FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 28, 2009

Contact: K.E. Schwab  

724.738.2199

 karl.schwab@sru.edu

SRU faculty earn international professional development grants

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Ten Slippery Rock University faculty will be spotlighting their research and performance talents around the world after being awarded President’s International Professional Development Grants program.

           The program is offered through SRU’s Office of International Services which annually accepts applications from faculty seeking to travel abroad to present, attend or perform at academic conferences and workshops related to their field of academic study. Each of the projects will receive a $1,000 grant.

           “I am pleased that we will see the Slippery Rock University name – and expertise of our faculty – highlighted from Mexico to the Netherlands through this annual program. The research work, exposure for faculty and the University, along with the development opportunities these travel programs provide produce rich rewards for our students,” said SRU President Robert Smith.

           This year’s recipients and their planned travel are:

           Jodi Katsafanas, assistant professor of special education, who will continue her study on the philosophy, practice and policy of inclusive practices with faculty from the University of Leiden for her work titled “The Face of Inclusion: A comparison study of the United States and the Netherlands” in Leiden, Netherlands.

           Francis Bires, director of the McKeever Environmental Learning Center at Sandy Lake, who will present on new and revised developments of the McKeever Earthkeepers program at the British Earth Education Conference, at the Shortenills Environmental Education Centre in Aylesbury, United Kingdom.

           Jennifer Keller, assistant professor, of dance, who will perform and present a workshop titled “Technology Trio: Dancer, Camera and Projection” at the “Peformatica: Foro Internacional de Danza Contemporanea y Artes de Movimiento” conference, in Puebla, Mexico.

           Robert Arnhold, professor, exercise and rehabilitative science, who will present two papers on SRU’s National Technical Assistance Grant Award for the “I Can Do It, You Can Do It” program and SRU’s national involvement in the Special Olympics North American University Curriculum Project, in Gavle, Sweden.

           Benjamas Jirasakuldech, associate professor in SRU’s School of Business, who will present a paper titled “Online Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending: Decisions, Rates, and Risks” at the International Conference on Economics, Financial and Industrial Systems, in Paris.

           Geraldine Covert Jenny, assistant professor of elementary/early childhood, who will present “Taking Children’s Literature Out of This World” at the Fourth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, in Athens, Greece.

           Sunita Peacock, associate professor of English, who will present a paper titled “The ‘Education’ of the Indian Woman Against the Backdrop of the Education of the European Woman in Nineteenth Century” at the Oxford Round Table at Oxford University, England, and 

           Warren Davidson, music instructor, Colleen Gray, associate professor of music, and Nanette Kaplan Solomon, professor of music, who will perform “Musical Pearls of the Adriatic: Nationalistic Works by Croatian Composers,” at the 2009 College Music Society International Conference, in Zagreb, Split, and Dubrovnik, Croatia. The three will share the grant.

Slippery Rock University is Pennsylvania’s premier public residential university. Slippery Rock University provides students with a comprehensive learning experience that intentionally combines academic instruction with enhanced educational and learning opportunities that make a positive difference in their lives.