FACULTY Excellence STEVEN USITALO, professor of history, is the 2025 recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Faculty Award. His selection exemplifies a continued commitment to the college as a professor and as chair of the Department of History and Social Sciences at Northern State University (NSU). His research specializes in Russian and Soviet history with his current research focused on the Roma experience in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia, examining how their history has been shaped, interpreted, and appropriated in official narratives. At present, he is working on two articles, one titled “Appropriating Memory: The Roma and the Soviet Great Patriotic War Narrative,” which explores the incorporation, in fact appropriation, of Roma wartime experiences into Soviet memory politics. He plans to submit the article by summer 2025 to the Journal of Global Postcolonial Studies. The second, “‘Gypsy Days’: The Racialized History of Northern State University’s Homecoming,” is being written and will be submitted to Critical Romani Studies. In May through June 2025, he and Erin Fouberg, formerly a geographer in the department, will co-lead a trip, sponsored by NSU, to Vietnam. Participants on the trip will include students, alumni and community members. KRISTEN BROWN, assistant professor of English, is serving her discipline at the national and international level. She was nominated to serve for three years on the Executive Council of the Western Literature Association, an organization of scholars, artists, environmentalists and community leaders, founded in 1965. In addition, she serves as an editor for H-Net AmIndian, a worldwide forum for scholars of Native American and Indigenous Studies. JON SCHAFF, a professor of government, undertook three scholarly endeavors. First, the Bill of Rights Institute invited him to contribute to its Government & Politics: Civics for the American Experiment curriculum. Collaborating with Jonathon Den Hartog of Samford University, he outlined the core arguments of the Federalists and Anti-Federalists—Professor Den Hartog presented the Federalist perspective, while Professor Schaff focused on the Anti-Federalist position. Additionally, he contributed two pieces to a study of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, sponsored by Constituting America, an organization led by actress Janine Turner. Finally, he authored the chapter “All the Past We Leave Behind: Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! and the Agrarian Vision” in This Hard Land: Scenes from the American Working Class, published by Lexington Books. DAVID J. GRETTLER, a professor of history, is retiring in May 2025 after 32 years of dedicated service. A former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, he has taught a broad range of American history courses, along with classes in geography and anthropology. As a specialist in early American history, he played a key role in expanding the department’s offerings and was instrumental in launching the public history minor at NSU. His contributions to the university and his students have been invaluable, and his impact on the field will be long remembered. We wish him the very best in his retirement—live long and prosper, Dave! VIRGINIA “GINNY” LEWIS, a professor of German, is retiring in May 2025 after 20 years of dedicated service to Northern State University. A former chair of English, Communication and Global Languages and current coordinator of First-Year Seminar and member of Graduate Council, Ginny taught a range of undergraduate and graduate courses in language and linguistics for the department. She was instrumental in building the Germans from Russia archives and serves as a translator for multiple languages and multiple needs. Further, she is a scholar who is well known and owns her own business, Library Cat Translating, centered around her scholarship. Her contributions to the university, students, and region will have a lasting impact – we wish her well in her retirement. RETIREMENTS
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzkyNTY=