Barbara Dray, assistant professor, Exceptional Education, co-presented a session, “Scientifically Based Reading Instruction for African American Learners with Dialect Difference,” with Satasha Green, assistant professor, Exceptional Education, and Erica Simon from the University of Texas at Austin at the 52nd annual International Reading Association Conference in Toronto, Ontario, May 13–17. The session examined the cultural variations that influence reading achievement as well as research-based instructional reading practices for African American English (AAE) speakers.

Barbara Dray, assistant professor, Exceptional Education, co-presented a session, “Scientifically Based Reading Instruction for African American Learners with Dialect Difference,” with Satasha Green, assistant professor, Exceptional Education, and Erica Simon from the University of Texas at Austin at the 52nd annual International Reading Association Conference in Toronto, Ontario, May 13–17. The session examined the cultural variations that influence reading achievement as well as research-based instructional reading practices for African American English (AAE) speakers.

Nancy Chicola, associate professor, Elementary Education and Reading, was a runner-up for theInternational Journal of the Arts in Society’s International Award for Excellence in the area of the arts in June. The journal’s editors and the International Advisory Board deemed Chicola’s paper, “Movement Art: Engaging Children in the Artist’s Visual Chronicle of Sport to Enhance Historical Thinking,” one of the 10 highest-ranked papers to emerge from the referee process and according to the selection criteria outlined in the referee guidelines.

Zhang Jie, professor, Sociology, and director, Center for China Studies, and coauthor Zhenshao Song published the chapter “Interdisciplinary Sociology and Case Studies” in Sociology (J. Li, ed., Beijing: Renmin University of China Press, 2007).

Ralph Wahlstrom, chair and associate professor, English, presented the workshop “Writing Toward Peace: Using the Power of Writing to Promote Nonviolence” at the Fifth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities, held at the American University of Paris, July 17–20.

Phyllis Thompson, assistant professor, Art Education, presented her peer-reviewed paper “Outcomes of Inservice Art Teacher Technology Training: Instructional Resources for the Classroom” at the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education’s Ed-Media World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications, held in Vancouver, British Columbia, June 25–29.

Susan Schroeder, assistant professor, English, was invited by the Executive Committee of the Conference on English Education (CEE) of the National Council of Teachers of English to participate in the CEE Leadership and Policy Summit, a working meeting to develop statements, frameworks, and white papers collaboratively in thematic inquiry groups, held in Lake Forest, Illinois, June 1–3.

A proposal by John Popovich, associate professor, Career and Technical Education, and Karen Kwandrans, lecturer, Educational Foundations, titled “Strategies that Focus on Integrating Academics and Career Exploration,” was selected for inclusion in the 2007 program for the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships annual GEAR UP conference in San Francisco, California, July 22–25. As project director for the GEAR UP grant, Popovich also received a commitment from the U.S. Department of Education for an additional year of GEAR UP funding (September 1, 2007–August 31, 2008).

A proposal by John Popovich, associate professor, Career and Technical Education, and Karen Kwandrans, lecturer, Educational Foundations, titled “Strategies that Focus on Integrating Academics and Career Exploration,” was selected for inclusion in the 2007 program for the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships annual GEAR UP conference in San Francisco, California, July 22–25. As project director for the GEAR UP grant, Popovich also received a commitment from the U.S. Department of Education for an additional year of GEAR UP funding (September 1, 2007–August 31, 2008).

Kenneth Payne, professor, Fine Arts, performed an iron pour titled “Fire & Ice: A Circus Inferno” on July 14 at the Burchfield Nature and Art Center in West Seneca. Payne and team members Carley Jean Hill, William Cavanaugh, and Dan Matheson poured 2,700-degree molten iron into blocks of optically clear ice, augmented by special effects of gun powder and magnesium. The pyrotechnic event has also been performed in Finland, Latvia, and Estonia.