Pictured above from left: Mitchell Brown, Political Science; Barry Burkhart, Psychology; Constance Relihan, Senior Associate Dean; Paula Bobrowski, Associate Dean; Anna Gramberg, Dean; Ted Becker, Political Science; and Morris Bian, History.

Written by Lori Woods

On October 27, 2009, four professors from the College of Liberal Arts were honored at the 4 th annual Faculty Awards Celebrating Excellence ceremony at The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon conference Center. These awards are the highest recognition the university gives to its faculty. This year the ceremony also included professors recognized by the Auburn Alumni Association with funds endowed from the Auburn Annual Giving. We are proud to introduce this year's distinguished faculty:

2009 recipient of The Alumni Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award
Theodore Becker
Alumni Professor - Political Science

Ted Becker is the author of 12 books in the fields of law and politics, American government, and teledemocracy and one of this year's recipients of the Alumni Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award. Becker's latest book, The Last, Lost Empire: Why America Flounders in Early Post Imperial Times, was published by National Social Science Press in 2009 as an online digital and "endless book." Dr. Becker earned his J.D. from Rutgers and his doctorate from Northwestern and has taught at universities around the globe. In addition to his teaching and research, Dr. Becker is currently the editor in chief of The Journal of Public Deliberation, which he considers a labor of love.

The Alumni Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award recipients are nominated by students, alumni and colleagues for their quality of teaching, knowledge of their subject matter and availability to students. Recipients are honored each year and receive an honorarium award of $1,000 and a plaque.

2009 recipient of the Creative Research and Scholarship Award
Morris Bian
Associate Professor - History

Morris Bian, associate professor in the department of history has received the 2009 Creative Research and Scholarship Award. Professor Bian's research focuses on 20 th century Chinese political, economic and institutional history. His first book, The Making of the State Enterprise System in Modern China: The Dynamics of Institutional Change, was recognized in 2005 by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title and in 2007 the International Convention of Asian Scholars named his book one of the top ten social science books in Asian studies. His current research explores the formation of China's regional state enterprise system during the 20 th century.

The Creative Research and Scholarship Award recognizes the research achievements and contributions of Auburn faculty who have distinguished themselves through research, scholarly works and/or creative contributions to their field. This award includes a $5,000.00 cash presentation, a plaque and a photographic portrait permanently displayed in Samford Hall.

2009 recipient of The Distinguished Diversity Researcher Award
Mitchell Brown
Assistant Professor - Political Science

Mitchell Brown, assistant professor in the political science department, is this year's recipient of The Distinguished Diversity Researcher Award in the category of Early Career, Innovative diversity Researcher. Professor Brown's research studies the common theme of how government helps or hinders marginalized groups of individuals. She is conducting a cross-national, quantitative analysis of the factors that lead to differing reproductive rights policies and is a co-principal investigator evaluating one of the Bush administration's faith-based initiatives, The Rural Domestic Violence and Child Victimization Enforcement Grant Program Special Initiative. Dr. Brown is the director of research at the Institute for Community Peace, a national advocacy organization devoted to building safe, functioning communities in violent areas. As a component of this award, Brown lectured on her research during the Celebration of Diversity Research conference.

The Distinguished Diversity Researcher Award is given by the Research Initiative for the Study of Diversity and the Office of the Vice President for Research to celebrate and showcase the best diversity research being done on campus. The recipient receives a $2,000 check and a plaque.

2009 Award for Excellence in Faculty Outreach
Barry Burkhart
Professor - Psychology

The Award for Excellence in Faculty Outreach in 2009 was presented to Professor Barry Burkhart of the Psychology department. Dr. Burkhart's outreach focus is violent crime, its prevention, and its aftermath, and provides intervention for area youth-at-risk, counseling to victims, treatment and rehabilitation of offenders, as well as policy consultations to youth development and law enforcement agencies across the state and region. Part of the Auburn faculty since 1974, Dr. Burkhart has lectured at dozens of major universities and is nationally recognized for his expertise.

Auburn University's Award for Excellence in Faculty Outreach, is sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for University Outreach. The award, and a $5,000 honorarium, is presented to one exceptional AU faculty member per year.  This award honors the recipient's overall academic merit and impact on outreach.

