Celebrating Excellence 2016 – College of Arts & Sciences

Musician Recognized Internationally

April 27, 2016

From the 2016 Celebrating Excellence | When Cynthia Simpson was 10 years old, she had no intention of becoming a professional musician—and certainly not a professional French horn player. She was in fifth grade at the time, and her father was the band director at her school. He needed horn players, so she played horn. She couldn’t have guessed that 15 years later, as a graduate student at The University of Alabama, she would be ranked the second best French […]

When Fame Breeds Infamy: Shooters Who Want Attention, a Growing Phenomenon

April 27, 2016

From the 2016 Celebrating Excellence | With at least two attention-driven mass shootings in the last year, it has never been more important to accurately understand the minds of killers—especially those who kill for fame. Dr. Adam Lankford, an associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice, has been studying fame-seeking mass shooters since the aftermath of 9/11. In the past year, his research on the subject has been cited by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The […]

Communicating Over Coffee: Coffee Shop Restores Confidence after Brain Injury

April 27, 2016

From the 2016 Celebrating Excellence | Prior to her stroke, Nancy Taylor, a client at the Speech and Hearing Center at The University of Alabama, loved learning. She was social and vibrant, and then one day—the day she had her stroke—she lost her ability to talk. “I feel like I’ve had to do life over,” Taylor said. “People treated me like I was handicapped, but I’m just trying to find my words.” Taylor has aphasia, an acquired language disorder, and […]

A Leader’s Legacy: Bringing Life to Renaissance Literature

April 27, 2016

From the 2016 Celebrating Excellence |Four hundred years ago, at the age of 52, William Shakespeare died. He left behind a legacy of nearly 200 plays and sonnets, which students, scholars, actors, and directors have been reading, studying, and adapting ever since. In anticipation of the anniversary of his death on April 23, Dr. Sharon O’Dair, a professor of Shakespeare in the Department of English and director of UA’s Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies, wondered why, after 400 years, […]

Protecting the Coosa: New College graduate leads environmental nonprofit

April 27, 2016

From the 2016 Celebrating Excellence | Growing up, Justinn Overton, a native of Birmingham, spent many of her Saturdays barely awake and fishing on Logan Martin Lake in the Coosa River system with her parents. “I have a distinct memory of feeling the wind on my face in this little john boat we had at the time and learning how to bait my own hook,” she said. Today, Overton, a 2010 New College graduate, is the executive director of Coosa […]

Beer in Your Bones: Geologist Reconstructs Past Civilizations Using Chemistry

April 26, 2016

From the 2016 Celebrating Excellence | Dr. Fred Andrus says he would never do this to you, but if he pulled one of your teeth, took it to his lab, and dissolved it, he could tell you about where you lived as a child. How? By analyzing isotopes, or variations of chemical elements. “Isotopes are used to detect everything from steroid use to the paths that medicines and nutrients take in your body,” said Andrus, a professor in the Department […]