Gaudeamus

As a recruitment tool to attract students to foreign-language study, Nilsa Lasso-von Lang, assistant professor of Spanish, organized two well-attended sessions on bilingual careers in government March 20. They featured a foreign language specialist from the U.S. Army.

Dana Dunn, professor of psychology, served as an external reviewer for the psych department at Concordia College (the undergraduate alma mater of our own Gary Olson) in Moorhead, Minnesota. He met April 2-4 with the seven faculty members, students, adjunct teachers, the dean of the college, and its president, to assess the department’s programs. Believe it or not, there was no snow while he was there, and Dana was introduced to the local culinary specialty, walleye. Concordia is affiliated with the Lutheran church and is known for its language and music programs.

George Diamond, professor of English and chair of the department, went to the joint meeting of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, April 16-19 in New Orleans. He attended sessions on science fiction topics, the works of media theorist Marshall McLuhan and writer Jack London, the movies of Alfred Hitchcock, and the film Mulholland Drive by David Lynch.

He also chaired a session on the cultural background of science fiction and presented “ ‘Klaatu barada nikto’ and ‘Keep Watching the Skies’: Two Cinematic Sides of Cold War Paranoia,” which analyze the 1951 movies The Thing (from Another World) and The Day the Earth Stood Still, metaphors of Cold War hysteria and fear of nuclear war.

George says: “When we’re away in places like New Orleans, we can really appreciate places like Bethlehem.”

Martha Reid, professor of English, chaired a team of colleagues from King’s College and Bucks County Community College in reviewing the English major at DeSales University, April 13-14. This semester, Martha is also a consortial professor (an exchange program among by LVAIC schools) at DeSales, teaching literaty modernism, while Annette Benert teaches “Voices of American Women Writers” at Moravian.

One of those M.B.A. candidates who will receive the degree Saturday is Donna Posivak, former assistant director of CIT and now director of computer services at Northampton Community College.

Maryellen Dye, assistant professor of nursing, will be a research scholar in the John A. Hartford Foundation’s summer program in geriatric nursing at New York University.

A Death in the Family

Kenneth A. Bergstresser, professor emeritus of biology, who taught at Moravian from 1946 to 1977, died April 20 in Cornwall Manor, Lebanon County. He was 90.

Professor Bergstresser was the father of Kay Somers, professor of mathematics. His degrees were from Albright College, University of Pittsburgh, and Lehigh University. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his World War II service.

In addition to Kay, survivors include sons Michael Divinia of San Jose, California, and Karl of Centreville, Virginia, and four grandchildren. Memorial gifts may be made to Cornwall United Methodist Church or the Benevolent Fund of Cornwall Manor.

Lens Cap

InCommon would like to say a grateful goodbye to Suzanne Creelman ’03, Hainesport, New Jersey, who had an internship in our office this semester. Suzanne is a photographer, and she went everywhere (sometimes on very short notice) to record events and people at Moravian. After Commencement, she’s moving to Florida to be near her father. We wish her well.