An Official Employee Publication From the Office of University Relations

The Kansas Board of Regents has approved sabbatical leaves for KU faculty members for part or all of the 2001-2002 academic year. The faculty members, sabbatical topics and locations are as follows.

Academic Year
• William Comer, Slavic languages and literatures: to conduct research to enhance teaching on Russian religious cultures at the turn of the twentieth century and also develop technology-based resources for language learning of Slavic languages (St. Petersburg, Russia; Lawrence).

• Christopher Drahozal, law: to write a book on the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution. The book will give a brief history of the clause and then analyze its current importance (Lawrence).

• Daphne Fautin, ecology and evolutionary biology and Natural History Museum: to inventory and catalog sea anemones of the world and disseminate information about them on CD and in print, and organize a workshop on the future of anemone taxonomy (natural history museums in North America and Europe; Israel).

• Shengli Feng, East Asian languages and cultures: to conduct research to formulate a system in which prosodic rules and syntactic principles interact with each other and write a book with the results. This will be the first book written in English on prosodic syntax (Lawrence).

• Donna Luckey, urban planning: to conduct research for a model and a book on the planning of sustainable systems using cultural resources carrying capacity within Geographic Information Systems (Costa Rica; Lawrence).

• R. Douglas Niehaus, electrical engineering and computer science: to work with Ron Cytron at Washington University, St. Louis, on his DARPA research project titled “Analyzable Middleware for Composable Embedded Systems” (St. Louis).

• Ann Schofield, American studies and women’s studies: to write a book on the cultural changes in America from 1880-1920. The book will examine mourning clothing, piano ownership, murder trials, immigrant newspapers and selected novels (Lawrence).

• Donna Tucker, physics and astronomy: to conduct research on the atmospheric conditions associated with hail in eastern Australia to create a climate model of meteorological conditions in the Southern Hemisphere (Aspendale, Australia).

• Jianbo Zhang, economics: to conduct research and write two papers in the area of evolutionary game theory and how it relates to government policy formation (Lawrence).

Fall Semester
• James Ashe, ecology and evolutionary biology and Natural History Museum: to develop a fully illustrated taxonomic synthesis of the 58 Australian aleocharine genera, their 201 included species, their biology and their known distribution (Canberra, Australia).

• Kristin Bowman-James, chemistry: to conduct research for two projects, the first designed to facilitate remediation efforts at nuclear waste sites and the second focused on current environmental and health-related issues (Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Lawrence).

• Luis Corteguera, history: to write chapters four and five of a book titled Before God and King: Ordinary People in Politics in Early Modern Spain. This book focuses on individuals with peasant or artisan backgrounds who became political actors in Spain between 1500 and 1800 (Lawrence).

• David Darwin, civil and environmental engineering: to revise a textbook on reinforced concrete, study the seismic response of reinforced concrete structures, revise course notes, and prepare a research proposal (Laramie, Wyo.; Cataumet, Mass.; Lawrence).

• Deepak Datta, business: to identify and validate key relationships between top management team characteristics, cognitive processes and environmental conditions (Los Angeles; Lawrence).

• Douglas Denney, psychology: to conduct research and enhance instruction in neuropsychology and also adapt a protocol for quantifying areas of lesioning in MRI scans of the central nervous system for patients with multiple sclerosis (KU Medical Center; Lawrence).

• Tyrone Duncan, mathematics: to conduct research on the structure and application of fractional Brownian motion and investigate the existence and the uniqueness of solutions of stochastic differential equations that contain a fractional Brownian motion (Lawrence; Europe).

• Mark Hirschey, business: to investigate the possibility that scientific information about the quality of patenting activity can be employed to assess the future profit-making abilities of innovative, fast-changing, science-based companies (KU and other research universities).

• Earl Iversen, design: to produce multimedia documentation and analysis of the oldest surviving art environment in the West and create a digital videotape for easy reproduction and distribution (France; United Kingdom).

• Brian Laird, chemistry: to conduct joint research project with former KU professor Ben Leimkuhler on the development, evaluation and application of novel algorithms for molecular simulation (University of Leicester, U.K.).

• Bozenna Pasik-Duncan, mathematics: to continue work on applying modern stochastic analysis in sciences and engineering, focusing primarily on medicine, telecommunications, finance and quantum physics (France; Poland; Germany; Italy; Lawrence).

• Elaine Sharp, political science: to conduct research for a book on local governments’ role in controversies over morality issues such as the management of abortion protest, gambling casinos and the handling of hate groups (Lawrence).

• Norman Slade, ecology and evolutionary biology and Natural History Museum: to work in conjunction with colleagues at Purdue University to develop mathematical models of multiple trophic levels in fragmented landscapes and stochastic growth of size-structured populations (West Lafayette, Ind.; Lawrence).

• Iris Smith, English: to write the first two chapters of a book titled Mabou Mines: Innovation in Performance Since 1980, which focuses on the history of the New York theatre company Mabou Mines (Lawrence).

• Beverly Sypher, communication studies: to complete a monograph length essay on reclaiming civil discourse in the workplace and develop an outline for a book along the same line (Lawrence; Asolo, Italy).

