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This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Liberal Arts, College of at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Liberal Arts Newsletters by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 2015 The University of Mississippi The View from Ventress News from the College of Liberal Arts libarts.olemiss.edu PHOTO BY KEVIN BAIN

SPECIAL SECTION Research & Creative Projects Pages 14–20 Research and Create Dalrymple Donation Page 3 PHOTO BY PPT MEDIA HOUSE

In Tanzania, Laura Johnson (right), associate professor he College of Liberal Arts’ 18 departments, eight interdisciplinary programs, of psychology, and Simon Mtuy (third from left), a and 13 centers/institutes range from the natural sciences and social sciences to world-class athlete and conservationist, discuss a the fine arts and humanities. Through individual and collaborative efforts, community mapping project of Mount Kilimanjaro, the T highest mountain in Africa, conducted by Tanzanian faculty and students push the boundaries of our understanding and appreciation of research partners and UM study abroad students. the world around us. They analyze and create; they publish, discuss, and perform. The In Faces of the Mountain, a project funded by the special section of this newsletter samples a range of research and creative activities in National Geographic Conservation Trust and a UM the College. It also gives a glimpse into how the College and university support those College of Liberal Arts Senior Scholar Research Grant, efforts, and how friends and alumni can help. Johnson and Mtuy collaborate with partners from the German Chancellor Jane Goodall Institute and forest villages to conduct Fellow Page 8 research that brings visibility and voice to conservation initiatives in the region facing numerous ecological College Summer Grants threats. Mtuy advised the team about forest villages, the ne important way the College supports faculty is with Summer Research route around the mountain, and challenges in the field. Grants of $7,500 and Senior Scholar Research Grants of $10,000 to help Orecipients make progress during the summer on research and creative activities. For summer 2015, a total of $530,247 from the dean, provost, departments, Croft Institute, and private donors funded 68 faculty grants and four senior scholar grants used in many different ways—from travel expenses to gather data in the field or archives to the purchase of needed equipment for the lab or studio. Faculty might use the preliminary data and analysis to strengthen external grant applications. Some support students on research projects, while others simply need time to work uninterrupted.

Digging Archaeology Page 12 continued on page 14 more stories, photos, and videos at libarts.olemiss.edu

INTRODUCING DEAN COHEN r. Lee M. Cohen is the new dean of the College of received more than $1.5 million from the US Department of Liberal Arts and professor of psychology. Health and Human Services, National Science Foundation, D“The appointment of dean is an important decision National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug and I very much appreciate being given the opportunity to Abuse, and other funding agencies for his research examining lead the College,” said Cohen, former chair and professor of the behavioral and physiological mechanisms that contribute psychological sciences and director of the clinical psychology to nicotine use and dependence. His interests include the program at Texas Tech University. “I am looking forward to development of optimal smoking cessation treatments. building upon existing relationships and forging new ones.” Cohen holds a BA in psychology from the Cohen has demonstrated exemplary personal and University of California at San Diego and an professional qualities as a leader and educator, said Morris MA and PhD in clinical psychology from Stocks, acting chancellor. “We are extremely pleased that Dr. Oklahoma State University. Lee Cohen has joined the University of Mississippi,” Stocks He and his wife, Michelle, an occupational said. “He brings a deep understanding of the values of a therapist and former assistant professor at liberal education, as well as focused energy and enthusiasm the Texas Tech University Health Sciences PHOTO BY KEVIN BAIN for the continued transformation of our university.” Center, have three children: Ross, 12, Several university-wide awards for teaching and academic Rachel, 9, and Rebecca, 3. V achievements mark Cohen’s 15 years at Texas Tech. He has

Coulter Hall The $16 million upgrade of Coulter Hall, home to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, added and renovated research and teaching space. Amenities include a four-story addition for research laboratory space, new 200-seat auditorium, renovated teachi ng labs, and new lobby with a small coffee shop. PHOTO BY ROBERT JORDAN

Music Building The $4.3 million renovation of the Music Building west wing features upgraded classrooms, teaching studios and offices, and a new reception area. PHOTO BY ROBERT JORDAN The View from Ventress 2 2015 PHOTO BY ROBERT JORDAN Martha Dowd Dalrymple and Chancellor Dan Jones unveil the Arch Dalrymple III Department of History plaque. The dedication marks the first UM department to be named in honor of an alumnus. History Department Named for Arch Dalrymple III he late Arch Dalrymple III would likely have become a history professor, Dalrymple’s business interests included farming, timber, cattle, commercial and except that his father’s untimely death kept the young UM graduate at home residential real estate, and oil and gas. A passionate sportsman and conservationist, Tto run the family businesses. advocate for public education, and generous philanthropist, he created the Dalrymple Dalrymple came to the university in the early 1940s, left for military service Family Foundation to benefit the arts, culture, education, humanities, and conservation during World War II, then returned to earn an undergraduate degree in history in in northeast Mississippi. Martha Dalrymple is president of the foundation and her 1947. As the Amory native developed into a successful businessman and respected husband, James L. Cummins, is executive director of Wildlife Mississippi. civic leader, he found avenues to pursue his love of history and contribute to historic Arch Dalrymple served on the US Department of State Foreign Officer Selection preservation efforts, including 32 years as a Mississippi Department of Archives and Board, the Mississippi Economic Council, the Amory City Planning Commission, History trustee and service as Mississippi Historical Society president. and the Trustmark National Bank Board. A longtime trustee and president of the In April, UM announced the first named department on the Oxford campus: the Amory School District, he helped found the MS School Board Association and was a Arch Dalrymple III Department of History. Martha Dowd Dalrymple, his daughter member of the Governor’s School Finance Study Group. and business partner, joined Chancellor Dan Jones to announce her $5 million gift “Martha Dalrymple’s decision to honor her father in this way will be a lasting to support teaching, research, and service efforts of the department. benefit to the department’s faculty and students,” said Joseph Ward, chair and associate “Daddy was passionate about history,” Dalrymple said. “One of his final wishes professor of history. “It will enhance research and teaching in every area of historical before his death in 2010 was to create an endowment for the UM Department of scholarship we offer. The confidence Ms. Dalrymple has shown in our faculty and History. He always felt our lives are shaped by the lessons we learn from history. Being students through her incredible generosity provides great encouragement to our work a part of the ‘greatest generation’ instilled in him the value of a strong work ethic and both now and far into the future.” V the importance of giving back to his country, state, and community. Our family has a MAKE A GIFT: Denson Hollis, [email protected] or 662.915.5092 long history with UM, and I am pleased to give back to honor his name.”

The View from Ventress 3 2015 more stories, photos, and videos at libarts.olemiss.edu

Biologist Talks Turkeys Art Department Hosts on Science Friday Virtual Lectures GANDY PHOTO BY PAUL any departments are challenged ith its fanned plumage and bold strut, by UM’s location—a small town a male wild turkey’s display conjures in rural north Mississippi. The images of Americana and festive feasts. M W recently renamed Department of Art and But this grandstanding isn’t intended for Art History created the Virtual Visiting Artist human eyes—it’s for female turkeys who Program to connect students and faculty with actually use it to discern a male’s genetic working artists, art historians, critics, and prowess. How exactly she parses his curators from around the country through Skype technology. performance to pick her suitor can “The lecture series introduces students to how art can inform be a fairly complex enterprise, but our lives,” said Brooke White, associate professor of art. “I want thanks to the research of Richard students to be excited and passionate about what they are doing, Buchholz, associate professor of and it helps to hear and see artists talk about their practice.” biology, we have some clues as to what The program has been a great addition to the department, said a female turkey finds “hot” in a male. Virginia Chavis, chair and associate professor. “While the artists Buchholz and his National Science aren’t physically on campus, the students are able to ask questions Foundation-funded study of turkey and, often, take a virtual tour of the artists’ studio space. It presents mate choice were the subject of the valuable face time between artist and student they may not be able segment, Hot for Turkey, aired before to experience in a gallery setting.” Thanksgiving 2014 on the popular Spring semester guests were Cynthia Thompson, director of Science Friday national radio show. V the MFA in book arts and printmaking at the University of Arts in The video and podcast are online at bit.ly/1F7w0FV. Philadelphia; Matt Moore, a nationally known multimedia artist based in Phoenix; Greg Friedler, one of the nation’s top photographers; and Buzz Spector, professor at Washington University Sam Fox School of Art. V PHOTO BY PAUL GANDY Professor’s Ensemble Wins Grammy

os Milton, assistant professor of music, is a member of Company of Voices, a team of professional singers from Jaround the US that is part of the Conspirare vocal Look At It/Think About It ensembles under Craig Hella Johnson’s leadership. The Sacred ationally renowned artist and educator Spirit of Russia, their recording of sacred choral music in the William Dunlap (MFA painting ’76) returned Russian Orthodox tradition on the Harmonia Mundi label, Nto campus for an exhibition, lecture, and received the 2015 Grammy for Best Choral Performance. reception at the Department of Art and Art History Recorded in St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Austin, Texas, the Gallery 130 in Meek Hall last October. selections reflect the New Russian Choral School 19th-century liturgical music tradition. “I always come back to Mississippi,” said Dunlap. “I like “The monumental harmonies are chanted a cappella, and the richness of the textures is reinforced by to say there’s a little Mississippi in everything I do.” the low notes of the basses, which give the sound a deep resonance and special warmth,” wrote Blair Sanderson for the AllMusic Review. “Examples are given from the Matins service, the Liturgy of the Word, His paintings, sculpture, and constructions are in and the ‘sacred concertos’ performed at Communion, so the different purposes for these chants are made collections around the world, including the Metropolitan clear, though listeners may find the intense expressions of reverence and joy to be most immediate.” V Museum of Art and Corcoran Gallery of Art.

The View from Ventress 4 2015 Accolades for Art Alumna ne of Southern Living’s People Changing the South in 2015 with community-minded ideas and projects, photographer Maude Schuyler Clay also received the Governor’s OAward for Excellence in Visual Arts and her fourth Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters (MIAL) Photography Award this year. “I was born in the Mississippi Delta, where my family has been for five generations,” she said. “I lived in Manhattan for 13 years, then came back to the Delta to work and live. I am very much connected to this landscape and my ‘mission’—if one could call it that—is to somehow leave a visual record of what it looks like here.”

Delta Land, Clay’s book of black-and-white photographs capturing the PHOTO BY TERRI LOEWENTHAL complexities of the landscape, earned her an MIAL photography award in 2000. The 2015 MIAL award recognizes Delta Dogs, black-and-white images inspired by her love for dogs and their unique place in Mississippi. After art studies at UM and the Memphis Academy of the Arts, Clay began her career assisting her cousin, the celebrated color-photography pioneer William Eggleston, in Memphis. She started her color portrait series for her latest book, Mississippi History, Mississippi History, STEIDL, 2015, Photographs and Afterword by Maude in 1975 when she acquired her first Rolleiflex 2 camera. At the time, Clay Schuyler Clay, Foreword by Richard Ford, visiting professor of creative was living and working in New York and paying frequent visits to her native writing Delta, whose landscape and people continued to inspire her. Over the next Delta Land, UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI, 1999, Photographs 25 years, the project evolved in part as an homage to Julia Margaret Cameron, by Maude Schuyler Clay, Introduction by Lewis Nordan a definitive pioneer of the art of photography who lived in Victorian England. Clay’s expressive, allegorical portraits of friends, family, and other Mississippians, as well as her artful approach to capturing the essence of light, are the driving forces behind her recollection of moments of family life in Mississippi in the 1980s and ’90s. Clay has been photo editor for Vanity Fair, Esquire, Fortune, and the Oxford American literary magazine. Her work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the National Museum for Women, and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, among others. V PHOTO BY IVO KAMPS

A Collaborative PHOTO BY MAUDE SCHUYLER CLAY Project rom mid-October until January 2016, an exhibition of Maude FSchuyler Clay’s color photographs, and poems by award-winning poet Ann Fisher-Wirth, professor of English and director of environmental studies, will be Ann Fisher-Wirth (left) and her poem (right) with on display at the Center for the Study of Maude Schuyler Clay’s photograph (above) from Mississippi: A Collaborative Project. Southern Culture’s Gammill Gallery in You stand in Tree Barnard Observatory. Works from their You stand in Tree, vrksasana, Mississippi: A Collaborative Project are also as the quiet self blossoms available online to enjoy anytime on Bloom literary website and About Place literary journal published by the Black Earth Institute—a think tank of artists and scholars devoted to serving environmental and social causes with their art for which Fisher-Wirth was downward into the waters recently chosen as Fellow. beautiful dancer “The Black Earth Fellowship is a big honor and a wonderful validation of my work as a poet and environmental activist,” she all around the rose-light flows said. “It reflects on the support I have been given at UM, both as a member of the English department and as director of the minor in environmental studies.” summer’s final insects trill This year Fisher-Wirth gave a plenary presentation of the Mississippi project at the sixth Tamkang International Conference on the grasses flourish upward Ecological Discourse in Taiwan and plenary readings at the Conference of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment beyond, the open lake (ASLE) in Idaho and at Cambridge University for the ASLE/UK conference at Murray Edwards College. and the hills unfold their “Ann’s commitment to leaving our planet a place our children and grandchildren can hope to enjoy is evident in her poetry and darkness her teaching,” said Ivo Kamps, chair and professor of English. “Her selection as a fellow of the Black Earth Institute is a recognition of the important work she has done, is doing, and will do in the future.” V Read a message from Fisher-Wirth, 2014 Elsie M. Hood Outstanding Teacher of the Year, on VfV online.

The View from Ventress 5 2015 more stories, photos, and videos at libarts.olemiss.edu

Awards Honor Recent Works and Lifetime Achievement

2015 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Awards MISSISSIPPI celebrate three alumni and a professor HUMANITIES COUNCIL PUBLIC HUMANITIES SCHOLAR OF NOEL POLK POETRY AWARD THE YEAR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT Tim Earley Eric T. Weber, AWARD Poems Descriptive associate professor of Rural Life and Department of Public Sammy Britt Scenery LATIL PHOTO BY NATHAN Policy Leadership HORSE LESS PRESS, 2014 Sammy Britt (MFA ric Weber writes a compelling argument for art ’66) has taught “Part Henry Miller, public engagement with philosophy. His and practiced the art part Rimbaud, part logic builds on John Dewey’s argument in of seeing and painting Whitman, part Joyce, E “The Supreme Intellectual Obligation”: that public color through the language of the limitless light all swirled into the philosophy “must not be seen simply as a one-way keys of nature since 1963 when he began studying ‘poor, rude clown’ of street from intellectuals to the masses but, rather, as with Henry Hensche at the Cape Cod School of mad John Clare the task of fostering the scientific attitude and Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Professor resurrected and rampaging through the ‘post-natal intellectual habits of mind in all citizens.” emeritus of art at Delta State, he continues to slime’ of the American South, Tim Earley (UM Weber considers the impact on American lives teach workshops in the tradition of Hensche. visiting assistant professor of English) reinvents or damn near obliterates the prose poem in … a book of the failure to educate students in ethics, the rise “In our greatest artistic moment we can merely of ‘abundant strangeness’ and originality, a teeming of incivility in our culture, growing polarization of create a weak illusion of God’s great creative cesspool of language like a ‘disease that overspills.’” the population, the “remoteness” of scholarship genius, but that tiny glimpse of God’s beauty is from public discourse, and a loss of intellectual more than enough to share with another soul.” —Jason Koo, director of Brooklyn Poets guidance of public culture. Not all philosophers —Sammy Britt need to be publicly engaged thinkers, Weber writes, but many more ought to do so and to be encouraged in that work. NONFICTION “Scholars in university settings enjoy a special AWARD privilege, as do some other fortunate writers and thinkers in the field of journalism or in the think tank Dennis J. Mitchell world. We have, therefore, remarkable opportunities to contribute to public intellectual leadership.” V A New History of Mississippi UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI, 2014 Uniting Mississippi: In the first comprehensive Democracy and history of the state in PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD Leadership in the nearly four decades, South Dennis Mitchell (PhD Maude Schuyler Clay UNIVERSITY PRESS OF history ’76), history professor and chair of arts and Delta Dogs MISSISSIPPI, 2015 By Eric T. Weber, sciences at Mississippi State University in Meridian, UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI, 2014 associate professor “has meticulously researched and written an incredibly Introduction by Brad Watson, Essay by Beth Ann of public policy leadership valuable examination of Mississippi’s bewitching Fennelly, UM professor of English and director of Foreword by Governor William F. Winter history—warts and all. The strength of Mitchell’s the MFA Program work is that he provides context, continuity, and “Maude Schuyler Clay is one of those rare Philosophically informed perspective in chronicling the state’s past and photographers who captures the simple, desolate theory of democratic linking that past to our shared future. …this book beauty of the Delta with the elegance of a Faulkner leadership applied to Mississippi’s challenges. should be a staple in the personal libraries of all phrase or classic blues lyric.” Dr. Weber discusses morality, law, and his serious students of our state’s history.” —James Franco, actor book at bit.ly/1MKvh0A. —Sid Salter, journalist and author

