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UM Students, Faculty Take Learning on the Road

Posted on: October 23rd, 2017 by erabadie

Study USA program gearing up for hands-on Wintersession courses in four exciting locales

OCTOBER 18, 2017 BY PAM STARLING

UM geological engineering faculty members Bob Holt, Dennis Powers and Doug Granger visit the Clinton P. Anderson overlook outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, with students during the ‘Geological Engineering Design Field Camp’ course offered through UM’s Study USA program in August. During Wintersession 2018, students will again have opportunities to travel with UM faculty members as they study biology, education, English, gender studies, hospitality management, philosophy, political science and more. Submitted photo

Students during the ‘Geological Engineering Design Field Camp’ course offered through UM’s Study USA program in August. During Wintersession 2018, students will again have opportunities to travel with UM faculty members as they study biology, education, English, gender studies, hospitality management, philosophy, political science and more. Submitted photo

Whether students are capturing biological field samples in nature or capturing the essence of a culture, the eye-opening experience of experiential learning will be on full display through the University of Mississippi’s Study USA Wintersession 2018 classes.

This year’s offerings are: “Writing Gender and Sexuality in the Crescent City” in New Orleans; “Californian STEAM: Microbial Science, Conservation and Society” in Riverside, Monterey Bay and San Francisco, California; “Las Vegas Resort Course” in Las Vegas; and an honors course in “Biomedical Ethics” in Washington, D.C.

New Orleans native Jaime Cantrell is among the UM faculty members leading a Study USA learning adventure in January. A visiting professor of English and faculty affiliate for the university’s Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies, she said she wants to share her knowledge of the community and culture with students.

“Like its gumbo, New Orleans is richly diverse,” Cantrell said. “It’s our plan for this course to highlight those transnational, multicultural and indigenous legacies.”

The dual-listed course can be taken for Writing 398 or Gender Studies 395 course credit. Participants will travel to New Orleans Jan. 4-9 and conduct a virtual presentation on Jan. 12.

Cantrell said she hopes the course will prepare students to understand how their university educational experience parallels communities, publics and subcultures outside their learning walls.

“This can be seen where people work together in meaningful, creative and unexpected ways to transform lives and preserve historical and cultural memory,” she said.

Students who are interested in the teaching and exploration of the scientific process have an opportunity to get their hands dirty during the “Californian STEAM” course set Jan. 4-14 in various Californian coastal areas.

“California is a hotbed for both microbial sciences, conservation research and STEM education,” said Erik Hom, UM assistant professor of biology. “This course is looking at how microbes are everywhere and affect all areas of life.”

Hom, along with Renee Cunningham, assistant professor of education, will lead the class in conducting field samples and exploring conservation issues at various Pacific coast locations, including Monterey Bay and Joshua Tree National Park.

Students interested in education, environmental science, biology, premedicine, pharmacy, chemistry, biochemistry, geoscience, ocean sciences and engineering are all encouraged to take part in this course.

Hospitality management and business majors have a chance to learn more about the business of managing resorts and tourism while interacting with industry leaders during the Las Vegas resorts course set for Jan. 3-8.

Led by Jim Taylor, associate professor of hospitality management, the class will offer informative meetings with upper-level management to discuss how various amenities of a resort property add to the overall guest experience.

“Las Vegas is a real-world laboratory for hospitality management,” Taylor said. “Where else can students see a destination that was once a desert and has now become one of the premier convention, vacation and dining locations in the United States?”

Students will learn more about large-scale hotel operations and how lodging components interact with resorts. They will also find out more about how different facets of resorts work together to increase productivity and customer satisfaction.

Students from the UM Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College can dive into ethical theories and principles at work in our nation’s health care system during “Biomedical Ethics,” led by philosophy professor Neil Manson.

The class will meet Jan. 2-6 in Oxford and Jan. 7-13 in Washington, D.C.

“Students will get to meet with experts addressing some of the most interesting issues in medicine right now,” Manson said. “They will be discussing questions like ‘What can we do with a person’s genetic information’ and ‘How should the American health care system be structured?’

“Also, ‘Is medicine just about restoring people to “normal” health, or should we feel free to use medical technologies to enhance human abilities?’”

Manson said he hopes the class helps students learn how to be professional, prepare, ask intelligent questions, overcome their fears and feel comfortable interacting with experts in the workplace.

