Wofford founded 1854

Dr. Jhon C. Akers

Associate Professor/Director of Job Location & Development
Career Services
Foreign Languages

Lectures, performs

During August 2011, Dr. Jhon C. Akers is the artist-in-residence at the Reserve at Lake Keowee, and in September he will be at Davidson College to play for its "Musical Interludes" series. In February 2011, he delivered the Distinguished Lecturer presentation at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, speaking and performing on the classical guitar.  On Memorial Day 2011, he performed at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site in Flat Rock, N.C., sharing his work on Sandburg's love of the Spanish classical guitar. Akers serves on the board for the selection of the S.C. Spanish Teacher of the Year, offered by Sigma Delta Pi, the Natiojnal Spanish Honor Society.

Dr. A.K. Anderson

Assistant Professor
Religion

Article published

An article by Dr. A.K. Anderson, titled  "The Meeting of the Modern and the Traditional in Kiarostami's The Wind Will Carry Us" was published in the new book "Faith and Spirituality in Masters of World Cinema" Volume 2.Anderson's review of N. Verbin's book "Divinely Abused: A Philosophical Perspective on Job and his Kin" is in Volume 70, Issue 2 of the International Journal for Philosophy of Religion.Anderson is teaching a five week course through Nov 6, 2011 on "The Religious Poetry of T. S. Eliot" at Church of the Advent in Spartanburg.   

Dr. Laura H. Barbas Rhoden

Associate Professor
Foreign Languages

Co-leads workshop; presents papers

Dr. Laura Barbas Rhoden co-led a faculty workshop on "Integrating Scholarship, Service and Teaching" at Wofford with Dr. Kara Bopp (psychology), Dr. Ellen Goldey (biology) and Jessalyn Story (director of Bonner Scholars and service learning) in May 2010. Barbas Rhoden also published a book review of “Edible Medicines: An Ethnopharmacology of Food” in Ethnobiology Letters 1 (2010):14-15. 

Dr. Alan D. Chalmers

Professor
English

Advisory editor of journal; presents paper

Dr. Alan D. Chalmers was the advisory editor for the journal Eighteenth-Century Studies (ECS) in May 2010.  He presented a paper, "The Silence of Apes? Species of Narrative in Nadine Gordimer's 'Something Out There,'" at the 41st annual conference of the College English Association in San Antonio, Texas, in March 2010.  

Dr. Elizabeth B. Cox

John Cobb Professor in the Humanities
English

To be inducted into Fellowship of Southern Writers

In April 2011, the Fellowship of Southern Writers will induct Dr. Elizabeth B. (Betsy) Cox, John Cobb Professor in the Humanities, into the fellowship. She will be inducted along with Harper Lee, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird."  Cox also will be awarded the Robert Penn Warren Award for her body of work.  She will receive $1,000 prize.  Founded in 1987 by a group of writers who met in Chattanooga, the Fellowship of Southern Writers is a nonprofit organization which has for its objective the encouragement of literature in the South. Members include Shelby Foote, Flannery O’Connor, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, James Dickey, Fred Chappell, Cleanth Brooks, C. Vann Woodward, Ernest Gaines, Reynolds Price, Walker Percy, Ralph Ellison, Wendell Berry, and other Southern literati. 

Dr. Caroline A. Cunningham

Professor
Foreign Languages
French and Spanish

Receives SCICU Excellence in Teaching Award

Dr. Caroline A. Cunningham, professor of French and Spanish at Wofford received the Excellence in Teaching award in April 2010 from South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities Inc. Cunningham is in her 26th year at Wofford College. While completing her B.A. in French and Spanish from the University of Georgia, she studied abroad in Mexico and in Dijon, France. She earned her M.A. in French and Ph.D. in romance philology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Christine S. Dinkins

Associate Professor
Philosophy

Receives '10 Covington Award for Excellence in Teaching

Dr. Christine S. Dinkins, associate professor of philosophy, received the Philip Covington Award for Excellence in the Teaching of the Humanities and Social Sciences at Commencement in May 2010. Dinkins’ areas of specialization are ancient philosophy, 20th century German philosophy and the philosophy of health care.

Dr. Cynthia T. Fowler

Assistant Professor
Sociology

Co-founder, co-editor of online journal

Dr. Cynthia T. Fowler is co-founder and co-editor of Ethnobiology Letters (http://www.ethnobiology.org/ethnobiology-letters) along with Steve Wolverton (University of North Texas) and David Cozzo (NCSU Cooperative Extension). Ethnobiology Letters is a new online, open-access, peer-reviewed journal for short papers sponsored by the Society of Ethnobiology. 

