Carolina Arts & Sciences, spring 2006

INSIDE: Basketball Memoir • Southern Lit Central • Rangoon Rendezvous • Greeks Give Back

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EY E S IN THE SKY

Stellar mentoring and an astronomical discovery

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FROM THE DEAN FROM THE DEAN

Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2006

Reaching for the stars Carolina is a stellar place to be these days, with many exciting developments in the College of Arts and Sciences.

We take you into space in this issue of Carolina Arts & Sciences for a story on astronomy scholar and mentor Dan Reichart and undergraduate student Josh Haislip.

Using our state-of-the-art telescope technology, Haislip, graduate student Melissa Nysewander and Reichart documented the oldest known explosion in the universe Photo by Will Owens — the afterglow of a gamma ray burst, 12.8 billion years old. We also share news about the opening of the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), the largest diameter telescope in the Southern Hemisphere, in which UNC is a partner. And we update you on the progress of the Carolina Physical Science Complex — the biggest construction project in the university’s history — as well as plans for our new Music Building, both of which are being funded by a combination of N.C. bond revenues and private funds.

You’ll read more out-of-this-world news on the international front. For the third consecutive year, Carolina sent a higher percentage of students abroad than any other public research university, thanks in part to expanded scholarships for international studies made possible by private funds. Carolina alum Earl N. “Phil” Phillips (BSBA ’62) has pledged $5 million to the College to create The Phillips Ambassadors Program, the largest ever gift for study abroad scholarships. The endowment will provide support for up to 50 undergraduate students a year to study in Asia.

In other international updates, we feature a story on the historic family ties of our new European Study Center in Winston House in the heart of London. Political science professor Andrew Reynolds takes us behind the scenes as he travels under the radar in Burma.

Reynolds traces the complex road to democracy around the world.

It’s been an amazing year for our English Department. Four creative writing faculty swept the top North Carolina literary awards. We continue to build on our strengths in Southern and African American literature with the hiring of Kenan Eminent Professor Minrose Gwin. This completes a star-power quartet of editors of The Literature of the American South: A Norton Anthology, now all under one roof at Carolina.

You’ll also read about the first “Greek” professorship at Carolina and quite possibly in the country — gifted philosophy scholar C.D.C. “David” Reeve was named the Delta Kappa Epsilon Professor. Other Greek organizations have similar campaigns under way to fund distinguished professorships, including Phi Delta Theta and Delta Delta Delta.

We share stories of our inspiring alumni — Ph.D. grad Beth Stevens, vice president of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and undergraduate alum Jonathan Reckford, the new CEO of Habitat for Humanity International. Our current students continue to amaze us as well. In this issue you will meet our newest Marshall and Rhodes scholars and read the work of student poets in Michael Chitwood’s class.

Finally, a special treat for “March madness”— an excerpt from English professor Fred Hobson’s new memoir, recalling his experience as a walk-on player for Carolina’s freshman basketball team in 1961.

These and other achievements highlighted in the magazine would not be possible without the support of alumni and friends, for which we are thankful. They show us how to reach for the stars.

Bernadette Gray-Little, Dean

THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES • Bernadette Gray-Little Dean • William Andrews ’70MA, ’73 PhD Senior Associate Dean, Fine Arts and Humanities • Bruce Carney Senior Associate Dean, Sciences • Arne Kalleberg Senior Associate Dean, Social Sciences • Tammy McHale Senior Associate Dean, Finance and Planning • James W. May Senior Associate Dean, Program Development, Executive Director, Arts & Sciences Foundation • Bobbi Owen Senior Associate Dean, Undergraduate Education

Arts & Sciences Foundation Board of Directors • James G. Kenan III ’68, Lexington, KY, Chair • Willard J. Overlock ’68, Greenwich, CT, Vice-Chair • Bernadette Gray-Little, Chapel Hill, NC, President • James W. May Jr., Chapel Hill, NC, Secretary • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

James L. Alexandre ’79, London Derek S. Allison ’98, Charlotte, NC Ivan V. Anderson Jr. ’61, Charleston, SC William L. Andrews, ’70MA, ’73 PhD, Chapel Hill, NC Vicki U. Craver ’92, Cos Cob, CT Archie H. Davis ’64, Savannah, GA Robin Richards Donohoe ’87, San Francisco, CA Gail Fearing ’66, Chapel Hill, NC Alan Feduccia, Chapel Hill, NC David G. Frey ’64, ’67 JD, Grand Rapids, MI Molly D. Froelich ‘83, Charlotte, NC William T. Hobbs II ’85, Charlotte, NC Lynn B. Janney ’70, Butler, MD Matthew G. Kupec ’80, Chapel Hill, NC Sallie A. McMillion ’59, Greensboro, NC Catherine Bryson Moore ‘90, Santa Monica, CA Paula R. Newsome ’77, Charlotte, NC G. Kennedy Thompson ’73, Charlotte, NC S. Thompson Tygart ’62, Jacksonville, FL Thomas M. Uhlman, ’75 PhD, Murray Hill, NJ Ralph Hanes Womble ’76, Winston-Salem, NC Michael Zimmerman ’75, New York, NY

CONTENTS TA BL E OF C ON T E N T S

Carolina Arts & Sciences • Spring 2006

DE P A R T ME N T S inside front cover FROM THE DEAN

Reaching for the stars

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FEATURES 8

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HIGH ACHIEVERS

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IN THE CLASSROOM

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Up Late With the Universe

Stellar mentoring pays off with an unprecedented discovery for astronomer Dan Reichart and undergrad Josh Haislip

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Rangoon Under the Radar

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COLLEGE BOOKSHELF

Four leading anthology editors found their way to Carolina

Greeks Give Back C.D.C.“David” Reeve is named the DKE professor, a first for UNC

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HIGHLIGHTS

Earl Phillips gives the largest ever gift to study abroad, Holocaust reparations support Jewish studies, the new Carolina Music Building breaks ground this year, Michael Piller’s next generation, and more PROFILES

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Southern Lit Central

Jocelyn Neal’s class is a window into rural American culture and history

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Political scientist Andy Reynolds traces the complex road to democracy in Burma

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Creative writing faculty sweep top North Carolina literary awards, Andy Griffith goes to Washington, Time magazine recognizes heroes of global health, meet our Marshall and Rhodes scholars, and more

Jonathan Reckford ’84 is Habitat for Humanity’s new CEO; Beth Stevens Ph.D. ’87 manages her own wild kingdom at Disney English professor Fred Hobson recalls his days as a freshman “walk-on” for the Tar Heels, plus notes about new books from across the arts and sciences FINAL POINT

Poems from Michael Chitwood’s “Introduction to Poetry” class focus on “Where I’m From”

Cover photo: Professor Dan Reichart (left) and undergrad Josh Haislip gaze at the night sky atop the physics and astronomy department’s Morehead Observatory dome.

(Photo by Steve Exum)

CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES • SPRING 2006 • 1

HIGH ACHIEVERS Kudos for Creative Writing English faculty sweep literary honors

By Kim Weaver Spurr ’88

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ne might be tempted to think that something’s in the water at Greenlaw. The English department’s creative writing faculty swept four top state literary honors in the month of November alone.

Bland Simpson and Randall Kenan won North Carolina Awards, the state’s highest civilian honor, on Nov. 21. Just three days earlier, Alan Shapiro and Lawrence Naumoff received North Carolina Book Awards for poetry and fiction.

“It’s not unusual to have someone garner a major prize in a given year. But the state’s highest arts awards coming to creative writing at Carolina at the same time — it’s truly amazing and humbling, too,” said Simpson, who is director of the creative writing program. “To say we’re thrilled is to engage in rampant understatement.”

The North Carolina Awards, coordinated by the Department of Cultural Resources, recognize outstanding lifetime achievements in fine arts, science, literature and public service. Simpson received the award for fine arts and Kenan for literature.

The North Carolina Literary and Historical Association presented the RoanokeChowan Award for Poetry to Shapiro for Tantalus in Love and the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction to Naumoff for A Southern Tragedy, in Crimson and Yellow.

At the book awards dinner, novelist and short story writer Jill McCorkle, a creative writing alumna, also was honored with the R. Hunt Parker Award for Literary Achievement.

Creative writing faculty have an amazing track record when it comes to the state’s top poetry award; they’ve landed the RoanokeChowan Award five times in the last six years.

UNC’s Margaret “Peggy” Rabb won in 2000; Michael McFee in 2001 (in a tie with 2 • SPRING 2006 • CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES

former North Carolina poet laureate Fred Chappell); Shapiro won in 2002; and Michael Chitwood in 2003.

Students may not know about the creative writing faculty’s awardwinning history, but they do notice that their teachers are engaged and inspired about the art and craft of writing, Simpson said.

“Our faculty’s passionate engagement, which comes from being deeply involved not only in their work but also in the affairs of the world of that work, puts real power and depth into classroom teaching,” he said. “And that’s our reason for being, what we’re all about.”

A teacher in the program since 1982, Simpson has written both fiction and nonfiction and is a musician and songwriter. His books include Heart of the Country: A Novel of Southern Music, The Great Dismal: A Carolinian’s Swamp Memoir, The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey: A Nonfiction Novel, Into the Sound Country: A Carolinian’s Coastal Plain and Ghost Ship of Diamond Shoals: The Mystery of the Carroll A. Deering. Since 1986, he has been a member of the Tony Award-winning string band, The Red Clay Ramblers.

LEFT to RIGHT: Bland Simpson (front), Alan Shapiro, Randall Kenan and Lawrence Naumoff.

jealousy, lust and romantic abandon. The New York Times Book Review called the book “touching and intelligent … and [an] eloquent testimony to the power of poetry.” Shapiro has written eight poetry collections plus works of criticism and two memoirs. The Dead Alive and Busy won the 2001 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for emerging poets.

Naumoff’s Southern Tragedy, a novel that The state’s highest arts awards sprung from the 1991 fatal chicken plant fire in coming to creative writing at Hamlet, N.C., captures the horror and pathos Carolina at the same time — of a community tragedy and the economic it’s truly amazing and humbling, too. downturn and mistrust that led to it. The work — Bland Simpson departs from the style of previous novels, Kenan writes both fiction and nonfiction. which The New York Times has called “laughHis 1992 collection of stories, Let the Dead aloud funny.” Taller Women: A Cautionary Tale, Bury Their Dead, won a Lambda Literary was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year Award in 1993. The collection was nominated in 1992. His other novels are The Night of the for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Weeping Women, Rootie Kazootie, Silk Hope, Fiction, a finalist for the National Book Critics NC and A Plan for Women.

Circle Award and among The New York Times “What’s amazing to me is that our faculty Notable Books. Walking on Water: Black are frequently out and about, reading and American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First performing in major venues and festivals across Century was nominated for the Southern the state and around the country — while Book Award in 1999. publishing top flight work right along,” Shapiro’s Tantalus in Love explores life, Simpson added. •

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Photo by Steve Exum

HIGH ACHIEVERS

HIGH ACHIEVERS “HEROES OF GLOBAL HEALTH” HONORED BY TIME MAGAZINE • It all began when one undergraduate, Rye Barcott, traveled to Nairobi on a Burch Fellowship to learn firsthand about the challenges facing young people in Kibera, the largest slum in east Africa. He was stunned by the ethnic violence and poverty, but after talking with youth leaders there, saw a way for them to help themselves.

Barcott continued to study Kibera for an undergraduate research project, and proposed the creation of a communitybased nonprofit organization that would fund and develop recreational and health programs for youth there.

Carolina for Kibera (CFK), co-founded in 2001 by Carolina students and Kibera youth leaders, was recognized in November

by Time magazine at a New York City summit honoring 10 “Heroes of Global Health.” Actress Glenn Close introduced each honoree.

With a budget of less than $100,000 a year, CFK administers four main projects: a youth sports organization sponsoring 200 soccer teams serving 5,000 boys and girls and engaging them in community service; a health clinic providing primary, obstetric and pediatric care; a program where girls address a range of challenges such as domestic violence, rape, HIV, early marriage and inadequate

education; and a solid-waste and recycling program encouraging youth to collect, sell or re-use recyclable materials.

Each year, a group of Carolina undergraduates and medical students volunteer with the organization in Kibera.

“The secret to CFK’s success is participatory development and the understanding that residents of Kibera have the solutions to solve their own problems,” said Barcott, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 2001 with a degree in peace, war and defense. He is serving as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

Kim Chapman ’00, who chairs CFK’s board of directors, accepted the honor at the summit. On campus, CFK is based in the University Center for International Studies.

The Burch Fellowship Program is made possible by a gift from alumnus Lucius Burch III. BELOW: Youth league soccer players in Kibera.

MARSHALL SCHOLAR BOUND FOR LONDON • Senior Jud Campbell turned

curiosity about his family tree into published research, a law-firm job and a genealogy consulting business.

We can’t wait to see what he will do with his 2006 Marshall Scholarship for graduate study in Great Britain.

The mathematics and political science major from Blacksburg,Va., said he will pursue two master’s degrees in international relations and political theory at the London School of Economics, then consider law school and work in international law.

“Eventually, I would like to enter politics, where I hope to make a positive difference in the lives of people in this country and throughout the world,” Campbell said.

After publishing research on his family’s genealogy, Campbell won an undergraduate research fellowship and an international studies grant to research the roots of James Cole Mountflorence, a diplomat in Paris during the French Revolution. Campbell traveled to Nashville, Raleigh,Washington, Boston, Belfast, London and Paris for the research project.

“History is invaluable in understanding our place in the world, who we are today, and where we can and ought to go tomorrow,” Campbell said.

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HIGH ACHIEVERS RHODES SCHOLAR OUT OF THIS WORLD • Kate Harris checked off a long list of eye-popping achievements before she graduated from Carolina in December with a major in biology and a minor in geology.

