Faculty NewsDaniel Gahan has been keeping busy with the duties of department chair [keeping all of us in line – no easy task] but also with teaching and research. He is thinking more than a little of the sabbatical he has coming up this fall but is trying had not to ‘rub it in’ on his colleagues. His research is still focused on aspects of the period of the French revolution in Ireland but he has never strayed too far from agrarian history either. Danny works alongside James in finding prospective students for the department; much time is invested to secure the right mix in each freshman class. He still finds teaching to be the most enjoyable of all the work he does and swears that, in spite of all they say, the students have not changed very much in all these years. He holds to this view in spite of the fact that his two children are now in college--the oldest about to graduate from IU, the youngest a freshman at UE. He sends greetings to all.
Since his arrival in the fall of 2005, Daniel Byrne has been engaged heavily in teaching, scholarship, and service to the UE community. He developed three new courses for the department on African decolonization, modern China and Japan, and United States involvement in the Middle East. In addition to teaching, Dan continues to work on converting his dissertation into a publishable book. He recently had two articles on Algeria and decolonization accepted for publication in the Encyclopedia of the Cold War. In an effort to develop his scholarship and teaching, Dan traveled to Jordan in December 2006 to participate in a seminar on Teaching Islam and Middle Eastern History. This opportunity allowed him to learn a great deal from local scholars and to visit a great number of historic sites, both ancient and modern. Dan has also enjoyed the opportunity to work with students in organizing historical film nights, discussions of human and workers' rights, and organizing the afore-mentioned Phi Alpha Theta conference in March. The two major things that Annette Parks has been involved with other than her teaching duties have been the two conferences hosted here in the fall and spring semesters. Annette played a huge role in first securing the Midwest Medieval Conference and then making the arrangements for it all to take place smoothly. She followed that up by playing a key role in the organization and administration of the Phi Alpha Theta conference. Not content with just watching others give papers, she gave an outstanding and very well received Andiron lecture in Spring 2007, which brought the university community up to date with some of her very latest research on the role of female hostages in medieval Europe. Annette also devotes a lot of time to keeping the men in the Department in their place. James MacLeod continued to develop his courses and research Great War memorials, both in the US and Britain, and was delighted to receive the Berger Award for Scholarship. His focus is on the Christian messages – explicit and implicit – in their inscriptions. In 2006 he was elected to chair the search committee for the new Vice President for Academic Affairs. He continues to work hard as the Faculty Athletics Rep, being heavily involved with the minutiae of NCAA rules and regulations. He served on search committees for the men's basketball coach and the Athletics Director, and served as President of the Missouri Valley Conference. James works beside Danny in recruiting new students as we must always be replacing our seniors with new freshmen! His cartooning hobby brought national recognition when one of his cartoons won a national cartoon competition, and he draws regularly for both Evansville Living and Ewoman magazines. Best of all, his family grew by one in May 2006 when Calum was born, a brother for Eilidh [4]. Burton Kirkwood continued to split his time between teaching and administrative duties, as he served not only as the Director of World Cultures, but also as the Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences and the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. All of these positions placed enormous demands on Burton’s time, but he still managed to work closely with our students not just in class but as the director of our internships program, placing students in the Reitz Home, the Evansville Museum, the Willard Library and the Mayor’s Office. On top of all that, Burton and his wife Maryclare welcomed baby Benjamin into their lives in June and are expecting another addition to their family in the next few months as they will be adopting a baby girl too. Those of us with children are full of advice for our colleague, though of course he’ll have to see it to believe it! |
