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Spotlight: Wendy Davis, Campbellsville U

In Spotlight on June 25, 2013 by Randolph Hollingsworth Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Wendy Wood Davis

Dr. Wendy Wood Davis, Campbellsville University

Dr. Wendy Wood Davis has been a member of the Campbellsville University faculty since 2007. As an associate professor in history, she is the faculty sponsor of the Campbellsville University Collegiate Historians, which is now the Alpha Xi Sigma Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society. CU’s Phi Alpha Theta has been very active, including a trip last January to Washington D.C. to attend the Presidential inauguration. She organized student trips to Boston; Cherokee, N.C.; and a “Civil Rights Movement” trip in the Spring of 2012 when the students traveled to Charleston, S.C. and Savannah, GA. You can keep up with the students’ experiences on CU Phi Alpha Theta’s Twitter @CUPhiAlphaTheta.

Valiant efforts are required of historians working in Kentucky’s small private schools – and they often must take on a variety of jobs all in one. She works closely with the Taylor County Historical Society and works with her students to hold fundraisers for this sister organization’s benefit. As one of her students wrote in a testimonial for the University: “Dr. Wendy Davis has been very instrumental in shaping me as a person and a lover of history and teaching. I can honestly say that she cares about all of her students and desires to make history fun and exciting not only for history majors, but for her general education students as well.”

Dr. Davis earned a Bachelor’s degree in Social Studies Secondary Education and Masters in History from Western Kentucky University (WKU). She received a PhD from the University of Kentucky and returned to WKU to get a graduate certificate in women’s studies. She has taught at the college level for the past sixteen years. Her specialty is women’s history, religious history and modern America.

She also serves as an adjunct professor in women’s studies at Western Kentucky University where she teaches both online and face-to-face classes.  As she states in her bio on the WKU website: “I love teaching Women’s Studies because it allows me to help students see the world around them differently. Looking through the lens of gender and from the perspective of women, allows them to understand how diverse experiences can be in today’s society. I also love to watch my students get involved in campus events and causes that are especially important to them.”

Congratulations to Dr. Wendy Wood Davis for all her hard work in furthering the education of so many of our Kentucky students.

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KY Social Studies Standards

In Spotlight on May 17, 2013 by Randolph Hollingsworth Tagged: , ,

KATH President, Allison Hunt, has been part of the standards revision/development team convened by the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) to address the framework for social studies being built by the Social Studies Assessment, Curriculum, and Instruction Collaborative. The Kentucky team consists of elementary, middle and high school teachers as well as higher education specialists in the respective social studies fields (civics, economics, geography, and history). They have been meeting this spring and will conclude with two writing retreats in June. Their goal is to develop new social studies standards for Kentucky that will include connections to the C3 Framework, the Common Core Literacy Standards for History/Social Studies, and 21st century skills in social studies.

Allison reports that in April a vision statement was developed by KDE to guide the team’s development of the state standards:

The vision of the Kentucky College, Career, & Civic Readiness (C3) Social Studies Standards is to develop students who will engage in critical thinking skills and civic dispositions that include a skill-based 21st century learning approach encompassing communication, collaboration, global perspectives, multimedia and technological literacy skills.  These skills will be developed by teachers who facilitate college, career, and civic  learning, along with the capacity for informed decision-making within the contexts of history, government, geography, and economics.

KDE plans a public review of the draft standards document in August 2013 to allow feedback, and revisions/edits will be made based on the feedback received. The expected release of the final social studies standards document will be late fall 2013.

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KATH President selected as National Teacher Fellow

In Spotlight on January 15, 2013 by Randolph Hollingsworth Tagged: , , , ,

Allison Hunt, DuPont Manual High School

Allison Hunt, Hope Street Group National Teacher Fellow

Allison Hunt, KATH President 2012-2013 and social studies teacher at DuPont Manual High School in Louisville, was recently selected as one of the twelve teachers from nearly 100 applicants from eleven states as a 2013 Hope Street Group National Teacher Fellow.

Hope Street Group is a national, nonpartisan 501(c3) organization organized in the spring of 2003.  The name comes from the street where the founding young business executives often met in Los Angeles, CA. They published their first policy platform, “Building the Opportunity Economy” in 2003 and have been working collaboratively – and with the guidance of their National Teacher Fellows – to help guide state and national policy development in education.  An example is the Teacher Evaluation Playbook, which “provides strategy suggestions for effective educator evaluation reform to state policymakers while giving administrators, union leaders, and teachers suggestions on how they can get involved.” See more at http://hopestreetgroup.org/publications.

Congratulations, Allison!

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Spotlight: University of the Cumberlands Phi Alpha Theta

In Spotlight on December 26, 2012 by Randolph Hollingsworth Tagged: , , , ,

Dr. Eric Wake

Eric L. Wake, Ph.D.

Today we turn the spotlight on the work of Dr. Eric L. Wake, former KATH president and chair of the Department of History and Political Science at the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky.  He primarily teaches European and World histories as well as historiography; and, he has crafted many opportunities for students to take leadership roles as young historians at regional, state and national levels.

Recently Dr. Wake received a Meritorious Award for Years of Service at the Biennial Phi Alpha Theta Convention in Orlando, Florida. He serves as the faculty advisor of the Upsilon-Upsilon Chapter of the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society. Founded in 1974, the Upsilon-Upsilon chapter is one of the most active organizations on campus. The chapter sponsors a popular lecture series, conducts fundraisers; and hosts department pizza parties, a cookout, as well as the closing picnic. Members present at the Regional Phi Alpha Theta Convention and often at National Conventions

With the support of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant in 1989, Dr. Wake started the annual production of The Upsilonian, an annual journal of the top three undergraduate history research papers chosen by the faculty and students on the Board of Advisors. For example, the 23rd volume published this last summer included these three interesting articles:

  • Kyla Fitz-Gerald, “Robert H. Goddard: The Secrecy of a Physics Professor”
  • Jared Coleman, “Power: The True Purpose Behind the Tennessee Valley Authority”
  • Amanda Sickman, “Sepoy Rebellion of 1857: The Rising Discontent”

You can find all the volumes online at http://www.ucumberlands.edu/academics/history/upsilonian.php.

We give a hearty congratulations to Dr. Wake, his colleagues and to his industrious students!

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