The aspiring astronaut and scientist from Georgetown, Ontario spent two weeks as the youngest researcher ever at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah; explored Alaska, Antarctica, Malaysia and Mongolia; ran two marathons; bicycled across the United States; and won a full four-year Morehead Scholarship to UNC. In November, she added a Rhodes Scholarship to the list. The prestigious award for outstanding academic merit will finance her graduate study at Oxford University in Great Britain.

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“We have landed humans on the moon and deployed robots to other planets.

I hope someday to explore those same extraterrestrial frontiers.”

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She has set her long-term sights on another trip — to outer space.

“We have landed humans on the moon and deployed robots to other planets,” Harris said. “I hope someday to explore those same extraterrestrial frontiers.”

Harris began exploring the night sky by telescope as a child. At UNC she founded SpaceTalk, a student group that presents astronauts and others as lecturers, hosts observatory sessions and gives educational talks at secondary schools. Since sophomore year, she worked on NASA-funded research in the microbial ecology lab of Andreas Teske, associate professor of marine sciences.

Last year she conducted research on the polar ice cap in Antarctica, tested her samples at the Byrd Polar Research Center in Ohio and presented her findings at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting in Salt Lake City.

During her sophomore year, she led a

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soft-bodied animals such as worms,” she said.

“This is the first demonstration of an animal that switches between two different skeletons.

It opens a lot of doors to our understanding of how skeletons function and evolve.”

Taylor also received The Sequoyah Dissertation Fellowship and was invited for membership into the Royster Society of Fellows, both through the UNC Graduate School. Membership in the society is the highest honor awarded by the Graduate School. Society fellows act as ambassadors for graduate education both within and beyond the university.

Kate Harris (above), Patricia Pukkila (right)

300-mile backpacking trip in Mongolia where she helped an environmental group observe native wild horses, track wolves and survey the wildlife population in the Gobi Desert.

She was awarded an American Society for Microbiology undergraduate research fellowship and a NASA Alaska Space Grant scholarship for the summer of 2004, when she would traverse 200 miles of the Juneau Icefield on cross-country skis, studying glaciers along the way.

PUKKILA ELECTED FELLOW OF NATIONAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION

• Patricia Pukkila, the founding director of undergraduate research and an associate professor of biology, was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Pukkila was recognized for her work in genetics and her leadership in promoting undergraduate education and research.

AAAS publishes the journal, Science, GRADUATE STUDENT which has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the WINS FORD FOUNDATION FELLOWSHIP world. The list of 2005 fellows appeared in the • Jennifer Taylor, a Ph.D. candidate in Oct. 28 issue. biology, won a Ford Foundation Dissertation Pukkila joined the UNC faculty in 1979.

Fellowship, one of only 35 awarded nationally, She has received both a Tanner Award and to support her groundbreaking work on a Bowman and Gordon Gray Associate professorship for excellence in undergraduate skeletal support systems of crabs.

The fellowship is given by the National teaching. The Office of Undergraduate Research Council of the National Academies. Research has helped to expand opportunities for active, mentored research experiences for Crabs have a rigid external skeleton which must be shed in order to grow to a undergraduates, both inside and outside the larger size, a process called molting, Taylor classroom. said.

Pukkila’s research focuses on the genetic basis of chromosome behavior during meiosis “My research shows that crabs actually alternate between the rigid skeleton and a — the type of cell division by which germ cells hydrostatic skeleton, which is common in (eggs and sperm) are produced.

HIGH ACHIEVERS • Aunt Bea would have been proud.

Andy Griffith, the long-revered television star and a UNC alumnus, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony in November.

“Already today I’ve met with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Dalai Lama — and the Sheriff of Mayberry,” said President George W. Bush, drawing a laugh as he honored the Mt. Airy native who starred in “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Matlock.”

“Andy Griffith first came to the people’s attention with his gift for storytelling,” said the President, “and his own life is a mighty fine story by itself.”

Griffith graduated from UNC in 1949 with a B.A degree in music. He was president of the Glee Club and a member of the Carolina Playmakers and the music fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha. He gave his first public theatrical performance in Memorial Hall.

He received his first taste of national attention as a comedian, recording monologues such as, “What It Was – Was Football,” a hilarious explanation of the gridiron game. That led to a 1953 appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” followed by a starring role in the hit Broadway play and subsequent film, “No Time for Sergeants.”

“The Andy Griffith Show” ran for eight years and continues to entertain old fans and new ones in re-runs.

Griffith never forgot his alma mater. He and his wife established the Andy and Cindi Griffith Scholarship in the departments of dramatic art and music in the College of Arts and Sciences. He served as the honorary chair of the committee that helped raise more than $5 million for the renovation of Memorial Hall.

When the historic hall re-opened in

Photo courtesy of The N.C. Collection

ANDY GRIFFITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

Andy Griffith as a UNC music student (at left) and performing as Sir Walter Raleigh (above center) in “The Lost Colony.” At Carolina, Griffith was president of the Glee Club.

September, Griffith received a Carolina Performing Arts Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the arts and the university.

In September, Griffith announced plans to donate his personal collection of manuscripts, recordings, footage and other memorabilia to the university’s Southern Historical Collection in Wilson Library.

O’NEILL WINS BRITISH PRIZE IN MEDIEVAL STUDIES • English professor Patrick O’Neill was awarded the Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Prize by the British Academy for his valuable contributions to medieval studies. The prize is one of the highest honors in the field.

O’Neill was recognized for his 2001 book, King Alfred’s Old English Prose Translation of the First Fifty Psalms. He teaches medieval English and Celtic literature and studies the intellectual culture — especially Christian — of the British Isles in the period 600 to 1100 A.D. He is completing a book on cultural relations between early Ireland and Anglo-Saxon England.

The British Academy, established in 1902, is the national academy for the humanities and social sciences. The Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Prize was established in

1924 in memory of the first secretary of the academy, Israel Gollancz.

COMPUTER SCIENTIST WINS PACKARD FELLOWSHIP • Marc Pollefeys, associate professor of computer science, was awarded a $625,000 Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering.

Funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the fellowships are designed to support innovative researchers early in their careers.

Pollefeys’ work contributes to the area of three-dimensional graphic imaging. He plans to use the fellowship to develop algorithms that will enable camera networks to perform a multitude of observation tasks.

A member of the UNC faculty since 2002, Pollefeys has published more than 80 scientific papers, helped to organize major conferences and workshops and is on the editorial board of IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, the main scientific journal in his area.

Pollefeys is the third UNC recipient of a Packard Fellowship. H. Holden Thorp, Kenan professor of chemistry and department chair, received the award in 1991. James P. Morken, associate professor of chemistry, received the award in 1998.

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HIGH ACHIEVERS • Ted Uyeno, a Ph.D. candidate in biology, received the Best Student Paper Award in his field from the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. His research on the mechanics of octopus beaks was honored by the Division of Invertebrate Zoology.

Uyeno focuses his research on soft marine invertebrate organisms, ranging from large octopuses to sandworms commonly used during pier fishing to flatworms so tiny they live between grains of sand. Octopuses, and their relatives the squid and nautilus, are members of a class of mollusks known as cephalopods. All cephalopods have “beaks” that look like a parrot’s and are used for cracking, cutting and manipulating their food. Uyeno discovered that the beaks do not actually have articulating surfaces between them, but rather the joint is formed of muscle fibers arranged in a special way.

“It turns out that octopuses can not only open and close their beaks, but they can swing them from side to side and move them forward and back,” he said.

“Their beaks have an incredible range of motion that exceeds those of many articulated jaws.”

Uyeno hooked up a machine that functions like a heartbeat monitor to measure the activity of the beak muscles during biting. He said these “muscle articulations” — a term he coined — may be present in the jaws of other “squishy” invertebrates and may one day be of use in human-engineered robotic manipulators.

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STEGMAN NAMED POLICY DIRECTOR FOR MACARTHUR FOUNDATION • Public Policy expert Michael A. Stegman has been tapped as the lead observer of domestic policy issues at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, one of the nation’s 10 largest private philanthropic organizations.

Stegman is directing the foundation’s Program on Human and Community Development.

He translates policy trends and positions program strategies around the issues of affordable housing, community change, mental health, juvenile justice and public education.

He also continues in his UNC positions as the Duncan MacRae ’09 and Rebecca Kyle MacRae professor of public policy, planning and business; chairman of the department of public policy; and director of the Center for Community Capitalism at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise.

Affordable housing is an issue for which Stegman shares a passion and a long-term history. From 1993 to 1997, he served under President Bill Clinton as the assistant secretary for policy development and research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). He was acting chief of staff at HUD from November 1996 through April 1997. In 1997, The National Journal named him “one of Washington’s 100 most influential decisionmakers.” Stegman has written extensively on housing and community development policy and on financial services for the poor.

Michael Stegman

BERGER WINS AWARD FOR BOOK ON WOMEN WITH HIV/AIDS • Michele Tracy Berger, an assistant professor of women’s studies, won a best book award from the American Political Science Association (APSA) for a book she wrote on women with HIV/AIDS. Berger’s book, Workable Sisterhood: The Political Journey of Stigmatized Women with HIV/AIDS, is based on a study of the lives of 16 women – former drug users and sex workers with HIV/AIDS – who became politically active in Detroit. The book explores the barriers of stigma in relation to political participation and demonstrates how stigma can be effectively challenged and redirected. The majority of the women in Berger’s book are African Americans and Latinas.

Berger’s book was recognized by the APSA’s section on race, ethnicity and politics.

Photo by Steve Exum

UYENO WINS BEST STUDENT PAPER AWARD

IN THE CLASSROOM IN THE CLASSROOM

Neal, whom I consider a national treasure, the study of country Course is a window into American music is being elevated in ways culture and history that are long overdue.”

Neal teaches music theory,

By Lisa H. Towle analysis and popular music courses.

Her “History of Country Music” class, which attracts undergraduates s Tim Carter, David G. Frey distinguished professor of music, was and graduate students alike, is acquainting himself with Chapel Hill in 2001 he designed for non-music majors was given a coda of sorts. Casual conversations though music majors are allowed to ABOVE: Music professor Jocelyn Neal (right) chats with a with student-employees of local shops and take it for degree credit. Its roots are student after her “History of Country Music” class. restaurants invariably came round to the same in a very real sense her roots.

In the mountains of northern New question: “So do you know Jocelyn Neal?” as extolled by Shania Twain in “Man! I Feel Like That would be assistant professor Jocelyn Mexico where she grew up “fiddling and A Woman,” and the widening of the genre’s playing piano,” the music had strong country Neal, a classically trained music theorist who appeal by merging traditional country with flavor. While at Rice University in Texas, where honky tonk, folk, pop and rock. had been teaching at Carolina since 1999.

Within a year, she had drawn on her research, she received a bachelor’s degree in music, Neal lectures and tests, of course. She she taught country dance classes to earn life experience, music industry connections gives assignments to attend area concerts; she and technology skills to create a first-of-its-kind extra money. A chance question from one of invites musicians, songwriters and industry course, the “History of Country Music.” her students triggered deeper thought about executives to teach for a day (Roger McGuinn Music 44 spoke to her passion: increasing rhythm and meter in country music. At the from The Byrds visited this fall); and she Eastman School of Music, where she earned understanding of the human experience as it collaborates with faculty from other parts of the relates to music. It pleased Carter to no end a Ph.D. in music theory, the basics of country university. music continued to fascinate her. She chose to when he realized “a generation of students She also takes a multimedia approach. have the course in their hearts and souls.” Now, focus her dissertation on structure in the songs In class, she projects statistics and photos as chair of the music department, he’s even of country music legend Jimmie Rodgers. on a giant screen and uses her laptop to happier that the content, rigor and play portions of songs under “Some students will say flat out, ‘I just don’t like country music.’ reach of the class make it unique. discussion.

That’s OK; they don’t have to like it. What I do hope they see It’s not that other schools Working with UNC’s at the end of the course is how this music is a window don’t offer popular music courses. librarians, archivists and lawyers, into a certain part of American culture and history, Certainly they do; the market for Neal has arranged to make because that’s what this place, Carolina, is all about. them is huge. What differentiates digital music from Carolina’s — Jocelyn Neal Carolina is that it has dared to various collections readily move away from what Carter available to her students. Now in terms the “Western art music canon” and For six years Neal has challenged the process of creating a virtual version of Music students to understand how country music encouraged the study of country music as its 44 for the Friday Center’s distance learning has influenced and been influenced by own genre. series, Neal is also preparing to write a country William Ferris, the Joel R. Williamson everything from politics, race, class and gender music textbook. to Southern folk life, social movements and big eminent professor of history and senior “I want students to think of music as business. associate director of the Center for the Study something other than background noise in their of the American South, concurs: “Country She works to keep the course a fresh lives,” she said. “Some students will say flat out, reflection of “what’s happening in our music has global appeal, but I think it’s been ‘I just don’t like country music.’ That’s OK; they culture and world,” she said. In just one class, under studied by the academy, primarily don’t have to like it. What I do hope they see because historically it’s the voice of working a discussion of the working-class roots of at the end of the course is how this music is a country music as celebrated in Garth Brooks’ class, white Americans. To its credit, UNC has window into a certain part of American culture “Friends in Low Places” moves seamlessly to always pushed the boundaries of academe. It and history, because that’s what this place, pioneered Southern studies, for example. And the subject of domestic abuse in the Dixie Carolina, is all about. It’s about providing a Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl,” inverted gender roles space to think and grow.” • now, thanks to the standout work of Jocelyn

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Photo by Dan Sears

Country Music 101

Photo by Steve Exum

Up Late

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Professor Dan Reichart (foreground) and student Josh Haislip in the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center’s Star Theater.

