News about Individualized Programs of Study

The use of technology and propaganda by the Nazis and the Islamic State group will be examined and compared in the first presentation of the Daniel J. Doyle Technology & Society Colloquia Series, set for Tuesday, Oct. 6, at 7 p.m. in the Klump Academic Center Auditorium at Pennsylvania College of Technology. The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

“From the Nazis to ISIS: A Historical Analysis of Technology and Propaganda” will be presented by Katrina A. Sinclair, an adjunct member of the college’s history faculty.

Sinclair’s comparative discussion will pose the question of how a minority, fringe group is able to use technology to capture enough political and social legitimacy to effectively control a nation-state or, in the case of the Islamic State group, a large swath of territory.

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Vinay Bahl, associate professor of sociology at Pennsylvania College of Technology, has been invited by the State University of New York Press to review and evaluate a book manuscript for possible publication. The manuscript deals with informal workers in India and their struggles.

Bahl says informal workers comprise the majority of India’s labor force. They are unorganized laborers working in the unlicensed sector or households, as well as workers in the formal sector without any employment and social security benefits provided by employers.

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A history faculty member at Pennsylvania College of Technology is helping to develop various components of the 2017 Advanced Placement World History Exam.

Craig A. Miller, assistant professor of history/political science, says the AP World History Exam, including the AP European and AP United States History Exams, will change format and structure in 2017. As a member of the exam’s leadership team, Miller is engaged in developing new scoring rubrics for two portions of the exam.

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An economics professor at Pennsylvania College of Technology presented a paper and offered other expertise at the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Economics Association, held recently at Penn State Berks in Reading.

Abdul B. Pathan presented a paper titled “Ready-Made Garments Trade of Bangladesh and USA” at the gathering. The paper focuses on the growth, problems and prospects of ready-made garment production and issues of trade between Bangladesh and the Western world, with special reference to the United States.

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Six Penn College faculty members, who combined for four enlightening and provocative lectures during 2014’s Centennial Colloquia Series, reconvened on campus Wednesday night for a roundtable recap. The discussion, titled “Riding the Wave of Technological Change: Revolution or Evolution?” was held in the Klump Academic Center Auditorium. The group (Dorothy J. Gerring, Robert A. Wozniak, Lisa R. Bock, Mark D. Noe, D. Robert Cooley and Craig A. Miller) ably kicked around the connection between technology and progress, entertaining questions from moderator James E. Cunningham and the audience.
Photos by Elizabeth S. Greis, student photographer

Two alumni of Pennsylvania College of Technology’s immediate predecessor institution have established a scholarship honoring Daniel J. Doyle, professor emeritus of history and a former administrator at the college.

Darryl and Dawn (Wahler) Kehrer, both 1972 liberal arts graduates of Williamsport Area Community College, have endowed a scholarship in honor of Doyle.

“The annual award is an enduring way to honor Dan Doyle’s nearly four decades of commitment to Penn College students,” Darryl Kehrer said.

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Two sociology faculty members at Pennsylvania College of Technology presented a paper at the 64th annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Sociological Society, held Oct. 25 at Lebanon Valley College, Annville.

Vinay Bahl, associate professor of sociology, and Richard Sahn, instructor of psychology/sociology, presented “Sociopathic Institutions: The Reasons for ‘Moral Monday’ in North Carolina.”

The discussion focused on the protests that began in Raleigh in 2013 and evolved into a grassroots social injustice movement that spread to other states in 2014, as well as on the role legislative institutions may play in enacting laws and policies leading to such protests.

