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Law School’s Affiliated Faculty Program Brings Innovative Approach to Scholarship, Teaching

Posted on: October 24th, 2014 by erabadie

October 22, 2014

The University of Mississippi School of Law recently approved its first four affiliated faculty as part of the law school’s new affiliated faculty program: John Green from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology; Steven Skultety from the Department of Philosophy and Religion; and John Winkle from the Department of Political Science, and Robert Mongue from the Department of Legal Studies.

“The Law School’s new Affiliated Faculty Program is meant to promote creative collaborations in teaching, research and service between law faculty and other UM faculty,” said Jack Nowlin, associate dean for faculty development and professor at the law school. “There is so much scholars from different fields can learn from working with each other. Our work only gets better when we collaborate across disciplines.”

The law school hopes this program will increase collaborative activities such interdisciplinary participation in the law school’s academic workshop program, joint sponsorship of speaking events, joint research projects and team-teaching.

UM faculty recognized as law school affiliates will appear on the law school’s faculty page with that title and will also receive special invitations to attend law school speaking events and participate in workshop programs.

Each of the law school’s four new affiliated faculty members is an outstanding UM faculty scholar with a solid history of interdisciplinary collaborations with the law school.

Professor John Green is an associate professor of sociology and director of the Center for Population Studies. His interests include community development, health and health care, limited resource and minority farmers, and the social dimensions of disaster. He has worked with the law school’s transactional clinic and engaged in joint research projects with Professor Desiree Hensley.

“I am elated to be an affiliated faculty member with the School of Law,” Green said. “As a research center director and faculty member in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, I am working on a wide range of applied programs in community development, agrifood systems and health. This association with the School of Law has expanded the reach of my work and my professional connections.”

Steven Skultety is an associate professor of philosophy and chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion. Professor Skultety’s interests lie in ancient philosophy, especially the work of Aristotle, and in republican and democratic theory. Skultety’s collaborations with the law school include co-sponsoring speaking events and regularly participating in the law school’s faculty writing groups.

“Philosophy and law both rest on an ability to make clear and persuasive arguments,” Skultety said. “Whenever I work with my colleagues in the Law School, I’m struck by how much we have in common. Anyone who attends one of our co-sponsored events – like our annual Constitution Day talk or the Jack Dunbar lecture in philosophy and law – will also see the similarities. As an affiliated faculty member, I’m looking forward to continuing my own collaboration with law professors, and I’m also excited to search for new ways the Law School and the Department of Philosophy and Religion can work together.”

John Winkle is professor emeritus with the Department of Political Science. Over his 40 year career, he has taught courses on constitutional law, judicial politics the American legal process, and many other topics. He has published numerous articles on wide range of subjects such as lobbying by federal judges before Congress, state-federal judicial councils and the political role played by the administrative office of the U.S. courts. Winkle’s long history of collaborations with law faculty include team-teaching, participating in joint speaking events and circulating drafts to law faculty for comment.

“I am delighted to be a law school faculty affiliate and look forward to continued work with my colleagues in the law school,” said Winkle. “Some of my fondest associations over the years have been with active and retired law school faculty whom I am pleased to call my friends.”

Robert Mongue, associate professor of legal studies, has had over 30 years’ experience practicing law in addition to his academic accomplishments. He specializes in paralegal education and is the author of the “Empowered Paralegal” book series. His collaborations with the law school include giving guest lectures, organizing interdisciplinary speaking events and working on projects to better integrate graduate and undergraduate legal education.

“I look forward to the opportunity to strengthen the bond between the law school and the Legal Studies Department, especially the Paralegal Studies Program,” Mongue said. “While my previous communications have focused on those of our students who intend to apply for admission to law school, I think that it would be just as helpful to both paralegal students preparing for careers as paralegals and law students preparing for careers as attorneys to engage each other during their education for purposes of improving their working relationships when that education is complete.”

