Dr. Po-Lin Pan, associate professor of strategic communication, will represent the A-State faculty and address the graduating students during the Fall Commencement ceremony Saturday morning. Pan, a member of the faculty since 2009, was recipient of the Faculty Achievement Award for Scholarship last April during Convocation of Scholars. The award recognized his extensive record of published research during the previous year. Commencement details are online.

Dr. Amy Gilley, associate professor of fine arts, A-State Campus Queretaro, presented a research project based on her 2013-14 Fulbright Scholar experience in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the 2018 Fulbright Association's annual conference, "One World, Many Voices," in Puebla, Mexico. Her presentation, "Transforming Landscapes: Mostar's Classrooms and Streets," is a case study of Mostar's religious spaces -- built, unbuilt, transformed and destroyed.

Dr. Edward Salo, assistant professor of history, spoke about the use of comic books to teach American history, and efforts to ban comic books in Arkansas, at Comcon-Way, a comic book convention in Conway. Also, Salo was a guest on the Comics Reading Group for the University of Glasgow podcast where he discussed his research into the portrayal of the U.S. military in Marvel’s GI Joe comics, and depiction of terrorist groups.

Congratulations to Dr. J. Justin Castro, associate professor of history, whose second book has been published by the University of Nebraska Press. The book, Apostle of Progress: Modesto C. Rolland, Global Progressivism, and the Engineering of Revolutionary Mexico, is a life and times biography of Modesto Rolland, an unlikable Mexican engineer whose work, along with many others, influenced the outcome and impact of the Mexican Revolution.

Dr. Tanja McKay, professor of entomology, made a presentation at the joint meeting of the Entomological Society of America with the Entomological Society of Canada and British Columbia in Vancouver. "Post-treatment Effects of Infrared Radiation on Lesser Grain Borer (Rhyzopertha dominica) Development" was based on the first chapter of student Rachel Hampton's master's thesis. Collaborators included Dr. Virginie Rolland, associate professor of quantitative wildlife ecology.