UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE AT CHATTANOOGA COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
SPRING 2020
T Message
Dean
from the
Joe Wilferth Interim Dean College of Arts and Sciences
he College of Arts and Sciences proudly offers a 21stcentury liberal education that prepares students for life after graduation. Through a liberal arts education, students are prepared for global complexities, diversity in its various forms and change along our social, scientific, and cultural horizons. Our current students and alumni are gifted communicators, creative problem solvers, excellent researchers, productive collaborators/team members, and they cultivate over time a sense of social responsibility. And what a year! I am so proud of the exceptional work of our faculty and the outstanding educational opportunities that they provide for our students. Our students are proving themselves as successful interns with local businesses and regional organizations. They are participating in, presenting, and publishing research in their areas of study. They are traveling overseas and bringing back to campus stories of their rich experiences. They are even elbows deep in the College’s L.L. Roper Teaching and Learning Garden. In short, our faculty and our students are heavily involved in experiential learning. UTC’s College of Arts and Sciences is an exciting place to work and learn! Successes in this current academic year include record student enrollment in the College, the launch of our new Music Therapy program which opened its doors as an accredited program, the launch of our college-level Student Success Center (The Hub) that aims to shore up advising and retention efforts and increase rates of degree completion, intentional succession planning and the successful recruitment of outstanding faculty and department heads, the creation of a new position for a college-level Grants Administrator – Welcome, Ashley Ledford! – who will help us increase sponsored or funded research by our faculty, the successful reaccreditation of our Master of Public Administration program, and the successful reaccreditation of our undergraduate Communication program. In the pages that follow, you will find representative activities and initiatives that demonstrate a broad array of what we offer our students, our academic communities and, by extension, the Chattanooga region. Read, be inspired, and connect with us in the weeks, months and year ahead! Celebrate our accomplishments with us, and visit our homepage (www.utc. edu/cas) from time to time and keep up with what’s happening in the College of Arts and Sciences. We’re already looking forward to 2020-21!
Publication Resources
EDITOR Sarah Joyner
ASSISTANT EDITOR Amanda Clark
Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Stephen Rumbaugh ART DIRECTOR Lynn Newton WRITERS Shawn Ryan, Megan Shadrick,
Gina Stafford, Chuck Wasserstrom
PHOTOGRAPHER Angela Foster COVER PHOTO Troy Stoltz
2 | method
U
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is a comprehensive, community-engaged campus of the University of Tennessee System. UTC is an EEO/AA/Titles VI & IX/Section 504/ADA/ADEA institution.
Table of Contents 4 News & Notes
6 Music as Medicine 10 Award-Winning Photographers 12 His and History: Richard Rice Cartoons and Cartooning 14 Measuring Success 16 Good Vibrations 18 Department Notes
20 Accolades 22 Graduate Lands Competitive International Fellowship 23 UTC Grad Chosen for Prestigious Fellowship 24 English Professor Wins Inaugural Distinguished Writing Award 25 SouthWord and the Southern LIT Alliance 26 Roland Carter Earns International Award 28 A Lasting Legacy 32 Not So Foreign 35 A New Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences 36 Faculty News 37 Achieve Scholars
The College of Arts and Sciences broadens student education by emphasizing experiential learning, research, internship opportunities, study abroad and community collaborations. spring 2020 | 3
Students in Mike Andrews’ Television News Production, September 2019 at the Athletic Sports Complex near Engel Stadium, Chattanooga.
arts
news & notes sciences features
6 | method
Music as Medicine By Sarah Joyner
Chattanooga native Katherine Goforth Elverd returned to the city after working as a practicing music therapy clinician in pediatric settings and teaching music therapy at the university level. spring 2020 | 7
Martha Summa-Chadwick
T
ennessee’s first public university program of its kind prescribes music as medicine. The much-anticipated music therapy major launched at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in Fall 2019 and already has surpassed enrollment goals. Chattanooga native Katherine Goforth Elverd—“Katie” or “Professor Goforth” to her colleagues and students— returned to Chattanooga after working as a practicing music therapy clinician in pediatric settings and teaching music therapy at the university level. Goforth now serves as the music therapy program director. She was instrumental in bringing the new area of study to UTC, but the path to get here wasn’t an easy one. Serious talks began when Goforth and Erlanger Hospital Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing Jed Mescon met with UTCs Department of Performing Arts leaders to explore collaborating for a potential program. Goforth’s argument for music therapy and data proving its community impact so impressed UTC Head of Performing Arts Stuart Benkert that he immediately scheduled a second meeting with University administrators. “Before the presentation was even over, Gerald Ainsworth, the provost at the time, looked at me and said, ‘We need this program, make it happen,’ so I said, ‘Yes sir,’” Benkert explains. Goforth says clinical music therapy has a strong presence in Nashville, but she believes there’s a great need for it locally. Before the undergraduate music therapy program came to UTC, the closest public program was at the University of Georgia, “So we were losing students to a neighboring state,” she adds. Kennedi Walz would have been one of those forced to look elsewhere. The Manchester, Tennessee native took advantage of Tennessee Promise by earning an associate’s degree in music from Chattanooga State, but she always had her sights set on music therapy. After completing the two-year degree, she was torn between UTC and the University of Georgia. “I had heard the program [at UTC] was possibly a thing, so I came to UTC on hopes and dreams,” Walz says. When it officially began in fall 2019, Walz was ready.