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hat weekend, Josh Haislip remembers being asked by Dr. Reichart if he had “infinite free time.”The question might be an astrophysicists’ joke. It’s at least an idiomatic expression between one undergraduate student and his mentor, two people for whom, ironically, the work of documenting the enormity of time in the universe leaves little room for their own time.

It’s a question that seemed all the more relevant as the weekend wore on, during which Haislip and his teacher, astrophysicist Daniel Reichart, would document the oldest known explosion in the universe; specifically the afterglow of a gamma ray burst, a ghostly red light 12.8 billion years old. It was a discovery that would make both men — the teacher and the student — briefly famous.

It turned out that Haislip did have infinite free time that weekend, and so Reichart asked him to research the

is important and it has to be done, and I need their help.”) So he keeps the cell phone numbers of his student researchers so he can roust them up and over to Phillips Hall at any hour, whenever a telescope needs tending.

On Sept. 3, Haislip received the call at 10 p.m. A NASA satellite that scans the sky for evidence of gamma ray bursts — a tell-tale sign of a star’s death — had just sent a text message to Reichart’s cell phone with news of an unusual burst, one Reichart initially thought they could use to test out Haislip’s new expertise with the OSIRIS system.“Dan asked me if I wanted to go over to Phillips and have a video conference with the resident astronomer at SOAR, and I said,‘Sure,’” Haislip says.

By dawn, they knew that either they’d made a colossal error, or the sun whose last moments they were watching had been around during the universe’s infancy and was the oldest explosion ever seen by humans.

That’s when he said,‘Who are you?’” Soon enough, though, he had trained the telescope on the odd burst in the sky.

The rest has been well documented, making both Reichart and Haislip just a little famous. During a long night in Phillips Hall, Haislip, the one who knew how OSIRIS worked, made measurements from the images forwarded from Chile and called off the numbers. Reichart, who knew the physics, crunched the numbers. By dawn, they knew that either they’d made a colossal error, or the sun whose last moments they were watching had been around during the universe’s infancy and was the oldest explosion ever seen by humans.

After their discovery was checked and refined by graduate student Melissa Nysewander and The trick was to convince the resident OSIRIS (Ohio State InfraRed Imaging/ other students working with Reichart, and astronomer in Chile, Eduardo Cypriano, that Spectometer), an observing instrument later confirmed by another group of scientists the gamma ray burst was worth interrupting mounted on the SOAR (Southern the telescope’s other missions. Reichart and with more sophisticated equipment, there Observatory for Astrophysical Research) were press conferences and news stories. In Haislip flipped on the video conferencing telescope in Chile. Carolina had just been an upcoming issue of the journal Nature, equipment in Phillips Hall, and down on granted access to the OSIRIS instrument, Haislip and Nysewander will be listed first a very large screen in Chile, next to the and Reichart figured it would be a good and second among the authors of the paper various images of the heavens SOAR had idea if they learned how to use it. announcing the discovery — a 20-year-old been relaying to the control room, up This was not an unusual request. undergraduate in the lead scientist’s position. popped the image of two men peering Reichart’s undergraduate researchers are Reichart let his students enjoy the excitedly into the camera. part of his team, a group he expects can “We both said, Hola!” Haislip says.“The discovery, stepping away from the spotlight handle the rigors — intellectually and physically — of conducting new and significant astronomer looked at us and said something as much as he could, just as his own research. His is not a group for busy work professors and mentors had done for him. like,‘Hi?’, and we asked him to interrupt leading nowhere. (“I don’t have time for This, his students say, is not at all out of the work of the telescope so we could use creating make-work projects.This research character for him.

OSIRIS to observe the gamma ray burst. continued

With the Universe

CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES • SPRING 2006 • 9

Reichart has not been able to entirely escape public notice.There is the issue of his young age — he’s 31 — and his youthful looks, which together make him an object of fascination. But he’s no boy wonder, no neophyte astrophysicist. His success, which includes being awarded a career grant by the National Science Foundation, is the product of steady work begun in high school, work that is both strenuous and fun. Sitting in his cluttered office surrounded by maps and reference books, Reichart makes no secret of the fact that he loves his work and that he thinks it’s cool. (“I do rapid response astronomy.”) Because he makes no secret of this, and because he has the ability to express his enthusiasm for astrophysics in small ways — the way he swings around to his computer to pull up a telescope image for a

10 • SPRING 2006 • CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES

visitor, for instance — students have picked up the vibe, and that’s forever changed their education. He’s no boy wonder among scientists, but he may very well be a boy wonder among mentors.

Reichart grew up in rural Pennsylvania, the child of a newspaper journalist and a highschool English teacher.

He was always good at science and math, but he wanted to be a lawyer. But then came Carl Sagan’s public television series,“Cosmos,” and after that Reichart’s awareness of the planetary missions to Jupiter and Saturn, an interest stoked by the mission photographs his father would

Photo by Steve Exum

Dan Reichart and Josh Haislip examine photos of the gamma ray burst in the Morehead Observatory lab.

pull from the newspaper’s wire service machine and bring home to his son.

And so Reichart developed an interest in astronomy, which he calls “the gateway drug of the sciences.”

“It was accessible,” Reichart says.

“All you needed was a telescope and a dark sky.”

Photos and telescopes were nice, but it was at Penn State

It often happens in science that one can trace the peculiarities and interests of one scientist down through a lineage beginning with that first teacher and continuing through teachers and post-doctoral collaborators and senior colleagues, all of them somehow connected to each other, an ancestry that constantly regenerates itself.

that Reichart found what he needed to transform his boyhood fascination into a field of scholarly study, and finally into a career: a professor who took an interest in his education.

Peter Mészáros, an astrophysicist with expertise in theoretical high-energy astrophysics, saw potential in Reichart as an undergraduate and invited him to help chase gamma ray bursts — never as a gofer, but as a young man with an intellect and ability suited to real work.“It was really exciting to know that you were working on a real project,” Reichart says now.

It often happens in science that one can trace the peculiarities and interests of one scientist down through a lineage beginning with that first teacher and continuing through teachers and postdoctoral collaborators and senior colleagues, all of them somehow connected to each other, an ancestry that constantly regenerates itself. And so it is that Reichart is now the professor chasing gamma ray bursts, and Haislip is the young undergraduate from a small rural town (Bear Grass, N.C.) making his stellar observations and already planning to study astrophysics in graduate school.

Reichart sees nothing particularly difficult about juggling roles as a teacher, mentor, fundraiser, networker and researcher. These are natural parts of an astronomer’s job, or at least any job Reichart would want to have. (One is reminded of Carl Sagan, the wonderstruck professor describing the grand scope of the universe for all the young Dan Reicharts, a first teacher for millions.)

Reichart’s research has won awards and attention, including having one of his early discoveries — that the most ancient gamma ray bursts could be detected on Earth, yielding information about the early composition of the universe — named one of the 10 “Breakthroughs of the Year”

by Science magazine in 1999. And that was before documenting the oldest gamma ray burst known.

Reichart has always enjoyed sharing his love for astronomy with students of all ages. He has won university teaching

Reichart sees nothing particularly difficult about juggling roles as a teacher, mentor, fundraiser, networker and researcher. These are natural parts of an astronomer’s job, or at least any job Reichart would want to have.

Super star gazing in Southern Hemisphere heavens

awards and has been leading groups of young, would-be astronomers to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in West Virginia for weeklong observations and research since he was an 18-year-old freshman at Penn State. Now he’s working to link up a network of North Carolina universities and public schools with telescopes that he and his students are building in the Southern Hemisphere.

The National Science Foundation recently awarded Reichart a prestigious early career development grant of $490,000.This and the NSF’s $912,000 grant to help UNC build six robotic telescopes in the Chilean Andes mountains for the study of gamma ray bursts is allowing the University to offer research time on these telescopes to students at universities and colleges across the state.

The project will also involve North Carolina public school students through the educational program of the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center.

As a result, high school students will soon be able to put themselves where Josh Haislip was on Sept. 3, peering at images of the new universe, making measurements, feeling part of something big.

Haislip, who works at Morehead Planetarium helping to guide elementary school classes, has helped to create a user’s manual for the young students who will use the telescopes. As one might expect, Haislip has learned from his mentor that this is the sort of thing astronomers should do.

“Dan once told me he doesn’t mind at all being asked to do things beyond the call of duty, like talking to crowds at the planetarium about the space shuttle,” Haislip says.“Dan likes outreach, and I kind of see myself doing the same thing someday.”

And on it goes. •

tudents and faculty will be able to detect distant stars, galaxies and quasars a billion times too faint to be seen with the unaided eye, thanks to Carolina’s partnership in a major new telescope in South Africa. The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), the biggest diameter telescope in the Southern Hemisphere, was officially dedicated in Sutherland, South Africa, in November.

The new facility complements two other telescopes in which Carolina is a major partner and user. The Southern Observatory for Astrophysical Research (SOAR) in Cerro Pachon, Chile, began operations in late 2004. UNC plays a large role as one of four partners in the $32 million SOAR project.

In addition, UNC received two National Science Foundation grants in 2004 to build the six Panchromatic Robotic Optical Monitoring and Polarimetry Telescopes (PROMPT) at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, also in the Chilean Andes. Carolina is the lead partner on PROMPT, with multiple research collaborators.

“Our partnerships with SALT in South Africa, as well as with other major telescopes in Chile, give UNC faculty, graduate students and undergraduates better access to the skies over the Southern Hemisphere than any other academic institution in the United States,” said Bruce Carney, senior associate dean for the sciences and Samuel Baron professor of astronomy.

The construction and operation of SALT was made possible by the participation of 11 partners from South Africa, Poland, the United States, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. UNC contributed about $1 million to the project, through a combination of public and private funds.

The entire project cost about $32 million.

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CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES • SPRING 2006 • 11

Science Complex Construction Caudill, Cumbie make $1 million challenge for new science facilities

The Carolina Physical Science Complex is the largest construction project in the university’s history.

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Photo by Katie Schwing ’06

C

hemistry alumni W. Lowry Caudill ’79 and Stephen Cumbie ’70 each have made a contingent pledge of $500,000 to challenge alumni and friends to contribute an additional $5.5 million for the new Carolina Physical Science Complex. It is the largest construction project in the university’s history.

With $10.5 million in gifts and pledges in hand, the $5.5 million needed to complete the $16 million goal for Phase I of the project must be raised

by August 2006. Caudill and Cumbie will match the first $1 million in gifts dollar for dollar.

“The design of this new complex promotes collaboration, which is becoming more and more important in science,” said Caudill, executive chairman of Liquidia Technologies Inc. and retired president and co-founder of Magellan Laboratories Inc. in Research Triangle Park, N.C. “ Caudill and his wife Suzi ’80 honored long-time chemistry professor Royce Murray with a $3 million gift in 2004 to name the Royce Murray Quandrangle, the largest of the green spaces planned in heart of the complex. That gift also named the W. Lowry and Susan S. Caudill Laboratories.

The state-of-the-art complex will blend in with UNC’s historic architecture, said Cumbie, president of NV Commercial Inc. in McLean, Va. The complex, which will house the departments of chemistry, computer science, mathematics, marine sciences, and physics and astronomy, will include the following: • Modern shared facilities — a collection of new buildings — each with special purposes and capabilities;

• New chemistry plaza joining the W. Lowry and Susan S. Caudill Laboratories and Kenan Laboratories; • Rooftop observatory deck for astronomy students and faculty; • Laboratories with vibration-free space for electron microscopes, laser labs, teleconference rooms and special shielding to avoid electronic interference; • A new Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology; • State-of-the-art lecture halls.

“Phase I will bring us desperately needed, environmentally controlled space for our cutting-edge scientific instrumentation,” said Laurie E. McNeil, professor and chair of physics and astronomy.

Patrick Eberlein, professor and chair of mathematics, said the math department will benefit in the short run with a new 4,500-square-foot fluids laboratory, shared with marine sciences. In the long run, the department will gain additional office space.

“The fluids lab will do research on fluid behavior at all scales, from tidal

waves, hurricanes and storm surges to fluid transport in the lungs, with applications to cystic fibrosis,” he said. “Additional office space in Phillips Hall will promote interdisciplinary contacts with other science departments at UNC.” Holden Thorp, faculty director of the fundraising campaign, said the Caudill/ Cumbie gift will help steer Phase I toward its completion date of fall 2006.

“The synergy of public and private funds is critical to achieving these worldclass facilities,” said Thorp, who also is a Kenan professor and chair of chemistry.

The entire project, comprising Phase I and II, will rely on $22 million in private gifts and $84 million from a higher education bond referendum approved by N.C. citizens in 2000. Phase II is slated for completion in 2009. • To learn more about making a gift to the Carolina Physical Science Complex, contact Ramsey R. White, ramsey.white@unc.edu, (919) 843-4885.

— By Kim Weaver Spurr ’88

Story and photos by Andrew Reynolds

T

RANGOON under the

— was assassinated in 1947. Fragile civilian he streets of Rangoon have an administrations stumbled along for the next aura of disturbing beauty.There is nothing 15 years. Following a 1962 coup d’etat, the obviously amiss, but it is too quiet, evoking Army chief, General Ne Win, led the counthe calm before the storm. Pedestrians offer furtive glances that seem to say,“Don’t even try with an iron fist for the next 26 years. think about trying to talk to The pressure cooker me.” blew in July 1988, with Ne Here in Burma — or Win’s sudden resignation abcdabcdabcdabcdabcdcdcdcd rather Myanmar — associating and handover to his top with a foreigner is dangerous. military henchmen. By early Telling an outsider about your August, student activists were dislike of the military junta or leading mass non-violent your support of Aung San Suu demonstrations in the streets of Kyi [pronounced Ahn Sun Rangoon.The state responded Soo Chee], the Nobel Prizeviciously.Thousands were killed winning democratic activist, across the country, with tens of could land you in a cockroachthousands arrested and tortured. infested cell for seven years.

