Thomas Reigstad, professor emeritus of English, presented his paper “Mark Twain and the Coal Question” at the Eighth International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies, hosted by the Center for Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College August 3–5. His presentation examined the complex and often contradictory positions Twain took toward the coal industry during his time as co-owner and editor of the Buffalo Express. Twain’s ambivalence—on one hand siding with victimized coal consumers and even low-paid coal miners, while on the other embracing the entrepreneurship of multimillionaire coal moguls like his father-in-law, Jervis Langdon—reflects his lifelong tug between his personal allegiances toward the working class he was born to and the privileged class he aspired to.

Margaret A. Burt, Esq., legal training specialist with the Center for Development of Human Services/Institute for Community Health Promotion (CDHS/ICHP), received the Mark Hardin Award for Child Welfare Legal Scholarship and Systems Change from the American Bar Association’s Center on Children and the Law at its national conference on April 27. The award, named for the center’s longtime director of child welfare, is given to an attorney, law professor, judge, or legislator who has shown achievement and commitment to legal scholarship and systems change in the area of child welfare. Ms. Burt specializes in the areas of child abuse and neglect, permanency for foster children, the termination of parental rights, and adoptions. She provides national and local training on such issues as the Adoption and Safe Families Act, the Indian Child Welfare Act, confidentiality, legal ethics in child welfare, the representation of children, and trial techniques. She also consults on legislation connected to child welfare issues. Ms. Burt, who also serves as counsel to the New York Public Welfare Association, was recognized at the NYPWA’s 148th annual summer conference, held July 16–19 in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Susan Mary Paige, lecturer in Academic Success; Amitra A. Wall, professor of sociology and interim associate provost; Joseph Marren, chair and professor of communication; Amy DiBartolo Rockwell, first-year experience and accessibility services librarian; and Brian Dubenion, student retention specialist in Student Success, had an interdisciplinary qualitative research study, “The Learning Community Experience in Higher Education: High-Impact Practice for Student Retention,” published as a research monograph in the Routledge Research in Higher Education series. The research is based on the authors’ work in full-immersion learning community (LC) experiences at Buffalo State. The authors presented eight in-depth case studies featuring first-person student accounts of four consecutive LC student cohorts (2010–2013). In analyzing the emergent student themes, the authors focused on the maturity students developed as they progressed toward their degrees and graduate school. In addition they evaluated the impact the LC experience had on (a) the students’ post-LC college experiences, perceptions, successes, and obstacles they faced; and (b) the students’ persistence in college.

Daniel Cunningham's paper "A Diamond Principle Consistent with AD'' now appears in the latest issue of the Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 58 (3): 397–407. This refereed journal publishes research papers in all areas of logic and the foundations of mathematics, including set theory and mathematical logic. Cunningham's paper introduces a combinatorial principle that generalizes a principle due to Ronald Jensen (Humboldt University at Berlin). In the paper, it is shown that this new principle holds in John Steel's (UC Berkeley) inner model K(R). Thus, it follows that this diamond principle is consistent with the axiom of determinacy (AD).

Thomas Reigstad, professor emeritus of English, was an invited panelist at the Association for Documentary Editing’s 2017 annual conference, held June 22–24 in Buffalo. Reigstad presented “The Tale of the Lost Huckleberry Finn Manuscript” as part of the special session “Scholarly Editors and the Law,” chaired by Salvatore Martoche, retired State Supreme Court appellate justice. Fellow panelists discussed recovering stolen Thomas Edison documents and recovering North Carolina’s copy of the Bill of Rights. Other conference speakers included the editor of the Mary Baker Eddy Papers, the associate editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Papers, the managing editor of the Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project, and the editor of the Papers of Martin Van Buren.

Lisa Berglund, professor of English, attended the Dictionary Society of North America’s 21st Biennial Conference June 9–11 in Barbados. Berglund, who served six years as executive secretary of the DSNA, was cited in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Lingua Franca blog post on June 15. She is currently the executive director of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.

Maria Pacheco, associate professor of chemistry, presented "Creation of a Faculty Guide for the Use of Open Educational Resources" during the Fostering Innovation in Teaching with Technology (FITT) Spring Symposium on April 27. The FITT Spring Symposium is a signature element of the FITT Academy, providing a forum for FITT scholars to share their project outcomes.

Michael Littman, chair of the Business Department, was the keynote speaker and session chair at the 6th International Scientific Conference on Project Management in the Baltic Countries, held at the University of Latvia in Riga on April 27 and 28. Attendees were from 18 countries. The paper, "Six Ethical Leadership Strategies for Project Management Success," was coauthored with his son, Ezra S. Littman, a graduate student in the School of Architecture at the University at Buffalo.

Thomas Kostusiak, production technical manager in the Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall, was interviewed on WBFO-FM 88.7 about his work as a sound artist and his most recent project, "To The Moon."

Deborah Silverman, associate professor of communication, presented "Social Media Ethics for the Triple Bottom Line," with Jonathon Slater and Emmanuel Tchividjian, at the Public Relations Society of America's 2017 Northeast District Conference in Corning, New York, on April 28. Dr. Silverman will chair the 2018 district conference in Buffalo.