David Kuhlke, Dr. Clara Becerra, Dr. Karen Kehoe and Dr. Michelle Collins-Sibley were the featured speakers at Mount Union College's annual Faculty Forum, held April 6 in Bracy Hall.
Dr. Richard Marriott, vice president of academic affairs and dean of the College, offered a welcome, while Dr. John Kirchmeyer, professor of computer science and information systems, served as the moderator.
Kuhlke is assistant professor of economics, accounting and business administration. His lecture, "Optimization of Corporate Financial Policy: A Linear Programming Approach," dealt with investment analysis, how debt increases value within a firm, and financial decisions. He modeled the value creation of a firm on Myers and Pogue's (1974) research.
Kuhlke also applied data from a firm with which he was previously employed.
"The real benefit of building a model like this is learning about your firm," he said.
"Andean Music Tradition and Culture" was presented by Becerra, assistant professor of foreign languages. She noted that music and dance are valuable when studying culture and she focused on Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina within this framework. Scholars focus on music's role as a social medium as well as the relationship between music and identity, power, and practices of ruling.
Becerra pointed out Latin America's indigenous people's preservation of culture through music and dance, specifically the hybridization of different cultures.
"Supporting the troops. The civil war work of Henrietta Colt and Cordelia Harvey," presented by Kehoe, visiting assistant professor of history, focused on women's role within the Civil War troops' support efforts. She discussed two coexisting models during that time: feminine/emotional and masculine/scientific.
Kehoe decided to test these models in Wisconsin, and studied the rhetoric and methods of that time. Both of the women she spoke of acknowledged the nationalizing of support organizations, but they also relied on more individual attention methods of satisfying the needs of the soldiers.
Collins-Sibley, professor of English, spoke on the topic "Who can speak? Authority and Authenticity in Olaudah Equiano and Phillis Wheatley." The two African American slaves, who were the authors Collins-Sibley discussed, expressed their trauma through writing.
There was a significance of community for them and other slaves, Collins-Sibley explained, because their identity was imbedded in varied communities. However, their primary instinct was to belong, so they either forged their own communities or assimilated.
"They felt isolation," said Collins-Sibley. The writers "reshaped themselves to enter into a new community and they reshaped themselves as a mode of survival."