8 | method
The program is built for a diverse student population with various educational backgrounds. Students can enter as first-time freshmen, transfer into the program or come to the program after earning another bachelor’s degree in a complementary discipline—nursing, special education or music education, psychology or social work, to name a few. As part of the program, Walz is spending a lot of time working in the Chattanooga community through multiple practicum experiences. She says those, by far, have been her favorite part of the program. “We get a taste of a different population each semester. Last semester I was with older adults participating in a Parkinson’s choir, the Trembling Troubadours, that Professor Goforth directs at Life Care Center of Hixson and I loved it, Walz explains. “So I’m kind of broadening my perspective.” Walz plans to graduate from the program in summer 2021 after completing her final practicum. “If everything works out well, I will be one of the first to graduate from this program with my bachelor’s,” she adds. PLANTING THE SEEDS FOR MUSIC THERAPY IN CHATTANOOGA Although many locals see the value in music, their perceptions of what music therapy is tend to be mistaken. Many assume if a musician is brought into a space where music is not normally found—someone playing piano in a hospital lobby or a guitarist visiting patient rooms—that this is music therapy, but it’s not. These are examples of “music enrichment,” Goforth says. “We’re not going in and providing music that we want to provide, we’re not going in and bringing instruments that we want to provide, we’re bringing instruments and repertoire that will effectively target the non-musical goals of the client that we are working with,” Goforth says. She describes visiting a child who is in pain in the intensive care unit. “I would approach that situation by first assessing the pain level on a scale of 1 to 10, then assess their heart rate, respiration rate, overall oxygen saturation levels. Because based on my education and knowledge, I know how music affects all of those different
parameters,” she explains. “I would match the music to the child’s behavioral responses. So if their heart rate is up, if they’re moaning or grimacing, if they’re crying, I’m going to match my tempo. I’m going to match the volume of my guitar and my voice to alternate the focus of their attention. To get their brain off the pain and onto the music. Then I’m going to shape that musical experience to get them to a more relaxed state.” AN ALUMNUS AND A SCHOLAR BECOMES AN ADVOCATE UTC alumna Martha SummaChadwick ‘96 has a doctorate of musical arts and as a scholar has studied, practiced and advocated for music therapy for years. Her work in the field began when she was teaching piano at Cadek Conservatory of Music. One of her students has a sister with autism, and the student’s parents asked SummaChadwick to work with the four-year-old sister. The four-year old was nonverbal at the time and Summa-Chadwick admits that lessons were a struggle at first. Their lessons took a turn for the better when Summa-Chadwick tapped into one of the girl’s interests: computers. She began using a computer program to teach the girl how to read music. As the student grew more comfortable with communicating through music, and singing along, her verbal skills increased drastically, according to Summa-Chadwick. After that experience, she was hooked. “I’ve become more and more sold and impressed with the fact that if we can seriously incorporate music into education and health care, we can revolutionize education and healthcare,” Summa-Chadwick explains. From pain management to Parkinson’s. From helping someone speak to helping someone walk. Music strikes a chord with the brain that opens doors and unlocks potential, and the neuroscience backs it up. “When I first got into this I just said this is really cool,” Summa-Chadwick adds, “but the more I see it, the more I say we have to move this way as a society. It can help millions of people. We just need to do it.” n Hear more of Martha Summa-Chadwick’s story at utc.edu/cas-music-therapy
spring 2020 | 9
Award Winning
TROY STOLT PHOTO
UTC student photographers make unprecedented showing at Hearst Photo Competition
The
collective work of photojournalism students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has achieved an unprecedented 7th-place ranking among a field of 75 universities throughout the United States in the prestigious Hearst Photo One News and Features national photo competition. The recognition marks the first time UTC photojournalism students have achieved a collective ranking in the competition. This year also brought the highest-ever individual rankings for the work of UTC student photographers, and UTC was the smallest university in the contest. Troy Stolt, a Chattanooga senior majoring in integrated studies
10 | method
and who recently completed a fall 2019 internship with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in Missouri, took 10th place individually. Photos by Elian Richter, a Hendersonville, Tennessee, senior majoring in communications, took 17th place in individual scoring. Rankings are based on accumulated point values assigned to entered photographs. Stolt’s and Richter’s individual rankings are unprecedented for UTC student competitors. The students are taught by UTC faculty member, Billy Weeks, a longtime professional photojournalist who was director of photography and graphics at the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Their photographs, along with those by fellow UTC student photographers, were among a field of 138 entrants from institutions including Michigan
State University, Arizona State University, Western Kentucky University, the University of Missouri and the University of North Carolina. Stolt says he “really didn’t know anything about photojournalism until he took Professor Weeks’ course.” “I think about that a lot because, if there had been a different class with openings, maybe I wouldn’t be on the path that I am now,” Stolt says. “Billy has gone above and beyond what is to be expected of a professor when it comes to me. He saw something in me that I never saw in myself and has spent countless hours teaching me—sometimes he taught me about photography and reporting, but more often than not he was teaching me to be a better human
ELIAN RICHTER PHOTO TROY STOLT PHOTO
being. He really believes in not only me, but all the students he teaches and their potential to be great someday.” Richter also praises Weeks, calling him “an amazing photojournalism professor.” He said he intends to pursue photojournalism as a career after graduating in May. “I hope to work for a newspaper for a couple years to get the experience that I need and then after that see where the job takes me,” Richter says. Placing in the Hearst competition has increased his confidence, “If I work hard, there might be a chance that I could do this for real once I get out of college, which is really encouraging. But I’ve also realized that I need to work probably 10 times harder to make sure that happens.” The Hearst Journalism Awards
have been recognizing outstanding performance in college-level journalism for 60 years. In addition to photojournalism, the competition included writing, radio, television and multimedia content with a total of $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends awarded in 2019. The 2019 photojournalism judges included Carolyn Cole, foreign national photo correspondent, The Los Angeles Times; Mark Morris, independent visual consultant, California; and Luis Rios, director of photography, San Antonio ExpressNews of Texas. The 104 member universities in the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions. n
spring 2020 | 11
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
His and history: Richard Rice cartoons and cartooning
“Don’t worry – that’s just Dad’s drone.”
