtain; Dean of Students Doug Geiger

—Susan Mallgrave

How you can help: The Writing Contest was begun in 1965 with endowments from benefactors Mollie Cohen and Edwin H. Lewis. Cohen was an Armour College graduate in 1924, later a professor of literature at IIT for many years, and had a passion for poetry. Known as a “Renaissance Man,” Lewis taught English and philosophy, and held administrative positions at IIT for 40 years. His association with the university began in the late nineteenth century and continued into the ’30s. He was a “humorist, a musician, and a poet,” according to the IIT Hall of Fame.

Student writers at IIT throughout the years have been inspired by and grateful to these two thoughtful and generous philanthropists.

You can help sustain their gifts by using the form on page 11 of this newsletter to contribute to the Writing Contest Fund. Gifts of all amounts are welcome; major gifts are an opportunity to add your name to the award title.

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Humanities Updates

Anna Kalata (M.S. TCID ’08) and James Maciukenas (TECH, Ph.D. candidate) won awards in the 36th annual competition for Technical Publications, Art, and Online Communications, sponsored by the Chicago chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC). Kalata received an Award of Merit in the Technical Publication category for the Price List for the Mail & Copy Center at IIT.

Maciukenas received an Award of Merit in the Technical Publications: Promotional Materials category for the Spring 2007 Lewis Department of Humanities newsletter, Nota Bene. Maciukenas and Patty Cronin (Director of Marketing, Communications and External Affairs, College of Science and Letters [CSL]) received an Award of Excellence in the Technical Art: Informational Materials Design category for the CSL Undergraduate Summer Research Flyer.

Odin Jurkowski (M.S. TCID ’97) is a tenured associate professor at the University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, Mo., and coordinator of the Educational Technology Program there.

Don Cunningham (Ph.D. TECH ’05) is an assistant professor in the Department of English at Radford University (Va.), teaching professional writing, business writing, and advanced technical writing.

Lauren Joyce (PTC ’06) is now an admission counselor at IIT.

Anica Jovanova (ICOM ’06) worked as a Web designer for a Chicago-based nonprofit and is now a student in IIT’s M.S. program in Information Architecture.

Renée Mercuri (M.S. TCID ’06) and her husband, Joshua Tusin (M.S. TCID ’06), completed an extended journey through southeast Asia and India, doing volunteer work at various organic farms during their travels. In January 2008, Mercuri started work with the Retired Teachers of Ontario (RTO) as their communications associate. Mercuri’s responsibilities include the organization’s membership magazine, website, and newsletter. She reports that the skills she developed in the TCID program are essential to her everyday responsibilities with the RTO. Tusin recently started work at the Canadian headquarters of GlaxoSmithKline as a proofreader in its Regulatory Affairs group, working with product monographs

(including information for both doctors and the public, such as leaflets for patients). He reports that his mix of writing and editing skills and his science background made him a great candidate for the position. Tusin is also an active contributor to blogTO.

Julia Lee-Kim (M.S. TCID ’07) published an article in the March 2008 issue of the STC magazine, Intercom. “Keep Your Site Competitive” is summarized here: “To gain a competitive edge—or even survive—in a world gone flat, a company must assert a level of uniqueness. Companies creating global websites can use competitive analysis and landscape analysis to analyze the market; Lee-Kim details how to add cultural analysis to this mix.”

Marina Lin (M.S. IARC ’07) published an article in the February 2008 issue of the STC magazine, Intercom. “Localizing Sans Clichés” argues that “all too often, we instinctively turn to old methods of researching group culture, rhetoric, and preferences so that we can appeal to people on their own terms. Our intentions are good, but our outcomes may not be. Special care must be taken not to approach the process of localization in a way that results in a cultural parody.”

Kejun Xu (M.S. TCID ’07) is pursuing a Ph.D. in technical communication at the University of Washington. During summer 2008, she interned as an information architect in an online marketing firm in Santa Barbara, Calif. She was recently awarded an STC International Scholarship.

Alumni Notes

Graduate Students Win STC Awards

Humanities faculty, staff, students, and friends enjoyed an informal gathering on September 24 to meet new faces and welcome back returning department members. Attendees enjoyed refreshments and conversation in the Kemper Room Art Gallery of Paul V. Galvin Library. New IIT College of Science and Letters Dean Russell Betts also stopped by to chat informally with members of the department. The department thanks our friends at Galvin for sharing the gallery space for this event, as well as Parlay Press for co-sponsoring refreshments.

Humanities Gathering

[Left] Price List for the Mail & Copy Center at IIT;[right] Spring 2008 Nota Bene; [far right] CSL Undergraduate Summer Research Flyer

[Above] Susan Feinberg speaks with Dean Russell Betts.[Right] Humanities department students and faculty welcome the fall semester.