The View from Ventress 6 2015 Awards Honor Recent Works and Lifetime Achievement

SouthDocs Film Wins Emmy he Toughest Job: William Winter’s Mississippi, a film by Matthew Graves (MA modern Tlanguages ’09), adjunct instructor of cinema and senior producer for the Southern Documentary Project (SouthDocs), won an Emmy

for best historical documentary from the Southeast PHOTO BY ANDREW HARPER division of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in June. “The Emmy tells me that we are on the right track telling the complicated story of the state and its people,” said Andrew Harper, SouthDocs director and producer of the film with Governor William Winter interviewed by David Crews. Becca Walton, associate director for projects at Once in a Lifetime: the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. The Toughest Job:William Winter’s Reflections of a Mississippi First Lady Mississippi chronicles the 57th governor’s UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI, 2015 By Elise Varner Winter life and career as a pivotal leader in education Foundation, National Civic League, Foundation for reform, economic development, and racial the Mid South, Commission on the Future of the Elise Winter (BA history and political science ’48) reconciliation. South, Southern Regional Education Board, and used her time as the state’s first lady, 1980–1984, to Utilizing materials from the Mississippi Southern Growth Policies Board. advocate for affordable housing, public education, Department of Archives and History and “William Winter is and has been for seven prison reform, and the advancement of the arts. decades the quintessential leader,” said Andrew interviews with the Winters, Vernon Jordan, Dick “One of the greatest joys was using the Mansion as an Mullins, assistant director of UM Mississippi Molpus, Myrlie Evers-Williams, Ray Mabus, exquisite backdrop to spotlight and celebrate the great Teacher Corps, who served as chief of staff or Reuben V. Anderson, Charles Overby, President achievements that so many Mississippians have made,” Bill Clinton, and others, the film examines the she said. “We showcased Mississippians from every walk political life and policy accomplishments of one of of life—professional athletes, business people, the state’s most progressive leaders. entertainers, teachers, and journalists. “It’s been a remarkable challenge attempting to “We wanted to provide a setting which would shine a condense a life’s worth of passion, bitter defeats, light on these exceptional Mississippians whose and momentous victories into an hour-long accomplishments lifted up the whole state and documentary,” Graves said. “It’s a thrilling story of reminded all of us what a special place this is.” V perseverance and leadership and is truly a testament to what is possible in this state.” Governor Winter (BA history and political GOVERNOR’S INITIATIVE FOR VOLUNTEER EXCELLENCE science ’43, JD ’49) is credited with spearheading Winter campaign ad Mississippi’s landmark Education Reform Act of LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 1982. The World War II veteran was elected special assistant to chancellors Gerald Turner, Elise Varner Winter Mississippi lieutenant governor, treasurer, tax Robert Khayat, and Dan Jones, and worked with For her work with Habitat for Humanity Capital Area collector, and representative. He is a shareholder/ Winter over the years. “During his long life of partner in the law firm Watkins Ludlam Winter & service, he’s had all the qualities a leader needed to he whole thing started with a little dream Stennis, which merged with Jones Walker LLP. be successful in a state like Mississippi. The main that we could help people live in better UM’s Institute for Racial Reconciliation and a attribute was courage. He put his political career on “Tconditions,” Elise Winter said of the history professorship are named for Winter, as is the the line for the sake of Mississippi’s children.” organization she helped found 29 years ago in Jackson. state Archives and History Building. Recipient of a SouthDocs produces short and feature-length “To think that we’ve built 600 houses, and to consider special John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award documentary films with partners like the that each was home to two or three people … that’s a for Lifetime Achievement, he served on President Southern Foodways Alliance and radio programs lot of lives touched. Clinton’s Advisory Board on Race. such as Highway 61 and Sounds of the South. “It thrills me beyond words and gives me chills every Leadership positions include serving as SouthDocs staff teach classes in Southern Studies, time I see a family move in. I’ll never forget what one Mississippi Department of History Board of Trustees journalism, and cinema and provide internships to person said: ‘I am finally out of poverty.’ That really hit president and chair of the National Commission on UM students. V me hard.” V State and Local Public Service, the Kettering Watch the film, toughestjobmovie.com.

The View from Ventress 7 2015 more stories, photos, and videos at libarts.olemiss.edu

Learning Financial

Literacy PHOTO BY KEVIN BAIN liott Channing Landsell (BA public Epolicy leadership (PPL) and accounting ’15) sparked an interest in Eliott Channing Landsell financial literacy among young people in his economic policy class. Landsell—like other PPL majors—studied leadership, ethics, communication, policy analysis, quantitative analysis, and specific policy areas while gaining experience promoting social change on and off campus. “I instructed a class of 30 high school seniors on basic financial principles, personal banking, credit,

PHOTO BY ALEX PENTON interest, and mortgages,” he said. “The students were eager to learn. They recognized the importance of these skills and concepts for adulthood, yet no one had Student Wins Study Abroad Film Festival taken the time—until MoneyThink—to teach them.” lexa Penton (BA art history and Chinese ’15) won the first Study Abroad Film Festival at the Landsell was a member of MoneyThink financial Institute for the International Education of Students (IES) Abroad annual conference. A member of literacy program promoting economic education for A UM’s Chinese Flagship Program, she was in China attending the Beijing Foreign Studies University America’s youth. The UM chapter, established in with IES Abroad. 2011, provides mentors for approximately 400 Penton’s film, East of Here, was selected from 54 submissions expressing the spirit of study abroad. An students at Oxford and Lafayette high schools each international jury chose the final three and Facebook users were invited to view and vote for their favorites. year. Mentors teach the job application process and Penton’s 11-minute film of her experiences in China and interviews with students in the study abroad general concepts of professionalism for entrepreneurial program received 56% of the votes. pursuits. Landsell hoped to instill fundamental knowledge “Studying abroad enables you to learn another country’s culture and, perhaps more importantly, to learn essential to succeed at all levels, including the budgeting about yourself,” Penton said. “Living abroad tests your limits, develops your independence, reexamines your and resource management necessary for college. customs and beliefs against the backdrop of a foreign culture, deepens your global understanding, cultivates He completed a tax internship in real estate and empathy, and improves your foreign language skills. asset management with KPMG in New York City and “More pragmatically, studying abroad can set you apart from other applicants for career positions or higher plans to sit for the CPA exam and attend law school to education programs. It is also a great way to network.” apply his analytical economic skills to study tax law. V Penton returns to Bejing this fall to work for the same organization that provided her study abroad experience–IES Abroad. V Watch the winning video on YouTube, visit VfV online.

Alumnus Is State’s First German Chancellor Fellow eeneaus Polk (BA German and international Polk, a policy analyst for the Mississippi Economic magnolia trees sway studies ’11) is one of only 50 German Chancellor Policy Center, will spend his year abroad researching gracefully, is also DFellows chosen worldwide this year and the the German workforce and vocational education heavily defined by first Mississippian selected for a year of study and systems, hoping to return with knowledge of concepts gaps. These gaps research on a project of his own creation in Germany. and principles to develop a similar system in come in many “I have always been interested in bringing the Mississippi through the analysis of agriculture, shapes and sizes. world to Mississippi in ways that will change lives,” manufacturing, logistics, and transportation. “There are racial he said. “This opportunity represents a way for me A Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in gaps that persist long Deeneaus Polk to do that.” Germany in 2011 allowed Polk to experience a after the end of slavery. There are wealth gaps within The program, created by the German Chancellor different culture and changed his life. He applied for which the divide between the rich and poor continues and managed by the Alexander von Humboldt the German Chancellor Fellowship to make a to grow. An education gap also exists, which calcifies Foundation, is for individuals interested in leadership difference in his home state. the cyclical nature of poverty. During my Fulbright year in the areas of politics, economics, media, “The time I spent at Ole Miss exposed a side of in Germany I came to believe that Mississippi is administration, and culture. Mississippi I’d never seen,” the honors graduate capable of much more and I decided to endeavor to explained. “I came to realize that Mississippi, where make these hopes and dreams a reality.” V

The View from Ventress 8 2015 hen Forrest Gamble isn’t on the links with other members of the UM Golf Team, the physics Moon Landing Wmajor with a perfect 4.0 GPA works with research scientist James Sabatier, professor emeritus of Scientist Speaks physics, to test a patented smart sensor technology measuring changes in walk of elderly, which may help prevent falls. to Students FORREST “Ole Miss gives me the best opportunity to pursue my goals veteran scientist who worked with the National GAMBLE both academically and athletically,” said Gamble, a member of Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) the honors college who plans to attend medical school. Aon one of the crowning achievements of the SCHOLAR Named SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year and to the 2015 20th century returned to campus this spring to offer ATHLETE OF Capital One Academic All-America Division I Men’s problem-solving advice. At-Large Team, the golfer finished the season third at UM Josephine Howard (BA mathematics ’64, MA THE YEAR and posted his best tournament of the season at the SEC biology and mathematics ’67), who helped NASA to Championships in a tie for 11th at Sea Island, Georgia. put Apollo 11 on the moon in 1969, discussed relating “Ole Miss provides a small college atmosphere with all mathematical studies to life applications during a the benefits of a large college,” Gamble said. “Oxford has a meeting with students. great community atmosphere and I can’t imagine going to One of her first jobs involved developing programs school anywhere else.” V to guide a spaceship through the Earth and moon’s orbits for the first lunar landing. Besides working on To read about the smart sensor physics project, visit VfV online. design trajectory for the Apollo lunar missions, Howard programmed data management programs for oil and gas companies, wrote control language for data management systems, and organized and implemented International Educational Exchange successful political campaigns for 18 years. She also taught junior high and high school, operated her real stablished in 1946, the Fulbright Program is estate company in Sugar Land, Texas, assisted with the flagship international educational exchange typhoon relief in 2013, and helped found Living Water Esponsored by the US government and is International, an organization to provide clean water in designed to increase understanding between people 26 countries. of the US and other countries. UM’s long history of Overall, the main goal of Howard’s campus visit Fulbright awardees includes 16 students since 2000. was to inspire. She encouraged students to look past Here are four recent recipients. their assumptions to solve problems and challenged Katie Shuford (BM music education ’14) them to evaluate options spent the 2014–15 academic year in Kecskemet, from multiple angles. Hungary, studying composer Zoltan Kodály’s “Whatever you do in educational philosophy and Michael Shea life, whatever you think, observing music classes. your choices are based on “I left a more accomplished my students a similar experience by teaching English your assumptions,” musician and confident teacher,” through poetry, while fostering greater understanding Howard said. “On all she said. “I also took away a between the two nations on a grassroots level.” your choices, go back love for Hungarian culture. Living Shea started a virtual reading series in which US and check your in Kecskemet for nine months and Argentine poets read their work via video chat assumptions; if gave me the opportunity to get programs, creating an international dialogue. His work your assumptions involved in the community and laid the foundation for a doctorate in comparative are wrong, you form lasting relationships.” literature with a specialization in Pan-American poetics. may discover Katie Shuford Shuford plans to This academic year, Jordan Triosi and Colby you are way off become an elementary Woods will participate in the Fulbright English base.” V school music teacher, where she will implement the teaching program. Kodály philosophy while navigating the American Jordan Triosi (MA modern languages and TESL desire for more standards, assessment, and technology. ’15) will teach English in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, and Michael Shea (MFA creative writing ’14) headed conduct research on Turkish higher education. He to Argentina to participate in Fulbright’s English plans to pursue a doctorate in international education Teaching Assistant program in spring 2015 to establish upon his return. a community poetry workshop for students to read Colby Woods (German and international studies poems by US poets and write their own works in ’14) studied abroad in Germany as an undergraduate English in order to encourage cross-cultural awareness and returns to teach English and take classes at a local Astronaut Buzz PHOTO BY, NEIL ARMSTRONG and language acquisition. university. He developed a passion for teaching while Aldrin, lunar module “As a student of Spanish, contextualizing my working with the Sunflower County Freedom Project, pilot, during the a nonprofit organization that uses education to Apollo 11 language skills through literature allowed me to fully moonwalk. understand my new tongue,” he said. “I hoped to offer empower middle and high school students in the Mississippi Delta. V

The View from Ventress 9 2015 more stories, photos, and videos at libarts.olemiss.edu

Philosophy Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred for Success Years of Cooking in a Black Family adley Jo Pearson (BA philosophy CLARKSON POTTER, 2015 ’14) is using her undergraduate by Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams Hmajor to succeed as a University of aroline Randall Williams (MFA English ’15), an Mississippi Medical Center student. Hadley Jo Pearson award-winning poet, young-adult novelist, and “My philosophy degree helped me CHarvard graduate, and her mother, bestselling stand out from the sea of biology and biochemistry majors applying to author Alice Randall (The Wind Done Gone), have overhauled the medical school,” said Pearson, a second-year student. “It showed that I had way they cook, translating recipes handed down by four generations different passions and wasn’t afraid to deviate from the default path. into easy, affordable, and healthful—yet still indulgent—dishes. “Now that I’m in medical school, philosophy helps on several levels. It Soul Food Love relates the authors’ fascinating family history, made me a more organized thinker. When tackling monstrous amounts of explores the often fraught relationship black women have had with information on a daily basis, it very much helps to have practice on methodically food, and forges a powerful new way forward that honors their working through convoluted information (or arguments). cultural and culinary heritage. This is what the strong black kitchen “Philosophy trains you to be both big-picture and detail oriented: you looks like in the 21st century. must be able to follow complex theories and piece them together to form the “I want to help people wake up and realize many people in rural ultimate conclusion, while also ruthlessly looking for that one error in the Mississippi are living in food deserts,” Williams recently told the Northeast Mississippi Daily argument that makes it all come crashing down. In medical school classes, this Journal. “There are fields planted, but they’re planted with cotton and soybeans. People are combination of skills has allowed me to excel, since I am accustomed to shopping at the Dollar General for food and eating at gas stations. But there are ways to eat paying attention to both the big picture and the finicky details.” healthfully when access to food is limited.” Philosophy faculty recognized Pearson’s abilities in critical thinking and Williams and her mother also coauthored The Diary of B. B. Bright, Possible Princess, winner communication. “We find that many students on a science or premed track, of the 2013 Phillis Wheatley Book Award for Young Adult Readers. Described as “sweet, sassy even those who are quite intelligent and motivated, have difficulty producing and mystical” by Kirkus Review, “this novel deftly melds an old-fashioned story of princess well-organized papers,” said Steven Skultety, chair and associate professor of preparation with the modern twist of body image and self-esteem.” philosophy and religion. “It is common to have such students turn in clearly Williams begins teaching English literature, creative writing, and food writing at West written papers that never develop strong arguments. Hadley was an effective Virginia University this fall. V writer in both ways. Her papers were lucid; she never wasted a word, and yet she always argued something substantive.” While Hadley built her science foundation with minors in biological science and chemistry as well as two years in a biology research lab (resulting PHOTO BY NATHAN LATIL in an honors thesis on soft coral response to global warming), she found her Biomedical Research philosophy studies to be important for personal growth. he summer before entering college Marcus Daniels (BA “Spending so much time probing deep questions that have plagued biological science ’15) participated in a biomedical research mankind for centuries inevitably leads to a certain amount of self-discovery,” Tprogram at the UM Medical Center (UMMC) in Jackson. she said. “Learning philosophy helped order my thoughts and opinions in “The experience helped me decide to become a physician,” said college, and feel more centered and confident in how I approach life. In Daniels, an honors college graduate. “I decided to study biology to Marcus Daniels the hectic world of medical school, having access to inner peace best prepare for the health professions. I am very interested in health is essential.” V disparities research and want to know all I can about disparities in health outcomes—why they exist and what we can do to solve them.” Several subsequent UMMC Summer Undergraduate Research Experience internships focusing on health disparities furthered his desire to enter the medical field. Each internship Alumnus on Capitol Hill resulted in research presentations where Daniels discussed work on stress and the immune tephen Worley (BA international studies system, associations between immune parameters and gene polymorphisms, and methods of and Spanish ’11) is deputy communications early intervention to prevent kidney function deficiency in newborns with low birth weight. director for the Senate Appropriations S Based on his remarkable academic and research profile, Daniels was selected for summer Committee—chaired by another alumnus, US Senator Thad Cochran—in Washington, DC. research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he characterized mucins He provides external communications of the in cystic fibrosis and helped determine if mucus from excised pig tracheas could be committee’s operations. This is no easy task, as potential models of the disease. Through this study, cheaper, more improved treatment the committee handles all financial expenditures options for cystic fibrosis patients were discovered while researchers also created a from the federal treasury. replication system to facilitate study of the disease. Worley credits UM, where he was a member of the “Every year, there are one or two students I consider the best of the best, and Marcus honors college and interned for US Senator Roger Wicker, for helping prepare him for the job. Daniels is that student,” said Lucile McCook, former director of the Health Professions Advising “I had a lot of great experiences with students Office. “He has been accepted to nine medical schools, which is an accomplishment that few and professors who taught me more than just UM students achieve and the highest number that I am aware of in the last 10 years.” This fall textbooks ever could,” he said. “My education Daniels begins studies at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. at Ole Miss taught me to think critically and “My experiences in research have been great because they showed that research is truly apply thoughtful reasoning to a wide range of problems.” V team based, which is important in finding cures for debilitating and deadly diseases,” he said. “Teamwork is fundamental in the postgraduate world and it is an important skill that Stephen Worley college students should develop.” V

The View from Ventress 10 2015 Recognition for a Role Model eterrian Shackelford (BA history ’12, MA higher education ’15) received the 2015 Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, the university’s Dhighest honor in recognition of students, alumni, and community members who distinguish themselves with selfless service to others, from the

McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement. PHOTO BY THOMAS GRANING A former starting linebacker for the Rebels and two-time Chucky Mullins Courage Award winner, Shackelford helped lead mission trips to Haiti and Panama and is active in the Oxford community, mentoring local youth, helping with efforts to fight hunger, raising funds for cancer research, and speaking to schools, community, and church groups. He is a five-time selection to the SEC Academic Honor Roll, a two-time semifinalist for the Deterrian Shackelford speaking at UM’s 2015 Mississippi Outreach to Scholastic Talent Conference. National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete Award, and a two-time member of the SEC Community Service Team. “You want people to say: let’s take away his football abilities; without the brown ball, who is he? That’s when you really know the person,” Shackelford told the All Sports Association at their dinner awarding him the 2014 Wuerffel Trophy for exemplary community service by a Football Bowl Subdivision player. Living the Dream “This young man truly exemplifies not only all that is good about football, laying basketball in the WNBA is a dream but the important and positive aspects of life,” said Danny Wuerffel, former for many athletes but a reality for few. For Florida All-SEC quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner. Palumna Armintie Price-Herrington (BA One reporter described scholar-athlete Shackelford as “a good football player liberal studies ’07), professional basketball player for and a great human being.” V the Washington Mystics, years of practice, hard work, and dedication turned a dream into reality. V Read the profile, visit VfV online. PHOTO COURTESY WASHINGTON MYSTICS/WNBA

American students at UM while simultaneously offering a means to discuss Chinese and greater East Asian events and politics.” His interest in China began before college. Following high school Chinese courses and a visit to East Asia, Withers wanted to achieve excellence in Chinese and develop business skills. UM’s Croft Institute for International Studies and Chinese Flagship Language Program provided opportunities for both. Since 2003, the UM Chinese Flagship Program—one of 12 in the US—has helped students achieve superior levels of Mandarin Chinese and produced global professionals with the profound level of cultural understanding necessary for developing relations in China and with Chinese colleagues worldwide. Withers spent two summers in China and his senior year in Nanjing and Shanghai interning with a marketing consultancy and assisting foreign brands entering the Chinese market. “Palmer completed a five-year program, including a semester of course work and a semester-long internship in China, in only four years,” said Kees Gipsen, executive director of the Croft Institute and professor emeritus of history. “He accomplished The UM Global China Connection in the Grove. this extraordinary feat by dint of hard work, excellent time management skills, careful planning, and superb Chinese.” Withers, a member of the honors college who would like to earn his MBA one China Connection day, enjoyed his experience. “As an American living in China, I can bring a unique M’s Global China Connection won the most outstanding chapter award perspective to how foreign firms are understood in the Chinese marketplace and I at a recent international conference. Established in 2013 to develop enjoy observing the process of how China-specific marketing campaigns are Udynamic relationships between Chinese and non-Chinese students, the developed and implemented.” organization hosts informal gatherings to build friendships, and holds meetings to “Palmer without question is one of the finest students to come through our Chinese raise awareness of issues critical to Sino-American relations and develop leadership Language Flagship Program in its 12 years of operation,” said Donald Dyer, chair and and networking skills. professor of modern languages and codirector of the Chinese program. “Having “Our students understand that future starts today, with them,” said Mark Chen, completed our program, which currently numbers 80 students and which sends more chair and professor of public policy leadership and group faculty advisor. “It is students to the final year-long direct enrollment and internship Capstone Program in important to connect and network in our global society.” China than any other Flagship university, Palmer will have countless opportunities in the Founding board member Palmer Withers (BA Chinese and international studies future to fuse his language abilities with his business skills. He is the kind of graduate we ’15) said, “The Global China Connection is a vital link between Chinese and aspire to produce here in Oxford, a true global professional for the 21st century.” V

The View from Ventress 11 2015 more stories, photos, and videos at libarts.olemiss.edu

Digging

Archaeology PHOTO BY KEVIN BAIN his spring Jodi Skipper and Carolyn Freiwald and their Tstudents dug for artifacts as clues of the daily habits and foodways PHOTO BY CHELIUS CARTER of the enslaved people who once Katherine Farese lived behind the Hugh Craft House in Holly Springs. The well-preserved slave quarters with detached kitchen Student Impact circa 1843 are among 20 similar properties around the town. on Mississippi “Holly Springs probably has Department of Sociology and Anthropology archaeologists after the first day of the Craft House Kitchen Quarters excavation during the April 2015 Behind the Big House Tour in Elections more intact slave dwellings in a small Holly Springs. Front row: Project directors Carolyn Freiwald and Jodi Skipper. Back row: area than I’ve seen anywhere else in Robert Waren, Alex Gochenaur, Shannon Wooten, Hamilton Bryant III, Zach Murphy, atherine Farese planned to major in this country,” said Skipper, assistant Stephanie Orsini, Grace Myers, Raychel Durdin, Emily Fortier, Spencer Oliver. biological science, but a freshmen professor of anthropology and Kpolitical science course and her interest Southern Studies. “This is unique.” “It’s in the backyard of Ole Miss,” said Grace in the rich history of Southern politics changed But identifying those important historical houses Myers, an anthropology major who gave presentations her mind. Receiving the Governor’s Award for isn’t easy. “They’re hidden in plain sight,” she said. to school groups about the bones that have been Excellence in the Study of Politics and the “They look like sheds, pool houses, and lots of other found. “Unlike Oxford, Holly Springs wasn’t burned Howard H. Stone Memorial Award for Political things, that unless you know what you’re looking for, during the Civil War. We can find out the habits and Science validated the honors college student’s you wouldn’t detect. When I say slave dwellings, they foodways of people who lived in this area. That’s decision to study political science. were built for that, but these structures were occupied really cool.” “I observed Katherine coordinating the work into the 1930s and 1940s or so by folks working as While Holly Springs’ schoolchildren listened to and argument of her fellow attorneys in mock nannies or doing other jobs for families who owned presentations, UM students dug around and beneath court simulation, and also observed the high level the properties.” the old slave quarters, looking for bones and ceramics of esteem other students hold for her in judicial Students from a seminar on that might have been used behavior group activities,” said Doug Rice, biological anthropology, a course for eating. Anthropology assistant professor of political science. “In her on ancient foods, a Southern graduate student Stephanie efforts to grow academically—and as evidence of heritage tourism graduate class, Orsini dug a small area her general humility—she regularly seeks and a class on African diaspora, behind the house. Each clarification of particular arguments.” among others, worked at the site house excavation had a This intellectual capacity prompted Farese’s with Skipper and Freiwald, different makeup of animal nomination to represent UM on Secretary of assistant professor of anthropology. bones, she said. State Delbert Hosemann’s 2014 Study Group to Information about slaves’ “Articles I’ve read say it Review Mississippi Election Laws. The committee daily lives is revealed through depends on the nationality convened three meetings to discuss party what’s found around the home of the people in the house,” primary election systems, early voting, and site, Freiwald said. “The ground Orsini said. “One house online voter registration. As a representative, tells us stories. We want to tie the had French inhabitants. Farese addressed Mississippi politicians and pieces of the story together.” In France, people might professionals to explain her concerns. Chelius Carter, an architectural consider pig’s head a delicacy, “When we reviewed online voter registration, historian and head of Preserve whereas others might not consider that as good of a I was not fully convinced that it should be Marshall County & Holly Springs, Inc., owns the cut of meat. What the slaves got depended on what implemented,” said Farese. “Even though my Hugh Craft House, which was occupied by Union people in the big house wanted.” generation is technologically oriented, there is a soldiers during the Civil War. Its slave quarters and Efforts to understand the cuisine are only part of large elderly population who may struggle with kitchen were in the 2015 Behind the Big House tour the importance of the work at the Hugh Craft House. computers and there are many people who of historical homes in Marshall County for local “The dig can tell us about foodways, but it’s also one simply may not have access.” schoolchildren and the public that coincided with the of the few records that we have of the enslaved In addition, she supports early voting over annual Holly Springs Pilgrimage of antebellum community here,” Skipper said. “These are not folks absentee ballots for out-of-precinct voting and mansions. The goal of Behind the Big House is to who were writing narratives and leaving them behind. changes within the open primary system preserve and share all history, not just the glamour of This work is very important for that reason.” currently in operation. Farese hopes to inspire the antebellum homes. Skipper’s work on the Behind the Big House youth political participation and progress. For four years the project has told the story of project earned the Mississippi Historical Society Award “I have discovered that the political process slave structures and the people who worked and lived of Merit this year. V is vitally important to society, and although I am in them. The tour has succeeded with help from UM young, I have a voice. I hope to use my voice to student volunteers. help people from all walks of life.” V

The View from Ventress 12 2015 Conversations with Barry Hannah UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI, 2015 Edited by James G. Thomas Jr., associate director for publications at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture Collected interviews with the award-winning author considered one of the most important writers of modern American literature. Hannah directed UM’s Department of English MFA Program, where he taught creative writing for 28 years until his death in 2010. Talking Writing on Record

PHOTO BY HUNTER WILLIAMS o celebrate Record Store Day 2015, Oxford’s Foote. I think people will be blown away when they The End of All Music vinyl shop released a hear Barry’s voice. It’s unlike any other.” Tspoken-word record featuring a talk Barry William Ferris, then the director of UM’s Center Hannah gave to a UM class in spring 1989. Its title, for the Study of Southern Culture, made the recording Scholarship Assists I have no idea what tradition I’m in. Don’t care, is lifted and it is released with permission of the Southern Study in Germany from the lecture. The recording captures a candid Folklife Collection archive at the University of North Hannah discussing his writing, career, art, Mississippi, Carolina library. He helped edit the two-hour lecture organ Martin of Alexandria, Virginia, music, and the South. into a 30-minute track and provided an essay has established the Dr. Benjamin “Listening to the record is like being in a room championing Hannah as “a wild, untamed spirit whose Franklin Martin III Memorial Study M with Barry Hannah,” said David Swider (BA English voice always spoke truth to power.” Abroad Scholarship for students with a major or and journalism ’08), store proprietor and former Hannah’s debut novel, Geronimo Rex, was minor in German to participate in the German student of Hannah’s. “I’d never heard Faulkner’s accent nominated for the National Book Award in 1972. His Intensive Summer Program, with first priority until I came across his Nobel Prize speech. I still hear works include Airships, Ray, Yonder Stands Your Orphan, given to Mississippi residents. his voice in my mind when I read his books. It’s the High Lonesome, Captain Maximus, and The Tennis “I want to honor my father’s memory so he same with Eudora Welty, Walker Percy, or Shelby Handsome. V can have a lasting impact on people’s lives,” Morgan said. “This will provide an opportunity for Mississippians to venture out and explore the rest of the world while attending the university that Language and meant so much to him.” Benjamin Martin (BA chemistry ’60, MD ’66) Cultural Outreach was involved with the German program as a he Department of Modern Languages assists student and grading assistant. He believed that with language learning and enhances cultural learning a second language was the first step to a Tawareness at the K-12 level. greater appreciation of the world and that travel “The department and university work with area was an integral part of learning. Dr. Martin was school districts on different educational initiatives, founder and partner of Columbus Pathology especially issues of international education and Laboratories, where he practiced medicine for more diversity,” said Donald Dyer, chair and professor of Julia Bussade, director of Spanish and Portuguese, traveled to Clarksdale than 30 years, before retiring to Holly Springs to modern languages. multiple times with other instructors to make presentations as part of the be closer to family and UM. A collaboration with the Clarksdale Municipal Olé, Diversity! program. “German Intensive Summer Program students School District develops the language-learning curriculum become more confident and capable German in the Myrtle Elementary School Spanish-immersion Modern Languages partners with ALLEX to speakers through immersion in the vibrant, program and fosters cultural awareness programs at recruit teachers from Taiwan, China, and Japan to metropolitan setting of Berlin,” said Dylan several district middle schools. The Olé, Diversity! provide Chinese instruction at Lafayette High School Goldblatt, instructor of German. “Morgan’s program this year highlighted diversity at four schools in Oxford and Holly Springs High School, as well as generous support enhances the Berlin program and by celebrating Hispanic culture. It featured a variety Japanese at Tupelo High School and the Toyota ensures that we can train many more promising of topics about Latin America and Latino culture in the Manufacturing plant in nearby Blue Springs. In fact, scholars in the years to come.” US including Spanish language and Latinos in baseball. Holly Springs currently has the state’s largest Chinese Only 2.5% of UM students currently study “We know that diversity will provide learning high school program with an enrollment of 60 expected abroad. “We need alumni support because Study opportunities for our young people and better equip this fall. Abroad programs enable UM to produce them for future work in society,” said Edwin Robinson, ALLEX teachers are also graduate students in international leaders and globally savvy citizens,” director of the Magnet Office Project in Clarksdale. Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) or said Nosa Egiebor, director of UM’s Global A partnership with the Alliance for Language linguistics funded by the high school. The programs Engagement Office. “Study abroad scholarships Learning & Educational Exchange (ALLEX) seeds are overseen pedagogically by UM faculty members in will serve Mississippi well. In addition to Chinese- and Japanese-language programs in several Chinese and Japanese with the dual goals of creating a broadening students’ perspectives, study abroad north Mississippi high schools. pipeline for students studying these languages to move develops leadership skills and teaches how the “We are particularly proud of and encouraged by seamlessly from high school to college and to improve world functions.” V the reception from area K-12 schools when we offer to the foreign-language pedagogy currently being used in MAKE A GIFT: Angela Barlow Brown, help develop new programs in critical languages, such these schools. The department hopes to continue to [email protected] or 662.915.3181 as Chinese and Japanese,” Dyer said. seed more programs in the future. V

The View from Ventress 13 2015 SPECIAL SECTION: RESEARCH & CREATIVE PROJECTS

Sample of 2015 Summer Research College Summer Grants Grant Projects continued from page 1 • Exhibition Printing Its vital importance for faculty recruitment and research grant for a history faculty Equipment by retention makes the summer research grant program member in his name. I firmly believe Joshua Brinlee, a fundraising priority for the College. that developing and keeping great art and art history “Although a great deal of research material faculty is what makes Ole Miss such is available digitally, many important research a special institution.” • Robust, High-Spin questions cannot be answered without access to April Holm, assistant professor Iron-Oxo Catalysts archives and other sources that have not been of history, began work on her second for Oxidizing Water digitized,” said Joseph Ward, chair and associate book using the Abadie Summer Grant and Hydrocarbons professor of history. “The College summer research to research provost marshals’ oversight by Jonah Jurss, program is the only consistent source of support for of civilian life during the Civil War and chemistry and faculty travel to archives and so for many years it their impact on civil liberties. biochemistry has been a mainstay of the research of history Memphis attorney Bob Harper • Writing the Radio faculty members.” (BA English ’77 and LD ’80) funded War: Literature, Generous private donors include Michael Brunt, Bob grants for Adam Estes (music), Carolyn Politics, and the Harper, Ken Lackey, and Crymes and Scarlotte Pittman. Freiwald (anthropology), and Jessica BBC, 1939–1945 “My first freshman class was Western Civilization Wilkerson (history). by Ian Whittington, with Dale Abadie [emeritus professor of history and Adam Estes, assistant professor of music, English dean of liberal arts] and I was so captivated by his used his grant to defray costs of creating a • Contrafacture in enthusiasm and love of the subject that I took music recording and developing a method Medieval European additional courses with him and we’ve stayed in touch book for teaching double reed instruments. Lyric Song by Dan ever since,” said L. Michael Brunt (BA biology ’76), “My summer project involved the O’Sullivan, modern professor of surgery and chief of Minimally Invasive preparation and recording of an album of languages Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine. American music for saxophone and piano,” Estes “I am pleased to honor him by supporting a summer said. “Expenses included procurement of music, • Propagation of Remotely Generated Shear Waves in Micellar Fluid by PHOTO BY KEVIN BAIN Cecille Labuda, physics and astronomy • School, Prison, Club: Mass Institutions and 2 3 Popular Participation in the Palestinian National Movement by Yael Zeira, political science • Enhancing the Organizational Capacity of the Local Food Supply Chain by Jody 1 4 Holland, public policy leadership 1. Erik Hom, assistant professor of biology, oversees the handling of culture of 3. Tamar Goulet, professor of biology, engages in field research on the spatial Aspergillus nidulans (a common bread mold) by Sara Conwell, a high school senior positioning of symbionts and its consequences for coral-algal symbiosis during a dive • New Play for Ole at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. Sara and Jalon Young in the Gulf of Eilat on the Red Sea. Miss Theatre (back), a sophomore at Oxford High School, were summer interns in the ARISE@ 4. Graduate student Stephanie Orsini excavates a Guatemalan field site run by Staged Reading and UM program pilot Hom spearheaded. The Hom Lab seeks to better understand the Carolyn Freiwald, assistant professor of anthropology, whose summer research grant social lives of microbes and was supported by a College grant to investigate how Dramatists Guild of was supported by Bob Harper. Freiwald’s research agenda is to understand what genes are expressed in novel, engineered symbioses between fungi and algae. America by Joe animals the Maya hunted, raised, traded, and used for religious purposes in the 2. Zach Kagan Guthrie, assistant professor of history, works on the connections between Peten Lakes region of northern Guatemala. Turner Cantú, forced labor and migrant labor in colonial Mozambique, focusing on the 1940s and theatre arts 1950s. He searched the vast records of the Mozambican Historical Archives.