• Kurt Thurmaier, public administration: to conduct second-stage field research and draft a book manuscript on successful strategies of Polish and Ukrainian local self-governments (Lawrence; Poland; Ukraine).

• William Tsutsui, history: to conduct research on the environmental history of Japan during World War II as background for a book titled Forests in the Dark Valley: Toward an Environmental History of Wartime Japan (Washington, D.C.; Lawrence).

• James Walker, geology: to conduct geologic studies on recent faulting in California and South America to lay the groundwork for a new research program on the Andes (Chile; Argentina; Ridgecrest, Calif.; Lawrence).

• Thomas Weiss, economics: to construct estimates of the size and growth of the economy of the Middle Atlantic region of the United States during the 18th century (Philadelphia; New York; Lawrence).

• Theodore Wilson, history: to conduct research for a book focusing on the cultural, social and political effects of the militarization of American society between 1945 and 1975 in response to the perceived need to combat the threat of global communism (Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; Madison, Wisc.; Fort Leavenworth; Lawrence).

Spring Semester
• Helen Alexander, ecology and evolutionary biology: to conduct research on the development of a population dynamics model for wild sunflowers and use the data to explore how insect seed predation may influence regional plant abundance (Canberra, Australia; University of Virginia; Lawrence).

• C. Daniel Batson, psychology: to further prepare a book manuscript that summarizes the experimental evidence for the existence of altruism in humans (Lawrence).

• Robert Brawley, art: to complete 15 still-life paintings in a trompe l’oel style (Lawrence).

• John Colombo, human development and family life: to establish a laboratory and collaborative research arrangement with doctors at the Child Nutrition Research Centre of the Flinders Medical Centre and Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide, Australia, and complete a textbook on infant behavior and development (Adelaide, Australia; Lawrence).

• Susan Craig, University Libraries: to investigate four primary topics related to academic and art libraries: improving library instruction programs; assuring adequate facilities; incorporating digitization projects; and revamping collection developments (Midwestern and Southern California libraries).

• Charles Eldredge, art history: to organize an exhibition of “American Narrative Painting” for the Southern Fine Art Museum Director Consortium and prepare its accompanying publication (Smithsonian, Lawrence).

• Richard Hardin, English: to read Shakespeare and Renaissance commentaries on Plautus to produce a book that shows that the themes of fate, fortune and chance can be linked to comedy as well as tragedy (United Kingdom; Lawrence).

• Thomas Heilke, political science: to produce a book contrasting the political thoughts of John Howard Yoder, a theological ethicist, with several leading traditions of political philosophers (Lawrence).

• David Holmes, psychology: to write a book on abnormal behavior for the general reader (Kansas City, Mo.; Lawrence).

• Mary Jordan, design: to complete a body of work using fabric and textiles as the primary medium. Works will be presented in Romania and Detroit, and in a solo exhibit (Lawrence).

• Craig Martin, ecology and evolutionary biology: to perform ecophysiological explorations of three plants that illustrate evolutionary extremes of adaptation: the living stones, the shootless orchids and the puyas (South Africa; Singapore; Venezuela; Lawrence).

• Deron McGee, music and dance: to conduct research on the natural functions and operations of the brain as related to learning music theory and write a music theory pedagogy textbook grounded in this research (Lawrence).

• Garth Myers, geography: to conduct field research on urban poverty versus urban sustainability of small-scale construction materials mining in Lusaka, Zambia (Zambia, Lawrence).

• Trung Van Nguyen, chemical and petroleum engineering: to develop a scanning probe microscopy technique to characterize the surface ionic activity of proton conducting polymers (Lawrence).

• Joseph O’Brien, teaching and leadership: to conduct research at select presidential libraries and synthesize several lines of inquiry into an issues-centered instructional model (presidential libraries; Lawrence).

• Michael Roberts, psychology and human development and family life: to develop a conceptual model for program evaluation and assess therapeutic outcomes of psychosocial interventions (Lawrence).

• Daniel Rockhill, architecture: to develop a critical monograph that forms a historical record of the ideals and buildings created by Dan Rockhill and Associates (Lawrence).

• Terry Slocum, geography: to revise book titled Thematic Cartography and Visualization by bringing the chapters up-to-date and including entirely new chapters on virtual environments and map projections (Lawrence).

• Marjorie Swann, English: to begin work on a book titled Without Conjunction: Desire, Society and Anti-Fruition in Early Modern England, which explores the flight from reproductive sexuality that permeated 16th and 17th century English culture (Lawrence).

• Howard Sypher, communication studies: to conduct research of the evolving role of telecommunications technology in everyday life and explore the interactive effects of technology and globalization on people’s work life (Finland; Italy; KU Medical Center).

• William Tuttle, American studies: to conduct research and begin production of a book titled Police Brutality: African Americans, the Criminal Justice Systems and Racial Violence in Twentieth-Century America (Washington, D.C.; Lawrence).
• Susan Twombly, teaching and leadership: to study the implementation and early outcomes of the newly operating system of university accreditation established in Ecuador in 1998 (Ecuador).