News Archives - 2012
Irvine to coordinate URGO summer research program
The Augsburg College office of Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity (URGO) today announced that Colin Irvine, associate professor of English, will serve as the URGO 2012 summer research coordinator, taking over most of the responsibilities previously performed by Dixie Shafer, URGO director.
With Irvine serving in this role, Shafer will be able to concentrate on assisting students with applications for fellowships and pre-health science positions. She will also be able to attend more national and international fellowship conferences to stay abreast of current issues and trends in the area. She will also continue to coordinate Zyzzogeton, Augsburg's annual celebration of student research and creativity and work with graduate and off-campus summer research applicants. In collaboration with the URGO Advisory Council, she will continue to manage academic-year research and student travel opportunities.
Shafer said, "Colin is a logical and inspired choice on many levels. By building capacity for him to coordinate summer research, the College will ensure that I reserve enough energy for the full range of URGO offerings."
Irvine boasts an active scholarly record, including publication of a book, several book chapters and numerous journal articles, along with too-many-to-list conference and invited presentations, many with intriguing titles, such as "Teaching like a Mountain: The Aldo Leopold Papers Project" or "Hollywood's Response to Climate Change: Starring Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Al Gore," and more with conventional titles, such as "Wallace Stegner's Novelization of the American West and Western" or "Problems with Peer Review and What These Indicate About the Status of the Workshop and How Well These Work in College Composition Courses."
Irvine has a distinguished record of successfully mentoring groups of students in the classroom through the research process, via his Aldo Leopold project, and with "The Honors Review."
He has successfully shepherded several URGO summer researchers who have gone on to top-tier graduate programs and won Fulbright awards. Through scholarship and practice, he has exhibited a zest, verging on zaniness, for building strong learning communities, an important goal for the URGO summer research program.
In 2010, he was awarded a Fulbright Roving Scholar award and spent the 2010-11 academic year in Norway, making him a role model for students considering national fellowship competitions.
And perhaps most notably, he won the MN Father of the Year Award, suggesting that he has solid (or at least unique) parenting skills which he can employ as needed when mentoring a summer research cohort.
Congratulations to Professor Irvine.
