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STUDENT NEWS

Madorsky finds balance in return to skating
January 27, 2006 -- Carol Schmidt, MSU News

It was among the small thicket of elliptical machines in the Montana State University cardio room, that most humble of workout facilities, that Anna Madorsky took her first step back to the sequined world of women's figure skating. That step led to a full-out sprint for Madorsky. In less than a year she raced from a retired junior skater to the elite cadre of female figure skaters in the country and a 17th-place finish at the recent U.S. National Figure Skating Competition in St. Louis. Madorsky's transformation -- from burnout to top-flight within seven months -- has resulted in national attention for the 22-year-old senior anthropology major from Gates Mills, Ohio. "It IS an incredible story," says her coach, Bob Crowley, who is in a position to know. Prior to taking over the reins of the Bozeman Figure Skating Club, Crowley had spent 11 years as the number two administrator with the U.S. Figure Skating Association based in Colorado Springs, Colo. "You just don't hear about athletes who leave a sport and come back five years later with far greater success than when they left. Especially not our sport." Especially not an athlete who skates for Montana State University in Bozeman, Mont., which Crowley agrees, is not exactly the center of the figure skating world. "( Crowley) has everything to do with how successful I have been," Madorsky said. "He's the real deal." But so is living in Bozeman and going to school at MSU, which Madorsky says is just the right antidote to the high stakes and pressure-packed world of competitive figure skating. "There's nothing more beautiful than walking down (Centennial Mall) and seeing the Spanish Peaks right there," Madorsky said. "Even if you're having a bad day, it's just so beautiful here." Madorsky says that there were a lot of bad days at the end of her previous skating career. A native of suburban Cleveland, Madorsky said there was never a time when she doesn't remember skating. Her older sister skated before her and she remembers riding in the carpool, and then beginning lessons when she was about three. By the time she was 16, Madorsky had won a roomful of medals and she and her mother moved to Fairfax, Va. to work with an acclaimed coach. But things soon were going in the wrong direction. In her senior year, Madorsky finished fifth in the junior regional championship that she had won the year before. Madorsky walked away from skating, initially enrolling at Radford University in Radford, Va. By the second semester of her sophomore year she took a National Outdoor Leadership School course and fell in love with the West. She applied to the University of Utah and the University of Oregon, but the "vibe" at MSU was more to her liking. "I didn't want an urban setting," she said. "I liked the students and the fact that MSU offered off-beat classes, such as skiing and horseback riding." Madorsky said she was a typical student, the co-president of the MSU Anthropology Club who liked to work out and hang out, until the day last October when she was on the elliptical machine in the Shroyer Circuit Room and tried to ignore the skating competition on a gym television screen. A skater that Madorsky competed against in high school finished well in the competition. Madorsky was transfixed and within a few weeks, she was back on the ice. Coincidentally, about that time Crowley was in Bozeman, checking out the directorship of the Bozeman Figure Skating Club. He and his wife had met in Montana while he was in Great Falls coaching another pretty good Montana skater - Scott Davis. After more than a decade in skating administration, he and his wife wanted to return to Montana and coaching. He said while they immediately liked each other, Madorsky's abilities weren't immediately obvious and what followed was a mutual evolution. "We are each others' reclamation projects," Crowley says. Crowley worked daily with Madorsky, who had ended her career as a junior skater, to pass a test for a senior ranking. After that, Madorsky's next goal was to do a competition. Her first competition was in July in Salt Lake City. Crowley said Madorsky didn't do very well there, "but she got to the end standing and survived it. It was a good first step." There was a string of competitions, at which Madorsky gradually improved her ranking. She competed for MSU at the National Collegiate championships in Hawaii, finishing sixth out of 50 senior-level skaters. Soon after she skated to first at senior regionals in Jackson, Wyo., which qualified her for sectionals in Sacramento, Calif., a tough, competitive area for figure skaters. "She was a figure skater from Bozeman, Montana, and MSU and no one thought or expected her to be a good skater," Crowley said. She finished in the top four at sectionals, which made her one of the top 20 female skaters in the country and qualified her for nationals. Madorsky's story was in the Bozeman Chronicle and her hometown paper in Ohio. She said she was touched when MSU President Geoff Gamble read it and called her up to offer a bit of financial support and an MSU pin that Madorsky wore at nationals. Local fans at Ice Dog games also chipped in $3,000. Skating is an expensive sport, in which good skating boots and blades cost $1,000, Madorsky said. "Every little bit helps. Even more than that, it is so touching that the community wants to be a part of it. It means so much that you don't even know how to say thanks in the way you want to say it." By the time Madorsky arrived at nationals, people knew who she was. Peggy Fleming and Dick Button told a national audience about Madorsky's Cinderella story, as did Peter Carruthers on ABC. "The largest crowd she had skated in front of before that was at the Ice Dogs games," Crowley said. "At nationals, she skated before an audience of 7,000." Crowley didn't let Madorsky know that the ESPN cameras broadcast her short program on ESPN2 until after she was done. "Again, our goal was for her to go out and do the best she could," said Crowley, who said he and Madorsky had no expectations she would be higher than 20th. "She did a nice job with it" and finished 17th. "She was really pleased with that." Madorsky took one week off after nationals and now is happily back at The Valley Ice Garden, working with Crowley two or three times a day. "I'm still improving, so I want to see where it takes me," she said. Madorsky plans to keep her long skating program and develop a new short program, and she is also working on new triple jumps. Madorsky is adept at two types of triple jumps and is close to consistency with a third. Crowley said national competitors must have five types of triple jumps in their programs. To help her prepare for the upcoming round of competition, Madorsky has cut her MSU course load in half and will graduate in December instead of May. "We're quite proud of Anna," said Larry Carucci, anthropology professor and Madorsky's adviser. "She's one of our best students and has done superbly in what is a very rigorous course of study. I think it's especially important for kids to see someone like Anna who can excel not only in academics, but have other incredibly important skills as well." Madorsky said she "thinks there is something beyond skating for me" and plans to earn a master's degree one day. But for right now, she plans to continue skating, perhaps with an ice show after her competition days are done. "For now, I'm skating for all the right reasons," she said. "I find a lot of joy and balance in it. But when the time comes, I think I will know when to walk away." Larry Carucci (406) 994-5255

