Martinelli-Fernandez Named Arts and Sciences Associate Dean

May 9, 2005

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Sue Martinelli-Fernandez
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MACOMB, IL - - Western Illinois University Philosophy Professor Sue Martinelli-Fernandez has been named an associate dean in Western’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), effective May 16, according to CAS Dean Inessa Levi.

Martinelli-Fernandez will work specifically in the areas of research, external funding, advancement, outreach and graduate studies. Among her duties will be promoting faculty-mentored graduate and undergraduate research as well as additional opportunities for faculty research activities, especially with interdisciplinary collaboration.

“Sue Martinelli-Fernandez is an outstanding addition to our dean’s office staff,” said Dean Levi. “Her solid academic background, rooted in humanities and social sciences, as well as her background in accounting, allows her broad and wide interdisciplinary insight and understanding; and she is experienced in building support for undergraduate research in the context of the Honors Program.”

“This is a wonderful opportunity to support faculty research in new and innovative areas,” Martinelli-Fernandez said. “I look forward to on-going conversations about teaching and research with follow colleagues in all disciplinary areas.”

Martinelli-Fernandez - - who will continue to teach in her areas of specialization, which include ethics, moral theory, feminism and the history of philosophy - - has been a strong advocate for student-faculty research and inter- and cross-disciplinary studies.

Regarding research, she said, “There is a need for students to identify research interests that go beyond formal classroom experiences. Students who develop the ability to explain difficult material to individuals not in their own particular discipline grow personally as well as educationally. The value of mentored faculty-student research cannot be overstated.”

In 1998 Martinelli-Fernandez received a University Summer Stipend to develop an interdisciplinary course on “Role Models in Philosophy and Literature in the 18th Century.” She was among a group of 10 faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences chosen to teach an interdisciplinary freshman experience course in the late 1990s. With Professor Polly Radosh, she helped develop interdisciplinary senior seminars in Women’s Studies on “Abortion” and “Women and War,” and she is in the process of developing a new course on “War and Morality.” She also has co-taught an Honors course on theatre and ethics with Western’s President Al Goldfarb.

“A tireless supporter of the liberal arts, Sue is the chair and co-organizer of CLASS (Celebrating Liberal Arts and Sciences), a College of Arts and Sciences awareness committee,” said Dean Levi. “Under her leadership the group organized and Sue moderated the first panel discussion of the Dialogue series in which University and community leaders are brought together to discuss democracy and education.”

Martinelli-Fernandez has served as interim associate director of Western’s Centennial Honors College and, with Martin Dupuis, then interim director of the Honors College, co-designed Western’s First Year Experience (FYE) initiative pilot program in place this year in the Honors College. FYE, designed to assist students transitioning from high school to college, becomes part of Western’s general education curriculum this summer.

This spring, Martinelli-Fernandez was presented with the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Faculty Award for Teaching and was inducted into Western’s chapter of Phi Kappa Phi honor society. She is also a member of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International and is an honorary faculty member and adviser to Western’s Golden Key Honour Society.

Martinelli-Fernandez is co-director of Western’s Program for the Study of Ethics and an executive board member of the International Society of Ethics Across the Curriculum. She earned her master’s degree in social sciences and her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago.

College of Arts and Sciences

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