6/29/2009		Lancaster News Covers Professor Gottfried's New Book
6/26/2009		Professor McClellan in Sunday's Patriot-News
6/18/2009		Professor Finley-Bowman Receives National Recognition
6/17/2009		Professor Johnson on Citizen Journalism and Trip to South Korea
6/2/2009		Seiders Recognized as Facilitator of the Year

Lancaster News Reviews Professor Paul Gottfried's New Book,

"Encounters: My Life with Nixon, Marcuse, and Other Friends and Teachers"

Paul Gottfried, Ph.D., Horace E. Raffensberger Professor of Humanities, has published an autobiography recounting his experiences with former President Nixon and other influential people in his life. When asked why he chose to write this book now, he commented “I have very little hope for the rising generation whose minds have been saturated with political correctness through public education and the entertainment industry…everything I write, including this autobiography, is directed to the few, who may be looking for other behavioral and cultural models.  ‘Encounters’ treats some Marxists better than it does today's movement conservatives or the current political Left. That is because the academic Marxists of my youth were highly educated individuals, with a deep sense of history, even if they proposed economically unsound policies and were blind to Soviet tyranny. Today Left and Right are equally vacuous and usually indistinguishable.”

Paul Gottfried, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science, is a well-respected, widely read political science academic who is often described as a “paleoconservative”. In these modern times of blue vs. red and liberal vs. conservative, the term “paleoconservative” is not widely understood beyond the academic and political world. Reading of this new autobiography may help the public understand this paleoconservative philosophy.

Booklist Online Review

An exacting, scrupulous historian of political ideas, Gottfried has never taught at an upper-tier university. That career disappointment is an evanescing leitmotiv in this memoir, which is far more concerned with what Gottfried learned from and enjoyed about his favorite acquaintances, most of them colleagues in academe and the world of philosophical-historical-political publishing, including Will Herberg, Paul Piccone, Peter Stanlis, Christopher Lasch, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Eugene Genovese, Thomas Molnar, Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, John Lukacs, and the Marxist father of the sexual revolution, Herbert Marcuse, whom Gottfried, though at the opposite end of the political spectrum, admired for his pedagogical liberality and European good manners. From outside the academy he recalls his entrepreneurial father, independent conservative scholar Russell Kirk, libertarian Murray Rothbard, columnists Samuel Francis and Pat Buchanan, and a figure almost as surprising as Marcuse in this context, Richard Nixon, whose knowledge, conversational panache, and personal warmth charmed Gottfried. Discussing his favorite people brings out a becoming modesty and a humane intellectual seriousness in Gottfried, which make him another—possibly the most—winning personality in the book.

Reviews from Amazon.com:

“It was a real treat to coast the curve of time with Professor Gottfried as his many milestones of intellectual history reveal their greatness with charm and their foibles with candor. The author's searing self-awareness is an inspiration to all who eschew vulgarity for nobility.”— Rabbi Daniel Lapin; President, American Alliance of Jews and Christians.

“Paul Gottfried is a child of the century. He studied at Yale with Herbert Marcuse and has known Pat Buchanan, Will Herberg, Sam Frances, Richard Nixon, and many others. His autobiography Encounters narrates his intellectual journey, and will be indispensable as a source when the history of the conservative movement is written.”—Jeffrey Hart, professor emeritus of English at Dartmouth College, cultural critic, columnist

“Political philosopher Paul Gottfried, well-known for his studies of modern ideologies such as Marxism and neoconservatism, reveals the personal and intellectual influences that have made him one of our most provocative scholars. In this candid and beautifully written memoir, we learn more about friends such as Herbert Marcuse, Richard Nixon, and Patrick Buchanan than in a shelf of biographies. Encounters is indispensable reading for every student of modern American conservatism.”­—Lee Edwards, author and Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation

"What jumps off the pages of Encounters is the amazing intellectual courage of an author who clearly and unequivocally states and defends what he believes. Agree with Gottfried or not, you will appreciate his refreshing honesty. A penetrating read."­—L. Brent Bozell III, president of the Media Research Center

Paul Gottfried, Ph.D., is Raffensperger professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College (PA) and a Guggenheim recipient. He is an adjunct scholar of the Mises Institute and the author of numerous articles and eight books including Conservatism in America: Making Sense of the American Right (Palgrave-Macmillan, July 2007), The Strange Death of Marxism: The European Left in the New Millennium (University of Missouri Press, 2005), Multiculturalism and the Politics of Guilt: Towards A Secular Theocracy (University of Missouri Press, 2002), and After Liberalism: Mass Democracy in the Managerial State (Princeton University Press, 1999).

Read Full Text of Lancaster Sunday News Article

Dr. E. Fletcher McClellan recently traveled with other faculty members to Asia, as part of the Faculty International Seminar. Dr. McClellan’s goal was to further examine the relationship between the Chinese government and Hong Kong. This will evolve into an academic paper and presentation, perhaps with a co-author. Having taught in China during the spring 2008 semester, McClellan is drawn to conflicts between Beijing and such areas/groups as Tibet, Taiwan, and the Uighurs in western China. Along this vein, I talked to scholars in Hong Kong and examined years of documents and newspaper articles.