“I also hope they get some sense of how Washington works – not just the branches of government, but the think tanks and the lobbyists,” Manson added. “Whether or not they aspire to careers in or near government, there is just no substitute for seeing up close how the system works.”

The application deadline for Study USA’s Wintersession 2018 courses is Nov. 9. Some scholarship opportunities are available. For more information, visit http://www.outreach.olemiss.edu/studyaway.

Classics Students Compete in Archaeological Ethics Bowl

Posted on: April 27th, 2016 by erabadie

Three debate ethical dilemmas faced by archaeologists

APRIL 27, 2016 | BY EMILY SCHNEIDER

The UM Archaeology Ethics Bowl team is made up of juniors Alicia Dixon (left), Zachary Creel and Libby Tyson.

Earlier this month, three University of Mississippi students spent the day putting themselves in the shoes of professional archaeologists, debating issues of ownership, trespassing, reporting, stewardship, commercialization and sexual harassment in Orlando, Florida.

The students, all juniors in the university’s Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, are the first UM team to compete in the Society for American Archaeology annual Archaeological Ethics Bowl. The event pits teams from universities across the country to discuss and debate various scenarios representing ethical quandaries professional archaeologists may face in their work.

“These dilemmas included real problems that archaeologists face when conducting fieldwork, as well as issues relating to conservation and preservation of cultural heritage,” said Hilary Becker, assistant professor of classics and adviser for the team.

The team – Alicia Dixon, Zachary Creel and Libby Tyson – decided to enter the competition after taking Becker’s honors class in classics, “Archaeological Ethics: Who Owns the Past,” where they argued cases from previous Archaeological Ethics Bowls.

“The most exciting part of competing was hearing different sides to the cases and thinking about how we might think outside the box for next year,” said Dixon, a classics and philosophy double major from Baldwyn. “We were also very excited to meet the other teams, who we know put in time and effort learning the cases, just like we did.”

Dixon, Creel and Tyson worked since last summer to prepare for the competition, meeting at least weekly since June. The team conducted their own research on the legal and ethical implications of various archaeologist cases, in addition to debating amongst themselves.

“There’s something awesome about working really hard for an extended period of time and then seeing that work pay off when a judge smiles because of a point your team just made,” said Tyson, of Hazlehurst, who is majoring in classics and English.

Four teams competed in this year’s competition: UM, the University of Georgia, the University of Puerto Rico and California State University at Los Angeles. The competition was conducted in three elimination rounds. First, UM faced the University of Georgia, and the second round matched UCLA with the University of Puerto Rico. In the finals, Georgia defeated the University of Puerto Rico.

Despite the UM team being all undergraduates, they competed against five graduate anthropology students from the University of Georgia.

Although they did not win the championship, which carries an American Institute of Archaeology membership for each member of the winning team and a school trophy, the experience has them already planning for next year’s event.

“We competed well and learned a lot so that we will certainly be even more competitive next year,” said Creel, a classics and art history major from New Orleans.

Jimmy Thomas: Influencing Writing Through Southern Culture

Posted on: August 31st, 2015 by erabadie

By Ellen Whitaker | Courtesy of The Daily Mississippian Rebel Guide: Orientation 2015

Jimmy Thomas | Photo by Ellen Whitaker

Wander through the maze of Barnard Observatory, past multiple rows of dark wood bookcases, and begin at the base of the curved stairwell, not the main one, but the one off to the right. Climb two sets of pre-Civil War stair- wells and land in Jimmy Thomas’ office. Seriously, land in it—no door, no office number, no secretary answering a phone. Just look up and be greeted by a light-infused circular room and a soft, friendly smile from Thomas himself.

Thomas is the associate director for publications at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, located in the east wing of Barnard Observatory on the University of Mississippi campus. Thomas has not only worked for the Center since 2003, but he also is an adjunct professor in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric.

“I came on board to work on the New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture,” Thomas said. “It is a 24-volume encyclopedia ranging from everything from religion in the South to race. It includes things like art and architecture, language, ethnicity, literature, the environment and so on. I originally came on as a project manager, and we would publish about four a year.”

Ted Ownby, director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, said that Thomas’ knack for making sure that the encyclopedias were published on time was impressive. “First of all, Jimmy is a really good editor,” Ownby said. “He is extraordinary with deadlines. I think 23 of the 24 volumes of the New Encyclopedia came out on time. I think that is virtually unheard of in academic publishing history. So, he holds up to those standards, that no, we do not publish roughly on time—we publish on time.”

