Panel Discussion to Focus on "Building the Interconnected Community"

The Instructor Exchange Ad-Hoc Committee of the Fairmont State University Faculty Senate will host a Panel Discussion on “Building the Interconnected Community” from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 5, in Multi-Media Room A of the Ruth Ann Musick Library.

Moderated by Dr. Tad Kato, Chair of the Instructor Exchange Ad-Hoc Committee, the Panel Discussion is sponsored by the Office of the Provost at Fairmont State University. The panelists will discuss both theoretical and practical aspects of “interconnectedness” based on the perspectives in each discipline. 

Students, faculty and staff at Fairmont State and Pierpont Community & Technical College and members of the local community are invited to attend. Refreshments will be served, and a “question-and-answer” session will take place at the end of the forum.

Moderator:

• Dr. Tadashi Kato is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Fairmont State.  He received his Ph.D. from the Ohio University and has taught at Fairmont State since 2003. Along with ongoing research projects in the area of psychophysiology, he also teaches History and Systems of Psychology in which he addresses the concept of “interconnectedness” that appears in historical psychology, such as in the theories of William James and Carl Jung.

Panelists:

• Dr. Galen Hansen, Professor of Physics and Physical Science, has taught at Fairmont State in 1994. He received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Brigham Young University in 1980 and his Ph.D. degree in Solid-state Interfacial Physics from Utah State University in 1986. His research activities included post-doctoral positions at the University of Duesseldorf in Germany, the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and West Virginia University. He also worked for a year and a half as a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C., dealing with the art of lasers and fiber optics. In this panel discussion, he will be speaking on “CONNECTING HUMANS WITH THE COSMOS: It Takes a Universe to Raise a Human.”

• Dr. Jeremy Price, Assistant Professor of Education in the Digital Media and Learning program of the School of Education, Health, and Human Performance, earned a Ph.D. at Boston College and an Ed.M. through the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Price was selected as a CADRE Research Fellow with the National Science Foundation’s Discovery Research K-12 (DRK-12) Program. He is currently engaged in a study with undergraduate teacher candidates to explore the process of building intentional social networks of teachers to address the needs of rural classrooms. His presentation title is “TEACHERS ON THE ‘UP-AND-UP’: Approaching Teacher Education as Interconnected Communities of Practice.”

• Dr. Michael R. Ransom is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Fairmont State. He obtained his Ph.D. in Experimental Social Psychology from Ohio University. His research examines how people conceptualize miraculous events, as well as how individuals engage in hypocritical behavior. His theme on the panel will be “PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT OF INTERCONNECTEDNESS.”

• Dr. Joshua Smallridge is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Fairmont State. Smallridge teaches classes related to criminological theory, cyber-crime, white collar crime and policing. His research focus is cyber-crime and deviance, with his most recent work focusing digital vigilantism and sexual harassment online. He will focus on “CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN AN INTERCONNECTED WORLD: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES.”

• Dr. Craig C. White, Senior Professor of Sociology, earned his M.A. in Sociology from WVU and an Ed.D. in the Social Psychology of Sport. In 2009, White published his most recent book, “Unemployment Ended by Community Restored,” which has become the basis of a new 501 (c) (3) nonprofit community sector employment program, called The PACE Project, Inc., which is being launched as an experimental intervention in Monongah at this time. The same experimental model for increasing viable employment in the community is also planned for implementation in a small village in southern India in the future. At this forum, he will discuss “SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPTS OF INTERCONNECTEDNESS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS.”

For more information, contact Dr. Tad Kato at (304) 367-4759 or Tadashi.Kato@fairmontstate.edu.

Tad KatoCraig WhiteOffice of the ProvostfacultyJeremy PriceJoshua SmallridgeMichael RansomGalen HansenCollege of Liberal ArtsSchool of Education, Health and Human PerformanceCollege of Science and Technologypsychology