Helen Thompson, Associate

Professor of Women & Gen-

der Studies, wrote a book

exploring the work of Edna

O’Brien. Jason Vest, Associ-

ate Professor of English,

wrote a book about violence

in cop dramas. A special treat

for the evening was that au-

thor Tina Pablo was able to

offer a sneak peak of her new

book, Enchanted Tails of

Guam.

The College anticipates con-

tinuing the tradition of the

book launch, and is expecting

publications to go to press

soon from Sociologist Kirk

Johnson and Japanese scholar

Yuka Iwata. Many other fac-

ulty have projects in the

works.

College faculty are publish-

ing. It is a national standard

that University Professors

must write articles in academ-

ic journals, have books pub-

lished, and have their creative

works of art shown in a peer-

reviewed venue. In honor of

those faculty who are success-

fully publishing, College

Dean James Sellmann initiat-

ed an annual book launch, so

that faculty can talk about

their work, and show their

colleagues what they have

done.

This year, there were five

published faculty who pre-

sented. David Atienza, As-

sistant Professor of Anthro-

pology, wrote a book about

identity. Randall Johnson,

Professor of Music, show-

cased about a dozen published

musical arrangements.

PK Harmon, Instructor of

English, had a series of poetry

published in a respected liter-

ary journal.

Zohra Andi Baso, a femi-

nist activist and Nobel

Peace Prize Nominee from

South Sulawesi, Indonesia,

spoke to a capacity crowd

in the lecture hall on

Thursday, October 7, 2010.

She spoke on the topic

women’s rights in Indone-

sia and engaged the audi-

ence in interesting conver-

sation afterward. There

were also displays of

Women’s Grassroots Ac-

tivism in Guam, Past Pre-

sent and Future, including

one from the Guam’s

Women’s Club. The event

was sponsored by the

CLASS Academic Affairs

Committee, the Women

and Gender Studies Pro-

gram and Hilton Guam.

2nd Annual Book Launch

I N S I D E

T H I S I S S U E :

Grant Awards 3

New Faculty 4

Local

Conferences

6

Upcoming

Calls

7

Fine Arts

Events

8

Baso Speech Opens Women’s Center

S P R I N G 2 0 1 1 N E W S L E T T E R C O L L E G E O F L I B E R A L A R T S A N D S O C I A L S C I E N C E S

P A G E 2

From the Dean’s Desk

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back to the Spring semester and a Happy New Year.

I mentioned in the Fall Newsletter that AY 2010-11 would present a number of challenges

before us. Those challenges are now upon us. The University of Guam will continue to

respond in positive ways to the financial shortfall within the Government of Guam. It is

likely that the financial situation will worsen before it begins to improve. If we work to-

gether to control spending, we will be able to continue to manage the situation. There are

funds available to buy instructional equipment, so no program need suffer.

You are in a unique and important position to educate your students about the importance

of implementing the three R’s (reduce, reuse, and recycle) on campus, at home and in the

workplace. The College is attempting to institute the three R’s of environmental ecology.

Troy McVey with the assistance of UOG Green Interns established recycling islands with-

in the College buildings. Please encourage and teach your students to separate their trash

into the appropriate bin. When your classes host parties, please do ensure that paper and

recycled products are used and that the trash from the party is properly sorted into the recy-

cling bins. Please do accept the challenge and begin to introduce sustainable energy, ecolo-

gy and environmental issues in your classes, especially encouraging the students to engage

in timely research topics. The University and the College cannot accomplish the mission

of the UOG Green initiative without your assistance.

The UOG Distance Education office is encouraging you to put your major online. The Dis-

tance Education office is especially seeking graduate degree and certificate programs to go

online. Keep in mind that once a program offers half of its courses online, then WASC

approval is required. Over the Intersession UOG’s Moodle platform was upgraded to en-

hance services. There is increased support available from the Distance Education Office, if

you need assistance to develop online assignments or courses. There will be more technol-

ogy training available to you that you may want to take advantage of in the near future. If

you are developing hybrid courses that will change the amount of in-class seat time for the

students, then you need to obtain the Dean’s approval to alter the course schedule by sub-

mitting a Variance Form with a detailed syllabus that specifies which class periods are

being conducted online and what specific learning objective is being exercised.

In the spring semester UOG will begin to implement E-Works. The E-Works project will

initiate an online “portal network and interface” for electronic communication, document

sharing, and access to student and financial records. The final result will be a paradigm

shift in the manner in which we do daily business at the University as we move from hard

copy to electronic forms. Some professors from the College have already participated in

the online submission of final grades. You should obtain access to Web-advisor so that you

can participate in the online submission of final grades in the Spring semester.