12 | method
B
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
efore he sends one of his single-panel cartoons to The Wall Street Journal for possible publication, Richard Rice hands them to his wife. “She’s my first editor,” says Rice, professor emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. “I give her my latest batch and, if she laughs, I make a little mark on the cartoon. If she doesn’t laugh, it just stays there. She’s gotten very good at predicting what The Wall Street Journal will probably buy.” Rice, who has been drawing cartoons and selling them since 1975, has had cartoons published in Saturday Evening Post, The New York Times Travel section, Esquire, The Chronicle of Higher Education, even Good Housekeeping. Several years back, The Pulse, the alternative newsweekly in Chattanooga, published a series of his cartoons called “Weasel Cheese.” It may seem a bit odd that someone who taught history—specifically focusing on Asian history— would have such a DNA-level love of cartoons, but he says it’s been there since he was a kid. It grew out of his inescapable love to “doodle,” he says, a habit that followed him from grade school through high school and into college. Whether it was drawing on notebook paper in class or napkins while eating or printed information sheets in “boring committee meetings,” he just couldn’t help himself. He says he now has “thousands of pages” of drawings.
“I’m not ready for commitment – I prefer ‘catch and release’.”
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
by Shawn Ryan
His cartoons are “social commentary,” he says, insisting that he doesn’t purposely draw political cartoons. But he acknowledges they can be read as having political undertones. “The world gets crazier all the time, and I have more ideas than publishing opportunities,” he says. For the past few years, though, his primary focus for publication has been The Wall Street Journal, where he sends batches of 10 cartoons on a monthly basis. This year has been especially good, he says, with the newspaper publishing at least one a month. “One month they bought four,” he says. He only knows that the newspaper published any of his cartoons when he receives a check the month after they’ve run, he says, and the only way he knows which ones were used is by looking at the paycheck. “The title of the cartoon will be on the top of the check,” he says. Along with the cartoons, Rice also has taken up watercolor painting since retiring from teaching in 2012. “In retirement, you have time for the creative pursuits,” he says. “The cartoons pay for the watercolors.” He finishes at least one painting per week, he says, and prefers landscapes. At this point, he has completed about 600 paintings with a goal of 1,000. “Like everything else, it’s a lot of practicing, but I’m having a lot of fun.” n
“He can’t get his mind around the woke thing.” spring 2020 | 13
MEASURING SUCCESS
18 hours a semester, member of volleyball team, 3.6 GPA
By Chuck Wasserstrom
W
hen your nickname is “Dani Pants,” you’re showing the world you can laugh at yourself. And when your last name is tough to spell and even harder to pronounce, you often must put an exclamation point on that good sense of humor. During December UTC commencement ceremonies, Dani Szczepanski (pronounced zuh-PANT-skee, by the way) received a bachelor’s degree after double-majoring in criminal justice and psychology. She recorded a 3.6 GPA while completing her undergraduate course load in 3½ years. And she managed to accomplish that while playing middle blocker on the UTC volleyball team. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Szczepanski made the most of her seven semesters at UTC. She is described by those who know her as a high-energy, alwaysupbeat, genuinely friendly individual. “‘Joy’ is my favorite word, so I always try and take that on,” she says. “When I’m around people, I’m high-energy and talkative. I always want to have them see me smile. Anyone that I see wave at me or walk past me if I’ve seen them before, I’m like, ‘Hey! What’s up?’ “The people from here are why I came to Chattanooga in the first place. Meeting the coaching staff and the former athletes that were here before me was an awesome experience. Coming to this city and seeing the beauty of it and all that it has to offer, it’s just like a little hidden gem. I loved being able to come here.” You can even sense her friendliness when checking out her social media platforms. You have to be a happy person to go through life as @dani_pants4. “Yeah, I got that ‘Dani Pants’ nickname early,” she says. “I played club soccer for most of my life, so my teammates gave me that nickname. I was a goalkeeper, so it fits. That, and people don’t usually know how to say my last name. The nickname is fitting.”
14 | method
On the serious side, it’s one thing to double major; it’s entirely another to be a student-athlete and accomplish that feat in 3½ years. “Honestly, I’m not sure why,” says Szczepanski, who has found her name on both the Southern Conference honor roll and the conference’s all-academic team. “I initially started with a double major and a minor and decided to drop my minor because it was a lot. Criminal justice and psychology are both areas I have a high interest in. “I’ve usually taken six classes every semester, 18 hours a course load. I feel like it’s not that much just because I’ve had to do it every semester, and it’s been fine. More of it has just been finding time to finish my homework. That’s been the biggest challenge for me, but one of the great things about being a student-athlete is the set schedule that you have. I know the amount of time I have to get my homework completed.” The dream for Szczepanski is to build upon her two majors and eventually join the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “Criminal justice and psychology work well together, and they work well with what I want to do,” she says. “Both of those together would help a lot in life, and so I decided to go for both. I want to be in the FBI. I have already applied to a college initiative hiring program, so that’s my first step. Everybody’s path into the Bureau looks different, so there’s really not a set way that I would get in. It’s just seeing where it takes me, how I get there.” Szczepanski, though, admits she is keeping all options open. With one semester of athletic eligibility remaining, she stayed on campus and took political science classes in spring and played on UTC’s inaugural beach volleyball team. She is considering going to law school. Or “I might just be
Dani Szczepanski played middle blocker on the university volleyball team and made the Southern Conference’s all-academic team.
