Arts and Sciences

Dr. George Anastassiou, professor of mathematical sciences, participated in the annual meeting of the American Mathematical Society held in Boston in early January. He presented three articles, two of which were invited.

College of Communication and Fine Arts

David Acey, assistant professor of communication, was honored as a 2011 Outstanding Achiever during the Memphis Silver Star News 20^th Annual Memphis & Shelby County Achievers’ Award celebration.

Dr. Lily Afshar, professor of guitar, performed at the Caserta Festival 2012 in Italy. She was also on the jury of the guitar competition.

David Appleby, professor of film and video production, restored a 16mm film he made in 1975 on the creation of a dance by Helmutt Frike-Gotschild and the Zero Moving Company. The film, Work In Progress, has been picked up by Insight Media in New York for national distribution.

Bryna Bobick, assistant professor of art education, co-chaired and presented research at the Art Education session at the Southeastern College Art Association Conference held in Savannah, Ga. Bobick was also selected as the 2012 Tennessee Art Education Association (TAEA) Higher Education Art Educator of the Year, and was honored at the TAEA Professional Development Conference in Memphis. She was a guest professor to the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, in November, and had work included in the 2011 National Juried Exhibition of the Arts & Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville.

Carrie Brown-Smith, assistant professor of journalism, gave a presentation about new technologies and social media at the U of M Women’s Research Forum in November.

Sherry Bryan, associate professor of architecture, was selected by the Tennessee Board of Architectural and Engineering Examiners to serve as the transcript evaluator for the Board. Also, Bryan participated in the Chicago Architecture + Design College Day, one of the largest national recruiting venues for students interested in architecture and design.

Michael Chisamore, assistant professor of architecture and director of the Center for Sustainable Design, was appointed to the Sustainable Shelby Green Building Task Force. He also presented the paper “TERRA Incognita: Teaching Sustainable Design through Engaged Scholarship, Community Outreach and Service Learning" (co-written with Jim Lutz, former director of the U of M’s Center for Sustainable Design) at the Building Technology Educators Society Conference in Toronto.

Dr. David Evans, professor of music gave four concerts in Germany in January and presented a paper titled "Will the Real Azmari Please Stand Up?: Changing Roles and Definitions of Azmari in Contemporary Ethiopia" for the International Conference on Azmari in Ethiopia at the University of Hildesheim Jan. 7.  He also published "Integrating Folklore and Music Research into Tourism and Development" in Culture and Development for Amhara Region.

Allison Graham, professor of communication, co-edited “Media,” a volume in The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture series.

Michael Hagge, chair of architecture, participated in the Chicago Architecture + Design College Day. He also moderated a panel on Green Building Design as part of the Justice Forum at BRIDGES, USA. Adjunct professor Jimmie Tucker served as a member of the panel. Hagge also participated as an observer in a National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) site visit to the University of Hartford. Hagge and Jeanne Myers, adjunct professor of architecture, served on the planning committee for the 2011 annual convention of the Tennessee Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Joe Hayden, associate professor of journalism, has written a new grammar handbook, The Little Grammar Book: First Aid for Writers. The book, which will be published in the spring, covers the 12 most common grammatical mistakes and demonstrates how to fix the errors.

Donalyn Heise, associate professor of art education, will present the paper, “Teaching Art to Children in Crisis,” at the 2012 National Art Education Association National Convention in New York City in March. Heise also published “Implementing an Art Program for Children in a Homeless Shelter” in Studies in Art Education. She collaborated with Laurie MacGillivray, literacy professor in the U of M’s College of Education, and several art education majors. Heise and Byrna Bobick were on the planning committee for the Tennessee Art Education Association Fall Conference, held in Memphis in October. The professional development conference was a collaboration of TAEA, the University of Memphis, Memphis College of Art, and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

Katherine Hendrix, professor of communication, published the essay “The Growth Stages and Maturation of an Outsider-within: Developing a Critical Gaze and Earning the Right to Speak” in Qualitative Inquiry. She also published the book chapter “Home as Respite for the Working-class Academic” in Our Voices: Essays in Culture, Ethnicity and Communication. She served as a panelist on “Voices of Gender and Race in Commercials: Amplified, Muted, Translated, Transmogrified?” at the National Communication Association conference in New Orleans in November.