As the charismatic I am a political scientist daughter of the icon of interested in tracing the nationhood, Suu Kyi was a complex road to democracy perfect public face for the abcdabcdabcdabcdabcdcdcdcd around the world. But here I pro-democracy movement. feel like a character created by Despite standing 5 feet 4 inches Andy Reynolds, center, tries to blend in Graham Greene or George and weighing 100 pounds, at with the crowd at a soccer game in Burma.

Orwell. most, she had a commanding The current regime presence.Two weeks after the is in no mood to issue an official visa to 1988 massacres, she addressed a half million Every hotel dealing with foreigners enable my meetings and workshops with has its share of staff who are state informers. people at the Shwe Dagon Pagoda. Less than a year later, she was placed under house arrest democratic advocates and ethnic minorities, Revealing too much to the friendly clerk for the first time. so I am here “under the radar,” traveling can lead to deportation.

Legislative elections finally took incognito as a “tourist.” Sometimes when Despite these obstacles, I manage to I catch the eye of a Burmese man, I am place in 1990, with the National League roam freely. My only real fright comes as I suspicious he is a government spy assigned sit in the window of a tea shop, sipping the for Democracy winning a remarkable 80 percent of the seats. But the military junta to track me for the duration of my stay. ultra sweet, condensed milk tea and eating The cloak-and-dagger routine is deep-fried samosas. As I scrawl in my black ignored the results and unleashed a new reign of terror against opposition activists. draining. I begin each secret appointment moleskin notebook, a well-built middleSuu Kyi’s first incarceration lasted by asking if we can speak freely.The stock aged man watches intently. He beckons to answer is,“Presume we may be overheard, the manager and they talk animatedly while six years, until 1995. As the opposition and proceed with suitable caution.” glancing over at me.The manager retreats to movement slowly rebuilt itself, the military During phone conversations, names the back of the café and picks up the phone, regime returned Suu Kyi to house arrest in and places are alluded to, but never spelled 2000. Once restrictions on her were eased continuing to look my way. I quickly pay in 2002, she again traversed the country, out. My chief contact uses an e-mail nom de the bill and scurry away. inspiring adoring crowds. But in May plume, transforming him from a Burmese 2003, government agents attacked Suu Buddhist to a Californian surfer. I am told or most of Burma’s 60 years of Kyi’s convoy as it traveled through remote to encode outgoing e-mails on sensitive independence, the contours of politics have northern Burma. More than 70 people were subjects. My meetings with opposition been blurry to locals and indecipherable to killed, and the bloodied activist was sent leaders are described as meals prepared by top chefs or their students; government spies outsiders. General Aung Sang — Suu Kyi’s back to house arrest. She remains confined father and the founder of modern Burma are “mosquitoes.” to this day. continued abcdabcdabcabcdcdcdcd

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Radar

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CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES • SPRING 2006 • 13

The cloak-and-dagger routine is draining.

S

I begin each secret appointment by asking

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14 • SPRING 2006 • CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES

abcdabcdabcabcdcdcdcd

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if we can speak freely. The stock answer is, Orwell’s Winston Smith is desperate pies record all activity within to be free of the Thought Police. My and outside of the Rangoon headquarters “Presume we may be overheard, “Winston” works the night shift at my of the National League for Democracy, hotel and often serves me breakfast. He so we must meet in a secret location. and proceed with suitable caution.” studied hotel management abroad, where Since its heyday in 1990, the NLD has free access to the media endured a blitzkrieg of arrests, gave him a shocking picture physical attacks and state of what was happening ridicule.Today it is more a abcdabcdabcdabcdabcdcdcdcd in his country. His family faith than a political party. supports Suu Kyi strongly The leadership vacuum is and bemoans the wretched evident.When I ask about economy that makes each day their views on controversial a struggle to put food on the issues of engagement with table. the government, I am greeted Winston points at my with total silence. It soon Let’s Go travel guide and becomes clear that there are says,“Ah, do you know ‘the disagreements about how lady’ is in there?” I signal to affect democratic change that I, too, admire Suu Kyi within the context of the and dislike the regime. In a current regime.The military conspiratorial whisper, he tells rulers have a “roadmap” to abcdabcdabcdabcdabcdcdcdcd me that it was once possible democracy, which involves to drive discretely past the a referendum on a new Crumbling colonial architecture on front of the house in which constitution and multi-party Pansodan Street in downtown Rangoon. she has been imprisoned for elections sometime in the 10 of the last 16 years. But next couple of years, but their the army has blocked off the stretch of manipulation of the process is shameless. in 1984, uncensored news is high University Avenue leading to her mansion.

Current NLD officials are torn contraband in Burma.The New Light My new ally informs me, though, that from between having nothing to do with a of Myanmar and The Myanmar Times are the Sedona Hotel across the lake, one can rigged electoral process or laying low until sanitized tabloids. Some satellite TV is glimpse the back of her house. elections can be held and then participating available, but it focuses on sports and I take a taxi to the Sedona and smile in whatever way they can.The most senior on issues unrelated to Burma.Yahoo, at the soldiers milling around the entrance. leaders repeat Suu Kyi’s adage that “the Hotmail and AOL are all blocked, though As I stride across the lobby, I walk past a the technologically-savvy manage to stance of the NLD is that any matter is well-dressed Indonesian man encircled circumvent some Internet restrictions. negotiable.” by reporters: It is Kofi Annan’s special Official pamphlets are published by representative, Ali Alatas — the most senior the “Committee for Propaganda and UN official to visit in years. He stands just he colors are vivid and luminous Agitation to Intensify Patriotism.”

500 yards from Suu Kyi’s house. If she looks in Burma — green fields, bold blue murals, While we are stuck in traffic, I am out her window when he leaves the hotel, monks’ robes of burgundy and tangerine shocked to see a teen pull out a copy of she will see him. But of course they are not — but the human landscape remains Time magazine emblazoned with Suu permitted to meet, and it is unlikely she muted. Daily life has a beautiful veneer, but Kyi’s face and the headline,“Will She even knows he is here. it rests on a much less attractive foundation Rule?” But then I notice that, while the I take the elevator to the top floor of — much like the intricate and bright copy looks new, the date on the cover the hotel and wander down the corridor lacquered gifts that tourists buy to grace is 1990. It is a 15-year-old time capsule to look for a window facing the lake. I their sideboards.When you scratch the of hope, belonging to a boy who wasn’t dart into an open room, only to startle two shiny surface, you quickly discover cheap even born when Suu Kyi and the NLD young Indian maids. I smile, gesturing that I bamboo. received the largest popular mandate of only want to look at the view.

Just as in Winston Smith’s Oceania any movement in Burma’s history.

The colors are vivid and luminous in Burma — green fields, bold blue

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murals, monks’ robes of burgundy Real change rests with the NLD Suu Kyi lives about 15 minutes and its allies winning a significant share from downtown Rangoon, on the and tangerine — but the human of parliamentary seats in elections. Quiet southeastern shore of Inya Lake.The speculation about the short-term political neighborhood hosts some of the most landscape remains muted. future is the game of choice in Rangoon’s luxurious government and diplomatic tea shops.

Some expect the residences in Burma.To the regime to wrap up the national northeast of the house is the convention in short order, lakeside promenade in front abcdabcdabcdabcdabcdcdcdcd hold a referendum in spring of of the hotel. A sentry sits in his 2006, and then release Aung box along the Kaba Aye Paya San Suu Kyi just before the Road, just out of view of the general election that follows. promenade.

Others doubt whether she As I scan the scene, would be released before an ominous black storm clouds election. dump thick sheets of rain Buddhist students of on lovers who scurry under Burmese martial arts are taught large tin umbrellas along the to wait until they are struck promenade. I hurriedly snap three times before responding. photos of the house. Suddenly, If the junta’s first strike against the floor manager strides the pro-democracy movement through the open door, takes abcdabcdabcdabcdabcdcdcdcd was the massacre of 1988, and one look at me and my camera, the second was the attack on and aggressively inquires, Monks line up for lunch at their monastery Suu Kyi’s convoy in 2003, will “What are you doing? What is about two hours north of Rangoon. the next clenched fist elicit an your name?” uprising far greater than that Sounding like a Monty in 1988? Or do the demoralized democrats Python character, I hurry past him, he immediate chances of have scant appetite for seeing the blood of muttering,“Beautiful lake… lovely their remaining friends and relatives on the pagoda…what a view!” I bustle toward the dramatic political change in Burma do not look promising.

Democratic activists streets again? elevator, hoping he has not called down are searching desperately for any chink in Despite its economic isolation, Burma to the soldiers at the gate, who are kind the government’s road-map plans which dominates the world production of teak.The enough to summon me a taxi as I scurry might begin a transition to something more dark wood is beautiful and strong, providing from the hotel. palatable.

The two most crucial aspects of the economic backbone of this frail nation.

Aung San Suu Kyi hasn’t seen her two the new constitution, they say, will be the Millions of Burmese see democracy in a sons for a decade and her husband died in procedures provided for transition and similar light, but hope that it will come more 1999; she lives with two helpers, her cousin for amendments.

One could imagine, for quickly than the 80 years it takes for a teak and aunt.The only person who visits is example, a majority in parliament, built tree to mature to the point of usefulness. • her doctor, a former political prisoner over time among democrats and reformwho is allowed to come monthly as long minded soldiers.

Andrew Reynolds is an associate professor as he avoids talking about politics.Those Another glimmer of hope is of political science who teaches, researches and who know report that Suu Kyi’s long days generational change among Burmese writes about democratization around the world. are spent meditating, reading and tending military leaders.

Some international He has served as a consultant on electoral and a rose garden. She has no television, but observers believe the next military constitutional issues for Afghanistan,Angola, listens four hours a day to the radio. She generation has slightly more education and Burma, Fiji, Guyana, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, has sold off much of the furniture in her international exposure than current leaders.

Kenya, Liberia, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, house to pay for basic needs. Suu Kyi has The new generation is keen to get rich Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone, South Africa, purposely left the paint to peel and the quick and realize they can go only so far Yemen and Zimbabwe.

These excerpts are from a repairs to wait.This is one place in Burma without engaging the global economy. longer article about his visit to Burma last summer. where the veneer matches the reality.

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CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES • SPRING 2006 • 15

Souther Southern Lit Central

Norton Anthology editors now teach under one roof

B y K i m W e a v e r S p u r r ’8 8

W

illiam Andrews was at a most un-Southern place when publisher W.W. Norton approached him in 1994 about editing its first anthology of Southern literature.The setting: a Jamaican restaurant in Palo Alto, Calif. Andrews, then an English professor at the University of Kansas, was enjoying a fellowship at Stanford University.

“I’m sure various Southernists would have turned over in their graves,” Andrews said of the unholy West Coast beginning that led to the birth in 1998 of The Literature of the American South:A Norton Anthology.

Not to worry. Norton had picked a general editor with deep Southern roots and credentials: A native of Richmond, Memphis and Atlanta, with a master’s and Ph.D. in English from Carolina, Andrews was already a heavyweight in the Southern lit field and the leading specialist in the country on slave narratives.

He happily agreed to lead the effort to assemble the first chronological anthology of Southern literature in 30 years, and set about selecting his co-editors — carefully.

He wanted the compendium to be distinct from its predecessors. It should be primarily focused on writers of the 20th century, he thought, and it should reflect the diversity of the South — across lines of color, gender and class, embracing both urban and agrarian cultures.

Andrews turned to Carolina for one of his three co-editors — Fred Hobson — and found Trudier Harris at Emory University and Minrose Gwin at the University of New Mexico. All were well known scholars of Southern and African American literature with unique strengths and perspectives to bring to the task at hand. Unlike the editorial boards of previous Southern anthologies, this one would include men and women, black

16 • SPRING 2006 • CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES

and white. And, like Andrews, they were all Southerners.

By the time the book was published, Andrews and Harris had joined Hobson at Carolina, creating a critical mass of Southern specialists in Chapel Hill. Already there were: Joseph Flora, co-editor of The Companion to Southern Literature; Laurence Avery, whose work focuses on African American drama and the playwright Paul Green;William Harmon, a poet and editor of multiple editions of A Handbook to Literature; Julius Raper, a specialist on Ellen Glasgow and 20th century Southern literature; James Coleman and Lee Greene, specialists in African American drama and fiction; and Linda Wagner-Martin, a scholar of 20th century literature, including William Faulkner. Louis Rubin, the legendary Southern literary scholar and teacher, had retired from UNC in 1989, but remained in Chapel Hill at Algonquin Books, where he was discovering and publishing new Southern writers.

Seven years after the anthology came off the press, Gwin completed the Norton circle at Chapel Hill this fall by joining the UNC faculty as the Kenan Eminent professor of Southern literature.

“Minrose Gwin’s appointment is further proof, if any more is needed, that — with our special collections in Wilson Library, and the Center for the Study of the American South — Chapel Hill is the most important center in the country for the study of Southern literature,” said James Thompson, professor and chair of the department of English.

William Ferris, the Joel R.Williamson eminent professor of history and a leading voice on Southern music and culture, calls the four anthology editors “icons in the field of Southern studies.”

“To have all four of these Southern

•

Photos by Steve Exum

literature giants teaching in the classroom, speaking in public and publishing their work within one department in one university is unheard of,” said Ferris, senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South.“You cannot be in the field of Southern studies and not admire and use their work, because they essentially are the field.”

A

brisk November morning draws the Norton co-editors together for a magazine photo shoot outside the Rare Book Collection in Wilson Library. It’s apparent that they are congenial colleagues, as the photographer instructs them to take on poses both stately and casual. Harris has been charged with holding the anthology, with its striking red cover featuring a 1946 painting

by Nell Choate Jones called “Georgia Red Clay.” There is laughter and joking, and a “crick” in Harris’ right foot.