Dr. Ellen S. Goldey

Professor
Biology

Named Kenan Professor, Chair of Biology Department

Dr. Ellen S. Goldey was awarded the William R. Kenan Jr. Professorship and named to Chair the Biology Department in 2010. She is principal investigator on the project “Biological Inquiry: A Model Course and Assessment Program” funded by the National Science Foundation (DUE #0836851), in which she, her 10 colleagues, and four undergraduate students worked together to create and implement a new inquiry-based, introductory biology course (Bio 150), which is now in its second year and taken by more than half of Wofford’s incoming students. Goldey is a member of the cadre of Wabash Teagle Assessment Scholars (http://www.liberalarts.wabash.edu/assessment-scholars/) that assist campuses in their efforts to use evidence to strengthen student learning. Goldey is a SENCER Leadership Fellow (http://www.sencer.net/about/CurrentFellows.cfm) and has been working with SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities; www.sencer.net) since 2001. At the 2010 SENCER Summer Institute, Goldey led a course design workshop for 150 attendees, and together with her husband, Dr. Byron R. McCane, Albert C. Outler Professor and Chair of Religion, led a plenary session “Students as partners in Change” and a workshop on approaching “Really Big Questions” through interdisciplinary perspectives. She is working on a proposal to the Teage Foundation to foster collaboration between Wofford College and Elon University to improve access to, and use of, assessment evidence to improve student learning.

Lillian E. Gonzalez

Chair and Associate Professor
Accounting & Finance

Receives '11 Covington Award for Excellence in Teaching of Humanities & Social Sciences

Lillian E. Gonzalez received the Philip Covington Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Humanities and Social Sciences during Commencement Exercises on May 22, 2011.  Gonzalez is a 1991 graduate of Wofford College, receiving her bachelor of arts degrees in accounting and finance with honors.  She was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa while at Wofford.  She earned a master’s degree from Clemson University and continued additional study at Georgetown University and the University of Georgia.  The award is named in honor of Philip Stanhope Sheffield Covington, a beloved academic dean of Wofford College who served from 1953 to 1969.

John E. Lane

Associate Professor and Director of the Goodall Environmental Studies Center
English
Environmental Studies

Receives '11 Excllence in Teaching Award from SCICU

John E. Lane was the recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award presented in April 2011 by South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities Inc. A poet, essayist and author of numerous books, Lane, M.F.A., has been teaching students in English and creative writing since joining his alma mater in 1988. He continues to develop Wofford’s environmental studies major, a program entering its third year. As director of the Goodall Center, located on the Lawson’s Fork Creek in the historic Glendale textile mill office, he has seen the renovated and restored facility receive the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Platinum certification – the first academic building and only the third non-residential facility in the state to achieve the highest achievable level of LEED. Lane is the author of a dozen books of poetry and prose. His latest, “Abandoned Quarry: New and Selected Poems,” recently was released in April 2011.  

Dr. John C. Lefebvre

Chair and Professor
Psychology

Receives '10 Milliken Award for Excellence in Teaching

Dr. John C. Lefebvre, professor and chair of psychology, received the Roger Milliken Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Science at Commencement in May 2010. Lefebvre is an internationally recognized expert in chronic pain assessment and management. He has written extensively on the subject in journal articles, textbook chapters and presentations. He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology and master of arts degree from Duke University. He is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal. He is a member of the American Pain Society and International Association for the Study of Pain. The Roger Milliken Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Science, funded by a $1 million endowment, provides a $50,000 prize – an annual award of $5,000 for up to 10 years – for use in pursuing professional development.

Dr. Frank M. Machovec

Professor
Economics

Delivers paper, makes presentations

In August 2010, Dr. Frank M. Machovec presented a luncheon talk to the Columbia Economics Society on various writers' assessments of the future of capitalism. He delivered a paper in June 2010 at the annual conference of the Western Economics Association in Portland, Ore., which surveyed the distinctive contributions since the late 1980s of German-language philosophers and economists to value, law and social order. His book manuscript on the subject will be finalized in 2011. Also in June 2010, he addressed a joint meeting in Columbia, S.C., of the S.C. Young Bankers' Association and the Young Lawyers' Association on "The Economic Meltdown: Causes and Cures." Machovec's book manuscript, which explains this subject in laymen's language, will be completed in December 2010.

Dr. Daniel B. Mathewson

Assistant Professor
Religion

Article published in journal

Dr. Daniel B. Mathewson has delivered several conference papers and public presentations, including "Smackdown for Jesus: Christian Professional Wrestling and the Play of the Real" (Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, 2010), “The House that Tiger Wrecked: Race, Class, Gender and the State of the Masters” (co-authored with Trina Jones; Wofford College, 2010), and “Rasslin’ with Science and Religion” (co-authored with Byron McCane; Wofford College, 2009). Mathewson also also published articles in the e-magazine Religion Dispatches about a variety of topics: Christian professional wrestling; race, ritual and golf; science and religion; Stephen Colbert; and the media and Muslims.

