Featured Faculty
Faculty at Eastern Illinois University have one key quality in common - they are committed to bringing out the best in their students. Faculty are constantly finding ways to enhance the classroom experience, whether through integrative learning or by contributing to their own specific disciplines. They work with students on research, help them apply for grants and scholarships, serve the larger community beyond campus and do all that they can to prepare students for graduate school or a solid career after graduation. The handful of faculty featured on this site exemplify the love of teaching found among the faculty as a whole.
Spring 2012
Dr. David Gracon
David Gracon’s current project is titled, “Walls of Sound — A Look Inside the House of Records.” This documentary video (approximately 90 minutes) is a case study of the House of Records, a brick and mortar independent record store based in Eugene, Oregon. The store has been in operation since 1972 and it currently struggles to exist in the midst of digital downloading (both legal and illegal) and the corporate consolidation of culture (in terms of corporate chain, big-box stores and online music stores). The video is an ethnographic study that combines interviews with the owner and employees, as well as various customers of the store. The video addresses the socio-cultural significance and various folkloric narratives of the store on a number of levels. It considers how the store provides cultural diversity and alternative media, as they cater to the musical fringes and a broad range of musical styles. It is argued the store is akin to a library and acts as an archive of obscure and out-of-print music, where the store-workers share their musical expertise with the customers. The video also addresses the importance of the vernacular design of the physical space (the store is situated in an old house) and tangible musical artifacts, especially the “resurgence” of vinyl records. Lastly, it addresses the importance of face-to-face interaction as the store acts as a community gathering space between the store-workers and customers — one that is ostensibly anti-corporate, fiercely local and subcultural in scope.
Ms. Sonja Foster
Ms. Foster is passionate about educating future Family and Consumer Sciences professionals on how advocacy and public policy influence social change. She prepares students to serve individuals, families, and communities through integrative learning and critical thinking activities; as well as lively class discussions. Her research interests include: the effects of parental incarceration on children and exploring how human services and higher education should collaborate to meet the holistic needs of college students, especially historically underrepresented groups. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Ms. Foster is a faculty mentor for Web@ - Women Exploring Business and Technology, faculty fellow in Taylor Hall and campus advisor for Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. – Delta Beta chapter.
Dr. Dejan Magoc
Dr. Magoc is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Studies where he primarily teaches undergraduate courses for students majoring in health studies, teacher education, and kinesiology. His main area of research involves the promotion of physical activity and healthy behaviors using behavior change theories. Of particular interest to him is determining the most important constructs from behavioral theories in changing somebody's behavior toward physical activity, healthy eating, or simply a healthy lifestyle, in general. This area of behavior change theories and decision making offers an interdisciplinary framework that borrows from and has potential to benefit many fields including kinesiology, health promotion, psychology, sociology, and nursing and rehabilitation. One of main goals in his research is to modify known theoretical techniques to suit particular practical situations and therefore make the theory of decision making useful in practice. Dr. Magoc is currently involved in two grant projects as Co-Principal Investigator. One project is collaboration with the Faculty of Physical Education at University of Novi sad, Serbia, and it has a goal to examine challenges and perspectives of inclusive physical education in European schools. The other project is collaboration with New Mexico State University, and it has a goal to develop an interactive afterschool physical activity and health program for middle school students in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He is the Chair of the International Education Council and serve on several other international committees, including the Study Abroad committee with a great interest in developing a study abroad program for students interested in studying as well as teaching or completing their internship abroad. In addition, he is currently serving on the screening committee for the position Director of International Students and Scholars.
November/December
Dr. Daiva Markelis
October/November
Dr. Chuck Eberly
Dr. Jinhee Lee
Dr. Tesa Leonce
March/April
Dr. Judy Barford
"Teaching EIU courses for a faculty-led study abroad can change the way you see yourself as teacher. In Toronto, the faculty directors have discovered Paolo Freire's interactive spaces where shared learning experience lives between educatee and educator and where the two actors easily change roles. This expanding learning is partly due to time. We may be with student travelers 8 hours per day. Away from normal EIU routines, faculty can interact with students, taking things in, conversing, reacting, debriefing, applying course work. Being there is a wake up call in itself -- just perceiving the reality of the city, its people, its multicultural community, religious houses, universities, schools. Effort is another factor. We concur with York University faculty hosts on every workshop, tour, and placement, comparing possibilities to the overall objective of Toronto for Teachers: multicultural understanding. On site, our opportunities are the same as the students'. We attend every workshop and tour. We visit every student in every placement school. Getting behind and learning with and from students makes faculty-led study abroad continuously fulfilling. For both faculty and students, new levels of understanding make a real difference in campus classes and long-term professional endeavors... such as planning for next year's study abroad!"