UM faculty interested in collaborative opportunities with the law school should contact Associate Dean Jack Nowlin. UM faculty may apply for affiliated faculty status by sending Dean Richard Gershon a curriculum vitae along with materials highlighting recent collaborative activities with law faculty. A copy of the law school policy is available here: Affiliated Faculty Policy.

Learn more about these affiliated faculty members on the faculty directory page.

SEC Announces 2014-15 Academic Leadership Development Program Fellows

Posted on: October 13th, 2014 by erabadie

OCTOBER 9, 2014 | BY UM COMMUNICATIONS STAFF

Forty-eight faculty members and administrators from Southeastern Conference universities have been selected as 2014-15 SEC Academic Leadership Development Program fellows.

The SEC Academic Leadership Development Program is a professional development program that seeks to identify, prepare and advance academic leaders for roles within SEC institutions and beyond. It has two components: a university-level development program designed by each institution for its own participants, and two three-day, SEC-wide workshops held on specified campuses for all program participants.

This year’s workshops will be Oct. 13-15 at the University of Missouri in Columbia, and Feb. 18-20, 2015, at Texas A&M University in College Station.

The SEC ALDP is managed locally by a liaison, who is designated by provosts to serve as the primary point of contact on each campus. Liaisons lead their fellows through the yearlong SEC ALDP and organize university development opportunities.

“The SEC ALDP, through formal workshops and on-campus activities, aims to provide future academic leaders the opportunity to learn and develop the skills needed to meet the challenges of academic leadership,” said Peter Ryan, the program liaison at Mississippi State University and chair of the SEC ALDP.

Since its inception in 2008, SEC ALDP has graduated more than 230 faculty and academic administrators, and program alumni have become deans and provosts at universities around the SEC and country, including Laurence Alexander from the University of Florida’s 2012-13 cohort who is chancellor at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

The SEC Academic Leadership Development Program is part of SECU, the conference’s academic initiative. SECU serves as the primary mechanism through which the collaborative academic endeavors and achievements of SEC universities are promoted and advanced.

The 2014-15 SEC Academic Leadership Development Program fellows are:

Lisa Lindquist Dorr, University of Alabama, associate dean of social sciences, College of Arts & Sciences
Diane Johnson, University of Alabama, senior associate dean, Culverhouse College of Commerce
Alice March, University of Alabama, associate dean for graduate programs, College of Nursing
Joseph Phelps, University of Alabama, department chair, Communication & Information Sciences
Micah Hale, University of Arkansas, associate department head, Civil Engineering
Bart Hammig, University of Arkansas, department chair, Health, Human Performance & Recreation
Cynthia Sagers, University of Arkansas, associate vice provost for research, Biological Sciences
Kathryn Sloan, University of Arkansas, department chair, History
DeWayne Searcy, Auburn University, director, School of Accountancy
Bret Smith, Auburn University, interim associate dean for academic affairs,
College of Architecture, Design & Construction
Ana Franco-Watkins, Auburn University, undergraduate program director, Department of Psychology
Mark Law, University of Florida, director, Honors Program
Robert Ries, University of Florida, director, M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Building Construction
Melissa Harshman, University of Georgia, director, First Year Odyssey Program
Stephen Miller, University of Georgia, director, Bioimaging Research Center
Judith Wasserman, University of Georgia, director, Advanced Visualization Initiative
Kimberly Ward Anderson, University of Kentucky, associate dean for administration & academic
affairs, College of Engineering
Karen Badger, University of Kentucky, associate dean of academic & student affairs, College of Social Work
Kathryn Cardarelli, University of Kentucky, associate dean for academic & student affairs, College of Public Health
Andrew Hippisley, University of Kentucky, director, Linguistics Program
Jacqueline Bach, LSU, Elena & Albert LeBlanc Professor, English Education & Curriculum Theory
Troy Blanchard, LSU, associate dean, College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Joan King, LSU, undergraduate curriculum coordinator, School of Nutrition & Food Sciences
Meghan Sanders, LSU, associate dean for sponsored research & programs, Manship School of Mass Communications
Virginia Rougon Chavis, chair of the University of Mississippi Department of Art
Amy Wells Dolan, University of Mississippi, associate dean, School of Education
Steven Skultety, chair of the University of Mississippi Department of Philosophy & Religion
Donna West-Strum, University of Mississippi, department chair, Pharmacy Administration
David Dampier, Mississippi State University, director, Distributed Analytics & Security Institute
Mark Lawrence, Mississippi State University, associate dean, College of Veterinary Medicine
Rebecca Long, Mississippi State University, interim associate dean, Graduate School, College of Business
David Morse, Mississippi State University, interim department head, Educational Psychology
Heidi Appel, University of Missouri, senior associate director, Honors College
Bryan Garton, University of Missouri, associate dean, College of Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources
Christopher Hardin, University of Missouri, department chair, Nutrition & Exercise Physiology
Matthew Martens, University of Missouri, interim division executive director, College of Education
Christy Friend, University of South Carolina, director, Center for Teaching Excellence
Augie Grant, University of South Carolina, J. Rion McKissick Professor of Journalism
Robert Ployhart, University of South Carolina, Bank of America Professor of Business Administration
Sara Wilcox, University of South Carolina, director, Prevention Research Center
William Dunne, University of Tennessee, associate dean for research, College of Engineering
Bruce MacLennan, University of Tennessee, Faculty Senate president
Brent Mallinckrodt, University of Tennessee, associate dean for graduate studies, College of Arts & Sciences
Lane Morris, University of Tennessee, associate dean for undergraduate programs & student affairs, College of Business Administration
Richard Kreider, Texas A&M University, department head, Health & Kinesiology
Kirsten Pullen, Texas A&M University, director of graduate studies, Performance Studies
David Threadgill, Texas A&M University, director, Whole Systems Genomics Initiative
Douglas Woods, Texas A&M University, department head, Department of Psychology

