Category: For Faculty


UA Couple Wins Lifetime Achievement Awards

From the February 2017 Desktop News | Dr. Jim Knight, a professor emeritus of anthropology at The University of Alabama, and Dr. Judith Knight, a longtime editor at UA Press, were each awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southeastern Archaeological Conference for their decades of groundbreaking work in the field of archaeology in the South. The two are married. “I have known both of the Knights for almost 40 years,” said Dr. Ian W. Brown, professor and chair of UA’s […]

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Physicist Named APS Fellow

From the February 2017 Desktop News | Dr. Andreas Piepke, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, was recently elected as a fellow of the American Physical Society for his work in defining the nature of neutrinos, neutral subatomic particles and fundamental constituents of matter. Each year, only 0.5 percent of the 53,000 members of APS, roughly 265 people, can potentially be elected a fellow. “It’s a big honor and a welcome recognition for work done in the field,” Piepke said. […]

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Instructor Wins Award to Study Football in Cuba

From the February 2017 Desktop News | Michael Wood, an instructor in the Department of American Studies, recently received the North American Society for Sport History’s inaugural Joseph L. Arbena Award, which offers $1,000 to those pursuing research in Latin American sports history. Wood studies the history of American football in Cuba, and using the funds from the award, he traveled to Havana, Cuba, for eight days to search through archives at the University of Havana and the José Martí Cuban […]

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UA Scientist Named AAAS Fellow

Patricia Sobecky

From the January 2017 Desktop News | The world’s largest general scientific society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, elected a University of Alabama scientist to the rank of Fellow. Dr. Patricia Sobecky, UA associate provost for academic affairs and professor of biological sciences, was one of 391 people elected as an AAAS Fellow in 2016. Awardees are chosen because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. “We offer our enthusiastic congratulations to Patty […]

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Anthropologist Elected to Prestigious Antiquarian Society

Dr. Ian Brown

  From the January 2017 Desktop News | Dr. Ian Brown, professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology, was recently elected to The Society of Antiquaries of London—the oldest and most prestigious association for antiquarian studies in the world.   The society, which is roughly 300 years old, consists of distinguished archaeologists, art historians, architectural historians, and others who excel in the study of prehistory and antiquities. Though there are approximately 3,000 fellows in the society, only 5 percent are from […]

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Anthropology Chair Elected to Prestigious Antiquarian Society

Dr. Ian Brown UA Anthropology Chair

Dr. Ian Brown, professor and chair of the anthropology, has been elected into The Society of Antiquaries of London. This prestigious, 300-year old society has 3,000 fellows and only 5 per cent are from the U.S. Dr. Brown was the only American on this year’s ballot! His contributions to the field in areas such as the Lower Mississippi Valley, Gulf Coastal Plain and Native American prehistory and ethnohistory landed him the spot. Check out UA News for the story on Dr. Brown […]

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A&S in the News – Nov. 12–18

University of Alabama students to present dance show Tuscaloosa News – Nov. 12 The University of Alabama department of theater and dance will present a show next week featuring more than 20 student-choreographed works. “Dance Alabama!” is scheduled to run at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 15-17 and at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 18 in the auditorium at Morgan Hall. Tickets are $14 for UA students, $17 for seniors and UA employees, and $20 for adults. Tickets are available in Rowand-Johnson Hall at […]

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Virtual Reality Sandbox

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 […]

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Digitizing Social Justice

“‘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 […]

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Panitch Wins UA’s Blackmon-Moody Award

Seth Panitch, professor of acting in The University of Alabama’s department of theatre and dance, has earned the 2016 Blackmon-Moody Outstanding Professor Award. Panitch will receive the award Nov. 11 in a ceremony at the UA President’s Mansion. The Frederick Moody Blackmon and Sarah McCorkle Moody Outstanding Professor Award is one of the most prestigious awards given by UA. It is based on a specific accomplishment that is innovative, creative, useful or captures the imagination. Created by Frederick Moody Blackmon, […]

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