Kudos to Jenna Cushing-Leubner, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, whose paper “The (Im)Possibilities of Equitable Education of Multilingual Emergent Bilinguals in Remote Teaching: A Survey of English Language Teachers in the Great Lakes Region” has been published in a special issue of the journal Planning and Changing on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on schools. The study identifies the many ways English language teachers of multilingual K-12 students in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Indiana provided “non-instructional” services during physical school closures due to COVID-19. It also identifies the extent to which EL teachers were (and were not) able to provide essential language, literacy and content-access instruction during this time, due largely to the preexisting lack of multilingual teachers and service providers in K-12 schools. Read more »

Kudos to Xiaohong Zhang, professor of art and design, who is among nine Wisconsin artists in a new exhibition, “Artists Without Borders: Reflections on Art and Place," which will be installed at two locations over the next four months: at the Museum of Wisconsin Art, 205 Veterans Av., in West Bend, currently until July 3; and at Saint Kate —The Arts Hotel, 139 E. Kilbourn Ave., Milwaukee, May 12-Aug. 1. Zhang and the exhibition are featured in The Wisconsin State Journal.

Kudos to Michael Y. Bennett, associate professor of English in the Department of Languages and Literatures, who recently published his seventh monograph and 12th book, “The Problems of Viewing Performance: Epistemology and Other Minds,” Routledge 2021. The book explores how members of a viewing audience receive a performance, and Bennett challenges assumptions about the idea of a shared experience.

Kudos to Sang Choi, professor of occupational and environmental safety and health, who co-authored and published a peer-reviewed journal article "Safety and health implications of COVID-19 on the United States construction industry" in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Review on April 9, 2021. This high-impact article has been shared with the CDC/NIOSH National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Construction & COVID Work Group, where Dr. Choi is currently serving as CDC NORA Construction Sector Council member. Read more »

Kudos to Dave Halbach, student services program manager, who received the 2021 National Association of Campus Card Users (NACCU) Distinguished Service Award at the 2021 NACCU Virtual Conference. Cards are the currency of college campuses, and Halbach was honored for his leadership, service and expertise, which has included developing a 3D-printed template to help visually impaired students use touch-screen card readers.

Kudos to Ted Witt, teaching, learning, and technology consultant in the Learning Technology Center, who has been appointed to serve as the next annual chair for the UW System’s Learning Technology Development Council (LTDC). The mission of the LTDC is to encourage UW System-wide collaboration among campuses, support individual campus efforts that promote the pedagogically sound use of technology in teaching and learning, and explore the use of existing, new and emerging technologies in higher education.

Kudos to 13 students and Luz María Ede-Hernández, assistant professor in the Department of Languages and Literatures, who this month were inducted into the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society, Sigma Delta Pi. To become a member of the academic honor society, students must have an overall GPA of at least 3.2 and a GPA of at least 3.0 in at least three upper-division Spanish classes and three semesters at the university. Kudos to students Litzy Andrade, psychology, Fátima Barajas, finance and Spanish, Megan Bartz, Spanish and psychology, Chase Boudreau, finance and Spanish, Riley Carroll, criminology, Montserrat Cuevas, international studies and Spanish, Marilyn Farias, music and Spanish, Madison Garland, Spanish and criminology, Molly Goldman, Spanish, Hailey Hartford, elementary education, Coline Merlet, international business and Spanish, Aliyah Noh, art, and Bernie Rocha, marketing. Ede-Hernández was made an honorary member for contributing to “enthusiasm of youth for Hispanic letters and ideas.”

Kudos to Myung Hee Chung and Benjamin Whitcomb, professors of music, who were judges for Madison Symphony Orchestra’s annual Bolz Young Artist Competition. Four young musicians were selected as finalists for the statewide competition and performed in the Overture Hall as part of The Final Forte 2021.