Carolina’s Norton quartet readily agrees that working on the anthology was a good experience.Together they combed through 400 years of Southern literary history, from the early 1600s to contemporary times, bringing together the works of nearly 90 diverse American writers, such as Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglass, Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison and William Faulkner.

Andrews edited the first and last sections of the book,“Beginnings to 1880” and “Vernacular Traditions.” Hobson took on “The New South, 1880-1940,” and Harris and Gwin tackled the largest section of the book,“The Contemporary South.”The anthology closes with “The Foundations of the Earth,” a short story by award-winning writer, Randall Kenan, who also ended up at Carolina, as an associate professor of creative writing in Greenlaw (See page 2). continued

William Andrews

Trudier Harris

Minrose Gwin Fred Hobson

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CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES • SPRING 2006 • 17

Literatu Rubin — the Algonquin publisher, English professor emeritus and editor of an earlier anthology, The Literary South (1979) — praised the Norton anthology for the “breadth of its approach and the vigor and incisiveness of its commentary.”

Andrews is particularly proud of the anthology’s first-of-a-kind audio companion, a CD containing 26 examples of spirituals, gospel, blues, ballads, sermons and stories.

One of his favorite pieces on the CD is a song that UNC folklorist Dan Patterson told him about called “Factory Girl.”The ballad, recorded in 1962, tells the story of a mill worker who fantasizes about marrying her boss as a way out of factory life.

“It’s absolutely haunting,” Andrews said.“It represents a powerfully moving side of the Southern experience, of white women working in the cotton mills from the time they were children.”

“I

always say that I didn’t choose African American literature, it chose me,” said Andrews, who is now the E. Maynard Adams professor of literature and senior associate dean for the fine arts and humanities.“I think it was partly because of being brought up in the segregated South.

My access to African American life, to black people in general, was very limited.

There was a lingering curiosity and interest and concern about, what was that world of black experience that I knew so little about?

“When I got to graduate school and began to have a chance to read black writers, it was the ones from the South who interested me most,” he said.

He has since written or edited about 40 books. His first, The Literary Career of Charles W. Chesnutt (1980), deals with a seminal figure in the development of African American and Southern fiction.

Andrews’ newest book, The North Carolina Roots of African American Literature (2006), showcases some of the best work of eight influential black writers from North Carolina during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

He has served as general editor of Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography

18 • SPRING 2006 • CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES

(University of Wisconsin Press), which includes some 40 studies of the autobiographical writings of slaves, refugees, immigrants and others.

period in 1993, before returning in 1996.

She is one of the most widely read scholars of African American literature, focusing primarily on 20th century African American writers and on folklore.

Now the J. Carlyle Sitterson Professor of English, she is the author or editor/co-editor of 22 books, including From Mammies to Militants: Domestics in Black American Literature (1982), Black Women in the Fiction of James Baldwin (which received the 1987 College Language Association’s Creative Scholarship Award), Fiction and Folklore:The Novels of Toni Morrison (1991) and Saints, Sinners, Saviors: Strong Black Women in African American Literature (2001).

Harris and Andrews partnered together on another collection, The Oxford Companion to African American Literature (which won an Editor’s Choice Award from Booklist magazine in 1997). She calls 1996-1998 “my big fat book years.”

Harris also has been recognized repeatedly as an outstanding teacher, most recently with the 2005 Board of Governors’ Andrews’ most innovative project is an Award for Teaching Excellence — the top online library of some 280 North American teaching prize given at UNC. slave narratives — the largest such collection “She is the most spellbinding lecturer of stories and illustrations — now available I have ever seen among American literature free to the public through a partnership with scholars,” says Hobson, one of the Norton UNC’s Academic Affairs Library and the editors.

National Endowment for the Humanities.

What’s her secret? (http://docsouth.unc.edu/) “You make a commitment to never One of the most widely read narratives, bore your students or yourself,” said Harris, Harriet Jacobs’ 1861 autobiography, who also serves as English department associate chair.“So you sing when you can’t “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” sing; I recite poetry. You try to create an tells how she lived in a crawl space in her grandmother’s house for seven years before environment where students say,‘I can’t wait to go to her class again.’ You make sure that escaping north to freedom. you get across that you’re excited about the “Our online versions of these rare information.” original texts are the next best thing to Harris tells her own story in the 2003 holding the books in your hand,” Andrews memoir, Summer Snow: Reflections from a Black said.

Daughter of the South.

“It has taken me a long time to arrive rudier Harris grew up as the sixth of nine children born in Tuscaloosa, Ala., to at a basic fact of my existence: I am a Southerner. For a black person to claim the Terrell and Unareed Harris. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from The Ohio South … is about as rare as snow falling in State University and taught at the College Tuscaloosa during dog days,” she writes in of William and Mary for six years, before the book’s title essay. joining the UNC faculty in 1979. She left Her new book is entitled, The Scary Carolina for Emory University for a brief Mason-Dixon Line:African American Writers and

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u the South (under contract to LSU Press.)

“African American writers, no matter where they are born in the United States, do not truly consider themselves writers until they have written about the South,” Harris said.“There’s a stamp of certification on the mountain of the South that these writers can’t go over.They have to tunnel through it.”

track down the story, poring through census records, family letters, academic records and old newspapers on microfilm.

“I finally confirmed that she indeed had committed suicide, but ‘Why?’ was the big question,” he said.“I got into the area of the male medical establishment’s complete lack of understanding of women’s health in the 19th century.” ouis Rubin has high praise for Fred Hobson’s new memoir, Off the Rim: Hobson, his former student, whom he calls Basketball and Other Religions in a Carolina “a first-rate literary critic.”

Childhood (spring 2006), is an account of his “Fred writes fluently and gracefully,” life-long affair with basketball, particularly said Rubin.“He has a sense of the literary the Tar Heels. (See page 30). He played on imagination and how it functions, which is UNC’s freshmen team in 1961-62. all too rare among scholars.”

“The book is about a lot of other Hobson is an expert in Southern things, too — politics, race and the changing literature and intellectual history, South through the ’60s and ’70s,” he said. autobiography and 20th century American fiction. He grew up in Yadkin County, N.C. As an undergraduate at UNC, he was Carolina’s Norton quartet drawn to writers like H.L. Mencken; as a readily agrees that working scholar, he has written extensively about on the anthology was a good Mencken. experience. Together they “I came across a couple of essays by combed through 400 years Mencken as a student; one of them in of Southern literary history, particular:‘The Sahara of the Bozart,’” said from the early 1600s to Hobson, who received his undergraduate contemporary times, and Ph.D. degrees from Carolina.“It was a vicious attack on the South, and I thought, bringing together the with some reason. I was something of a works of nearly 90 diverse Southern iconoclast myself, and my interest American writers, such as in Mencken was in him exposing the flaws Thomas Jefferson, Frederick of Southern life.”

Douglass, Mark Twain, Zora Now Lineberger Professor in the Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison Humanities at Carolina, Hobson has and William Faulkner. been co-editing The Southern Literary Journal (co-founded by Rubin and Hugh Holman) for the past 15 years.The author of seven books (including three awardwin was recruited to Carolina from winning volumes) and editor or general Purdue University, where she had been teaching since 2002. Born in Mississippi editor of dozens of others, Hobson has a recent collection of essays that feature some with a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee, she had taught for much of her autobiographical works. career outside of the South.

In The Silencing of Emily Mullen and Her research and teaching focus on Other Essays (2005), a story about Hobson’s great-grandmother inspired the book’s title Southern literature, women’s literature and theories of space and gender, trauma studies, essay. At a family reunion 20 years ago, a African American literature, autobiography great aunt asked him if he knew that his maternal great-grandmother, Emily Mullen and creative writing. She is the author or Gregory, had committed suicide about 1880 editor/co-editor of eight books, including by jumping down a well. Hobson decided to her most recent scholarly work, The

L

G

Woman in the Red Dress: Gender, Space and Reading (2002). Her 1990 book, The Feminine and Faulkner: Reading (Beyond) Sexual Differences, was the first book-length reading of Faulkner to employ feminist theory. Black and White Women of the Old South:The Peculiar Sisterhood in American Literature (1985) was a Choice Outstanding Academic Book. She edited A Woman’s Civil War, the diary of Cornelia McDonald (1992), and it was selected as one of the best 100 books on the Civil War. When Gwin made her first presentation to faculty and students in UNC’s English department, Andrews said she illustrated not only her abilities as a scholar, but her flair for teaching, too.

“I don’t know which was better, the lecture itself or the discussion afterward,” he said.

Gwin’s 2004 memoir, Wishing for Snow, is a portrait and a tribute to her mother, Erin Clayton Pitner, a brilliant poet who suffered from mental illness.

She weaves the story of her relationship with her mother, and her mother’s mental deterioration and eventual death from ovarian cancer, by sifting through her mother’s poetry, letters, recipes, traffic tickets, newspaper clippings, medical reports and childhood diary.

“I managed to gain access to her diary when she was 9 years old. In the diary, she was always wishing for snow,” she said.“The term also comes to apply to me as the daughter-writer who also wishes for snow, and the plenitude of a mother who wasn’t there in some ways — and was there in some ways.”

Gwin is excited about working with Hobson as co-editor of The Southern Literary Journal. “It puts me in touch with a deeper base of scholarship going on in Southern studies,” she said.

The Literature of the American South:A Norton Anthology may have been conceived on foreign soil, but general editor Andrews is delighted to have the Norton quartet now at home at Carolina, where they belong.

“I had the best in the business working with me on the anthology,” he said. •

CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES • SPRING 2006 • 19

ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ Philosophy professor, a first for UNC ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ •scholar ΔΚΕ •named ΦΔΘDKE • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ •BΦΔΘ •hΔΚΕ y A l a n B r• e zΔΔΔ nick • P o t o s B y S•t ΦΔΘ e v e E x u m • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ

Greeks Give Back

C.D.C. “David” Reeve, Delta Kappa Epsilon Distinguished Professor

20 • SPRING 2006 • CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES

ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • $100,000 ΦΔΘdonation • ΔΔΔ • ΦΔΘ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ another

by Baur.• ΔΚΕrecognition of my•work.” all them alpha professors.

Last•summer named • ΦΔΘ •Inspired Kappa Epsilon’s Not to mention beta, gamma and delta • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔCarolina • ΔΚΕ ΔΔΔby Delta • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ philosophy scholar C.D.C. “David” Reeve success, Phi Delta•Theta embarked on its as ΦΔΘ • professors ΔΔΔ • well. ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ professorship campaign in 2001. Under In a first for Carolina and quite possibly as the inaugural Delta Kappa Epsilon ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕthe• leadership ΦΔΘof •Shoffner ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ Distinguished Professor. Reeve, a gifted “Shoff” Allison, a the entire collegiate world, two fraternities ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΔΚΕ • ΔΔΔ • UNC ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ scholar who joined the philosophy 1998 Carolina graduate, the Phi•Delts have have raised enough money• to endow • ΦΔΘ department in 2001, focuses on ancient raised $722,000 in and pledges from in the College ΦΔΘ • distinguished ΔΔΔ • professorships ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • of ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • gifts ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ Greek•philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, moral 231 donors, including a lead gift $100,000• ΦΔΘ Arts and Sciences.

The Chapel Hill chapters ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ofΔΚΕ psychology, history of philosophy and the from Garnett Smith of Naples, Fla. Named of Delta Kappa Epsilon and Phi Delta Theta ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ in honor of the late Matthew Mason, an each have collected more than the $666,000 philosophy of sex and love. Earning raves ΦΔΘ • needed ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΦΔΘthe •newΔΔΔ from students as “an elegant and engaging” honorary Phi Delt•“brother,” faculty • ΔΚΕ to qualify for matching state grants teacher, regularly packs lecture halls will be known as the Phi Delta Theta/ • ΦΔΘ of $334,000 fund two•$1 million faculty ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • and ΦΔΘ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • he ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕchair • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ with enthused students, including many Matthew Mason • Distinguished professorships.

One of the•professorships ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ ΔΚΕ •Professorship. ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ “Matthew Mason was the glue and has already been filled while the recipient of DKE’s. He won the 2006 Tanner Award for ΦΔΘ • the ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ other professorship will be named by July. Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, one of the bond that tied Phi Delt together for the ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • 60 ΦΔΘ • Allison, ΔΔΔpresident • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ the highest teaching honors awarded by the last years,” said of A sorority also has now joined in • ΔΚΕ university.

Hawthorne Capital in Charlotte.•“The idea the growing • Greek fundraising drive to • ΦΔΘ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ Born and raised in the 57of supporting Carolina faculty at • theΔΔΔ highest • ΔΚΕ Carolina and retain outstanding • ΔΔΔ ΦΔΘ • help ΔΔΔ • lure ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΚΕ • Ireland, ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ year-old Reeve has also gained international and recognizing Matthew Mason was an faculty. Following the example set by the ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕlevel • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ recognition as one of the most distinguished easy sell.” two fraternities, the Delta Delta Delta ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕDelta • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ Delta sorority kicked off Delta then followed • ΔΚΕ professorship ΦΔΘ • itsΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ suit last year, campaign last ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ becoming the first spring. ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ sorority to start its Edward “Tee” ΦΔΘ • Baur, ΔΔΔ ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ own professorship a 1968•UNC campaign.

Led graduate and DKE ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ

by Becky Cobey, alumnus, got•the ball ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ a 1975 Carolina rolling six years ago ΦΔΘ • when ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ graduate who lives he proposed ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ in Greenwich, that fraternities Conn.,•the Tri Delts • ΔΔΔ and sororities ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ ΦΔΘ have privately raised • ΔΚΕ funding• ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ ΦΔΘ • start ΔΔΔ • ΔΔΔ $160,000 in gifts professorships. ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ and pledges from Serving on the UNC ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ • ΔΚΕ • ΦΔΘ • ΔΔΔ eight donors so Board of Visitors, “It’s a great honor.