Wishing you a creative and productive Spring Semester,

Yours,

James Sellmann, Dean

S P R I N G 2 0 1 1 N E W S L E T T E R

Fun and games

were had by many

at the college

picnic in Ypaao

Beach Park this

past October.

Faculty in the News

P A G E 3

Pauline Baird (DEAL) pub-

lished “Making College Writing

Fun for ESL and EFL Learner

Using Kamishibai” in the Inter-

net TESL Journal in November

2010.

Stephen Bednarzyk (CFA)

won a grant from Guam CAHA

to support the Guam Symphony

Society.

Masumi Kai (DH) won a grant

from the Japan Foundation.

Masumi Kai (DH) won a

CLASS grant of $3000 for ob-

taining an OPI Certificate and

for supporting her Katakana

Book.

Troy McVey (DO) and

Michelle Bednarzyk (DEAL)

won a grant from Guam CAHA

to support Summer Theatre

Camp 2011.

Peter Onedera (DH) won three

grants, totaling $20,000. Two

were from Guam CAHA and

GVB to support the CHamorro

Language Competition and one

was from GVB to support their

CH102 and 201 students in cre-

ating a sand sculpture project.

Aristides Pereira (CFA), won a

$1500 CLASS grant for materi-

als and

assis-

tants to

build a

green

screen

for the

Broadcast Studio.

Curtis Rigsby (DH) published

"Nishida on Heidegger," in

Continental Philosophy Review.

Chris Schreiner (DEAL) read

his paper, "Advanced Verbal

Education in Composition Stud-

ies," at Harvard University in

June, 2010, later published in

the International Journal of Arts

and Sciences.

Chris Schreiner (DEAL) was

also invited to give his lecture A

Writer's View of Guam: Liter-

ary and Philosophical Observa-

tions" at Kitakyushu University

in Kokura, Japan on November

25, 2010.

Jason Vest (DEAL), won a

$2000 CLASS grant for re-

search materials relating to In-

side Man: Spike Lee and Ameri-

can Cinema's Untold Stories.

Velma Yamashita (CFA) and

Kirk Johnson (SBS) won a

$5000 grant from GHC to sup-

port programing surrounding

Threads of Life: Textiles from

Bali.

Kirk Johnson (SBS), $1000 to

travel with the Bali Field School

in Ubud, Bali in March 2011.

Masumi Kai (DH), $1500 to

participate in OPI Certification

training in Boston in November

2010.

Peter Onedera (DH), $1000 for

attend the Hawaiian Immersion

Program in Hilo, Hawaii in Oc-

tober 2011.

Kim Skoog (DH), $1500 to

present at the East-West Philos-

ophers Conference at UH

Manoa in May 2011.

Student Travel

Awards

Students Allison Hadley, Myr-

acle Mugol, and Perry Joseph

Guerrero each received $500 to

present at a conference in New

Zealand.

Up to ten students enrolled in

Community Development may

receive up to $500 to attend the

2011 Bali Field School in Ubud.

Michael Bevacqua (DEAL/

DH), $1500 to present at the

NAIS Conference in Sacremen-

to, California, in May 2011.

Yaoxin Chang (DEAL), $1500

to present at the CPFLL Confer-

ence in China in October 2010.

Andrea Hartig (DEAL), $1500

to present at the Women’s

World Conference in Ottawa,

Canada in July 2011.

Anne Hattori (DH), $1500 to

present at the CPIS Conference

in UH Manoa in November

2010.

College Travel Awards

C O L L E G E O F L I B E R A L A R T S A N D S O C I A L S C I E N C E S

P A G E 4

Rich Olmo, Geography

Van Abiera, Computer Tech

Arun Swamy, Political Science Dr.

