It has taken over a year to bring the Dialogues@RU> journal project to print. This volume emerged through of the hard work and financial support of many individuals.
This journal would not have been possible without submissions from students in Research in The Disciplines and College Writing and Research. We want to thank Nadia M. Abdo, Christy Amoros, Tim Blackmon, Jennifer Borghaus, John Butler, Jonathan Cohen, Michael Colonna, Janice Desir, Tanya Drago, Dora Figueiredo, Smita Ganatra, Christie Gasikowski, Dan Jalil, Philip Jan, Robert S. Jenco, Min Ju Kim, Diane Krauthamer, Janet Lee, Jean (Jin) Lee, Soon-Hee Lee, Ozelia Lowe, Jenny Maglione, Erin Manners, Matthew Marciano, Marc Montgomery, Tatijana Nedeska, Mitesh Patel, Shreena K. Patel, Doug Piccinnini, Jon Roche, Kate Rockland, Leila Sedighi, Lisa Shannon, Rochelle Steele, Robert Stegman, Chris Stylianow, Namiko Suga, Denise Svenson, Sarah Templeton, Shawn Thurber, Lauren Toth, Agnieszka Wydra, and Tony Yang for submitting their papers. While we did not select their essays for inclusion, they submitted outstanding work that confirmed for us that Rutgers students are capable of serious inquiry over the course of an extended writing project.
Elliot Aronow, Isaac Daniel, Christopher Flor, Lisa Giberson, Megan Johnson, Soo Hee Kwon, Jon Laor, Joanna Martinez, and Nicole Warren are responsible for producing the material that makes this journal a wonderful representation of undergraduate academic writing. And the instructors who advised these students worked very hard to navigate the tension between cultivating independence and providing guidance for student research projects. While the essays that appear in Dialogues@RU are the product of the students' hard work, Jonathan Bass, Alexis Boylan, Kate Briggs, Rebecca Hartman, Skiles Howard, Ben Johnson, Brian Page, Maureen A. Riddle, and John Shanahan certainly helped the projects along in important ways. Thank you.
Jan Marc Quisumbing, a student in Mason Gross School of the Arts, designed the cover for the journal. Amit Baria, Sweta Gupta, Vincent Mancuso, Daniel Morfesis, Jon Roche, Paula Tralha, and Maryum Tucker performed admirably as student peer reviewers. They critically evaluated very large piles of student submissions, and helped us identify finalists for inclusion. We learned at least as much from their comments and evaluations as they learned from our assessments. Barclay Barrios, the Writing Program's Director of Instructional Technology consulted on the design of the web version of Dialogues@RU>. Patricia Cain, Eleanor Creedon, Judy Karwowski, Susan Mayer, Mahfuza Zaman, and Tanya Piccini provided invaluable administrative support to the project.
Dialogues@RU> was funded in large part by a generous 2001-2002 Rutgers Dialogues Grant to enhance the education of undergraduates. The Rutgers Writing Program under the direction of Dr. Kurt Spellmeyer and Dr. Richard E. Miller contributed significant intellectual and financial support. And the offices of Dean Scott Cagenello (Mason Gross School of the Arts), Dean Arnold G. Hyndman (Livingston College), Dean George D. Jones (Dean of Students, Livingston College), and Dean Eddie J. Manning (Educational Opportunity Fund, Livingston College) each contributed financially to the project.
I also want to thank Ann Jurecic and Anthony Lioi, the associate editors for the Dialogues@RU> project. Ann and Anthony worked very closely with me throughout the review and revision process, and their assistance proved invaluable.
Michael J. Cripps
May 1, 2002
Piscataway, New Jersey
