The Academic Minute for 2019.02.11-02.15 – Arcadia University Week

Academic Minute from 02.11 – 02.15

Monday, February 11th
Jill Pederson – Aracdia University
Understanding Authorship in Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi
Jill Pederson is Associate Professor of Art History at Arcadia University, specializing in European art with an emphasis on Italian painting, sculpture, and graphic work from the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries.  Her research focuses on the intersection of visual, literary, and intellectual culture in northern Italy. Dr. Pederson is completing a book manuscript on Leonardo da Vinci and his involvement in the Academia Leonardi Vinci. The book deepens our understanding of the Renaissance master by providing contextualization for his first Milanese period (c.1482-1499). Although Leonardo has long been cast as an artistic anomaly, the study resituates him within a specific scholarly network that helped to shape his own visual idiom. By suggesting that Leonardo derived inspiration from a wider group of artists, poets, and scientists, the book challenges prevailing ideas about Leonardo’s universal genius and contributes to a more complex understanding of an artist who influenced conceptions of creative practice for generations to come.

Tuesday, February 12th
Aroline Hanson – Arcadia University
Bringing Back Brunca
Dr. Aroline Seibert Hanson earned her Ph.D. in Spanish and Language Science at the Pennsylvania State University. She is a tenured Assistant Professor of Spanish and Linguistics at Arcadia University outside of Philadelphia, PA. Her research is in Second Language Acquisition with a focus on Motivation and Language Processing. Seibert Hanson’s work has been published in Language Learning, the Canadian Journal for Applied Linguistics, Computer-Assisted Language Learning, and Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics. Her most recent work is on the indigenous languages of Costa Rica, aiding in the language documentation and revitalization efforts by the Brunca people.

Wednesday, February 13th
Bruce Campbell – Arcadia University
Music, Social Justice and Leadership
Bruce Campbell Jr., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at Arcadia University in suburban Philadelphia. He is also the Director of the Educational Leadership Masters and Supervisory Certification programs.  Dr. Campbell holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Learning Technologies from Drexel University and a master degree in Urban Education from Temple University.  Prior to coming to Arcadia University, his career focused on school improvement and program evaluation.  As a “Distinguished Educator” for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Dr. Campbell consulted with school districts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  Dr. Campbell has also worked at education research firms and non-profit organizations including Research For Better Schools, and the Philadelphia Education Fund.

Dr. Campbell’s work with these education organizations along with his employment at the United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, positioned him on the frontline of working with stakeholders in the education community.  Dr. Campbell has been able to take his knowledge, experience and skill to higher education as he trains the next generation of educational leaders. Throughout his career, Dr. Campbell has focused on embedding relevant issues of diversity into his practice, scholarship, and service.  He highlights experiences of underrepresented groups so that professionals and institutions can serve these communities more effectively.  Dr. Campbell teaches courses in educational leadership, organizational change, program evaluation, urban education, qualitative research methods, cultural competency and international musicology.

Thursday, February 14th
Warren Haffar – Arcadia University
Mental Mapping in Divided Cities
Warren Haffar is Director of the International Peace and Conflict Resolution MA Program.  He received his Ph.D. and MA in Conflict Analysis and Peace Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996, and his BS in Political Science from the University of Utah in 1990.  In his 15 years at Arcadia he’s developed expertise in international development and conflict resolution, teaching  graduate and undergraduate field study courses in East and West Africa, Latin America, Northern Ireland, Cyprus and South Korea.  He came to Arcadia in 2000 from the Project on Ethnic Relations in Princeton, an NGO that conducts programs of high-level intervention and serves as a neutral mediator to prevent ethnic conflict in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the former Soviet Union.  He is a certified mediator and has practitioner experience developing consensus based sustainable development strategies for the state of Pennsylvania.

He has been active administratively while at Arcadia, being elected to faculty council and the University’s promotion and tenure committee.  He co-led a task force that redesigned the university general education requirements, passed by faculty with a 90% vote.  He received a grant from the President’s office to launch the Center for Peace Research in Tanzania.  As Director of the International Peace and Conflict Resolution program for 13 years, he created dual degree programs with International Public Health, Trauma Counseling Program and Graduate School of Education.

Friday, February 15th
Kalenda Eaton – Arcadia University
Remembering Black Freedom in the Western Hemisphere
Dr. Eaton is the current director of the English Graduate Program. Additionally, she has served as a Faculty Senator, and as a member of the: Strategic Planning Steering Committee, Academics Committee, India Initiative Task Force, Promotion and Tenure Committee, and as a faculty representative on the International Programs/College of Global Studies subcommittee of the Board of Trustees from 2012-2016. She was also Director of Global Learning from 2014-2016. With a cohort of faculty at the university, she helped institute the academic minor in Pan-African studies and create Arcadia’s Pan African Studies Collective (PASC). Outside the university, Dr. Eaton is a frequent external reviewer for domestic and international academic journals and grant-funding foundations. She is a member and/or officer on several boards ranging from Editorial and Advisory, to Corporate. She has been a member of a Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) site visit team and is a MSCHE trained evaluator. Also, Dr. Eaton frequently serves as a resource faculty member and mentor with the Social Science Research Council-Mellon Mays Graduate Initiatives Program.