Top Music Educator
Alabama piano teacher named among nation’s top music educators: Yellowhammer – Dec. 8
Although Dr. Kevin Chance has tickled the ivories on concert stages around the world, including at the famed Carnegie Hall in New York City, he said his greatest satisfaction comes from watching his students grow into successful, confident performers. “One of my greatest memories is the first time I had a student perform their first solo recital,” said Chance, assistant professor of piano at The University of Alabama.
Alabama Newscenter – Dec. 6
Tuscaloosa Bicentennial
Sculpture’s dedication part of Tuscaloosa bicentennial celebration: Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 8
She’s 30 feet tall, she weighs more than 9,500 pounds and she’s almost ready for her debut. Workers have been busy preparing the site along Tuscaloosa’s riverfront for a sculpture depicting Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and strategy. The Minerva sculpture, along with a timeline of key dates in Tuscaloosa’s history and a time capsule, will be dedicated at 10 a.m. Friday at the Park at Manderson Landing. The creation of the landmarks is meant to celebrate the city’s past, present and future on Tuscaloosa’s 200th birthday. Caleb O’Connor and Craig Wedderspoon, who is also a local artist, have collaborated for two years on the sculpture and timeline. While O’Connor focused on the sculpture and Wedderspoon concentrated on the timeline. The two elements are gifts to the residents of Tuscaloosa from The University of Alabama, with the sculpture being entirely funded from an endowed fund established by an anonymous donor. Minerva is also depicted in UA’s official seal.
NBC 13 – Dec. 9
WVUA – Dec. 9
WVUA – Dec. 11
NBC 13 – Dec. 13
WVUA – Dec. 13
Mises
What would Mises think about the West today?: Austrian – Dec. 9
Those of us who read and enjoy Mises, and he wrote so much about so many things, might well wonder what he would have to say about the state of America and the West in 2019. After all, he was a sociologist and philosopher and political theorist as well as an economist. Surely we could use his perspective today, and so much of what he wrote was prescient and still relevant. Just this year a University of Alabama history professor published a book titled The Marginal Revolutionaries: How Austrian Economists Fought the War of Ideas which is a leftwing homage to the continuing influence of the Austrian school among the (supposedly) anti-socialist upper echelons of business and government—with Mises as its leader.
Commencement
University of Alabama to hold graduation ceremony: Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 10
The University of Alabama will award degrees to more than 2,300 graduates Saturday during fall commencement exercises at Coleman Coliseum. Degrees will be presented in two sessions. The 9 a.m. session will feature students in the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Communication and Information Sciences, College of Engineering and School of Social Work.
WVUA – Dec. 10
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – Dec. 11
CBS 42 – Dec. 14
Impeachment
UA political science professor discusses next steps after House of Representatives unveil articles of impeachment: WVUA – Dec. 10
We spoke to Dr. Allen Linken, an assistant professor of political science at The University of Alabama about what exactly this would mean for President Trump. Dr. Linken says impeachment does not mean Trump would lose his job or be unable to run for re-election, he would have to be convicted in the senate.
American Revolution
How the American Revolution created a global storm: BBC History Extra – Dec. 11
Peru, 1781: Micaela Bastidas, a leader of the Quechua people, stands in a pool of her son’s blood as she stoically awaits torture and execution for rebellion against Spanish rule. Srirangapatna, south-west India, 1782: James Scurry, a 16-year-old sailor from Devon, looks out from his prison cell on the day of the coronation of Britain’s most formidable Indian enemy, Tipu Sultan, the ‘Tiger of Mysore’. In the coming years the jail, already crammed with British soldiers, will be further packed with Mangalorean Christians and Kodava Hindus in their tens of thousands, captives of a conflict that had begun a world away. . . . Matthew Lockwood is assistant professor of history at The University of Alabama, and author of To Begin the World Over Again: How the American Revolution Devastated the Globe (Yale University Press, 2019)
Miss America
Miss Alabama gets ready for Miss America pageant: NBC 13 (Birmingham) – Dec. 11
We are so excited for her. I got to meet with her just not long ago. She left for Miss America yesterday. So, a little background information, she won Miss Alabama in June and she is actually the first African-American woman to hold the title of Miss University of Alabama She is representing the National Psoriasis Foundation and Psoriasis Take Action Alabama. We are so excited for her.
Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra
Quick Picks: GJ Symphony holiday pops concert; Face Vocal Band; International Folk Dance; storytelling night: The Daily Sentinel – Dec. 12
The Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra will have a guest conductor as well as a deep selection of holiday music for “Pops: A Colorado Christmas.” The guest conductor is Blake Richardson, director of orchestral studies at The University of Alabama, and on the program are favorites such as “Christmas Jazz Suite” and “Fantasia on Greensleeves” with guest vocalists singing other selections, such as “Silver Bells,” “Santa Claus is Coming” and “Silent Night.”
Coroner’s Role
In England, coroners decide what is treasure and what is not: Atlas Obscura – Dec. 12
The famous grave ship of Sutton Hoo was found, undisturbed, in a mound in East Anglia, England, in the 1930s. One of the most spectacular finds in the history of English archaeology, the burial contained no body, but was loaded with artifacts made of gold, silver, and bronze, from Byzantine silverware to a literally double-edged sword. The find is priceless beyond measure, but one thing it is decidedly not is “treasure.” At least that’s what a local coroner—following seven centuries of precedent—officially determined. “The modern role is almost entirely focused on the investigation of deaths, but at the time revenue control was part of that,” says Matthew Lockwood, a historian at The University of Alabama and an expert in early British history, who wrote his dissertation on the coroner’s role in British life. “The responsibility for investigating treasure and wreck of the sea goes sort of hand-in-hand with the investigation of death.
Neoliberalism
The Viennese roots of neoliberalism: Der Standard (Vienna, Austria) – Dec. 13
The renowned leftist economist John Kenneth Galbraith is said to have once asked Bruno Kreisky what he thought was the reason why Austria was doing so well economically. The traditional answer of the Social Democratic Chancellor: “That’s because we attach so much importance to exports, and we even exported our economists!” The anecdote is almost too good, to be true, two facts are packed with sarcasm in it. By that time, Janek Wasserman, who teaches the history of ideas at The University of Alabama and was last week for a lecture at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), wanted to look more closely at the Austrian School and its history. The historian was well prepared for this project: He had just finished his dissertation on “Black Vienna”, in which he dealt in detail with the right-wing conservative counter forces to the Red Vienna of the interwar period and as a book – so far only in English – has appeared.