Much effort has gone into the production of this edition of Dialogues@RU magazine, and there are many for whom my thanks are warmly deserved. In the first place are not only the nineteen students whose fine work is published here, but also the many others who submitted their papers. I wish space had not been restricted, as then we would have been able to publish them all. I am extremely impressed with the outstanding level of scholarship exhibited in all the papers that were submitted.
Helping me read through these papers and reach our decision as to which ones to publish, I am indebted to Elizabeth Madden-Zibman, Erica Magnus, Letizia Schmid, and Brook Stanton, who all teach 201, and whose ability to carefully and fairly judge these papers was of enormous help. They made for a most convivial and intellectually enlightening team with whom to work.
My thanks also extend to all the other 201 professors for their dedication and extremely effective teaching. And most especially I would like to thank those teachers of the students whose work is published here; namely, Debbie Borie-Holtz, Brad Farberman, Elizabeth Gardner, John Holliday, Elizabeth Madden-Zibman, Erica Magnus, Jeff Robbins, Letizia Schmid, Joanne Sills, Laura Smith, Brook Stanton, and Karen Thompson.
Recognition and great appreciation must also be directed to Jeris Cassel, Rutgers Research and Instructional Services librarian, who has helped to seamlessly integrate the 201 courses with the Rutgers libraries in terms of teaching students about effective research skills. Not only this, but this past academic year we introduced a Poster Fair into the 201 syllabus, so that those students who wished to, designed a poster so as to develop a visual representation of their research topic. Jeris helped me to organize this Poster Fair, and it was met with much success, not least of all that many students commented on the fact that by creating their Poster, and being able to speak about it in an articulate and succinct way, they were better equipped to write their final research paper.
In addition, I would like to thank Lauren Foster for her fresh, innovative and incredibly intelligent cover design. Working with the theme of “dialogues” in her mind, Lauren cleverly went out to take photographs of anything which seemed to suggest the idea of a conversation. And she came up with the brilliant idea of the yellow telephone, with or without the laptop. My thanks also extend to Alessandra Sperling, who took on the challenging task of the layout of this magazine, and who did so with great care and attention to detail. And finally, I would like to thank Charlie Piparo and his team at Mariano Press, who inspired confidence right from the start, and who did such a super job printing this magazine.
Tisha Bender, Ph.D.
201 and Hybrid Coordinator
Assistant Director of the Rutgers Writing Program
Lucy Stone Hall B104E
August 17, 2011
School of Arts and Sciences
