Faculty/Staff Accomplishments and Departmental News 2/8/17

In this issue, we celebrate the accomplishments of faculty and staff in art, biological sciences, business, dance, English, music, and the president’s office. We also share news about Honors Colloquia and Meredith’s participation in the NCICU Ethics Bowl.

President Jo Allen has been named chair of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) Committee on Accountability. This appointment was announced February 1. NAICU serves as the unified national voice of private nonprofit higher education. With more than 1,000 member institutions and associations nationwide, the organization reflects the diversity of independent higher education in the United States.

Assistant Professor of Dance Sarah Bean presented “States of Matter: A Creative Collaboration Case Study” at the North Carolina Dance Educators Organization (NCDEO) Conference at UNC-G alongside Meredith Dance Education students Mary Cameron Caison and Monica Rivera. The presentation took place on January 28. Bean, Caison and Rivera shared their experiences planning, creating, and implementing a short residency project with second grade students at Bugg Elementary in Fall 2016. This project used dance composition and performance activities to deepen students’ understanding of solids, liquids and gases, part of the N.C. second grade science curriculum. In the process, Bean, Caison, and Rivera developed collaborative partnerships with Bugg Dance Specialist (and Meredith alumna) April Labadie, composer Ken Ray Wilemon, and the 17 second graders of Mr. Bennett’s class at Bugg.  The NCDEO presentation addressed challenges and successes of this project and engaged attendees in a discussion of findings and implications for future work.

Professor of Biological Sciences Francie Cuffney attended a meeting at American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) on Jan 27-28, in Alexandria, Va.  The session was an NAAHP leadership meeting with the advisory council of healthcare education associations.  Cuffney presented on an upcoming meeting she is organizing for May 30 – June 2 in Charleston, S.C.

Professor of English Rebecca Duncan has written critical and biographical reference pieces on Yann Martel and each of his novels for the Critical Survey of American Literature, published by Salem Press and Grey House Publishing (formerly Magill’s Survey of American Literature). She has published previously on Martel’s Life of Pi as part of an undergraduate research collaboration.

Associate Professor of Art Shannon Johnstone’s photographic work Landfill Dogs has recently been featured in three different exhibitions across the country. Her Landfill Dogs solo exhibition was on display at James Madison University’s PRISM Gallery in December and January. Johnstone’s Landfill Dogs book was selected by a panel of jurors for inclusion in INFOCUS, a triennial Juried Exhibition of Self-Published Photobooks at the Phoenix Art Museum. The work is on display at the Doris and John Norton Gallery for the Center for Creative Photography through April 9. Piedmont College’s Mason-Scharfenstein Museum of Art (Demorest, Ga.) feature Landfill Dogs in a solo exhibition through February 25. Johnstone attended the exhibition opening and spoke with a photography class at the college. While there she also visited Georgia’s Habersham County Animal Shelter.

Professor of Accounting Mary Jane Lenard was quoted in a WalletHub.com article about the best first credit card. WalletHub is a site that covers topics related to financial services.

Assistant Professor of English Martin P. McNamee presented a paper at the recent Nineteenth Century Studies Association 38th Annual Conference in Charleston, S.C. McNamee’s presentation, “Keats, Haydon, and the Elgin Marbles: Commemorating the Artist’s Public Role in the Haydon Sonnets,” argues that Keats’s sonnets can now be seen as commemorating his own growing confidence as a poet, the beginning of his poetic career, and his role as a public artist.

Director of Instrumental Activities Jim Waddelow published a series of program notes of the works of Sibelius, Mozart, and Haydn for the National College Orchestra Director’s Association website. These notes were published on January 16.

Departmental News

Faculty Proposals for Honors Colloquia
The Honors committee is again accepting proposals for new Honors colloquia. Do you have an idea for an exciting new course, possibly team-taught, that you have always wanted to offer? Colloquia are imaginative, dialogical, student-centered, and interdisciplinary. They ‘count’ in gen-ed. Intended for non-major Honors students and Teaching Fellows, they may be experimental offerings that later become welcome catalogue courses in your department. The Honors program will pay for your adjunct replacement while you teach the course and will offer other useful support and advice. Your first opportunity to teach the course you propose is Fall 2019. First step: contact Brent Pitts for further information at ext. 8814 or pittsb@meredith.edu.

Meredith to Participate in NCICU Ethics Bowl
Meredith College will participate in the sixth annual Ethics Bowl hosted by NCICU. Teams from private higher education institutions all over N.C. participate in this event. Please come out and support your Meredith College Ethics Bowl Team on February 17 and 18.  Regular competition rounds are at 2 p.m., 3:15 p.m., and 4:30 p.m. on February 17 and 8:45 a.m. on February 18.  The competition is held at the NC Legislative Complex.

Director of Student Leadership and Service Cheryl Jenkins and Assistant Professor of Religious and Ethical Studies Steven Benko are the campus coordinators of the Meredith College team.  Competition team members are Rachel Crawford, Caroline Garrett, Anna Mangum, Hannah Mangum, Alex Parker, and Fareena Qamar.

For more information, contact Cheryl Jenkins at jenkinsc@meredith.edu or Steven Benko at benkos@meredith.edu.

Melyssa Allen

News Director
316 Johnson Hall
(919) 760-8087
Fax: (919) 760-8330

allenme@meredith.edu