The View from Ventress 14 2015 SPECIAL SECTION: RESEARCH & CREATIVE PROJECTS

External Funding ederal/State/Local an increasingly governments, private difficult federal foundations, funding environment. F Natural External Grant professional associations, Sciences To date, six have and other sources provide & Math Distribution received these most another perspective on prestigious NSF grants. Centers, our faculty’s professional Institutes Social Tamar Goulet, success. The College & Dean Sciences professor of biology, received $8,899,037 in was the first at UM to Humanities external grants in FY 2015, and Fine Arts receive one. The 2008 with centers/institutes award funded her work receiving just over half. A list of with the physiology of all FY2015 external grant recipients coral reefs and their and project summaries is on VfV online. ability to cope with global climate change. Goulet UM enhances faculty success obtaining grants taught a symbiosis course and worked with K-12 in multiple ways, including startup funds for new teachers to explain the topic of symbiosis to students. faculty, mentorship, and smaller funding opportunities Nathan Hammer, associate professor of chemistry such as the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs’ and biochemistry, spectroscopically tracks the travel and grant research support and College of evolution of noncovalent interactions from the single Liberal Arts summer research grants and matching molecule level to the condensed phases. His 2010 humanities grants. The increasing number of National award funds a summer program for faculty and Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER grants to College students to participate in mini-courses and present faculty is one indicator of our success. lectures on their research. The NSF CAREER program was started in 1996 Emanuele Berti, associate professor of physics to help junior faculty members with five-year grants and astronomy, researches the physics and astrophysics to develop research and educational outreach. The of binary systems containing black holes and/or neutron An Immortal painting by Liang Kai (12th CE). Fei Lan, assistant number of recent College recipients indicates the stars (compact binaries), which are among the most professor of religion, investigates “self-cultivation” in the Daoist growing excellence within the science departments in promising sources of gravitational waves. His educational traditions of meditation and yoga, diet, healing and medicinal theories, and exercise.

recording, editing, mixing, mastering, and securing a A sample of FY2015 grants, with the amounts disbursed this fiscal year: label to produce the finished product. Mr. Harper made all this possible and I am grateful.” Heavy Quarks, Leptons, and $676,000 from the US Department of Energy to Lucien Cremaldi, Don Ken Lackey, chairman of the board of Nordam Muon Accelerators Summers, Robert Kroeger, and Breese Quinn, physics and astronomy Group aerospace manufacturer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, funded three grants for the Department of Mathematics. Building Next-Generation $316,109 funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to MSU “Mathematics has been an important part of my life Polymers collaborators and Greg Tschumper, chemistry and biochemistry and career, and I believe a strong background will be extremely valuable for individuals who want to participate in and be rewarded by the 21th-century Digital Herbarium $139,872 funded by NSF to Lucile McCook, biology economy. Accordingly, it is important that we attract and maintain our talented professors.” Chinese Language Flagship $561,731 from the Institute of International Education/National Security Two grants supported statisticians Xin Dang and Program Education Program to Donald Dyer, modern languages Martial Longla whose work has applications for many research fields. Hehui Wu’s summer project on the $199,540 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to Robert Program to Promote Free Erdos-Hajnal and the Neumann-Lara conjectures will Cummings, writing and rhetoric, and Stephen Monroe, office of the dean of College Textbooks in MS bolster his upcoming National Science Foundation liberal arts grant proposal. Social Preferences and the The College encourages our friends to support $31,857 from NSF to Greg Love, political science this key program that directly enhances research and Colombian Peace Process creative activities. V Changing Sociopolitical MAKE A GIFT: Denson Hollis, [email protected] or Landscape of Black Urban $12,064 from NSF/University of South Carolina to Barbara Combs, sociology 662.915.5092 Neighborhoods

The View from Ventress 15 2015 SPECIAL SECTION: RESEARCH & CREATIVE PROJECTS more stories, photos and videos at libarts.olemiss.edu PHOTO BY ROBERT JORDAN PHOTO BY ROBERT JORDAN Nathan Hammer, Tamara Goulet, and Emanuele Berti Amala Dass, Sarah Liljegren, and Jared Delcamp

outreach goal for the 2011 award is to promote scientific education and recruit minorities into the physical sciences. Faculty Impact Amala Dass, associate professor of chemistry and he research and creative activities of our College biochemistry, researches the study of gold alloy faculty have ripple effects in their disciplines, on nanomolecules that have applications from our campus, and for our society. microelectronics to drug delivery systems. His T Some institutionalized their efforts by creating educational outreach program is a summer chemistry centers and institutes that are very successful in obtaining research program for high school students. external grants, producing research, and making a UM has two NSF CAREER awards difference in the world. See a short description of these on page 20. for 2015—Jared Delcamp and Faculty push their discipline forward through Sarah Liljegren. publications, performances, and exhibitions. Besides the Jared Delcamp, assistant professor of chemistry and books featured in this newsletter, during the past year biochemistry, received his award for teaching and Hamlet (Ryan MacPherson) resolves to kill Claudius (Bradley approximately 300 faculty produced a total of 357 Robinson) with the poisoned sword. research on converting solar energy to electricity journal articles, 69 book chapters, 12 films, six CDs, 10 through an affordable technology using organic dye- music compositions, 255 music performances, 65 art sensitized solar cells. He plans to increase student Consciousness Conference, Rethinking Mass exhibitions, and 51 theatrical productions. They also interest in STEM education, including summer Incarceration in the South, STEM/Forensics Summit, made 540 conference presentations. research experiences in energy research. MS Single Reed Summit, and a language teaching Hosting conferences and meetings on campus is Sarah Liljegren, associate professor of biology, workshop with the French Embassy. another way faculty make professional contributions will help build a research and education program and enhance the educational environment. Recent around how genetic interactions and cellular examples include the MS Theatre Association Festival, We wish to spotlight a few faculty whose efforts are communication in and across the boundaries of a Southeastern Meeting of American Mathematical making a difference and/or recognized at the national plant’s organs determine when and where plants Society, Conference for Undergraduate Women in and international levels. detach their leaves, floral organs, fruit, and seeds. Her Physics, Transforming New South Identities Julia Aubrey, associate professor of music, directed educational goal is to strengthen the genetic literacy Symposium, Global Officer ROTC (Project Go), the Opera Theatre Ensemble world premiere of of students to better prepare them as future health care providers and consumers. These awards show that the College attracts and supports science faculty able to succeed at the national level and has important consequences for science education at the high school and collegiate levels. “Mississippi high school and college students walk a few weeks in the shoes and lab coat of a scientist,” said Alice Clark, vice chancellor for research and sponsored programs. “We hope many will like how the laboratory The UM Office of Research and Sponsored Programs hosts a website, Change Agents for Mississippi, feels and be inspired to make their own academic and featuring faculty and staff who have made a significant difference in some area of our lives. Visit professional careers in science. For those who choose changeagents.olemiss.edu for a glimpse into the important work being done by College faculty. other paths, this experience will allow them to navigate those paths with greater appreciation for the role of science in the world and in their own lives.” V

The View from Ventress 16 2015 SPECIAL SECTION: RESEARCH & CREATIVE PROJECTS

Three science faculty have been recognized on the national stage this year— Randy Wadkins, Josh Gladden, and John Kiss. PHOTO BY ROBERT JORDAN PHOTO BY ROBERT JORDAN Tracy Brooks and Randy Wadkins (right) Josh Gladden John Kiss (right) and Josh Vandenbrink

Randy Wadkins, associate professor of chemistry Josh Gladden, associate professor of physics and John Kiss, professor of biology and graduate and biochemistry and the inaugural Biophysical astronomy, director of the National Center for Phys- school dean, received NASA’s Outstanding Public Society (BPS) Congressional Fellow, will spend ical Acoustics, and interim associate vice chancellor Leadership Medal. 2015–2016 working on Capitol Hill as a participant for research and sponsored programs, chairs the “I have worked with NASA for 27 years and feel in the Science and Technology Fellowship Program Physical Acoustics Technical committee of the Acous- very privileged to contribute, in a small way, to the with the American Association for the Advancement tical Society of America (ASA). His primary duties are excitement of space research and to be a part of of Science. representing the physical acoustics community to the NASA’s broader mission to educate and inspire the larger ASA leadership and advancing the international “I’m proud to have been selected to represent the next generation.” physical acoustics community. Gladden was also BPS in Congress to communicate the importance of elected to the APS Group on Instrumentation and The internationally renowned scientist served as science to our elected officials who control funding Measurement Science (GIMS). vice chair of the International Committee on Space for scientific research. A large part of my job will be Research. As spaceflight project director from to explain to lawmakers in Washington why physical “I am honored to represent my colleagues in the 2004 to 2010, Kiss supervised 36 scientists and sciences are important to the nation, and hence why national and international physical acoustics engineers at four NASA centers and two centers of federal agencies should be adequately funded to research community. My primary goal is to improve the European Space Agency. His experiments on the support scientific research.” tools for researchers to connect and collaborate. International Space Station study light and gravity The primary goal of the GIMS is to provide a venue signaling in plants and their effects on cell growth for dialogue on new instrumentation and measure- and proliferation. ment techniques in the physics community. New scientific breakthroughs often follow the develop- ment of a new tool.”

Hamlet: Prince of Denmark last spring on campus and Athens, Greece, for 2014–2015. With this fellowship, then in Prague, Czech Republic. One of the world’s sabbatical leave from UM, and a College of Liberal most accomplished composers, alumna Nancy Van de Arts summer research grant, she worked on several Vate (MM composition ’58), adapted the classic large but fragmentary Roman architectural sculptures Shakespeare play. excavated in the Forum at Corinth. “I’m delighted to be back in Oxford, and I’m “Most of this material has never been catalogued thrilled to work with such a fine music department,” or studied, and there is so much that it could have Van de Vate said. “Universities are among the few decorated several public buildings in the central places in the US where new operas are being performed. Forum,” Ajootian said. “With almost 800 fragments Unfortunately, there is less classical music now than catalogued, I have estimated dimensions for the there used to be in the US. Germany, for example, has balustrade and panels, and have worked with 133 full-time, year-round symphony orchestras. The graduate students to create composite photos US has only 17. It’s wonderful when a university takes of the panels. Right now I am working with an

on the production of a new opera, because that may be LATIL PHOTO BY NATHAN architect to reconstruct the bull/garland balustrade. the only time it will be performed.” Aileen Ajootian This year I worked at Corinth in the sculpture “This was very much a UM and community presenting the world premiere of an opera, we took an storeroom and on site.” project,” Aubrey said. “We had faculty, students, entire cast and crew abroad for a European premiere.” In addition, Ajootian taught a seminar at the guest artists, and community members working on Link to their blog, video, and website at VfV Online. ASCS to graduate students from around the world. stage, in the orchestra pit, and behind the scenes. To The seminar, Studying Ancient Sculpture: From stage Hamlet as a play can be daunting. To direct it Apotheke and Marble Pile to Publication, helped as an opera was an exciting challenge. This production Aileen Ajootian, professor of classics and art history, young scholars learn methods of visual analysis and gave the university and Oxford an opportunity to was Elizabeth Whitehead Visiting Professor at the physical description as well as research, interpretation, experience something extraordinary. Not only were we American School of Classical Studies (ASCS) in and publication. V

The View from Ventress 17 2015 SPECIAL SECTION: RESEARCH & CREATIVE PROJECTS more stories, photos and videos at libarts.olemiss.edu

Student Involvement he last topic in our discussion of research and Akpandjar began a career with Bank of America as a creative activities of the College is how our quantitative operations associate. Tstudents enhance their educational experience through their participation in these activities. While

this is expected of graduate students, it is an important This spring neuroscience faculty organized a research PHOTO BY ROBERT JORDAN booster effect for the undergraduate experience. Some showcase on campus, giving students an opportunity degree programs and the Sally McDonnell Barksdale to present their own studies to a panel of faculty judges Honors College require undergraduates to engage in and allowing faculty to highlight their labs and to raise an intense level of research and creative activity beyond awareness about neuroscience. coursework. The stories included in the newsletter give Student award winners were Amy Hribar, a a very small sample. biology graduate student who won first place overall George Akpandjar, an and first place in the behavioral neuroscience category The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition sponsored by the Graduate School celebrates economics doctoral student, for her project “Bird on Live Wire: Cued Fear graduate research. The exercise cultivates students’ received national recognition Conditioning in the Zebra Finch”; Goutham R. academic presentation skills by challenging them Adelli, a pharmacy graduate student who won second with the 2015 Barry M. to explain their research topic and its significance Moriarty Graduate Paper place overall for “Ex Vivo and In Vivo Evaluation of in three minutes using one PowerPoint slide and Award sponsored by the Topical Hesperetin Matrix Film for Back-of-the-Eye language appropriate to a nonspecialist audience. Southern Regional Science Delivery”; and Glendin Pano, a senior biology major Three of the four 2015 winners were in the Association, an interdisciplinary who won third place overall and second place in College—first place tie between Travis Jaquess George Akpandjar organization with members behavioral neuroscience for “The Sexiest Birds Have (history) and Vahid Naderyan (physics), and in approximately 40 US states and seven countries. the Largest Brains: A Positive Relationship between second place winner Mariah Meachum (biology). In “The Effect of Homeownership on Display Complexity and Brain Volume in Manakins.” Watch video presentations online at VfV. Unemployment: Outcomes and Implications,” an “The event showed the variability within investigation of this relationship using a job search neuroscience and why we need the interdisciplinary research with Sufka was framework, he discovered that the increased search neuroscience minor because faculty are spread recently published in the costs associated with homeownership do not weaken between eight departments,” said Lainy Day, associate Society for Neuroscience. employment opportunities for homeowners. professor of biology and director of the neuroscience “I worked in Dr. Sufka’s “Results from the paper are very important minor. “We want people to understand there’s a animal psychopharmacology for federal and state governments’ policy on connection between all the areas of neuroscience.” lab,” said Davis. “After a homeownership,” Akpandjar said. “Homeownership Morgan Davis, a senior biochemistry major with year as a research assistant, should be encouraged by federal and state government a minor in neuroscience, sees the connections. She I directed my own study Morgan Davis as higher homeownership rates across the country will attributes her passion in neuroscience to Ken Sufka, to determine the effects lead to lower unemployment rates since homeowners professor of psychology, pharmacology, philosophy, of the antimigraine drug sumatriptan on clinically are less likely to be unemployed.” NCNPR, and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical relevant behavioral endpoints in migraine using rats. The economics department and a graduate school Sciences, and his Brain and Behavior course. Her The findings from my research, which demonstrated fellowship supported his research. After graduation that sumatriptan is effective in reversing endpoints that parallel human migraine symptoms, aided in establishing a valid animal model of migraine that Sample of research Does female choice may ultimately lead to further insight towards the for complex courtship pathophysiology and treatment of the third most questions that select for bigger brains? common medical condition in the world! Although engage both faculty my passion for serving people has guided my journey and students with the Can we accurately toward becoming a medical doctor, working with Dr. model migraines neuroscience minor in rats? Sufka inspired me to also conduct medical research.” Is the natural product Mitragynine The Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College’s two addictive? annual $5,000 Barksdale Awards support creative, courageous projects developed by students willing to What is introspection take risks for ambitious, independent programs of and what are the neural correlates research or humanitarian work. of consciousness? Can we make safer, “UM provides the academic context for the more effective, and questions, but a student’s own vision directs the less addictive drugs? adventures proposed as a means of finding the What genes influence answers,” said Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez, Can tactile biofeedback auditory hallucinations decrease stuttering? and language processing? professor of history and dean of the Honors College.

The View from Ventress 18 2015 SPECIAL SECTION: RESEARCH & CREATIVE PROJECTS

Creative activities are another way students engage with the world. “They are certainly citizen-scholars of an These two found their voice through poetry. extraordinary stripe.” In summer 2014, Jillian Cowart (BA international As someone who spent the After graduation, Alyssa will attend the University of studies and public policy leadership ’15) interviewed first two years of college as Memphis MFA in creative writing program with a focus farmers in Senegal to learn the effect farming has had an undecided student, on poetry. Ultimately she wants to teach English at the on the local economy. Upon her return, she expanded Alyssa Radtke finally dis- collegiate level or work with a writing center. covered her passion in her exploration to the Mississippi Delta, resulting in Jacqulyn Ladnier, an Eng- poetry. a comparative study between farmers’ markets in lish major with a minor in Sokone, Senegal, and Cleveland, Mississippi. “The 20th-Century Poetry cinema, received first prize “My hypothesis is that Senegalese local food course introduced the wild in poetry at the 2015 and crazy world of poetry in Southern Literary Festival. systems might provide a model that could be used in Alyssa Radtke a way that struck a chord Her winning poem, “Buon the Mississippi Delta,” Cowart said. “The country’s with me,” she said. “I have always loved the genre’s Compleanno, Jep Gam- pursuit of food security and lack of a global food intense wordplay and had studied it before, but this bardella,” was inspired by system makes an interesting case study. Local food course’s focus on analyzing a poet’s craft in particular an Italian film, The Great systems can be used to significantly develop rural poems gave me a whole new appreciation for the Beauty, and its exploration complex artistry that can be found in poetry’s ever- of contrasts in Rome—from economies.” widening field.” Jacqulyn Ladnier (right) with saints and the church to Megan Smith (BS biological science and BA Jennifer Kates, Southern drug addicts and crime. English ’15) visited locations across the US to talk Chiyuma Elliot, assistant professor of English and African Literary Festival coordinator American Studies, explained that her student’s fascina- Tom Franklin, associate pro- with landowners participating in Payments for tion with poetry added a new realm of passion to her fessor of fiction writing, said Ladnier is one of the best Ecosystem Services (PES), a program offering financial work. “Alyssa’s creative honors thesis is an outgrowth of young writers with whom he’s worked. “Her interest is in incentives to landowners who manage land in ways three papers she wrote last year on poetic representa- the moments before or after where other writers might that help support or repair the ecosystem. tions of disability. Her intellectual and creative talent, her look. But in such moments, she mines pure gold. I’m not surprised her poetry won this prize.” “I’ve always been interested in questions of writing ability, her wry and engaging sense of humor, and her extraordinary campus citizenship make her one of conservation and landowners’ efforts in conservation and the best I’ve taught.” restoration,” she said. “Understanding their motivation is essential to determining how to best improve PES.” Uruguayan gaucho (far left), This summer Joe Bell traveled to Colorado, Kate Lindsay (left) with Jared California, and Uruguay to live and work among cowboys Spears, theatre instructor and gauchos in order to experience the world from their viewpoint. From his ethnographic experience, he hopes to “My purpose is explore how labor policy, agricultural policy, and the to be a part of a globalization of food systems affect both groups. movement to create “I am intrigued and inspired by the independent and theatre that bridges somewhat tragic lives of the North American cowboy and the cultural divide the Uruguayan gaucho,” said Bell, a triple major in between deaf and international studies, public policy leadership, and hearing people, not only making theatre Spanish with a minor in environmental studies. PHOTO BY ROBERT JORDAN PHOTO BY JOE BELL “Although separated by an almost hemispheric landmass, more accessible to both have long suffered from the same cultural, other areas of her academic life. In seeking new deaf audiences but also raising awareness of the deaf economic, and legal marginalization.” collaborations between deaf and hearing theatre community in America,” Lindsay said. Kate Lindsay is an accountancy and theatre artists this summer, she traveled to Los Angeles, The Barksdale Award provides needed funding to arts scholar whose American Sign Language (ASL) New York City, and Washington, DC, to help students realize ambitious research aspirations. studies gave her a new respect for the deaf participate in theatre by the deaf, for the deaf, What could be accomplished if more students had community and led her to incorporate ASL into and about the deaf. these opportunities? V

