Susan Claire Crockenberg Professor of Psychology Emerita
Five faculty members of the College of Arts and Sciences were recognized for their achievements this year prior to their retirement.
Susan Claire Crockenberg
Professor of Psychology Emerita
“Knowledge is only as valid (accurate) as the methods used to obtain it. Only valid knowledge is useful in advancing further knowledge and addressing real world problems. Therefore, if we wish to use knowledge to improve our world, we must assess the validity of the methods on which it is based.” — Susan Crockenberg
Education: B.S., 1966, Cornell University; Ph.D., 1970, Stanford University.
UVM Career: Professor, 1990-2011.
Key Scholarly Interests: Temperament (or gene) x environment interactions in explaining individual differences in social/emotional development; the role of context (e.g., families) in fostering development; emotion regulation as a key process in developmental psychopathology.
Publication Highlights:
Crockenberg, S. (1981). Infant irritability, mother responsiveness, and social support influences on the security of infant-mother attachment. Child Development, 52, 857-865.
Crockenberg, S., & Smith, P. (1982). Antecedents of mother-infant interaction and infant irritability in the first three months of life. Infant Behavior and Development, 5, 105-119.
Crockenberg, S. B. (1986). Are temperamental differences in babies associated with predictable differences in caregiving? In J. V. Lerner & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), New Directions for Child Development, 31, 53-73, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Crockenberg, S., & Litman, C. (1990). Autonomy as competence in two-year-olds: Maternal correlates of child compliance, defiance, and self-assertion. Developmental Psychology, 26, 961-971 moderate effects of child care on child development. Child Development, 74, 968-972.
Crockenberg, S. & Leerkes, E. (2004). Infant and maternal behaviors regulate infant reactivity to novelty at six months. Developmental Psychology, 40, 1123-32.
Crockenberg, S. C. & Leerkes, E. M. (2006). Infant temperament (reactivity to novelty) and maternal behavior at 6 months interact to predict later anxious behavior. Development and Psychopathology, 18, 1-18.
Crockenberg, S. C., Leerkes, E. M., & Barrig Jo, P. S. (2008). Predicting aggressive behavior in the third year from infant reactivity and regulation as moderated by maternal behavior. Development and Psychopathology, 20, 37-54.
Crockenberg, S. C. (2008). Commentary: How valid are the results of the St. Petersburg-USA Orphanage intervention study and what do they mean for the world’s children. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 73, 263-270.
Crockenberg, S. C. & Leerkes, E. M. (2011). Parenting Infants. In D. W. Davis & M. C. Logsdon (Eds.) Maternal sensitivity: A scientific foundation for practice. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science.
Teaching/Research/Memberships Highlights: Associate Editor, Child Development; Fellow, American Psychological Association; Governing Council, Society for Research in Child Development; Executive Board-International Society for Infant Studies (ICIS); Faculty Senate Executive Council and Vice-President.
Other Professional Experience: Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor, Human Development, University of California, Davis; Visiting Scholar, Child Development Unit, Harvard University Medical School and Children’s Hospital; Project consultant Oregon Research Institute, “Improving Access to Early Parent Education and Support.”
Awards and Honors: University Scholar, 2006-2007, University of Vermont.
Community Service:Consultant to the National Resource Center for Children in Poverty; Member, Infant Mental Health Task Force, State of Vermont; Member, Academic Advisory Panel to the Joint Legislative Committee on Corrections Policy, State of Vermont; Invited Speaker at the Annual Meeting of Vermont Probate Judges.
William E. Geiger, Jr.
Professor of Chemistry Emeritus
“When Camus said ‘To think is to re-think,’ he was not likely to be reflecting on a chemistry professorship. But his thought describes the challenge and the wonder of preparing course material, considering research pathways, and learning of new experimental results by one’s students and colleagues. It is a gift to have a profession that is also a dear hobby.” —William E. Geiger, Jr.
Education: B.S., 1965, Canisius College; Ph.D., 1969, Cornell University.
UVM Career: Assistant Professor, 1974-1977; Associate Professor, 1977-1982; Professor, 1982-2011; Pomeroy Professor of Chemistry, 1997-2011.
Key Scholarly Interests: One of the primary means of achieving chemical transformations is by transfer of a single electron between molecules or between a molecule and an electrode. Referred to as “electron-transfer chemistry” or “electrochemistry,” these processes are ubiquitous in nature, in industry, in electronic devices, and in the research laboratory. Professor Geiger has studied fundamental aspects of the electrochemistry of one broad set of molecules, namely “metallo-organic,” which contain both transition metals such as iron, cobalt, and manganese and organic “ligands.” The studies concentrated on the ways in which gain or loss of an electron might modify the molecular structure and chemical reactivity of a compound. The new knowledge gained in these studies has found application in a variety of chemical and biological processes.
