Panel Discussion to Focus on "Surviving the Innovation"

The Instructor Exchange Ad-Hoc Committee of the Fairmont State University Faculty Senate will host a Panel Discussion on “Surviving the Innovation.”

Panelists will discuss both positive and negative impacts of technology development in contemporary civilization and further address the needs for wise survival as people face various forms of global crises. 

Moderated by Dr. Tad Kato, Chairman of the Instructor Exchange Ad-Hoc Committee, the event will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15, in Multi-Media Room A of the Ruth Ann Musick Library. The event is sponsored by the Office of the Provost at Fairmont State.

Students, faculty members and staff of Fairmont State and Pierpont Community & Technical College and the public are invited to attend. Admission is free.

Moderator:

• Tadashi Kato (Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Fairmont State. He received his Ph.D. from the Ohio University and has been teaching at Fairmont State since 2003. Along with ongoing research projects in the area of psychophysiology, he also teaches History and Systems of Psychology, as well as Foundations of Psychology in which he addresses the relationship between science and ethics.

Panelists:

• Paul Edwards (Ph.D.), Professor and Provost Emeritus, has been teaching ecology, global crisis and social justice issues at Fairmont State and Pierpont for the last 46 years. Edwards was a planner and participant in the first Earth Day celebrations in 1970, which resulted in a week-long “teach-in.” He began teaching Future Global Crisis in 1969, which is still taught in the spring semester as an Honors class. Edwards will be speaking on “THE LIMITS TO GROWTH, INNOVATION AND GLOBAL CRISIS.”

• Galen Hansen (Ph.D.) is Professor of Physics and Physical Science, arriving at Fairmont State in 1994. He received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Brigham Young University in 1980 and his Ph.D. degree in solid-state interfacial physics from Utah State University in 1986. His research activities included post-doctoral positions at the University of Duesseldorf in Germany, the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and West Virginia University. He also worked for a year and a half as a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C., dealing with the art of lasers and fiber optics. In this panel discussion, he will be speaking on “TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN EVOLUTION.”

• Nenad Radulovich has taught History and Social Studies Education at Fairmont State since 2006.  Previously, Radulovich taught at Washington and Jefferson College and Seton Hill University. As a citizen of both Canada and the U.S., he earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in History at the University of Western Ontario and a Master’s in Education from Niagara University in New York State.  Radulovich’s interests lie in Russian and Eastern European History, the role of ideology in foreign relations. He will be speaking on “INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN A NEW WORLD: CAN WE LEARN ANYTHING FROM THE HISTORY OF THE OLD WORLD?”

• Michael R. Ransom (Ph.D.) is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Fairmont State.  He obtained his Ph.D. in Experimental Social Psychology from the Ohio University. His research examines how people conceptualize miraculous events, as well as how individuals engage in hypocritical behavior. His panel discussion title is “POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF SOCIAL MEDIA.”

• Dennis Wainstock (Ph.D.) is a History faculty member at Pierpont. He has taught American History courses at West Virginia University, Salem Teikyo University and Fairmont State and had written five books, including “The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb,” “MacArthur, Truman, and the Korean War,” “Malcolm X: African American Revolutionary,” “The 1968 Presidential Election” and “The Vietnam War.” At the panel discussion, he will be speaking on “THE RISE IN THE POSSIBILITY OF ATOMIC WARFARE IN THE 21ST CENTURY.”  

A “question-and-answer” session will take place at the end of the forum. Light refreshments will be served.

For more information, contact Tad Kato, Ph.D., Chair of the Instructor Exchange Ad-Hoc Committee of the Fairmont State University Faculty Senate at (304) 367-4759 or Tadashi.Kato@fairmontstate.edu.

Instructor Exchange Ad-Hoc CommitteefacultyTadashi KatoPaul EdwardsGalen HansenNenad RadulovichMichael RansomDennis Wainstock