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Defining history as a “conversation between the past and the present … and almost always about the future,” faculty member Craig A. Miller delivered the concluding lecture in Penn College’s Centennial Colloquia Series on Tuesday night. The assistant professor of history and political science discussed “Technology, Power and Responsibility” in the Klump Academic Center Auditorium, engaging his audience the same way he challenges his students: “I’m not here to teach you history. I’m here to use history to teach you to be critical thinkers.” So while the presentation was shaped around the construction of the transcontinental railroad, that story served as a thought-provoking springboard to the broader connection between choices and consequences. Cross-country rail service was “truly a technological marvel” steeped in progress and industrial speed, he said, a monumental achievement that was not without fallout. True, it ushered in an era of development and helped the United States become a global economic power. But the territorial expansion also relocated Native Americans under a policy of “assimilate or move,” fostered financial chicanery and altered the workforce. In an informed give-and-take, Miller urged attendees to vigilantly weigh multiple perspectives, to logically and critically analyze the societal price of decisions, and to “accept uncomfortable truths and learn from them.” The hourlong program, introduced and moderated by Paul L. Starkey, vice president for academic affairs and provost, was followed by a question-and-answer session and a reception in Wrapture.

Pennsylvania College of Technology faculty member Craig A. Miller will present the concluding lecture in the college’s Centennial Colloquia Series on Nov. 18 at 7 p.m.

Miller, an assistant professor of history/political science, will offer a talk titled “Technology, Power and Responsibility” in the college’s Klump Academic Center Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.

At a college of applied technology, Miller says, it is important to discuss and assess the responsibilities associated with technological innovation.

To illustrate the maxim “choices have consequences,” Miller will evaluate the technological, economic, environmental and cultural issues that surrounded the construction of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railways, a massive undertaking that involved technological innovation, colossal financing, unique labor arrangements and the displacement of American Indians from Minnesota to California.

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A Pennsylvania College of Technology chemistry faculty member and two students were invited speakers recently at the Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology.

Kelly B. Butzler, associate professor of chemistry; Meghan C. Cunningham, a sophomore in individual studies from Williamsport; and Brian M. McKeon Jr., a freshman in general studies from Trout Run, co-presented a session titled “Flipping the Classroom: Is it Worth the Hype?”

A “flipped classroom” is a blended learning approach to a standard classroom. The presentation offered perspectives on teaching and learning in a variety of courses, how students and teachers perceive a flipped classroom, and how the flexible approach affects students’ learning outcomes.

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A member of the sociology faculty at Pennsylvania College of Technology was published recently in Sociological Viewpoints, the journal of the Pennsylvania Sociological Society.

Vinay Bahl, associate professor of sociology, wrote an article titled “Muslim Women’s Attire and Identity Politics,” offering insight on the issue culturally, politically, economically and historically.

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Craig A. Miller, assistant professor of history/political science at Pennsylvania College of Technology, was invited to present a paper at the 17th Century Warfare, Diplomacy & Society in the American Northeast Conference, held recently at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center, Mashantucket, Conn.

Miller’s presentation, titled Political Economy and the Pequot War, 1636-1637, examined the causes of the Pequot War by studying different political economies of the Pequot tribe and English settlers.

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A priceless artifact and the story of one man’s survival against incredible odds have made a significant impact on students’ understanding of the Holocaust in a humanities course at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

The yellow armband worn by the late Nandor Blau, a Jewish man forced into slave labor by the German army during World War II, has been loaned by the Blau family to William J. Astore, professor of history at Penn College, for the Fall 2013 semester. The Blau family resides in California and is friends with Astore.

Astore says the armband, along with Blau family photos and stories, have brought to life the horrors of the Holocaust for students enrolled in Humanities 315, The Holocaust.

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The editor and publisher of Indian Artifact magazine traveled to Penn College on Tuesday to help show an Introduction to Cultural Anthropology class how sophisticated “primitive” technology can be. Gary L. Fogelman, of Turbotville, joined D. Robert Cooley, assistant professor of anthropology/environmental science, in a demonstration of the atlatl, an ancient tool used for throwing large darts at prey. The lab exercise on the Madigan Library lawn has been a tradition among Cooley’s classes in recent years, but the addition of Fogelman – a world-champion in atlatl circles – provided a special touch.
Photos by Craig R. Urey, student photographer

Pennsylvania College of Technology recently hosted the 63rd annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Sociological Society. The theme for the conference, held Oct. 11-13, was “On Getting by with Change,” focusing on trends in modern society.

Five Penn College faculty members participated in conference presentations.

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