Faculty Selected for 2016 Alabama-Greece Partnership

From the November 2015 Desktop News | Seven faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences will travel to Thessaloniki, Greece, in May as part of an academic partnership with faculty members at Aristotle University. The UA faculty members have proposed projects that they will complete in partnership with Aristotle University faculty members.

Dr. Ana Corbalan, an associate professor in UA’s Department of Modern Languages and Classics, will examine effects of multiculturalism and migrations in Southern Europe, comparing responses to immigration in Greece and Spain through literature, film, media and other cultural productions.

Dr. Andrew Dewar, an associate professor in New College and the School of Music, will build upon his previous work with the initiative. His project will use improvised and experimental music to cultivate artistic innovation beyond conventional metropolitan “music centers.”

Dr. Arun Gupta, a professor in the Department of Chemistry, will investigate the microstructure and elasto-plastic behavior at interfacial regions in a variety of materials.

Dr. Christopher Lynn, an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, will explore connections between fireside relaxation, creative tendencies, and religious ritual through cognitive sciences of anthropology, religion and music.

Dr. Vaia Touna, an assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies, will investigate how to offer co-taught online courses with an Aristotle faculty member.

Rebecca Salzer, an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance, and Amir Zaheri, an assistant professor in the School of Music, will create a work of performance involving choreographed movement and music.

Dr. Robert Olin, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; Dr. Luoheng Han, senior associate dean of natural sciences and mathematics; and Dr. Tatiana Summers, an associate professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Classics, also will travel to Greece as administrators of the initiative.

UA students first visited Greece in 2008, and UA hosted its first Aristotle University student in 2010. The initiative has continued to grow since then, continually expanding its student and faculty exchanges. This is the third group of College faculty to travel to Thessaloniki to develop collaborative projects.

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is a public university in Greece’s second largest city. It is the largest university in Greece and in the Balkans with an enrollment of 81,000 students.