Graduate Student News

Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhran's creative work appeared in twenty-two periodicals and anthologies this past year, including his second and third British publications. He presented at multiple gatherings and was honored through a Lambda Literary Foundation Emerging Writer Scholarship. His critical and pedagogical work was presented at five conferences, and is forthcoming in four publications. He was honored through a Graduate Student Research Enhancement Award from the Graduate School and an Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Teaching Fellowship at James Madison College.

Amanda Sikarskie (formerly Amanda Tigner) received a Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) Fellowship for the second year. fellowship will support her work in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities on a teaching project in the fiber arts. also completed MSU's graduate certificate in Museum Studies and was asked to serve for a second year on the Michigan State University Museum's Associates Board.

Fumiko Sakashita: was awarded the Global Literary and Cultural Studies Research Assistantship for 2008-09. In the past year, she published "Witness/Spectator of Violence: The Politics of 'Looking' in the History of Lynching" in Kokujin Kenkyu [Black Studies] (2008), and contributed two encyclopedia entries in Daina Ramey Berry, ed., The Female Slave: An Encyclopedia of Daily Life during Slavery in the United States (Greenwood Press, forthcoming). Fumiko also helped organize, with other Japanese scholars in African American Studies, Dr. Cornel West's lecture trip to Japan in early May, there Fumiko also coordinated a gathering in Okinawa with the anti-base group Project Disagree.

Anthony Kolenic: had an article published in "InterCulture: An Interdisciplinary Journal" entitled "Mourning Memory: Performing Sanctity through September 11th Memorials," in their special edition Perspectives on War: Media and Memory. He also has a short essay included in a volume on 9/11 and Popular Culture.

Kelly Myers: Completed notable coursework toward the GenCen specialization in Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change, which she will complete this Fall. taught Women in America for the WRAC Department and served as the program assistant for Dr. Charnley's one-month study abroad in WWII Europe: Memory and Memorial. has also formally committed to the latter position for Summer 2009. , Kelly is the research assistant for the Oral History Project through Dr. Charnley and the university archives.

Lisa Wingeard: is currently ABD and working for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections as a research and evaluation analyst in the Bureau of Planning, Research, Statistics and Grants.Additionally, she is an adjunct professor of history at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania.

Shawn Young has had two essays accepted for a Greenwood Press publication on popular culture and 9-11. Along with chairing the area of subculture for the Midwestern Popular Culture Association, Shawn has been working with Prof. David Stowe and videographer and local business owner Jim Jabara on a documentary film on Christian Rock.

Claudia Bennett has just returned from setting up her research project in Ireland where she will be comparing the experience of using Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis between couples in the United States and Ireland. She will be collaborating with three facilities in Ireland and two in the United States and will begin conducting interviews this fall.

Christine Drewel finished her comps, prospectus and prospectus meeting and attained ABD status. She was hired into a tenure track position at GVSU and is currently working hard on finishing her dissertation.

Ted Troxell taught in WRAC and for Spring Arbor University and Central Michigan University. He is currently book review editor for the Journal for the Study of Radicalism.

Yuya Kiuchi became editorial assistant for the Journal of Popular Culture in the summer of 2007. He presented papers at several national and international conferences. His book reviews have appeared in the Journal of American Culture and the Journal of African American History. His translation of Barack Obama's Dream from my Father was published in December 2007 in Japan and is now in its fifth printing. He also published a chapter in a book targeted for adult learners of English in Japan.

Shuichi Takebayashi presented papers on folk music and its influences at conferences in Minneapolis and Lisbon. He contributed an entry "Hackers" to American Countercultures: An Encyclopedia of Nonconformists, Alternative Lifestyle, and Radical Ideas in US History," which will be out in November 2008 from ME Sharpe.

Rikk Mulligan presented papers on popular culture and media at several conferences in the United States, as well as the annual British Association for American Studies meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland. His chapter "The Cain Mutiny: Relecting the Faces of Military leadeship in a Time of Fear" was published in the collection, Cylons in America: Critical Studies in Battlestar Galactica in December 2007. His reviews began appearing in the Sixteenth Century Journal, the SFRA Review, and are forthcoming in the Journal of Popular Culture.

Mike Spencer joined Rikk Mulligan, Ben Dettmar, Adam Capitanio, and Yuya Kiuchi for the British Association of American Studies’ annual meeting in Edinburgh. His paper was "Brave 'New' World: New Conservatism, New Criticism, and Popular Culture after 9/11".