done with school and just go job hunting and see where the world takes me,” she says. “Seeing what is open for me after this is exciting. I’m nervous because I don’t know where I’m going to wind up. I’m a little bit of a planner, so that scares me, but I’m also really excited because I love a good adventure.” As a student-athlete, volleyball played an enormous part in Szczepanski’s UTC experience. On the volleyball court, she played in 116 matches and 409 sets during her time with the Mocs. Team sports are more than just athletics, they are very educational. Thanks to volleyball, Szczepanski says she learned many life skills that will be beneficial to her moving forward. “Oh my gosh, probably all of the ones that I have, I learned here,” she says. “Time management is a big one, for sure. Organization, team skills, team building, leadership, and then I would say discipline in the little things. That’s something that Travis (Filar), our coach, really harps on a lot. I feel like, not only in a volleyball aspect but also in life, just paying attention to the details. Get the small things done, and the big things will follow.” And maybe, just maybe, that big thing of joining the FBI will follow somewhere down the road. Instead of “Dani Pants,” she was asked, perhaps there’s a “Dani Pantsuit” in her future? “Ooh, I didn’t think of that one,” she says, laughing. “That’s funny.” n
“GET THE SMALL THINGS DONE, AND THE BIG THINGS WILL FOLLOW.”
spring 2020 | 15
Good Vibrations Seismometer on campus detects tiny vibrations in Earth, even from Hurricane Dorian By Shawn Ryan
W
hen North Korea fired off its nuclear missile test on Sept. 3, 2017 Jon Mies could pinpoint the exact moment the launches took place. How? An earthquake-detecting seismometer on the UTC campus picked up vibration, which showed up as a spike on the machine’s readings. “It was small, tiny. I had to look pretty hard for it. But sure enough, we’ve got a little ‘tick,’ ” Mies says. “That’s a man-made earthquake. Gosh, it’s tragic, but interesting in the way that we could detect it.” Mies’ eyes practically sparkle when he starts talking about the campus seismometer and how it’s sensitive enough to read the slightest earthquake tremor— known as a microseism— even though it’s measured in nanometers. “They’re vibrations so small, we don’t sense them,” says Mies, UC Foundation R.L. Wilson professor in biology, geology and environmental science. “I can tell the difference between the Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule here and the Tuesday-Thursday schedule because everyone moving on campus shakes up the ground.” While the equipment is used in classes that deal with earthquakes, it recently picked up information on the effects of Hurricane Dorian from an earth-shaking point of view. The information collected had nothing to do with the strength of the storm or its destructive power, but the data revealed wave patterns on the ocean and how they were—or weren’t actually— affected by Dorian. It’s easy to see waves generated by the hurricane as they rush toward the coast, Mies explains, but once they hit the coast, new waves rebound back to the ocean and it’s very hard to see them. The rebounding waves hit the incoming waves and the collision creates a water column that moves up and down, exerting pressure on the ocean floor.
16 | method
“It’s pulsing, kind of like doing CPR on the ocean floor, and that is causing the vibration in the earth’s crust that is radiating from that spot,” Mies says. The vibrations were picked up by the seismometer at UTC. Like a proud papa, Mies points out the machine’s readings. The three lines, which look like the waveforms from software that opens an audio file, are different colors—green is up/down, red is north/ south, blue is east/west. The thickness of the lines reveals the size of the tremors and, while Dorian’s wave-generated tremors were pretty much constant, coming every six or seven seconds, they were miniscule in comparison to a true earthquake. At this point, seismometers can’t detect a hurricane’s strength; a Category 4 storm generates the same wave pattern as a Category 1. “You’ve got a lot of variables here,” Mies says. “You’ve got the storm’s distance from the coast; you’ve got the shape of the coast—I actually think that’s very important— you’ve got water depth. They’re almost never controlled. A storm comes and Mother Nature doesn’t comply very well.” So what’s the practical uses from detecting the waves’ microseisms? Not much right now, Mies acknowledges, but that’s doesn’t mean they’re useless. “Right now what we’re talking about is largely an academic interest. Academics tend to relish this kind of thing, but it probably has hidden uses. Along those lines, it will have applications somewhere else. It’s not like it’s without purpose, we probably don’t see those purposes yet. “And that’s the way a lot of this works. There’s a lot of science that begins sort of esoteric and lo and behold there’s an application of it somewhere. Somewhere way back in the history of Corningware, some other scientist said, ‘Wait a minute, this material is marvelous. Let’s make this out of it.’ Something like that.” n
The equipment that John Mies uses can detect earthquakes on the other side of the Earth.
spring 2020 | 17
MATHEMATICS WELCOMES NEW DEPARTMENT HEAD, CHRISTOPHER L. COX Christopher Cox came to UTC in July 2019 from Clemson University where he was professor and chair of the Mathematical Sciences Department. In his final year at Clemson, the department transitioned to the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, with Cox as the acting director. From freshman calculus to graduate-level numerical analysis, Cox has taught courses at all levels. His research interests are primarily in the area of modeling of fluid flows, including filtration and polymer processing, often using finite element methods. Cox has a Ph.D. in mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University.
COMMUNICATION HEAD NOMINATED FOR AND RECEIVES FELLOWSHIP Felicia McGhee, interim head of the Department of Communication, is one of nine people nationwide selected to participate in the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s Institute for Diverse Leadership in Journalism and Communication. The institute focuses on increasing the number of people of color and women who serve as chairs, deans, directors and endowed chairs in journalism and communication education. It also works to increase the number of women and people of color who hold professorships as well as sit on educational and professional board seats with journalism and communication organizations. “It is my sincere hope to take all of the skills I learn from this fellowship and apply them here at UTC,” McGhee says. “I love this institution and I want to be the best leader I can, for our department and the University.”
