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Jennifer Douglass’ painting and drawing students at Western New Mexico University are learning about the process of public art while creating a mural design that ties in the university’s values of education, conservation and recreation. They began installation of the mural at the end of May. After an invitation from Diana Ingalls Leyba, who is Director of Silver City’s Youth Mural Program, WNMU students began the process of designing a mural for a wall at The Church of the Southwest. Considering the site borders the Silver City MainStreet Plaza and sits just above downtown’s Big Ditch Park, a riparian design concept was presented to the Historic Design and Review Committee, and the mural permit was granted. “We wanted to handle it just like a public art piece, where the students must take the idea from start to finish — doing initial research and developing the mural from the design concept through completion,” said Douglass, who is Assistant Professor...

Anneliese Kvamme’s “Marriage as Heroic Struggle in Milton’s Paradise Lost” was published in Confluence: The Journal of the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs. The editor called it “very compelling, insightful, and beautifully written essay.” Kvamme said it was a 3,200-word condensed version of her roughly 8,000-word thesis, which she researched and composed with Dr. Debbie Heller’s “invaluable guidance and direction.” The Lordsburg resident loves exploring literature, and is fascinated by John Milton’s depiction of the characters and relationships in “Paradise Lost,” particularly in the character of Eve and the marital relationship of Adam and Eve. “Milton’s marriages had greatly influenced him in his lifetime, so it stood to reason that the attitudes toward marriage he had developed through these experiences would have influenced his depiction of Adam and Eve,” she said. “Delving into this and into the literary influences of the...

WNMU School of Nursing Clinical Instructor Mary McBrayer, RN, BSN, MAIS, won the 2022 New Mexico Nursing Education Consortium (NMNEC) Nurse Educator Endowment Award to honor the late Nancy Morton. Having worked as a nurse in acute care since 2011, she has experience as a bedside nurse, charge nurse, float nurse, clinic manager and clinical educator. McBrayer began teaching at WNMU in 2020 when she planned and implemented strategic approaches that kept students on campus for hands-on lab experiences. This award recognizes McBrayer’s resourcefulness and ingenuity that ensured the continuation of clinical lab skills courses for nursing students throughout the pandemic to this point. Dr. Kimberly Petrovic, who is Associate Dean for the WNMU School of Nursing, nominated McBrayer for the honor. “She created a blueprint of sorts in which students attended lab in groups of three to six, for instance, while remaining within taped-off areas of the lab,” she wrote. “As a...

Zoology major Maria Conklin and biology major Chantel Griggs studied how tree coverage affects the species abundance and diversity of rodents in Grant County, presenting their findings at the spring WNMU Academic Symposium. “As the order rodentia is a very diverse group within mammals, they are equipped with many different adaptations to handle different ecological factors. Observing where different species of rodents prefer to live could demonstrate these diverse specializations,” their poster read. Testing two hypotheses (tree coverage does impact diversity and abundance; tree coverage does not impact diversity and abundance), they set up humane traps throughout the surrounding area, including in Bayard, on the Pitchfork Ranch and in Pinos Altos. Each area had 20 traps and was divided based on tree coverage. For instance, they set 10 traps 50 meters apart from each other in a tree-covered area in Pinos Altos and did the same in a mostly tree-less area one mile away....

Spring 2022 edition of Twisted Vine Literary Journal debuted this week. The student-run journal curated by the WNMU graduate writing program is committed to publishing both emerging and established literary and visual artists. Twisted Vine seeks to represent an eclectic mix of ideas and values with a particular interest in pieces that challenge or redefine expression in new and inviting ways. The student staff — Taylor A. Russo, Jennifer Hardesty, Karl Blakely and Kathleen Mariel — produced the spring 2022 issue under the guidance and direction of WNMU Associate Professor of English/Writing and Interdisciplinary Studies Program Director Dr. Heather Steinmann. “It’s incredibly encouraging to see the creative process thrive in the face of a future unknown,” said Managing Editor Russo. “A clear thematic picture emerged from the pieces submitted to our journal, which reflect a contemplative examination of our past, present, and future. The works presented throughout...

Of the couple dozen submissions to the WNMU Creative Writing Contest, “The Intruder” by Nadien Chavez won first place in the prose/play category. “I’m working on two degrees at WNMU. My first is in secondary education with a focus in English language arts. The other is a degree in English Literature,” Chavez said. Clearly, she appreciates the written word. But Chavez has been a nurse for seven years. “The medical field is not for me,” she said. “I fell into nursing. Honestly, COVID-19 changed my life. I thought about what I was doing with my life, where I was going. I wasn’t fulfilled or happy in nursing, and being a teacher was always in the back of my head. I love working with kids.” She opted to make a change. “I got an associate degree from Doña Ana Community College in Las Cruces, where I live, but my boyfriend’s family is from Silver City. Some of them graduated from WNMU. I just called up one day, and the staff was really helpful. They made...

Western New Mexico University sociologist Andreea Nica, Ph.D., examines in her research how emotional intimacy relates to wellbeing across subcultures and family. She digs into the ways some communities address the rising trends and social problem of social isolation and limited meaningful emotional connection with others — both issues new parents identify with. A new parent herself, Dr. Nica recently penned an op-ed highlighting how modern society’s treatment of middle-class, dual-income families perpetuates social injustices and financial instabilities that trickle down. She sees the social ideals of middle-class parenthood being reinforced and maintained through toxic positivity, silencing and public shaming and says that these, along with the maternity healthcare system and childcare labor market, reproduce a societal problem that is socially masked. She says that while New Mexico is doing its part to ensure the proverbial village promised to new parents, further change...