In May of 2011, the NSU English Department held its inaugural Literary Tour of England led by Dr. Elizabeth Haller. This nine-day tour included the inspiration for Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley in York, the Brontë parsonage in Haworth, Jane Austen’s home in Chawton, and a Dickens walk in London. In addition to literary sites, the participants toured York Minster, Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, and witnessed the historic Changing of the Keys ceremony at the Tower of London (including a private showing of the Royal Jewels), watched the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, and viewed a performance of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at the reconstructed Globe Theatre. For 2012, Dr. Haller decided to broaden the scope of this annual tour to a Literary Tour of Europe, including the countries of Ireland, Scotland, and England. This elevenday tour includes Dublin, Edinburgh, York, and London, focusing on locations devoted to Irish authors James Joyce and Oscar Wilde, Scottish authors Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Burns, and British authors William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Charles Dickens, and J.K. Rowling. In addition to the York and London activities from the 2011 tour, some highlights of the 2012 tour include a visit to Edinburgh Castle and Dublin Castle, a ferry across the Irish Sea to Wales, a tour of Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage in the Lake District, and a Harry Potter walk in Edinburgh. These Literary Tours are a fun and enriching experience, providing NSU students and community members the chance to immerse themselves in the United Kingdom’s rich literary history while making memories that will last a lifetime. Dr. Haller is currently planning the next Literary Tour of Europe, which will take place in May 2013. Literary Tours of Europe Dr. Guangwei Ding, Associate Professor of Chemistry, collaborated on three articles in 2011: “Effect of Lipids on Sorption/ Desorption Hysteresis in Natural Organic Matter,” co-authored with J. A. Rice, was published in Chemosphere; “Soil Erosion Control Practices in Northeast China: A Mini-Review,” co-authored with Xiaobing Liu, Shaoliang Zhang, Xingyi Zhang, and, R. M. Cruse, was published in Soil and Tillage Research; and “Research on Soil Microbial Ecology Under Different Soil Organic Matter Levels in Farmland,” co-authored with Xiao-guang Jiao, Chong-sheng Gao, Yue-yu Sui, and Xing-yi Zhang, was published in Scientia Agricultura Sinica. Dr. Elizabeth Haller, Assistant Professor of English, published a chapter on Dante Alighieri in the two-volume Greenwood Press reference work titled Icons of the Middle Ages. Dr. Alyssa Kiesow, Assistant Professor of Biology, published two articles in 2011: “Detection of Domestic Cattle Gene Introgression in a Small Population of North American Bison,” co-authored with T. Kasmarik, and R. Binstock, was published in the Proceedings of South Dakota Academy of Science; and “Characterization and Isolation of Microsatellite Loci for Northern Flying Squirrels (Glaucomys sabrinus),” coauthored with L. E. Wallace and H. B. Britten, was published in Western North American Naturalist. Dr. Ginny Lewis, Associate Professor of German, has published a new edition of a popular novel from nineteenthcentury Germany entitled Die Geschichte des Diethelm von Buchenberg (The Story of Diethelm von Buchenberg). This novel was written in 1852 by German-Jewish author Berthold Auerbach (1812-1882) and has been published by the Wehrhahn Verlag of Hannover, Germany, in celebration of the 200th anniversary of Auerbach’s birth. The novel is accompanied by Lewis’s afterword, in which she shows how the author’s stellar reputation was undermined during the Bismarck era by anti-Semitic German politics. continued on following page… Student Awards, Research and Publications Nicholas Blazer won second place in the Brown County Historical Society Research and Writing Contest in May 2011. Blazer’s paper, titled “Drawn to War,” was written under the supervision of Dr. David Grettler. Caitlyn Friesz won first place in the Brown County Historical Society Research and Writing Contest in May 2011. Friesz’s paper, titled “Railroads and the Rise and Fall of Evarts and LeBeau, South Dakota,” was written under the supervision of Dr. David Grettler. Kyle Klipfel won first place in speaker points in novice parliamentary debate at the Pi Kappa Delta’s national tournament in March 2012. Chris Maier won award for best paper for non-member of Phi Alpha Theta, a History Honors Society, at the History Conference at the University of South Dakota in April. Two other students, Caitlin Friesz and Jon Redmond, had papers accepted for presentation at the conference. Cassandra Potter had an essay published in the March/April 2012 online issue of Orion Magazine. The essay, entitled “Rolling Grasslands of Winfred, South Dakota,” was selected by senior editor Eileen Bolinski of Living on Earth for radio broadcast in June. Anne Tingley won an “Excellence” award for placing in the top 30 percent of contestants in the oral interpretation of prose at the Pi Kappa Delta’s national tournament in March 2012. The first NSU Undergraduate Research Forum took place this January under the direction of Dr. Alyssa Kiesow. The group of students who presented their research projects included Lu Xu; Devena Holmes; Amber Wolken and Chaya McCormack; Eric Peterson and Geoffrey Firmin; Chelsie Bickel and Amber Olson; Caitlin Peterson and Ethan Brown; Claire Kopfmann and Sarah Hintz; and Brittany Hiten and Cameron Hendrickson.
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