Accomplishments - July, 2025
Katherine “Katie” Moore, assistant professor, School of Languages and Linguistics, was featured in an article by the College of Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The article, headlined "Following the Signs to Find Her Passion,” details her journey as a deaf person to earn a doctorate. According to the National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Achievement, less than 1% of those with hearing impairment obtain a Ph.D., J.D. or M.D.
“Comparing conventional and alternative mechanisms of discovering and accessing the scientific literature,” a study by William H. Walters, dean, Library Affairs, was published in the July 1, 2025, issue of PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). The study evaluates the bibliographic and full-text coverage of 15 resources that scholars and students use to discover and access the scholarly literature, reporting that the best free resources, such as Google Scholar and OpenAlex, offer more complete bibliographic and full-text coverage than conventional databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, CAS SciFinder, and PsycInfo.
Kaitlyn Poirier and Carly Toepke, assistant professors, SIU Simmons Law School, presented “Damning of Digital Devices in Legal Writing: Time to Remove Laptops from the Classroom,” in a June 18 webinar to The Association of American Law Schools’ section on technology, law and legal education.
Brian Croft, director, Touch of Nature Outdoor Education Center, co-authored an article titled “Anxiety in Outdoor Experiential Education: Examining Predictors, Sources, and Implications for Program Design” published in the June edition of the journal Mental Health and the Natural Environment. The research examines how pre-trip anxiety influences participation and engagement in outdoor experiential education programs. The authors particularly focused on the sources, predictors and progressions of pre-trip anxiety in participants while taking into account their experience levels, gender differences and the types of activities.