NEW DIRECTOR/CURATOR HIRED FOR UTC CRESS GALLERY Rachel Jobe Reese scheduled to be finished in fall 2020. Reese will help joined UTC as director guide the gallery’s plans for increasing the number and curator of the Cress of exhibitions as well as initiatives to create deeper Gallery of Art in January. connections with both the campus and Chattanooga “I’m excited to get as a whole. on campus and engage She also will oversee the care, maintenance, and with the energetic management of the University’s permanent collection faculty artists and of art and will teach one undergraduate course per students,” Reese says. year. “It’s a very exciting Reese was at Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia, time for contemporary from 2015-19 where she led the permanent collection art in Tennessee and of modern and contemporary art. Before Savannah, Chattanooga. I’m thrilled to bring my passion for she curated exhibitions at the Atlanta Contemporary contemporary art and artists in the Southeast to UTC Art Center, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery in Philadelphia through artist-driven conversations, and I’m looking and Deitch Projects, Petzel Gallery and Andrew Kreps forward to joining new colleagues in the city and state Gallery in New York City. that already share artist-centric missions.” She has a master’s degree in fine arts from City The Cress Gallery is inside the UTC Fine Arts College of New York and a bachelor’s degree in fine Center, which is undergoing a major renovation that is arts from the University of Georgia. PHOTO: RAINA JACKSON
18 | method
CONGRATULATIONS TO ETHAN MILLS, ELECTED PRESIDENT OF STATE PHILOSOPHY ORGANIZATION Ethan Mills, assistant professor of philosophy and religion, was elected president of the Tennessee Philosophical Association for 2020. Mills is the second person from UTC to serve as president of the TPA since its formation in 1969. Brian Ribeiro, UC Foundation professor of philosophy, held the position in 2014. “The TPA’s main goal is to create a community of philosophers from across Tennessee. I’m glad to be part of this community, and I look forward to doing my part to maintain it and maybe even expand it in 2020,” Mills says.
HISTORY PROFESSOR ONE OF HANDFUL IN COUNTRY TO WIN FELLOWSHIP Fang Yu Hu, an assistant professor in the UTCs Department of History, is one of 66 women in the country to be awarded a fellowship this year from the American Association of University Women (AAUW). Hu is using the $6,000 award — given only to women in academia — to help her finish a book manuscript. “I was thrilled when I heard that I was awarded this prestigious fellowship,” Hu said. “It will help me complete my book manuscript on Han Taiwanese girls’ education under Japanese colonialism from 1895 to 1945.” She also will continue to teach as a full-time faculty member in the history department. For the 2019-2020 academic year, AAUW is awarding a total of $4 million through seven fellowships and other grants programs to 259 scholars, research projects and programs promoting education and equity for women and girls. “AAUW’s fellows and grantees have made major contributions to our society and to the world at large,” says Kim Churches, the chief executive officer of AAUW. “These trailblazers are breaking the mold in nontraditional fields and redefining what leadership looks like. AAUW is proud to support them with the resources they need to excel.”
spring 2020 | 19
faculty alumni students friends
accolades 20 | method
UTC ROTC students are commissioned into the U.S.Army May 2019 at Coolidge Park, Chattanooga.
spring 2020 | 21
Recent graduate lands competitive international fellowship By Megan Shadrick
C
intly Guzman Hernandez is one of 75 Americans selected for the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals. The Honors College student who graduated with a degree in chemistry will spend about nine months in Germany, studying the language and participating in an internship to learn more about the country’s recycling and environmental programs. She hopes to bring her new knowledge back to Chattanooga to help the city in the future. “I’ve met German people but it’s easier and faster to learn about their culture and language by being immersed in it,” she says. The fellowship begins with language school for two months and continues with four months of study in the student’s respective field. About 540 people from the United States applied to participate in this
22 | method
highly competitive program. The application process includes references, writing a short essay and having experience in your field. The program chooses students with clear career goals, relevant experience and a strong interest in German and world affairs. Hernandez is a fan of all things German. Her father has worked for German companies most of his life and she says she’s developed an appreciation for the country through the many German people she has met. Hernandez credits her research and interview preparation, as a few of the factors as to why she got the internship, but her mentor Gretchen Potts, UC Foundation professor of chemistry also gave her a leg-up. “Dr. Potts was a great mentor. She was really helpful in helping me gain experience in my field.” n
UTC grad one of three chosen for prestigious fellowship By Shawn Ryan
R
achel Emond, immediate past-president of the UTC Student Government Association, is one of three people in the country to be awarded a Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellowship. She was chosen from a field of 108 applicants who graduated from 79 U.S. universities located in 33 states. The Scoville Fellowship, established in 1987, is a competitive, national fellowship program that provides recent college and graduate school alumni with the funding and opportunity to work for six to nine months with senior-level policy experts at one of more than two dozen leading think tanks and advocacy groups in Washington, D.C. Emond was to work with Alexandra Bell, senior policy director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington, D.C. Emond is focusing on a project that explores making nuclear policy a relevant issue to women in the 21st century. She graduated summa cum laude from UTC in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in political science with a concentration in international relations and comparative studies. She also was an Innovations Scholar and earned a highest honors designation from the Department of Political Science. Her honors thesis—“American Foreign Policy has a Masculinity Problem: A Discourse Analysis of the Iran Deal”—explored the use of gendered rhetoric by politicians, policymakers and journalists when discussing the Iran Deal, questioning the implications of such language. Emond served in the UTC Student Government Association for four years at UTC. While serving as president, she advocated on behalf of students on issues related to diversity and inclusion, campus safety, Title IX and sexual assault, the rising cost of tuition, and housing policies. While at UTC, Emond also interned at Bridge Refugee Services and participated in two service-learning abroad internships, spending one month in Cambodia working with the nonprofit Youth for Peace and helping local middle and high school-aged students emotional intelligence and goal-setting. She also spent a month in Limuru, Kenya, working with HIV-positive entrepreneurs. After graduation, she worked for the City of Chattanooga’s Office of Workforce Development, focusing on city residents with the highest rates of unemployment and lowest rates of household income. n spring 2020 | 23
UTC English professor wins inaugural distinguished writing award By Shawn Ryan
A