Thomas grew up in the Mississippi Delta, specifically Leland and Greenville, and graduated from UM with a bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy in 1994 and a master’s degree in Southern Studies in 2007. After finishing his master’s, Thomas began teaching Liberal Arts 102, which is an alternative to Writing 102 and is offered through the Department of Writing and Rhetoric. LIBA 102, a first-year seminar, is only available for freshmen students to take after they have completed a 101 writing course.

Thomas said that the advantage of taking LIBA 102 instead of Writing 102 is that students would be taking a research writing course from an expert in that subject, whether it is Southern Studies or even engineering.

Sara Seckman, senior communication sciences and disorders major from Atlanta, took Thomas’ class in the spring of her freshman year. “I was told that LIBA classes were a fun alternative to writing courses,” Seckman said. “I saw that the subject was Southern Studies and thought that it would be cool. We are Ole Miss, and I feel like it is the epicenter of Southern studies.”

Seckman said that Thomas is her favorite professor at UM.

“He was the first professor in college that just made me feel like that I could do it, like I could conquer the class,” Seckman said. “I really got into my final research project, because I enjoyed the class so much. He just made me feel like a great student. He is passionate about what he does, and it really comes out in his teaching.”

In Thomas’ research writing class, each student writes three research papers—two shorter papers and one eight- to 10-page paper. For the final project, students pick an iconic Southern person, place, thing or event and write about it.

“I chose to write about voodoo in New Orleans for my final project,” Seckman said. “I called some shops down there and had these crazy conversations with some crazy people that I would have never talked to before. He gave us free rein and let us get creative with it.”

Getting the students to be engaged intellectually and to care about the subject that they are writing about is how Thomas said he influences his students’ greater understanding of writing.

“If you are interested in the topic, if you want to know more about it, then you are going to do better,” Thomas said. “But getting them to care about language—the way we communicate—is a big challenge. But if you can do that, then you are kind of there.”

Thomas said that his favorite parts about teaching are getting to know the students and watching them improve their writing over the course of the semester.

“They do not have to be Faulkner when they walk out of my class, but if they can walk out of the class and feel like they have accomplished something, then that makes it worthwhile.”

An Ethical Proposition for UM

Posted on: March 16th, 2015 by erabadie

Alumni donate to strengthen curriculum in ethical reasoning

March 16, 2015

UM alumni Frances and Hume Bryant (right) and Bruce and Mary Betsy Bellande (left) of Oxford, Miss. enjoy a ten day cycling trip through the Provence region of France in 2014 while sporting their UM jerseys.

Hume Bryant and his wife, Frances, have established the Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Hume Bryant Lectureship in Ethics Endowment through a recent pledge and gift of real estate. The new endowment will offer faculty support to enable additional ethics courses across disciplines, allowing more UM students to ponder ethical queries through academic instruction and carry strengthened reasoning skills into their post-academic life.

“Ethics courses help students learn to think and decipher all the grey areas between what we call ‘right and wrong,’” said Bryant. “If you don’t learn how to think critically, you probably shouldn’t be in a position to make important decisions. For instance, it came out recently that corporate managers knew about an automobile malfunction that killed people but were afraid to say anything. How does that happen? I think people sometimes make decisions without considering the ethical consequences.”

Chancellor Dan Jones (left) and Interim Dean of the College of Liberal Arts Richard Forgette (right) thank Frances and Hume Bryant for their gift creating an endowment to support the teaching of ethics at the University of Mississippi.

Bryant, a 1964 engineering graduate, enjoyed his years at UM from youth through graduation. The son of a university professor and administrator, his childhood home was where Lamar Hall now stands, and he attended University High School, housed in what is now the music building. As an undergraduate he participated in the band playing the flute and piccolo.

The band is still my favorite part of the game day experience,” he said.

He met his first wife, Barbara Kalif, at UM. After graduation, Bryant was assigned to the Strategic Air Command in New England where he ended his active duty tour as a captain. After earning a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University, he embarked on a 25-year career with Southern Pacific railroad that moved the couple to San Francisco, where they raised two children, William and Michelle.

Barbara Bryant passed away while they were living in California. After moving to Chicago and Fort Worth, Hume Bryant retired to Oxford in 2000.