Publication Highlights: Published over two hundred research papers in refereed journals, including over sixty in the prestigious Journal of the American Chemical Society. Included in these papers are highly cited references, including a 1996 paper in Chemical Reviews that has been cited almost 1000 times in the chemical literature.
Teaching/Research/Memberships Highlights: Served on a number of editorial boards and boards of directors for journals and societies. Past editor of the main newsletter of electrochemistry published by the Society of Electroanalytical Chemistry. Given over 150 invited lectures at colleges and universities.
Other Professional Experience: Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois University (Carbondale), 1970-1974. Other visiting research and teaching positions: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1979; Univ. of Bordeaux, Professor Associe, 1986; Univ. of Freiburg, Graduiertenkolleg Lecturer, 1996; Univ. of Bristol, Leverhulme Fellow, 1998; Univ. of Canterbury, Erskine Fellow, 2000; Univ. of Arizona, 2007; Univ. of the Free State (South Africa), 2011.
Awards and Honors: University Scholar, 1984, UVM; National Science Foundation, Creativity Grant, 1989; James Crowdle Award (distinguished alumnus), Canisius College, 1995; Dean’s Lecture Award, UVM, 2009.
Robbie Pfeufer Kahn
Associate Professor of Sociology Emerita
"All persons who transmit knowledge are storytellers—even if the story is a scientific, sociological or historical account. The lens through which they look at the world shapes the stories they tell. This lens does not provide a transparent reflection of what they see—like looking out a window. Rather, the lens of the seer is ground, similar to an eyeglass, by multiple influences of nature and culture over time. If we look deeply at the words the writer uses we can enter the writer’s perceptual world, to be sure constrained by our own collective and individual historical moment—for the words are the author’s lens.” — Robbie Pfeufer Kahn
Education: B.A., 1963, Brandeis University; M.P.H., 1979, Boston University School of Public Health; M.A., 1983; Ph.D., 1988, Brandeis University.
UVM Career: Assistant Professor, 1990-1996; Associate Professor 1996-2011.
Key Scholarly Interests: Transdisciplinary research on pregnancy, birth, the place of birth, breastfeeding, and the interpersonal world of the infant; social theory; feminist theory; human-animal relationships; scholarly personal narrative.
Publication Highlights:
Bearing Meaning: The Language of Birth. 1995. Champagne, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Milk Teeth: A Memoir of a Woman and Her Dog. 2008. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Author of journal articles (examples: Tikkun, Inquiring Mind, 05401, Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering), chapters in edited books (example: Taking Our Time: Feminist Perspectives on Temporality), contributions to reference volumes (examples: Encyclopedia of Childbearing, Feminist Literary Theory: A Dictionary),reviews in professional journals (examples: Contemporary Sociology, Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care). Contributing author to the 1976 and 1984 editions of the women's self-help classic Our Bodies, Ourselves.
Teaching/Research/Memberships Highlights: Examples of undergraduate courses taught: Sociology—Sex, Marriage and the Family, Self and Social Interaction, Women in Society, Sociology of Reproduction, Sociology of Animals and Society, Sociology of Emotions. Women and Gender Studies—Introduction to Women’s Studies, Women’s Studies Senior Seminar. Graduate courses taught: Humanities Graduate Seminars—Feminist Perspectives on the Western Canon: Antiquity, Feminist Perspectives on the Western Canon: Modernity. Professional membership: American Sociological Association (ASA).
Advisor, College Honors theses in Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies; Outside Chair, English Masters theses, undergraduate College Honors theses in English, Psychology, Environmental Studies, Political Science. Outside reader, College Honors in English, Romance Languages, Environmental Studies, Senior theses in English, Environmental Studies; Individually Designed Majors. Director, internships in Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies; readings and research in Sociology.
Administrative positions held: College of Arts and Sciences—Faculty Standards Committee, 1998-2001; Co-Chair, Women’s Studies Program Committee, 1994-1995; Chair, Women’s Studies Curriculum Committee, 1992; organizer, 1994 UVM lecture by 1993 Oscar Winners for Short Documentary, Defending Our Lives, Cambridge Documentary Films. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences—Board member, Therapeutic Riding Activities in Chittenden County (TRACC), 1996-1997.