David Horan, instructor of photography, taught study abroad courses in Florence, Italy, during the summer. Horan also had work included in a collaborative exhibition with Petr Lysacek at Kultur Stadt in Munich, Germany, and five pieces in a juried group exhibition on Social Documentary in Spokane, Wash.

Tom Hrach, assistant professor of journalism, published the article “An Incitement to Riot: Television's Role in the Civil Disorders in the Summer of 1967” in Journalism History.

Earnestine Jenkins, associate professor of art history, presented the paper, “Victorian Women of Color and the Family Photo Album: Documenting Race, Gender and Interracial Relationships in 19th Century Memphis,” at the annual conference of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in Richmond, Va. Jenkins also participated in the National Civil Rights Museum Renovation Scholars Committee Meeting in Memphis in August.

Lurene Kelley, assistant professor of journalism, was selected as a 2012 fellow for the prestigious Scripps Howard Journalism Entrepreneurship Institute at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University last month. She also was named one of the Top 40 under 40 by the Memphis Business Journal.

Craig Leake, professor of film, received the Award of Merit for Documentary Filmmaking at the 2011 University Film and Video Association Conference at Emerson College in Boston for his film The Nurse. More than 60 films were submitted for competition, and only three documentary films were recognized. Leake and his daughter, Mackenzie, garnered a regional Emmy nomination for their film Don't Make Me Start This Car!, which chronicles her fear of driving.

Marina Levina, assistant professor of communication, presented two papers at the Society for Social Studies of Science Conference: “Healthymagination: Anticipation and Affect in Health Information Technologies” and “’And Man Made Life’: Synthetic Organisms and Monstrous Imaginaries.”

Richard Lou, chair of art, was awarded the Memphis Latino Leadership Award — the Lisa Maples Visionary Award — from the Memphis chapter of the National Hispanic Professionals Organization. The award recognizes his efforts in establishing Memphis' first Latino Cultural Center and other work in the community.

Kris Markman, assistant professor of communication, was part of a panel discussing Internet rights, privacy and free speech at the U of M.

Gray Matthews, assistant professor of communication, was an invited speaker at a conference on “Technology and Contemplation,” which was hosted by Bellarmine University in Louisville. Gray spoke on the topic of “Technology, Commotion and Contemplative Action.”

Greely Myatt, professor of sculpture, showed new work in the exhibit “Just Sayin’” at David Lusk Gallery. He was commissioned to create a piece for Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis and eight locations of Nordstrom department stores across the country. He had worked included in the following two-person and group exhibitions: Pulse Contemporary Art Fair in New York City; “Exploring Media” at the University Art Gallery of Western Illinois University; “Desires, Nightmares and Dreams II” at The Running Horse Contemporary Art Space in Beirut, Lebanon; “Dog Days” at Termius 200 in Atlanta; “Syntax: Text and Symbols for a New Generation” (Selections from the Hadley Martin Fisher Collection) at the Tampa Museum of Art in Tampa, Florida; “Price is Right” and “Ripped from the Studio” at David Lusk Gallery; “America” at Koelsch Gallery in Houston; “That What the Modern Era has Gained in Civility it has Lost in Poetic Inspiration” at 1646 in The Hague, The Netherlands; “Art Miami”; and “Memphis Connections” Collaboration with Julie Ann Wright at Marshall Arts gallery in Memphis.

Cedar Nordbye, associate professor of art, exhibited his work in two concurrent solo exhibitions this summer. His installation Everything Connects to Everything was in the installation space at the Lexington Art League in tandem with the exhibition More is More, curated by Melissa Vandenberg.

Susan Owen-Leinert, associate professor of voice, returned to Germany in October as the editor of Louis Spohr’s complete songs in 12 volumes, recently released with the German publisher Dohr in Cologne. She presented this first complete critical Lied Edition through lectures in Braunschweig, Kassel and Düsseldorf. Owen-Leinert’s new publication won high praise in the June/July issue of the British magazine The Singer.