I loved the cities I lived in, but grew tired of the commotion,” he said. “I was very fortunate to come home to a place like Oxford.”

But as a young man, Bryant was eager to expand his horizons.

“We have a very complicated history,” Bryant said of the university and Oxford. “Growing up, there was often talk among my family about issues that were not necessarily popular, but were very important. I know now that these discussions were really about ethics.”

Bryant’s family played a major role in UM’s history. His mother, Willie Hume, was the niece of Alfred Hume, the first chancellor to possess an earned doctorate. Hume served UM for nearly 60 years as a professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, two-term chancellor and three appointments as acting chancellor. He is credited for preventing Gov. Theodore Bilbo from moving the university to Jackson.

His father, W. Alton Bryant, was chair of the Department of English, provost and later vice chancellor. He is noted for encouraging fellow administrators during the tumultuous period of integration to “be concerned about how rules were implemented and the effects of carrying them out as much as their literal meaning.”

Bryant also noted another key influence, the Rev. Duncan Gray, Jr. While rector from 1957 to 1965 at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Oxford, Gray became a motivating figure during James Meredith’s admission. Gray was among a minority of outspoken Mississippians regarding the ethical dilemma of integration. During a Sunday morning sermon the day of the 1962 riot, Gray told his congregation, “No university in the world would defend this position rationally, and no Christian church would defend it morally.”

That evening, Gray moved throughout the angry mob, removing bricks from hands and encouraging people to go home before he was overtaken by a mob and beaten.

“I was in Carrier Hall as the riot started, then went to the Sigma Nu house,” Bryant remembered. “Some fraternity brothers and I tried to misdirect potential trouble makers coming to the campus. Thinking back over that time, I realize that while I still did not necessarily associate ‘ethics’ with the incident, I did know that Reverend Gray followed his beliefs at great risk to his person – and did what was right – regardless of the consequences. I was so impressed with his actions that the following spring, I went through confirmation classes with Reverend Gray and joined St. Peter’s.”

Today, Bryant serves Oxford by volunteering on the Oxford Tree Board. His tenure has helped acquire almost $200,000 in Mississippi Forestry Commission grants for the community. He enjoys gardening, nature, biking and lives near the downtown square in walking distance to his favorite places, including the UM campus and St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.

He is not alone on his walks and bike rides, however. Through mutual friends, Bryant met Frances Byars King and the two were married in 2013. Frances Bryant attended UM from 1976 to 1980 studying marketing. She has spent her career in sales and works for AirMedCare, the largest independent air medical network in the nation.

“We are two polar opposites,” said Frances Bryant. “I’m very spontaneous, while Hume is the consummate planner. But that works very well for us. I was so proud when he wanted to establish this lectureship. It’s a good fit, and captures an essence of him that I care for deeply.”

Steven Skultety, chair and associate professor of the Department of Philosophy and Religion, was pleased to hear UM alumni established the lectureship to highlight the importance of ethics in a liberal arts education.

“Many people believe ethics can teach us nothing because they assume values are subjective, unscientific and up to each person,” said Skultety. “It is incredibly important that our university helps students understand that constructing a persuasive ethical argument demands as much logical reasoning and unbiased attention as conducting a scientific experiment or creating a mathematical proof. After all, when they enter the work world, our graduates will inevitably face decisions and dilemmas that will call upon their critical skills and familiarity with ethical principles.”

UM offers environmental, biomedical, and general survey ethics courses to undergraduates and legal ethics within the School of Law. However, as yearly offerings average only one section per year, availability is limited.

Skultety believes the Bryant Endowment will help address that need.

“With guidance from the College of Liberal Arts and the Office of the Provost, we plan on using this gift to create a position for a full-time ethicist,” said Skultety. “Not only will this position lead to more classes being offered but also will promote greater coordination among faculty teaching ethics in some capacity. A full-time ethicist will increase visibility for ethics on our campus, and he or she will serve as the point-person for anyone studying ethics in a scholarly way. The prospect is very exciting.”

On a larger scale, this gift represents foundational beliefs about the importance of a liberal arts education that were shared by Hume Bryant’s predecessors.

