BGSU Firelands - Faculty Scholarship

Faculty Scholarship

Beyond being a school where students are actively encouraged to become part of the learning process, over the years, the faculty of BGSU Firelands have made many valuable contributions to the arts and academia. BGSU Firelands has three faculty members who are Fulbright Scholars, Dr. Benjamin N. Muego, Professor of Political Science and Asian Studies, Dr. Larry Smith, Professor Emeriti of English, and Dr. Cynthia Miglietti, Associate Professor of Accounting and Finance; Muego spent his Fulbright year teaching in the Philippines, Smith spent his Fulbright year teaching in Italy, and Miglietti spent her Fulbright year teaching in the Czech Republic.

Muego is also a member of the faculty at the U. S. State Department Foreign Service Academy, and at the Department of Defense Schools at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH and at Hurlburt AFB in Florida. Muego has also developed the South East Asian Field Study Course at BGSU Firelands, which entails a 24 day trip to Vietnam. It is an up close and personal examination of Vietnam, starting a road trip on Highway One from Hanoi to beautiful Ha Long Bay in the North, then south on Highway One to the Imperial City of Hue, the Central Highlands around Da Lat, the tunnels of Cu Chi and the streets of Ho Chi Minh City in the south.

Dr. Smith has authored and published many numerous creative works of non-fiction, fiction and poetry. Smith has also been the Director of the Firelands Writing Center (FWC) at BGSU Firelands since its inception some twenty years ago, it receives support from the Ohio Arts Council and has published an annual publication of juried work entitled "The Heartland". The FWC encourages members of the Firelands community to become writers and lovers of the written word, and also hosts monthly poetry readings at a local coffeehouse in Sandusky, Ohio as venue for artists, poets and writers to showcase their work. Smith has in addition presented at many working class studies conferences over the years and is acknowledged nationally as an expert on the works of Kenneth Patchen. Smith is also the principal of Bottom Dog Publishers and the Bird Dog Press—two local publishing firms devoted to the promotion of Midwestern and working class literature, since his retirement from active teaching, he has expanded his publishing activities.

Other examples include Julius Kosan, Professor Emeriti of Art, whose contributions to the world of art have made BGSU Firelands a better place; Drs. Frank and Jan Glann, Associate Professors of Theater, whose many theater productions at BGSU Firelands McBride Theater and the BGSU Huron Summer Playhouse, and in addition bringing in such notables as three time Pulitzer winning Playwright Edward Albee as Artist in Residence at BGSU Firelands, have made the BGSU Firelands, a special place for theater; Dr. Ronald Ruble, Associate Professor of Theater, whose work with the Caryl Crane Children's Theater at BGSU Firelands has created opportunities for children to experience theater at an early age; Dr. Christopher Mruk, Professor of Psychology, who has published books and articles on self-esteem; and Dr. Joel Rudinger, Professor Emeritus of English and Popular Culture, did his doctoral work with Dr. Ray Brown in the first days of the Popular Culture Program at BGSU, still teaches creative writing at BGSU Firelands and has had published many works on folklore, children's literature, poetry and the Alaskan Culture, including his latest, "Sedna--Goddess of the Sea (Cambric Press, 2006)," a children's book based on the Alaskan/Canadian Inuit explanatory tale of Sedna, who is the human mother of all warm-blooded sea animals.