Consciousness Conference Begins Sunday

Posted on: April 25th, 2014 by erabadie

by Maggie McDaniel
Courtesy of The Daily Mississippian
April 25, 2014

Donovan Wishon

The “Conscious Thought and Thought About Consciousness” conference will be held at the E.F. Yerby Conference Center on April 27-30.

The conference, hosted by the University of Mississippi Department of Philosophy and Religion, Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts and University Lecture Series, will introduce the university and community to work being done in consciousness studies, according to Donovan E. Wishon, assistant professor of philosophy and creator of the conference.

Wishon remarked that this is one of the most exciting areas of interdisciplinary research.

“What’s particularly remarkable about this event is that it will draw together scholars with vastly different views about consciousness, thought and the methods we should use to come to grips with the mind, its workings and its relation to physical reality,” Wishon said.

The conference participants will include leading philosophers and cognitive scientists who hope to better the public understanding of human and animal consciousness. Many of these scientists are of the highest distinction across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

Kenneth J. Sufka

The conference will include Kenneth J. Sufka, professor of psychology and pharmacology and research professor at UM. Sufka will be debating the question of whether some animals possess the same kind of complex states of consciousness seen in humans. According to Sufka, this question is debated among science and philosophy circles.

The conference will begin with a presentation, followed by a commentator who will address aspects of the talk, which will finish up with a Q&A period.

Sufka expressed that Wishon made a tremendous effort to bring “heavy hitters” to campus.

“It’s going to be a wonderful collection,” Sufka said. “Never has there been anything like this in the state of Mississippi that brings an all-star cast of philosophers and scientists working on this problem of consciousness.”

Bryan Harper, philosophy graduate student, will be attending the conference and is looking forward to the speakers’ discussion on consciousness.

“Some of the most brilliant minds in philosophy and neuroscience are coming to illuminate, wonder and debate about the subject here at Ole Miss,” Harper said.

