2016 Annual Report - page 13

Prof’s Research Takes Her
to Ireland, England
While students and
professors at TAMIU were
enjoying another summer in Texas,
Dr. Ula Klein, assistant professor
of English, traveled to Dublin and
London to conduct research for
a book-length
project on
female cross-
dressers in
18th Century
literature.
She
conducted
research at
the National
Library of
Ireland and at
the British Library.
“I visited the National Library of Ireland and conducted
research on author and educator Maria Edgeworth and her
novel ‘Belinda,’ ” Dr. Klein said.
Anglo-Irish novelist Edgeworth was a literary celebrity and
an advocate for women’s education.
“Getting to read her letters gave me a better sense of her
as an author, which is information that I will be able to pass on
to my students,” Klein said.
“At the British Library, I looked at newspaper accounts
of real-life women who passed as men in order to get a
better sense of how popular such accounts were. I’m very
interested in examining how gender, the body and sexuality
are represented in texts, and the female cross-dresser is a
figure that explicitly draws our attention to these issues,” Klein
explained.
“Last year I went to the Folger Shakespeare Library in
Washington, D.C., to look at Elizabeth Inchbald’s diaries, and I
was unspeakably moved by the experience of handling items
that she herself had used and written in over 200 years ago,”
Klein said.
She said she hopes to lead students on a Shakespeare-
themed study abroad trip in summer 2017.
Make My Degree Meaningful:
to Me and My Community
What if you could earn a graduate degree, but deepen that
experience meaningfully?
That’s the foundation for an innovative TAMIU alternative
graduate program, the Master of Science in Psychology,
non-thesis track. Students serve the community through an
internship service that replaces the traditional thesis. Approved
community partners provide the experience, helping students
link their academic knowledge to practical experience.
College of Arts and Sciences’ department of
communication and psychology associate professor Dr. Anna B.
Cieślicka said the program grew from student requests.
“This change was motivated by student needs. Specifically,
by creating a non-thesis track, we appeal to a wider range of
Program candidates who might not necessarily be research-
oriented, or interested in a thesis project. Instead, students are
guided in integrating service-learning with academic knowledge.
Their activities address community needs -- defined through
collaboration between community partners, students, and
faculty. Their learning is based on the principle of learning
through reflecting,” Dr. Cieślicka noted.
Service-learning activities are coordinated through TAMIU’s
Service-Learning Center, directed by Dr. Marcela Uribe.
“For our partners, students provide much needed help,
making a critical difference in staff and resource allocations.
This helps partners explore or engage in expanded interests
particular to each. Partners and graduate students…we all
benefit,” concluded Dr. Uribe.
Students serve the community through an internship service.
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