Dr. Janice Collins
Dr. Collins' research focus is self esteem and leadership development in college students. One of the results of her research reveal that while many researchers will agree that a student's self esteem develops before entering college, it may also be influenced by the style of leadership used by the professor once they're in college. Transformational, Transactional, and Resonant Leadership styles all may play roles in the increase or decrease in a student's sense of self and their ability to lead. She is interested in exploring what form of leadership assists in student leadership development and how and if a professor's pedagogical style can assist in increasing a student's self esteem. Her favorite part of teaching is interacting with her students and watching them mature as they become confident standing in their own footprints. Collins is also a multi-Emmy award winning producer, editor, writer and videojournalist and is currently working on potential video projects that will cover stories from the shores of the Sea Islands along the US coastline to the shores of South and West Africa.
Dr. Marko Grunhagen
Dr. Grunhagen is currently working on multiple research projects that relate to consumer survey data that he collected in China in the fall of 2010. The data shows, among other things, how Chinese brands have reached a level of quality perception that has allowed them to take back market share from Western market leaders in the domestic China market in recent years. Chinese consumers are reverting back to choosing Chinese brands as an expression of rising consumer power. A reversal of consumer preferences toward now-competitive domestic Chinese alternatives is underway.
Visit Dr. Gruenhagen's Webpage
Dr. Jeffrey Stowell
Dr. Stowell is interested in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). A recent pursuit of his involves developing a technique to better understand what makes teachers effective in the classroom. With the help of his colleague Eric Landrum at Boise State University, they recorded more than 80 hours of classroom lectures from faculty of various disciplines at BSU and EIU. Using sports “highlight reel” software, they are tagging segments of these classroom lecture videos at times where the instructor is displaying one or more of eight teaching behaviors that are characteristic of master teachers. Dr. Stowell hopes to share video clips of exemplary teachers to help other faculty improve their teaching. Furthermore, he is interested in how faculty’s classroom behaviors influence student attitudes about the instructor.
January/February
Dr. John Best
Professor Best is currently investigating characteristics of the cognitive structure underlying conditional reasoning (“if-then” reasoning). The ultimate objective of this research is to produce a model of the neural substrate that lets us understand how the cognitive system creates a cognitive structure that enables the computation of valid conclusions, and the avoidance of invalid ones in deduction.
Dr. Rebecca Cook
Dr. Cook thinks that her strongest area is teaching as she uses a highly interactive approach as she tries to simulate situations for the teacher candidates to experience. She also is developing a manual for kindergarten teachers consisting of evidenced-based strategies for children who are struggling to learn that are aligned with the Illinois Kindergarten Standards. Dr. Cook is currently starting some research in systematically teaching the reflective process to teacher candidates in her program. Her other area of interest is teacher induction and she plans to follow their teacher candidates in their first two years of teaching to explore the continued development of their reflective skills.
Dr. Russell Gruber
Dr. Gruber’s research is interesting, but a bit controversial. Previously, he studied dreams for many years – Currently he is studying mental telepathy.
Dr. Beleyat Khan
Dr. Khan remains active with his teaching, research, and service commitments to the university. His regular course offerings include Climatology, Weather and Climate, Quantitative Methods, Geography and Culture of Asia, and Spaceship Earth. Additionally, he frequently teaches off-campus courses and leads a number of climate related workshops. His research primarily concentrates on climate variability and weather anomalies with a focus on South Asia. His passion for academia has been recognized on numerous occasions and he has been fortunate to receive several excellence awards for teaching. Dr. Khan immensely enjoys working with the students, and also wants to sincerely thank his colleagues for their support.
Dr. Danelle Larson
Dr. Larson is interested in student centered learning in music ensembles. Her dissertation research used quantitative techniques and focused on the changes in motivation, attitudes, and performance achievement among high school band students who experienced student led chamber music ensembles in addition to full ensemble experience. She is currently completing a qualitative study that explores students' perceptions of student led work in ensemble classes. Dr. Larson interviewed students who participated in chamber ensembles and found three main themes that emerged from their discussions: the importance of having choices in ensemble classes, the social implications of ensembles, and the notion that participation in student led small ensembles raises self-confidence. She will present her paper in March at the Conference on Music Learning and Teaching at Oakland University's Center for Applied Research in Musical Understanding. She will also share research in this area at the American Educational Research Association's conference in April in New Orleans, LA, and at the Instrumental Music Teacher Educators conference in May. Dr. Larson next plans to investigate the possible link between variety of musical experiences offered in high school curriculum and life-long music making.