Wishon came upon the idea of of the consciousness conference after working on a separate conference in the fall of last year. As a Ph.D student at Stanford University, he served as the graduate student coordinator for the Stanford Humanities Center Gaballe Workshop on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Consciousness. From serving as a coordinator, Wishon knew many philosophers and cognitive scientists working in consciousness studies, which happens to be one of the areas of his own research.

Once Wishon got some to agree to attend the conference, he then developed a line-up of leaders with diverse views on the nature of consciousness and the best techniques of studying it. Finally, he targeted the cutting-edge work on the topic being done by neuroscientists and philosophers in the region.

Wishon hopes the conference will teach the students more about consciousness.

“The conference is intended to educate the students at The University of Mississippi and the general public of Mississippi about how philosophy, and the humanities in general, can work side-by-side with the sciences to answer fundamental questions about who we are and what our place is in the world,” Wishon said.

Consciousness Conference Bringing World-Class Experts to Campus

Posted on: April 16th, 2014 by erabadie

The University of Mississippi hosts the “Conscious Thought and Thought About Consciousness” conference April 27-30, bringing world-class philosophers and cognitive scientists to campus.

The event is scheduled for the E.F. Yerby Conference Center, and all events are free and open to the public.

Leaders in several fields, including philosophy and neuroscience, will converge on campus to promote cutting-edge work in hopes of creating better understanding of human and animal consciousness, its relation to the brain and how humans think about sentient beings, among other topics, said Donovan Wishon, UM assistant professor of philosophy.

“What’s particularly remarkable about this event is that it will bring together scholars with vastly different views about consciousness, thought and the methods we should use to come to grips with the mind, its workings and its relation to physical reality,” Wishon said. “What’s more, the conference is intended to educate the students and the general public about how philosophy, and the humanities in general, can work side-by-side with the sciences to answer fundamental questions about who we are and what our place is in the world.”

The event is sponsored by the UM departments of philosophy and religion, and psychology, and the university’s College of Liberal Arts, the Office of the Provost, University Lecture Series and Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. It’s also co-sponsored by the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Mississippi Philosophical Association and the Mississippi State University Department of Philosophy and Religion.

For more information, click this link to a website devoted to the event. For assistance related to a disability issue, contact the UM Department of Philosophy and Religion at 662-915-7020.

VIDEO: Students’ Vercelli Book Restoration

Posted on: October 18th, 2013 by erabadie

Eleanor Anthony

When Eleanor Anthony visited Vercelli, Italy, last spring, she was smitten with damaged 10th century manuscripts that she and others from the University of Mississippi were there to help recover. Little did she know that six months later, she would be presenting a plan to make those documents legible at an international conference in London.

Anthony, a junior mathematics and philosophy major from Jackson, was the only undergraduate student presenter at the DigiPal Symposium in mid-September at King’s College London. The conference, hosted by the King’s College Department of Digital Humanities, attracted notable paleographers and scholars from around the globe.

“After Stewart Brookes and Peter Stokes, the conference organizers, notified me that I was accepted to speak at the symposium, I was thrilled,” said Anthony, who spoke for 20 minutes about a correlation and probabilistic-based approach to transcription methods of damaged manuscripts. “I knew it would be a fantastic opportunity to meet scholars working in the field of digital humanities and see their research.”

As part of the Lazarus Project, a UM program specializing in the multispectral imaging of cultural heritage pieces, Anthony visited the Museo del Tesoro del Duomo in Italy. It was there she first laid eyes on the Vercelli Book and discovered what has become one of her life’s passions.

“I have always found data and narrative to be fascinating,” Anthony said. “As humans, we participate in a conversation that extends through time and encompasses all human endeavor. It’s amazing to interact with manuscripts that record the contributions of previous generations.”

While studying the Vercelli Book and conducting spectral imaging on the book’s text, the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College student learned the importance of finding ways to successfully transcribe old data and manuscripts. Upon her return home, Anthony submitted a written summary of her own proposal for how transcription methods can be improved to the DigiPal Symposium. Her abstract was accepted.