Such faculty seminars yield great benefits for Elizabethtown College students, as faculty incorporate their research, findings and perceptions into their academic coursework. McClellan explains, “My research and experiences will definitely benefit the content and teaching of my first-year seminar, as well provide a comparative context for my teaching and research in American politics, my primary area of expertise.”

For Dr. McClellan, his first-year seminar students in “Political Self-Determination” will benefit from his recent trip. The course examines conflicts involving ethnic, religious or cultural minorities that seek greater control over their destinies and looks at self-determination conflicts in America, beginning with the American Civil War, then surveys conflicts in the international arena such as Tibet, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Quebec, etc. Research isn’t just limited to faculty, though. Students will choose a conflict to research, write about, and then present a paper at an undergraduate research conference on campus.

Read the full text of Dr. McClellan's article in the Harrisburg Patriot News

ELIZABETHTOWN COLLEGE’S FINLEY-BOWMAN

WINS NATIONAL AWARD

Dr. Rachel Finley-Bowman, Associate Professor of Social Studies Education, has earned the Teacher of Honor designation from Kappa Delta Pi, International Honor Society in Education. As one of this year’s recipients, Bowman joins a small group of remarkable educators that have been recognized with this honor.

“Dr. Finley-Bowman is the epitome of the teacher/scholar,” said Dr. Carroll Tyminski, Chair of the Department of Education at Elizabethtown College. “She exemplifies the high standards that Kappa Delta Pi sets for Teachers of Honor. I can think of no one more deserving of this award.”

Finley-Bowman’s educational history is comprised of a rich dynamic of undergraduate and graduate work, with a bachelor of science in history and politics from Drexel University, a master of arts in history from Lehigh University and a doctorate of philosophy in history from Lehigh University. Her involvement in the world of education can be seen through her numerous academic presentations, continual research in the field of Social Studies, publication of peer and expert-reviewed articles, as well as participation in more than 10 professional organizations, including Kappa Delta Pi, International Honor Society in Education.

In October 2008, Finley-Bowman received an Elizabethtown College Faculty Starter Grant for her current project that involves the founding and development of a new regional professional organization—The Susquehanna Valley Council for the Social Studies. Most recently, Finley-Bowman was honored by Elizabethtown College as a recipient of the Academic Integrity Award of Excellence and was chosen by the Pennsylvania Department of Education as an expert Content Reviewer in the area of Middle Level Education.

“Great teachers change lives by inspiring students to recognize their gifts and to learn how to use them to pursue a worthy dream. Rachel Finley-Bowman is one such teacher,” said Kappa Delta Pi International President Dr. Pamela Kramer Ertel.

Since the award’s establishment in spring of 2008, Kappa Delta Pi has named a select few from around the world as Teachers of Honor. Both the award winner and the school in which they teach are recognized for this accomplishment. To earn the Teacher of Honor, an educator must have more than 3 years of classroom teaching experience, submit evidence of professional development, leadership, community service, and meaningful contribution to the education profession, and demonstrate a commitment to integrity and high standards in the classroom. The award recognizes teachers of all levels, from early childhood instructors to university faculty members.

A strong proponent of continuing education, Lori Seiders spends her days – and evenings – teaching.  Elizabethtown College recently recognized Seiders’ by awarding her the distinction, “Facilitator of the Year.” The annual award honors only one of 90 facilitators from Elizabethtown College whose length of service, dedication to adult learners, willingness to facilitate at various locations and whose development of course work goes above and beyond expectations.

Since November 2002, Seiders has been a facilitator in the classroom and on the Web for Elizabethtown College’s Edward R. Murphy Center for Continuing Education and Distance Learning. The center promotes lifelong learning by offering programs for adult students who desire to articulate and advance their personal and professional goals. Seiders helped to develop a foundational course and a capstone course for the center. She has the pleasure of interacting with students at the beginnings and ends of their continuing education journeys through the center.

For 13 years, Seiders has served as the director of organization development & training at the Masonic Villages, where she instructs employees in leadership, teambuilding, strategic planning and employee relations at five villages in Pennsylvania, which employs more than 2,000 people. She applies many of the same principles to her evening classes at Elizabethtown College, helping students to balance their home, work, family and school responsibilities.

“I teach because I truly enjoy working with adults who want to continue their education…The adult learners in my class contribute to each other, and from their contributions we all grow. I enjoy learning from them; that is what keeps me coming to every class,” Seiders said. She teaches six or seven classes per year in addition to her responsibilities at the Masonic Villages. Seiders has a master’s degree in Psychology/Counseling and lives in Lancaster with her husband and children.

With locations in Dallas, Elizabethtown, Lafayette Hill, Sewickley and Warminster, the Masonic Villages provide continuing care retirement services, children’s services and community outreach services.  All five not-for-profit communities are owned and operated by the Right Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania.  The organization provides more than $18 million in charitable care and services each year. For more information, visit www.masonicvillagespa.org.

Elizabethtown College, located in southeastern Pennsylvania, offers adult degree programs, which have exceeded all seven national benchmarks of effectiveness in serving adult learners in higher education. Our reputation for academic excellence and access in adult learning drives our continual effort to offer the best learning programs for adults in the Central Pennsylvania area. For more information consult http://www.etowndegrees.com.