From the May 2013 Desktop News | Two publications produced by the College Relations staff were recently awarded top honors at the state convention of the Public Relations Council of Alabama, the state’s primary organization for public relations professionals. The College of Arts and Sciences Viewbook, which promotes the College to prospective students, and the College’s annual alumni publication, the Collegian, both earned awards, which were determined by an independent review from certified public relations professionals in neighboring states.

The College’s Viewbook was created to serve the Office of Student Services and offers a comprehensive view of the College for prospective students and their families. The project was initiated by Dr. Robert Hayes, assistant dean and director of student services, in conjunction with the UA Office of Design and Production, who worked closely with the UA Office of Photography. The aim of the project was to create a publication that would represent the diversity of the College in a unique and innovative way.  Comments from the judges included, “The final project is beautiful and eye-catching,” and “You made me want to go The University of Alabama!” The project earned an Award of Excellence.

The Collegian is mailed annually to more than 45,000 alumni, faculty, staff, students, and friends of the College. It features stories about the accomplishments of exceptional faculty, students, and alumni in the College as well as stories of generous giving. It was first published in Fall 1986 under College Dean Dr. Richard E. Peck, and was part of a larger campaign to redefine the College of Arts and Sciences at UA as an entity unto itself. The publication earned an Award of Merit.

Rebecca Florence, director of college relations and assistant director of development, and Kelli Wright, communications specialist, were presented with the awards at the state PRCA conference in April.

College of Arts and Sciences undergraduates Ashley Smith (second from left), Hailah Saeed (center), and Grace Spears (right), earned UA Study Away scholarships to continue their studies this summer. They are pictured with two other UA students Kimiko Clayton and Melanie Woodward, who also earned scholarships.

From the May 2013 Desktop News | Three students in the College will continue their studies outside of UA this summer with the help of UA Away scholarships, an initiative that supports student study away opportunities and promotes a commitment to global citizenship. Two additional UA students were awarded scholarships, which are sponsored by UA’s Division of Student Affairs.

Hailah Saeed, a senior criminal justice major from Coldwater, Mich., will be interning in Washington, D.C. in the public and non-profit areas of international affairs. She will work at the Institute for International Education with a recruitment program for international law students. Her work will involve educating law students from the Middle East about the judicial branch of the U.S. government. The aim of the program is for participants to try to implement some of these principles in their home countries.

Saeed’s ability to speak Arabic is one factor that will assist her in her work. She also plans to volunteer with the Center for Global Understanding, an outreach organization for American Muslim youth. After her UA Study Away experiences this summer, Saeed hopes to pursue graduate studies and eventually return to Washington, D.C. to work in a similar capacity.

Grace Spears, a sophomore biological sciences major from Andalusia, will use her scholarship to study at the American International University in London May 24 toJune 15. She will study art history, a subject she has not yet studied in college. “I thought this would be a great opportunity to see things I haven’t seen before,” Spears said. “How great is it to be able to see some of the things I am learning about while I am studying them.”

Although she has traveled to Europe once before, Spears said this will be the first time she will be there on her own. She said she hopes she will gain a sense of independence while studying abroad, a skill that will ultimately benefit her as she pursues her pre-medical studies when she returns to UA this fall.

Ashley Smith, a junior studying dance and apparel design, will study language and culture at the Scuola Leonardo da Vinci in Florence, Italy. Smith, who is from South Riding, Va., has taken two years of Italian and is excited to expand her language skills with this opportunity. In addition to learning the Italian language, Smith will be going on a number of cultural visits to museums and places of interest throughout the country during her six-week stay.

Having traveled to both London and Portugal before, Smith said she is excited to go to Italy where the connections to both fashion and dance are strong. “I really love traveling, it has helped me to expand my perspective,” she said.

From the May 2013 Desktop News |  Women writers from each state are being showcased in a project by the American Women Writers National Museum. Dr. Trudier Harris, a professor in the Department of English, will represent Alabama and give a presentation this month in Washington, D.C. at the National Press Club as part of that project.

Her talk, entitled, “Bama Bones: A Black Southerner Talks Place & Creativity,” focuses on how living and growing up in Alabama influenced her scholarly and creative works. Harris will revisit topics from her memoir, Summer Snow: Reflections from a Black Daughter of the South.

The idea for her talk came from a line in Langston Hughes’ memorable poem “One-Way Ticket,” which says, “I pick up my life/ And take it with me.” The line resonated with Harris, she said, because as she has traveled all over the world and worked on numerous projects, she has always felt the connection with her home state and the influence of her upbringing in the South. “Everywhere I go, Alabama is always in my bones,” she said.