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CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES • SPRING 2006 • 21

HIGHLIGHTS HIGHLIGHTS

Distinguished Professorship to honor beloved teacher and scholar T

eacher, scholar, mentor, friend, anchor, and leader — these are the words former students use to describe Richard “Dick” Richardson, political science professor emeritus and former UNC provost.

The Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professorship in Political Science has been established to recognize the beloved professor and administrator’s four decades of service to Carolina.

When fully funded, the professorship in the College of Arts and Sciences will be used to recruit or retain an outstanding teacher/ scholar in American

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Hill, N.J.“I was shattered and turned to Dick for advice and counsel.

The ultimate result was a dissertation that

ABOVE: Dick Richardson mentoring students.

LEFT: The former political science professor at home in the classroom. BELOW: Richardson with his granddaughter, Ava Leigh Loeffler, a future Tar Heel.

The Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professorship in Political Science has been established to recognize the beloved professor and administrator’s four decades of service to Carolina.

politics. Faculty support is the top funding priority for the College in the university’s Carolina First fundraising campaign.

Tom Uhlman (M.S. ’71, Ph.D. ’75) was one of Richardson’s first doctoral students and has made a lead gift of $120,000 to the professorship.

Uhlman recalled that during difficult times as a graduate student, Richardson’s door was always open.

“My most trying circumstance was discovering that the dissertation topic I had been pursuing for nearly a year was already being written by another student at Johns Hopkins,” said Uhlman, managing partner of New Venture Partners LLC in Murray 22 • SPRING 2006 • CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES

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won the prize as the best U.S. doctoral thesis in the field of law — ironically the same prize that Dick had won for his thesis.”

Former student Darlene Walker Redman (Ph.D. ’73) said Richardson is fond of saying that the best job in the university is teaching, even after having been political science department chair and provost.

“With his great sense of fun, quick wit and wonderful storytelling ability, he delighted students in the classroom,” said Redman of N. Darlene Walker & Associates

LLP in Houston, Texas.“He was the quintessential professor and his subject was life.”

Richardson joined the Carolina faculty in 1969 and won a number of top teaching awards. He served as provost from 1995 to 2000.

In November 2005, the UNC Board of Trustees presented Richardson with the prestigious William R. Davie Award, recognizing his extraordinary service to the university. It is the highest honor bestowed by the trustees. • To support the Richardson professorship, contact Kim Goodstein in the Arts and Sciences Foundation at (919)843-3919, mail to: kim.goodstein@unc.edu.

HIGHLIGHTS $5 million gift creates Phillips Ambassador scholarships

By Claire Cusick

E

arl N.“Phil” Phillips, Jr. (BSBA ’62) has pledged $5 million to create the Phillips Ambassadors Program in the College of Arts and Sciences.This pledge represents the largest gift to the university earmarked for study abroad programs.

The endowment fund aims to provide scholarships for up to 50 undergraduates per year to participate in College-approved summer or full semester study abroad programs in Asia, with preference given to China and India.A quarter of the scholarships will be reserved for qualified undergraduate business majors and minors.

Recipients, named Phillips Ambassadors, will be selected by a committee chaired by the director of study abroad and including representatives from the College of Arts and Sciences and UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

This program augments Carolina’s long-standing leadership in providing international experiences for its undergraduates.Almost 37 percent of Chapel Hill students study abroad before receiving their degrees, a higher percentage than any other major public research university in the United States, according to the latest report by the Institute of International Education.

“We are grateful to Phil Phillips for this gift, which will significantly expand study abroad opportunities for our students and for his long-time leadership and support of international studies at Carolina,” said Bernadette Gray-Little, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.“Private funds for scholarships are critical so that all UNC students have the opportunity to have meaningful international experiences as preparation for leadership in a global society.”

The gift is only the latest contribution to international studies by Phillips, former

United States Ambassador to the Eastern Caribbean and successful High Point businessman. In 1992, he established the Earl N. Phillips, Jr. Professorship in International Studies to help attract outstanding undergraduate teachers. He served as International Executive in Residence at the Kenan-Flagler Business School in ABOVE: Alumnus Phil Phillips 2003-2004. He received Kenan-Flagler’s Phillips’ family has embraced his Global Leadership Award in 2001 and the university’s William R. Davie Award in 1995. international interests. His daughter, Courtney Phillips Hyder ’96, spent a semester at sea while a Carolina undergraduate, and his son, Jordan Phillips ’04 participated in a study This pledge represents abroad program in Spain and now works for the largest gift to the a venture firm in Hong Kong.

Phillips also credits Kenan Institute university earmarked for Director John D. Kasarda, who encouraged Phillips — while a member of UNC’s Board study abroad programs. of Trustees — to visit Asia.As a businessman, Phillips said he immediately saw a booming market for goods and services as well as Phillips has more than 35 years of international business experience. He retired investment opportunities based on the in 2000 as chairman and CEO of GE Capital region’s position as a low-cost supplier to the rest of the world.“The 21st century belongs First Factors Corporation, a High Point asset-based lending company he co-founded to Asia,” Phillips said.“Hopefully, this gift will in 1972. Phillips also served as head of Phillips stimulate students to spend their study abroad experiences focused on the future — Asia.”

Interests, Inc. and Showplace, real estate and Phillips served two terms as chairman home furnishings showroom management of UNC’s Board of Trustees and served as a companies, both key components of the member of the UNC Endowment Board International Home Furnishings Market for 16 years.The North Carolina General headquartered in High Point.

Phillips said he hopes his gift will allow Assembly appointed him to a four-year term on the Board of Governors overseeing UNC undergraduate students to explore other countries. “International travel is one the 16 campuses of the UNC system. In 1999-2000, Phillips chaired the North of life’s great educational experiences,” he Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry said. He credits his parents with providing and was co-chair of North Carolinians for him with this opportunity when they Educational Opportunity 2000, which led traveled the world when he was a teenager. and promoted the successful $3.2 billion “That opened my eyes to the world, and I have been traveling and exploring ever since,” referendum for capital improvements at UNC system schools and the state’s he said.“I want Carolina undergraduates to community colleges. • experience that same thing.”

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CAROLINA CAROLINA ARTS ARTS&&SCIENCES SCIENCES •• WINTER SPRING 2006 2006 •• 23 29

HIGHLIGHTS Sonja’s Story:

Holocaust reparation funds support Jewish studies professorship

By Dee Reid

Sonja van der Horst was still a teen

family’s gift qualifies for matching funds from when the Nazis invaded Poland, executed the state endowment her father and sister, sent her mother to trust funds. UNC’s die at a concentration camp, and began the systematic elimination of 18,000 Jews in her College of Arts and ABOVE: Sonja and Hans van der Horst at their wedding, Oct. 11, 1945.

Sciences will conduct hometown. She survived the Holocaust by a search to fill the assuming false identities and working under Sonja van der Horst was born Chaya position with a scholar whose teaching and Nazi watch in German labor camps.

Eichenbaum Teichholz on Dec. 16, 1923 research will contribute to the work of the After the war, Sonja and her husband, in Tarnopol, Poland.

The Nazis entered the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies.

Johannes (Hans) van der Horst, immigrated town on July 2, 1941 and killed 5,000 Jews “My parents were always interested in to the United States and spent their lives in one week alone.

After her family was public education and religious and racial supporting organizations that promote destroyed, Chaya hid under a series of false tolerance,” said Charles van der Horst. public education, civil rights, religious identities, the last being Sonja Tarasowa. She “It is fitting to honor them through this freedom and Jewish culture. Hans, a eventually boarded a train carrying nondistinguished professorship at the Carolina chemical engineer who was fluent in seven Jewish workers to labor sites in Germany, Center for Jewish Studies, where the languages, died in 1978. where she worked at a coal mine, a lumber teaching and study of Jewish history and Last fall, Sonja, nearly 82, learned yard and a farm. At the end of the war, she culture is flourishing at a leading public that she had a brain tumor. It was time to served as a translator for the English forces. university committed to providing a firstdecide what more she could do with the Johannes Martinus Arnold van der Holocaust reparation funds she had collected rate education to a diverse student body.”

Horst was born Sept. 22, and invested since the early 1918 in the Netherlands.

1960s. She wanted to establish “Close to 1,000 undergraduates enroll in Jewish studies courses at He fought the Nazis in the a distinguished professorship Carolina each year, and student interest in Jewish history and culture is Dutch Army and served as at Carolina to be filled by an clearly on the rise. The Van der Horst Professorship will enable us to recruit a scout with the U.S. armed expert in Jewish history and another leader in the field to teach at UNC, bringing us closer to our goal forces invasion of southern culture, enhancing knowledge of creating a Jewish studies program with national prominence.”

France in 1944. At the end of the culture that Hitler had — Jonathan Hess of the war, he worked for the tried to destroy.

United Nations Relief and In January, as Sonja’s illness Rehabilitation Administration and met Sonja “We’re deeply moved that the family was advancing, her grown children acted when he took Russian lessons from her. has chosen to honor Hans and Sonja van quickly to fulfill her wish. Charles van der In the summer of 1945, the Soviets said Jonathan der Horst in this manner,” Horst, a professor of medicine at Carolina; began the forced repatriation of displaced Hess, director of the Carolina Center for Roger van der Horst, an education editor at persons to their countries of origin. English Jewish Studies, established in 2003.“Close The News and Observer in Raleigh; alumna friends agreed to hide Sonja.When she told to 1,000 undergraduates enroll in Jewish Jacqueline van der Horst Sergent ’82 MPH, Hans her story, he asked her to marry him. studies courses at Carolina each year, and a health promotion coordinator at the Sonja and Hans were wed in the Netherlands student interest in Jewish history and Granville Vance District Health Department that year and left for the United States in 1952, culture is clearly on the rise.

The Van der in Oxford, N.C.; and Tatjana Schwendinger, eventually settling in Olean, N.Y. • Horst Professorship will enable us to recruit chief administrative judge with the Equal To learn more about Sonja and Hans van another leader in the field to teach at UNC, Employment Opportunity Commission in der Horst and the Carolina Center for Jewish bringing us closer to our goal of creating St. Louis, established the JMA and Sonja van Studies, see www.sonjavanderhorst.org and a Jewish studies program with national der Horst Distinguished Professorship in ccjs.unc.edu. prominence.”

Jewish Studies in honor of their parents.The

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HIGHLIGHTS Music Building breaks ground this year H

erbert Hoover was in the White House and Frank Porter Graham presided over the university when the music department moved to its current home in Hill Hall in 1930.The student population has increased nine-fold since then. Music majors have tripled in the last decade, and the public now flocks to more than 100 performances a year in Hill Hall.

With demand for teaching, learning and performance space greater than ever, it is past time for a new music facility.

University trustees have approved plans for the Carolina Music Building, with an official groundbreaking set for later this year.

The new, 100,000 square-foot building will be constructed in two phases, with the first part funded by $19.8 million in revenues from state higher-education bonds and $4 million in private gifts to be raised through the College of Arts & Sciences.

The building is designed by Michael Dennis and Associates of Boston, whose portfolio includes major facilities at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Syracuse University and Carnegie Mellon University, and the new performing-arts complex at Emory University.

Plans for the new Music Building call for a three-story traditional red brick structure to anchor the new Arts Common at the northwest entrance to campus, replacing Abernethy Hall and the Swain parking lot. Phase 1a will create a U-shaped building surrounding a courtyard and will provide studios, classrooms and a rehearsal room large enough for an orchestra and The Marching Tar Heels. Phase 1b will add a concert hall, classrooms and small

rehearsal rooms.

Unlike existing facilities in Memorial Hall, Gerrard Hall and the historical PlayMakers Theatre, the new Music Building will include a 650-seat concert hall with adjustable acoustical treatment, appropriate for a range of performances from solo recitals to a full symphony orchestra.The structure will also include a new recital organ, replacing the one that was installed in Hill Hall in the 1930s.

Hill Hall was originally constructed in 1907 as the campus library.When Wilson Library was completed in 1929, the music department moved into the old library space. A combination of state funds and a major gift from John Sprunt Hill, class of 1889, supported the addition of an auditorium and organ.

By 1956, Hill Hall had become so crowded that the university erected barracktype structures south of the building, which was expanded again in 1963.

Carolina’s music library, the most extensive collection in the South, was housed in the basement of Hill Hall until 2003, when concerns about moisture resulted in a move to Wilson Library. Once the new Music Building is complete, the next phase will involve demolishing the 1960s addition to Hill Hall, restoring the original structure and extending it for a new library of music and fine arts. At that point, one of the nation’s finest music collections will be returned to its newly renovated historic home in Hill Hall. • To learn more about making a gift to the Carolina Music Building, contact Emily Stevens, emily.stevens@unc.edu, (919) 843-5285.

$3.9 million awarded for “nano” cancer research The National Cancer Institute has awarded UNC $3.9 million to establish an interdisciplinary center to harness developments in nanotechnology, a process using microscopic particles to improve cancer diagnostics, imaging and therapy, and to create new jobs in North Carolina.

The Carolina Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, based in the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, will involve a range of medical and science faculty, including three in the College of Arts and Sciences: • Joseph DeSimone, William R. Kenan Jr. distinguished professor of chemistry and chemical engineering at UNC and N.C. State University, is developing “smart” nanoparticles designed to deliver drugs to targeted cell types in the body.

• Otto Zhou, Lyle Jones distinguished professor of physics and materials science, is developing a medical X-ray imaging methodology based on pulsed nanofibers, designed to provide earlier detection of tumors.

• J. Michael Ramsey, Minnie N. Goldby distinguished professor of chemistry, is working on “nanofluidics” devices, perhaps more easily understood as “labs on a chip.” Using this technology, a machine the size of a playing card would be able to analyze one drop of blood and have almost instantaneous results on a vast array of blood measurements.

CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES • SPRING 2006 • 25

HIGHLIGHTS Michael Piller’s next generation H

ollywood lost an artistic force and undergraduate days Carolina an alumnus and friend with the in Chapel Hill.“I death in November of writer/producer had the experience Michael Piller. He was best known for of being introduced creating more than 500 hours of compelling to an extraordinarily stories for “Star Trek,” the most successful wide section of franchise in television history. people, many of Piller ended a battle with cancer at age whom have shown 57, but his legacy carries on through UNC’s up in my work in writing for the screen and stage program, alien disguises. which he helped to launch with a $500,000 He started ABOVE: Michael Piller, wearing his Carolina cap on a Hollywood set. gift.The College has established the Michael out as a broadcast Piller Distinguished Professorship Fund in from 1994 to 1996. He also wrote the journalist and won two Emmy Awards for his memory to attract outstanding mentors 1998 film,“Star Trek: Insurrection,” the his work at CBS affiliate,WBBM-TV in for future generations. ninth movie in the Star Trek series.

Chicago. Unhappy in the news business, “Michael had In 1999, he and his son Shawn he moved to “I saw the world change around me more integrity than formed a production company, Piller2, Los Angeles and just about anyone responsible for the TV show,“The Dead began writing through the most creative environment I have ever met,” Zone,” (based on the Stephen King novel), and producing you could ever ask for. I had the experience said Rick Berman, which debuted in 2002 and remains on for television of being introduced to an extraordinarily executive producer the air. including, wide section of people, many of whom have of the Star Trek “Because Michael gave a start to, “Cagney and shown up in my work in alien disguises.” series.“His passion and mentored, many of today’s top TV Lacey,”“Simon — Michael Piller for writing and his writers, it is only fitting that we create this and Simon” and ability to recognize professorship in his name so that those of “Miami Vice.” and nurture talent in others never faltered.” us here can continue his legacy,” said David In 1989 he boarded the Starship Piller was born in Port Chester, N.Y., Sontag, the Wesley Wallace distinguished Enterprise early in the third season of “Star and graduated from Carolina in 1970 with Trek:The Next Generation,” eventually be- professor and director of the writing for the a bachelor’s degree in radio, television and coming head writer and executive producer screen and stage program. • motion pictures.

Donations may be made to the Michael of the series, which aired until 1994.

“I saw the world change around me Piller Distinguished Professorship through the Piller co-created, produced and through the most creative environment Arts and Sciences Foundation, 134 E. Franklin syndicated “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” you could ever ask for,” he said of his St., Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514. from 1992 to 1995, and “Star Trek Voyager”

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A new minor in Christianity and Culture Undergraduates interested in “Our curriculum is designed not to exploring Christian traditions and their varied influences on culture and society throughout history can choose a new interdisciplinary academic minor in the College.

The minor in Christianity and Culture is thought to be the first of its kind at a public university.

26 • SPRING 2006 • CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES

influence or change students’ religious faith or practice, but to enhance their knowledge of the role of Christianity over time,” said Christian Smith, co-director of the minor and Stuart Chapin distinguished professor of sociology.

To complete requirements for the minor,

students must choose five courses from more than 40 offerings, including an introductory survey course; a course in ancient, medieval or early modern Christianity; and a course on Christianity in the modern world. Classes must be taken from at least two different departments, and students may receive permission to count other relevant classes,

HIGHLIGHTS London center has historic ties T

he College’s new international hub in London has historic ties to Great Britain and Carolina. Purchased in September, the European Study Center in Winston House is the first academic facility owned by UNC abroad.

The $5 million center is being financed with private funds, including a $1 million lead gift from alumnus James H. Winston ’55 and his wife Mary, of Jacksonville, Fla., to name the building in honor of the Winston family and their deep connections to Carolina and England.

The European Study Center in Winston House will serve the Honors Program in London and be open to students, faculty, programs and alumni from all parts of the university.

The 4,400 square-foot building is located at Bedford Square — the oldest remaining complete Georgian garden square in the city — in historic Bloomsbury, a neighborhood that has long been associated with literature, art and learning.

Beginning with Patrick Henry Winston in 1844, six generations of the family have been Carolina students and leaders.

Robert Watson Winston, class of 1879, was an attorney, judge, historian and author who wrote extensively on national and international affairs. His son, Robert Watson Winston, Jr. (Jim Winston’s father) was captain of the football team and a track star at Carolina. He graduated in 1912, studied at the Sorbonne and served in France during

World War I; the family established a distinguished professorship in his honor at Carolina in 1986.

George Tayloe Winston served as university president from 1891 to 1895, an important period of growth when the faculty doubled in size and the student body nearly tripled.

ABOVE: Robert Watson Winston (class of 1879), second from right, and his James Horner Winston, children, from left: James Horner Winston (class of 1904), Amy Winston Carr, class of 1904, was the first Robert Watson Winston, Jr. (class of 1912) and Gertrude Winston Webb.

Carolina student to win the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to Charles Winston ’53 (Jim’s brother) study at Oxford University in Great Britain. has served as a member of the university’s And of course it is his namesake whose Board of Visitors and as chair of the gift launched the purchase of the London General Alumni Association and the N.C. building, which will now serve future Educational Foundation. He and his wife, generations of Tar Heels.

Flo, have also served on the Arts and Sciences “The Winston Family has been Foundation Board. In 2004, the university involved for many generations with our awarded him the William Richardson Davie great university, and we are pleased to play Award for extraordinary service. His son, a small part in its future global expansion Robert Watson Winston III, class of 1984, beginning with the European Study Center,” serves on the university’s Board of Trustees.

Jim Winston ’55 said.

The European Study Center in The family continues to be engaged in Winston House is in the heart of London, university affairs. Jim Winston has served on convenient to the British Museum and the Board of Visitors, the General Alumni Library and to King’s College London, Association and the Arts and Sciences where UNC recently launched a multiFoundation Board. His son, James Winston, level exchange program for undergraduates, Jr., a psychologist practicing in Miami, graduate students and faculty. graduated from Carolina with a B.A. in About $3.2 million has been raised for 1981 and a Ph.D. in 1991. He also received a the center so far, as part of the Carolina First master’s degree from Oxford University. fundraising campaign. •

independent study and study abroad.

A Distinguished Speaker Series will bring renowned scholars to campus each year to speak on topics related to the influences of Christianity on society and society on Christianity.

The curriculum draws on the strengths of UNC faculty in many disciplines, including:

art history, classics, philosophy, political science, religious studies and sociology.

Smith led the first comprehensive study of the influence of religion on youth in the United States. His books include Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford University Press, 2005).

Co-director Peter Iver Kaufman is a historical theologian and professor of religious studies, who has written extensively about patristic, medieval and reformation Christianity and the relationship between church and state. His six books include Thinking of the Laity in Late Tudor England (University of Notre Dame Press, 2004). •

CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES • SPRING 2006 • 27

PROFILES PROFILES

Tar Heel at Home Habitat’s CEO says new job is a perfect fit

By JB Shelton

J

onathan T.M. Reckford’s roots run so Carolina blue that he claims Chapel Hill’s Memorial Hospital (now UNC Hospitals) as his birthplace. His father, UNC classics professor emeritus Kenneth J. Reckford, quoted Aristophanes at family dinners. His mother is honored with the Mary Stevens Reckford Memorial Lecture in European Studies. Both parents were devoted Christians active in North Carolina civil rights struggles. Social justice awareness was as prevalent as Greek and Roman philosophy.

While earning a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1984 from Carolina, Reckford met classmate Ashley, a Georgia native and his future wife.

Reckford, Habitat for Humanity International’s new CEO, began his career as a financial analyst with investment banking firm Goldman Sachs in New York — where office towers and corporate complexities literally and figuratively overlooked the homeless.

Seeking a more fulfilling career path, Reckford became a Henry Luce Foundation Scholar. He worked with 1988’s Olympic Organizing Committee, living in Seoul’s Olympic village.

“I was immersed in international living,” he says. “A theologian who was also in the Luce program and I met every Monday to deeply explore faith issues. As we walked through the Bible, my relationship with Jesus Christ flourished.”

He journeyed throughout Southeast Asia for three months, contemplating faith and future.

STRATEGY TO MINISTRY Reckford returned home committed to a long term goal: benefiting nonprofits with business expertise. He earned a Stanford University MBA and a public-nonprofit 28 • SPRING 2006 • CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES

management certificate in 1989.

He became Marriott Corporation’s service group strategy manager in Washington, D.C., where fiancée Ashley practiced law. They married and went to Disneyland, where he was Disney Design’s business planning director in Orlando. He then became Circuit City Stores’ corporate planning senior vice president in Richmond, before moving to Minneapolis as Musicland’s president of stores.

When Best Buy acquired Musicland, Reckford led strategic repositioning for the company.

Then, in 2003, his volunteer church management coaching for priests and pastors evolved into fulltime ministry as executive pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, Minn.

TOP: Jonathan Reckford frames a house in Covington, La., one of the area’s first to be built after Hurricane Katrina.

BELOW: Reckford attends a house dedication in Thailand as part of Habitat’s work in tsunami-affected Asia.

HABITAT’S CEO In early 2005, Reckford heard the call and calling from Habitat for a CEO to activate its strategic plan for transforming lives with new homes, self-respect and hope.

He was elected CEO in early August by Habitat’s international board of directors, in a post-tsunami, pre-Hurricanes Katrina and Rita world. “Looking back, I can see how God has been preparing me for this role as my life’s work,” he says.

Former President Jimmy Carter, the succession planning task force honorary chair, became Habitat’s advocate and a volunteer carpenter in 1984. He praised Reckford, “whose business background will help Habitat navigate the economy and business climate. His pastoral experiences will help him shepherd Habitat’s ministry and assure it continues to share and demonstrate Jesus’ teachings worldwide.”

Reckford’s personal mission emulates scripture Micah 6:8, “And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God?” His mission and Habitat’s goal to eradicate

poverty housing are a match made in heaven.

The hardest part of the transition has been the heavy travel and commuting to work.

When the family moves from Minnesota to Georgia later in 2006, Ashley can go home again. She was born in Albany, 35 miles from Habitat’s Americus headquarters. But the travel for Reckford will continue, as Habitat is at work in more than 90 countries around the world.

“Much to celebrate, more to build” was the mantra for Habitat’s 200,000th home, built in August 2005. Over 1 million people now live in Habitat-built safe, decent, affordable housing, according to the organization.

Reckford is deeply concerned about “the false dichotomy that nonprofit and ministry worlds can be grassroots and faithful, or professional and efficient, but not both.”

“We have stewardship over other people’s money and therefore must have higher standards, more effectiveness and greater professionalism than does the for-profit world because what we are doing is far more important.” •

PROFILES A Walk on the Wild Side Ph.D. grad is Disney Animal Kingdom VP

By Pamela Babcock

A

s vice president of Disney’s Animal Kingdom and animal programs in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., Beth Stevens oversees wildlife ranging from tiny crustaceans to a 10,400pound elephant.

“The one thing I often say to people interested in this field is that it’s just so important to follow your passion,” says Stevens, who received her Ph.D. in biology from Carolina in 1987. “I would have never predicted when I was in graduate school that I would be here at Disney, but it has certainly been an exciting journey.”

Stevens has earned a reputation as an environmental and wildlife conservation leader and is now serving a one-year term as president of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA). Each year, 143 million people visit AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums, which Stevens says is more than attend all major sporting events in the U.S. combined.

Stevens joined Disney’s Animal Kingdom in 1996 as conservation and science director for animal programs. She later became general manager and then director of animal programs, where she oversaw animal husbandry, veterinary, education and science programs. She was promoted to her present position in 2001.

Stevens was born in Baltimore, grew up in Summit, N.J., and got her bachelor’s degree in zoology from Duke University.

An avid equestrian, she enjoyed British veterinarian James Herriot’s books and planned to become a veterinarian, but then had a change of heart.

“I’m just extremely emotional,” Stevens confesses, adding that she couldn’t fathom dealing with sick pets and distraught pet owners. The summer before her senior

year at Duke, she studied animal behavior for six weeks in Kenya.

“That was a life-changing event,” Stevens recalls. “I was just turned on and inspired by everything I saw and learned there.”

She went on to study behavioral physiology for two years as a German academic foreign exchange student at the University of Tuebingen, West Germany.

At Carolina, Stevens did her dissertation on the behavior and social structure of horses living on Carrot Island near Beaufort, N.C. She quickly became an expert adviser in the often-contentious discussions of how to manage the ABOVE: Ph.D. alum Beth Stevens works with a menagerie shaggy, windblown beasts. of animals as vice president of Disney’s Animal Kingdom “She knew each of the horses and head of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association. individually, and the animal behavior program, which has resulted in three successful group in the biology department eagerly calves. In the wild, Disney’s veterinarians have awaited her updates on the lives and deaths broken new ground in elephant birth control of her subjects as other people might await to manage overcrowded populations in Africa, the installments of a soap opera,” recalls and Disney supports elephant conservation Stevens’ adviser, Haven Wiley, a UNC through the Disney Wildlife Conservation professor of biology and ecology.

Fund.

“The one thing I often say to “Our work with elephants is just one people interested in this field is example of how we are working to inspire that it’s just so important to follow millions of people to join us in our efforts to make a difference for the future of wild your passion. I would have never animals and wild places,” she says. predicted when I was in graduate Stevens also wants to increase national school that I would be here at awareness of the AZA and its work, from Disney, but it has certainly been rallying to help the Audubon Nature Institute an exciting journey.” in New Orleans to rehabilitating manatees — Beth Stevens and funding poacher patrols in Africa. She also serves on the board of the Exxon Save the Tiger Stevens began her zoo career as a postFund and the International Rhino Foundation. doctoral curatorial intern at the National Zoo Stevens and her husband Ted (Ph.D. in Washington, D.C., then joined Zoo Atlanta ecology ’88) met while students of Wiley’s, as a research biologist and later became and Ted now studies threatened and senior vice president for conservation endangered species. research and education.