Make a Difference hancellor Dan Jones once said, “At the University of Mississippi, we have students to our programs and foster success by allowing students to focus on academic the opportunity and responsibility to move beyond the transformation of work instead of having to sometimes get second jobs to support themselves. Cindividual lives. We must purposefully participate in transforming our Finally, undergraduate engagement in research and creative activities helps community, state, nation, and world.” students make connections and expand their creativity, critical thinking, and In every View from Ventress newsletter we lift up examples of faculty and student communication skills. Consider giving an endowment that supports the expenses research and creative activities that do just that. How can you help support this work? associated with research and creative activities for our undergraduate students. Often The College Summer Research Grant program is an important way friends and students are required to bring their own funding for access to science labs. Other alumni can push the wheel forward in the professional success of our faculty. students might need to purchase cameras, data, or software. Some need support to Graduate student stipend endowments to increase the number and amount are an travel to archives, to interview people, or to experience some aspect of the world. V essential need for many College departments. These endowments help attract top MAKE A GIFT: Denson Hollis, [email protected] or 662.915.5092

The View from Ventress 19 2015 SPECIAL SECTION: RESEARCH & CREATIVE PROJECTS more stories, photos and videos at libarts.olemiss.edu

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3 4 6 College of Liberal Arts Centers and Institutes Center for Archaeological Research development projects. Internships with the MS Development Social Science Research Laboratory Jay Johnson, director in 2014–15 and professor Authority Entrepreneur Center, Tri-County Workforce Alli- Jonathan Winburn, director and emeritus of anthropology ance, and Tallahatchie Wellness Center give experience in associate professor of political science Tony Boudreaux, director in 2015–16 and associate education, public health, and workforce development. In the Conducts studies for state and local government agen- professor of anthropology next academic year, the first cohort of students will propose cies, private business and industry, UM offices, and Receives more than $4 million in external funding for economic development business models or policy projects. faculty members—more than 20 projects of over $3 million total since its inception in 1995. One examined research throughout the southeastern US. A current project 3 Mississippi Geographic Alliance funded by the US Army Corps of Engineers is the analysis the economic impact of UM Medical Center telemedi- David Rutherford, director and of a sample of animal bone from the Hurricane Landing cine on the state economy. associate professor of public policy leadership Mounds through radiocarbon dating, along with analysis of charred plant remains. Prepares Mississippians to embrace a diverse world, succeed 5 Center for the Study of Southern Culture in the global economy, and steward the planet’s resources Ted Ownby, director and professor of history 1 Center for Civil War Research by increasing geographic literacy through outreach to civic Offers a minor, major, and MA in Southern Studies. The John Neff, director and associate professor of history leaders, general public, students, and teachers. For exam- Center is parent of the Southern Foodways Alliance, Promotes understanding of the American Civil War ple, in February, the MGA toured the state with the Southern Documentary Project, and Living Blues maga- through research and public outreach. Last fall the annual National Geographic Giant Map of Africa allowing 20,000 zine, campus outreach includes publications, exhibitions, conference focused on science, medicine, and technology students, teachers, and parents to explore the world’s largest concerts, films, and conferences such as the Oxford Con- in the Civil War. Panel topics included changing defini- African map. The MGA is part of the National Geographic ference for the Book, Blues Symposium, Future of the tions and treatment of mental illness, institutionalization Society Alliance Network. South Symposium, and Southern Foodways Symposium. of Union veterans, influence of dual revolutions in print Living Blues’ October 2014 issue highlighted blues Center for Population Studies and photography, and consequences of Union telegraph tourism in Mississippi and the 180 Blues Trail markers. John Green, director and professor of sociology failures at the Battle of Chancellorsville. The guide for adventurers used the markers as anchors for Educates, researches, and engages in public outreach con- hundreds of destinations including museums, juke joints, Clinical-Disaster Research Center cerning population issues. A current project is a breastfeed- festivals, famous gravesites, and places to eat great food. Stefan Schulenberg, director and ing outreach program funded by the W. K. Kellogg Also available online, with corresponding songs. associate professor of psychology Foundation to address socioeconomic, racial, and geo- Integrates training and research in disaster mental health, graphic disparities in maternal-child health and to improve 6 William Winter Institute including evidence-based disaster preparedness, mitigation, health outcomes for low birth weight babies. They will for Racial Reconciliation and response practices to meet the needs of UM, local evaluate the program in hopes of identifying the potential Susan Glisson, senior fellow and community, and region such as the mental health impact of population health implications. assistant professor of Southern Studies Fosters reconciliation and civic renewal wherever people the British Petroleum (BP) oil disaster on Gulf Coast resi- 4 Sarah Isom Center for dents. The MS Department of Mental Health appointed suffer as a result of discrimination based on race or other Women and Gender Studies Center Director Schulenberg to assess its Mental Health human differences, and promotes scholarly research and Sue Grayzel, director and professor of history Oil Spill Recovery-Behavioral Health Grant program, a teaching on race and discrimination. Staff perform work in $12 million fund provided by BP. Integrates scholarly research on gender issues with advoca- four areas: community building, such as the signature pro- cy for women in the classroom, campus, and larger com- gram of the Welcome Table, whereby communities are 2 McLean Institute for Public Service munity through a range of activities—lectures, forums, invited to engage in dialogue among a multiracial group in and Community Engagement conferences, and events. The Center offers a minor and order to build trust and propose/enact solutions to heal Albert Nylander, director and professor of sociology graduate certificate in gender studies. This year’s offerings their community; youth engagement; academic support; Fights poverty through education by working with partners in included a new Women in the Film Industry lecture series. and advocacy. Current funding sources include a $1.5 mil- developing programs such as the CEED (Catalyzing Entrepre- The annual Isom Student Gender Conference drew partici- lion Robert M. Hearin Support Foundation grant and $1 neurship and Economic Development) initiative. Funded by pants from as far away as California for the keynote by TV million W. K. Kellogg Foundation grant. a 4-year, $1.6 million grant from the Robert M. Hearin Sup- writer David Simon and one-man show by filmmaker and port Foundation, students connect academic interests with writer John Waters.

The View from Ventress 20 2015 Expanding Programs he College continues to expand our academic offerings. During 2014–15, we added an Arabic Tmajor, East Asian Studies minor, TESL minor, and biochemistry emphasis for the BS in chemistry degree. Arabic Major The Department of Modern Languages began teaching Arabic in 2008, created an Arabic minor in 2010, and Students in the Intensive Arabic Program enjoy a ride through the Jordanian desert. developed the state’s only Arabic major in 2014. Designed to produce language users with superior level of language proficiency and a deep cultural Teaching English as a Second Language Biochemistry Emphasis for BS understanding, these global professionals are equipped (TESL) Minor in Chemistry Major for a wide range of occupations. Learning to teach English as a second language is The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry important for practical, cultural, and intellectual added a biochemistry emphasis to the chemistry For a story on our Arabic program, visit VfV online. reasons. Those with the ability to teach a second major for the Bachelor of Science degree. The East Asian Studies Minor language develop cross-cultural awareness at a time of department already offered the Bachelor of Arts Students interested in the interconnections between East increasing global citizenship. English remains a degree in biochemistry. However, some students Asian culture, history, and politics can pursue the East significant language of communication worldwide, want to pursue biochemistry through the BS degree, Asian Studies minor offered by the Croft Institute for with more people learning it as a second language than with its enhanced foundation of calculus-based International Studies. This interdisciplinary minor there are primary English speakers. In the US, the physics and more advanced mathematics and provides students with a critical understanding of East linguistic background of children entering schools is chemistry courses. Asia’s central role in the world, both past and present, increasingly diverse, including Mississippi, with a “The new biochemistry emphasis for the BS preparing them for careers in many fields. Students are 250% increase in the enrollment of English language degree is more versatile than our existing BA degree expected to gain basic knowledge in at least one East learners in the last 10 years. in biochemistry,” said Charles Hussey, chair and Asian cultural tradition; to critically interpret foreign texts The Department of Modern Languages already professor of chemistry and biochemistry. “It not only in various media from a social scientific, literary, or offered a master’s degree in modern languages with an prepares students to compete for postgraduate historically informed perspective; and to communicate emphasis in TESL. It created the minor in TESL to opportunities in the prehealth professions, but also effectively in one of the East Asian languages, with help undergraduate students gain a theoretical provides a solid foundation in advanced chemistry. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean taught on our campus. understanding of ESL acquisition and intercultural With this foundation, they are well equipped for Affiliated faculty are in various departments throughout communication as well as practical pedagogical skills. graduate studies in biochemistry as well as the the College—history, modern languages, philosophy and Finally, students who opt to take the required courses research-based MD and PhD programs offered by religion, political science, public policy leadership, and may add ESL endorsement to a teaching license. elite medical schools.” V sociology and anthropology.

College Corps Commits Students to Service age Meredith and Anna Suggs, both public policy Anna Suggs’ College Corps service focused on her leadership (PPL) majors, pursued their passions education interests. She tutored and mentored children Pand utilized their skills in College Corps. in the Leapfrog Program. Suggs said that the program Since the inception of College Corps on campus in served her. “I learned more from my students than 2010, students have completed more than 40,000 they could ever learn from me. They taught me so hours of service in Oxford-Lafayette County. Today, much about life, love, and happiness—and they the community-based AmeriCorps program connects challenged me to be a better person.” students with 14 service sites. Sixty members mentor Service defined Meredith’s and Suggs’ undergraduate at the Leap Frog Tutoring Center, provide meals years and they intend to continue after graduation. through the UM Food Bank and More than a Meal, or Suggs is teaching high school Spanish in the Mississippi Page Meredith (far right) helping serve Lovepacks in Oxford. volunteer with groups such as the Boys and Girls Club Delta with Teach for America. Meredith is working and Doors of Hope Transition Ministries. with a nonprofit social justice think tank in New York, Meredith served Lovepacks, a nonprofit providing where she researches and recommends legislation to university can receive for commitment to volunteering, supplemental, nonperishable food to young children combat poverty. service learning, and civic engagement. on weekends and holidays. One of her favorite PPL Suggs commented on College Corps’ impact, “With “UM believes in transformation through service classes, Nonprofit Management, taught her the every year, we gain more members who are passionate and and we’re honored to see that commitment recognized leadership, business, and grant-writing skills to help ready to work hard for the greater good. It is inspiring with this prestigious award,” said Albert Nylander, the developing program flourish. During Meredith’s to see how the program has grown in four years.” director of the McLean Institute for Public Service and first year with Lovepacks, she helped raise $50,000. College Corps, the Big Event, North Mississippi Community Engagement. “We work to expand our “Following my first year, we increased output 2000% VISTA Project, and other service activities won UM a service learning and civic engagement efforts so that through grant money, a marketing campaign, fundraisers, place on the 2014 President’s Higher Education the university can positively impact the quality of life and strategic social media campaigns,” Meredith said. Community Service Honor Roll, the highest honor a in communities across the state.” V

The View from Ventress 21 2015 more stories, photos, and videos at libarts.olemiss.edu

Unique Courses he College of Liberal Arts provides approximately • Science and War by Susan Pedigo (chemistry and 60% of all course sections offered each semester. biochemistry) and Sue Grayzel (history) studied These courses provide general education for all modern science and warfare—from chemical T weapons and rocketry to medical and surgical innova- students and support the 39 majors and 44 minors in the College. On occasion faculty offer special topics tions including antibiotics and blood transfusions— and their cultural, political, and social contexts. classes based on their areas of interest or current events to give students unique educational opportunities. • Freedom Summer 1964—Mississippi’s Civil Rights Some are developed through the Sally McDonnell Watershed by Adam Gussow (English and Southern Barksdale Honors College such as Image, Text, and Studies) explored Freedom Summer and the civil rights movement through histories, mem- Technology by Gregory Heyworth (English); Race, oirs, fiction, film, and song. Religion, and Representations of Islam in the West after 9/11 by Vivian Ibrahim (history and international Unique courses are studies); and Slavery on Film by Jodi Skipper occasionally offered (anthropology and Southern Studies). Others are through College Honors College experiential courses, which sometimes departments for any involve a fully funded class trip such as the Lower student who meets Mississippi River System taught by Cliff Ochs (biology) the prerequisites, and Robbie Ethridge (anthropology). Sociology of such as The Power of O: Oprah Winfrey, PHOTO BY JASON HOEKSEMA Soccer Cultures taught by Ross Haenfler (sociology) Race, Gender, and Power by Shennette Garrett- In the Ecology and Evolution of Sky Island Biodiversity StudyUSA resulted in honors students attending the World Cup in Scott (history and African American Studies), which is course taught by Jason Hoeksema (biology), students learned about Brazil. Read one student’s account in VfV online. featured in the online VfV. Here are other examples: biodiversity and community composition, including speciation, regional community assembly, coexistence, and local species “We want students to engage with the world, not • Prison and the Literary Imagination by Patrick interactions in southeastern Arizona. just spectate,” said John Samonds, associate dean of Alexander (English and African American Studies) the Honors College. “We develop experiential courses explored how African American literature depicts among a greater public, putting pressure on policy- for students to grapple with important issues and prison life and confronts ethical issues related to the makers. See story about the living wage campaign possibly come up with novel solutions. For example, criminal justice system using narratives produced from the student newspaper in the online VfV. our first experiential course was taught by Vaughn about and from chain gang cages, county jails, high- security facilities, and death-row cells. • Race, Place, and Space by Barbara Combs (sociology) Grisham (sociology) about grassroots organizing. examined identity formation by placing students in Through readings, courses discussions, and engaging • Introduction to Dynamics and Chaos by Samuel Lisi the shoes of people different from them. They looked with guest speakers, students developed a handbook (mathematics) analyzed the mathematical foundations at how social, political, cultural, and historical factors for community organizers.” of the notion of chaos—the unpredictability of long- influence the development of real and perceived term behavior despite racialized spaces, identities, and experiences. See the lack of randomness. story in online VfV. Students investigated a “We want students to engage mix of theoretical and Finally, StudyUSA courses led by College faculty applied topics, particu- take students to experience the wider world while with the world, not just spectate …” larly in biology and exploring a particular topic, similar to the Honors epidemiology. experiential courses. Examples are Archaeological Field —JOHN SAMONDS • The Orchestral Songs School taught by various anthropology faculty and ASSOCIATE DEAN OF THE HONORS COLLEGE and Symphonies of Gustav Exotic in Miami: Biology of Invasive Species by Brice Mahler by Michael Gardiner Noonan (biology). Organized through UM Outreach, Recent examples of special honors courses are the (music) examined the they are usually taught during the two-week following: intellectual matrix of Mahler’s Vienna including connec- intersession terms. tions between analysis, physics, psychology, phenom- • Biomedical Ethics by Randy Wadkins (chemistry) pro- • New York City in Film by Alan Arrivée (theatre arts enology, and visual art as a way of interpreting his vided a window into biomedical science conducted at and cinema) and Timothy Yenter (philosophy) exam- music. Students learned spectrographic analysis and premier private and government agencies, and chal- ined how NYC is represented in film, revealing larger long-range graphing techniques to deal with Mahler’s lenged students to think about the role of science in social trends such as class, race, ethnicity, gender, lengthy orchestral movements. and professions. They traveled to NYC to attend a society. While in Maryland and Washington, DC, they • Children and Families: Community Work by Carey film festival, visit film sites, and meet film industry visited laboratories, discussed science funding and Dowling (psychology) engaged students in activities professionals. See online VfV story. policies with federal officials, and considered the with local childcare centers to promote optimal devel- impact of bioinformatics on future research at the • American Civil War in History and Literature by John opment in children’s language acquisition, growth National Academy of Sciences. Neff (history) and Kathryn McKee (English and mindset, and executive functioning skills. Southern Studies) commemorated the conflict’s • Politics of Money by Marvin King (political science) • Social Problems by James M. Thomas (sociology) 150th anniversary and included a visit to Shiloh bat- focused on fiscal and monetary policymaking. While immersed students in a living wage campaign for tlefield. Students focused on topics such as slavery in Washington, DC, they met with Congressional staff on campus. Students learned how, through the and race; valor and cowardice; death, trauma, and staff members and visited the Treasury Department, work of experts, social movement activists, and displacement; masculinity and femininity; and the poli- Federal Reserve, and Center for Responsive Politics. media, certain troubling conditions become amplified tics of remembrance.