Harris’ presentation is part of a collaborative project that aims to have a writer from all 50 states come and speak about their work in the Capitol. The American Women Writers National Museum has partnered with the Empire State (New York) Center for the Book, Notre Dame University Letras Latinas, Oklahoma Center for the Book, West Virginia Center for the Book, the Willa Cather Foundation, and the Alabama Center for the Book.

Donna Adcock, director of public relations for The University of Alabama Libraries, nominated Harris to represent Alabama on behalf of the Alabama Center for the Book, which is the state affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book and is under the auspices of The University of Alabama Libraries.

The American Women Writers National Museum, was founded in 2012 to honor and showcase the premier historical and contemporary women writers in the United States. In its first year of operation, the museum hosted more than 20 programs featuring prominent writers who represent a wide variety of literary topics.

For more information, visit: www.americanwomenwritersnationalmuseum.org.

The Speech and Hearing Clinic is the oldest in the state, and is an integral part of the Department of Communicative Disorders, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year.

From the May 2013 Desktop News | This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Department of Communicative Disorders and its Speech and Hearing Clinic, the state’s oldest clinic that serves more than 9,000 Alabamians each year. As part of a series of anniversary events, the department will host a colloquium on May 18 that will address the legacy of the program and its impact on the knowledge of students in the field of speech and communicative disorders.

Planned speakers for the May 18 event include Dr. Laura Moss, clinic coordinator for the Speech and Hearing Center; Sue T. Hale, assistant professor and director of clinical education in the department of hearing and speech sciences at Vanderbilt University; Dr. Tommie L. Robinson, director of the Scottish Rite Center for Childhood Language Disorders at the Children’s National Medical Center and associate professor of pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine; and Dr. Gloria D. Kellum, vice chancellor emerita for University Relations and professor in communication sciences and disorders at the University of Mississippi.

Hale and Robinson are former presidents of the American Speech Language Hearing Association, the national professional organization for audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists. In addition, two former students of the program will talk: Dr. Debra Dwight, assistant professor at the University of West Georgia, and Sarah Kendrick, a speech-language pathologist in Jackson, Miss.

In addition to a full roster of speakers, the colloquium will be an opportunity to reminisce about the program, which is the oldest of its kind in Alabama. In 1938, T. Earle Johnson, chairman of the UA Department of Speech, began offering undergraduate academic coursework in what has come to be known as the discipline of human communication sciences and disorders. At the same time, he announced the opening of a speech and hearing clinic to serve both the local and the University communities. The first graduate-level seminar started in September 1939, and the first master’s degree was awarded in 1941.

“We are very excited to be celebrating this momentous occasion and are very proud of the heritage that our program has in the state of Alabama,” said Dr. Marcia Hay-McCutcheon, associate professor and chair of the Department of Communicative Disorders. “We are looking forward to the many years ahead and the teaching, research, and service we provide to all citizens of Alabama.”

For details on the event and the department, contact Dr. Marcia Hay-McCutcheon at mhaymccu@as.ua.edu or (205) 348-4572.

From the May 2013 Desktop News | More than 13,000 graduate students applied for the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Seven of those selected represented The University of Alabama and three of those have ties to the College of Arts and Sciences. Jennifer S. Anders, a graduate student in the Department of Biological Sciences, and Jordyn L. Johnson, a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry, were selected for NSF graduate research fellowships. A third fellowship was presented to Stephanie L. Parker, a 2009 UA graduate in physics from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, who is pursuing graduate studies at the University of California, San Francisco.

Anders, originally from Gainesville, Fla., earned her undergraduate degree from Nova Southeastern University. Shortly after graduating, she took a research position at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab working with Dr. Behzad Mortazavi, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and director of UA’s marine sciences program. Mortazavi encouraged her to apply for the fellowship to continue her research. She is the first graduate student at the Sea Lab to earn an NSF graduate fellowship. Anders is researching the bioavailability of groundwater derived dissolved organic nitrogen to coastal microbial and phytoplankton communities. At the Sea Lab, she works closely with the Little Lagoon Preservation Society in Gulf Shores.

Jordyn Johnson, originally from Chattanooga, Tenn., studies the regulatory mechanism of the enzyme alpha-isoproplymalate synthase in the lab of Dr. Patrick Frantom, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry. This enzyme serves as a model system for the study of allosteric regulation, where enzyme activity is regulated by the reversible binding of an effector molecule. Regulatory mechanisms such as this allow organisms to respond to changes in their environments. A deeper understanding of these regulatory mechanisms would impact the growing fields of allosteric therapeutics and allosteric biosensors. While an undergraduate student at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Johnson participated in the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates program at UA where she began work on this project with Frantom.

