Retiring Faculty to be Honored at Reception

Some say you never really retire from academia; you just go on permanent sabbatical. And it’s time to pay tribute to this year’s faculty engaging in that hallowed rite of passage.

The McMicken College of Arts & Sciences will host a reception honoring retiring faculty from 3 to 5 p.m. May 29 in Room 400 B & C in Tangeman University Center. For more information, contact Barb Stallmeyer at Barbara.Stallmeyer@uc.edu or 513-556-5858.

Faculty tributes are posted on the A&S

website

, and short summaries of each faculty member’s career are included here:

John K. Alexander

, History

Alexander can claim the distinction of having taught in the Department of History in six succeeding decades, having arrived at the end of the 1960s. He began his publishing career in 1967, and his 1980 monograph on the responses to poverty in Philadelphia in the last half of the 18th century established his national reputation as a historian of the Early American Republic. He has won the A.B. “Dolly” Cohen Award for Excellence in Teaching, Distinguished Teaching Professor Award and Ohio Academy of History Award.

Sanford Ames

, Romance Languages & Literatures

Ames has defined 20th-century French literature and civilization since 1983, the year he joined UC. As he focused his research, he delved into the issues of literary representation that writers faced under the pressure of historical events such as World War I, World War II, the Chinese Revolution and decolonization. Ames enjoyed investigating and teaching the language that 20th century writers carved, sculpted and deconstructed to shape human experience and existential questions in aesthetic and memorable creations.

Jan Bending

, Sociology

During her career, Bending initially combined doctoral-level research and clinical counseling expertise in serving numerous organizations outside of academia. More recently, she has provided years of valuable teaching in the Sociology Department, bringing her knowledge of both organizations and of personnel problems to bear in her teaching. She served as director of Undergraduate Studies and also coordinated the Family Studies Program.

John Brackett

, History

After 25 years in the History Department, Brackett will write and research full time. A Renaissance scholar, his attention has converged on the reality and imagination of Africa and Africans in Renaissance Italy. Brackett has been a dedicated and sought-after teacher of Renaissance Europe. Among his many contributions to UC are his service as department head of African and African-American Studies from 1995-1999 and 2002 -2007 and as acting head of the History Department from July through December 2008.

Guy Cameron

, Biological Sciences

Cameron joined the faculty in 1998 as department head. Under his leadership, the department added new faculty, improved scholarly productivity and enhanced undergraduate education, most notably by embracing methods of active learning. Cameron’s research has focused on the ecology of terrestrial rodents and conservation biology.

Philip Clayton

, English

Clayton’s educational connection to UC runs deep. He earned his master’s degree in 1968, doctorate in 1973 and postdoctoral fellowship in 1974 from UC. He joined the faculty a year later, teaching in University College, College of Applied Sciences and A&S. Clayton had an affinity for dramatic writing and served on several departmental and university committees.

Jim Deddens

, Mathematics

Deddens graduated with a degree in Mathematics from UC in 1965. He went on to get a PhD in Pure Mathematics in 1969 at Indiana University and later became a tenured faculty member in the Mathematics Department at the University of Kansas. Deddens joined the Mathematics Department in 1977. Deddens then switched his area of research to applied statistics, working tirelessly to promote the statistics program at UC. He has specialized in applications of statistics to epidemiology.

Paula Dubeck

, Sociology

Dubeck has edited or authored five books and more than 20 articles and book chapters on topics typically related to professional women and women in the workplace. She served as department head of Sociology for 17 years, director of the Center for the Study of Work and Family for eight years, and acting head of Anthropology. She is a previous winner of the A&S Dean's Award for Outstanding Service.

Amy Elder

, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Elder’s teaching and research specialties were African literatures and cultures and Ethnic American literatures and cultures, with an emphasis on African and American ethnic women. She developed a sequence of undergraduate courses in Ethnic American and African literature, and was the former director of the American Ethnic Studies Certificate. She began her study of African literature while on a Senior Fulbright Award at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, in 1976-77. In WGSS she taught undergraduate and graduate courses in African, ethnic and third world women's literature from a feminist/womanist perspective.

T. David Evans

, Sociology

Evans’ research focused on white collar crime, sociology of law and criminological theory. Evans worked with colleague, Steve Carlton-Ford, on comparative research concerning militarization, public corruption and human development.

Robert Frank

, Psychology

Frank’s early research focused on the neuropharmacology of substance abuse, and then human taste and smell perception. His teaching interests included the history and philosophy of psychology, perception and the biological bases of behavior. He served at various times as A&S associate dean for research and graduate studies, UC associate vice president for research, associate university dean and interim dean of the Graduate School. Frank will be the new dean of Arts and Sciences at Ohio University.

Michelle Gibson

, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

As undergraduate director in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Gibson helped anchor the program and was also valued for her graduate teaching and mentorship. Originally trained in American literature, Composition Research and Pedagogy, and Creative Writing, Gibson’s research built upon these areas throughout her career and contributed as well to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer studies.

H. Brian Halsall

, Chemistry

Halsall joined the faculty in 1974. His research interests included developing well-defined surfaces for hosting macromolecular interactions, immunoassay and blood substitutes, drug-glycoprotein interactions, and glycoprotein structure and stability. During his tenure Halsall served on numerous committees at the departmental and university levels. He has been honored with the UC Faculty Award for Excellence, The Cincinnati ACS Chemist of the Year Award, and election as a Fellow of the Graduate School and member of the National Academy of Inventors.

William Jensen

, Chemistry

Jensen was appointed Oesper Professor of the History of Chemistry and Chemical Education at UC in 1986. He is the author of more than 260 papers and reviews in the fields of inorganic chemistry, chemical education, and the history of chemistry, and is the author of multiple books. His work has largely focused on late 19th and early 20th century physical and inorganic chemistry and the history of chemical apparatus. He received the 2005 Edelstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry.

