Recent accomplishments by the campus community were earned by Chris Bowling, Wheeler Winston Dixon, Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Dale Grotelueschen, Luis Peon-Casanova, Brett Ratcliffe, Susan Sheridan, Mitchell Stephenson and Amanda Witte.
Faculty/Staff
Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, filmmaker and researcher focused on reflections on gender, race, eco-feminism and class in the film, and Wheeler Winston Dixon, professor of film studies and English, author of numerous publications on the history of cinema and popular culture and the creator of video art and experimental films, will have their latest video work exhibited March 2 to April 14 at the BWA Katowice Modern Art Museum in Poland. The museum is dedicating a gallery to their work, which will be screened continuously each day. The exhibition will feature about 200 videos.
Dale Grotelueschen, veterinarian and director of the Great Plains Veterinary Educational Center, was named veterinarian of the year by the Nebraska Veterinary Medical Association in LaVista during the association’s annual convention Jan. 25. The award is presented annually to an association member who has contributed to the advancement of veterinary medicine in Nebraska.
Bernard “Barney” McCoy and Luis Peon-Casanova, professors in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, were honored with an Award of Excellence by judges in the Broadcast Education Association’s Festival of Media Arts documentary competition for their work on “Black Jack Pershing: Love and War.” McCoy directed the documentary and Peon-Casanova was the primary videographer. The competitive BEA festival received more than 1,540 entries in 15 competitions this year.
Brett Ratcliffe, professor and curator at the University of Nebraska State Museum and Department of Entomology, has published a new book about 62 species and two subspecies of dynastine scarab beetles that are found in the United States, including Guam, and Canada. The book comprehensively reviews these beetles. It provides a vast amount of information, such as detailed discussions of historical collecting, people, climate, vegetation and habitats.
Susan Sheridan, George Holmes University Professor of educational psychology; Amanda Witte, project manager with the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools; and their colleagues co-authored a peer-reviewed research article chosen as the 2017 Article of the Year by the Journal of School Psychology. The paper details the results of a large rural trial of Teachers and Parents as Partners, a family-school intervention designed to improve children’s behavioral and social-emotional outcomes by building collaboration between caregivers and educators. Compared with non-participants, K-3 children from participating families showed greater decreases in problematic behavior and larger increases in productive behavior. Teachers also reported better relationship gains with parents, leading to the observed student improvements.
Mitchell Stephenson, assistant professor in rangeland ecology and management at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center, received an Outstanding Young Range Professional Award at the Society for Range Management’s 71st Annual Meeting, Technical Training and Trade Show in Sparks, Nevada, which concluded Feb. 2. The Outstanding Young Range Professional Award recognizes SRM members who exhibit superior performance and leadership potential in any range-related area.
Students
- Chris Bowling, a senior journalism student, won fifth place in the 2017-2018 Hearst Enterprise Reporting competition. Bowling’s work, “Oil and Water: Nebraska’s Toxic Debate,” examines the Keystone XL Pipeline and why Nebraska should or should not allow the passage of the pipeline. Bowling looked at the issues from different angles including geological, political, cultural and economical. Students from accredited journalism programs nationwide compete in the Hearst program for awards in writing, photojournalism, radio and television, multimedia and a cumulative intercollegiate award.
This column is a regular Friday feature of Nebraska Today. Faculty, staff and students can submit their achievements to be considered for this column via email to achievements@unl.edu. For more information, call 402-472-8515.
