College of Arts, Sciences, and Education

Dear CASE students, faculty, and staff,

In the sagacious words of Joseph Aoun, President of Northeastern University, “learning is now an ongoing voyage with many ports of call but never a terminus.” After previous industrial revolutions set in motion by water/steam power, electric power, and electronics/information technology, we are now amid what has been labeled the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” This revolution is represented by the fusion of biological, digital, and physical worlds. The speed and scope of this revolution is unparalleled. AI, big data, cryptocurrency, drones, large language models, nanotechnology, neuroscience, quantum computing, robots, smartphones, and 3D printing are reshaping our cultural, economic, human, political, social, and human environments.

Academic institutions are being asked to confront such questions as “Are we nimble enough to respond properly?” “Have we created the necessary new `ports of call’?” “Can we provide the needed talent pool that the Fourth Industrial Revolution requires? We in the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education need to wrestle ever more seriously with the new intellectual landscape confronting us. This might require revisiting the efficacy of some of our disciplinary strait jackets, jargons, and theories. After all, as the late Hungarian philosopher of mathematics and science Imre Lakatos used to say, “blind commitment to a theory is not an intellectual virtue, it is an intellectual crime.”

I invite all of you to think about creative answers to the aforementioned questions and what possible curricular changes we may need to initiate in CASE in the coming months and years.

Sincerely,

Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Ph.D.
Vice Provost and Dean
College of Arts, Sciences, and Education

Having completed branching requirements, S&T Army ROTC cadets are preparing to move out for their first assignments after they graduate in May. These Army ROTC cadets ranked very well nationally. Of the 11 cadets commissioning this year, all 11 received the Army component they wanted (Active Duty, US Army Reserve, or Army National Guard). Of the seven cadets who competed for active duty, all received it. All seven received either their top 1st or 2nd branch choice. S&T’s Army ROTC cadets average ranking placed their cohort in the top 21% overall in the country, among the other 274 Senior ROTC programs nationwide. Overall, this cohort has excelled and is ready to complete their Army ROTC requirements before beginning their first assignments as commissioned Army Officers.

Saylor, Dakota – US Army Reserve – Quartermaster – 1st Choice

Edwards, Andrew – US Army Reserve – Engineer – 1st Choice - Distinguished Military Graduate (Top 20% in the Nation)

Alcante, Eric – Active Duty US Army – Medical Service Corps – 1st Choice

Chambers, Emily– Active Duty US Army – Military Intelligence, detailed to Field Artillery – 2nd Choice

Crosman, Dale - Active Duty US Army – Infantry – 1st Choice – Distinguished Military Graduate (Top 20% in the Nation)

Kleinschmidt, Eric - Active Duty US Army – Field Artillery – 1st Choice

Lucio, Aaron - Active Duty US Army – Military Intelligence – 1st Choice

Walkenhorst, John - Active Duty US Army – Military Intelligence, detailed to Field Artillery – 2nd Choice

Watkins, Joseph - Active Duty US Army – Infantry – 1st Choice

Callentine, Michael – Army National Guard – Infantry- 1st Choice

Amy Belfi (assistant professor of psychological science) was named a Fellow of the Psychonomic Society, an international community of cognitive psychologists. Amy also received a $26,292 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a project titled “Music as an autobiographical memory cue across the lifespan.” This is a diversity supplement to Amy’s NIH grant and will support an underrepresented undergraduate student. Amy was also quoted in Washington Post (2/26/23) in an article titled “Why music causes memories to flood back.”

Mehrzad Boroujerdi (CASE Dean) published a book chapter in Ellen Lust, ed., The Middle East, 16th edition (Sage/Congressional Quarterly, 2023). He was also quoted in an article about academic crackdown in Times Higher Education (2/13/2023).

Shannon Fogg (professor of history and associate dean for academic affairs at CASE) published a book chapter, “’Beaucoup de mères ne veulent pas se séparer de leurs enfants:’ Les limites de l’aide apportée aux enfants par l’American Friends Service Committee dans la France de Vichy,” in Enfants «sans famille» dans les guerres du 20ème siècle. She also published an essay, “’The birth of international Jewish humanitarianism:’ Recent works on American Jews, Politics, and Transnational Aid in the Twentieth Century” in the European Journal of Jewish Studies.

Karen Head (professor of English and Director of Arts & Innovation) published a poem entitled “Instructions for My Burial Clothes” in the newly released book Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology.

Matt Insall (associate professor of mathematics and statistics) published a paper (jointly with Włodzimierz J. Charatonik and Daria Michalik), titled “Metrizable subspaces of representation spaces" in Topology and its Applications (January 2023).

Alanna Krolikowski (assistant professor of political science) published a new article in the Japanese Journal of Political Science. She also gave two international talks recently. The first was about “The Policy and Governance Context of Lunar Science” at a meeting in London of the Royal Society, the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence, on February 14. The second was on “China’s Lunar Exploration and the Prospects for Lunar Governance” at the University of Oxford’s China Centre, co-presented with Dr. Martin Elvis (an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), on February 15.

Dan Reardon’s (associate professor of English and technical communication and interim vice provost for undergraduate education) adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which he co-wrote with Ozark Actors Theatre (OAT) board president Daniel Goff, received its inaugural performance at OAT in Rolla on December 8, 2022. Dan performed the role of Ebenezer Scrooge. The show ran December 8-18. OAT hopes to make A Christmas Carol an annual Rolla tradition. Dan’s theatrical adaptation of Dickens’ classic holiday novella was copyrighted by the Library of Congress in July 2022.