“On behalf of our university community, we thank Hume and Frances Bryant for their generous support,” said Morris Stocks, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. “This gift will strengthen our liberal arts faculty and help provide meaningful opportunities for our students to develop critical thinking skills and find moral purpose as they endeavor in their academic and career pursuits. The Bryant family has a long legacy of leadership at the University of Mississippi, and we are truly grateful for their commitment.”

Frances Bryant has a daughter, Cade King Clurman, living in Annapolis, Md. and a son, Trey King, in Inverness, Miss. The Oxford couple enjoys visits with their five grandchildren, planning their new home and traveling abroad with Mary Betsy Bellande, Hume Bryant’s sister, and her husband Bruce.

Individuals and organizations can make gifts to the Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Hume Bryant Lectureship in Ethics Endowment by mailing a check with the fund noted in the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, 406 University Avenue, Oxford, Miss., 38655; visiting http://www.umfoundation.com/makeagift; or contacting Denson Hollis, senior development officer for the College of Liberal Arts, at 662-915-5092 or dhollis@olemiss.edu.

Katie Morrison

Bruce Levingston: An Undivided Artist

Posted on: February 18th, 2015 by erabadie

Populi Magazine Interview with UM Chancellor’s Artist in Residence Bruce Levingston

February 3, 2015 | By Eleanor Anthony | ecanthon@go.olemiss.edu

Bruce Levingston

Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Bruce Levingston, world-renowned pianist and native Mississippian who has contributed a great deal to the University of Mississippi with both his time and talent. He was kind enough to answer a few questions with regards to his life and work, his new role at the Honors College and Department of Music, as well as his performance and presentation at the Spring Honors Convocation on February 10th, 2015, and an Honors Conversations Course he is teaching in Spring 2015.

Two excerpts from the interview by Eleanor Anthony, a mathematics and philosophy major and an editor of Populi Magazine follow. Click here to read the full interview.

Can you tell me a bit about your start as a musician and what ultimately brought you to Ole Miss?

I grew up in a nearby town called Cleveland, located in the Mississippi Delta. I started playing when I was four, and then my mother gave me my first piano lessons. Eventually I went on to study with some fantastic teachers around the world; my career now is as a concert pianist, and I have lived most of my adult life in New York City. A few years ago, the Chancellor and other friends connected to Ole Miss reached out and asked me if I would come here to see the campus. I had not been to Oxford since I was a boy, and I was quite surprised by how much development had occurred and how much the university had grown. After a few visits and performances, the Chancellor asked me to come here as his adviser of the arts, and that led to my meeting Dean Douglass Sullivan-González; after we came to know one another, DSG asked me if I would become a fellow in the Honors College, and so I did that for a year, and enjoyed working with him very much, and that led to my being offered a Chair in the Honors College in the humanities that was recently established thanks to a generous gift by Ruff Fant, whose father taught here many years. I am officially titled the Chancellor’s SMB Honors College Artist in Residence and am also the Artist in Residence for the Department of Music. So this gives me the opportunity to work with some of the great musicians here on campus as well as some of the great students at the Honors College. And sometimes they are one and the same! So, that’s a lot of fun.

I know you are very active in terms of collaborating with other artists—could you tell me about some of the recent collaborations on which you’ve worked?

So one of the most important and thrilling things I’ve been able to do since I’ve been on campus is to work with some of the great artists that are here in different areas. I’ve already had a chance to work with some of the superb musicians in the music department, and we are going to collaborate further on a performance that I will be giving on March 27th at the Ford Center where the amazing singer Nancy Maria Balach will come on to the program with one of her superb students and perform with me as well as Jos Milton, the wonderful tenor, and Robert Riggs, chair of the music department and a terrific violinist. I had a chance also to work with the great percussionist Ricky Burkhead on Thacker Mountain Radio which was a marvelous collaboration. But I also think of the arts not divided into writing or music or painting but as just one thing. We really are a part of the same family. So when I first came, I had the opportunity to meet Beth Ann Fennelly, the acclaimed poet, and her husband, Tom Franklin, a brilliant novelist. We immediately set out to collaborate on some works about words and music. I even wrote a piece that was based on their novel called The Tilted World. And we gave a performance in New York City together; they will also come on the program with me in March and read, and I will play some things inspired by their words. I have also had the chance to work with the Southern Foodway Association and to collaborate with great artists like Kevin Young, the Pen Faulkner Award-winner, and Justin Hopkins, a superb opera singer from Philadelphia, on a wonderful project based on the words of Booker Wright, an important figure from the Civil Rights era from Greenwood, Mississippi. We recently performed that, and I think it was a very special collaboration. We will perform it next year in New York City at Carnegie Hall. To be able to engage with other artists really makes life fulfilling because it helps one feel a part of the whole artistic community.