Video profiles of Auburn University faculty award winners are now available online. The segments were produced by the Office of Communications and Marketing and shown during last week's fourth annual Faculty Awards Celebrating Excellence Ceremony.

The Gerald and Emily Leischuck Endowed Presidential Awards for Excellence in Teaching, the university's top teaching honors, were presented to Sushil Bhavnani, professor of mechanical engineering, and Mary Mendonca, associate professor of biological sciences. Morris Bian, associate professor of history, received the Creative Research and Scholarship Award, while Barry Burkhart, professor of psychology, accepted the Award for Excellence in Faculty Outreach. A complete list of award recipients, along with photographs and biographical information, can be found on the 2009 Faculty Awards Web site.

Auburn University will present its highest faculty awards for teaching, research, and outreach on Oct. 27, 2009, where Psychology Professor Barry Burkhart will receive The Award for Excellence in Faculty Outreach. Burkhart, an Auburn faculty member since 1974, has long been active in community projects across East Alabama and is co-director of a treatment program for juvenile sex offenders incarcerated in a state training school.

The awards will be held at the Hotel at Auburn University at 5 p.m.

Burkhart received his B.S. in Psychology from Florida State University in 1970 and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 1974, also, from Florida State University. He completed his internship in Clinical Psychology at University of Southern California-Los Angeles County Medical Center. He has broad recent interests in assessment and treatment of problems resulting from violence and victimization. Currently, he is co-director of a treatment program for juvenile sex offenders incarcerated in a state training school. He is a Fellow of Divisions 12 and 29 of the American Psychological Association and is a Fellow of the Academy of Clinical Psychology of the. American Board of Professional Psychology. He is a founding partner of a large psychology practice and has been a practicing clinician since 1975.

The Alabama Correctional Education Coalition will meet Tuesday, Oct. 13, at The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. Kyes Stevens, director of the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project in the Department of Psychology in the College of Liberal Arts, and Dr. Peggy Shippen, an associate professor in the College of Education's Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation, Counseling/School Psychology, will direct the meeting sponsored by the AU Outreach Office.

The coalition will bring together representatives of state agencies and organizations engaged in education programming for incarcerated individuals. The meeting will advance discussion on how to improve educational services for Alabama's prisoners.

Participating organizations include the Alabama Department of Corrections, the Alabama Department of Economic Development and Community Affairs, the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services, the Alabama Department of Youth Services, the Alabama Department of Postsecondary Education, Aid to Inmate Mothers and several faith-based organizations.

This month's meeting builds on the dialogue facilitated by the Alabama Correctional Education Summit hosted at the university in May. During that meeting, Stevens, Shippen and representatives of several state agencies explored a variety of topics relating to prisoner education. The summit resulted from the project, "Enhancing the Educational Skills of Alabama's Prison Population" a partnership between Shippen and Stevens that focuses on expanding basic literacy tutoring programs and enhancing Auburn University's prison-based education efforts.

According to a 2004 article published in The Journal of Correctional Education, prisoners who participate in educational programs while incarcerated are far less likely to return to prison following their release. One study cited in the article revealed that the recidivism rate for inmates who had earned a diploma was 26.4 percent versus 44.6 percent for those who did not earn a degree.

### Written by Troy Johnson, College of Education.

AUBURN, AL. (Sept 3, 2009) - The Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project (APAEP), in the Department of Psychology in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University, in conjunction with the Creative Writing Program at the University of Alabama, will be holding a fundraiser on September 30, 2009 at the Bama Theatre in Tuscaloosa.

There will be a happy hour at 6 p.m. followed by the screening of the documentary film The Dhamma Brothers at 7 p.m., and a panel question and answer after the screening. Suggested donations for the viewing are $8 for students and $12 for all others.

The Dhamma Brothers tells a dramatic tale of human potential and transformation. The film follows the stories of 36 prisoners at the Donaldson Correctional Facility in west Jefferson, County, Alabama, as they participate in a 10-day intensive meditation program. It challenges the assumptions about the nature of prisons as places of punishment rather than rehabilitation.

All funds raised from the screening and sale of APAEP anthologies will benefit the educational programming of this outreach program.

The Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project offers classes in the arts and humanities to incarcerated people in Alabama, and has done so since 2002. APAEP believes that arts and humanities education opportunities provide a foundation for significant human development and that this opportunity is greatly needed for individuals in Alabama's prisons.

APAEP is a nationally-recognized prison arts and education program has been acknowledged by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. APAEP receives funding for arts and humanities programming from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the Alabama Humanities Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, and the Support the Arts Car Tag Fund for the State of Alabama, among others.

For more information on the program, visit www.auburn.edu/apaep.

Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project

226 Thach Hall

Auburn, University, AL 36849-5214

For more information, contact: Kyes Stevens

334-844-8946 (office)

334-703-6854 (cell)

334-844-4447 (fax)

AUBURN, AL. (Sept 1, 2009) - The Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project, in the Department of Psychology in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University, received $25,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts as part of the federal stimulus funds to support artists affected by the current economic situation.

APAEP will use the funds to support artists teaching classes in Alabama prisons, such as Staton Correctional Facility north of Montgomery and Donaldson Correctional Facility northwest of Birmingham, as well as an artist internship in arts administration and community engagement through the arts.

The Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project offers classes in the arts and humanities to incarcerated people in Alabama, and has done so since 2002. APAEP believes that arts and humanities education opportunities provide a foundation for significant human development and that this opportunity is greatly needed for individuals in Alabama's prisons.

"These funds benefit artists as well as the individuals who take APAEP classes," says Kyes Stevens of the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project. "Doing the right thing is never a one- way street, all parties involved grow as artists, but also as people."

APAEP is a program of the Department of Psychology in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University. For more information on the program, visit www.auburn.edu/apaep .

Alabama Arts and Education Project

226 Thach Hall

Auburn, University, AL 36849-5214

Contact: Kyes Stevens

334-844-8946 (office)

334-703-6854 (cell)

334-844-4447 (fax)

Two Auburn University psychology undergraduate students were awarded research fellowships from the College of Liberal Arts for the Fall 2009 semester.

The OURCLA fellowship program awards students $1500 to undertake a semester-long research project under the supervision of a faculty mentor. OURCLA students are also eligible to apply for up to $1000 to support student travel to present the results of their research at a national conference.

Brittani Berbette, a senior psychology major from Arab, Alabama, was awarded the fellowship for her research project on eating and alcohol-related problems. Brittani is a member of Dr. Chis Correia's lab and will work in close collaboration with him throughout the fellowship.

Laura Coursen, a senior psychology major from Austin, Texas, was also awarded an OURCLA fellowship for her proposed research project focusing on the moral decision-making process. Laura will work under the supervision of Dr. Ana Franco-Watkins for the 2009-2010 academic year.

The AU Department of Psychology offers numerous opportunities for undergraduate research in a variety of research settings. Undergraduate research is a recommended activity for any psychology major considering graduate study and interested undergraduates are encouraged to ask professors about potential research assistant openings in their labs. The Auburn University Psi Chi chapter will advertise research assistant openings during an upcoming meeting this fall.

To apply for an OURCLA fellowship, each student and mentor pair complete an online application. Applications are reviewed by the College of Liberal Arts Scholarship Committee and are due November 1, 2009, for the Spring 2010 semester; and March 1 for Summer 2010 projects.

Congratulations to Brittani and Laura for their recent awards!

The CLA Student Services Center (this includes all Advisor and Administrative offices) is moving to 321 Tichenor Hall. We hope to be open for advising in our new offices on Aug. 26. We will be closed on the afternoon of Aug. 21 and all day Aug. 24 and Aug. 25 in order to make the move. Please keep checking your email for updates--as with all moves, there may be some last minute changes to the schedule.

The Department of Communication and Journalism will also be moving back to Tichenor. Please look for more information from the Department.

Two faculty members from the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) recently received competitive Outreach Scholarship Grants from Auburn University's Office of the Vice President for Outreach.

Dr. Sandra Clark-Lewis, clinical professor of audiology in the Department of Communication Disorders, was awarded $14,749 from the University for her project, "Auburn Audiology Outreach in Guatemala," which will provide hearing and middle ear screening to impoverished children attending three inner city schools in Guatemala City. CLA provided an additional $3,800 in matching funds to support the project. Six audiology doctoral students will join Clark-Lewis for the August trip to Guatemala and fit up to forty children diagnosed with significant hearing loss with digital hearing aids. For more information and live updates from Guatemala, click here.