Parker, originally from Huntsville, worked in the lab of Drs. Guy and Kim Caldwell in the Department of Biological Sciences while an undergraduate at UA. She is researching nuclear pore complexes, or NPCs, which are multiprotein channels in cells that connect the nucleus with the cytoplasm. Her research focuses on the diversity of NPCs and their role in cell differentiation and tissue physiology. Prior to her graduate work at UCSF, Parker worked for two years as a researcher at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology under Dr. Richard Myers, a leading geneticist and UA alumnus.

Awards are up to $121,500 per fellowship and come with annual stipends to be used for research-based graduate studies. Fellowships were awarded to 2,000 students, about 15 percent of those who applied. According to the NSF, the Graduate Research Fellowship Program is part of its overall strategy to develop a globally engaged workforce necessary to ensure the nation’s leadership in advancing science and engineering research and innovation.

From the May 2013 Desktop News | For students with career aspirations in public service, there is no better place to see politics in action than in Washington, D.C. The Washington Experience, which is coordinated by the Department of Political Science under the direction of Dr. Michael New, annually connects students with internship opportunities in the Capitol. This year’s student internships represent 20 different congressional offices and political organizations.

According to New, the Washington Experience is a unique opportunity for students to enhance the knowledge they have gained in the classroom. Being in Washington, D.C. at the epicenter of U.S. politics is the best way to apply that knowledge to the real-life experience of politics. “There are some lessons that you can only learn by being there,” he said.

Internships also provide students with the chance to try out a career in politics for a short time to determine if it is a career they want to pursue. Even if they don’t end up going into public service, the experience they gain while being there is something that will stay with them for a lifetime, New said.

Erin Armstrong, a senior from Islandia, New York; will be interning at the Center for American Progress, which is an independent educational institute that works on progressive policies for energy, national security, economic, immigration, education, and health care issues. Armstrong, who is a double major in political science and journalism, sees this opportunity to combine her two interests of politics and media.

“I’m excited about the chance to work on real policy and help promote ideas that I think are valuable,” she said. “I’m expecting a quick-paced environment with a lot of things going on. I expect deadlines and big ideas and feeling like I’m working on something important.”

She also knows that her experience in Washington will have an impact on her future education at UA. “I think being in an environment with decision-makers is definitely going to change the way I see things and the way I form arguments and opinions. I am taking what I’ve learned so far and applying it to real work and real discussions that have a chance at actually becoming policy, there aren’t really any words for it,” Armstrong said.

Danielle Dubose, a junior from Birmingham, will be interning at Heritage Action for America, a division of the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation. The organization primarily handles government relations and has lobbying capabilities in Congress. As an accounting and political science double major, Dubose said she is excited to get some practical experience related to her interest in finances and politics.

“I’m also really excited to be working at an organization that is working toward a goal and a cause, instead of just doing administrative work,” she said. In addition to learning more about the mission of the organization, Dubose also hopes to improve her research, reading, and writing skills during her internship.

Claire Chretien, a junior from McLean, Va., will be interning with the Susan B. Anthony List, a political organization that emphasizes the election, education, promotion, and mobilization of pro-life women in Congress. Chretien was interested in working for the organization because of her interest in pro-life activism. As the president of the Bama Students for Life organization, Chretien hopes the experience will help her learn more about the pro-life movement and the legislative processes aimed at protecting life.

In addition to responsibilities at their internships, student participating in the Washington Experience also have weekly events that include meetings with congressional delegations and other chances to discuss their experiences in the field. Since it is the summer, New says he tries to incorporate social events that complement the youth outreach and programming that happens in Washington, D.C. such as attending a Washington Nationals game.

UA’s College of Arts and Sciences has paired up with the Alabama Museum of Natural History to offer the Discovery Learning Lab to local teenagers.

The lab, which was already a component of the museum, has been improved with the addition of iPads, computers, and geographic information technology provided by the Department of Geography in the hope that it will promote education and technological literacy.

With these resources, students will be able to improve on their mapping and blogging skills, as well as learn about web page creation. They will also be able to take part in science and art workshops.

“It’s something we wanted to do anyway, but we needed the funding,” explains Linda Watson, director of the Placenames Research Center for the Geography Department.