The View from Ventress 22 2015 PHOTO BY ROBERT JORDAN

Through Ethics in Archaeology: Who Owns the Past? taught by Hilary Becker (classics), honors Mathematician Gerard Buskes works with John Martin (left). students probed the meanings of material culture and the laws protecting it. The trip to New York City included visits to Christie’s auction house and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (above). Writing Across the Curriculum For story, visit VfV online. n fall 2013, the Faculty Seed Grant program was launched by the Department of

PHOTO BY JASON HOEKSEMA The StudyUSA course to Washington, DC, Writing and Rhetoric to improve the teaching of writing across the disciplines on Environmental Ethics by Neil Manson through faculty who design writing-intensive modifications to their existing (philosophy) explored the relationship between I courses. This program is the final phase of the university’s Quality Enhancement Plan humanity and the natural world through a to improve student writing that began in 2009. philosophical lens. In this photograph (left), students are meeting with famed environmental Faculty use seed grants to attend conferences, develop tools for writing assessment, justice advocate Lois Gibbs, a community and create and improve writing-enriched courses during a semester-long seminar organizer from the Love Canal chemical spill with curriculum lecturer Angela Green. Grant recipients have included faculty from in 1978. art and art history, biology, education, history, journalism, legal studies, mathematics, political science, and sociology. Mathematics Professor Gerard Buskes’ revised Unified Calculus & Analytic Geometry I course has students explain their understanding of key course concepts through writing. Robert Mongue, associate professor of legal studies, now uses writing assignments in his Wills and Estates Administration course to convey students’ understanding of the law and to provide a template for the revision of other legal studies courses. “I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to work with faculty in many fields to improve my own teaching and writing,” Mongue said. “Writing is an essential part of the curriculum for legal professionals whose final product is a written document, whether it is a letter to a client, legal memoranda, pleadings, appellate briefs, deeds, or wills. Each must be Nature Writing taught by Ann Fisher-Wirth (English written clearly, concisely, and with precision.” and environmental studies) allowed students to work on The Faculty Seed Grant program enhances this key student skill beyond freshman year. environmental life writing projects. A spring break trip to Costa Rica provided ecological activities. Their writings and photos such as the night hike through the rainforest Numerous employer surveys rate communication skills as a top expectation for future and community bingo (above) can be found in the online VfV. employees, thus making enhanced writing courses important for future success. “One primary benefit for students in these revised classes is a better understanding Beyond these are unrealized StudyUSA proposals, in part because of lack of of how writing and research differs across disciplines,” said Green. “For example, funds by interested students for courses such as Studio Art on Location in San students in history should learn the specific conventions that historians use in their Francisco; Indigenous Language, Literacies, and Pedagogies in Arizona; and writing, as well as the types of questions historians ask, what evidence they use, and Roman Art in New York. how they conduct research.” V “Several students were interested in the Art on Location course this year,” said Virginia Chavis, chair and associate professor of art and art history. “However, many couldn’t afford the expense. It would have been a wonderful educational experience to enhance their professional portfolios and build exposure to prominent artworks.” Scholarship Celebrates Recognizing the benefit of experiential courses to UM students, the College of Professor’s Service and Teaching Liberal Arts has launched an initiative to raise funds that will allow greater access for Colleagues and friends of a professor emeritus of physics and astronomy are honoring his many contributions with students to participate in courses that enrich their experience and take learning the Dr. Lee N. Bolen Jr. Scholarship Endowment for beyond the classroom. You can help. Please consider making a gift for students with undergraduate and graduate students in the department. financial need to participate in StudyUSA courses, and to allow the dean’s office to MAKE A GIFT: Denson Hollis, [email protected] fund the same kinds of experiential courses for nonhonors students. V or 662.915.5092 MAKE A GIFT: Denson Hollis, [email protected] or 662.915.4372

The View from Ventress 23 2015 more stories, photosphotos, andand videosvideos atat libarts.olemiss.eduviewfromventress.org

FACULTY AWARDS

ELSIE M. HOOD OUTSTANDING TEACHER

UM’s highest recognition for teaching Robert Brown, professor Department of Political Science PHOTO BY ROBERT JORDAN

Mississippi Humanities Council HUMANITIES TEACHER OF THE YEAR Jay Watson, Howry Professor of Faulkner Studies Department of English PHOTO BY NATHAN LATIL PHOTO BY NATHAN PHOTO BY KEVIN BAIN Hilary Becker, Kathryn McKee, and Karen Forgette received 2015 College of Liberal Arts teaching awards for excellence of class instruction, FRIST STUDENT intellectual stimulation of students, and concern for student welfare. SERVICE AWARD CORA LEE GRAHAM AWARD FOR COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS UM’s highest recognition OUTSTANDING TEACHING OF FRESHMEN OUTSTANDING TEACHER for service Luca Bombelli, associate professor Hilary Becker, assistant professor Kathryn McKee, Department of Physics and

Department of Classics McMullan associate professor PHOTO BY KEVIN BAIN Astronomy Hilary Becker’s areas of specialization are Greek Center for the Study of Southern and Roman history and art: Etruscan archaeology Culture and Department of English and epigraphy, Latin language, ceramics, and Kathryn McKee’s areas of specialty include FACULTY ancient economy. 19th-century American literature, the literature of the ACHIEVEMENT “Being so honored is especially gratifying since I US South, writing by women, humor studies, Global have been able to work with so many great students, South studies, and film studies. AWARD notably, the Honor’s seminar on Archaeological Ethics “I love being a college professor because I first UM’s highest recognition for teaching, that I taught. That seminar was a good example of loved being a college student. I loved the charge of research, and service learning that was both experiential and cooperative in learning new information and thinking about new Karen Raber, professor the sense that everyone concerned (myself included) questions, often only to discover that I was joining a PHOTO BY KEVIN BAIN Department of English achieved new understanding as we debated and long line of people who had already puzzled over the discussed ‘who owns the past.’ This class represents my same issues. I never wanted to leave that atmosphere, approach to teaching overall because I regularly urge and I try to make my classrooms buzz with the same FACULTY ADVISING AWARD students to engage the material and to form a kind of energy my professors brought to their John Young, associate professor connection to it. As I teach, I endeavor to make the teaching. The best way I’ve discovered to do that is to Department of Psychology study of the ancient world relevant for the life keep learning myself. I frequently assign material that experience of the students.” is new to me, but by far I learn the most from the students themselves and from my dedicated cohort of COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS colleagues in Liberal Arts, particularly those with OUTSTANDING INSTRUCTOR whom I have the privilege of team teaching.” Karen Forgette, core instructor OFFICE OF STUDENT Department of Writing and Rhetoric DISABILITY SERVICES “For me, teaching first-year writing is a gift. I work ACCESS AWARD with students at the very beginning of their college Micah Everett, assistant professor experience, and I help them develop a tool that will Department of Music serve them well in the rest of their academic careers and in their professional lives. It doesn’t get much

better than that in terms of pursuing a career with PHOTO BY KEVIN BAIN great value and lots of joy.”

The View from Ventress 24 2015 FACULTY AWARDS

LIFT EVERY VOICE AWARD SOUTHEASTERN For contributions to the betterment CONFERENCE FACULTY of human relationships on campus ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Kirk Johnson, associate professor For excellence in teaching, research, Department of Sociology and and scholarship Anthropology and UM DISTINGUISHED PHOTO BY ROBERT JORDAN African American Studies PHOTO BY KEVIN BAIN RESEARCH & CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

ELECTROCHEMICAL SOCIETY Dancers Chosen to Jennifer Stollman, academic MAX BREDIG AWARD IN MOLTEN Perform at National director SALT & IONIC LIQUID CHEMISTRY William Winter Institute Conference for Racial Reconciliation Charles L. Hussey, chair and professor Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry he Department of Theatre Arts’ Mississippi: the Dance Company Tperformed an original piece at a gala to CASE-CARNEGIE close the 2015 American College Dance Association conference. Joseph Ward, chair and associate MISSISSIPPI PROFESSOR Seven students—Gwyn Clemons, Courtney professor OF THE YEAR Borserine, Christine Cooper, Sydney Gibson, Arch Dalrymple III For extraordinary dedication to Victoria Burrow, Blake Summers, and Kaleb Department of History PHOTO BY ROBERT JORDAN undergraduate teaching Mitchell—danced Set in Motion, choreographed Ken Sufka, professor by their instructor, Roxie Thomas Clayton. PHOTO BY ROBERT JORDAN Conference adjudicators said the piece GRADUATE SCHOOL Departments of Psychology, transported them to another place in time. One DIVERSITY & Pharmacology, and Philosophy, NCNPR, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences noted, “It was like looking at old photographs and INCLUSIVENESS AWARD bringing those memories back to life, reminding us even though things change, the people and Beth Ann Fennelly, professor memories still exist.” and director of MFA Program RALPH E. POWE Set in Motion explores the grieving process. Department of English JUNIOR FACULTY PHOTO BY JON CANCELINO Clayton found inspiration from the story of ENHANCEMENT AWARD Sarah Winchester and her life after losing her daughter and husband in the 1800s. Winchester From Oak Ridge Associated ALUMNI ASSOCIATION Universities attributed her misfortune to her family business, Winchester Rifles, and moved to California to RANDOM ACTS OF Davita Watkins, assistant KINDNESS AWARD PHOTO BY KEVIN BAIN build a house—a process that continued for 38 professor years. The house was riddled with staircases and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Ivonne Whitehead, lecturer of doors to nowhere, which Clayton channeled into Spanish her choreography. Department of Modern Languages Choreographing a dance piece is about an PHOTO BY ROBERT JORDAN QUEENS WORLD FILM emotional attachment and the creative process. FESTIVAL FOUNDERS Clayton’s process involved a great deal of research, CHOICE AWARD as if writing a book on the subject. She worked MISSISSIPPI SCIENCE to develop costumes, emotional shifts of the TEACHERS ASSOCIATION The Original IQ Tester audience, movements and gestures of the dancers, COLLEGE TEACHER OF Alan Arrivée, assistant professor and to blend lighting, props, set design, and sound and director of cinema THE YEAR to immerse and inspire audiences. Department of Theatre Arts Clayton loved surrendering her artistic ideas to John Wiginton, instructional the dancers to create an experience for the viewer. assistant professor and director of “The dancers breathed life into this idea,” she PHOTO BY KEVIN BAIN undergraduate laboratories said. “I never want the observers to talk about the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry dance or the actual steps. It’s about the experience and the piece should make them think.” V

The View from Ventress 25 2015 more stories, photos, and videos at libarts.olemiss.edu

The Music, Opportunities Play On hen Charles Hubbert (BS premedicine ’60, MD ’63) joined the UM band, a door swung Wopen to exceptional cultural opportunities. Years later, the physician continues to reap the rewards of that experience, inspiring him and his wife, Margaret, to make a lead gift of $50,000 to a current initiative building band scholarships. Hubbert had not traveled outside the state when he enrolled at the university. Thanks to the Ole Miss Band, the French horn player traveled to a music Dr. Charles Hubbert (left) and Margaret Hubbert with David Willson, director of University Bands festival in Holland and the World’s Fair in Belgium. “Suddenly, as a student band member, I was being exposed to new cultural experiences,” said Hubbert, a David Willson, director of bands and professor of PHOTO BY NICK DUGAN neurologist and psychiatrist in Memphis. “These band music, said the Hubberts’ generous support will impact trips were financed by supporters. Without this assistance students who give so much to the band. His goal is to most students of that era in Mississippi would not have build a $2 million scholarship endowment. Bird Is the Word traveled abroad, and would have missed an invaluable “We are thankful for Charles and Margaret part of their education. I thought there was a need to pay Hubbert’s gift that will benefit band students for new student organization, Ole Miss back the institution that afforded me opportunities to years,” Willson said. “As tuition increases, we must stay Birders, is looking to expand knowledge of broaden my life. It feels good to help others. Margaret competitive to attract band students. The Hubberts are Abirds and bird watching. and I hope other alumni and friends will recall a great example in giving back.” V “We raise education and awareness of birds in experiences that helped prepare them for life and will MAKE A GIFT: Ron Wilson, Oxford,” said Cullen Patrick, biology major and help others enjoy similar experiences.” [email protected] or 662.915.1755 group vice president. “We hope to host philanthropic events to help endangered species, especially those from Mississippi and around Oxford.” Led by dietetics major Nick Dugan, the group Alumnus Takes Talents to AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers at the annual Hummingbird Migration Celebration at Strawberry Plains Audubon Center in ouglas Odom (BA classics and English ’13) Corps programs, More Than a Meal and the Boys and Holly Springs, where members work with educational is the 12th member of his family to graduate Girls Club nonprofits, and local elementary schools. programs and band hummingbirds. They hold Dfrom the university. He follows his parents, “Doug successfully developed programs for birdwatching trips in northern Mississippi and install Doug and Walterine Odom of Jackson, three aunts, college students, organized field trips for high school bird boxes around the community. three cousins, two brothers, and a sister-in-law. students, and strengthened summer learning and Jason Hoeksema, associate professor of biology, During college, the 2013 Omicron Delta Kappa after-school programs for elementary students,” said is faculty sponsor. “Birds are really awesome,” he Scholar Leader of the Year served as Stephen Monroe, assistant dean of said. “When you recognize the birds around you, community service chair of the liberal arts. “He cares about it makes life more fun. You can take Columns Society, codirector of the Big education. Doug is a fabulous that skill with you anywhere Event, Ole Miss Ambassador, and Ole colleague with a bright future.” in the world.” V Miss Orientation Leader. Odom was a This fall he begins work on member of the Judicial Council, Senior an MA in higher education Class Executive Committee, and administration from Vanderbilt UM Lecture Series. He volunteered University. With advice from UM for Relay for Life, Habitat for mentors, Odom has a good idea of Humanity, and Leap Frog. what he wants to do moving forward. After college, Odom took time “I want to venture out and learn off to travel with his father. They everything I can, but the ultimate spent 15 months adventuring in the goal is to bring what I learn back to Doug Odom Western Hemisphere—dog sledding Ole Miss. So many Mississippi in Canada, hiking the Inca Trail in Peru, zip lining in children grow up and then, first chance they get, they Costa Rica, scuba diving in the Atlantic, Pacific, and leave. We need more Mississippians to stick around, Caribbean, and visiting almost half the Major League or at least to come back. That was always my Baseball stadiums across the US. mentality. I want to give back to the state that has Odom’s love of his university and state drew him been so good to me growing up. I may be leaving to back to Oxford in 2014 for a year’s service as an pursue higher education, but my plan will always be AmeriCorps VISTA with UM’s North Mississippi to come home.” V VISTA Project. He worked with FASTrack and College

The View from Ventress 26 2015 Documenting the South’s Culinary Wealth ick and investment in 2004 was a commitment to SFA of Suzanne $2,500 per store annually. Those resources, contributed NPihakis have by local owners in markets from Alabama to Colorado, made a transformative now top $75,000 each year. Using Pihakis’ innovative gift to endow the philanthropic strategy, Jim ‘N Nick’s has already Pihakis Foodways given more than $500,000 to support SFA work. Nick Pihakis Documentary Fellow, Endowed positions such as this one require a a filmmaking and teaching position at the Southern $1.5 million commitment. Investment income from Foodways Alliance (SFA), an institute of the Center the Pihakis endowment will bring a second filmmaker for the Study of Southern Culture. Thanks to their partner to join SFA’s award-winning work with the generosity, stories of the South’s diverse food cultures Southern Documentary Project to produce documentaries will be filmed and produced for posterity and shared and teach filmmaking courses to students. with students, researchers, and the public. “Working with John T. Edge and his colleagues, I “Nick and Suzanne have long invested their time learn so much about the culture of food,” Pihakis JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION and money in the cultural and culinary wealth of the said. “I recognize that the stories they tell of cooks PUBLICATION OF THE YEAR American South,” said SFA Director John T. Edge. and farmers are deeply important to my identity and Gravy “With this gift they help ensure that this important to the identity of the South as a whole. My intent is For fresh direction, worthy ambition, and a forward- work will continue.” that our gift ensures that great storytelling work looking approach to food journalism For more than a decade Nick Pihakis, who continues for generations.” V ravy is the Southern Foodways Alliance founded Jim ‘N Nick’s Community Bar-B-Q in MAKE A GIFT: Nikki Neely Davis, (SFA) multiplatform approach to serve Birmingham, Alabama, in 1985, has generously [email protected] or 66.915.6678 stories about the lesser-known corners of underwritten SFA documentary work. The first G the American South and to give voice to those who grow, cook, and serve daily meals. “Audio journalism at its best” is the James Beard Journalism Awards Committee description of the biweekly podcast accompanying the SFA quarterly Smith Fellows print journal. Experience Southern “Its thoughtful voice comes from personal storytelling, shared through poignant essays, evocative Foodways Alliance illustration and photography, oral histories, and poetry. Its content challenges us with questions about rawing on academics, chefs, artisans, farmers, Brook and Pam Smith with their friend Emeril Lagasse (middle) race, ethnicity, immigration, nutrition, food access, journalists, writers, and food enthusiasts, the land tenure, and more.” Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) of the “These women and men are at the forefront of D By recognizing Gravy as the 2015 Publication of Center for the Study of Southern Culture uses food as a their field,” said John T. Edge, SFA director. “Through the Year, the James Beard Award “acknowledges its cultural compass, guiding the understanding of history, the generosity of Pam and Brook, we’re able to invest journalistic leadership in the community, its progressive race relations, and politics. SFA members Pam and Brook in the Smith Fellows’ careers and in the future of our approach as a multimedia publication, and its honesty Smith are helping bring more people to the conversation. region. We’re humbled by this gift and determined to and impact on issues of social and food justice.” The couple’s $250,000 gift to create the Smith leverage their belief in our mission.” More Gravy, please! V Symposium Fellows program ensures that individuals A surety bond broker and president of Smith doing notable work are able to contribute to a more Manus, one of the nation’s largest surety bond agencies, diverse and progressive SFA symposia community. Smith’s roots in food and wine run deep. Along with “There’s nothing Pam and I have ever seen that several partners, he launched Post Parade, a Napa Valley Southern compares to the SFA,” Smith said. “There are cabernet wine project. In 2003 he purchased 610 members involved with food as careers and members Magnolia, an iconic Louisville, Kentucky, restaurant set Culture who appreciate food and its culture. It’s an unmatched to close. He joined SFA after receiving an invitation to tudy the South, a peer- organization—what members are doing through this its annual Taste of the South benefit. reviewed, multimedia, organization is making a difference.” “Education is at the root of everything,” Smith said. Sonline journal, encourages And the Smiths are making a difference. The first “That’s why these symposia are so important. Think of it interdisciplinary discourse on the Smith Symposium Fellows are Michael Twitty, writer like this: If one person becomes involved in recognizing culture of the American South. and historian of African American foodways; Natasha and maintaining our culture and that leads to the next 10 Founded in 2014 by the Center for the Study of Bowens, farmer, activist, and author of The Color of people becoming involved, which leads to the next 100— Southern Culture, the journal embraces a diversity of Food; Evan Mah, food editor of Atlanta magazine; and that’s how the world gets changed. With this gift, Pam and media, including written essays with accompanying Darnella Burkett Winston, farmer and Mississippi I are helping others to the table.” V audio, video, and photography components; Food & Health Fellow and National Rural Leader in MAKE A GIFT: Nikki Neely Davis, documentary photography; and video projects. V the Rural Development Leadership Network. [email protected] or 662.915.6678 Read, listen, and watch at bit.ly/1K65GfC

The View from Ventress 27 2015 more stories, photos, and videos at libarts.olemiss.edu

Alumni Donate FACULTY BOOKS to Strengthen Reconstructing Violence: Ethics Curriculum The Southern Rape Complex in Film ume Bryant and his wife, Frances, have and Literature established the Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Hume LSU PRESS, 2015 Bryant Lectureship in Ethics to create new By Deborah E. Barker, H professor of English ethics courses.

