WHEELING, WV, March 30, 2011 -- "It is my pleasure to inform you that your presentation earned 3rd place at the 8th Middle Atlantic Undergraduate Research Institute," stated Dr. Vicki Cass Phillips, associate professor of Religion at West Virginia Wesleyan College in an email to Wheeling Jesuit University senior Ryan Norman last Friday.
The prestigious scholarly competition was held at Wesleyan on March 18. As part of the award, Norman received a $100 prize.
"I am happy to be honored in this competition and want to thank my philosophy professor Beverly Whelton and instructor Derek Elliott. I also want to thank my fellow student Eddie Peters, who also competed. Without their encouragement and critiques, I could not have achieved this honor," Norman said.
(Norman and Peters are shown, left-to-right in the Philosophy Department.)
"I am delighted to see the students receive the exposure they deserve. They have been nothing short of excellent," said Elliott, who is a 2004 alumnus of the University and is currently enrolled in the doctorate of philosophy program at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh.
Norman's paper dealt with the topic of evaluating artistic merit.
"Ryan looked at the philosophy of art, its interpretations and the various schools of thought that say institutions determine art, or others which claim there are formal aspects of art and so forth. Ryan suggests that there are different human aspects to art, and looked at the way the human senses, emotion and intellect define art. He proposed that art is subjective and it can be categorize according to the different aspects of human qualities," explained Dr. Whelton.
Norman is a senior English major with a minor in philosophy and music and plans to work with AmeriCorps after May 14 Commencement. He is from Garfield Heights, Ohio and is the son of David and Diane Norman. He is a member of the Wheeling Jesuit singers.
Wheeling Jesuit junior Eddie Peters also competed in the Middle Atlantic competition and his paper was entitled "The Composer as Elicitor: Why Musical Works are not Created by Humans." Peters is a double major in the fields of history and philosophy.
He based his argument on the premise that composers use music interpretation of sounds that already exist. This was his first formal philosophy competition. He is from Moundsville, W.Va. and is the son of Edward and Lois Peters.
Wheeling Jesuit University is one of 28 Jesuit colleges or universities in the United States and stresses student research as part of its campus culture, providing hands-on and mentored research to assist its students into graduate school and post-graduation careers. With over 30 undergraduate programs to choose from, students chart their path to successful lives. For more information, please call the admissions department at 1-800-624-6992.
