Faculty award for graduate mentoring and instruction

Nominations are now open for this award to acknowledge excellent and sustained contributions to graduate education, for which several of our faculty are eligible and undoubtedly deserving. From Rose Marie Ward:

Full-time faculty members from academic units with graduate and/or professional instructional responsibilities are eligible for the Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate Instruction and Mentoring. The award includes a $1,000 professional expense account for use by the recipient. Up to two recipients will be selected to receive this award annually.

Eligible faculty must have seven years at Miami, but anyone is able to submit nominations directly to me. If you are considering someone for this award, please let me know and/or ask any questions as soon as possible since the application requires some preparation and it is due March 1.

Career day in quantitative skills for women

John Bailer, chair in Statistics, sends word of this program focused at educating and encouraging young women in fields requiring technical and quantitative skills. I think many of our female faculty would contribute well to this event if it interested any of you. He writes:

​​The CIQS Day is an annual event exclusively for female high school students designed to attract and motivate the study of a career involving quantitative skills. For this event, we invite such students from high schools in Southwestern Ohio (including downtown Cincinnati) to come to campus, participate in activities with faculty and current students, listen to faculty and student presentations, and converse with women who are working in STEM fields and in fields where good quantitative skills are needed. It is our hope that by introducing the students to these fields early, and by exposing them to exciting aspects of our fields of study, they will become intrigued and motivated to study a STEM discipline or to continue to study quantitative methods regardless of future majors.

Those that are interested can contact me (or John) for more information, program, or publicity materials.

Diversity events after winter break

The Diversity & Inclusion committee, by way of Laurel, wanted to provide some advance notice about events after the break to allow for better planning. As we discussed briefly at faculty meeting, in the spring we will continue to post events by mid-week, for inclusion in the Thursday email digest, about events to occur in the following week. For now, from Laurel:

Mark your calendars for these diversity and inclusion events at the start of the Spring 2018 semester!

*Black Mental Health Night

When: February 6th, 2018 @ 7:00PM
Where: McGuffy Hall, 210 East Spring Street, Oxford, Ohio

“Join the Association of Black Psychologists for a mini-poster session with presentations and a speaker about issues relating to Black people in psychology.”

*Chinese New Year Festival

When: February 9th, 2018 @ 3:00PM to 10:00PM
Where: Marcum Conference Center, 951 E. Withrow Street, Oxford, OH, 45056

“All students and scholars are welcome to come and join with foods, traditional games, and celebrate Spring Festival (Chinese New Year Festival).”

*The New Golden Age of Latin Music ft. Orkesta Mendoza and Las Cafeteras

When: February 15th, 2018 @ 7:30PM to 9:30PM
Where: Hall Auditorium, 101 S. Campus Ave, Oxford, OH, 45056

“Top producer of global music, globalFEST, has paired two of today’s most exciting bands, forging inspired new paths for the fabled Latin sound.”
Buy tickets here.

Academic affairs meeting, Dec 06

This month’s academic administrators’ breakfast provided some updates on Faculty 180, accreditation, and other matters. There was a presentation by Jen Franchak, the new Asst. VP in the career center (with a psych degree!), who is exploring initiatives such as career advisors from the center assigned like academic advisors. The provost announced reminders for the following awards:

I will post minutes from this and other meetings with the new Team Drive structure. Then I can simply point to highlights, as warranted, here once a month.

Diversity events this week

From the Diversity and Inclusion committee, the first in a weekly posting with events of interest. Thanks to Laurel Sarfan and the committee for curating this!

*Dear World, Thursday December 7th: an interactive and award winning event (looks beautiful and moving!) consisting of two components:

Portrait Shoot, 11:15 a.m.–2 p.m.
Shade Family Room, Armstrong Student Center

Come sit for a portrait, where you will be asked to reflect on a personal story of who you were, who you are, or who you want to be. Then write a message that symbolizes YOUR story for your portrait.

Portrait Reveal and Afterglow Reception, 7:30 p.m.
Fritz Pavilion, Armstrong Student Center

Come see what everyone had to say at the keynote event. The Dear World team will show their work from around the world, followed by a presentation of all of our community’s portraits. This evening is sure to be equal parts powerful and memorable. A reception will immediately follow the live show, and if you did not have a chance to get your portrait made during the day, Dear World will be taking portraits and guiding you through their unique story sharing process to capture your very own portrait. Don’t miss it!

