MANKATO — Brandon Cooke, a philosophy professor, wanted to take a deeper look at exploitative art.
Chris Corley, a history professor at Minnesota State University, wanted research and writing time to explore “The Daily Life of Children and Youth in History,” a nonfiction manuscript. James Dimock, speech communications professor, thought creating a student-run summer workshop for regional forensics would be beneficial.
MSU decided all three of those ideas, and seven more cooked up by other MSU faculty, were pretty good. Each were awarded Teaching Scholar Fellowships for summer research, which allow faculty to develop new ways to improve teaching and learning.
Each faculty member will receive a $6,000 stipend and $300 for expenses. Following the eight-week project, the faculty will discuss their results at workshops on campus this fall.
But for now, it’s work time. For history professor Lori Lahlum, that will mean dusting off her dissertation — “The ‘Vanishing’ Milkmaid? Norwegian Women, American Agriculture and Norwegian- American Agricultural Gender Roles on the Northern Prairies and Plains, 1850-1920” — completed in 2003 and turning it into a manuscript.
“What I’m arguing is that, on the northern prairies and plains, Norwegian immigrant women possessed an agricultural aesthetic ... and they didn’t lose their agricultural gender roles as quickly as they did further to the East,” Lahlum said.
Women in Norway, and throughout Europe, for that matter, had many agricultural responsibilities in their native countries, including milking cows. Scholars first thought women lost those responsibilities and moved into the home when they immigrated to the United States. However, Lahlum found that not to be the case when looking at firsthand sources, such as letters written by immigrant women.
Lahlum has a contract with a press to have the book published. She plans to work on it this summer and through to the next year. Her deadline is September 2008.
While Lahlum is updating her dissertation, international relations professor Abdalla M. Battah will be pursuing his project, “Teaching & Learning about the Middle East in Minnesota Public Secondary Schools.” Battah said his project aims at gauging the state of affairs regarding teaching and learning about the Middle East in Minnesota public schools, grades 8 through 12.
He will be doing a survey and analyzing numerous textbooks and other educational materials. Battah also plans to study Minnesota law in regard to academic standards for social studies and graduation requirements, among other things.
Among the other fellows are Gretchen Haas, English professor, who will pursue “Project Management Education and Course Development.” Marshel Rossow, mass communications professor, will research pre-hiring examinations and hiring practices and expectations in the print-media industry.
Speech communications professor Warren Sandmann’s research project is called “Instructional Communication: Developing the Textbook and Creating the Class.” Qun Zhang, professor of electrical and computer engineering and technology, will research “Development of Graphic User Interface-Based Computer Modeling and Design Platform to Promote Interactive Learning in Fiber Optic Communications.”
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