Prakash Reddy (professor of chemistry) was elected Fellow of The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). AAAS selects members whose “efforts on behalf of the advancement of science, or its applications, are scientifically or socially distinguished.”

Thomas Schuman (professor of chemistry) received a patent (number 11,549,048) entitled “Re-Assembling Polymer Particle Package for Conformance Control and Fluid Loss Control” on January 10, 2023, from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Michelle Schwartze (assistant teaching professor, Teacher Education and Certification) and Mrs. Jessika Zink (Rolla Middle School) led a Project Lead the Way conference for Launch teachers in the surrounding area at Missouri S&T on February 9th. Fourteen teachers from five different elementary schools in the South-Central area of Missouri attended. 

Robin Verble (associate professor of biological sciences) co-authored an article titled “Gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and socioeconomic factors influence how wildland firefighters communicate their work experiences,” in Frontiers in Communication (February 2023). Three of her co-authors were Miranda Ragland (an S&T undergrad at the time of publication who is now an S&T grad student), Jennifer Harrell (an S&T grad student), and Molly Ripper (a current S&T undergrad).

Dave Westenberg (professor of biological sciences) co-taught two Howard Hughes Medical Institute Biointeractive teacher workshops on “Teaching Vaccinations and Adaptive Immunity with HHMI BioInteractive.” The workshops were held virtually on January 9 and February 7.

Eight CASE faculty members are spotlighted on the revised undergraduate-education resource website for promoting wellbeing in the classroom. This is a great resource for, and achievement of, our CASE faculty.

Missouri S&T’s office of the vice chancellor for research and innovation provided close to $100,000 in seed funding for seven CASE projects in the arts, humanities, social and behavioral sciences research. The following projects were funded by this grant program which aims to initiate launch of innovative creative work and research projects: 

Tetiana Uralskaya is a new office support assistant IV in the Chemistry department. She was born and grew up in sunny and friendly Ukraine where she earned a Master of Science in Biology. She moved to the United States in February 2022 to escape the war. Tetiana found her second motherland in Rolla, Missouri, with its friendly, welcoming, and supportive people and its amazing nature. She is the happy mother of two wonderful kids (one is a first grader and another one is a freshman at S&T), three cats and a dog. Her family stopped her from turning their house into a jungle, so she resigned to having just about 50 plants in the house. 

Amber Stienbarger recently joined the Kummer Center for STEM Education as Director of Summer Camp Operations.

Amber has worked at Missouri S&T for more than a decade and has gained experience in a variety of offices, including the Student Financial Assistance Office, the Office of Development, and managing Hasselmann Alumni House for the Miner Alumni Association.

In each of these roles, she has built relationships with students, staff, faculty, alumni, and donors, while also managing events and ensuring individuals have positive interactions with the university. In her new role, she oversees the university’s robust Summer Camp program, which is a vital pipeline initiative for the university. Serving students from elementary school to high school, S&T Summer Camps nurture student learners and often provide a spark that changes the trajectory of academic and professional careers.

Stienbarger is part of a team that is working to expand these camps, both in terms of number of offerings and in efforts to introduce more campers to the idea of attending S&T. S&T camps are all about discovering and exploring what it takes to have a future career in the business, science, communication, math, technology, and engineering fields. Campers have the opportunity to learn about explosives, tour a nuclear reactor, explore diverse engineering careers, create art, serve as environmentalists, travel to the edge of space and prepare to become future STEM leaders.

A daughter of small business owners, Amber is a second-generation Rolla native. In addition to her role at S&T, she serves as a board of director for the Rolla Chamber of Commerce and is the vice chair of the Rolla Cancer Gala Board, a not for profit that raises awareness and provides financial support to local residents receiving cancer treatment. Amber was named one of the Rolla Area Chamber of Commerce’s “5 Under 45” during the chamber’s annual awards banquet held Saturday, January 28, in the Havener Center. She is married to Steve and has two children, Kaylie and Kylie.

Dr. Rachel Schneider is an Associate Teaching Professor in English and Technical Communication. Growing up in Columbia, Missouri, Rachel became fascinated by the works of Jane Austen and other eighteenth-century British authors as a high school student. She went to the University of Virginia to study English, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts with Distinction in English Language and Literature. After this, she earned her MA and 

Ph.D. in English from The University of Texas at Austin. She received research fellowships from the William Andrews Clark Library at UCLA, the Houghton Library at Harvard, and the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.

While at UT-Austin, Rachel started teaching classes in rhetoric, which made her appreciate how genre shapes how individuals communicate. At S&T, this appreciation informs the classes she teaches in classes in exposition and argumentation, research and writing, British literature, comics and graphic novels, and fantasy literature. She is passionate about working with students to improve their writing skills. She teaches her students that writing helps you develop not only your professional career, but also your ability to communicate and deliberate as a citizen. Rachel enjoys serving her community here at S&T and in Rolla. She is currently the chair of CASE’s Faculty Leadership Council and serves on Faculty Senate’s Committee for Effective Teaching. She is also the faculty advisor for several student organizations, including College Democrats, the Asian-American Association, and Club Archery. Between April 2019 and April 2021, Rachel was also a Ward 1 representative on Rolla City Council.

There is a lot of "good news" involving S&T’s Child Development Center (CDC):

College of Arts, Sciences, and Education

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Missouri S&T Rolla, MO 65409
573-341-4111
1-800-522-0938
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