Swamy

did his

doctoral

work in

political

science

at the

Univer-

sity of

Califor-

nia,

Berke-

ley, specializing in compar-

ative politics and focusing

on the relationship between

electoral competition and

development policy in In-

dia. In the years since he

has taught comparative pol-

itics and international rela-

tions at numerous liberal

arts colleges in the US, in-

cluding Pomona, Oberlin,

Wagner, Williams and Oc-

cidental. In between, he

spent four years as a re-

search fellow at the East-

West Center Honolulu

where he focused on gov-

ernance and security issues

in the Asia Pacific, with a

focus on ethnic conflict. As

a result of these diverse

experiences today, he has

special interests in democ-

racy, ethnic conflict, politi-

cal economy, state-building

and corruption and popu-

lism. He has published aca-

demic articles, book chap-

ters, special reports and op-

ed articles on these topics

and is currently working on

a book project that would

extend the findings of his

dissertation to Southeast

Asia.

ment. He worked as an

Extension Assistant for

Cooperative Extension Ser-

vice and a mentor for the

4H mentoring program for

several months. He

worked as a Computer Spe-

cialist/Technical Support at

Naval Hospital Guam. He

worked as an IT Specialist

Van is an alum of UOG

with four years of college

education in computer in-

formation systems program

and general education pro-

gram at the University of

Guam. He interned for a

semester as IT Assistant at

Continental Airlines Infor-

mation Technology depart-

for the Ernst and Young

company.

He Currently works as an

extension associate IT sup-

port for the UOG CLASS

department. Offering foun-

dational experience in

working in an IT environ-

ment.

Wollongong, New South

Wales, Australia. He has

taught off and on for a total

of 23 years at several insti-

tutions including Brooklyn

College, the University of

San Diego, Southern Ore-

gon State College, the Uni-

versity of Maryland, Uni-

versity College Asia and the

University of Guam. Mr.

Olmo was a mining geolo-

gist in New Mexico with

United Nuclear Corpora-

tion, and worked as an ex-

ploration geologist in Ari-

zona, Utah, Colorado and

New Mexico with Phillips

Uranium Corporation. He

worked for several years

writing environmental and

planning impact reports in

San Diego and ran a con-

tract archaeology branch

office on Guam from 1992

to 1998.

Richard

Olmo has a

B.S. and an

M.A. in

geology

from the

City Univer-

sity of New

York, an

M.A. in

Anthropology from the Uni-

versity of New Mexico, and

is ABD at the University of

S P R I N G 2 0 1 1 N E W S L E T T E R

Fall Colloquium Series A Success

P A G E 5

There were six presentations

in the series this Fall, with

the lowest attended at 22 and

the most popular at 48.

Michael Bevacqua (DEAL/

DH) presented “The Gift of

Imagination: Solidarity in

the Asia-Pacific Region” on

Oct. 7.

Richard Giardina, Troy

McVey (DO), and Beth

Somera (CFA) presented

“Back to Basics: Nuts and

Bolts of Assessing Student

Learning” on Oct. 20.

Mark Ombrello (DH) pre-

sented “Visions and Perspec-

tives on the Film Matango:

Attack of the Mushroom Peo-

ple” on Oct. 23.

Manuel Raucholz presented

“Adoption in Micronesia:

Understanding Adoption,

Person, & Emotion in Micro-

nesia” on Oct. 28.

Ojeya Cruz Banks present-

ed “Of Water, Spirit

and Sustainability in

the Pacific: Dancing

Te Moana in Aotea-

roa” on

Nov. 4.

Dorcia Tucker pre-

sented “Bio-Feedback

for Gamers” on Dec. 4.

About 80 people were in at-

tendance. The keynote

speaker was Chief Justice

Robert Torres, who gave a

moving personal example in

his remarks. The panelists

this year were Michelle

Sasamoto from Deparment

of Mental Health; James

On September 9th, at 5:30 in

the CLASS Lecture Hall, the

Isa Psychological Services

Center and I’Pinangon Cam-

pus Suicide Prevention Grant

co-sponsored their 7th annual

Suicide Prevention Symposi-

um.

On September 17, 2010, they

gave a presentation to the

University community on

their insights. About 20 fac-

ulty attended, representing

every school and college.

Michelle’s presentation

focused on setting up assign-

ments, forums and the

gradebook.

Pauline’s presentation

focused on using MOODLE

as a classroom management

tool in hybrid and traditional

courses.

Both presentations shared

insights on helpful websites

and integrating material from

other software into MOO-

DLE.

Sponsored by Distance Edu-

cation, two Instructors of

English, Pauline Baird and

Michelle Bednarzyk, partici-

pated in a national confer-

ence on MOODLE and

online education in Boston

this past July.

English Continues to Lead Online

7th Annual Suicide Prevention Symposium

C O L L E G E O F L I B E R A L A R T S A N D S O C I A L S C I E N C E S

Seymour, Associate Profes-

sor of Theatre; John Moss,

Assistant Professor of Soci-

ology; and Father Mike

Crisostomo of UOG New-

man Center.

