Monthly Archives: March 2018

Diversity events this week

Take Back the Night
When: 4/2 6-9pm
Where: Survivor speak outs (6-7pm), Armstrong Wiikiaami Room; Ally training (6-7pm), Armstrong 2078; March (7-9pm), Joslin Terrace to Uptown Park
Description: Take Back the Night is a march to support survivors of sexual assault.

The Only Home I Know, My American Dream
When: 4/2 6-7pm
Where: Great Room, MacMillan Hall
Description: This film and panel discussion will explore the story of Jose Antonio Vargas, who wrote a high-profile expose of himself as an undocumented “alien.”

Social Movements and Neoliberalism
When: 4/2 6-7:30pm
Where: 001 Upham Hall
Description: As part of the “Critical Inquiry and Penny Lecture Series” on Global Identities and Social Movements, Dr. David Fasenfest will present a talk on opportunities and challenges associated with social movements.

Confucius Institute Skit Competition
When: 4/4 4-5pm
Where: Peabody Hall, Leonard Theatre
Description: The Confucius Institute is hosting a skit competition!

National Sanctuary Coalition Movement
When: 4/4 6-7pm
Where: MacMillan Hall, Great Room
Description: Spiritual leaders from U.S. Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities will discuss joining the National Sanctuary Coalition Movement, “what their commitment to be a Sanctuary or Solidarity congregation means, and how students can be involved.

The Spirituality of Cesar Chavez and the National Farm Workers Movement
When: 4/4 7:30-9pm
Where: Hannah House, Office of Community Engagement and Service (Oxford campus)
Description: “An evening of contemplation. This program will provide an opportunity for people from diverse faith-and-meaning-making backgrounds to come together to reflect on the spiritual values that drove Cesar Chavez’s work.

“Deej”: Inclusion Shouldn’t be a Lottery
When: 4/5 7-9pm
Where: 152 Shideler Hall
Description: This lecture and film screening is part of the Kate Welling Disability Awareness Lecture Series.

The Bearded Lady Project

Please join me at this unique exhibition that the department is helping to sponsor. From Liz Widom, Chair, Department of Geology & Environmental Earth Science:

The Department of Geology and Environmental Earth Science and the Karl E. Limper Geology Museum are hosting an exhibit entitled “The Bearded Lady Project: Challenging the Face of Science” in Shideler Hall between March 29 and June 11. The opening event for this exhibit will take place on Thursday March 29 from 5:15 to 9 pm in room 152 of Shideler Hall.

This event and exhibit are free and open to the public. Additional support of this exhibit was provided by Miami University’s Art Museum, College of Arts and Science, Computer Science and Engineering, Department of Anthropology, Department of Biology, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Department of Geography, Department of Kinesiology and Health, Department of Microbiology, Department of Psychology, Department of Statistics, Institute for the Environment and Sustainability, Office for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship, and University Libraries.

Diversity events this week

From Lauren Forrest and the D&I committee:

Telling a People’s Story Museum Exhibition
When: Now through June 30, 2018
Where: Miami University Art Museum
Description: This museum exhibition is devoted to the art found within the pages of African-American children’s picture books. Through 95 books and 130 illustrations, the exhibition emphasizes the strength of the illustrations as visual narrative representations of the African-American experience.

Cross-cultural Lecture 4: Exploring Chinese Musical Instruments and Traditional Chinese Musics
When: March 26, 5-7pm
Where: McGuffey
Description: Mr. Xie Zhenggang is a master of Chinese folk music instruments and will present a talk on Chinese musical instruments and traditional Chinese music.

International Fair
When: March 26, 5-7pm
Where: Armstrong Pavillion A/B
Description: International fair is the kick-off event for Miami University’s Intercontinental Week. Organizations from all over the world will host different games and food.

Paper Discussion on Richeson & Shelton, 2007, Current Directions*
When: March 27, 6pm
Where: 134 Psychology Building
Description: The CPI is hosting this event to discuss—with pizza and beverages provided—one of Dr. Jenn Richeson’s highly-influential papers that explores how people negotiate interracial interactions.

Travis Alabanza
When: March 27, 6-8pm
Where: Upham 002
Description: Travis Alabanza is a poet and performance artist who uses their art to share the story of the survival day-in and day-out as a Black, trans, gender-nonconforming person living in the UK. Hosted by Spectrum.

Women’s Read In
When: March 28, 10am-4pm
Where: King Library
Description: Two lectures related to diversity will be given. The titles are “Race, racism and the women’s movement from 1848 till today” (by Kimberly Hamlin) and “Telling her story: How women authors and illustrators inspire and empower African-American girls” (by Jason Shaiman)

The Refugee Experience
When: March 28, 1:15-2:35pm
Where: Johnston 142, Middletown campus, Miami University
Description: This program offers the opportunity to hear the voices of women refugees living in Southwest Ohio. Invitations have been made to refugees from a variety of areas including Bhutan, Burundi, Iraq and Syria.

ABPsi Film Night*
When: March 28, 6pm
Where: 125 Psychology Building
Description: The Association of Black Psychologists will host a film and discussion about diversity and inclusion issues.

Myaamiaki Conference
When: March 30, 9am-4pm
Where: Myaamia Center
Description: The Myaamiaki Conference highlights new and continuing research related to a wide range of subject matter concerning Myaamia history, language, culture, ecology, and revitalization work.

Safe Zone Training
When: March 30, 9-11:30am
Where: Armstrong Student Center, room 2078
Description: “The focus of this training is to provide participants with the fundamentals of awareness, history, language, and basic tips on how to be an ally of the LGBTQ community.”