When Stevens gets home from work at In her role at Disney and with the night, there’s an altogether different kingdom AZA, Stevens has many goals, including the to attend to: two sons, Bradley, 15, and Alex, continued conservation of elephants. She 13, as well as Archie and Quetzal — the says she’s proud of Disney’s research into family’s two German Shepherds. • elephant communication and its breeding

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CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES • SPRING 2006 • 29

COLLEGE BOOKSHELF COLLEGE BOOKSHELF

AN EXCERPT Old Woollen Gym has long

shorts, signed in, shot around for a while and, after the whistle blew, joined one of six layup

since been eclipsed as the

lines — one of the two on the main court. A

home of basketball at the

layup line is what I had hoped for because it

University of North Carolina,

would let me do the one thing I could do best

but on a particular Monday

— jump. All the coaches had their eyes fixed

night in mid-October 1961 it was the center

on center court . . . when it was my turn to take off from midcourt. I took a pass about the

of my universe. On the

foul line, dribbled once, and headed in for the

gleaming court, beneath

right-hand dunk I had mastered in high school.

a banner proclaiming the 1956-57 Tar ABOVE: The 1961-62 Freshmen Tar Heels, then rated as the best ever at Chapel Hill. The Yadkin walk-on is number 30, top right, with Billy Cunningham, number 32, top row, second from left.

I showed up in my Converse shoes and white

I planted my left foot, palmed the ball, got

Heels national champions, tryouts for the

good liftoff, and felt confident about it until the

freshman team were about to begin, and to

ball started to slip out of my right hand. Sweaty

me it was no small matter. Neither was it to a

fingers, dammit. Instinctively, at the top of my

number of onlookers who were anticipating

jump, I grabbed the ball with both hands and

Carolina’s finest freshman team in years,

slammed it down.

and were also there to see a changing of the

Walk-On

By Fred Hobson

guard. The previous summer Frank McGuire

I had dunked with both hands — something

had resigned as Tar Heel head coach, and

that, till then, I’d never even thought about

his low-profile 29-year-old assistant, Dean

doing. You have to be able to jump five or six

Smith, had been promoted to the top spot.

inches higher to dunk with both hands than

So Coach Smith was on hand to see the

with one. I heard a few murmurs: a 6’3” white

celebrated recruits — who would all have to

guy in those days was not supposed to be

play on the freshman team, no matter how

able to dunk at all, let alone two-handed. Was

good they were, since that was the NCAA

it the adrenalin or the springy wooden floor

rule in those days.

— or both? I wasn’t sure, but I tested it again the next time I was up and again dunked with

“When the roster was posted Friday morning, I wasn’t even surprised.

I knew I wasn’t that good but I knew I had looked that good, and I was the second walk-on listed.”

I was not one of the celebrated recruits, but

both hands. This time I was sure Coach Smith

I was as curious as anyone to see them in

and the other coaches were looking at me.

action — particularly Billy Cunningham, a 6’5” leaper from Brooklyn already becoming

After the layup drill came a half-court

known as the Kangaroo Kid, and Jay Neary, a

scrimmage in which I played better than I had

slick guard also from New York. Cunningham

ever played before. In 20 minutes I blocked

and Neary — as well as the homegrown

two shots, got several rebounds, and went

all-state scholarship players, Ray Respass, Bill

three for three from the floor, hitting twice from

Brown and Pud Hassell — didn’t have to

what would now be three-point range. . . .

worry about impressing the coaches. They

30 • SPRING 2006 • CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES

were already in. But for the 90 walk-ons, the

That’s the way it went all week. Every night

moment was critical. Only eight of us would

the number dwindled as most walk-ons were

stick on the team….

cut. Each night the layup line — more dunks

COLLEGE BOOKSHELF for me, both one-handed and two — ball handling drills, defensive drills, rebounding drills and then a couple of scrimmages. I managed to hide my ball-handling and defensive weaknesses, and the scrimmages were solid.

But it was the dunks that let me know I had made it…. When the roster was posted Friday morning, I wasn’t even surprised. I knew I wasn’t that good but I knew I had looked that good, and I was the second walk-on listed.

When I went to botany class that morning, Cunningham, probably the best freshman in the country (and a future threetime All-American and Hall of Famer), plopped down beside me — the supreme compliment since basketball players hung together and this meant, there being nobody any better around, I would do. That night, as I went into the dining hall with two or three non-hoop friends, varsity captain Larry Brown (another future Hall of Famer) yelled at me on his way out, “Hey, Hobson, let’s go get our stomachs lined.” Like Cunningham, Brown was a New Yorker, and I didn’t know what the hell he meant.

But I yelled back, “Yeah, Larry, let’s get our stomachs lined.”

It was as good as it got — and as good as it was ever to be. • — Excerpted with permission from Hobson’s new memoir, Off the Rim: Basketball and Other Religions in a Carolina Childhood (University of Missouri Press, 2006). Hobson, Lineberger Professor in the Humanities, has taught at Carolina since 1989.

BOOK BRIEFS

• Where the Southern Cross the Yellow Dog (University of Missouri Press) by Louis D. Rubin, Jr. The English professor emeritus, founder of Algonquin Books and legendary Southern literary critic has much to say about writers, writing and writers’ block in this entertaining and edifying collection of essays.

• The White House Looks South: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson (Louisiana State University Press) by William E. Leuchtenburg. The eminent presidential historian explores the importance of place in American politics and shows how three presidents influenced the South and united the country in ways that few other leaders have. Southern historian John Hope Franklin calls the book “a must read for anyone interested in the presidency of the 20th century.”

• Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (HarperSanFrancisco) by Bart D. Ehrman, the James A. Gray distinguished professor and chair of religious studies. A leading expert on early Christianity reveals in this NewYork Times bestseller that the scribes, scholars and translators who copied and interpreted the manuscripts that became the Bible made alterations that, in some cases, changed the meaning of the original work. Publishers Weekly says the book “ensures that readers might never read the Gospels or Paul’s letters the same way again.”

• Love’s Confusions (Harvard University Press) by C.D.C.“David” Reeve. The Delta Kappa Epsilon distinguished professor of philosophy explores the origins of Western thought on the paradoxes of love — from Plato, Shakespeare, Proust and Forster to Beckett, Huxley, Lawrence and Larkin. Reeve invites us to think more broadly about love and to find its confusions to be creative rather than disturbing.

• North Carolina Weather and Climate (The University of North Carolina Press) by Peter J. Robinson, professor of geography. This former state climatologist can’t do anything about our weather, but he thoroughly explains every facet of its mysteries from air pollution and floods to hurricanes and tornadoes.

• The Southern Past: A Clash of Race and Memory (Belknap Press/Harvard University Press) by W. Fitzhugh Brundage. Today’s controversies over flying the Confederate flag, renaming streets and buildings and commemorating the Civil War show how white and black Southerners’ perceptions of the past may differ.The William B. Umstead professor of history provides a critical lens for viewing and understanding volatile issues that have shaped our memories.

• The North Carolina Roots of African American Literature: An Anthology (UNC Press), edited by William L.Andrews, the E. Maynard Adams professor of English. This collection of poetry, fiction, autobiography and essays features some of the best work of eight influential 19th and 20th century African American writers — all from North Carolina — including the first African American to publish in the South, the author of the first female slave narrative in the United States and the father of black nationalism in America. Andrews explores why black North Carolinians made such a disproportionate contribution to African American literature.

• The Provincials (UNC Press) by Eli N. Evans. In this new edition of his earlier classic portrait of Jews in the South, Durham native Eli Evans ’58 takes readers inside the nexus between southern and Jewish histories from the earliest immigrants to the present day, including historical photos and a new introduction. Pat Conroy calls it “the seminal indispensable book about the Jewish experience in the South” and “a masterpiece.”

Evans chairs the advisory board for the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies. •

CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES • SPRING 2006 • 31

FINAL POINT FINAL POINT

Where I’m From

The following were written by sophomore students in Michael Chitwood’s “Introduction to Poetry” class. They were asked to write a poem about where they come from and to include a phrase heard in their home and at least one item of food.

I

am from the kiss of the sun, from pyramids that hide gold, diamonds, and pearls.

I am from chains and shackles.

I am from the dust, built up from time and bees and cobwebs, in the garage where the tractor and the old RV go to rust.

I am from the bare ground around the blue porch and the round sycamore pods that fall there to unleash their furry futures.

I am from the tadpoles in the mason jar that shattered on the porch and sliced my little thumb.

I am from dog lots and wandering canines and the far-off bursts of shotguns on holidays.

I am from ‘Bless her heart’ and coconut cake, cut sideways so you can see all the layers.

I am from brown-and-serve rolls in a silver serving bowl and the frog on the edge of the sink holding a dish scrubber.

I am from counters packed with too much food and kitchens packed with the consequences.

I am from the burnt orange chair in the corner that spins ’round and the State Fair dolphin, blind, worn, and battered, in the closet.

I am from blue boys’ bathrooms and uncle-carved bed posts, butterfly bathtub slip guards and a glass Christmas tree with lights.

I am from four generations of Christmas cactus, late-blooming on the back porch.

I am from years of sand piled up around hills where tobacco once grew.

I am from the tobacco and every worm my Daddy pulled off it and every blister he got working it.

His blood, my blood, runs in the veins of half of the men and women rooted in the sandy hills.

I am from a house whining with leaky plumbing and the tinny sounds of Wheel of Fortune, slipcovered with dust and monotony; but I know that once it was alive with dancing and the music brought home from the roller rinks.

— Catherine Williams, Matthews, N.C.

32 • SPRING 2006 • CAROLINA ARTS & SCIENCES

I am from cotton and tobacco, from bent over bodies, and from weary field hands.

I am from runaways.

I am from A Dream, from a seat on a bus.

I am from big lips and wide hips, from rounded noses and dark eyes.

I am from shades of chestnut, chocolate, cinnamon, and caramel.

I am from cornrows and French braids.

I am from afro puffs, kinky twists, and micros From nappy roots, hot combs, and Just for Me. I am from Kenya not Barbie, from Black Kid Sister and Brother.

I am from Little Sally Walker, Miss Mary Mack, And Down Down Baby.

I am from My Girl and This is a Man’s World, from the electric slide, the tootsie roll, and the perculator.

I am from Ebony and Essence, from Good Times and Cosby.

I am from rolling dice, from pit a pat, and tunk.

I am from horseshoes.

I am from fat back, cornbread, and molasses, from pig feet with vinegar, collared greens, watermelon, chicken and grits.

I am from Our Father Which Art in Heaven, from Swing Low Sweet Chariot and Lift Every Voice and Sing.

I am from shout Amen, and clap your hands.

I am from Black faces gathered in this room, as we hold hands around the table giving thanks to our Lord.

I am from this circle.

May our circle not be broken.

— Kellye Walton, Henderson, N.C.

FINAL POINT I

come from England, Ireland, France, Italy, Holland, Germany, Russia, Poland, and Prussia.

I come from Wyckoff, VanDyke, Quackenbush, Ramapo, and Lenape.

CAROLIN A

ARTS & SCIENCES Executive Editor Dee Reid Director of Communications Editor Kim Weaver Spurr ’88 Assistant Director of Communications

I come from National Geographic, Smithsonian, Newsweek, People, Time, Travel, and New York.

I come from circles, jug handles, cloverleafs, and the Jersey Sweep.

I come from the 201 area code.

I come from all-night smoke-filled diners along the highway.

I come from bagels with lox and cream cheese on Sunday mornings.

I come from honeycake and haroset.

I come from mazel tov and l’shanah tovah; from pronouncing a language without understanding it.

I come from watching seventeen younger cousins raised Catholic.

I come from a grandfather who survived polio and a fall from a fifth floor window, only to drink and smoke himself to death.

I come from an aunt who believes Kraft macaroni and cheese qualifies as a romantic dinner.

I come from a father who read me both a chapter of Twain and a page from the dictionary each night before bed.

I come from a mother who taught me to garden, cook, sew, and change a flat tire.

I come from a little brother who was my best friend until I told him not to speak to me for three years, and he listened.

I come from a doctor, a nurse, two dentists, and a secretary.

I come from no playing outside after sundown and no leaving the block until you’re old enough to drive.

I come from “God helps those who help themselves,” “Life isn’t fair,” and “Quit that, or I’ll give you something to cry about!”

I come from large houses on small lawns.

I come from “I-search” projects, PSATS and holistic writing exams.

I come from bomb threats and fire drills.

I come from leaky ceilings and asbestos notices posted on classroom doors for six months.

I come from red hall passes and student ID checks.

I come from marijuana in the locker rooms and vodka in the water bottles.

I come from we don’t talk about that.

— Leigh Tuckman, Wyckoff, N.J.

Graphic Designer Linda Noble Contributing Writers Pamela Babcock Alan Breznick Claire Cusick Fred Hobson Duncan Murrell Andrew Reynolds JB Shelton Lisa H. Towle Leigh Tuckman Kellye Walton Catherine Williams Contributing Photographers Steve Exum ’92 Will Owens Katie Schwing ’06 Dan Sears ’74, UNC News Services Photographer Special thanks to Del Helton and Sampson Starkweather.

Carolina Arts & Sciences* is published semiannually by the College of Arts & Sciences at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and made possible with the support of private funds. Copyright 2006. * Winner of the 2006 Award of Excellence from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), southeast district.

E-mail: artsandsciences@unc.edu Online news: college.unc.edu The College of Arts & Sciences The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Campus Box 3100 Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599-3100 (919) 962-1165

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