Faculty and Staff Highlights: Assner-Alvey, Bruce, Hanrahan, Hoover, Weeks

Webster University faculty and staff highlights offer a roundup of recent Webster faculty and staff activity and achievements.

Assner-Alvey’s Artwork Featured in Art-Icon Exhibit in France 

Robin Assner-Alvey, professor in the Department of Art, Design and Art History, had her work included in an international exhibition in July, giving it international exposure in Arles, France, along the Rhône River where Vincent Van Gogh painted Starry Night. 

The name of the exhibition, FACES, is the largest single exhibition ever presented in Arles, spanning 1 kilometer on both banks of the Rhône. Described as being at the intersection of photography and land art, it featured 270 portraits celebrating humanity from unknown individuals to icons of the past century and beyond.

Bruce Awarded Psychology Grant, Publishes PSD Research, Leads Scholarly Talk on Mental Institutions in Film  

Madeline J. Bruce, assistant professor of psychology, was awarded a $50,000 research grant from The Center for Institutional Courage in July.  

Titled, “Mapping the landscape of physician sexual misconduct in the United States,” Bruce’s work focuses on physician sexual misconduct (PSM). 

Also in July, Bruce, along with colleagues at the UTHealth Houston Trauma and Resilience Center, published a paper, “Posttraumatic stress disorder treatment outcomes for events related to institutional betrayal” in the Journal of Traumatic Stress. The paper was featured by the National Health Service of the UK and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. It was the fourth most read article in the journal the month of its publication.  

Bruce was also invited to give a talk in May introducing Arkadin Cinema's "Institutionalized: Mental Institutions on Film" event. Bruce provided the audience with an overview of trauma and psychosis, patient-centered care and institutional betrayal in inpatient mental healthcare facilities.

Hanrahan Plays Key Role in ScriptHop Launch Event 

Peter Hanrahan, a professor for scriptwriting in the School of Communications, recently helped to host a Los Angeles-based event hosted by ScriptHop and screenwriter/director Shane Black.  

The launch event highlighted nine screenplays that made it through ScriptHop’s “Gauntlet,” a rigorous, multi-tiered system in which up to 17 professional story analysts, screenwriters, producers and executives provide actionable notes to the writer.  

LA-based Webster alums McKenzie Moser, Dyland McDonald, Taylor Hickey and Jess Pierce were also in attendance. Hanrahan serves on the advisory board for ScriptHop and was one of the key people involved in developing the scripts that were launched at the event. 

Hoover Leads Writing Workshops, Earns Spot on Pride Month Reading List, Selected for Juried Poetry Reading  

This summer, Elizabeth Hoover, assistant professor in the Department of English, conducted two writing workshops at the Contemporary Art Museum as a part of the museum’s Teen Museum Studies program. 

Hoover worked with the interns during workshops to practice necessary writing skills and convey the role of writing in the curation process. 

In addition, Hoover’s book, “the archive is all in present tense,” was a featured title on the Community of Literary Magazines and Press' reading list for Pride month.  

Hoover was also selected for the juried poetry series at Women Made Gallery, the longest-running feminist art gallery in Chicago. Hoover read from a manuscript-in-progress as a part of the galleries Pride month programming in June. 

Weeks Presents Research at VII Jornadas Chilenas de Derecho Antártico

In July, Edythe Weeks, a Fulbright Specialist Alumnus and professor of International Relations, delivered a lecture, titled, "Imaginando un Futuro Compartido: Deconstruyendo Limitaciones en la Regulación del Turismo Antártico" (Imagining a Shared Future: Deconstructing Limitations in Antarctic Tourism Regulation). Weeks presented virtually as part of the U-Antarctica, VII Chilean Antarctic Law Conference. The event was held in conjunction with the Faculty of Juridical and Social Sciences of the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia, Chile.  
  
Weeks has also been invited to submit an article for publication in the sixth edition of the Revista Derecho y Política Antártica. The journal is published by the Faculty of Law of the Universidad de Chile and will be available for free download on the official platform of the Antarctic Studies Program.