PHOTO BY KEVIN BAIN “Ethics courses help students learn to think and By focusing on familiar literary and cinematic texts Barker offers fresh insights into the anxiety decipher all the grey areas between what we call ‘right that has underpinned sexual and racial violence and wrong,’” said Bryant. “If you don’t learn how to in cinematic representations of the South. Literary Lions think critically, you probably shouldn’t be in a position Friends of the Library reception at the home of Dr. Ralph and Douglas Vance in March honored three to make important decisions. For instance, it came Death Don’t Have No Mercy out recently that corporate managers knew about an Aaward-winning writers who have donated their papers BROKEN RIVER BOOKS, 2015 to the University Libraries: Tom Franklin (left), associate automobile malfunction that killed people but were By William Boyle, adjunct instructor professor of English, Beth Ann Fennelly, professor of English afraid to say anything. How does that happen? I think of writing and rhetoric and director of the MFA Program, and Curtis Wilkie, Overby people sometimes make decisions without considering Eight stories about broken men making bad deci- Fellow and Kelly G. Cook Chair of Journalism. sions. “I guarantee you will fall in love with the The Friends’ endowment is nearing $1 million, with the ethical consequences.” neighborhoods, with the alleys, with the garages annual income enhancing library assets. For 75 years the Bryant’s family and one-bedroom apartments, because around the corner William Boyle is bartending and organization has purchased library resources. Records show played a major role that during one calendar year, the Friends may purchase as everything he has to say is the best thing you will read this year.” many as 4,800 new books or resources. in UM history. His —Dave Newman, author “If you describe the university as a wheel, the hub is the mother, Willie library,” said Carole Lynn Meadows of Gulfport, who heads Hume, was the the Friends’ 75th anniversary events committee. “Supporting niece of Alfred Blues Unlimited: this hub is no longer just about purchasing books; we have to Hume, professor Essential Interviews from the Original attract funds for an array of technological resources our Blues Magazine students need to succeed in class and to increase their and chair of Frances and Hume Bryant (right) with UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS, 2015 understanding of the world.” V mathematics, dean Bruce and Mary Betsy Bellande Edited by Mark Camarigg, publications MAKE A GIFT: Angela Barlow Brown, of liberal arts, and manager of Living Blues magazine, Bill [email protected] or 662.915.3181 chancellor. His father, W. Alton Bryant, was chair Greensmith, and Mike Rowe and professor of English, provost, and vice chancellor. The history of the blues from the musicians who lived it. “Growing up, my family often talked about issues that were not necessarily popular, but were very important. I know now that these discussions were In the Moment: really about ethics,” Bryant said. The Process of Training Actors Paying Tribute He met his first wife, Barbara Kalif, at UM. After NAUTILUS PUBLISHING, 2015 graduation in 1964 with an engineering degree, Bryant By Joe Turner Cantú, to Tim Ford associate professor of theatre arts was assigned to the Strategic Air Command in New M is PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CLARION LEDGER England where he ended his active duty tour as a A practical guide for actor trainers featuring mourning common sense methods for developing actors’ captain. After earning an MBA from Harvard, he skills and confidence. Uthe loss of embarked on a career with Southern Pacific Railroad dedicated alumnus that moved the couple to San Francisco, where they Tim Ford (BA raised two children, William and Michelle. After biology ’73, JD Barbara passed away, Hume Bryant retired to Oxford in European Treasure: A. H. Reed’s French & Italian ’77), a longtime 2000 where he met and married Frances Byars King, speaker of the Autograph Letters who studied marketing at UM from 1976 to 1980 and DUNEDIN PUBLIC LIBRARIES, 2015 Mississippi House Tim Ford works for AirMedCare, the nation’s largest independent By Valerio Cappozzo, of Representatives, air medical network. assistant professor of Italian successful attorney, and strong proponent of “Many people believe ethics can teach us nothing A catalog of letters by people who helped make France and Italy the modern states they are today. education. The Tim Ford Public Service Scholarship because they assume values are subjective, unscientific, Endowment helps students interested in working and up to each person,” said Steven Skultety, chair and in state government in Jackson by offsetting associate professor of philosophy and religion. “It is expenses of a semester internship. The goal is to incredibly important for students to understand that Re-Imagining North Korea in enable and encourage students to consider public International Politics: constructing a persuasive ethical argument demands as Problems and Alternatives service career options. V much logical reasoning and unbiased attention as ROUTLEDGE, 2014 MAKE A GIFT: Denson Hollis, conducting a scientific experiment or creating a By Shine Choi, Korea Foundation visiting [email protected] or 662.915.5092 mathematical proof. After all, when they enter the assistant professor of international studies work world, our graduates will inevitably face decisions and sociology and anthropology Develops an intercultural framework for studying and dilemmas that will call upon their critical skills issues in international politics using the North and familiarity with ethical principles.” V Korean case.

The View from Ventress 28 2015 FACULTY BOOKS FACULTY BOOKS

The Pride of the South Ethics and the Elderly: Working to Laugh: 1928–2014: The Challenge of Long-Term Care Assembling Difference in American The Ole Miss Band, A History ORBIS BOOKS, 2015 Stand-Up Comedy Venues CREATESPACE, 2015 By Sarah M. Moses, LEXINGTON BOOKS, 2015 By Bill DeJournett, associate professor of assistant professor of religion By James M. Thomas, assistant professor of sociology music and associate director of bands “This wonderful vision of the place of the elderly A coffee table book chronicling the marching in Christian community…shows that despite its An ethnographic analysis of the relationship band’s history. Proceeds benefit the Friends of challenges, old age can be a time of beauty, seren- between performance, venue, and social actors in Note Scholarship Endowment Fund for general ity, generosity, and joy.” urban nightlife. band scholarships. —Lisa Sowle Cahill, Boston College

Gerhart Ladner and The Idea of Reform: The Midnight Court: Faulkner’s Geographies A Modern Historian’s Eleven Versions of Merriman UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI, 2015 Quest for Ancient and Medieval Truth THE LILLIPUT PRESS LTD, 2015 Edited by Jay Watson, professor of English MELLEN PRESS, 2015 and Howry Professor of Faulkner Studies, By Gregory A. Schirmer, and Ann J. Abadie, associate director By Lester L. Field Jr., professor of history professor emeritus of English emerita of the Center for the Study of “What is so exciting about this book…is that it helps With its keen scrutiny of the text on a line-by- Southern Culture explore the evolution of Ladner’s idea of an idea.” line basis, this title brings something new to Exploring the diverse functions of space in Wil- —Jeremy du Quesnay Adams, scholarship of Irish poet Brian Merriman’s cele- liam Faulkner’s artistic vision, these essays delve Southern Methodist University brated 18th-century narrative poem Cúirt an deep into Yoknapatawpha but also reach beyond, Mheán Oíche (The Midnight Court). to uncover unsuspected connections and flows linking local, regional, national, hemispheric, and global geographies in his writings. The Sociology of Human Rights American Heathens: POLITY BOOKS, 2014 The Politics of Identity By Mark Frezzo, in a Pagan Religious Movement Fifty Years After Faulkner associate professor of sociology TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2015 UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI, 2015 Explores the sociological perspective on human By Jennifer Snook, instructional assistant Edited by Jay Watson, professor of English rights that is uniquely placed to illuminate the professor of sociology and Howry Professor of Faulkner Studies, economic, political, social, and cultural condi- and Ann J. Abadie, associate director tions under which human rights norms and laws An ethnographic study about the largely misun- emerita of the Center for the Study of are devised, interpreted, implemented, and derstood practice of American heathenry (Ger- Southern Culture enforced. manic paganism) that traces its development and trajectory as a new religious movement in Amer- Essays reassessing William Faulkner’s life and ica–one in which all identities are political and all extraordinary writing career a half century after his death. Muslims in Ireland: politics matter. Past and Present EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2015 The Art of Olof Krans: A Prairie Vision By Vivian Ibrahim, Croft associate Defensive Positions: professor of history and international PEORIA RIVERFRONT MUSEUM, 2014 The Politics of Maritime studies, Oliver Scharbrodt, Tuula Sakarana- By Esther Sparks Sprague, Security in Tokugawa Japan ho, Adil Hussain Khan, Yafa Shanneik visiting assistant professor of art HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2015 A complete study of this unexplored Muslim Fully illustrated, the first comprehensive By Noell Wilson, Croft associate professor presence, from the arrival of the first Muslim resi- survey of the painter who documented of history and international studies dent in Cork in 1784 until mass immigration to life in a Swedish utopian community in Focuses on the role of regional domains in early the Republic of Ireland from the mid-1990s Illinois from 1846 to 1861. onwards. modern Japan’s coastal defense, shedding new light on this system’s development. Archaeological Perspectives on the Southern Appalachians: This Side of the River A Multiscalar Approach NAUTILUS PUBLISHING, 2015 UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE PRESS, 2015 By Jeffrey Stayton (PhD English ’06), instructor of English Acquaintance, Edited by Maureen Meyers, Knowledge, and Logic: assistant professor of anthropology, A novel about young Civil War widows seeking New Essays on Bertrand Russell’s and Ramie A. Gougeon revenge after surviving General Sherman’s March The Problems of Philosophy to the Sea. Essays by a dozen archaeologists that delineate UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, 2015 multiscalar approaches to Native American sites. Edited and introduction by Donovan Wishon, assistant professor of philosophy, and Bernard Linsky Ten essays on the best-known work of Bertrand Russell, recipient of the 1950 Nobel Prize for Literature and one of the 20th century’s most influential and prolific philosophers.

The View from Ventress 29 2015 more stories, photos, and videos at libarts.olemiss.edu PHOTO BY THOMAS GRANING PHOTO BY HARRY BRISCOE Scholarship Honors Great Educator Goberdhan Bhagat political science scholarship honors the life and Paying Tribute Jane Quinn and Jeff McCarthy with their son, Quinn, who work of Professor Emeritus Goberdhan Bhagat harles Hussey, chair and professor of graduated in May. Awho passed away recently. chemistry and biochemistry (left), looks on Affectionately known as “GB,” he joined the faculty in as Columns Society member Austin Vitale, 1964 after serving as a United Nations diplomat for the C an English and public policy leadership major, Gifts Promote Indian government. Bhagat, who specialized in international unveils a bronze plaque paying tribute to the relations, taught for 30 years before retiring in 1994. tremendous contributions of the late Andrew Civic Engagement “Professor Bhagat changed his students’ lives,” said Stefani, former chair and professor of chemistry and commitment of John Bruce, chair and associate professor of political biochemistry. At right are Dr. Stefani’s son-in-law $50,000 by Jesse L. science. “He introduced them to the world well-beyond Dr. Patrick Booth, daughter Dr. Anne M. Stefani, A White Jr. (BA political the confines of Mississippi. As educators, we watch wife Joann R. Stefani, and granddaughter Anna science and history ’66) to students pass through our classes, and then disappear into Booth. The plaque will be installed in Coulter Hall. launch the Dr. Jesse L. White the fog of time. We rarely get to know what becomes of Mrs. Stefani established the Dr. Andrew P. Jr. Civic Engagement them after school. We all hope to have an impact on our Stefani Faculty Support Endowment, which Endowment at the William students, but GB’s students have confirmed what an continues to grow with gifts from colleagues, Winter Institute for Racial extraordinary impact he had on their lives. The definition friends, and former students. Annual income Reconciliation will bring of a successful educator is exactly the lasting impact that from the endowment will be directed to salary Jesse L. White Jr. guest speakers, visiting Professor Bhagat had on his students.” supplements, as well as research, creative activity, scholars, and other activities to campus. Established in 2008 by his former students, the and program support for the department. During “We are bowled over by Jesse White’s generosity,” Goberdhan Bhagat Endowment continues to grow and the dedication program, several former students said Susan Glisson, senior fellow. “He is a longtime help undergraduate and graduate political science students who became chemistry professors spoke about friend and a former board member, and he knows our interested in international politics further their studies. Andrew Stefani’s influence on their personal and work as well as anyone. That makes this support an The department welcomes additional support. V professional lives. V even bigger vote of confidence.” MAKE A GIFT: Denson Hollis, [email protected] MAKE A GIFT: Ron Wilson, [email protected] White, UM’s first Marshall Scholar, earned an or 662.915.5092 or 662.915.1755 MA in international relations from the University of Sussex, England, and a PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served as federal cochair of the Appalachian Charles Reagan Wilson Regional Commission in Washington, DC, and executive director of the Southern Growth Policies Board. He joined the UNC–Chapel Hill School of Government and directed the Office of Economic and Business Development to provide assistance to rural and small towns. In Honor PHOTO BY ROBERT JORDAN White expressed enthusiasm for the Winter Institute leadership in tackling the problems, old of a Beloved and new, brought about by difference-based division and discrimination. Professor “I’m a proud Mississippian. And the Winter Institute honors Governor Winter’s legacy in ways that make me especially proud. There is no work he Arch Dalrymple III Department of History and Center for the Study of Southern Culture have being done that is more important at UM. I hope created the Charles Reagan Wilson Graduate Student Support Fund for research in Southern history. this gift motivates others to support the Winter TWilson, emeritus Kelly Gene Cook Sr. Chair of History and Professor of Southern Studies, taught from Institute’s work.” 1981 to 2014 and directed the Southern Studies academic program from 1991 to 1998 and the Center for the Jane Quinn and Jeff McCarthy of Chicago Study of Southern Culture from 1998 to 2007. have already committed $30,000. He is author of Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865–1920, a study of the memory of the “When I read about Dr. White’s endowment Confederacy in the post–Civil War South; Judgment and Grace in Dixie: Southern Faiths from Faulkner to Elvis, for the Winter Institute, it seemed fitting for our which studies popular religion as a part of the culture of the modern South; and Flashes of Southern Spirit: support at Ole Miss,” Quinn said. “And current Meanings of the Spirit in the US South. Wilson is coeditor (with William Ferris) of the Encyclopedia of Southern events in the US confirm there is no better time to Culture, which received the Dartmouth Prize from the American Library Association as best reference book of address the issues of reconciliation.” V the year, and is general editor of the 24-volume New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. He is editor or coeditor of MAKE A GIFT: Nikki Neely Davis, Religion and the American Civil War, The New Regionalism, and Religion in the South. V [email protected] or 662.915.6678 MAKE A GIFT: Nikki Neely Davis, [email protected] or 662.915.6678

The View from Ventress 30 2015 The College of Liberal Arts is grateful to the following Ventress Order donors PATRON ...... $25,000+ ADVOCATE ...... $2,500 – $4,999 BENEFACTOR .....$10,000 – $24,999 ASSOCIATE ...... $1,000 – $2,499 (names reflect gifts made between July 1, 2014—June 30, 2015): EXECUTIVE...... $5,000 – $9,999 STEWARD ...... $500 – $999