UTC professor of English has been awarded the inaugural Barnett Prize for Local Distinguished Author from the Southern Lit Alliance. Richard Jackson, UT National Alumni Association Distinguished Service professor, says being chosen “means a great deal.” “It makes me realize how many really fine writers there are in Chattanooga and grateful that Southern Lit Alliance works through several programs to encourage this. It makes me thankful to be a part of it all,” he says. The Barnett Prize will be awarded annually to recognize the outstanding achievement of authors in the Chattanooga area and to raise awareness of their talent, says Lynda LeVan, executive director of Southern Lit Alliance. “There’s many successful local authors that are unknown in this town and we wanted to bring light to the quality of the work,” LeVan says. Jackson, who has been at UTC since 1976, has published 25 books, including 15 books of poems, most recently Broken Horizons in 2018, Traversings
24 | method
in 2016 and both Retrievals and Out of Place in 2014. He was awarded the Order of Freedom Medal for literary and humanitarian work in the Balkans of southeast Europe by the president of Slovenia for his work with the Slovenebased Peace and Sarajevo Committees of PEN International, a worldwide writers group. He also has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National Education Association and National Endowment for the Humanities. AT UTC, he directs the Meacham Writers’ Workshop, a nationally recognized conference that offers advice and critiques for developing writers. The Barnett Award is funded by Warren Barnett, art philanthropist and president of the Barnett and Co. investment firm. The two other finalists for the award were UTC’s Earl Braggs, Herman H. Battle
professor of African American Studies in the English Department, and Jamie Quatro, a faculty member at Sewanee: University of the South. “Chattanooga has a great history of artists and writers from Bessie Smith and Ismael Reed to Raymond Usher, and contemporaries like the other two finalists, Earl Braggs and Jamie Quatro,” Jackson says. “I am humbled and proud to be mentioned among them.” n
SOUTHWORD RETURNS TO UTC OCTOBER 30-31, 2020 The SouthWord Literary Festival is two-day event hosted by the Fellowship of Southern Writers and presented by Southern Lit Alliance and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Featuring New York Times best-selling author, Tayari Jones, and with more than 40 members of the Fellowship of Southern Writers—poets, playwrights, fiction and nonfiction writers—in attendance, readers and writers connect for a powerful experience. Learn more about the festival’s workshops, panel discussions, book signings and more at southernlitalliance.org/southword.
spring 2020 | 25
UTC Professor Emeritus Roland Carter earns international award By Shawn Ryan
I
n June 2019, UTC professor emeritus and retired music faculty member Roland Carter walked across the stage in New York’s Lincoln Center and was handed a Master of Spirituals Award for his work preserving the religious music of African Americans. His reaction to the international prize? “What can I say? I really think I’m overrated,” Carter says with a large laugh. “I think people give me far too much credit for what I’ve been able to do or have done.” But then he says, in the spirit of giving thanks, just like some of the songs he has lovingly tracked down, arranged and preserved over the decades: “It’s a great feeling to be recognized for those achievements.” The Master of the Spirituals Award is hardly the only prize Carter, who retired from UTC in 2013 after 23 years, has received over his decades-long career. And, though he no longer participates in the day-to-day activities at UTC, he still teaches through near-constant requests for his skills as a conductor, composer, performer and musical authority.
26 | method
Among his celebrated arrangements are “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” “In Bright Mansions Above” and for the poem “Hold Fast to Dreams” by Langston Hughes. In fact, one of the great thrills of the awards ceremony in New York, he says, was hearing eight of his works performed by a choir of international singers. “Just to have your works performed by those guys, it was exhilarating to listen to them play the works as their own. When I write a piece, you don’t necessarily have to do it my way. You have to bring something of yourself to it. “I only ask that you don’t change my notes; don’t change those,” he says with another laugh (he laughs a lot). “Let your spirit come through in terms of your interpretation.” These days, a good bit of his time centers on his nonprofit organization, the Roland Carter Institute for Studies in American Music, which supports artists performing and preserving African American music. As part of the institute’s work, he’s in the process of cataloguing about 3,000 pieces of choral, spiritual and other musical pieces. “I’ve got all the stuff in boxes and file cabinets,” he says. “So that’s what I’m about these days.” n
“Let your spirit come through in terms of your interpretation.” —Roland Carter
spring 2020 | 27
A Lasting Legacy
28 | method
AFTER LEADING THE UTC ROTC, MAJ. KEVIN BEAVERS TRANSITIONS FROM ACTIVE-DUTY SOLDIER TO ACTIVE-DUTY DAD
by Sarah Joyner
W
hen Maj. Kevin Beavers talks about what he’s learned from his 13-year career in the U.S. Army, his cadets and his time at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, his pride is infectious. Although he has a long list of pride points encompassing all three of those areas, one standout is his description of a leadership style he learned during his days as an officer: “servant leader.” In a few short sentences, he describes the servant leadership mentality, but the quick comments speak volumes. Officers always eat last at dinner in the cafeteria, he explains, because they serve dinner to the soldiers. Heaps of food are spooned onto each soldier’s plate as they come down the serving line and small conversations strike up. After every soldier is served, the officer can finally reach for a plate. “The micro conversations that take place over that one scoop of mashed potatoes mean everything,” Beavers adds. Since 2017, when he came to UTC to lead the ROTC program as associate professor of military science, he’s done his best to emulate that servant-leader attitude. It shows. “I know now that I will not win the lottery because I used up all of my luck to get assigned on active duty here,” Beavers jokes. “The way associate professors of military science are assigned for every college in the nation, including Guam and Puerto Rico, is kind of like the NFL draft. You never really know what team has the first pick or what side of the country is doing what,” He and his wife Stefanie, both SoddyDaisy natives, were happy to be coming home. But he wasn’t the only lucky one, says Gen. B.B. Bell. The celebrated, four-star general graduated from the ROTC when UTC was still the University of Chattanooga. “Since my retirement, I’ve watched several terrific officers come and go to lead that program, but nobody of Kevin Beavers’ quality,” Bell says. “Nobody has had his level of success, understanding of the program and particularly his willingness to work in a unique foreign environment, a university,” Bell explains. “He’s had a willingness to work with the faculty in a way that everybody could come out winners and that the students, in this case ROTC >> cadets, would be best served by the full spring 2020 | 29
range of university services. He understands that with great clarity. So immediately, the assistance that he received across the board from the staff and faculty went up enormously.” “They were glad to help because they had run into somebody who was willing to work with them, explain their needs, explain the program and let them understand what it was that the United States military was trying to do on campus. It created transparency. The willingness to work with everyone on the faculty was the first and foremost change that we saw in Kevin.” Beavers’ ability to connect with cadets has been a source of success, too. When he arrived at UTC, he came with substantial military skills from his days at West Point Military Academy and as an Army officer. “He had a wide breadth of experience and knowledge about what it takes to be a junior leader in America’s Army in the era of the War on Terrorism,” Bell adds. “So Kevin brought that experience to bear as he recruited, as he talked about the program, as he brought young cadets into the program.” One major milestone for UTC ROTC was the recent creation of a military science minor. Historically, the majors for many ROTC cadets required a minor. In addition to their major courses, they were enrolled in their minor program as well as the ROTC program, which is just as demanding as a minor, Beavers says. “They were running themselves ragged to try to be a college graduate and a commissioned officer,” he explains. Now, cadets just select military science as their minor. UTC is one of the few programs in the nation to offer that choice, he adds. UTC ROTC is the second most popular program in the 7th brigade, which encompasses programs in five states: Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. The UTC program also is
