University of New England

Forum series highlights UNE authors

"UNE Authors and Notes" - a series of talks and readings by University of New England faculty highlighting their writing and books - will be held this spring 2006 at the University Campus, 11 Hills Beach Road, Biddeford.

The lectures are free and open to the University community and the public.

The authors will read from their books and share with the audience their experiences through questions and answers. Please bring a brown bag lunch. Beverage and cookies will be provided. Copies of the works discussed by these authors will be available from the UNE Bookstore.

The series is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences and the UNE Libraries.

Friday, Feb. 17, 2006
David Sandmire, M.D., Associate Professor, Department of Biology
David Johnson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physiology/Pharmacology, College of Osteopathic Medicine
David Sandmire and David Johnson will speak about their book Medical Tests that Can Save Your Life: 21 Tests your Doctor Won't Order Unless You Know to Ask
Noon St. Francis Room

David A. Sandmire teaches neuroscience, anatomy and physiology, pathophysiology, and cardiovascular physiology. He earned a B.S. degree in biochemistry, then an M.D degree as well as an M.A. in the history of science and medicine from the University of Wisconsin.  He has been at UNE since 1994. 

Dave Johnson came to UNE in 1993, after completing his Ph.D at Virginia Tech, and three years of postdoctoral fellowships in the Department of Pharmacology at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York, N.Y., and the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Albany Medical Center in Albany, N.Y.

His research interests have included the mechanisms involved in behavioral sensitization to stimulants and narcotics, the role of NMDA receptors in neurotoxicology, and how neurotrophic factors affect various forms of memory. His outside interests include working with disadvantaged children, and he serves as a board member for United Way of York County (UWYC), and sits on the UWYC subcommittee for Nurturing Children and Youth. He is also a licensed Coast Guard Captain and registered Maine Guide, and runs the Downeast Maine Shark Tournament every August, to raise money for UWYC.

Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Ali Ahmida, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science
Ali Ahmida will discuss his new book,  Forgotten Voices: Power and Agency in Colonial and Postcolonial Libya  (Routlege 2005)
Noon St. Francis Room

Ali Abdullatif Ahmida was born in  Waddan, Libya and educated at Cairo University in Cairo, Egypt and the University of Washington in Seattle. His specialty is political theory, comparative politics, and historical sociology of power, agency and anti-colonial resistance in North Africa, especially modern Libya. He has published major articles in Critique, Arab Future and International Journal of Islamic and Arabic Studies. He is also the author of The Making of Modern Libya: State Formation, Colonialization and Resistance, a book published by State of New York University Press, 1994. This book has also been translated into Arabic and is now published in second edition by the Center of Arab Unity Studies, 1998, Beirut, Lebanon. Ahmida is the editor of Beyond Colonialism and Nationalism in the Maghrib: History, Culture and Politics, published by Palgrave Press in 2000.

He has lectured in a variety of U.S., Canadian, European and African Universities and colleges, and has contributed several book reviews, articles and chapters to books on the African state, identity and alienation, class and state formation in modern Libya. Ahmida has received many academic grants and awards, such as the Social Science Research Council National Grant Award, the Shahade Award, and recently the Kenneally Cup Award in 2003 for distinguished academic service at University of New England. His new book, Forgotten Voices: Power and Agency in Colonial and Postcolonial Libya, was just published this year by Routledge Press. An Italian translation  of the book will be published in 2007.

Wednesday, April 5, 2006
Richard LaRue, D.P.E., Professor and Chair, Department of Exercise and Sport Performance
Jane O'Brien, Ph.D., OTR/L, Assistant Professor, Department of Occupational Therapy
Rick LaRue will discuss on his contribution to the book Facility Design and Management for Health, Fitness, Physical Activity, Recreation, and Sports Facility Development, 11th Edition, (Thomas H. Sawyer, Editor-in-Chief)
Jane O'Brien will discuss her co-edited book, Pediatric Skills for Occupational Therapy Assistants (Solomon, J. W & O'Brien, J. C. 2005, St. Louis: Mosby. )
Noon St. Francis Room

Richard J. LaRue has produced a number of scholarly publications in journals, newsletters, and professional textbooks, and has completed more than two dozen regional, national and international presentations.  LaRue is currently a candidate for president-elect of the American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation.  In 2005 he completed his sixth year of service as a member of the Board of Governors for the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.  And, LaRue just finished serving a three-year term on the Sport Management Program Review Council (a board that meets to establish program standards and conducts the program review process for institutions seeking approval of sport management programs at the bachelors, masters and/or doctoral levels). 

Additionally, LaRue has served as a consultant for several sport and recreational facilities, including the YMCA in Warren, Penn.; the Hogan Sports Center at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, N.H.; and, while teaching overseas in Aruba and in Singapore.  LaRue received his B.A. in teaching physical education and health from the University of Northern Iowa, a master of science in movement sciences and a doctorate of physical education from Springfield College, in Massachusetts.

Jane Clifford O’Brien is graduate and research coordinator in the Occupational Therapy Department at the University of New England. O’Brien received her master’s degree from Boston University and her doctoral degree in exercise science with a concentration on the neurobehavioral basis of motor control from the University of South Carolina. Prior to returning home to Maine, O’Brien held positions in the Department of Medicine (pediatrics) and Occupational Therapy at the Medical University of South Carolina and during that time developed a collaborative sensory integration clinic between the Medical University of South Carolina and Trident Technical College (to serve OTR and COTA students and the community). O’Brien has practiced in pediatric occupational therapy for 18 years and has published in the area of sensory integration, motor control, and play. O’Brien and Jean Soloman are co-editors of the recently published textbook Pediatric Skills for the Occupational Therapy Assistant (2nd ed.)

(Press release issued Feb. 2, 2006)