Dr. Elizabeth Brestan-Knight, CLA Engaged Scholar and associate professor of psychology, received a $15,149 grant for her project, "An Evaluation of Attachment Training for Mentoring Effectiveness." Shalonda Brooks, a psychology doctoral candidate, will serve as co-investigator. The project will apply the principles of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy to help Project Uplift mentors build a warm relationship with their mentees and increase the overall effectiveness of the local mentoring program.

For information on these and other community and civic engagement projects in the College of Liberal Arts, visit www.auburn.edu/cce.

For more information, contact: Mark Wilson, Ph.D. Community and Civic Engagement College of Liberal Arts 2046 Haley Center Auburn University, AL 36849 334-844-6198 Email: wilsom3@auburn.edu

PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR PARTNERS WITH NATIONWIDE AGENCY TO PROVIDE TRAINING

Elizabeth Brestan Knight, College of Liberal Arts Engaged Scholar and associate professor of psychology, is collaborating with the National Children's Advocacy Center (NCAC), headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, to provide training for twenty-two therapists who provide services to high-risk children throughout the state.

Through a forty-hour workshop, Knight and a team of three AU psychology graduate students, will provide training in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (link:www.pcit.org), an empirically-supported treatment for conduct-disordered young children. In addition to the workshop, Knight will provide six months of supervision via conference call and Web cam for trainees.

"We are especially excited about this partnership because the scope of our audience will be statewide, and we will learn more about the challenges facing front-line mental health professionals in Alabama," says Knight. "The project will provide graduate students with the valuable experience of providing training and supervision-experiences that will inform their own clinical practice after graduation."

The CLA Engaged Scholar program is designed to support superior faculty in the college and strengthen student and faculty engagement in the local community as well as national and international arenas. For more information on the program and a list of current faculty, see this link (www.auburn.edu/cce).

For more information, contact Mark Wilson, 4-6198, mwilson@auburn.edu

A study by Jacqueline Mitchelson, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology,is receiving international attention through outlets such as BBC News and In The News. Her study, published in the Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology, questioned almost 300 working adults over their work-to-life balance. It found that women suffer more than men when it comes to feelings of inadequacy at home and at work. Health experts say maintaining a good balance is important to general mental health and well-being, and warn the pursuit of perfectionism can have negative health effects, especially if the subject feels there are inconsistencies between standards and actual performance. At work, 38 percent of women did not feel they met the high standards they set for themselves, compared with 24 percent of men. When it came to home and family life, 30 percent of women felt they were failing to meet the standards they wanted, compared with 17 percent of men.

Professor's study shows perfectionism affects working women most

A study by Dr. Jacqueline Mitchelson, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University, is receiving international attention through outlets such as BBC News and In The News. She is also published in this month’s issue of Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.

Dr. Mitchelson’s research involved questioning 288 working adults (178 women, 109 men, and 1 unspecified) about their work-to-life balance. The study found that women suffer more than men when it comes to feelings of inadequacy at home and at work. Health experts say maintaining a good balance is important to general mental health and well-being, and warn the pursuit of perfectionism can have negative health effects, especially if the subject feels there are inconsistencies between standards and actual performance. At work, 38 percent of women did not feel they met the high standards they set for themselves, compared with 24 percent of men. When it came to home and family life, 30 percent of women felt they were failing to meet the standards they wanted, compared with 17 percent of men.

“In the pursuit for high personal standards, perfectionists are driven by an ‘all-or-none’ mentality,” Dr. Mitchelson explains. “ Perfectionist women are more likely to feel they are underachieving at home for two key reasons. Firstly, they are less able to execute such control over their domestic affairs, whether it is unruly teenagers, soaring bills or unpleasant neighbors. Secondly, the ability to get objective feedback does not exist as formally at home as they do in the workplace.”

Mitchelson said the women in the study believe that are not being a “good” mom or a “good” wife which creates feelings of guilt and stress that can negatively affect the whole family.