Other Professional Experience: Teaching—Brandeis University: Lecturer, Sociology, University Studies in the School of the Humanities (1984-1990). Health—Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, Inc., Watertown, MA, Asst. Administrative Coordinator, Women’s Health Information Center, 1976-1985; Department of Obstetrics, The Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge, MA, Childbirth Education Consultant to patients and staff, 1974-1976. Graphic Design—University of Illinois Press, book and cover design for Bearing Meaning: The Language of Birth, 1993-1995; Brandeis University: University Studies in the School of the Humanities, Women’s Studies Program, English, Sociology, 1980-1987; Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, Inc., 1976-1985; Urban Planning Aid, Inc., Cambridge, MA, 1971-1974; Pilgrim Press and Alfred A. Knopf, 1970; United Church Press/Pilgrim Press, 1964-1969.
Awards and Honors:Scholarship and Teaching—Innovative Course Award, Humane Society of the United States and Center for Respect of Life and The Environment for Sociology of Animals and Society, 2006); Jesse Bernard Award, American Sociological Association (ASA) for Bearing Meaning: The Language of Birth, 1997; Lintilhac Foundation Grants, 1997, 2002. Graphic Design—American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), “Fifty Best Books of the Year, 1970 for The Movement Toward A New America, ed. Mitchell Goodman (Philadelphia and New York: Pilgrim Press and Alfred A. Knopf, 1970; Philadelphia Book Show, first prize for trade book design, 1969.
Who’s Who of American Women, 28th edition, 2010-2011; Who’s Who in America, 64th and 65th editions, 2009-2010, 2010-2011.
Community Service: Co-founded, Women’s Journal Writing Group, 1993-1997; Burlington Insight Meditation Group 1991-1994; Women’s Writers Group, 1991-1992; Board of Directors, Consumer Health Advocates, Boston, MA 1978-1982; Vice-Chairperson, Health Systems Agency (NW Metro HSA), Area IV Council, (PL 93-641), 1976-1977; provider member, endorsed by Massachusetts League of Neighborhood Health Centers, 1976-1978; Board of Directors, Soldiers Field Park Children’s Center, Inc., Harvard Business School, 1975-1978; co-founder, Oxford Street Day Care Cooperative, Inc., Harvard University, 1972, co-director, 1973.
Frank Owen
Professor of Studio Art Emeritus
“Striving to make art and encouraging others to share that ambition has been my working life. The two activities are intimately intertwined. The strands involve participating in the creative richness of the past while attempting to weave a new pattern in the present and, if possible, the future. Art students make new things out of impulses and sometimes reluctant materials. My job and joy has been encouraging them in their acts of discovery and realization. Within those experiences, images are built, ideas uncovered and successive instants of risk and answering courage are found. New things arise and possibilities multiply. As it has been in the classroom studio, so it has been and will continue in my studio.” —Frank Owen
Education: B.A., 1966; M.A., 1968, University of California, Davis.
UVM Career: Visiting Assistant Professor, 1982-1983; Lecturer, 1989, 1991-1993; Assistant Professor, 1993-1998; Associate Professor, 1999-2002; Professor, 2002-2011. Interim Chair, Department of Art and Art History, 2002.
Key Scholarly Interests: Creative work in the field of painting and drawing.
Exhibition Highlights:
Forty-two One-person exhibitions including:
Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York City: 2010, 2004, 2001, 1998, 1997, 1993, 1988, 1986, 1984,1981.
Atea Ring Gallery, Westport, NY: 2008, 2006, 2004, 2001, 2000, 1997.
Elaine Baker Gallery, Boca Raton, Florida, 1999
Richard F. Brush Gallery, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY, 1999
Fleming Museum, UVM, “Stoneworks” (two person show), 1998
St. Peter’s Church, New York, NY, 1995
Rockville Arts Place, Rockville, Maryland, 1993
Francis Colburn Gallery, UVM, 1991, 1983
Judy Youens Gallery, Houston, TX, 1991
Meyers Fine Arts Gallery, SUNY, Plattsburg, 1990
Iannnetti Lanzone Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1988
Cook Company Gallery, Sacramento, CA, 1987
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 1984
Knoedler Gallery, London, England, 1983
Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, 1972, 1975
Numerous group exhibitions.
Other Professional Experience: Lecturer, University of California, Davis, 1966; Lecturer, California State University, Sacramento, 1967-1968; Instructor, School of Visual Art, New York, 1970-1980; Lecturer, San Francisco Art Institute, 1978; Visiting Artist, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, 1981; Visiting Artist, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1984.