Dr. Byron R. McCane

Albert C. Outler Professor
Religion

On Huqaq Excavation in Israel

In the summer of 2011, Dr. Byron R. McCane, along with five Wofford students, began the first season in the field for the Huqaq Excavation Project in Israel, a joint partnership of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Wofford. Six excavation seasons are projected over the next seven years. The site is near the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee.  McCane published an op-ed essay in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in August 2010 titled "Politics revealed in an old, old story."  (Go to http://www.ajc.com/opinion/politics-revealed-in-an-597301.html to read the full essay; copy and paste the link into your browser.) McCane also served as field supervisor for the 2010 excavations in the late Roman fort at 'ayn-Gharandal in the southern desert of Jordan.  Seven Wofford students traveled with him and worked as diggers on the excavation.

Dr. David W. Pittman

Assistant Professor
Psychology

Receives '11 Milliken Award for Excellence in Teaching of Science

Dr. David W. Pittman was awarded the Roger Milliken Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Science at Commencement Excercises on May 22, 2011. Pittman received his bachelor of science degree in psychology from Wofford in 1994. He received his master’s degree and Ph.D. from Florida State University. His research at Wofford centers on how taste neural signals are sent from the mouth to the brain and how the sense of taste then affects feeding behavior in both humans and rat animal models. He also has developed and supports a school-based intervention for elementary school lunch programs called Healthy Eating Decisions, aimed at reducing childhood obesity in Spartanburg County. He is chair of the College Animal Care and Use Committee, coordinator of the program in neuroscience, faculty adviser to the Psychology Kingdom and Kappa Sigma student organizations, and is a member of the Spartanburg County Childhood Obesity Task Force. The Roger Milliken Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Science, funded by a $1 million endowment, provides a $50,000 prize – an annual award of $5,000 for up to 10 years – for use in pursuing professional development.

Dr. Alliston K. Reid

Professor
Psychology

Awarded Reeves Family Professorship

Dr. Alliston K. Reid was awarded the Reeves Family Professorship in the fall of 2010.  In December 2010, Reid and professor emeritus Dr. John W. Pilley published their research involving the ability of Chaser, a border collie, to understand 1,022 words in the jounral Behavioural Processes. The Chaser story and the research was highlighted around the world, in TV, radio and print media, in 50 languages and on every continent. Reid serves as national president of the Society for the Quantitative Analysis of Behavior.

Dr. Peter L. Schmunk

Professor, Chair
Art History
Fine Arts

Walks medieval pilgrimage

Dr. Peter L. Schmunk traveled to Spain during the summer of 2010 and walked 120 miles of the medieval pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. Some of the photographs he took there will be included in an exhibition of his architectural photography at Mercer University this fall titled "The Poetics of Architecture." He will deliver a paper on "Music for Sale: Sheet Music Cover Designs by Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Bonnard" at the annual meeting of the Southeast College Art Conference in Richmond in October 2010.

John (Jack) L. Seitz

Professor Emeritus
Government

4th edition of textbook requested

Wiley-Blackwell Publishers have requested a 4th edition of Dr. John (Jack) Seitz's textbook, "Global Issues: An Introduction." He is currently working on the project.  In March 2010, the Chinese translation of the book was published.

Dr. Cynthia A. Suarez

Chair and Professor
Education

Presents workshop at local school district

In August 2010, Dr. Cynthia A. Suarez Mary Elston Heaner, senior-level teacher candidate, presented a workshop on formative assessments in global language instruction at the Spartanburg School District 2 Instructional Fair.

Dr. Philip G. Swicegood

Associate Professor
Accounting and Finance

Publishes two articles

Dr. Philip Swicegood recently had two new articles published, “The Search for a Dog-Free Portfolio: Why Unions Matter to Investors” with Carol Boyer and Stephen Ciccone, Journal of Business and Economic Research, Volume 8, No. 6, 2010; and “The Consistency Factor: A Closer Look at Ethics in Accounting Education” with Earl Godfrey, Journal of Ethics and Entrepreneurship, Volume 1, No. 1, 2010.  Swicegood spent the spring 2010 semester as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar at the University of Split in Split, Croatia. While there for the five-month appointment, he conducted joint research with his Croatian academic colleagues, teaching undergraduate and graduate finance classes, and assisting with business curriculum development.

Dr. Deno P. Trakas

Chair and Hoy Professor of Literature
English

Publishes book

Dr. Deno P. Trakas published his latest book, "Because Memory Isn't Eternal: A Story of Greeks in Upstate South Carolina," in the fall of 2010.

Dr. Ed Welchel

Associate Professor and Director of Outreach Programs
Education

Teaches the teachers

During June 2011, Dr. Ed Welchel taught 25 U.S. history teachers a methods course in innovative strategies for teaching the course.  The participants teach in Spartanburg, Union and Cherokee counties in S.C.  The course was held on Wofford's campus and was part of a United States History Grant awarded to District One of Spartanburg County by the federal government.  The participating teachers represented all grade levels in public schools.