9

Selected Faculty Publications and Presentations

MATT BAUER, Assistant Professor“/æ/-Raising in Wisconsin English” (with F. Parker), American Speech, 83

(Winter 2008): 403–431.“Reliability and Validity in Studies of Low Back Merger” (with F. Parker),

Linguistic Society of America, Chicago, Jan. 2008.“‘Merger’ and Hypothesis Testing” (invited; with F. Parker), German

Dept., Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, Feb. 2008.“The Use of Ultrasound in Sociophonetics” (invited), German Dept.,

Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, Feb. 2008.“Transmission of ‘Merger’” (with F. Parker), Symposium on

Phonologization, Univ. of Chicago, Linguistics Dept., Chicago, April 2008.

“The Benefits of Incorporating Experimental Research Designs in Business Communication Research” (presented by coauthor Christopher Lam, TECH, Ph.D. student), Assn. for Business Communication, Lake Tahoe, Nev., Oct. 2008. A written version will appear in the conference proceedings.

MICHAEL DAVIS, ProfessorEthics and the Legal Profession, 2nd. ed. (with E. Cohen & F. Elliston).

Prometheus Books: Buffalo, N.Y., 2008. “Thinking Through the Issues in a Code of Ethics,” New Directions for

Higher Education 142 (Summer 2008): 55–74.“Justifying Torture as an Act of War,” War and Political Philosophy, ed. L.

May (Cambridge UP, 2008), pp. 187–203.“Some Paradoxes of Whistleblowing” reprinted in Case Studies in

Business Ethics, 6th ed, ed. A. Gini & A. Marcoux (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009), pp. 67–76; also in Ethical Theory and Business, 8th ed., ed. T. L. Beauchamp, N. E. Bowie, & D. G. Arnold (Pearson, 2008), pp. 147–155.

“Professional Responsibility: Just Following the Rules?” reprinted in Professions in Ethical Focus: An Anthology, ed. F. Allhoff & A. J. Vaidya (Broadview, 2008), pp. 41–48.

“Is There a Profession of Engineering?” reprinted in Professions in Ethical Focus: An Anthology, ed. F. Allhoff & A. J. Vaidya (Broadview, 2008), pp. 146–165.

Panelist, “Ethics Education for Graduate Programs in Geographic Information Science and Technology,” Assn. for Practical and Professional Ethics, San Antonio, Feb. 2008.

“No Dual Loyalties: The Profession of Medicine Comes First,” American Philosophical Assn. (Midwestern Division), Chicago, April 2008.

“Is Engineering Ethics the Same in Shantou as in Chicago?” Steelcase Corporation Endowed Fund for Excellence Leadership Lecture, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Western Michigan Univ., Kalamazoo, March 2008.

SUSAN FEINBERG, Professor“Managing Collaboration: Adding Communication and Documentation

Environment to a Product Development Cycle” (with Laura Batson, TECH, Ph.D. student), in Connecting People with Technology: Issues in Professional Communication, ed. G. F. Hayhoe & E. M. Grady (Amityville, N.Y.: Baywood Publishing, 2009), pp. 207–217.

“How Do Service-Area Populations Shape Program Design and Delivery?” (with Laura Batson, TECH, Ph.D. student), CPTSC, Minneapolis, Oct. 2008.

Panelist (invited), “Education and Employment: Challenges and Opportunities for Technical Communicators,” Chicago Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication, Oct. 2008.

BRETT FULKERSON-SMITH, Sawyier Predoctoral Fellow“On the Apodictic Proof of Kant’s Revolutionary Hypothesis,” Meeting

of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Assn., April 2008.

“Fichte’s Use of Experiment in the Foundation of the Entire Wissenschaftslehre,” Spring Meeting of the Kentucky Philosophical Assn., April 2008.

MARGARET POWER, Associate Professor“Negotiating Political and Gender Dichotomies: Interviewing Right-Wing

Chilean Women and Left-Wing Chilean Men,” Oral History Assn. Conference, Pittsburgh, Oct. 2008.

“Why Solidarity Matters” (invited), Univ. of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, Oct. 2008.

“The Transnational Diffusion of Anti-Communism: Conservative Women in Brazil and Chile in the 1960s and 1970s” (invited), Univ. of Pittsburgh, Oct. 2008.

KATHRYN RILEY, Professor and ChairExercise Book for The Academic Writer’s Handbook, 2nd ed., by L. Rosen.

New York: Longman, 2008.Exercise Book and Answer Key for The New Century Handbook, 4th ed.,

by C. Hult & T. Huckin (with Christopher Lam, TECH, Ph.D. student). Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2008.

“Publishing in Business Communication Journals” (with M. Graham & D. Russell), Assn. for Business Communication conference, Lake Tahoe, Nev., Oct. 2008.

WARREN SCHMAUS, Professor “Robert King Merton,” New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, ed. N.

Koertge (Farmington Hills, MI: Scribner’s, 2008). “Rescuing Auguste Comte from the Philosophy of History,” essay

review of Les Trois États: Science, théologie et métaphysique chez Auguste Comte by M. Bourdeau, History and Theory 47 (May 2008): 291–301.