“This 10th century Anglo-Saxon manuscript suffered physical damage due to the application of a chemical reagent during early transcription efforts, and as a result, large swathes of the text are completely illegible,” Anthony said. “After processing the spectral images, we are left with data that can be used in correlation-based approaches for text identification, and it is these methods, combined with contextual analysis, that should lead to a better understanding of the text.”

Eleanor Anthony and other Lazarus Project participants discuss the Vercelli Book
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Her presentation touched on the history of the Vercelli Book and the Archimedes Palimpsest, as well as the basic mathematics behind the system she hopes to extend and implement while addressing the current problems within the data being researched now by the Lazarus Project. Anthony’s work is being hailed as “groundbreaking” by her mentor and sponsors.

“It is incredibly rare for an undergraduate paper to be selected for an international conference. It speaks to the uniqueness and quality of Eleanor’s research,” said Gregory Heyworth, UM associate professor of English and director of the Lazarus Project. “The character-recognition techniques that she is developing for damaged manuscripts are cutting-edge work, something that is appropriate for Ph.D. candidates or professors.

“Add to that the fact that the manuscript she is working to recover, the Vercelli Book from the 10th century, is the oldest example of Anglo-Saxon literature in existence, and scholars are bound to take notice.”

Douglass Sullivan-González, dean of the Barksdale Honors College, agrees.

“Eleanor’s success represents what can happen when a high-performing student takes advantages of the doors of opportunity here at Ole Miss,” he said. “Eleanor’s intellectual curiosity, her philosophical drive combined with unparalleled support from Professor Heyworth, the SMB Honors College, Liberal Arts and the Provost Office produced an extraordinary moment for an undergraduate: presenting and defending a research topic at a graduate-level conference in the U.K. We are very proud of Eleanor’s stellar accomplishment.”

Vercelli Book

Anthony’s London presentation impressed those in attendance, but she was equally impressed by those she heard there.

“A particular highlight of the trip was speaking with Donald Scragg, a well-known authority on the Vercelli Book,” she said. “He has devoted most of his academic career to studying this manuscript, and I was excited to discuss my research with him. I found him to be enthusiastic about the project, especially in the sense that I will be recovering missing information that is not capable of being visually analyzed.”

She was also delighted to meet Brookes and Stokes and hear about their work on DigiPal, a digital resource and database of paleography and manuscripts.

“They seem to be doing really exciting work at the Digital Humanities Department at King’s College London,” Anthony said.

Listening to and interacting with both traditional paleographers and computer scientists discussing their research methods and text analysis proved very useful in Anthony’s own research.

“I learned much from the speakers on a wide variety of topics,” she said. “I was also happy to receive positive responses from the audience after giving my talk, with several useful recommendations for improvements I might consider. It is my intention to apply to present at conferences in the future as my research progresses.”

Anthony’s presentation will serve as the primary research leading to the design and implementation for her capstone project and honors college thesis entitled, “Archimedes’ Palimpsest to the Vercelli Book: Dual Correlation and Probabilistic Network Approaches to Paleography in Damaged Manuscripts.” Her ultimate goal is to create a computer program that will offer a transcription method for damaged text in manuscripts using word-level correlation approaches and sentence-level contextual analysis.

“On the whole, I think the experience will prove to be invaluable to be as I move forward with the project and in my study of digital humanities,” she said. “I am so appreciative of the opportunity to attend and present.”

The Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, the College of Liberal Arts, the English department and the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs sponsored Anthony’s travel to London.

Rabbinic Scholar W. David Nelson to Discuss ‘Race, Religion and the Realities of Reading the Bible’

Posted on: September 4th, 2012 by erabadie No Comments

W. David Nelson, a noted scholar of rabbinic literature and the Hebrew Bible at Groton School in Massachusetts, will discuss how the Bible has been used out of context in the past to promote anti-Semitism during a Thursday (Sept. 6) public lecture at the University of Mississippi.

