Ron Johnson, adjunct assistant professor of Journalism, was recently inducted into the Kansas Scholastic Press Association’s Hall of Fame. The award honors Johnson’s many past contributions to the organization.
KSPA is the state’s association for high-school journalists. Johnson served for four years as KSPA’s legislative committee chair, lobbying to restore first Amendment rights to high-school journalists after Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, which sanctioned administrative censorship.
The 5th Annual Cavalier Conference on Writing and Literature was held on April 12, 2019, at the JCCC Regnier Center. This year’s theme was Voices: Expression, Diversity, and Identity. The conference attracted high school and college instructors from around the Kansas City metropolitan area and throughout Kansas. A total of 112 people registered. The keynote speaker for the event was Kathleen Blake Yancey, the Kellogg W. Hunt Professor of English and Distinguished Research Professor at Florida State University.
The conference offered 17 sessions with 27 presenters from high schools, community colleges, and four-year colleges. The following schools featured presenters: Rockhurst University, Emporia State University, Columbia University Teacher’s College, University of Kansas, Kansas City Public Schools, Lee’s Summit High School, Olathe West High School, Washburn University, Gardner Edgerton High School, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Fort Hays State University, Pittsburg State University, Garden City Community College, Seaman High School, Kansas State University, Emporia High School, and Johnson County Community College.
There were also attendees from MidAmerica Nazarene, Shawnee Heights High School, MCC Maple Woods, Haskell Indian Nations University, Coffeyville Community College, Highland Community College, Hesston College, Cowley College, and Blue Valley Northwest High School.
The following professors from JCCC presented or participated in panel discussions:
The following professors from the English department served as session chairs:
Beth Gulley, Professor of English, was a recent winner of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Faculty Achievement Award. In addition, her poems, “Things Can’t Always Get Worse,” “Tonight,” and “Zigzag” were accepted to the Gasconade Review. Gulley was also accepted to the SoTL Scholar Academy through Faculty Development.
Gretchen Thum, Associate Professor of Journalism, participated in a two-day intensive workshop on Integrated Marketing Communications. It was held at the American Marketing Association’s headquarters in Chicago. The trip was part of an an integrated teaching grant that Thum is doing with Pamela Hulen, associate professor and chair of Marketing Management.
Anthony Funari, Grant Professional and Adjunct Professor of English, presented for the Noon at the Nerman program on March 29, 2019. He discussed the photographic series Four Seasons by Wendy Red Star in the new exhibition MONARCHS. Follow this link to Wendy Red Star’s website to see the series: http://www.wendyredstar.com/four-seasons.