30 | method
larger than 17 other host programs in those five states. “We’re definitely quality over quantity every day,” Beavers adds. Each year, the program has had at least one graduate who lands in the 7th Brigade’s top 10 percent of all graduates, he says. “They become distinguished military graduates, which goes on their military record.” The program’s culture is changing, too, adding a more personal touch. One such change is reviving the ROTC’s annual military ball. “I want to show my cadets and the leadership here at the University that it’s more than just tactics and ambushes and reactive contact. We’re not just combatants,” Beavers says. “We are people. We are leaders. We are husbands and wives and families.”
What’s next?
Beavers and his wife became parents in January with the birth of their baby girl. After 13 years of moving every two to three years, including deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan and Jordan, they are ready to stay home. “Both sides of our family are from here, so I want to have stability,” Beavers says. “I joke around with my wife that I’ve got to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, but I’m looking forward to staying in the Chattanooga community, still having an impact, in some form or fashion,” he adds. “So I’ll transition off active duty, but I still want to serve in some capacity through the Army Reserve or National Guard.” And as for his current role as the dad of a newborn? West Point and Army Ranger School equipped him with some good training on sleep deprivation skills. “I did not think I would have to use them to the maximum, but I do.” n
“They were glad to help because they had run into somebody who was willing to work with them, explain their needs, explain the program and let them understand what it was that the United States military was trying to do on campus. It created transparency. The willingness to work with everyone on the faculty was the first and foremost change that we saw in Kevin.�
spring 2020 | 31
Not So Foreign
It pays to have this superpower in your back pocket.
32 | method
by Shawn Ryan
E
dwin Murillo has a wish when it comes to foreign language. Drop the “foreign.” “Spanish was the first European language to establish itself in the U.S.,” he says. “St. Augustine (Fla.) was the first city; Santa Fe (N.M.) was the first state capital. You can’t be foreign to the place you got to first. You take away that ‘it doesn’t belong here’ idea.” Of course, Native Americans lay claim to the true first languages of America, acknowledges Murillo, assistant professor of Spanish, but Spanish and later French are the original European languages to land on American shores. “We’ve got to get rid of that idea of foreign-ness because it literally perpetuates this stereotype of “Oh, this is new’,” he says. Whether it’s Spanish or French or Latin, language learning is a four-semester necessity for a bachelor of art at UTC. And while those majoring or minoring in a language understand the “whys” of taking such classes, some students who don’t have those academic goals think—or actually say out loud— “Why do I have to take a foreign language? What good will it do me?” “It’s very much like a superpower,” says Rob Liddell, executive director of the Center for Career and Leadership Development. “It can become a marketable skill set and I think it’s already demonstrated its merit in the global market.” Liddell and professors from the Department of Modern and Classical Literature and Language say the upshot of learning a new language is easy to explain: Want to have a leg up when it comes to success after graduating? A foreign language provides the ladder. “With any language there are benefits,” says Josh Davies, head of both the Department of Modern and Classical >>
BEING BILINGUAL • Bilingual students earn 5 to 20 percent more in base pay which, depending on the language, can mean as much $128,000 over a lifetime. (MIT economist Albert Saiz)
• Between 2010 and 2015, the number of jobs needing bilingual applicants rose from about 240,000 to about 630,000. (New American Economy)
• The onset of Alzheimer’s can be delayed
by 4-5 years for people who speak two languages. (Neuroscientist Ellen Bialystok)
• People who speak multiple languages are excellent multi-taskers because they are able to switch between two systems of speech, writing and grammar. (University of Pennsylvania)
• Bilingual students do better on
standardized tests in math, reading and vocabulary. (Department of Psychology at Illinois State University)
• Bilingual children develop superior
attention, mental flexibility and memory. (U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health)
spring 2020 | 33
Literature and Languages and the Department of Philosophy and Religion. “It is a cognitive process. You are developing your mind, your cultural sensitivities and, once you’ve made that journey in any language, it changes you. “It doesn’t just change your ability to interact with anyone because you’ve gone through this journey,” he says. “You’ve learned how to put yourself outside of your own cultural training. And that act in itself is extremely valuable.” The world is getting smaller culturally and financially; businesses flow from one country to another, from one continent to another. A foreign language will not only make it possible to communicate, you’ll be able to understand nuances in the language. Without that talent, you may insult someone and have no idea you’re doing it. There goes that $1 million business deal. Monica Garoiu, assistant professor of French, says being bilingual “opens many doors” as well as gives you a different perspective. “It’s very interesting to see your own culture through other eyes,” says Garoiu, who grew up in Romania and learned to speak English when she came to the U.S. in 1997. Not having a foreign language in your pocket is going to leave “a void,” Murillo says. “With the increasingly interconnectedness of the markets and economies and people, that’s going
to be an unavoidable conflict,” he says. “The ones that move in early, I think they’re going to have a considerable advantage.” He mentions a friend who is a chemical engineer and speaks Spanish. Some of the companies where he’s worked have gone through economic downturns and let staff go, but not his friend, Murillo says. “Every time there is a downturn, he’s the last engineer fired. His formal training in Spanish has always insulated him in downturns,” Murillo says. Beyond the ability to communicate from a business standpoint, there’s also the human connection made when you visit a foreign country and simply talk with its people, Davies says. “If you really connect with other people in other communities, there’s nothing like being able to meet them and able to speak with them in their language,” he says. “Your relationship to communities will be very different depending on whether or not you can engage with them. “Language is a builder of civic and empathetic virtues. The experience of having to be the learner in the most simple things— expressing yourself, of asking for help, of finding out what’s going on. Putting yourself in the learner’s position as an adult or young adult, you really begin to understand what other people go through when they’re new and they come from somewhere else. It’s really humbling, and it builds a sense of empathy.” n
“You’ve learned how to put yourself outside of your own cultural training. And that act in itself is extremely valuable.”
