Thompson E. Davis III
Assistant Professor, Clinical Area Department of Psychology
Assistant Professor, Clinical Area Department of Psychology
LSU'S Biweekly Newsletter for Faculty & Staff
April 7, 2006 |
VOL. 22, NO. 15 |
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Thompson E. Davis III
Assistant Professor, Clinical Area Department of Psychology |
Research interest: My research interests primarily center on the anxiety
disorders and phobias, including their etiology, assessment and treatment.
In particular, I focus on what has come to be called “one-session treatment” for specific phobias, in which as many as 70-90 percent of individuals participating in the single three-hour session of treatment experience a significant reduction in phobia symptoms and severity.
What brought you to LSU? I decided upon LSU because it provided the opportunity to work and collaborate with prominent clinical psychology researchers. At the same time, LSU also offered me the flexibility, support and space to further develop my interests and research in the anxiety and mood disorders.
What aspect do you enjoy most?
Overall, the best feature of LSU is its people. I have been very impressed
by both the faculty and graduate students’ qualifications and affability.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravaged the Gulf Coast and Southern Louisiana, but Louisiana residents are determined to rebuild the state better than before. It is in this spirit that the Red Stick International Animation Festival moves forward to remind residents and industry leaders of the creative, technology-driven environment and business development opportunities within the state.
Red Stick hopes to develop an economic driver in the mist of budget cuts across the state. Louisiana Legislators agree and hope that the aggressive digital media tax credit program will attract the animation and video game industries to the state, diversifying the economy to one more attractive to young, knowledgeable workers.
“Through Red Stick, we want to show people in the state and around the world that there is a fertile environment for game development as well as mechanisms in place to launch the industry,” said Festival Director Stacey Simmons.
Returning for its second year, Red Stick is a four-day festival packed with community events displaying the creativity, innovation and future of animation. The largest festival of its kind in the United States, Red Stick will hit downtown Baton Rouge April 20-23.
Festival goers will have opportunities to experience and learn about the animation industry. Attendees will hear lectures and participate in workshops led by top executives in the animation industry. Industry leaders from Pixar, Dreamworks, Disney, Sony Imageworks and Rhythm and Hues are scheduled to attend. International speakers from Finland and the United Kingdom, as well as experts in the video game industry, will also be on hand giving talks. Their credentials boast projects such as, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” “Mulan,” “Finding Nemo,” “Bob the Builder,” “Rugrats,” “Toy Story,” “The Lion King,” “The Punisher,” “Red Faction II,” “Curious Cow” and many more.
Additionally, many other events are free and family oriented, such as Cartoon-A-Palooza, which will take place at 10 a.m., Saturday, April 22, at the Louisiana Art and Science Museum, or LASM. Children will hear from guest speakers Curtis Jobling, designer of “Bob the Builder,” and can hear a talk called Donuts & Dinosaurs where biologist and animation consultant Stuart Sumida and Disney animator Karen DeJong will discuss animating dinosaurs before showing a movie by the same name. Families will watch Saturday morning cartoons and kids will relax in their pajamas while eating a continental breakfast donated by IHOP. No advance registration is required.
Throughout the four-day event, animated feature films and cutting-edge short films from around the globe will be screened at the Shaw Center for the Arts, the Old State Capitol and the LASM. All the screenings are free, but registration is necessary at www.redstickfestival.org.
The Red Stick Animation Awards ceremony, held Saturday, April 22, at 7 p.m., will showcase some of the best animation at the festival. All nominated short films will be screened, and awards will be presented in student and professional competitions in the categories of 3D animation, 2D animation, abstract animation and animation for games. Tickets are available online at www.redstickfestival.org.
On Thursday, April 20, science enthusiasts can explore how scientific visualization pertains to animation. Much of today’s research in biology, genetics, physics and astronomy is dependent on animation and supercomputer-rendered modeling, like the technology used to create major animated films such as “Shrek.”
Gaming enthusiasts and those looking to develop careers or businesses in animation will enjoy the industry portions of the festival that deal with creating new digital technology businesses. Panels of experts in animation and video games will discuss this topic and the future of animation on Thursday, April 20, at the Shaw Center’s Manship Theatre.
