Focusing on both teaching and research is often hard to accomplish, but associate professor of speech communication, Dr. Xia-an “Lucian” Lu makes it look easy. Two recent books feature chapters he wrote: one on the “insidious” portrayal of women on propaganda posters in China in Women and the Media: Diverse Perspectives; the other on foreign affairs ministry in the age of the Internet in Dilemma of Openness: Societal Pressure in China’s American Policy-Making. As for his effectiveness as a teacher, Lucian is listed in the 2006 edition of Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers for the second time. Teachers are included only after former students nominate them for having the greatest impact on the student’s college experience. Lucian credits his classroom success to his belief in the importance of character.

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“In order to understand a language, the culture behind it must also be understood,” said Dr. Angés Ragone, associate professor of French and Spanish, in describing her varied research interests. Those research interests have led to presentations on the language patterns of bilingual children, French rappeurs (“Rappers vs. Rappeurs: The Language and Interests of French Rap”), and “Geographic Isolation and Language Maintenance” (with Dr. Paul Marr of the geography/earth science department). She chaired a panel on “Vanishing Voices and Globalization” at a recent conference in Richmond, Virginia.

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“They described it as a ‘welcome contribution,’” said Dr. Sharon Harrow, assistant professor in the English department. She was describing the review of her book, Adventures in Domesticity Gender and Colonial Adulteration in Eighteenth Century British Literature, published in the Times Literary Supplement on April 22nd. The book is a response to Harrow’s interest in the expansionist boom of the eighteenth century in connection with the birth of the novel. After two years of writing she has the pleasure of displaying her book at conferences on both sides of the country and in Canada. Her next book—which delves into the writing of female British writers of the eighteenth century—is already in the works.