34 | method
A New Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences By Gina Stafford
P
amela Riggs-Gelasco, an accomplished scholar, award-winning educator and leader at the College of Charleston, will join the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences on July 1. Riggs-Gelasco earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Albion College in Albion, Michigan; a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; and she completed a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She started her career at College of Charleston in 1998 and has been a professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the College of Charleston since 2012. Among her accomplishments at Charleston, she collaborated with their Development Office and multiple private donors to create six new, endowed research stipends and scholarships. She has also been an active builder of public-private partnerships, including one with a local company to conduct research on re-purposing chemical waste. An advocate for educational excellence in the sciences at the undergraduate level, she won two sequential grant awards from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Each award included complex interdisciplinary programming with elements that enhanced both Charleston’s strategic plan and its Quality Enhancement Plan. She also won research funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, the State of South Carolina, and the American Chemical Society. She has twice been recognized by Charleston’s School of Science and Math with its annual Distinguished Achievement Award for scientific work and leadership on multiple grants and the prestigious Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation named her a HenryDreyfus Teacher-Scholar, a national recognition in the chemical sciences that included an award to support her research and teaching. “Dr. Riggs-Gelasco has built a strong career with professional priorities that mirror those of UTC,” said UTC Provost Jerold Hale. “She embraces the teacherscholar model, has a strong record of scholarship – including external research funding, and she has been intentional about including students as collaborators and co-authors on her work. She has also been a consummate campus citizen and has led a large, complex and highly successful academic department. She has cultivated interdisciplinary collaborations and has the sort of broad appreciation for the arts and sciences that will serve her well as dean.” n
spring 2020 | 35
faculty news Elizabeth Gailey is an associate professor in the Department of Communication. She will retire after 23 years of service to UTC. Bob Marlowe joined the UTC faculty in 1985 and will retire at the rank of professor from the Department of Chemistry and Physics. The Department of English will see two faculty retire this year. Immaculate Kizza joined UTC in 1989 and Joyce Smith joined in 1990. Both are valued members of the Literature faculty. Lucas Van Der Merwe, professor of Mathematics, joined UTC in 2005 and will retire after 15 years of service to his department.
Clockwise from top left: Obi Ebbe, Bob Marlowe, Elizabeth Gailey, Lyn Miles, Immaculate Kizza and Lucas Van Der Merwe. Not pictured are Joyce Smith, I. Nicky Ozbek and Ron Morris.
I. Nicky Ozbek and Ron Morris will both retire from the Department of Psychology. With 43 and 28 years of service, respectively, their contributions to the university will be missed. The Department of Social, Cultural and Justice Studies has two faculty members retiring this year. Obi Ebbe, a professor of sociology, joined UTC in 2000 and Lyn Miles, UC Foundation Professor of Anthropology joined in 1976. All are experienced teacher-scholars and will be greatly missed. n
Rembering Vic Bumphus, faculty member for 17 years Victor W. Bumphus, a member of the UTCs Department of Social, Cultural and Justice Studies since 2002, passed away on May 31. He taught criminal justice and mentored undergraduate and graduate students as well as his junior colleagues in the department. He was nationally and internationally recognized for his research on policing, police accountability and ethics, and he examined issues such as race, bias and attitudes on drug control policy and sentencing. His work was published in such journals as International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice Policy Review and American Journal of Criminal Justice. He was principal investigator working on strategies to enhance law enforcement response and service to victims of crimes and also was developing a Southeastern Command and Leadership Academy and evaluating a Tennessee Meth Task Force. He served as an evaluator for a UTC Violence against Women grant and most recently was chair of the UTC Police Hiring and Promotion Board. 36 | method
Achieve Scholars Launched fall of 2019, Achieve Scholars prepares CAS students for life after graduation. The program offers students the opportunity to work directly with faculty mentors and local business professionals to better connect their academic studies with exciting career opportunities after graduation. Scholars receive scholarship funding along with opportunities to learn about professional etiquette, workplace expectations, career opportunities within their major, resume writing, what to expect during job interviews and more. Learn more at utc.edu/achieve-scholars.
spring 2020 | 37