Dr. Jennifer Richeson’s Colloquium Presentation*
When: March 30, 3pm
Where: Taylor Auditorium (1000 Farmer School of Business)
Description: Dr. Richeson will review “research examining how exposure to information that the United States is becoming a “majority-minority” nation affects racial attitudes and political outcomes (e.g., ideology, policy preferences), and the psychological mechanisms that give rise to them, focusing primarily on the reactions of members of the current dominant racial group (i.e., White Americans).”

*Indicates part of the Psychology Department’s Diversity and Inclusion Celebration Week

March for Science Cincinnati: Saturday, April 14

From Jessica Greenberg, local organizer:

We invite you to join your colleagues on Saturday, April 14, 2018 at Sawyer Point from 11 am to 3 pm.

The March for Science champions publicly funded and publicly communicated science as a pillar of human freedom and prosperity. We unite as a diverse, nonpartisan group to call for science that upholds the common good and for political leaders and policy makers to enact evidence-based policies in the public interest.

The March for Science is a celebration of science. It’s not about scientists or politicians, it is about the very real role that science plays in each of our lives and the need to respect and encourage research that gives us insight into the world.

There will be several of your peers speaking on a number of timely topics and a number of science organizations will have booths offering information, demonstrations and experiments.

If you are interested in playing a more involved role, please see me to help develop your idea and for more information.

OUPRC at Ohio Dominican this year, April 28

The 32nd annual Ohio Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference (OUPRC) will be held on Saturday, April 28th at Ohio Dominican University in Columbus. The deadline for submissions and conference registration is Friday, April 20, 2018. From John Marzita, this year’s organizer:

The OUPRC provides psychology students with the opportunity to present their work to a supportive audience, and to share ideas with student researchers and faculty from across Ohio. Students who are presenting their work at other conferences… often attend OUPRC to practice their presentations first. Students who are new to research learn something of the excitement of a research career and are may be motivated to continue in psychology or a related research field.

This can also serve as an excellent opportunity to recruit for our graduate programs. If there is a critical mass of individuals interested, the department will help support the travel (e.g. van rental) in addition to regular conference support mechanisms.

Important messages from Academic Personnel

From Celia Elison, Academic Personnel:

Salary Breakdown for 2018-19 

About one-third of our faculty are paid their academic-year salary August through May (and do not choose the 12-equal-payments option).  The assumption is that the August and May payments will each be “a half-check” (half of one-ninth of the full salary).  The actual amount paid in August and May is a function of the calendar/specific number of work days in the month.  (Are you bored yet?)  In many years the payment is 50/50.  For the upcoming 2018-19 academic year the breakdown is closer to 40/60.  To lessen the surprise factor, I would like you to share this calculation with the faculty.

For faculty who receive their salary spread over the academic year:

The salary paid in August 2018 will be 43.48% of 1/9th of the academic-year salary.

The salary paid in May 2019 will be 56.52% of 1/9th of the academic-year salary.

Reminder:  The percentage of the 2017-18 salary for the May 2018 payment is 60.87%

 Permission to Perform Outside Service

Please remind your faculty and unclassified staff that a request form should be filled out any time during the year that the needs arises.  The form is available from the Academic Personnel website, under “My Career,” then “Ethics Compliance.”

The site also includes a list of common activities and whether or not permission is required.

MUDEC Luxembourg Call for Proposals, 2019-2020

Miami’s Dolibois European Center (Luxembourg campus) has released its call for curriculum proposals for the 2019-20 academic year. The committee considers the configuration of courses when determining which to approve for a given academic year. The first step is a one-page statement of interest which is due March 30. If you are interested, please let me know and I can send you additional information.

Alumna talk on computational lingusitics, 3/28

Computer Science & Software Engineering is hosting Melissa Roemmele, a Miami alumna who majored in Psychology and Linguistics and recently received a doctorate in computer science from USC. Her talk, “Writing Stories with Help from Artificial Intelligence [Human and Computer Interaction in the Writing Process],” will be held in Shideler 001 on Wednesday, March 28, at 1:30pm. Melissa writes:

In this talk, I’ll present my work on a particular application that addresses this goal by automatically generating suggestions to authors for new sentences in a story they are writing. I’ll discuss my current findings on authors’ interactions with this application and show how these findings motivate future opportunities in relevant interdisciplinary research across computer science, linguistics, and psychology.

ANY time you have to miss class…

Please complete this form any time that you need to miss any of your class meetings, whether due to illness, conference travel, or other personal or professional obligations. Please recall that there are instructional minute requirements that we must meet, and you are required to notify me in advance of ANY missed classes (MUPIM 5.9), including your plan for covering the course (i.e., not “canceling;” see also my email to all faculty of 11/17/17).

Volunteer needed for diversity recruitment event

The dean’s office is looking for a volunteer for the RedHawk Overnight Event to be held at the Art Museum–no, you do NOT need to spend the night. From Ted Peters:

This is a diversity recruitment event the evening of Sunday, April 8th. We have been told to expect up to 25 students who are interested in CAS; however, we won’t know what majors they are interested in until a week before the event.

I know this is a Sunday night, but Chris and I ask that you find a tentative volunteer from your department and then we can let you know if you have any potential majors signed up to attend. Many departments won’t need to be on in attendance, but we’d like to be covered just in case.

Please let me know if you are able to cover this in case we have interested students. Theoretically I can do this if nobody is available but I’m hoping that one of you living in Oxford might be willing.