College of Arts and Sciences Research Conference

Welcome from Our Dean

Dr. Mark Hoyert
Dean – College of Arts and Sciences
IU Northwest

Welcome to the Fifth Annual Indiana University Northwest College of Arts and Sciences Research Conference. The presentations you will enjoy showcase the quality, depth, and breadth of original, theoretical, and applied research being conducted by the talented faculty, students, and alumni from Indiana University Northwest’s College of Arts and Sciences and our colleagues from other divisions, schools, and universities. These presentations highlight the importance and relevance of intellectual pursuit in the arts, humanities, and social, behavioral, physical, and life sciences to our understanding of ourselves, our communities, our nation, and our world. We know you will be intellectually stimulated by the caliber and variety of presentations.

This year’s conference marks a transition. The conference was founded through the vision and dogged efforts of Dean Dorothy Ige to secure funding, establish the infrastructure, and nurture the conference into existence and success.  Professor Ige has returned to the faculty and will join us to present a paper rather than as the conference host. This will also be the first conference without our colleague Robin Hass Birky. As much as anyone, Robin was responsible for the development and shape of the conference.  Robin served on each of the first three conference organizing committees. She chaired three paper sessions. She presented four papers whose delicious titles included phrases such as “Language lined with flesh”, “Goddes pryvetee”, and “Rhetoric-Naked and Plain”.  In her conference duties as with all of her other tasks; Robin was the spirit of IU Northwest. Robin even provided the title of the conference: “The Shoulder of Giants” and the background explanatory information found in the program.  We wish to thank both Professors Ige and Hass Birky for all of their efforts and to dedicate this year’s conference to the memory of Robin.

We also thank Chancellor Bruce Bergland and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Kwesi Aggrey for their support and sponsorship. We also owe a special thanks to the planners and the internal and external participants for their contributions to this event. Please join me in standing on the shoulders of giants, glimpsing further, and enjoying and celebrating research, scholarship, and creativity at IU Northwest.