Even before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Louisiana was on the road to establishing a new economic-development engine based on digital media. Louisiana’s embrace of the industry, its high-performance computing resources, as well as new collaborations between some of the nation’s most prestigious national laboratories, industry and Louisiana scientists signal a new opportunity to change the face of Louisiana industry.
State Farm Insurance Companies made an $80,000 donation to LSU’s E. J. Ourso College of Business, establishing a the State Farm Foundation Financial Technology Initiative to support and enhance the college’s undergraduate and graduate academic programs and recruitment efforts.
Tim McFadden, State Farm vice president, said the company is proud to sponsor this technology initiative at LSU because it has a vested interest in educating tomorrow’s workforce.
“State Farm Foundation’s core goal is to support educational programs that measurably improve academic performance,” said McFadden. “Sponsoring this initiative at LSU builds upon our existing partnerships to advance higher education opportunities throughout Louisiana.”
The technology initiative has three main components. First, it provides expanded support of the Wharton Research Data System, or WRDS, a powerful teaching and research tool that provides both students and faculty access to market-based business research. Second, it enhances operations of the business college’s Securities Markets Analysis Research and Trading (SMART) Lab, a simulated interactive trading floor that allows students to gain experience in securities analysis, research and trading. Finally, it establishes a State Farm Fellowship that provides the resources for national recruitment of an MBA or MS student to LSU with interest in finance, insurance or risk management.
E. J. Ourso College Dean Robert Sumichrast said the partnership will further educational opportunities for students, while also promoting the university’s national reputation for excellence.
“By enhancing the WRDS and SMART Lab programs, this initiative significantly improves the usability of these remarkable tools for our students, both college- and campus-wide,” Sumichrast said. “Additionally, the fellowship will contribute to the national visibility of the college’s programs and increase our efforts for a diverse student body.”
The success of the program will be measured within each facet of the donation, Sumichrast said. He expects to see an increase in the number of courses and independent research projects using WRDS, an increase in the number of training programs offered in the SMART Lab, and an increase in the number of students utilizing the SMART Lab. The college will also track the number of students recruited and the number of applications received for the State Farm Fellowship.
The E. J. Ourso College strives to create innovative and challenging educational experiences for its students. Through its faculty, students and alumni, the college provides a direct link to the region’s business community while actively participating in the global academic community.
The Service-Learning Advisory Council recognized Robert Perlis, Department of Mathematics alumni professor, and Amanda LaFleur, Department of French Studies instructor, for receiving Service-Learning Incentive Grants.
Grant recipients receive a stipend award of $3,000 for planning and implementing new courses that fully integrate service-learning components into course learning goals or for courses previously taught but redesigned to fully integrate community-based learning. Courses proposed by these two recipients offer a rich diversity of experiential learning.
One long-range goal of these incentive awards is to encourage the development of service-learning curricula that will have a lasting impact on instruction. Another goal is to promote the institutionalization of service-learning courses in every department. The awards are also designed to advance the objectives of the LSU National Flagship Agenda.
Perlis teaches Math 1100, a large enrollment general education math course that is designed to engender a sense of the value and “do-ability” of mathematical thinking. In cooperation with Volunteers in Public Schools, or VIPS, Perlis’ service-learning Math 1100 students will tutor fifth graders. They will be screened to ensure they have the requisite skills and attend a preparatory session conducted by VIPS. The students will then reflect on their tutoring experiences and write midterm and final reports.
“Service-learning in this course will help the students take ownership of mathematics, help them make the transition from reluctant learners to enthusiastic mentors, and help them develop a sense of professional responsibility to their community,” Perlis said.
LaFleur teaches French 3295, “Special Topics in Louisiana French,” a course for advanced language students who will learn the major features of Louisiana French and apply their knowledge by conducting oral interviews with fluent Louisiana French speakers. LaFleur’s project addresses the urgent need to document and preserve Cajun French for future generations.