Watson, who also teaches geographic information systems (GIS) courses, secured that funding by winning a grant from the IMLS (Institute of Library and Museum Services) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. “We were very pleased and surprised to get it because it was a very competitive grant,” Watson says.

The grant made it possible for the original Discovery Learning Lab to be redesigned to accommodate students in grades eight to 12. Teens in the community are invited to the museum to participate in guided activities that focus on building a deeper understanding and enthusiasm for science.

“This program is something that is driven by teen interest,” Watson said.

Something else to encourage their interest is the addition of a teen advisory board of a half-dozen high school students, who will settle basic decisions such as when the program should be held, and what activities would be the most beneficial. Board members will gain hands-on experience in organization and leadership skills and in the process develop a greater investment in the program designed for their age group. “If they’re going to be the participants,” Watson says, “they need to have some ownership in what’s going on.”

The teens are also charged with naming the program, which is tentatively still referred to as the Discovery Learning Lab, the name for the facility in which it is housed. Watson jokes that the name will be changed “probably to something more hip and teen-relevant.” But having teenagers become so involved as to suggest titles is another tactic to endear them to the program.

“If they can set the tone, they are more apt to engage in that,” Watson explains.

Running parallel to the teen advisory board will be another group of organizers composed of UA faculty, library and museum personnel, and members of the community.

Watson is most excited to take the students out on field trips. “One of the things I’m going to do is take them out on campus and find the way points [locations] of things such as Denny Chimes and the stadium.” The students will then return to the lab to create maps personalized with textual information to answer queries such as, “Which coach has the most wins?”

“Well, we all know which coach has the most wins,” Watson admits. But the geospatial and other technical skills learned in this exercise can then be applied in subsequent field programs that relate to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines.

The program is free of charge and open to any student in grades eight to 12. Summer hours for the lab will be Tuesdays from 1 to 4 p.m. beginning June 4.  For more information, contact Linda Watson at lwatson@bama.ua.edu or (205) 348-6028.

Photography Students Draw Inspiration from Jones Collection

“Woman Walking Bessemer,” by photography student Kayla White.

Students in Christopher Jordan’s digital photography class borrowed a technique from musical composition to create art that turns the notion of the artist and the audience into a back-and-forth exchange.

“’Call and response’ refers to a compositional tactic where one line of music, perhaps a bit of melody, is played in direct response to another,” Jordan explains. “This implies a dialog, a conversation.”

Students in Jordan’s advanced digital photography class used this notion to assemble the Call and Response exhibit, for which they created art in response to works from the Paul R. Jones Collection.

The project began with individual research conducted on pieces from the Jones Collection, which consists of some 1,700 pieces donated to UA in 2008 by collector Paul R. Jones.

Working with physical works of art made the research an enjoyable process, Jordan said. “Students get particularly excited and engaged when working with actual art objects versus reproductions online or in books,” he explained. “There is no substitute for a direct, unmediated experience.”

Then, the students allowed the Paul R. Jones pieces to inspire their photography.

According to Jordan, this reciprocity is vital. “If there is a central theme, it would have to do with how the creative, art making process is truly about conversation — calling and responding repeatedly with ourselves and our surroundings.”

Other than that, there has been no predicting the students’ response, Jordan said. “What has surprised me is where the creative conversation took the students,” he said. “Some of their responses (art pieces) are remarkable in their own right.”

The Call and Response Exhibit will run through May 10 in the Sella-Granata Gallery in 109 Woods Hall. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free of charge.

“Colors of Music,” by Turner Woods.

Inspired by UA’s creative writing program, MFA students Matt Jones and Jess Masterson looked for ways to foster appreciation and awareness for the writing craft in their own and surrounding communities. The result? The Southern Fried Scribes Initiative, which will host a series of free creative writing workshops for high school students in the Tuscaloosa area and the neighboring Black Belt region.

Students enrolled in the program will participate in workshops, complete directed writing activities and reading assignments, and attend individual conferences; Jones and Masterson also plan to showcase students’ work in an anthology. This spring the pair launched a Kickstarter campaign, which will close on May 2, to fund the program.

Southern Fried Scribes exposes underserved students to unfamiliar opportunities. “Most of the students we speak and work with have never been encouraged to write creatively,” Masterson says. “Some have no confidence in their ability to write at all.”

“We hope to develop their individual voices and the voices of their community by showing them that writing is and can be fun,” Jones says.

