Dean Searches Open This Week

Searches for the Dean of the College of Natural and Social Sciences and the Dean of the College of Business and Technology opened this week. Dr. Frank Harrold vacated the NSS Dean position this summer, and Associate Dean Robert Rycek has been filling it in the interim. Dr. Bruce Forster has resigned from the position of Dean of the College of Business and Technology due to recent health concerns. Associate Dean Timothy Burkink will serve as Acting Dean until the search, which also opened this week, is complete.

Application review for both dean positions will begin on March 23 with a July start date. 

The Division of Academic Affairs and Student Life has benefited from the contributions of Dr. Harrold and Dr. Forster. We offer our thanks for their past service and our best wishes for their future endeavors.

“The World in Turmoil: Understanding Conflict”
2009 World Affairs Conference at UNK in March

The United States today is facing two wars and the most serious financial crises since the Great Depression.  As critical as our own situation is, it makes up only one small part of the staggering turmoil that encompasses our globe.  As well as addressing the world financial crises directly, among the other challenges confronting the planet to be addressed at the James E. Smith Midwest Conference on World Affairs are the genocide in Darfur, anarchy in Somalia, the war in Gaza, the struggles of indigenous peoples in Colombia and Nicaragua, terrorist movements in Sri Lanka, the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the role of NATO and EU enlargement.  Through speeches and discussions by international experts, diplomats, and scholars we hope to introduce UNK faculty, students, and the broader Kearney community to just a few of the crises currently active and how they impact the United States and Nebraska.

The annual James E. Smith Midwest Conference on World Affairs will be held March 9-10, 2009, in the Ponderosa Room in the Nebraskan Student Union. This year’s speakers will offer a variety of perspectives on the subject of “The World in Turmoil: Understanding Conflict.” The speakers include the following:

• Andrew Busch – Global FX Market Strategist for BMO Capital Markets
  World Event Trading: How To Analyze and Profit From Today's Headlines
  
• Kevin Sites – Conflict Journalist of “The Hot Zone”
  “A World in Conflict” documentary with commentary
  
• Larry Johnson –Assistant-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs from 2006-08 (Deputy Legal Counsel of the UN)
  “Does the ‘Search for Justice’ interfere with the ‘Search for Peace’: How does the current situation look in the Sudan?”
  
• Dr. Kamlesh Lulla – Chief of the Earth Science Branch of the Space and Life Sciences Directorate at the NASA Johnson Space Center
  “Space Technology and its Implications for Conflict Monitoring, Management and Resolution”
  
• Pastor Heidi McGinness – Advocate with Christian Solidarity International
  “How to become advocates against Genocide with specific reference to the Sudan"
  
• Katherine Hoyt –  Director of "The Nicaragua Network"
  
• Freddie Chicangana – Indigenous Colombian Poet
  
• Dr. Roman Kosodiy – Associate Professor, Finance Department, Sumy National Agrarian University, Sumy, UKRAINE
  “The Impact of Financial Globalization on National Financial Systems & Economies”
  
• Dr. Muttukrishna Sarvananthan - Principal Researcher, Point Pedro Institute of Development, Point Pedro Institute of Development, Point Pedro, SRI LANKA
  “Understanding the ‘Liberation’ Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and its Leader: A Firsthand View”
  
• Dr. Altaf Khan – Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Peshawar, Peshawar, Pakistan
  “Radio for Change in a Conflict Situation: Media in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan Bordering Afghanistan”
  
• Dr. Shamsidden Karimov – Director, Tajikistan Development Foundation, Dushanbe, Tajikistan
  “Post-Soviet Tajikistan and Democracy: Strengthening Civil Society as a Tool of Conflict Prevention”
  
• Dr. Shimin Liu – Associate Professor, School of Business, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China
  “Exploration and Exploitation: A Comparative Study of Learning Orientations and Innovative Capability in Chinese and U.S. Companies”
  
• Dr. Natalia Ilyashenko – Head of the Informational and Analytical Office in the International Relations Department at Novgorod State University

Ambassadors will attend to represent the embassies of their countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Sudan, in addition to the Counselor at the Embassy of Germany and representation from the embassy of the Czech Republic.

For more information and a schedule for the conference, contact Ann Marie Park at parkam@unk.edu.

Women’s & Gender Studies Celebrates 20 Years

UNK’s Women’s & Gender Studies Program was created in 1989 under the leadership of Dr. Kate Benzel and other faculty members who wanted to add scholarship by, for and about women to the UNK curriculum. Since then, this interdisciplinary minor degree program has expanded to include new scholarship in gender studies and transnational feminism. Students add the minor in Women’s & Gender Studies to supplement their major degree programs and prepare for work in a world shaped not only by men, but women too.

The following is a list of events planned to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Women’s & Gender Studies:

• Feb 12 (Thurs.): Dr. Stephen Behrendt, George Holmes Distinguished University Professor of English, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.  “Losing Oneself in One's Words: Romantic-Era Women Poets and the Anxiety of Impermanence." Copeland Hall 142 at 4pm.
  