Read more here.

Teaching Success in Mississippi

Posted on: August 20th, 2013 by erabadie

Meet two alumni, Jonathan Cornell and Cortez Moss, who stayed in state to teach.

Mississippi Teacher Corps’ Jonathan Cornell

Mississippi Teacher Corps
Former linebacker Jonathan Cornell now tackles teaching Meridian High School students African American literature and public speaking for the Mississippi Teacher Corps, a two-year program offering noneducation graduates teacher training and job placement in critical needs schools in Mississippi along with the opportunity to earn a master’s degree at the University of Mississippi School of Education free of charge.

Cornell grew up in Azusa, California, and received a football scholarship to UM where he earned a B.A. in political science in 2011. “He’s extremely positive and wants to share his experiences,” said Aaron Johnson, acting Teacher Corps program manager. “He came from a challenging background, became a successful football player, and then a teacher in a critical needs school. He reaches out to students and teaches in an almost coaching fashion.”

Cornell uses techniques learned on the field and in the classroom. “I knew we were reaching him when he started drawing parallels between theories of international conflict and football,” said Susan Allen, associate professor of political science. “I have no doubt that his students in Meridian are starting to make connections between the things they learn in Mr. Cornell’s class and their everyday lives.”

For one of Allen’s classes, Cornell remembers submitting drafts of a research paper while the professor repeatedly asked him to reevaluate his work with questions such as “Why do you think this?” and “Why do you propose that?” Today he brings the same challenge to his students. He also applies his football experience to his new career. “I remember Coach O used to always tell us ‘be a pro’,” he said. “I didn’t fully understand until I joined the Teacher Corps. As a teacher you have to be a pro every day with all that you do.”

Not unlike athletes, teachers review their performance on video and address strengths and weaknesses as classroom leaders during the program’s rigorous summer training. “You’re thrown out there and you either sink or swim. The majority of us end up swimming but a few end up sinking,” Cornell said. “That strengthens you.” The UM School of Education recognized Cornell’s success with its student of the month award last February.

Cortez Moss Teaches for America

Teach for America
Cortez Moss completed his first year teaching English as Greenwood High School Teacher of the Year.

The University of Mississippi Hall of Fame student from Calhoun City (B.A. public policy leadership and English, ’12) became interested in the career when he spoke to the Mississippi House of Representatives’ education committee about charter schools. “After that, I understood the challenges the state faced providing all children with high-quality education, and I had to do something different and it wasn’t through policy,” Moss said. “I knew I had to be a classroom teacher to make a difference.”

Moss is a member of Teach for America, a national corps of leaders who commit to teach for two years in low-income communities to ensure that kids receive an excellent education. His first choice location was the Mississippi Delta and he plans to remain long after his commitment is up.

“I think my students understand the reason I am in the Delta, that I am a Mississippi boy and face challenges like they do,” said Moss, who eventually wants to become a school administrator. “As an African American male, I can say that I’ve done this and it’s possible for you to do the same—but it takes hard work.

“Looking back on my college experiences, every Associated Student Body meeting and public policy leadership class challenged me to think outside of the box to convince and educate; that is the art of teaching in the Mississippi Delta. I do that every day now. I am eternally grateful for those experiences.”

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Students Spent Spring Break Digitally Mapping Vercelli Manuscript

Posted on: April 3rd, 2013 by erabadie

Group visited Italy as part of UM’s Lazarus Project

The Lazarus Project team in Vercelli, Italy. Photo by Mary Stanton

Four University of Mississippi students recently traded sunshine and relaxation for ancient manuscripts and the chance of a lifetime.

The three sophomores and one freshman, all students in the university’s Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, spent spring break in Vercelli, Italy, digitally mapping a 10th century text called the Vercelli manuscript as part of the Ole Miss Lazarus Project. The medieval text is one of four major works of Old English writings and includes sermons and poems such as “Dream of the Rood.” The text was damaged by a 19th century attempt to use chemicals to make the faded text more legible, and the imaging the students performed will help restore some of that lost writing.