Working with individual colleges and departments at UA, Jones and Masterson spread the word about Southern Fried Scribes to local students, educators, and schools. Based on early feedback, they reshaped the program’s curriculum to address state and national standards for education and adapted it to the needs of the communities from which they will draw students. Jones and Masterson also secured a venue for their students in Greensboro, Alabama, by partnering with the Hale Empowerment and Revitalization Organization (HERO), a nonprofit organization that serves the Black Belt region by providing housing, community resources, educational activities, and youth programming.

“The Southern Fried Scribes project seeks not only to tap into the talent pool of the areas, but also to nurture confidence and knowledge for students concerning reading and writing,” Jones said. This is especially significant for Hale County, where only 30 percent of the students graduate from high school and even fewer attend four-year colleges.

The two also plan to involve local artists, photographers, and others to demonstrate the intersections between art and writing. “It is our goal to promote Southern writing and culture by developing and guiding the voices of the students,” Masterson said.

“We hope to create a sustainable program that will continue to foster the growth of emerging Southern voices and culture for many summers to come,” Jones said.

The Southern Fried Scribes’ website, www.fieldtigerpress.com, provides a link to the Kickstarter campaign and further information about the program’s mission, origins, and goals. All donors receive updates and news on Southern Fried Scribes activities.

The College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of English and the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies will host the 30th Alabama Symposium on English and American Literature April 25-27, 2013. This year’s symposium is titled “Elemental Ecocriticism.”

Sharon O’Dair, Hudson Strode Professor of English and director of the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies, said the event will focus on ecocriticism, “a field of inquiry that examines literary representations of the natural world and the effects of these representations on that world.”

Interest in ecocriticism, O’Dair said, is increasing as individuals become more environmentally conscious: “Motivating these scholars is what motivates the millions of people who, since the 1960s, have grown more and more concerned about the environments in which they live: how best to live in our world. In just over 20 years, ‘ecocriticism’ has become an exciting environment of its own, one especially appealing to students and one negotiating its theoretical and institutional growth.”

The symposium will feature a variety of distinguished guests — writers, professors, journalists, and others well recognized in their fields — who will speak and lead discussions during the course of the three-day event. A schedule of speakers follows; a schedule of events is available at english.ua.edu/life/symposium.

For more information about the symposium, contact the UA Department of English at (205) 348-5065 or email Sharon O’Dair at sodair@bama.ua.edu.

Thursday, April 25

8 p.m.: Keynote Address, Cary Wolfe, “The Biopolitics of Human and Animal Bodies.” Greensboro Room at the Bama Theater, downtown Tuscaloosa. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Free and open to the public.
Cary Wolfe is the Bruce and Elizabeth Dunlevie Professor of English at Rice University, where he is also founding director of 3CT: The Center for Critical and Cultural Theory. His books include Animal Rites: American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and Posthumanist Theory (Chicago, 2003), What Is Posthumanism? (Minnesota, 2010), The Other Emerson (Minnesota, 2010), and Before the Law: Humans and Other Animals in a Biopolitical Frame (Chicago, 2012).

Friday, April 26

9 a.m.–5:15 p.m.: Lectures, Bryant Conference Center, Birmingham Room. These lectures are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.

9:00–10:15 a.m.: Lowell Duckert, “Earth.”
Lowell Duckert is an assistant professor of English at West Virginia University.

10:30–11:45 a.m.: Karl Steel, “Creeping Things, Matter’s Own Life.”
Karl Steel is an assistant professor of English at Brooklyn College, CUNY.

1:00–2:15 p.m.: Valerie Allen, “Airy Something.”
Valerie Allen is a professor of English literature at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY.

2:30–3:45 p.m.: Jeffrey Cohen, “The Sea Above.”
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen is a professor of English and director of the Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute at the George Washington University.

4:00–5:15 p.m.: Julian Yates, “Wet.”
Julian Yates is an associate professor of English and Material Culture Studies at University of Delaware.

Saturday, April 27

9:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m.: Lectures, Bryant Conference Center, Birmingham Room. These lectures are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.

9:30–10:45 a.m.: Sharon O’Dair, “Muddy Thinking.”
Sharon O’Dair is Hudson Strode Professor of English and director of the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies at The University of Alabama.

11:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m.: Steve Mentz, “Phlogiston.”
Steve Mentz is a professor of English at St. John’s University.

2:15–3:30 p.m.: Anne Harris, “Pyromena, Fire’s Doing.”
Anne Harris is an associate professor of art history at DePauw University.

3:45–5:00 p.m.: Chris Barrett, “The Quintessence of Wit: Ether and the Material Joke.”
Chris Barrett is an assistant professor of English at Louisiana State University.