Humanities News, Features, and Other Updates

The Michigan Tech Multiliteracies Center is a free interdisciplinary resource for Tech students, faculty and staff working on diverse types of writing and presentations typically encountered in academic and professional life. We commonly assist with resumes, reports, essays, multimedia projects, speeches, document formatting and citations.

The MTMC is available for scheduled classroom workshops, and we are dedicated to working with instructors of all diciplines. Michigan Tech institutional research has found that students who sign up for MTMC appointments are more likely to receive higher grades and return the following year.

We hope all instructors encourage their students to visit the MTMC for writing and presentation assignments. In order to help instructors offer extra credit for MTMC attendance, we provide “receipt of appointment” slips to students on request.

This semester, the MTMC is starting a new email tutoring service. Students will be able to email their papers to the MTMC and receive written feedback. Because this service is new, it will have limited availability (six appointments per week).

For videos and written instructions about how to make an appointment with the MTMC, visit our website.

The MTMC offers students study teams, one-on-one sessions, graduate writing groups, standing weekly appointments and online appointments. We work with students on every stage of the writing and presenting process, from brainstorming to polishing.

Questions and requests can be directed to Bill De Herder, the MTMC Assistant Director. The MTMC is located in the Walker Arts and Humanities Center, Room 107.

(This article originally appeared in Tech Today.)

Based on her dissertation research and her teaching, Valorie Troesch has been selected as a National Academy of Engineering Exemplar in Engineering Ethics Education.

What is a book? What is a viewer’s physical relationship to a text? What is the role of literature in our lives?

Today and tomorrow, join students from Lisa Johnson’s (VPA) 2D design class and Laura Kasson Fiss’s (HU) Literary Survey A in contemplating these and related questions. View their artwork and read their wall texts, posted at nine locations around campus. Grab a map outside the Humanities or Visual and Performing Arts department offices, or simply be on the lookout for books and booklike projects as you go through your daily routine.

(This article originally appeared in Tech Today.)

The Humanities Digital Media Zone will be hosting live music from some of our talented student community Friday, Dec. 11 in Walker 120C. The following students will be featured:

• Sam Balk, playing songs from his new album, from noon to 12:30 p.m.
• Emma Hitch, Matt Langlais and Zak L’Italian, from 12:30 to 1 p.m.
• Levi Schubert, from 1 to 1:30 p.m.

Come support wonderful local music and enjoy some festive holiday cookies. Bring your lunch and a friend!

(This article originally appeared in Tech Today.)

Sarah Bell joins the Department of Humanities as an assistant professor. Before coming to Michigan Tech, Bell was at the University of Utah. Bell earned a PhD in Communication (rhetoric and writing studies) from the University of Utah and a Master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of Washington.

Her work has been published in Journal of Business and Technical Communication and Computational Culture. She also belongs to the Association for the Rhetoric of Science and Technology.

(This article originally appeared in Tech Today.)

Lesley (Alexandra) Morrison joins the Department of Humanities as an assistant professor. Before this appointment, Morrison was a visiting assistant professor of philosophy in the humanities department at Michigan Tech. Morrison earned a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Guelph and a Master’s in Philosophy from the University of Toronto.

Her areas of specialization are continental philosophy, feminist philosophy and philosophy and art. She also knows the languages Czech and French, and she has a reading knowledge of German and Ancient Greek.

(This article originally appeared in Tech Today.)

Andrea Scarpino, the U.P. Poet Laureate, will be on campus tomorrow for a poetry reading. The reading will be at 5 p.m. in Walker 134.

Scarpino is the author of three books; “What the Willow Said as it Fell,” “The Grove Behind” and “Once, Then” along with numerous publications in several literary journals, including PANK.

Scarpino will be on campus most of the day and has some time to meet with faculty or students. If you are interested in scheduling a time with Scarpino, contact Adam Feltz (CLS) or Stephanie Carpenter  (HU).

Refreshments will be provided as part of the English Department Coffee House series.

(This article first appeared in Tech Today.)

L Syd M Johnson (HU) has published “Moving Beyond End of Life: The Ethics of Disorders of Consciousness in an Age of Discovery and Uncertainty,” in Brain Function and Responsiveness in Disorders of Consciousness (Editors: Martin M. Monti, Walter G. Sannita), Springer.

(This article originally appeared in Tech Today.)

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has released its annual research spending report, and Michigan Tech has moved up in its rankings. Of 634 institutions that received research funding in 2014, Tech received $68.5 million, ranking 163rd overall nationwide. The University ranked 117th among public institutions. Mechanical engineering research at Tech received $13.1 million in research funding, ranking 19th in the nation. Atmospheric science—a new interdisciplinary category—received $3.1 million and ranked 34th.

14 Disciplines in Top 100

Fourteen disciplines at Michigan Tech ranked in the top 100 for research spending.  They are:

• atmospheric science (34^th)
• business and management (76^th)
• biomedical engineering (94^th)
• chemical engineering (90^th)
• civil engineering (89^th)
• electrical engineering (62^nd)
• environmental science (52^nd)
• humanities (94^th)
• mechanical engineering (19^th)
• metallurgical and materials engineering (58^th)
• mathematical sciences (88^th)
• oceanography (56^th)
• overall engineering (84^th)
• visual and performing arts (85^th).

“The research funding environment is increasingly competitive, and our improvement in overall ranking, as well as the increases in last year’s funding that will impact future rankings, all indicate the exceptional efforts of our faculty, staff, and students,” said David Reed, vice president for research.

NSF ranks research activities by discipline, not by organizational structure, Reed pointed out, so the spending in some of Tech’s institutes and centers, such as the Michigan Tech Research Institute, the Keweenaw Research Center and the Great Lakes Research Center, are included with the appropriate academic departments rather than reported separately.

(This article originally appeared in Tech Today.)

The final KIP Faculty and Graduate Student seminar is today, Friday Dec. 4, at 3pm in the ATDC Conference Room. Dr. Syd Johnson from the Department of Humanities will be presenting on the ethical and legal implications surrounding concussions and CTE (chronic traumatic en​cephalopathy). This is timely as there is a new movie out this month called “Concussion” (features Will Smith) which highlights Dr. Bennet Omalu’s discovery of CTE in NFL athletes and how his scientific findings were challenged by the NFL. Below are a few background links that might be of interest. This should be a great talk to wrap up the fall seminar series!

Head trauma: Key questions on CTE lack answers

HOUGHTON – Decades after the first research on concussions and chronic head trauma, there’s a widespread effort to mitigate their damage. But many of the most pressing questions still don’t have answers.

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Garrett Neese (subscription required).