“The primary goal of these interviews is to document authentic speech of this endangered dialect while collecting narratives, either personal or folkloric, that will also provide understanding of the culture that frames them,” LaFleur said.
Service-learning students will then transcribe the narratives and prepare multi-media documents for their Cajun French-speaking community partners and for the T. Harry Williams Oral History collection, housed in LSU’s Hill Memorial Library.
LSU geographers reeled in numerous honors at the national meeting of the Association of American Geographers, which was held March 7-11 in Chicago.
Boyd Professor Emeritus H. Jesse Walker was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of “his legacy of outstanding research and scholarship in physical geography; national and international service on behalf of the discipline; teaching and mentoring young scholars; professional leadership across a broad topical sweep; and for producing a large body of work of lasting value.”
Carl O. Sauer Professor Craig Colten received the Media Achievement Award for providing “a consistent, knowledgeable voice of geography to domestic and foreign media following Hurricane Katrina.”
Colten also took home the J.B. Jackson Award for his 2005 book, “An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature,” which recounts the 200-year struggle to transform a water-logged site into a major metropolitan area. The Jackson Award goes to the book “about the United States which conveys the insights of professional geography in language that is interesting and attractive to a lay audience.”
Associate Professor Dydia DeLyser received the Globe Book Award for her 2005 book “Ramona Memories.” The association presents this prize to the book “that conveys most powerfully the nature and importance of geography to the non-academic world.” According to DeLyser, “Ramona Memories” is the product of more than 10 years of research and reveals how a work of fiction and the real places and products associated with it helped to “make an idealized past visible, permeating southern California’s social memory.”
Alumnus Fritz Gritzner, who earned his doctorate from LSU in 1969, garnered one of two Gilbert Grosvenor Honors for Geographic Education for “his long-term and ongoing contributions to enhancing the role of geography in K-12 education.” Gritzner is now on the faculty of South Dakota State University.
A total of 28 LSU students and faculty appeared on the program of this annual meeting, which featured four days of field trips and presentations of research findings.
The LSU Service-Learning Advisory Council has named two recipients of its 2006-07 department/unit grants. The $6,000 grants fund innovative proposals for planning and implementing service-learning within departments, units or programs.
Teams from the Manship School of Mass Communication and the Depart-ment of Curriculum and Instruction will be awarded $6,000 each for conducting a formal curriculum review to identify opportunities within their units for institutionalizing service-learning as a required curricular component.
Named as this year’s recipients are Jinx Broussard, Denny Hooten, David Kurpius and Lisa Lundy of the Manship School of Mass Communication and Patricia Exner and Earl Cheek Jr. of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction.
Recipients represent departments or units interested in incorporating service-learning experiences. These experiences will prepare students in their chosen fields, while cultivating sustainable partnerships with community-based constituencies.
The goal of the Manship School’s team of Broussard, Hooten, Kurpius and Lundy is to structurally integrate service-learning into the curriculum. Several teachers at the Manship School currently incorporate service-learning as an integral part of their course work. The team and school administrators believe that there is an opportunity to be more purposeful in developing service-learning in the school and integrating these successful individual efforts into a more cohesive learning focus.
While the Manship School currently supports the integration of service-learning into its curriculum, this will be the first systematic implementation at a school-wide level.
“Service-learning fits well with the mission of the Manship School and its professional orientation,” the team stated. “Working toward the public good in many ways is a core principle for the school, and service-learning is a method for effectively putting that value into action.”
The Curriculum and Instruction team of Exner and Cheek plans to develop a comprehensive honors course offering with a strong service-learning component for the university’s brightest and most motivated students. Currently, the College of Education offers no honors courses for its students, yet the college has many freshmen and sophomores who participate in service-learning courses as part of their general education course work.
“We feel that, by systematically developing an honors core with comprehensive, collaborative and developmental service-learning opportunities, our students and program will advance the Flagship Agenda in the areas of excellent undergraduate programs and cutting-edge research,” the Curriculum and Instruction team said.
Smaller honors sections of typically large class sections will give students the opportunity to participate in valuable service-learning activities and faculty the opportunity to work more intensively and closely with a smaller number of students, their proposal stated.