Professors named Carnegie Scholars

The Carnegie Foundation has chosen to honor two IU associate professors as Carnegie Scholars for the upcoming year. \nCarolyn Calloway-Thomas of the Department of Communication and Culture and Dennis Rome of the Department of Afro-American Studies will represent the Bloomington campus as two of the 30 scholars. The foundation additionally recognized IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis professor Didier Bertrand.\nThe Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning sponsors the fellowships, designed to "create a community of scholars … whose work will advance the profession of teaching and deepen student learning," President Lee Shulman said.\nCandidates are chosen from a variety of fields of study, including biological sciences, communication, economics, education and teacher education, engineering, foreign languages and literature, health sciences, interdisciplinary studies, law, physics, political science and philosophy/religious studies.\nAccording to the program's application criterion, a premise of the program is that "faculty need scholarly peers in teaching as in research." Candidates are sought who are familiar with the latest developments in research and teaching methods, and who strive to foster the most engaging learning environment possible.\nIndividuals desiring consideration for the honor must submit a "tedious and painstaking" application in which a research proposal is outlined, Rome said. They are then screened through two rounds of interviews. The selected scholars are required to complete two summer residency programs. This year's group will assemble June 11 in Menlo Park, Calif., the home of the Carnegie Institute.\nCalloway-Thomas, whose research interests include African-American and intercultural communications, described the honor as "particularly sweet" because this year marks the first in which the field of communications was included as an eligible field of study.\n"I feel delighted to have been chosen as a Carnegie Scholar for the coming year," she said. She described her research goal as determining to what extent "representative illustrations," or common allusions utilized in relating course material to students, are effective in the learning process.\n"I believe that such tools -- for example, stories or anecdotes -- are instrumental in determining which students learn well and which learn poorly," she said. She will study subjects from four major institutions throughout the country as her research basis.\nCalloway-Thomas, a former Fulbright scholar and Ford postdoctoral fellow, earned a bachelor's degree and Distinguished Alumni Award from Grambling State University. She completed her master's degree at the University of Wisconsin and her post-doctoral study at IU.\nRome, also a former Fullbright scholar, said colleague and mentor Carla Howery, executive deputy director of the American Sociological Association, encouraged him to apply for the program. She lauded the Carnegie Foundation's focus on teaching and pedagogical concerns and deemed Rome's innovative methods, designed to engage students in the learning process, representative of that focus.\nHe said his project deals with the introduction of innovative teaching techniques into the classroom using computers, video cameras and other technological equipment. His research includes criminology, race and minority relations and research methods.\nRome earned his bachelor's degree from Bradley University. He completed a master's degree from Howard University and a Ph.D. from Washington State University.\n"It was a painstaking process, yes," he laughed. "But in such a competitive process, it was worth it"