College Highlights, Summer 2017
In the College of Arts and Sciences, there are always big things happening. As we prepare for another great school year, take a look at some of our highlights from summer 2017:
Chapman Center for Rural Studies
Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies
Journalism and Mass Communications
Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work
Biology
Zhilong Yang and his lab members have been actively presenting their work at 
national meeting and seminars. Four members of Yang’s lab attended the American Society for Virology Annual Meeting between June 24 and June 28 held in Madison, Wisconsin. Yang served as the convener of the Poxvirus II Workshop, while Chen Peng, a research sssociate, and Pragyesh Dhungel, a graduate student, each gave an oral presentation at the meeting. Anil Pant also presented a poster at this meeting. Yang also gave three invited seminars in July: the College of Life Sciences at Nankai University, the TEDA Institute of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology at Nankai University, and the Institute of Biophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Pictured: The Yang Lab at the 2017 Annual Meeting of American Society for Virology in Madison. From left: Chen Peng, unidentified, Anil Pant, Pragyesh Dhungel, Zhilong Yang
Ruth Welti, University Distinguished Professor of Biology, is beginning a three-year term on the Publications Committee of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), a nonprofit scientific and educational society with more than 12,000 members. She is currently in her second five-year term as a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, one of three publications of ASBMB.
Chapman Center for Rural Studies
The Chapman Center for Rural Studies is now an interdisciplinary undergraduate research center within the K-State College of Arts and Sciences. The center had previously been housed within the college’s Department of History.
The college will form a transitional committee to explore ways in which the center can foster creative partnerships, particularly in the digital humanities. The Chapman Center currently provides undergraduates with hands-on training in professional skills such as accessioning, digital preservation and film editing.
“The Chapman Center is such a valuable resource and information hub for K-State students and our Flint Hills community,” said Arts and Sciences Dean Amit Chakrabarti. “We are glad to support its ongoing interdisciplinary work with our college and beyond.”
Center Director Bonnie Lynn-Sherow said that though the center’s organizational connection has shifted, “what will not change is the center’s focus on undergraduate research in rural studies and our commitment to off-campus engagement with rural communities.”
The center recently received a $2,000 gift from the Kansas Association of the Future Farmers of America in recognition of the work undergraduate student researchers at the center are doing about rural life in Kansas.
As part of this work, Katherine Sundgren, a junior in history, is digitally preserving a collection, including newspaper clippings, that documents the history of the FFA back to 1928 in preparation for the 100th anniversary of the organization.
Chapman Center director Bonnie Lynn-Sherow, associate professor of history, was first made aware of the collection in the spring and decided that it was the perfect project for a summer intern.
“The history of the FFA is integral to both the history of Kansas agriculture and Kansas State University,” Lynn-Sherow said. “The collection highlights the work of young adults dedicated to agricultural leadership and whose stories feel simultaneously foreign and intimate to our current student interns.” Read more about this project here.
English
University Distinguished Professor Phil Nel presented a talk at Google on his forthcoming book “Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: The Hidden Racism of Children’s Literature and the Need for Diverse Books”.
Faculty, current graduate students, and graduate alumni gathered in Tampa in June to present at the 2017 Children’s Literature Association Conference. Pictured at right are Amy Harris Aber (MA ’11), Corinne Matthews (MA ’17), University Distinguished Professor Philip Nel, Sara Austin (MA ’12), Emily Midkiff (MA ’12), Associate Professor and Department Head Karin Westman, Mandy Moore (MA ’18), Becca Rowe (MA ’16), Associate Professor Joe Sutliff Sanders, and Ashley Christ (MA ’16). Emily Mattingly (MA ’07) and Taraneh Matloob (MA ’11) also presented but are not pictured.
Steffi Dippold contributed to the online journal Common-Place as one of 13 emerging early American scholars introducing a pre-1800, open-access online text. Read her essay, “‘If I had ye gift of tongue’: The Obsession with Keys in the Seventeenth Century” here.
Fifteen young writers joined Associate Professor Katy Karlin and recent graduate students Kira Frank (MA ’17), Kirsten Hermreck (MA ’17), Brian McCarty (MA ’14), and Dylan Pyles (MA ’17) for the 4th annual Young Writers’ Workshop, June 26-30, at the Beach Museum of Art. Read about all five days of the workshop at the K-State Young Writers Workshop blog.