“Durkheim, Jamesian Pragmatism, and the Normativity of Truth” (invited), presented at a seminar in honor of Durkheim’s 150th birthday, Univ. of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, Nov. 2008.

“Two Concepts of Social Situatedness in Science,” Philosophy of Science Assn. 2008 Biennial Meeting, Pittsburgh, Nov. 2008. An earlier version was presented at the 10th Annual Philosophy of Social Science Roundtable, Univ. of Washington, Seattle, March 2008.

“Renouvier’s Critique of Comte,” 7th International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science Conference, Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, June 2008.

KARL STOLLEY, Assistant Professor“The Lo-Fi Manifesto,” Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and

Pedagogy 12(3). http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/12.3“More Than ‘What You See’: Alternatives to WYSIWYG Web

Development” (invited), Michigan State Univ. Rhetoric and Writing Program’s Distinguished Speaker Series, Jan. 2008.

“Using Microformats: Collaboration and the Semantic Web,” CCCC Computer Connections, New Orleans, April 2008.

“Rethinking Digital Literacy in Terms of ‘Open Source,’” ATTW Conference, New Orleans, April 2008.

“Redesigning Kairos (with K. Gossett & D. Eyman),” CCCC Computer Connections, New Orleans, April 2008.

“What You See Is What You Look At: Digital Literacies of Code-Level Development,” Computers and Writing, Athens, Ga., May 2008.

“Producing Digital Scholarship for Kairos” (workshop; leader), Computers and Writing, Athens, Ga., May 2008.

“Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Distance Education” (with Freddrick Logan, TECH, Ph.D. student), CPTSC, Minneapolis, Oct. 2008.10

Professor Susan Feinberg, director of IIT’s Usability Testing and Evaluation Center, was one of three panelists in an open forum on “Education and Employment: Challenges and Opportunities for Technical Communicators” held by the Chicago Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication at DePaul University, October 14.

Feinberg cited the critical role that self-starting strategies play in a successful career, urging students to seek internships and to attend technical communication conferences and

seminars. “Many professional opportunities present themselves through networking at these conferences, some of them from IIT alumni who attend,” Feinberg said. When asked how technical communication students can most effectively use their time and resources, she offered what she considers a triumvirate of strategies for success: “develop your own research or area of expertise, create a dynamic portfolio, and participate in an internship.”

Feinberg Speaks on Professional Development in Technical Communication

Russell Betts, dean of the College of Science and Letters and professor of physics, announced the winners of the 2008 CSL Dean’s Excellence Awards at a luncheon in Hermann Hall on November 19. Two members of the Humanities department received Excellence Awards: Margaret Power (research by a senior faculty member) and James Maciukenas (staff). Susan Mallgrave was also recognized during the luncheon for her 2008 Undergraduate Summer Research Award.

Humanities Department Members Receive CSL Dean’s Excellence Awards

[Left to right] 2008 CSL Dean’s Excellence Award winners with Dean Betts: Shangping Ren (Computer Science), Dean Betts,

Margaret Power (Humanities), James Maciukenas (Humanities/CSL), Michael Pelsmajer (Applied Mathematics)

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Kathryn RileyDepartment Chairriley@iit.edu 312.567.3566

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L E W I S D E PA R T M E N T O F H U M A N I T I E S

C O N TAC T U S

[Above] Graduates and faculty: Keilty; Lin; Jo Mackiewicz; Keshia Garnett-Howard (M.S. IARC); Norton; Jackson; Karl Stolley; Amy Stolley; Samantha Staley (PTC); Scott Gehrs (Ph.D. TECH); Jack Snapper; Pulliam; Kathryn Riley; Rozborski; Heather Selby (HUM); Matt Bauer.

For the first time in many years, Commencement was held on the IIT Main Campus. Students, faculty, family, and friends enjoyed a beautiful spring day. [Right, top to bottom] Stefanie Rozborski (HUM) with Greg Pulliam; Yi-Chun Lin (M.S. TCID), Joseph Norton (M.S. TCID), Apryl Cox Jackson (M.S. TCID), Alison Keilty (M.S. TCID); Commencement reception.

Photo Credits: cover–clockwise from top, Kevin Harrington, Mindy Sherman, James Maciukenas; p. 2–Susan Feinberg, Feinberg, Harrington, Freddrick Logan; p. 3–Sherman; p. 4–Michael

Steehouder; p. 5–Nikita Dashputra, Maciukenas, Maciukenas; p. 6–Feinberg, Harrington, Wikipedia (CC no attribute license); p. 7–James Dabbert; p. 8–Maciukenas; p. 9–Logan;

p. 10–Harrington p. 11–Linda Jansak, Ray Harris; back cover–Maciukenas.

May 2008 Graduation Held on IIT Main Campus

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