The event was organized by

Eunice Joy Perez and

Jacqueline Meno Gouniai

P A G E 6

CLASS Charter Day Activities

Modern Language Festival

National Speaker Headlines LAC Junko Yokota, was the Key-

note Speaker for this year’s

Language Arts Conference,

held on November 5th at

UOG and November 6th at

the Guam Marriott Resort.

Over 250 people attended

the Conference, aimed at

GDOE school teachers.

Dr. Yokota, Professor of

Reading and Language at

the National College of

Education, National-Louis

University in Chicago, Illi-

nois, and Director of the

Center for Teaching

through Children’s Books

is a frequently invited

speaker at professional

conferences throughout the

U.S. and internationally.

She is past president of the

U.S. national section of the

International Board on

Books for Young People,

and is active in IRA and

NCTE. She has served on

the Caldecott, Newbery,

Batchelder Committees,

and the IBBY Hans Chris-

tian Andersen Award jury.

She is a recipient of the

Virginia Hamilton Award

for Contribution to Multi-

cultural Literature, and the

Reading the World Award.

The conference was jointly

sponsored by CLASS and

SOE, and the funding for

Dr. Yokota’s visit came

from the GDOE ESL pro-

gram. Clarisa Quan

(DEAL) has chaired or co-

chaired the LAC committee

for over 18 years.

senting their knowledge of

the languages in such gen-

res as oratory, poetry, sto-

ries, essays, power points,

posters, video clips, skits,

game shows, news ac-

counts, situational scenari-

os, historical narrations and

cultural depictions.

Each language will also

A Modern Language Festival

presented by students en-

rolled in Chinese,

CHamoru, French, Japa-

nese, Spanish and Tagalog

will be held on Saturday,

March 26, 2011 in the HSS

building and CLASS Lecture

Hall.

Students will be pre-

feature a taste of the coun-

tries that are represented

as well as a fashion show

with attire worn in the dif-

ferent regions where the

languages are spoken. The

Competition is organized

by Peter Onedera (DH)

and members of the Mod-

ern Language Faculty.

tween 40 and 50 scholarly

presentations in the HSS

building between 9am and

5pm. The conference will

open the night before on

March 7th with a talk on

community development by

William Ingram, Director of

Threads of Life in Bali. The

conference will conclude

with a concert by UOG

Band and University Signers

in the Fine Arts Theatre.

The Chamorro Lan-

guage Competition will be

held in and around the

Field House this year, the

first time in a centralized

location. 42 schools from

Guam, Tinian, Saipan and

Rota will be participating.

Isla Center will be offer-

ing tours of the exhibit

Thread of Life: Textiles from

Bali given by Balinese artist

Wenten I Ketut.

This coming March 8th, the

College will be supporting

the 59th Annual Charter

Day by hosting the 32nd

Annual Research Confer-

ence, the 8th Annual

Chamorro Language Com-

petition and offering guid-

ed tours of the Isla Center

for the Arts.

The theme of the Con-

ference is “Creative Tradi-

tions” and will feature be-

S P R I N G 2 0 1 1 N E W S L E T T E R

Shown above are eight

students from Dr.

Schreiner's Creative

Writing class , who read

and discussed their poet-

ry at the Conference.

Call for College Grant Applications

P A G E 7

Because the Dean’s Office and the

Academic Affairs Committee

(AAC) are committed to faculty

development, we invite applications

for faculty travel grants up to

$1500.00.

We would like to award five (5)

grants each semester, or ten (10)

grants for the school year. A per-son is only eligible for one College

funded travel grant per academic

year, following the guidelines in the

College Rules and Procedures

Manual (1995, revised 2002)

“Faculty Development Policy”:

1. First priority will be given to

supporting faculty travel to pro-

fessional meetings where they

are presenting a paper.

2. Second priority will be given to

supporting faculty travel for pro-

fessional purposes other than

presenting a paper.

3. Third priority will be given to

other faculty development pro-

jects such as workshops, inter-

disciplinary course preparations,

etc. Projects benefiting more

than one division will be encour-aged.

For faculty travel grants, submit

a cover letter explaining how the

travel will enhance your profession-

al development, an abstract of your

paper, if any, and your itinerary and

cost of the ticket.

