O'Leary Faculty Recognition Awards Presented at Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – Five members of the College of the Holy Cross faculty have been honored with the Arthur J. O’Leary Faculty Recognition Award. These $10,000 honoraria are given each year by the senior vice president, Frank Vellaccio, to senior faculty members who make a special contribution to Holy Cross through their teaching, scholarship and/or service. The O’Leary Awards are intended to honor the recipients, to advance their work, and to encourage other members of the faculty to attain a high level of professional achievement and to be a positive influence in lives of students. The 2007 recipients include:

Daniel Bitran, associate professor of psychology, earned his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and his B.A. at City University New York, Queens College.  From 1986-88, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Connecticut, and from 1988-92, he was a research associate at the University of Rochester.  Bitran has been a member of the Holy Cross faculty since 1992, has served as chair of the psychology department (2000 – 2005), on the Research and Publications Committee and the Academic Affairs Committee.  He is currently serving as Science Coordinator and is on the Committee of the Curriculum. His recent research is aimed at elucidating the brain mechanisms involved in mediating the effects of estrogen on cognition. Bitran resides in Worcester.

Edward Isser, associate professor and chair of the theatre department, worked on Broadway, off Broadway and in regional theatre as an actor, stage manager and production manager prior to earning a joint doctorate in drama and humanities from Stanford University.  Isser has been a member of the Holy Cross faculty since 1995.  He is the author of Stages of Annihilation: Theatrical Representations of the Holocaust (Fairleigh Dickinson, UP, 1997) and has published articles and reviews in journals such as Modern Drama, Theatre Journal, Essays in Theater, The Shakespeare Bulletin, and The Bernard Shaw Annual.  He recently directed Shakespeare’s Richard III, presented by Redfeather Theatre Company featuring professional actors, members of the Worcester community and Holy Cross students and alumni.  A significant portion of his O'Leary Award will be used to support the aforementioned summer Shakespeare festival and he also plans to pursue research towards a book-in-process on 19th century dramatic representations of anti-Semitism. Isser is a resident of West Greenwich, R.I.

Vickie Langohr, associate professor of political science, earned her Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University, her B.A. from University of California, Berkeley and also studied in Cairo, Egypt for two years. She is serving as the director of the Peace and Conflict Studies Concentration committee at Holy Cross. She has published articles in Comparative Politics, Comparative Studies of Society History, International Journal of Middle East Studies, The Journal of Democracy, and Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She anticipates using the funds to buy subscriptions to Arabic language newspapers as well as to finance at least one research trip to the Middle East. She lives in Watertown, Mass. Royce Singleton, professor of sociology, earned his Ph.D. in sociology from Indiana University, and his M.S. and B.S at Oklahoma State University. His research and publications span social psychology, methodology, race relations, and undergraduate education. Recent publications include the fourth edition of his co-authored (with Bruce Straits) textbook Approaches to Social Research (Oxford University Press, 2005), an article in Teaching Sociology on the Holy Cross Student Survey, and an article in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs based on data from the survey. A Holy Cross faculty member since 1977, he regularly teaches courses in social psychology, methods of social research, sport and society, and small group processes.  He plans to use the O’Leary award to extend his student survey to other campuses.

Joanna E. Ziegler, professor and chair of the visual arts department, has been a faculty member at Holy Cross since 1982. She received her Ph.D. in art history and architecture and her M.A. and B.A. in art history from Brown University. A specialist in late medieval and early modern religious art and architecture of Low Countries, Ziegler has been invited to lecture all over the U.S. and Europe. She was the recipient of the Distinguished Teacher of the Year award from Holy Cross in 1994. She is co-author, with Bruce T. Morrill, S.J., and Susan Rodgers, professor of anthropology at Holy Cross, of Practicing Catholic: Ritual, Body, and Contestation in Catholic Faith (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) and Practicing Mortality:Art, Philosophy, and Contemplative Seeing, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) which she also co-authored with Christopher Dustin, associate professor of philosophy and director of the First-Year Program at Holy Cross. She plans to use some of the funds for a book she is writing and developing a small collection of original works of art for the classroom.

The Arthur J. O’Leary Faculty Recognition Awards have been made possible by an endowed gift to the College from Thomas H. O’Leary ’54, former President, CEO and Chairman of Burlington Resources, in memory of his father, Arthur J. O’Leary.