All participants of the study work 20 or more hours a week and all either have a significant other, and/or have dependent children (over 80 percent of the participants had a least one child).

Sarah Teague, a senior psychology major from Birmingham, Alabama, was selected for the 2009 Georgia Vallery Award.

The award was initiated in 1983 to honor Dr. Georgia Vallery, who served on the Auburn University department of Psychology faculty for 25 years. Each spring the award is given to one outstanding undergraduate psychology major who displays `exceptional character, academic performance, and service to the department and University.? Faculty nominate senior majors for this honor, which consists of a certificate, a $200 check, and a presentation at the spring Psi Chi meeting. The first recipient of this award was Bridget Finlen (Smith) who went on to earn a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Auburn. Dr. Smith now serves as an adjunct professor in our department.

This year's recipient, Sarah Teague, was described by a faculty member as "one of the best undergraduate students in psychology I have ever known. She recently accepted an offer to obtain her Ph.D. at Penn State University on a presidential fellowship. Penn State is one of the top-5 I/O programs in North America. In addition to her high GPA and GRE scores, she has also published -- and is first author at that!" Sarah is active in Psi Chi and has been a recipient of several AU scholarships including a freshman presidential scholarship, a valedictorian scholarship, and an AU Board of Trustees scholarship. Congratulations Sarah - and good luck in grad school!

Two Auburn University psychology undergraduate students received recognition for their research presentations at a recent Troy University psychology conference. The research was conducted under the direction of Dr. Chris Correia, an associate professor in the AU Department of Psychology.

Brittani Berbette, a senior psychology major from Arab, Alabama, was the first author on a presentation entitled "The Role of Dietary and Alcohol restraint and Disinhibition in Predicting Alcohol Use." The research project, which was conducted in collaboration with clinical psychology graduate student Natalie Heidelberg, won a third place award at the conference. Berbette was also recently nominated for the 2009 Georgia Vallery award, the highest honor awarded to an outstanding senior psychology major each spring.

Ansley Evans, a senior psychology major from Lakeland, Florida, was the first author on a poster presentation entitled "PTSD Symptoms and Drinking to Cope Predict Alcohol Use and Related Problems." The research project, which was conducted in collaboration with recent AU alum Dr. Glenna Rousseau, also won a third place award at the conference.

The AU Department of Psychology offers opportunities for undergraduate research in a variety of research settings. Undergraduate research is a recommended activity for any psychology major considering graduate study and Dr. Chris Correia has mentored many undergraduates in his Drugs and Behavior Research Lab since joining the psychology faculty in 2002.

Congratulations to Dr. Correia and his productive research team!

Jim Carr, in the College of Liberal Arts, has been elected to serve a 3-year term on the Board of Directors for the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB). Established in 2000, the BACB establishes practice and ethical standards and implements a national and international certification program for practitioners of applied behavior analysis. An Auburn University faculty member since 2008, Carr is the incoming director of the psychology department's master's program in applied behavior analysis and developmental disabilities and also advises doctoral students in the department's experimental psychology program.

The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded one of its two national Chairman's Extraordinary Action Awards to Auburn University's Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project. The award includes $12,000 to support a pilot project to assist the NEA in developing its Big Read program for correctional facilities.

"The Big Read is designed to restore reading to the center of American culture by providing citizens with the opportunity to read and discuss a single book within their communities," said Kyes Stevens, founder and director of the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project. "For this project, APAEP will work with NEA personnel to enhance the program for the prison setting."

Since 2002, the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project has offered classes in the arts and humanities to incarcerated people in Alabama through the Department of Psychology in Auburn's College of Liberal Arts.

"The National Endowment for the Arts is pleased to award one of the pilot grants to conduct The Big Read in correctional facilities to the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project," said Molly Thomas-Hicks, Literature Specialist for The Big Read at the NEA. "In each 14-week program, participants will be introduced to three works of great American literature using curriculum and educational material developed especially for The Big Read. We hope the pilot will become a model for similar Big Read programs in correctional facilities across the country."

Stevens described the grant as a great testament to the positive programming efforts of all APAEP teachers and students, the Alabama Department of Corrections and Auburn University for partnering to promote positive educational experiences for this community.