Anthony Leung

, Mathematics

Leung was a devoted researcher and teacher for more than 40 years at UC. He has taught various mathematical courses in both undergraduate and graduate levels and is an internationally renowned expert in systems of nonlinear partial and ordinary differential equations and applications. He has published more than 70 research articles and two research books.

George Marketos

, Mathematics

After a career in industry, Marketos joined the faculty at the University of Cincinnati College of Applied Science in 1974 as an instructor of mathematics. He has taught at UC for 38 years and within A&S since 1986. His record of instruction earned him several teaching awards, including nomination for the coveted A.B. “Dolly” Cohen Award for Excellence in Teaching.

John Martin

, Philosophy

Martin started as an assistant professor at UC in 1973. He has sought throughout his career to bring the concepts of logic to bear on issues in formal semantics, especially as it applies to natural language. In the 1990s, Martin turned his attention to problems in the history of logic, writing on figures such as Aristotle, Plotinus, Boethius, Proclus, Ockham, Arnauld, Malebranche, Frege, and Lukasiewicz.

David Meyer

, Geology

Meyer joined UC in 1975. He has published widely in the field of paleobiology, especially on the paleontology of echinoderms, the ecology of coral reefs, and the regional paleoecology of Ordovician strata in the Cincinnati area and of Mississippian strata in the Lake Cumberland area of Kentucky and Tennessee. He played a leading role in developing the graduate paleontology program at UC into one of the top 10 programs in the nation.

Hollis “Dane” Mitchell

, Mathematics

Mitchell has challenged the brightest students and guided those who are floundering for more than 30 years. His office was always open to students, and he was known for his willingness to share his wealth of teaching knowledge with other instructors.

James Osterburg

, Mathematics

Osterburg came to UC in 1971 as a Taft Postdoctoral Fellow and was hired as an assistant professor the next year, beginning 40 years of service to the Department of Mathematical Sciences. His research was primarily concerned with the action of groups – the mathematical abstraction of the concept of symmetry. His research later moved into the area of actions of Hopf algebras.

Tony Perzigian

, Anthropology

Perzigian has been associated with UC for 40 years as a professor in anthropology. For more than half of that time, he served in a variety of administrative roles, including interim athletic director, acting head of the African American Studies Department, head of the Anthropology Department, associate dean of A&S, vice provost and provost. He has had significant publications regarding dental anthropology, human evolution and variation, prehistoric New World populations, and the understanding of evidence for prehistoric diseases. He is a certified diplomate of American Board of Forensic Anthropology.

Neal Ritchey

, Sociology

Ritchey published widely, authoring more than 45 articles and book chapters, as well as dozens of technical reports, on topics as diverse as the demography of green monkeys, the psychology of prejudice, the measurement of headache symptoms, and the international determinants of health. Since joining the UC faculty in 1976, he has mentored more than two dozen graduate students and served on more than 80 graduate committees in a diverse array of departments.

Bruce Schefft

, Psychology

Schefft joined the Department of Psychology in 1989. He published widely, particularly on the clinical neuropsychology of epilepsy. He played a leading role in creating the neuropsychology program in Psychology and for many years was the director of the program. In addition, he served on the editorial boards of two leading journals in the field, mentored 15 doctoral students, and published 60 journal articles and a book. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the National Academy of Neuropsychology.

Roger Selya

, Geography

While Selya is best known for his acclaimed work in Asia, his scholarly interests also included work in demography, medical geography, the geography of religion, musical instrument manufacturing, and the geography of human rights abuses. He coordinated the development of the original UC GenEd program. Among Selya’s honors are the 1991 McMicken College of Arts & Sciences Dean’s Award for Distinguished Contribution to University Governance, the 1996 A.B. “Dolly” Cohen Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2004 Future of Learning: Addressing Issues of Diversity honoree designation.

Edgar Slotkin

, English

Slotkin is regarded as an expert in Celtic languages, literatures and folklore, was the 2011 Celtic Studies Association of North America Yearbook honoree. He says the interdisciplinary nature of his field has been challenging and kept him interested in his more than 40 years of research.

James Stever

, Political Science

Stever is widely published in professional journals and has worked on developing intergovernmental management models to combat terrorism. He has served as a member of two international journals’ editorial boards and has published multiple books. Two of his books focus on the theory, philosophy and issues surrounding American Federalism and intergovernmental management. He has studied how American presidents have attempted to manage and influence intergovernmental relations.

Robert Stutz

, Psychology

Stutz’s early career focused on a biologically oriented brand of psychology called physiological psychology. In addition to his animal work on the biology of reward and addiction, Stutz collaborated with colleagues on projects related to human clinical assessment and treatment. Later in his career, his research focused on psychological assessment and evaluation research, working with numerous colleagues and students from UC and the surrounding community.

Katherine Tepperman

, Biological Sciences

Tepperman’s main research interest concerns metal-based drugs and the use of cell culture models in determination of mechanism of action. She has studied gold-based drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and has identified specific gold-containing metabolites in patient fluids. She has worked on determining whether any of these metabolites can inhibit replication of the AIDS virus. She also served as undergraduate director the past decade, assisting thousands of students.

Barbara Wenner

, English

Wenner taught courses in literature, with particular interest in Jane Austen, the 18th and 19th century British novel and early travel narratives by women. Her book, “Prospect and Refuge: The Landscape of Jane Austen” was published in 2006 and she is working on a book-length project titled "Parts Beyond the Sea: Foreign Landscapes as Perceived by Early British Women Travelers."