The team of young researchers and scholars are using multispectral images and ultraviolet light to study ancient manuscripts such as the Vercelli manuscript (10th century) and the Globe Map of Vercelli (late 12th century). Led by Gregory Heyworth, UM associate professor of English, the team photographs the manuscripts with a 50-megapixel camera, specially designed multispectral lights and filters, and specialized imaging software to recover portions of the text invisible to the naked eye.

“Working with these documents, it’s unreal,” said Leigh Anne Zook, a sophomore international studies and intelligence and security studies major from Huntsville, Ala. “These are priceless artifacts, and thinking of how few people have seen these, and the ones who have are experts in their fields, and me as a sophomore being able to work with these manuscripts – it’s not even a trade-off, it’s an absolutely wonderful experience.”

Other sophomores were Eleanor Anthony, a mathematics and philosophy major from Jackson, and Elizabeth Wicks, a French and pharmacy major from Ocean Springs. Freshman Meredith Oliver, a pharmacy major from Collierville, Tenn., also participated.

While in Italy, the students also were able to assist in imaging a 12th century map of the world, or mappamundi, one of only 12 in existence.

Previously, the Lazarus Project took students to Washington, D.C., where they examined a possible William Shakespeare signature, and to Dresden, Germany, where their efforts revealed writing in another unique medieval manuscript, “Les Eschéz d’Amour” (The Chess of Love), a long 14th century Middle French poem thought until recently to have been too badly damaged during World War II to be recovered.

Since its inception, the Lazarus Project has used its portable multispectral lab to analyze several documents, including the Skipwith Revolutionary War Letters, which were donated to Ole Miss by Kate Skipwith and Mary Skipwith Buie, great-granddaughters of Gen. Nathanael Greene; and the Wynn Faulkner Poetry Collection, 48 pages of early poetry written by William Faulkner between 1917 and 1925 that were donated by Leila Clark Wynn and Douglas C. Wynn.

For more information, visit the Lazarus Project.

Cinema Studies Minor Presence Grows

Posted on: February 8th, 2013 by erabadie

Steeped in literary tradition, University of Mississippi and Oxford look to support visual storytelling and independent movie making with a cinema minor and a fast growing film community.

Like digital filmmaking, the cinema minor is steadily making its mark on campus as one of the largest and quickest growing minors.

Long gone are the days of the clicks and cranks of cameras and editing machines.

Instead the new visual storyteller is liberated by digital cameras and laptops. With just a great story and these relatively low-cost tools, international film festivals have seen new and diverse stories emerging, and the same situation is occurring on the UM campus.

This budding minor seems to have already found its legs.

“I’m seeing voices coming from all cultures of Mississippi,” said Alan Arrivée, theatre professor and director of the cinema minor.

He describes much of the student work as realistic in process, but possibly with a Southern Gothic influence or biblical references. Some emerging stories are “things that cut against the grain of the culture.”

As part of this program, the university has the UM Cinema Competition where students apply and submit proposals for monetary awards to help realize what they envision.

Students submit scripts, storyboards and budgets among other things in categories of narrative, musical, dance and documentary.

The best of these works are then showcased in the spring in “An Evening of Cinema” in Meek Auditorium.

This year the showcase will take place April 4-7 and there will be an A and B program so each work screens twice. This alteration is in response to a packed house and sold out shows last year.

The minor is an opportunity to complement many majors on campus.

Faculty teaching for cinema also teach English, history, theatre, southern studies, religious studies and gender studies. The curriculum is well rounded as students learn critique and analysis as well as hands-on applications in scriptwriting, cinematography and all aspects of the production process.

Arrivée said he sees excitement and groups forming to produce works, similar to what one would see in any film school. He sees that energy and excitement transfer to students who “do best when they don’t see (the project) as an assignment.”

“I want this to be empowering,” he said.

Most kids would be afraid of watching horror films in the dark at 6 years old, but they form part of an early memory for English major Mack-Arthur Turner Jr.

Growing up, he and his family shared movie watching experiences with western, drama and actions genres.

In his first semester at UM, Turner took a film studies class where he put critical analysis and vocabulary to all those years of being a movie fan.

That same year, the cinema minor started and Turner began exploring visual storytelling as well as majoring in English.

Turner hopes that more students explore classes in the minor and that classes reflect the diversity on campus and not continue have film making only look to male-dominated Hollywood.