In addition to APAEP's being selected as a host site, the Alabama Writers' Forum, a partnership program of the Alabama State Council on the Arts and partner program to APAEP, was selected to participate in the pilot Big Read project with its established programs for juvenile offenders within the Alabama Department of Youth Services School District. With the support of ASCA, the Alabama Writers' Forum and the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project have become nationally recognized programs working to offer meaningful educational opportunities to juveniles and adults incarcerated in Alabama.

For more information about the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project, go to www.auburn.edu/apaep. For more information about The Big Read, go to http://www.neabigread.org/. For more information about the Alabama Writers' Forum, go to http://www.writersforum.org/.

Contact: Kyes Stevens, (334) 844-8946 (stevemk@auburn.edu)

Any undergraduate or graduate student enrolled at Auburn University is eligible to submit a video. Only one video may be entered per person or group.

$500 will be awarded to the creator(s) of the video selected as the first place winner. The creator(s) of the second and third place videos will receive $250 and $150, respectively. Prize money is sponsored by Auburn University's College of Liberal Arts.
The three winning videos will also be showcased on the CLA website.

To submit a video, upload your video on YouTube and then email its url to Christa Slaton, Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at ccepc@auburn.edu. Emails must be sent from an Auburn University email account. Please type "CLA YouTube Contest" in the subject line of your email, and include in the body of the email the names of the person, persons, or group submitting the video. The College of Liberal Arts will make your video available for viewing on the contest website. You will receive confirmation email from the College of Liberal Arts indicating that your video entry has been received.

In the event that you are unfamiliar with how to upload a video to YouTube, directions are available at http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=57931.

Videos need to be between one and five minutes in length.

The deadline for submitting videos is March 27, 2009. Videos received after the deadline cannot be considered.

Between April 1 and April 5, students are invited to vote for their favorite contest video by sending an email to Christa Slaton, Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at ccepc@auburn.edu. Emails must be sent from an Auburn University email account. Please type "Vote CLA YouTube" in the subject line of your email and indicate the title of the favorite video in the email's body. Only one vote per person will be tallied.

Videos will be judged by members of the College of Liberal Art's Civic Engagement Planning Committee. Videos will be judged based on the five criteria outlined below:

• Relevance to the contest theme
• Extent to which the video provokes productive reflection, discussion, debate, and/or critique regarding civic responsibility as a feature of learning and living at Auburn University
• Creativity
• Originality
• Number of student votes

Contest winners will be notified via email on April 10, 2009.

View the Video Entries

• Submitted by Amanda Morris
• Submitted by Ashley Nunn
• Submitted by John Anderson
• Submitted by Griffin Limerick and John Collins
• Submitted by Jillian Clair
• Submitted by Mallory Rice

While many psychologists and counselors devote their careers to helping people overcome addictions and patterns of undesirable behavior, decades of research have not led to a permanent cure other than abstinence fot the most harmful addictions, such as alcoholism, drug abuse and smoking. Decades after quitting, the smell of a cigarette or alcohol still triggers old cravings in many former smokers or heavy drinkers.

In the effort to discover a way to help people permanently correct undesirable or addictive behavior, medical authorities are looking to basic science for clues. Some of those clues may come from research at Auburn, where behavioral psychologist Martha Escobar is leading a team of student researchers in a study of the concept of extinction, with extinction referring to behaviors, not species.

In layman's terms, Escobar's research team is using lab rats in a study to determine if it is possible for animals to permanently change patterns of behavior so that conditions that once led to a certain response no longer do so. With humans, this could involve a reformed alcoholic being able to take a drink or a former smoker to be around cigarettes without craving another; with white mice in the laboratory, the behavior could involve not fearing a light that previously triggered fear because in the past it signaled a mild electrical shock.

The Auburn study is funded by an NIH grant as part of a federally supported program to bridge the gap between basic and applied research concerning mental health. The project in Auburn's Department of Psychology is intended to help provide the clues that other scientists for studies involving humans and eventually to more effective counseling and medical treatments for addictions.

In announcing the recent NIH grant, Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama said, "This fascinating research will help doctors understand certain physiological and behavioral conditions that may help us better understand theories behind extinction. Research resulting from groundbreaking studies such as this will benefit the lives of people across our nation."