Norton’s lecture, “Say Again!: Race, Religion and Realities of Reading the Bible,” is set for 5:30 p.m. in the Overby Center auditorium. The next day (Sept. 7), the scholar will participate in an informal discussion with faculty and students on how the Bible has been misused to advance racist agendas.

“Dr. Nelson’s presentation is the first in the lecture series, titled ‘Intertwining Legacies: Jews and African-Americans in the Deep South,’” said Kirk Johnson, UM associate professor of sociology and African-American studies. “The goal of the lecture series is to bring together scholars, students and community members to explore anti-Semitism, racism and the shared and divergent histories of these two groups.”Other scholars scheduled include Sander Gilman, an internationally-renowned cultural and literary historian from Emory University, who will address the twin legacies of anti-Semitism and racism in the deep South on Oct. 25; and Jonathan Kaufman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of “Broken Alliance: The Turbulent Times Between Blacks and Jews in America,” who will speak Feb. 6 on the historic relationship between Jews and African-Americans.

Last year, the UM Critical Race Studies Group, an interdisciplinary collection of scholars working to address racial and ethnic inequities on campus and in academia, applied for an Association for Jewish Studies-Legacy Heritage Jewish Studies Project grant to explore the complex relationships between African-Americans and Jews in the South. The proposal, written by Willa Johnson, associate professor of sociology, was funded for $22,000. The university is among only four institutions in the United States to receive this award for the 2012-13 academic year.

“As a teacher of Jewish studies, I know it is important for the University of Mississippi to join other flagship institutions of higher learning in the South in raising awareness of the powerful and important impact of Jews upon our culture,” Johnson said. “I am equally aware of the sacrifices of Jewish men such as Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, who in 1964 died fighting for civil rights alongside James Chaney, an African-American.

“As an African-American woman, I have lived long enough to witness what hate does to marginalized people. Three of my uncles fought, and one of them died, to liberate Jews from tyranny in Europe during World War II. Even if all three had survived the war, they would have been among the nearly 1 million returning African-American soldiers who were denied these same liberties by an ungrateful nation.”

Looking at race in Mississippi and the nation as a whole is particularly important at this time, said Jeffrey Jackson, associate professor of sociology.

“As we acknowledge the 50th anniversary of James Meredith’s enrollment at the University of Mississippi, we need to recognize the commonalities of racially-oppressed groups that still exist to this day,” Jackson said. “All have had similar experiences of being marginalized in society. African-Americans and Jews have historically strongly supported each other in their respective struggles for civil rights and equality.”

After earning his bachelor’s degree in religious studies from the University of Virginia, Nelson received both a master’s degree in Bible and cognate studies and a doctorate in rabbinic literature and thought from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Before going to Groton, he served as a member of the faculty in the Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern studies program at Washington University and as Rosenthal associate professor and director of Jewish studies at TCU and Brite Divinity School. Nelson has both studied and served as a visiting research professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2004-05, he was awarded its Yad Hanadiv/Beracha Foundation Visiting Fellowship in Jewish Studies.

With a specialized interest in ancient and medieval Jewish biblical interpretation, Nelson is the author of numerous scholarly articles and book chapters and has published the first English translation and commentary of the Mekhilta d’Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai, an anthology of early Jewish interpretation of the biblical book of Exodus. He is co-authoring two books: “Exodus: Echoes and Reverberations in Jewish Tradition” and “Exodus in America: White Jewish and Black Christian Experiences of Exodus.” He is an active member of the American Academy of Religion and chairs the Midrash Section for the Society of Biblical Literature.

Co-sponsors lending support to the lecture series include the university’s African-American Studies Program; Center for the Study of Southern Culture; College of Liberal Arts, particularly the departments of history, philosophy and religion, and sociology and anthropology, and the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies; School of Law; Trent Lott Leadership Institute; and William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation.

The Legacy Heritage Jewish Studies Project is designed to foster relationships between scholars and the public and to highlight relationships between Jews and other cultures. For more information, visit http://www.ajsnet.org/legacy.htm.