IN THE CLASSROOM

Sociology and Justice Studies Consolidation

For a number of years, students and faculty had noted that the Sociology and Justice Studies curricula were very similar. In fact, one could complete either program with almost the same set of courses. In order to better reflect the focus of the department, increase our flexibility to offer interesting and innovative courses and improve student learning, the Department decided to consolidate the Sociology and Justice Studies curriculums beginning in Fall 2006.

The impact of this change on students is minimal. Students have always graduated with a degree in Sociology, but beginning in Fall 2006 new students will not be able to select the Justice Studies option within Sociology. The types of courses students can take, however, remains the same. That is, we will continue to offer a wide array of courses that focus on justice and justice systems including Law & Society, Law & Inequality, Sociology of Policing, Correctional Institutions, Principles of Law & Procedure, Juvenile Justice, Occupational and Corporate Crime, Race & Ethnicity, Gender, Social Stratification, Social Movements and Sociology of Education. In addition, students' career options also remain the same. Students with an interest in pursuing a law degree will find that the consolidated Sociology degree allows them to do so. In addition, most law enforcement and other justice related careers are open to those with undergraduate degrees in the social sciences, including Sociology.

TEACHING BRIEFS

At MSU's "Breakfast of (Brand) Champions, Professor Larry Carucci was given an award for "Integration of Teaching and Research." He was honored for exemplifying the integration of teaching and research. He was the first faculty member to take on the research component two years ago with the implementation of Core 2.0. He pioneered the idea of pairing upper level students with students in ANTH 288 - Research in Anthropology. This format allowed students with little research experience to learn skills from the upper division students. The opportunity to have a fellow classmate as a research mentor has proven very successful. Last spring all of his students presented their research findings at the undergraduate scholars' conference.

This spring, Jenny Haubenreiser is teaching a seminar on The Sociology of Public Health Policy. In a small group setting that focuses on discussion and active learning, students have had the opportunity to explore the social construction of public health problems and the political processes inherent in addressing these problems. Ms. Haubenreiser has a M.A. in Sociology from the University of Montana, and is the Director of Health Promotion at MSU. She recently received a $207,000 Department of Education grant to address two serious public health concerns on college campuses nation-wide: high-risk drinking and violent behavior. As Carol Schmitt reported for the MSU news service, the grant supports "MSU programs ranging from the popular Midnight Mania to screening programs for high-risk drinkers...MSU was one of 20 successful alcohol prevention proposals funded from 155 proposals submitted by colleges and universities across the country." For more information on this project, please see: http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=2492. Ms. Haubenreiser has also occasionally taught SOC 101 for our department.

RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY

Students Benefit from Research Experiences

In Fall 2005, 40 undergraduate Sociology and Anthropology majors used ICPSR data sets to complete independent research projects as part of their Research Methods (SOC 318) class. The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is housed at the University of Michigan, and is a repository for public available data sets related to the social sciences. Among the data sets students drew on for the projects were:

• Risk Factors for Violent Victimization of Women in a Major Northeastern City, 1990-1991 and 1996-1997
• National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH)-Waves I & II
• Childhood Victimization and Delinquency, Adult Criminality, and Violent Criminal Behavior in a Large Urban County in the Northwest United States, 1980-1997
• Homicides in Chicago, 1965-1995
• Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods: My Child's Exposure to Violence, Wave 2, 1997-2000
• National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2003
• Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth, 2004
• Health Behavior in School-Aged Children, 1997-1998
• Police Stress and Domestic Violence in Police Families in Baltimore, Maryland, 1997-1999
• Childhood Victimization and Delinquency, Adult Criminality, and Violent Criminal Behavior in a Large Urban County in the Northwest United States, 1980-1997.

The most popular data set continues to be the General Social Survey, an annual national survey out of the University of Michigan that covers a wide range of topics. In addition, ten students analyzed data in collaboration with Anthropology faculty and a dozen students collected their own data for the Research Methods project. Original data collection included:

• Comparison of place of residence to location of criminal offense in Gallatin County
• Study of behavior during religious services in Bozeman
• Comparison of welfare laws before and after TANF regulation changes
• Critical analysis of the use of cultural artifacts in testing archaeological theories
• Study of the role of social capital in migration decisions made by Mexican women
• Study of the social/economic impacts of wolf reintroduction on West Yellowstone
• Content analysis of political bias in reporting of news items on major networks
• Analysis of the role of race in graduation rates at Division I NCAA schools

Beginning in Summer 2006 and continuing through the Fall, about a dozen Sociology majors will participate in a 3-credit survey research seminar (SOC 400) organized by Dr. Steve Swinford where they will study survey research methods, implement those methods in the field and analyze data from local research projects. Potential projects include a Keep America Beautiful project in Yellowstone National Park and an Arkansas State Park and a survey of Bozeman voters for the Bozeman Government Study Commission.

Students Gain Archaeology Field Experience

Dr. Jack Fisher and Dr. Mike Neeley received a Research Enhancement Award from the Dean of the College of Letters & Science to support excavation along the Marias River in the summer of 2006. Between five and ten anthropology students will gain valuable field excavation experience by participating in this project.  Plans include test excavations at the Sparrow Hawk site, as well as archaeological reconnaissance for other sites in the region.  Left is a photographic overview of the site where Dr. Fisher, Dr. Neeley and the anthropology students will work.

RESEARCH BRIEFS

Leah Schmalzbauer has a new book published by Routledge Press. The book, Striving and Surviving: A Daily Life Analysis of Honduran Transnational Families, looks at the specific role of the family in transnational processes and how families actually function in a transnational space.

Dr. Beth Quinn presented initial findings from her NSF supported research on human resource managers at the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association in Las Vegas in 2005. The paper was titled "Law and the B'Org: Human Resources Personnel as "Suite-Level" Legal Council and Marginalized Managers."  Tina LeMarr, an undergraduate Anthropology student, is working as a research assistant with Dr. Quinn on this grant.

Dr. Leah Schmalzbauer published a paper, "Poor Mothers and Habits of Hiding: Participatory Methods in Family Research," in the Journal of Marriage and Family in 2005.

Dr. Mike Neeley and Jordan Knudsen will travel this summer to the country of Jordan to participate in an archaeological excavation. This international research is supported by a grant from the Vice President for Research and Creativity.

Dr. Larry Carucci was recently a guest co-editor of a special issue of Anthropological Forum. He also contributed a co-authored article, "Anthropology in the Savage Slot: Reflections on the Epistemology of Knowledge," to the volume.