Deadlines: 3/3 and 5/5

For Student/Course travel

grants, submit a cover letter ex-

plaining how the travel will enhance

student learning and course objec-

tives, an abstract of the paper, if

any, and the itinerary and cost of

the ticket. Deadlines: 9/16,

11/4, 3/3, 5/5

The AAC also invites applications

for Research, Creative Activi-

ty, and Other Projects of up to

$3000 per project. Again, we would like to award five (5) grants

each semester, or ten (10) grants

for the school year. Faculty are

limited to one open CSR grant at a

time. See the College’s Faculty

Research and Creative Activity

Grant guidelines in the College Rules

and Procedures Manual.

Deadline: 4/14

For all grant awards, the AAC will

review applications and make rec-

ommendations to the Dean.

component of their portfolio or

to “test-drive” a paper presen-

tation before a home-town

audience are especially encour-

aged to present in the colloqui-

um series. Creative people are

encouraged to consider work-

shop-style presentations.

Presentations should be no

more than 90 minutes in length,

Scholars are invited to present

to the University of Guam com-

munity through the 2010-2011

Colloquium Series, sponsored

by the College of Liberal Arts

and Social Sciences. All disci-

plines are welcome.

Faculty members, students

and community members wish-

ing to bolster the research

with time allowed for discus-

sion, questions and answers.

Presenters should also work to

obtain an audience for their

presentation.

Please send an email to the

Acting Associate Dean at

tmcvey@uguam.uog.edu for

more information, or to sched-

ule your presentation.

Call for Colloquium Presentations

C O L L E G E O F L I B E R A L A R T S A N D S O C I A L S C I E N C E S

Call for College Excellence Awards standing students at the

Undergraduate and

Graduate level are hon-

ored. One outstanding

staff member is honored.

Please provide all

supporting documenta-

tion and submit it to the

CLASS Dean’s office by

5 p.m. Thursday April 28.

Awards will be presented

at the College Awards

Ceremony on Friday May

13 at 12 noon in CLASS

Lecture Hall.

For further information,

please ask your Division

Chair, or T. McVey.

Nominations are re-

quested for all categories

of Faculty, Student and

Staff Excellence Awards.

Faculty are honored

for Full– and Part-Time

Teaching, Research/

Creative Activity, Service

and Collegiality. Out-

CALL FOR

PAPERS STILL

OPEN

The 32nd Annual

CLASS Research Con-

ference is still accept-

ing proposals for pa-

pers and presenta-

tions until

February 8th.

Go to

www.uog.edu/

CLASSResearch-

Conference

for more infor-

mation.

C O L L E G E O F L I B E R A L A R T S

A N D S O C I A L S C I E N C E S

CLASS DEAN’S OFFICE Phone: 735-2850

HSS Building , 3rd Floor Site: www.uog.edu/class

January 27 - February 12

Isla Center for the Arts presents

Picturing America/ Picturing Guam

February 24 - March 25

Isla Center for the Arts presents

Threads of Life: Textiles from Bali

March 17-19 and 23-26

UOG Island Theatre presents

The Foreigner by Larry Shue

April 1 & 2

University Music presents

Spring Concert

April 7 – 29

Isla Center for the Arts presents

13th Annual Isla Art-A-Thon

April 28-30 and May 4-7

UOG Island Theatre presents

Two Lovers, by James Seymour

May 5 - June 10

Isla Center for the Arts presents

UOG Student Art Exhibition

May 11

University Music presents

A Student Recital

May 13 & 14

University Music presents

Finale Concert

July 14-15

Summer Theatre Camp presents

L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz

CALL FOR PAPERS: Pacific Asia Inquiry: Multidisciplinary Perspectives Occasional Papers in the Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Issue 2, Spring 2011

Sustainability and Change in the Pacific Asia Region

Scholars are invited to submit papers focusing on Sustainability and Change in the Pacific Asia

Region. Submissions should focus on one or more of the following areas: semantics, language arts, fine arts, society and culture, education, energy, the environment, and sustainablity is-sues of Micronesia. Articles, critical essays, and case studies (both applied and theoretical) across the liberal arts and social sciences are welcome. The research emphasis of this occasional series accommo-dates in-depth studies on sustainability and change. Contributors are invited not only to share their in-novative research, but also to challenge extant positions and perspectives. Any theoretical or methodo-logical approach may be employed so long as it is documented in a readable style of writing that is ac-cessible to specialists and non-specialists alike. Authors may submit their writing about problems and issues associated with any ethnic group, national culture, historical period, genre, or media so long as it has some scholarly or intellectual relevance or relation to Pacific Asia. Manuscripts focusing on or includ-ing the Micronesian region of the Pacific are of particular interest.

Deadline for submittal is February 15, 2011 Visit the UOG CLASS Homepage for more information.