For more information: http://miamioh.edu/cca/performing-arts-series/events/dear-world/index.html

*Film Screening: L.A. Rebellion, Friday December 8th

When: 6:30 to 9:30pm

Where: Oxford – Shideler Hall 152

Event: A watch party and discussion for a popular movie, focusing on diversity misconceptions. Event is free and open to all students.

*Religions in China, Wednesday December 13th 

When: 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Where: Miami Hamilton Downtown, 221 High Street

Event: Dr. Anthony Miller, Miami Regionals History Professor, presents a program that discusses the various religions of the Chinese people, from Dadaism and Buddhism to the spread of Christianity and Islam.

Non-metered parking is free for the first two hours. For evening events, you may also park in the Key Bank lot adjacent to Journal Square.

For more information, contact John Vaughn at [email protected] or 513.785.3005 (opt. 3)

Join me at Charter Day Ball

Every three years, Miami celebrates its “birthday” in February 1809 with the Charter Day Ball, a fun and formal affair organized by students and open to the entire Miami community. The invitation from the event chairs is below:

Being a member of the Miami University community entitles you to a special bond. Love and Honor is a phrase that was coined to articulate the feelings that accompany anyone touched by our community. Honor encompasses how proud we all are of our affiliation, and love, the endearment we feel towards this unique hidden oasis nestled between corn fields.

On February 17th, 2018, Miami’s triennial birthday celebration, Charter Day Ball, will occur. The event will run from 8pm to 1am at John D. Millett Hall. This year, the theme is Into the Ivy.

We would like to personally invite you to the 2018 Charter Day Ball. It truly is a night you will not want to miss. A black tie affair, there will be live entertainment, dancing, hors d’oeuvres, and a special feeling of camaraderie and pride within our community.

Tickets [$40 for faculty/staff] are available online and in person through the Miami University Box Office. If you’re looking to purchase your tickets in person, the Box Office is located in the HOME Office, and open Monday – Friday, 8 am and 5 pm. Discount alert, if you purchase your ticket in a group of 8 or more, each ticket will be discounted by 5 dollars!

Feel free to reach out to us by email at [email protected]. We welcome questions, ideas, and opportunities! Further, we’d love to interact with you all on social media. Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Cincinnati Biomedical Sciences Day

Some of your undergraduates may be very interested in this event hosted by UC to provide information, facilities tours, etc. This wil be especially useful to those that may be considering their summer research program, SURF, which has applications due February 1. From the hosts:

We’re writing to invite you to attend our annual Biomedical Research Day (BMRD), which will be held on Friday, January 5th, 2018. Online registration is now available.

We hope you will be able to come! The BMRD includes tours of labs and core facilities, plus a grad fair and a stimulating lecture, fortified by a complimentary lunch! The featured speaker this year will be Dr. Steve Davidson, a very accomplished young scientist (and an excellent speaker!), whose lab is identifying the neural substrates in the brain that regulate pain tolerance and using these insights to suggest new therapies.

You can read more details about the event by checking out our BMRD flyer.

fNIRS training in spring

Those that are interested in learning more about fNIRS (functional neuroimaging) have the chance to benefit from a course Vrinda is offering in the spring semester, which is open to all. There will be both an undergraduate and graduate component, so any of your graduate students or RAs could attend. The course will cover basics of cortical organization, hemodynamic response, and fNIRS (experimental design, data collection, and basics of data analysis). The meeting times are:

Undergraduate (PSY 375): WF 11:40 – 1:00; M 2:55 – 3:45 (Lab)

Graduate (PSY 620): M 1:15 – 2:55; M 2:55 – 3:45 (Lab)

Please direct any questions directly to Vrinda.

Working groups for Big Ideas

The dean is organizing working groups for inter-departmental conversations regarding the Big Ideas. Unfortunately, these are scheduled during other obligations that Vaishali and I have, and regardless many of you may be better suited to join these conversations. For example, Paul attended the working group recently focused on Human Health. The two remaining meetings for the semester are as follows; please let me know if you are able to attend to represent the department:

  • Big data and Analytics: Wednesday, 11/29, Benton 114
  • Social justice and Intercultural competence: Wednesday, 12/6, Shriver (Bystrom-Reid)

Do you partner with foundations or corporations?

If you have any collaborations with foundations or corporations, it would be very beneficial to represent the department in response to a request from the provost for such partnerships. This information will be included in discussions during the next meeting of the Board of Trustees. If you have any current or recent partnerships, please complete the information using this form by December 1. The form will ask for the entity and start/end dates. You will need to complete the form separately for each partnership.