PATRON Michael Benedict Blake A. Wilson Lucius M. Lampton Wellcom USA Carroll Leggett Anson Mills Hannah and Tommy Bishop Virginia B. and Eddie S. Wilson Sherry F. and John Lavin Wells Fargo Matching Gift Cntr Lynn and George H. Leggett III Kathryn B. Black Janet L. Law Jane and George R. Williams Patricia P. and William Lewis, Jr. Bob Bennett ASSOCIATE Cathead Distillery Virginia F. and James G. Brooks Dianne S. and Edward K. Lee Gingia and W. Swan Yerger Jeremy L. Linton Helen B. and Wadie H. Abraham, Jr. Frances B. and A. Hume Bryant D. M. Cockrell Linda D. and Alexander MacCormack Robert C. Long C. Scott Adelman STEWARD Chisholm Foundation Betsy S. and Wade H. Creekmore, Jr. Gigi and Charles Magill Marcy Loomis Ann and Lex Alexander David F. Allen Cockayne Fund Bettie Y. and R. Newell Graham Pat and Martha Martin Elaine and John M. Lovorn Roy Anderson III Fritz Anderson Lucille W. and James H. Creekmore Hancock Bank Carol D. and Clarence A. McDaniel LRG Provisions Joyce M. and Herbert Arnold III Lisa M. and William H. Andrews, Jr. Crescent Communities Phil Hardin Foundation Cindy and Sam McGann Kristen S. and Nathaniel G. MacAdams Grant and Melissa Ashlin Marian F. and Fred M. Anklam, Jr. Martha D. Dalrymple John C. Harrison Amelia T. and Arthur J. McIntyre Michele S. and James P. Marum Jackie P. Bailey Gustavo Arellano Suzanne and Nick Pihakis Horizons National Ellen and E. Patrick McIntyre, Jr. Maverick Southern Kitchens, Inc. Allison P. and William G. Barton Robert W. Baird Lynn C. and Stewart Gammill III Heather W. Howington and Jed Howington Diane W. and Steven G. McKinney Hazel M. and Philips R. McCarty Kristin and Wilson P. Barton III Jennifer W. Baker Jim ‘N Nick’s Community Bar-B-Q Carol and P. Ken Lackey, Jr. Leah F. Dawson and Ryan G. McMorries Donna W. and John R. McCommon Beverly Bartow Charles A. Baker-Clark Cecile B. and Robert H. Harper Kelly Law Lynn S. and W. Holt McMullan Nancie S. McDermott Carolyn T. Benson Lucy and Frank R. Banks Lucile P. and William S. Hicks Ellis C. Lindsey Ellen B. Meacham and John W. Winkle S. Carr McKay Monica T. and Raymond L. Bergin, Jr. Arnold and Terri Barefoot Charles H. Hubbert William Logan Methodist Rehab Center Wendy and Raymond A. Meifert, Jr. John Besh Susan H. and Brett R. Bartlett McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco Beth L. and J. M. Martin III Minact Inc Merck Company Foundation J. S. Blake Jonathan G. Bass Elizabeth Jones Jennifer G. and Kennard A. McKay Lynda A. and Richard D. Mitchell Mid-South Housing Foundation Susan E. Bostick Stephen R. Bates Lester G. Fant, III Charitable Trust Christie and L. Madison Michael II Armin J. Moeller Midwood Smokehouse, LLC Norma S. Bourdeaux Gregory L. Best Lodge Manufacturing Michelle S. and S. K. Morgan, Jr. Karen C. and Robert S. Montjoy Kristina and Tom Montague Annette B. Garofalo and Kit H. Bowen, Jr. Phil Blank Morgan H. Martin Deborah F. McAbee and J. Byron Morris C. Sue Moore Angela D. and Johnny B. Mosier Ralph Brennan Betty W. and J. David Blaylock William A. McMinn Mountain Valley Spring Water Munro Foundation Laura P. and Clint Moylan Jim Koikos Linda S. and Robert T. Bobo Renvy G. Pittman Walterine P. and Cecil D. Odom Murphy Oil Usa Inc. Jane Kerr G. and Robert B. Nance III Lissa L. and Adam H. Broome Bowens Island Restaurant LLC Scarlotte M. and Crymes G. Pittman Prudential Foundation Beate B. and Rodney Nolan Joe Osgoode and Ronald D. Nurnberg Wesley M. Bryant Chadwick Boyd C. Jane Quinn and Jeffrey J. McCarthy Roberts Family BBQ Christopher A. Noone Richard Orris Harold Burson Shawn S. and David E. Brevard R&B Feder Foundation Edward L. Rowe Linda C. and W. Page Ogden Judith L. Pace James C. Cantrell Elizabeth A. Brock Virginia Wine Board Sara M. and William M. Shoemaker, Jr. Jacqueline E. and Jay T. Oglesby John N. Palmer Ann Cashion Amanda A. Brown Royal Cup Coffee State Legislative Leaders Foundation Michelle M. and Richard E. Olson Michael O. Palmer Jo L. and Clarence W. Chapman Charles A. Brown Ruth U. Fertel Foundation Stewart Sneed Hewes Inc Rose L. and Henry Paris Sandra K. and David M. Patterson William R. Childs Tyler Brown Simmons Farm Raised Catfish, Inc. The Algernon Sydney Sullivan Foundation William E. Pegues III Lisa B. and W. A. Percy Cinco Y Diez, LLC Buckhead Beef Company Pam and Brook Smith Leah L. Thomson J. Greg Perkins Leslie Pinsof Jennifer V. Cole Amanda B. and James R. Carr Joann R. Stefani Kathryn L. Wiener Tatiana Petrovsky Shelli and Bryant L. Poole Vicki L. and Robert V. Cralle Coca-Cola Bottling Company United, Inc. Taqueria del Sol Noell and Gary M. Wilson Angel P. Postell Craig Rogers Sharon M. and Danny E. Cupit Jolyn M. and Maxwell Cooke Carol and Jim Titley Eleanor E. Winter Railroad Salvage & Restoration Kelley N. Rusnak Bess and John M. Currence Casi Cottnell and Jimmy Cottrell Jesse L. White, Jr. Elise V. and William F. Winter John S. Rainey John M. Rylee Rebecca and Richard M. Currence Create Foundation Whole Foods Market Dag and Leslie Zapatero Thomas S. Rankin Mary H. and Lucius F. Sams, Jr. Faison Cushman Norma E. and Wallace E. Davenport Donell and Phillip F. Wiggins James C. Ratcliff, Jr. Stephen Schrapper ADVOCATE Adam Danforth Kathy and Sid Davis Raymond James & Associates Inc Mary Lou M. and Norman H. Seawright, Jr. Natalie Chanin Margaret K. Davenport and Blane E. Julie E. Dodson BENEFACTOR Emily D. Reed Edward R. Sharpe Rebecca P. and Carey W. Allen Bateman S. S. Domino Michael L. Baker Elizabeth W. and Jack R. Reed, Jr. Shell Oil Company Foundation Barbara D. and David W. Arnold Ashley Day Judy and David I. Doorenbos Brenda K. and Lee Baumann Henry C. Ricks, Jr. J. C. Shirley Charlotte A. and James E. Baine Charles L. Day Jean C. Douglas Carmen and Matthew Bond Leah D. and Louis E. Ridgway III John Simpkins Batdorf & Bronson Roasters Challain, Inc. Duncan-Williams, Inc. Priscilla and Joe D. Dowdy, Jr. Graham G. Boyd Susan S. and William H. Rigby, Jr. Cecil O. Smith Hugh and Hugh E. Bateman Donna B. and Brad J. Dye, Jr. Portia B. Espy Elizabeth M. and L. M. Brunt Linda F. and Michael E. Riley Bette J. and David L. Smith, Jr. Jennifer W. Bridges Lou A. and Granison Eader, Jr. Pamela and Walter H. Eversmeyer III Chesapeake Bay Wine Classic Foundation Linda T. and James L. Robertson Sneed Hardware Inc. Spencer M. Bryan Vivian B. Hobbs and John T. Edge, Jr. Paul Fehribach Clyde P. Davis, Jr. Harry Root Southern Company Services Edward J. Upton and Joe T. Cantu Lisa Ekus and Virginia Willis Judith C. and Charles H. Ferguson, Jr. Deborah M. Emanuel Jewett and Alan F. Rothschild, Jr. Square Books Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison R. Byron Ellis, Jr. Lyn F. and John F. Fields ExxonMobil Foundation Stephen E. Rowell Martha J. Stark Lara M. and Vance P. Derryberry Catherine H. and David Ewing Martha and Paul Fogleman Diane and Alan Franco Gillian and Peter Roy Ward and James C. Sumner Sheri L. Phillabaum and Roy S. Ellzey Diane H. and Chuck Flynt Eleanor H. Fontaine Greater Birmingham Sawyer Real Estate Inc. Blake Tartt III Convention & Visitors Bureau Patricia and Richard Fairtile David Fowler Jane B. and William R. Ford, Jr. Bill Schooley Jean and Jack Tate Jay Howington Hannah B. and Paul E. Gay Martha Ann W. and John J. Franco, Jr. Brady Foust Leslie K. Schutz and David T. Bortel Jane A. and Lee D. Thames, Sr. Jamestown Properties Government Consultants, Inc. Emily C. and Lawrence M. Furlong Anne S. and Terry G. Freeze Rodney Scott The Dowell Family Charitable Fund Jumpstart For Young Children, Inc. Reba M. and Lance Greer Caren L. and Tom T. Gallaher Carol H. and William T. Gafford Joann S. and R. P. Scruggs III The Jefferson Lauren and Merrill Klapthor Patricia S. and W. Briggs Hopson, Jr. Patricia A. and Charles H. Goodman Annie and Tom Gallivan James L. Seawright, Jr. Laura H. and Samuel R. Thomas Brittney and Matt Miller Lydia and Daniel W. Jones Janice M. and Chellis O. Gregory General Mills Foundation Ed Seiber Fred D. Thompson Eliza Kraft Olander Margaret D. and Robert C. Khayat Ronald A. Haley Craig Goldwyn Keeta H. and Joseph E. Settle III Katrice P. Thompson Ashley Christensen Pamela B. and William F. Lawhead Samuel Hamacher Laura E. and W. Walton Gresham III Gloria D. and Norman E. Shaw Rosalie T. and Frank K. Turner Sanderson Farms Inc Sylvia G. Lenhoff Harper Bradshaw Beverly H. and G. Dan Griffith E. Lee Simmons UPS Foundation Roy D. Sheffield Patrick Martin Peter D. Hart Peter Hairston Catherine C. and Taylor M. Sledge, Jr. Julian P. Van Winkle III Frances P. Smith Charles R. McMurchy Mary D. and Samuel B. Haskell III Dorothy S. and Charles B. Hargrove State of MS Dept of Finance & Admin. Mitzi J. and Lynn K. Whittington Shelby B. and Lewis H. Smith Lynda Y. and Randle T. Middleton Susan S. Hayman Steven Hedberg Albert L. Strickland William Carey University Virginia N. and J. Charles Taylor Mississippi Power Company Morella K. and John C. Henegan Barbara B. and D. Chan Henry Kenneth J. Sufka Valerie A. and Gary A. Williams Lisa R. and John D. Tickle II Pamela M. and Larry J. Morris Kirsten E. and J. Ryan Hill Nola and Arnold J. Herring The Fresh Market, Inc. Jim E. Williams Nicholas L. Trivisonno Michelle Hyver Oakes Harriet N. and Albert L. Hilliard J. Mac Holladay The Pinckelope Foundation Olivia M. Williams Zingerman’s Community of Businesses Renasant Bank Daniel J. Hoffheimer Gina and Linton Hopkins, Jr. The Verbena Group, LLC Joan H. and David E. Willson Rochambeau Group, LLC John W. Huey, Jr. Lisa N. and Richard C. Howorth EXECUTIVE Trustmark National Bank Paul M. Wilson III Granger R. Scruggs John L Crouse TTEE Katherine Huntoon Kristie and Charles L. Abney Sissy and Julian Van Winkle Misty K. and Trey Wright Pardis Sooudi and Frank Stitt Jones Walker L.L.P. Martha G. Hutson Jane and R. Wayne Alexander Susan M. Marchant and Ronald F. Vernon Betty L. Young Katherine Teree Jamie B. and Ernest Joyner III Joyce E. and David A. King Phyllis W. and Reuben V. Anderson Jane M. and Thomas H. Walman Frank M. Thompson KPMG Foundation Kat Kinsman Balch & Bingham LLP Jenny L. and Dennis E. Watts Patricia C. White Eugenia and A. L. Lamar Wesla S. Leech

Pittmans’ Lifetime of Giving rymes and Scarlotte Pittman of Jackson elevated their lifetime of Association, Lamar Order, Law Alumni Chapter, and the Momentum giving to UM to $6.6 million with a recent gift of $1 million, Campaign. A residence hall named for the Pittmans honors their Cwith half to faculty support in the College of Liberal Arts. generosity and service. “Scarlotte and Crymes Pittman are outstanding alumni,” said Scarlotte Pittman graduated from the School of Business Chancellor Dan Jones. “We are extremely grateful for their many Administration and Crymes Pittman earned a BA in English and a investments in the life of UM directed to both academics and athletics. JD. They have two grown children, Lucy Pittman Culver (husband The Pittmans are thoughtful and visionary in their support. They Eskridge Van Naarden Culver) of New York and Crymes M. (wife always have the best interests of our students and the future of this Ashley W.) Pittman of Jackson, and four grandchildren. Their university uppermost in their hearts and minds.” daughter, son, and daughter-in-law all earned degrees at UM. The Pittmans’ support includes the Freshman Seminar course, “I consider education to be one of the most important things I Robert C. Khayat Law Center construction, Grisham Law Library, can provide my children and grandchildren,” Pittman said. “The student scholarships, faculty and clinic support, and the Forward primary focus of my philanthropic efforts is directed to the university Together athletics campaign. Crymes Pittman has also given his time and education.” V as a board member of the UM Foundation, Ole Miss Alumni MAKE A GIFT: Denson Hollis, [email protected] or 662.915.5092

PHOTO BY KEVIN BAIN Crymes Pittman The View from Ventress 31 2015 2015 The University of Mississippi NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION The View from Ventress U.S. POSTAGE PAID News from the College of Liberal Arts | libarts.olemiss.edu College of Liberal Arts LIBERTY, MO Ventress Hall PERMIT NO. 331 Founded in 1848, the College of Liberal Arts is P.O. Box 1848 the oldest and largest division of The University University, MS 38677 of Mississippi. The College offers a broad and libarts.olemiss.edu comprehensive course of study, including most areas of knowledge in the humanities, the fine arts, natural sciences, and social sciences. Lee M. Cohen, Dean Rich Forgette, Senior Associate Dean Janice Murray, Associate Dean Holly Reynolds, Associate Dean Stephen Monroe, Assistant Dean Denson Hollis, Senior Director of Development Nikki Neely Davis, Director of Development Ron Wilson, Director of Development Don’t miss The View from Ventress online. AEROSPACE STUDIES PUBLIC POLICY Visit viewfromventress.org for videos and more stories. Lt. Col. Mark Sudduth, Chair LEADERSHIP Mark Chen, Chair AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES SOCIOLOGY & Charles Ross, Director ANTHROPOLOGY Kirsten Dellinger, Chair ART & ART HISTORY Virginia Chavis, Chair THEATRE ARTS Rene Pulliam, Interim Chair BIOLOGY Paul Lago, Chair WRITING & RHETORIC Robert Cummings, Chair CHEMISTRY & BIOCHEMISTRY CENTER FOR Conducting Chemistry Prestigious Fellowships Heart & Sole All the World’s a Stage Charles Hussey, Chair ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH Peyton Reves’ National Endowment Patrick Woodyard (BA Matthew R. Wilson, CLASSICS Tony Boudreaux, Director undergraduate chemistry for the Humanities international studies assistant professor of Molly Pasco-Pranger, Chair CENTER FOR CIVIL WAR studies and hands-on fellowships funded and Spanish ’10) pairs theatre arts, talks about his ECONOMICS RESEARCH research experience in medieval literature studies compassion with fashion role on the Netflix series, Jon Moen, Chair John R. Neff, Director drug design prepare her in the UK for English as cofounder and CEO House of Cards, and as an ENGLISH CLINICAL-DISASTER for medical career. doctoral students Brian of Nisolo, a US company expert in commedia Ivo Kamps, Chair RESEARCH CENTER Cook and Helen Davies. selling leather shoes dell’arte. Stefan Schulenberg, Director ARCH DALRYMPLE III handmade in Peru. DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY MCLEAN INSTITUTE Joseph Ward, Chair FOR PUBLIC SERVICE INTERNATIONAL STUDIES & COMMUNITY Cornelius Gispen, Director ENGAGEMENT Albert Nylander, Director MATHEMATICS Iwo Labuda, Chair MISSISSIPPI GEOGRAPHIC ALLIANCE MILITARY SCIENCE David Rutherford, Director Lt. Col. Scott Walton, Chair CENTER FOR MODERN LANGUAGES POPULATION STUDIES Donald Dyer, Chair John J. Green, Director MUSIC THE SARAH ISOM Robert Riggs, Chair CENTER FOR WOMEN & GENDER STUDIES NAVAL SCIENCE Susan Grayzel, Director Capt. Brian Goszkowicz, Chair SOCIAL SCIENCE PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION RESEARCH LABORATORY Steven Skultety, Chair Jonathan Winburn, Director PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY CENTER FOR THE STUDY Lucien Cremaldi, Chair OF SOUTHERN CULTURE POLITICAL SCIENCE Ted Ownby, Director John Bruce, Chair WILLIAM WINTER PSYCHOLOGY INSTITUTE FOR RACIAL Michael Allen, Chair RECONCILIATION Susan Glisson, Senior Fellow

Twitter @umlibarts Facebook facebook.com/umlibarts Pinterest pinterest.com/umliberalarts This publication, The View from Ventress, is published annually by The College of Liberal Arts, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, Telephone 662.915.7178, Email: [email protected], Web site: libarts.olemiss.edu. Instagram instagram/umlibarts The University of Mississippi does not discriminate against any student protected by law based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, or genetic information. 08/2015