School of Arts and Sciences Review Winter 2014 | Page 43

News & Events

Faculty members Payne, Privitera, Walsh
recognized for professional excellence
2013 Faculty Award Winners

T

hree faculty members from the
School of Arts and Sciences were
recognized for professional excellence at Commencement Exercises in
May 2013.
Dr. Phillip G. Payne, professor of history, was cited for Professional Excellence in Research and Publishing.
Dr. Gregory J. Privitera, associate professor of psychology, and Dr. Megan
Walsh, assistant professor of English,
were recipients of the Junior Faculty
Award for Professional Excellence.

Dr. Phillip Payne is a distinguished author whose publishing record reflects “a
remarkable breadth of scholarly interests,” said fellow history professor Dr.
Joel Horowitz.
Payne’s written works include a book
on President Warren G. Harding, “Dead
Last: The Public Memory of Warren G.
Harding’s Scandalous Legacy,” which
The American Historical Association has
called groundbreaking.
He has also written about economic
history and has even dipped into the
world of popular culture with a scholarly
discussion of comic books and an exploration of how popular culture is shaped
by politics and vice versa.
A forthcoming book examines the bull
market of the 1920s and how it helped
lead to the Great Depression of the
1930s.
Payne’s broad-based expertise is “a
particularly attractive trait in a small university, such as ours, in which we teach a
multitude of different topics in order to
expose our students to them,” said
Horowitz.
Payne earned his bachelor’s degree
from Marshall University and his master’s
and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.

havioral neuroscience, also
from U.B.

Dr. Gregory Privitera has an exemplary record of teaching, scholarship
and service to the university, said Dr.
Darryl Mayeaux, associate professor and
chair of the Department of Psychology.
Privitera has published a textbook in
statistics, which is in use at the university, and another textbook in research
methods is in production.
“He is approachable and energetic
about teaching difficult material,” and
many of his courses are fully enrolled,
said Mayeaux.
Privitera has published six peer-reviewed papers with eight current or recently graduated St. Bonaventure
students, presenting a rare opportunity
for undergraduate students to be published. “This level of mentorship of and
engagement with students is invaluable
to their intellectual development and to
the university’s reputation for quality educational experience,” said Mayeaux.
An engaging speaker, Privitera has
partnered with the university’s Office of
Marketing and Communications on a
number of media relations initiatives,
further enhancing the university’s academic reputation.
After serving in the Marine Corps for
four years, Privitera earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the
State University of New York at Buffalo, and his Ph.D. in psychology, be-

Dr. Megan Walsh has established an impressive
record of accomplishment
in teaching, scholarship
and service in just her second year at the university,
said Dr. Patrick Panzarella,
chair of the Department of
English.
Her course evaluations are peppered
with terms such as “fantastic,” “intelligent,” “wonderful,” and teaching observations by senior faculty members are
just as glowing, describing her as “a
truly outstanding teacher” who is “personable, engaged and committed.”
Her record of scholarship is just as
noteworthy. “In her brief time at St.
Bonaventure, she has published four articles in the most prestigious books and
journals in her discipline,” and other
works including a new edition of Frank
J. Webb’s novel “The Garies and Their
Friends” (Broadview, 2014) have been
accepted for publication, said Panzarella.
Her research has won numerous national awards and grants, most recently
from the Newberry Library, the University of Virginia, and the Library Company of Philadelphia. She is working on
a book manuscript titled “A Nation in
Sight: Book Illustration and Early American Literature.”
In addition, Walsh has helped “transform” the Department of English by
strengthening its university website and
social media presence. She earned her
B.A. in history and English from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison and
her master’s and Ph.D. in English from
Temple University.

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