• Feb 16 (Mon.): Michael Forbes, UNK. “Recital of Works by Women Composers for Tuba and Piano.” Fine Arts Recital Hall at 7:30pm.
  
• Feb. 23 (Mon.): Manya Friedman, Holocaust Survivor and Volunteer at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.  Miriam Drake Theater at 7pm.
  
• March 9 (Mon.): Jan Harriott, music recital, "Celebrating Women Composers: A Recital of Clarinet Works.”  Fine Arts Recital Hall at 7:30 pm.
  
• March 26 (Thurs.): Dr. Amy Bix, Assoc. Professor of History, Iowa State University. “Women in American Engineering: Educational Challenges & Opportunities, 1875-2008.”  Copeland Hall 132 at 3:30pm.
  
• April 7 (Tues.): Gary Phillips, Homeland Security in Thailand, “To Catch a Predator: The International Exploitation of Children.” Ponderosa Room-NSU at 7pm.

Co-sponsors:  UNK Faculty Senate Artists & Lecturers Grants, Explorations Lecture Series, English Department, Sociology Department, Social Work Department, Music & Performing Arts Department, Physics Department, History Department, Women’s & Gender Studies Program.

 For more information, contact Dr. Linda Van Ingen (WGS Director) at Copeland Hall 103-C, vaningenL1@unk.edu or (308) 865-8772.

Library - In Brief Online

• New JSTOR Collections
  The library has purchased two new JSTOR collections:  Arts & Sciences V and Arts & Sciences VI. With this acquisition the library owns all eight of JSTOR’s interdisciplinary collections with over 880 titles.  Once the two new collections are finished, our JSTOR collections will include between 1,100 and 1,200 titles. JSTOR is one of the library’s most heavily used resources.  In 2007 there were 138,665 pages viewed from 61,988 articles.  Last year 141,210 pages from 63,622 articles were viewed. JSTOR is linked on the “General Indexes to all Subjects,” “Humanities Indexes,” “Natural Sciences and Technology,” and “Social Sciences Indexes” menus under  “Articles and Research Information” on  the library home page.
  
  JSTOR is a top-quality archive of leading academic journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.   The cover-to-cover content always begins with volume 1, issue 1.  Although JSTOR, being an archive, does not contain the most recently published issues (past 2 to 5 years), the full-text of current issues for many titles is available in other databases such as Project Muse and Academic Search Premier.  To obtain information about individual titles, use the “e-Journals” link on the “Articles and Research Information” menu.
  
  
• Finding UNK Master’s Theses at the Library
  Two print versions of UNK theses are available through the library. One copy is kept in our circulating collection and the other is in the University Archives. Did you know that recent theses are also available digitally and in full-text through the library’s catalog?  The library has an agreement with ProQuest to make them available online. To find all of the theses held in the library, do a title search in the catalog for Theses:  University of Nebraska at Kearney (this is the title for the series). If the record has a Digital Media icon associated with it, the content is available digitally. Click on the Digital Media icon to get to a summary page which includes indexing information related to the thesis, including an abstract. To see the full-text, click on the Full Text – PDF icon on the far right of the summary page.
  
  
• New Location for the Library’s Special Collection 
  The Calvin T. Ryan Library’s Special Collection is a collection of about 2,400 cataloged items, primarily books, about the history of Nebraska, the Plains, and the West. Many of the items are rare and some of them are irreplaceable.  Unfortunately, due to a number of recent thefts, it has become necessary to provide protection for this collection by removing it from the public alcove on the library’s second floor and placing it inside the library’s Alice Paine Room.  The Paine Room is a secure storage facility with no public hours, and the move means that the Special Collection is no longer a “browsing” collection open to the public.
  
  These items can still be used, of course.  Materials in this collection are identified in the library’s catalog by the words “Special Collection” in the item’s location field.  Someone using the catalog can also limit the results of a subject search to items located in the Special Collection.  
  Once you have identified a Special Collection item that you wish to view, note the item’s call number and take it to the person at the reference desk. That library staff member will retrieve the item for you from the Alice Paine Room and see that it is checked out to you for two hours to use within the library.  Use of these items is limited to the library because of their rarity and, often, their delicate physical condition.
  
  
• Income Tax Forms
  Federal and Nebraska income tax forms and instructions are available on display racks on the second floor of the library near the atrium.  Federal forms include the 1040EZ, 1040A, 1040, various schedules, and numbered forms.  Copies of Publication 17, “Your Federal Income Tax for Individuals” are also available. Nebraska tax booklets for individuals are part of the display. Forms and instructions are online:  This link has the option of going to the IRS site or a site which has forms from every state.

Deadlines Approach for Various Opportunities 

Recognition

Calendar of Events within the Academic Affairs and Student Life Division

A Publication of the
Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Student Life
University of Nebraska at Kearney
905 West 25th Street
Kearney, NE 68849
Phone: (308)865-8209

For questions or submissions,
contact the Coordinator of Academic Publications at 8935 or academicpublications@unk.edu.