The Academic Minute for 2019.11.04-11.08

The Academic Minute from 11.04 – 11.08

Monday, November 4th
Lee Farquhar – Butler University
Tolerance on Facebook
Dr. Lee Farquhar is an associate professor of Journalism and Sports Media. Prior to arriving at Butler, he worked for eight years at Samford University, teaching broadcast news and sports media courses. His professional experience is primarily in radio and television broadcasting. He has also worked as a freelance videographer, shooting video for Kansas State University and MTV. His research combines social media and social psychological theories. He current research focuses on social media use, parenting styles, and parent-child value congruence.

Tuesday, November 5th
Tom Mould – Butler University
Welfare and the American Dream
Tom Mould teaches and conducts research in the areas of folklore, language and culture, American Indian studies, oral narrative, religious and sacred narrative, contemporary legend, identity, ethnography, genre, and performance theory. He is the author of the books Choctaw Prophecy: A Legacy of the Future (2003),Choctaw Tales (2004), Still, the Small Voice: Revelation, Personal Narrative and the Mormon Folk Tradition (2011) and the forthcoming Overthrowing the Queen: Telling Stories of Welfare in America (2020).

Before coming to Butler in 2019, he was the J.Earl Danieley Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Folklore at Elon University where he taught for 18 years and served in various roles including Director of the Honors Program. and Chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department.

Wednesday, November 6th
James McGrath – Butler University
Artifical Wisdom
James F. McGrath is Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature. His PhD from the University of Durham became the basis for his first book, John’s Apologetic Christology, published by Cambridge University Press in the SNTS Monograph Series. He has also written a “prequel” about the broader context of monotheism and Christology in ancient Judaism and Christianity, The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context, published by University of Illinois Press. In addition to his work on the New Testament and early Christianity, Dr. McGrath also researches the Mandaeans (the last surviving Gnostic group from the ancient world) and their literature. The two-volume critical edition, translation, and commentary on the Mandaean Book of John (which he produced together with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) represents the first such academic edition of the complete work in English based on all known manuscripts. Another area of specialty is the intersection of religion and science fiction. On that subject, he is the author of Theology and Science Fiction, editor of Religion and Science Fiction and co-editor of Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith: Religion and Doctor Who. He blogs at Religion Prof.

Thursday, November 7th
Tonya Bergeson-Dana – Butler University
Infant Hearing Loss and Cognitive Skills
Dr. Tonya Bergeson earned a PhD in cognitive developmental psychology from the University of Toronto, Canada and undergraduate degrees in music and psychology from Northwestern University. She is a faculty member in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Butler University and the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine. Her research on the effects of early auditory experience on speech, language and music development in infants and children with hearing impairment has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in several prestigious journals.

Friday, November 8th
Greg Shufeldt – Butler University
Political Party Competition in States
Greg Shufeldt is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Butler University. Previously, he worked as an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas – Little Rock. He earned his PhD in Political Science with a concentration in American Politics from the University of Notre Dame. He also earned an MSW from Saint Louis University with a focus on community organizing and policy advocacy.

Within American Politics, his research and teaching interests include political parties, state and local politics, and political inequality. His research has been published in American Politics Research, State Politics & Policy Quarterly, Social Indicators Research, Labor Studies Journal, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties, Electoral Studies, and other journals.