He feels Mississippi stories can compete on an international level.

“We should use the Mississippi experience to connect to the world,” he said. “It’s possible to connect with people in Belize or parts of Africa or Ecuador, especially with subjects of poverty, or health and social issues, it resonates with them.”

Besides the minor and Oxford Film Festival adding to the culture, the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council Film Endowment has been created which Arrivée describes as a “Junior Austin Film Society.”

The council hopes to support the budding film culture in Oxford, set up educational opportunities and attract filmmakers to the region.

Arrivée sees students staying in Oxford to make films after graduation. The Film Council will have an editing bay and equipment cage that will help complement what is available to cinema minors.

So as the independent film scene opens up to more people, it’s never been a better time for UM students to tell their stories and attempt to create the great American film.

Traveling Exhibit Celebrates 400th Anniversary of King James Bible

Posted on: May 15th, 2012 by erabadie No Comments

A unique traveling exhibition celebrating the 400th anniversary of the first printing of the King James Bible in 1611 is coming to the University of Mississippi.

“Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible,” will be on display at the J.D. Williams Library beginning May 29. The exhibit examines the little-known story behind one of the most widely read books in the world.

“We are delighted to have been selected as a site for this exhibition,” said Julia Rholes, UM dean of libraries. “The captivating history and influence of the King James Bible will interest many viewers.” The library is among only 40 locations throughout the country selected to host the exhibition. The successful application benefited from the support of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and the departments of Philosophy and Religion, English, and History.

“The library hopes that this exhibit will help viewers gain a better understanding of how the book influenced 400 years of our culture in surprising ways,” said Melissa Dennis, outreach and instruction librarian and assistant professor. “This is not an exhibit designed for just one discipline. People from different departments on campus and members of the local community may examine the display in different ways.”

The exhibit includes high-quality reproductions of rare and historic books, manuscripts and works of art from the collections of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., and the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. Full of rich images and information, the exhibition consists of 14 graphic panels combining narrative text with numerous high-resolution images of rare books, manuscripts and works of art, printed on double-sided, freestanding banners. It not only focuses on the fascinating story of the Bible’s creation but also examines the book’s afterlife and its influence on personal lives and local communities.

“While I love the history of the translating and writing of the King James Bible, the most fascinating aspect to me personally is how the language and worldview represented there is still influencing our world today,” said Christina Torbert, head of serials and associate professor. “We hear echoes of well-loved phrases in sermons, literature, politics and casual conversations. As a society, we are still having similar conversations about the power of government and the church’s role in politics and law.”

The King James Bible influenced literary works in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Many authors have demonstrated the influence of the language and style of the King James Bible on their work; among them John Milton, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

In conjunction with the exhibit, Archives and Special Collections will display some interesting Bibles from the collections and other materials related to religious and biblical influences in Southern history and culture.

The traveling exhibit was organized by the Folger Shakespeare Library and the American Library Association Public Programs Office. It is based on an exhibit of the same name developed by the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Bodleian Library, with assistance from the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas. The exhibit was made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

“Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible,” will be on display on the first floor of the library during regular hours through June 29. For more information on the exhibit, visit http://www.manifoldgreatness.org/.

Study in South Africa is ‘Life Changing’ for Liberal Arts Senior from Oxford

Posted on: November 28th, 2011 by erabadie No Comments

Alexandria Denton of Oxford, a senior at the University of Mississippi, is studying this semester in South Africa. She has had a lot of surprises since her arrival there in July but perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that she is in love with the country and its people.

“It’s hard to describe such a life-changing experience,” Denton said. “Africa has taught me more about myself than I could have ever imagined. It’s strange how being so far from home has shed so much light on my life. When I leave Africa in a few weeks, I know a piece of my heart will always be here.”

A member of UM’s Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, Denton is majoring in liberal studies in the College of Liberal Arts, with minors in English, psychology and religious studies. She is enrolled this semester at Stellenbosch University in the Western Cape of South Africa. Her courses, which count toward her UM degree, include history of South Africa, public theology and Learning for Sustainable Community Engagement. She lives in on-campus housing with South African and other international students.

Travel on weekends and fall break has broadened her world and brought new adventures, including whale watching in Hermanus and the Cape of Good Hope, and going on a
10-day camping safari throughout Botswana and Zimbabwe. (more…)