University community reports recent publications, honors, presentations, service and rankings
For the Record provides information about recent professional activities and honors of University of Delaware faculty, staff, students and alumni.
Recent publications, honors, presentations, service and rankings include the following:
Publications
Jessica Madiraca, associate instructor in the School of Nursing and a graduate student at the Medical University of South Carolina, was lead author in the recently published article “Palliative care interventions in advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: An integrative review.” The article was published by the Journal of Palliative Medicine with co-authors Kathleen Lindell, Patrick Coyne, and Sarah Miller from the Medical University of South Carolina. It focused on analyzing palliative care interventions in patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Through the integrated review, Madiraca and her team discovered that there was no single intervention that was superior to another, and that women are underrepresented in the literature on palliative care interventions. Women typically have worse symptoms, tend to go underdiagnosed and have harsher hospitalization rates. Madiraca stressed the importance of providing palliative care earlier in the disease process that provides emotional, spiritual and mental aid. She aims to make palliative care a larger part of the curriculum at UD, recognizing the impact this can have on providing these patients with a full extent of care.
Honors
Patricia Sloane-White, professor of anthropology and chair of the Department of Women and Gender Studies, has been awarded a fully funded visiting fellowship at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University for the month of July, where she will focus on anthropology of marriage and gender, socio-legal studies, and Islamic law and economics. Since its inception in 1963, Kyoto University’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) has been working to become the world’s center for Southeast Asian regional studies. CSEAS brings together researchers who specialize in Southeast Asian studies across various fields ranging from the humanities studies and social sciences to the natural sciences including the life sciences to work on key issues in the region.
Two students from the Center for Composite Materials were recognized with awards at the 28th University Research Symposium, an event hosted by the Baltimore-Washington Chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE), which took place at the University of Maryland, College Park on April 25, 2023. Ph.D. student Soyeon Park received the first place Boeing Award of Achievement for her podium presentation at the conference, and Ph. D. student Shagata Das received first place for the conference’s poster competition.
Leslie Reidel, professor of theatre, co-created and directed a new pantomime staging of Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, with the music of Edvard Grieg, that was composed for the original 1876 production of the play. The Philadelphia Orchestra and Philadelphia’s Enchantment Theater Company presented the world premiere of the production as part of its Family Concert Series this winter. The performance included life-sized puppets, colorful costumes and dancing to tell the tale of the title character’s journey from the Norwegian mountains to the North African desert and back.
Cordelia, a film by Nigerian director Tunde Kelani featuring a soundtrack performed by the UD Symphony Orchestra under the direction of James Allen Anderson, professor in the School of Music, will be shown as part of the 2023 African Film Festival in New York City. The film will have its theatrical premiere on Monday, May 15, at Lincoln Center. The movie, a romantic period-drama, is based on the novel of the same name by Nigerian playwright, essayist and poet Femi Osofsan. The collaboration with Kelani was the first project by the UD Cultural Fusion Initiative, which is the catalyst for artistic projects that span disciplines, transcend borders and political ideologies to connect students with global artists. The film was shown at UD in November 2022.
Presentations
Rachel Vause, doctoral student in the Department of Art History, and department alumni Caitlin Hutchinson, Emily Shartrand and Christine Bachman presented research inspired by the career of art history professor Laurence Nees at the annual meeting of the Medieval Academy of America. Nees, who retired in January 2023 after more than four decades at UD, devoted his career to illuminating the study of medieval art for fellow scholars, students and the public. The group presented two sessions at the meeting: Translating the Medieval Image: Networks of Meaning focused on Nees’ emphasis on the originality of medieval artists in translating images into their own creative vision. Globalizing Medieval Art Education honored Nees’ efforts to broaden and diversify the medieval curriculum and included a discussion by museum curators and academics about the ongoing process of decentering medieval art from western Europe. Both sessions were prefaced by a video greeting from Nees who also participated in the question-and-answer portion of the sessions via Zoom.
Service
Matthew Robinson, deputy director of UD’s Community Engagement Initiative and professor of sports management, serves as the director of the International Coaching Certificate Program (ICECP). On April 24, 2023, he participated in the program’s graduation ceremony in Lausanne, Switzerland, where 31 coaches from 27 nations and 27 sports received diplomas. A joint program of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, UD and Olympic Solidarity (a department of the IOC), the ICECP provides national-level coaches with enhanced coaching and leadership skills, along with the latest coaching principles from UD and the USOPC. “As always, it is an honor to work with the USOPC in offering the ICECP, and it could not be done without the support of the USOPC and Olympic Solidarity,” Robinson said. “It is so humbling to see the work of these amazing individuals. They have all done significant work that will impact sport in their countries for years to come. Our ICECP tutors have done an amazing job of mentoring the participants and helping them develop sound projects that have already had an impact around the globe.”
Rankings
Graduates of the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics working in accounting and finance earn higher salaries compared to the median average of their public school peers in those fields, according to recent rankings in The Wall Street Journal. Lerner graduates in accounting rank 16th among their peers by averaging an annual salary of $73,522 during their first 10 years after graduation, over 9% higher than the median average of $67,717. UD grads working in finance average an annual salary of $105,720 during their first decade after graduation, ranking Lerner 14th among public schools. That salary is also over 9% higher than the median average of $96,751 for finance graduates. The rankings were compiled by the Burning Glass Institute, a nonprofit organization that researches employment trends.
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