Dr. Scott Myers published "Childhood and Adolescent Mobility and Adult Relations with Parents" in the Journal of Family Issues in 2005.

Dr. Leah Schmalzbauer published a paper, "Transamerican Dreamers: The Relationship of Honduran Transmigrants to the American Dream and Consumer Society," in the Berkeley Journal of Sociology.

Dr. Sue Monahan was named to the External Advisory Committee for the University of Montana 's PACE (Partnership for Comprehensive Equity) Project, an NSF-funded effort to increase the representation of women faculty in science and engineering. In March 2006, she organized a visit by Dr. Penny Kukuk, PACE Project Director, to MSU to discuss PACE's innovative approaches to gender equity issues.

Dr. Beth Quinn co-founded and co-chaired the Collaborative Research network on Teaching in Law & Society, a sub-group with the Law & Society Association.

Dr. Leah Schmalzbauer received the Sussman Award from the Groves Conference on Marriage and Family for her 2004 paper, "The search for wages and mothering from afar," which was published in Journal of Marriage and the Family. In April, Dr. Schmalzbauer travelled to the 2006 Groves Conference ( Tucson, AZ) to receive the prize.

Dr. Mike Neeley and Dr. Tom Roll published a chapter, "Characterization of Montana Cherts by LA-ICP-MS," in Laser Ablation ICP-MS in Archaeological Research.  This research was also presented at the 7th Biennial Rocky Mountain Anthropological Conference in Park City, UT in September 2005.

Dr. Scott Myers continues to serve as Associate Editor for The Journal of Family Issues.

COMINGS & GOINGS

Tami Eitle and David Eitle will join the Department of Sociology & Anthropology in Fall 2006 as Associate Professors of Sociology. Tami Eitle comes to us from the University of Miami where she is presently an Associate Professor of Sociology. In Fall 2006, she will teach SOC 325: Race & Ethnicity and SOC 330: Sociology of Education. David Eitle comes to us from Florida International University (also in Miami, FL) where he is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice. In Fall 2006, he will teach SOC 304: Social Stratification and SOC 337: Occupational and Corporate Crime. In our Fall newsletter, you can read more about these new faculty members and their teaching and research interests.

Jack Gilchrist has come to the end of his post-retirement contract, and will formally leave the department in May. He will nonetheless retain a presence in the department. He will be keeping his computer set up in one of our offices and we hope to see him there, and in the SUB eating lunch or maybe even yogurt, with some regularity.

Kristi Clark-Miller will continue as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Sociology in 2006-7. At the present time, she is slated to teach SOC 326: Gender & Society and SOC 314: Family & Society. We expect she will teach additional courses in the fall or spring.

Our graduates have been reporting back to us that they have graduated from law school! Congratulations to Brian Lee, who graduated from University of Montana's Law School in 2005; Karl Rutledge, who will graduate from University of Nevada-Las Vegas Law School in Spring 2006; and Farhaad Azimi, who will graduate from Western State University College of Law in Spring 2006. Karl Rutledge also reported that his first position out of law school will be clerking for Montana Supreme Court Justice Jim Rice.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

The Department of Sociology & Anthropology provides a high-quality educational experience to undergraduate students. The vast majority of our classes are taught by tenure-track faculty, and almost all of our upper-division courses are small enough to allow for significant interaction between students and professors. We constantly work to improve the educational experiences of undergraduates, and our faculty were active players in the creation and implementation of the University's new core curriculum (CORE 2.0). There are a variety of ways that you can support our department's educational efforts:

- By providing informational interviews and internships to students as they explore career options

- By sharing with others your positive expereinces in our Department and at MSU more generally

By contributing to the Department through the MSU-Foundation. Financial gifts to the Department may be unrestricted or they may be targeted towards supporting such needs as:

- Student awards and scholarships

- The development of anthropology labs (e.g., skulls, equipment for ethnographic field research)

- Student travel to conferences to present research

- The purchase of data sets for student research projects

- Public, on-campus talks by engaging scholars

Please feel free to contact the Department Chair, Sue Monahan (smonahan@montana.edu), for further information about how you might continue to participate in the life of our Department and our vital mission of educating our next generation.