Date: 06/27/2005

Last week, Jonathan Roth, associate professor of history, was interviewed on campus by Grenada TV Production from London for the 13-part Battlefield Detectives series, which will air on the history channel this fall. Roth was interviewed for two shows in the series about his research on the siege of Masada and the siege of Alesia. Contact Roth at jroth@email.sjsu.edu.

Katherine Davies Samway, professor of elementary education, is working on a collaborative research grant with UC Santa Cruz, which was awarded by the Linguistic Minority Research Institute. Samway is investigating the impact of the Open Court Reading program on the beliefs and practices of teachers who work with English language learners in grades K through 5. Contact Samway at Kdsamway@aol.com.

Alan Soldofsky, director of the Creative Writing Program for the English department, participated in the Zhejiang Writer's Association International Writers Conference in Hangzhou, China. Soldofsky met with Chinese writers and took part in discussion groups with 25 writers from 16 countries. In addition, says Soldofsky, the group met with provincial government leaders, visited the Chinese television and film production center in Hengdian, toured historic buildings and gardens, and viewed natural scenic sites (which are significant in the history of early Taoism and Buddhism as well as landscape painting and poetry). Contact Soldofsky at soldofsk@email.sjsu.edu.