Todd Richardson, assistant professor of art history, published a book, Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Art Discourse in the Sixteenth-Century Netherlands.

Dr. Steve Ross, professor of film and video production, was awarded the Communication Educator of the year Award by the Tennessee Communication Association. Additionally, his short fiction film Dancing on a Volcano was shown at VideoFest Dallas and the TCA annual conference in September.

Kevin Sanders, assistant professor of tuba, recorded Charles Booker's Tuba Concertino with the U of M Wind Ensemble for publication on a CD of Booker's music titled “Radiant Blues: The Music of Charles Booker Jr., Vol. 4” on Mark Records.

Craig Stewart, assistant professor of communication, was invited to present his paper “Truthiness and Consequences: A Cognitive Pragmatic Analysis of Stephen Colbert’s Satirical Strategies and Effects” at the inaugural conference on North American Critical Discourse Analysis in Salt Lake City in May. Stewart also presented “Effects of News Frames and Academic Major on Opinions of Adult and Embryonic Stem Cell Research” at the International Communication Association conference in Boston.

Jenna Thompson, adjunct professor of architecture, will present a research paper on sustainability, “Convergence and Confluence: Systems Thinking Approach to Integrated Sustainability in Higher Education,” as part of the World Symposium on Sustainable Development at Universities at the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in Rio de Janeiro in June. Thompson serves as sustainability coordinator for the Department of Architecture and partnered on the paper with Amelia Mayahi, U of M sustainability coordinator. Also, Thompson was appointed to represent the University on the Sustainable Advisory Committee of the Memphis and Shelby County Office of Sustainability. Furthermore, she presented a paper at the Building Technology Educators Society Conference in Toronto in August. The paper, “Control Issues: Bio-plastics in the Design Curriculum,” focused on the work of several groups of students and faculty exploring bio-plastics. The research was funded by a grant from the FedEx Institute of Technology. The paper was co-written with adjunct professor Jennifer Barker, third-year architecture honors student Megan Hoover and former faculty member Chere Doiron.

Jimmie Tucker, adjunct professor of architecture, presented a paper on Sustainable Design at the 2011 national conference of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) in Atlanta. He also served as faculty sponsor for the NOMA Student Design Competition entry submitted by students in his Architecture Design 5 Studio. Additionally, Tucker was invited to serve on the Awards for Distinction Selection Committee at Washington University School of Architecture.

Tony de Velasco, assistant professor of communication, along with Melody Lehn, doctoral student in communication, co-edited the book Rhetoric: Concord and Controversy.

Nancy White, associate professor of ceramics, and art alumni Rollin Kocsis and Mary Stubbs, exhibited work at Gallery 56 in Memphis. White also had work shown at Harrington Brown Gallery in Nashville, Sarah Howell Gallery in Jonesboro, Ark., L. Ross Gallery and at Christian Brothers University. A piece White created for the Women’s Foundation to honor Onie Johns of Caritas Village has been traveling around Memphis.

James Williamson, associate professor of architecture, presented a paper, “A World Within a World: The Design of a Campus Interfaith Chapel,” at the 2011 Architecture, Culture and Spirituality Symposium held in Serenbe, Ga. The paper focused on the community engagement and design elements of a studio project in the Architectural Design 4 Studio taught by Williamson. Also, Williamson was awarded a Poet’s Tax Grant to conduct research at the University of Pennsylvania Architectural Archives in connection with his book about architect Louis Kahn.

Randle Witherington, associate professor of interior design, received the Preservation Service Award from Victorian Village Inc. for his work tutoring the Victorian Village Tour Ambassadors. He received the award at the Victorian Village Museum/Home Tour where eight interior design students gave guided tours of the Lee House and the Cruse Town House.

Loewenberg School of Nursing

Dr. Shirley A. Thorn, assistant professor of nursing, presented “Emergency Physicians’ Perspectives on the Usability of Health Information Exchange,” which focuses on grounded theory methodology research, at the Health Memphis Research Conferencein December.