Awards and Honors: Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation Grant for Artistic Achievement, 2010; Kroepsch-Maurice Excellence in Teaching Award, UVM, 2001-2002; National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1989-1990, 1978-1979; University of California Regent’s Fellowship, 1967-1968.
Community Service: Trustee, Keene Valley Library Association, 1982-1989; Chair, Town of Keene, Adirondack Visitors Center Proposal Committee, 1985; Trustee, Adirondack Center History Museum, 1985-1989; Trustee, Keene Valley Library Association, current.
Robyn Warhol
Professor of English Emerita
“Feminist teaching and scholarship are still forms of radical activism when women are over half of the U.S. labor force but only 12 Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs or presidents. For women, queers, people of color, working class folk, and all who are still underrepresented, we must keep working.” — Robyn Warhol
Education: B.A., magna cum laude, 1977, Pomona College; Ph.D., 1982, Stanford University.
UVM Career: Assistant Professor, 1983-1989 (appointed to Graduate faculty, 1987); Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Program in English, 1989-1995; Professor, 1995-2007; Richard and Pamela Ader Green and Gold Professor of English, 2007-2009. Director, Women’s Studies, 1995-2000. Chair, Department of English, 2000-2005. Director, Humanities Center, 2004-2007. President of Faculty Senate, University of Vermont, 2007-2009.
Key Scholarly Interests: Narrative theory, feminist theory, 19th-century British novel, women’s writing in English, television studies, Jane Austen, the Brontës, Charles Dickens.
Publication Highlights:
Practicing Narrative Theory: Four Approaches in Conversation. Co-authored with David Herman, James Phelan, Peter Rabinowitz, and Brian Richardson. Forthcoming from Ohio State University Press, 2011.
Feminisms Redux: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism. Co-edited with Diane Price Herndl. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2009.
Women’s Worlds: The McGraw-Hill Anthology of Women’s Writing. Co-editor with Diane Price Herndl, Mary Lou Kete, Rashmi Varma, Lisa Schnell, and Beth Kowaleski Wallace. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.
Having a Good Cry: Effeminate Feelings and Popular Forms. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2003.
Women’s Work: An Anthology of American Literature. Co-edited with Barbara and George Perkins. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1994.
Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism. Co-edited with Diane Price Herndl. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1991, 1997.
Gendered Interventions: Narrative Discourse in the Victorian Novel. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1989.
Teaching/Research/Memberships Highlights: President, Women’s Caucus, Northeast Modern Language Association, 1991. President, International Society for the Study of Narrative, 1993. President, Association of Departments of English, Modern Language Association, 2005. Chair, Board of Supervisors, English Institute, Harvard University, 2008-2009. Associate Editor, Contemporary Women’s Writing, Oxford Journals, 2009-present.
Other Professional Experience: Visiting faculty member at Brandeis University, 1991; Rice University, 1995; and University of Southern California, 1997. Arts and Humanities Distinguished Professor of English, Ohio State University, 2009-present.
Awards and Honors: Mulhauser Prize in English, Pomona College, 1976; President’s Prize in Women’s Studies, Pomona College, 1976; Phi Beta Kappa, 1977; Whiting Fellowship, Stanford University, 1981-1982; UVM Committee on Research and Scholarship summer grants, 1985, 1987, 1989; Harvard University Mellon Faculty Fellowship in Humanities, 1986-1987; N.E.H. Summer Stipend, 1994; Graduate Teaching Award, UVM, 1996-1997; Dean’s Lecture, UVM, 1996; University Scholar, UVM, 2005-2006; University of Vermont fellow, H.E.R.S. Institute for Women in Higher Education, Wellesley College, 2005-2006; Senior Fellow, Freiburg Institute for Advanced Study, Freiburg, Germany, 2011
Community Service: Steering committee member and instructor, Summer Institute for Literary and Cultural Studies, Mellon-funded seminar for students of color considering careers in English, located at Wheaton College. First instructor for Institute, 2008-2010.
MLA Delegate Assembly, delegate for division on Prose Fiction, 2008-2010. MLA Elections Committee, 2008-2009. MLA Job Counselor, 2008-present. UVM Faculty Mentoring Panel (and Mentor), 2000-2009. UVM Faculty Women’s Caucus Steering Committee, 1992-2009. Co-Chair, UVM President’s Commission on the Status of Women, 2005-2007.