"Everything we learn is the beginning of something new," said Escobar who has been conducting laboratoy studies into behavior modification for more than a decade. An Auburn faculty member since 2002, the associate professor notes that such studies are part of a scientific tradition established by Nobel Prize Winner Ivan Pavlov more than a century ago.

Escobar said may people mistakenly believe that animals are harmed in the tests, but the ethical standards that characterize behavioral research ensure the animals' safety and comfort even when they are trained to fear a stimulus. She noted that the voltage is set so low that the animals feel only a tingling sensation that is just enough to produce a response but not to produce pain.

Not all the research assistants will be graduate students, and they may not all be psychology students. Escobar will enlist three graduate students and six to eight advanced undergraduates in this, the first stage of a multi-year research project. The students are in academic fields as diverse as English, pre-medicine and chemical engineering. Part of a movement in higher education to involve undergraduate students in major research, Escobar said this grant, housed in the College of Liberal Arts, will give undergraduates their first taste of potential scientific career fields and an introduction to work they may want to pursue in graduate school.

Citing both the direct benefits of adding to the knowledge base in psychology and neuroscience and the training of future scientists, Escobar said, "This is an excellent way to help good students develop into good researchers, who, I expect, will go on to the top graduate schools in their fields."

Auburn Report, August 25, 2008

Kyes Stevens, director of the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project, said the NEA grant will provide for additional educational programs and materials used in correctional facilities, and will fund a pilot project with Space One Eleven to offer studio instruction for previous APAEP participants and those participating in community corrections in Birmingham. In the last six years, the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project, now housed in the Psychology Department, has enabled more than 900 prisoners to learn poetry, creative writing, drawing, multi-media art, photography and to develop critical thinking skills.

"I would say there is at least one person in every class who undergoes a huge transformation,'' Stevens said. "Our program is very much hinged upon art in education. That's the driving force. "We want people to believe they can learn."

Stevens says that all the major studies done by the Department of Justice and other nationally recognized research organizations have shown that the more education someone has while they are incarcerated, the less likely they are to come back.

The NEA grant, one of five that the APAEP has received since the spring, will help fund new art classes, pay for supplies and provide compensation for artists and scholars who teach the courses. "We would like to develop some more painting classes, possibly pastel and pottery,'' Stevens said. "We have a prison that has a ceramics shop and they have kilns. If we can get potter wheels, then we can have a pottery class. It takes more funds to get art classes like that going. Art supplies are extraordinarily expensive.''

Other grants include $8,500 from the Alabama Humanities Foundation, $6,080 from the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, $6,000 from the Alabama Arts Car Tag and $3,000 from the Alabama Civil Justice Foundation. Federal grants are particularly rewarding because recipients are selected from a national pool of applicants. "That's a big deal for the college,'' Stevens said.

College of Liberal Arts Dean Anna Gramberg added that APAEP is a consistent source of pride for the college. "Under Kyes' leadership, this program has flourished and continues to provide a significant and meaningful service to the community. We are thankful for Kyes' outstanding dedication and grateful to the funding agencies for recognizing what a valuable program this is. These grants ensure that even more will be done to introduce education and humanities to those who appreciate and need them." They will help bring some big plans to life as well.

Stevens said the APAEP will continue to publish its annual anthology of the photos, drawings, paintings, photos and essays prisoners produce in their classes. Other projects have included "Art on the Inside,'' an exhibit hosted by Space One Eleven in Birmingham. Next spring, the APAEP will hold evening classes at the studio for program participants who have been released from prison. Stevens said such offerings dovetail with what the APAEP and the Department of Corrections each hope to achieve - rehabilitation through education.

''Everybody has got an ability inside of them to create and communicate,'' Stevens said. "Somebody has to open the door for them. "

Roger Blashfield, Professor in the Department of Psychology, received one of this year's Competitive Summer Research and Humanities Grants. He received his PhD from Indiana University in 1972. Since that time, he has been on the psychology faculty at Penn State, the psychiatry faculty at University of Florida, and the psychology faculty at Auburn (since 1996). His research interest is the classification of psychopathology. He also does quantitative studies of scientific literatures. Among graduate students, he is primarily known for his psychotherapy supervision.