Desktop News – Page 29 – College of Arts & Sciences

An Unexpected Anniversary Surprise

November 30, 2016

From the November 2016 Desktop News | “To surprise someone after 30 years of marriage is no small feat,” said Dr. Michael Murphy, an emeritus professor and former chair in UA’s Department of Anthropology. But on Oct. 8, Murphy revealed a months-in-the-making anniversary surprise to his wife Dr. Milady Murphy, the Wellness Center director and division chair of health and wellness at Shelton State Community College. According to Milady, the couple had already exchanged gifts the evening of their anniversary when Michael […]

Piano Wing Named to Honor Alumna

November 15, 2016

From the November 2016 Desktop News | According to alumna Gloria Narramore Moody, her “love affair” with The University of Alabama’s School of Music began while attending Girl Scouts camp between sixth and seventh grade. She was casually playing the piano—as she so often did—for a group of girls who wanted to sing when a man came up to her and asked for her name and the name of her father. She answered without missing a note, and later found out […]

New Steps for Performing Arts Academic Center

November 14, 2016

A rendering of the new performing arts academic center.

From the November 2016 Desktop News | For decades, The University of Alabama’s theatre and dance department has produced world-class performances, actors and dancers. Without a doubt, it’s been a top-notch academic program in the Southeast with award-winning professors sharing a wealth of knowledge and expertise with their students. But the department’s facilities in Rowand-Johnson Hall have never truly reflected the quality or potential of the theatre and dance programs, even from their beginning, which has hampered the growing department’s potential. “The […]

Virtual Reality Sandbox

November 14, 2016

Dr. Sagy Cohen doing a demonstration in the sandbox.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZUAFNVx2-w] From the November 2016 Desktop News | The newest interactive exhibit at the Alabama Museum of Natural History is part sandbox, part Xbox, and it’s teaching students of all ages about topography, flood hazards, and watersheds. “With Google maps and other applications, people aren’t used to reading paper maps anymore,” Dr. Sagy Cohen, a professor in the Department of Geography, said. “But in my field—and even for people who like hiking or hunting—reading topographical maps is still a very […]

Digitizing Social Justice

November 14, 2016

“‘To See Justice Done’: Letters from the Scottsboro Trials,” is a new online database, showcasing primary resources from the Scottsboro Trials.

From the November 2016 Desktop News | Margaret Sasser, a 2014 alumna, spent one summer during her Master’s program digging through archives at the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery, Alabama. She had been hired by Dr. Ellen Spears, an associate professor in New College and the Department of American Studies, to sort through roughly 17 boxes of letters, postcards, telegrams, petitions, and resolutions sent to Alabama Governor Benjamin Meeks Miller regarding the 1930s Scottsboro Trials—and last month her work […]

A Name to Reflect Change

October 11, 2016

From the October 2016 Desktop News | Since 2001, the number of undergraduates majoring in the Department of Criminal Justice has increased more than 300 percent. Last year alone, more than 2,000 students took Introduction to Criminal Justice, and the department now holds some of the most popular majors on campus. “Our growth is due in large part to the efforts of our dedicated and diverse faculty,” the department’s chair, Dr. Lesley Williams Reid, said. “As the demand for our courses has […]

Psychology Professor Honored for Contributions to Geropsychology

October 11, 2016

Dr. Scogin winner of APA research award for his work on geropsychology

From the October 2016 Desktop News | Dr. Forrest Scogin, a professor of psychology at The University of Alabama, received the American Psychological Association Committee on Aging’s Award for the Advancement of Psychology and Aging at its annual convention in August. Scogin, whose primary concentration is clinical geropsychology, researches mental health and aging, as well as psychotherapy and depression. He’s also affiliated with the Alabama Research Institute on Aging, a UA-based interdisciplinary research group that promotes the quality of life for older adults. […]

Researchers Explore Biomass Potential to Replace Petrochemicals

October 11, 2016

Arduengo and German exchange student Philip Maximilian Knaff work in a UA lab.

From the October 2016 Desktop News | For years, manufacturers of some pharmaceuticals and everyday items made of plastic have relied on non-renewable petrochemicals that gush from the bowels of the Earth—black gold, Texas tea—as a key ingredient. Now Dr. Anthony J. Arduengo III, a University of Alabama chemistry professor, and an international group of scientists are working to replace petrochemicals with a much more chemically complex component that grows, rather than springs, from the ground. The component? Wood. “Wood, a renewable […]

Fruit-Fly Diet Impacts Descendants, UA Researcher Finds

October 11, 2016

From the October 2016 Desktop News | For a fruit fly, what its grandparents ate may affect how much it weighs. And, according to Dr. Laura Reed, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, similar relationships between generational diet and obesity may hold true for humans as well. To study obesity, Reed and her team experiment with the diets of fruit flies. They feed some of the larvae a high-fat diet while they give the control group a regular diet. Then, […]

Student Represents Team USA in Paralympic Games

October 11, 2016

From the October 2016 Desktop News | Shelby Baron was helping unload cars during freshman move-in day at The University of Alabama when she got a call from Team USA wheelchair tennis coach Dan James. It was Aug. 12, her 22nd birthday, so Baron thought James was calling to wish her a happy birthday. “He said, ‘You want the good news or bad news?’” Baron said. “I was confused, but I took the bad news first. He said, ‘We didn’t order […]