http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/articles Mon, 28 Aug 2006 14:27:00 GMT Connecting you with the University of Missouri’s innovative research and creative activity http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/articles/show/36 MU philosophy professor Robert N. Johnson found himself drawn to philosophy as a child who was always “lost in his thoughts.” Then, in high school, Johnson happened upon the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and just “got hooked.” The “Zen” part of the book was not what grabbed his attention; it was the discussion of Plato’s dialogues that framed the story. That encounter led him to check out the Collected Works of Plato from his local library. “I was obsessed… I still am obsessed,” he admits. Mon, 28 Aug 2006 14:27:00 GMT http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/articles/show/36 (LuAnne Roth) http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/articles/show/61 As Professor in the Classics Department at MU, Daniel Hooley’s research includes Roman poetry, the classical tradition, and translation studies, about which he has written three books, including his most recent, _Roman Satire_ (2006). Hooley first became interested in studying the classics through an “accidental journey,” studying the western classics as an English and Humanities graduate student at the University of Minnesota, where he focused his studies on modernism and wrote his dissertation on how Latin poetry was translated by American modernists such as Ezra Pound or T.S. Eliot. The dissertation became his first book, _The Classics in Paraphrase: Ezra Pound and Modern Translators of Latin Poetry_ (1988). Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:42:01 GMT http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/articles/show/61 (Tammy Ritterskamp) http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/articles/show/64 What a society counts as moral or immoral is subject to the particular _zeitgeist_—the spirit of the times. “At the time of the slave trade, for example, most people who were slave owners thought it was moral. Even a few blacks, once they were freed, had slaves,” explains Sharon Welch, Professor of Religious Studies. As a social ethicist, Welch researches not just the way individuals make moral choices, but how a whole society begins to decide “what counts as moral.” To that effect, all of her projects coalesce around such issues of social morality. Thu, 27 Sep 2007 05:00:00 GMT http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/articles/show/64 (LuAnne Roth) http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/articles/show/71 The fact that Nancy M. West finds herself focusing so heavily on the visual in her research and teaching may at first seem to be “a sort of a curious thing,” but for the associate professor of English this fascination for the visual extends all the way back to a childhood devoid of photographs. “I love thinking about what photography means to people. Having grown up with very few photographs in my household, I’ve always been drawn to them,” she admits. It was no surprise, therefore, that West stumbled upon her first book project while scrounging through the bargain bin of an antique store: “I came across all of these old Kodak ads from the turn of the century, and I thought they were amazing. The images were just breathtakingly beautiful. The captions were unlike those we see now in ads. They were much more elaborate, much more descriptive. They addressed the consumer in very interesting, clever ways, and I just fell in love with them.” And at that serendipitous moment, the idea for _Kodak and the Lens of Nostalgia_ (2000) was conceived. Wed, 13 Feb 2008 06:00:00 GMT http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/articles/show/71 (LuAnne Roth) http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/articles/show/74 Great celestial bodies populate the solar system. For an untrained eye staring at the heavens, the starlight spectacles and endless seas of blackness are nothing short of a miracle. Researchers, however, have developed mathematical equations that may help us understand such mysteries of the universe. From Isaac Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation to Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, the scientific community has paved the way for a greater understanding of the great beyond. Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:00:00 GMT http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/articles/show/74 (Sean Powers) http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/articles/show/96 When S. David Mitchell leaves for work in the morning, he isn’t sure which hat to wear. Sometimes he is a law professor, and sometimes he is a sociologist. On most days he wears both hats at once—an interdisciplinary approach to research that seems to bode well. As an associate professor in MU’s School of Law, Mitchell’s teaching and research feed off each other, focusing on the intersection of society and the law. While his teaching covers topics ranging from torts and criminal justice administration—from “bail to jail”—the courses he gets most excited about involve his main area of research, including “Law and Society” and “Collateral Consequences of Sentencing.” Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:00:00 GMT http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/articles/show/96 (LuAnne Roth)