October 24, 2014

Faculty highlights, Fall 2014

Dr. Fred K. DrogulaDrogula wins Accinno teaching honor

Dr. Fred K. Drogula, associate professor of history, is the 12th recipient of the Joseph R. Accinno Faculty Teaching Award, the College’s top teaching honor. The Center for Teaching Excellence and the Teaching Award Selection Committee award the prize annually to a tenured faculty member who demonstrates excellence in teaching, passion and enthusiasm for learning, and concern for students’ academic and personal growth. Since he arrived at the College in 2006, Drogula has taught Development of Western Civilization seminars, Greek and Latin classes, and history courses on Greece and Rome, ancient warfare, women in the ancient world, and the Spartans. A nomination letter from a former student praised him for his dedication to his students and his discipline. 

Dr. Nuria Alonso GarciaAlonso García collects Fulbright

Dr. Nuria Alonso García, associate professor of Spanish, received a Fulbright Scholar Global Teaching English Foreign Language Award to Russia. She is spending the academic year collaborating with faculty and students in the Institute of Applied Linguistics at the Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University. In addition to seminars in language acquisition and sociolinguistics, she will offer Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages workshops. The professor, a native of Spain, will devote herself to studying Russian language and its culture. “That’s what motivates me most — my genuine passion for learning, my keen desire to connect,” she said. Read more: 

Dr. Christine E. EarleyEarley appointed to ‘Big Four’

Dr. Christine E. Earley, associate dean of the Providence College School of Business and professor of accountancy, was selected for a two-year rotating academic fellowship with “Big Four” public accounting firm KPMG. Earley, who started at KPMG’s Global Services Centre in Montvale, N.J., in June, leads programs that support academic research and researchers. She works with KPMG staff on audit methodology-related projects, providing advice and theoretical perspectives to project work, leveraging academic research to inform teams, and applying new research to support methodology project work and emerging issues. She has taught at the College since 2008 and is a former auditor and certified public accountant. Her research interests are primarily in the areas of auditing and professional ethics.

Rev. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P.Father Austriaco nets NIH cancer research funding

Rev. Nicanor Austriaco, O.P., associate professor of biology, received a $257,049 grant from the National Institute of Health/National Institute for General Medical Sciences for his project, “Genetic Dissection of Yeast Bax Inhibitor Function in UPR and Calcium Signaling.” Father Austriaco and the students in his lab will study a gene which, in humans, is associated with cancers such as lymphoma, leukemia, prostate cancer, and breast cancer. This is his second R15 Academic Research Enhancement Award in four years. The federal grant program funds small-scale biomedical and behavioral science research projects at educational institutions that have not received large NIH research grants. Father Austriaco, who has taught at PC since 2005, investigates programmed cell death using yeast as a model organism. He is also an expert in health care ethics and bioethics in the Catholic tradition.

Johnson stirs arts and culture scene

Dr. Deborah J. Johnson, professor of art history and of women’s studiesDr. Deborah J. Johnson, professor of art history and of women’s studies, worked with Dr. Frances Leazes of Rhode Island College on a research paper titled “Measuring Successful Arts & Culture Strategies” for the College & University Research Collaborative. The organization, a partnership among Rhode Island’s colleges and universities, generates non-partisan research to help lawmakers make economic development decisions. Johnson’s project, which recommended creation of a centralized Rhode Island Arts & Culture Index, was one of five conducted by faculty at seven colleges and universities, funded by a $100,000 grant from the Rhode Island Foundation. Patricia Krupinski ’16 (Elizabeth, N.J.) assisted Johnson with the research. Johnson studies modern and contemporary material culture.

harmon-vukic.mary.headTempleton grant for Harmon-Vukic

Dr. Mary E. Harmon-Vukic, associate professor of psychology, received a $52,071 grant from the John Templeton Foundation through “Varieties of Understanding: New Perspectives from Psychology, Philosophy and Theology,” a three-year initiative based at Fordham University. In her study, “God Talk: Differentiating Implicit Understanding and Explicit Expression of God Among Theists and Atheists,” Harmon-Vukic will work with Rev. Joseph J. Guido, O.P., PC assistant professor of psychology, to explore the extent to which individuals’ conscious, explicit expressions of God are similar to or different from their implicit representations of God, and whether such representations predicate belief in God. Her research focus is memory processing during reading.

Dr. Susan McCarthyMcCarthy doubles up on grants

Dr. Susan K. McCarthy, professor of political science, was awarded a $24,000 scholar grant by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, based in Taipei, Taiwan. This funding supports her sabbatical project, “Serving Society, Re-purposing the State: Faith-based Charity, Religious Innovation and Resistance in China.” She also received a grant from the College’s Committee on Aid to Faculty Research, which will allow her to conduct six weeks of field research in China this fall. McCarthy studies the politics of religion and ethnicity in Asia.

Faculty Fact

This fall, 21 new, full-time, tenure-track professors joined the College’s faculty. Approximately 55 percent of the current full-time, tenure-track professors were hired since Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P. ’80 became president in 2005.