Winter Break

In Tuscaloosa over winter break? Check out these events: The Crimson White – Dec. 12

The University of Alabama and the Tuscaloosa community are hosting multiple in-person and virtual events over winter break.

Course Evaluations

Students share mixed responses to course evaluations: Pepperdine University Graphic – Dec. 12

Course evaluations are often skewed toward measuring emotional experiences rather than providing an accurate measurement of the quality of the material or effectiveness of the professor’s teaching method, Amy E. Dayton, a professor of English at The University of Alabama, wrote in a 2015 study.

Young Poets

UA students write poetry: WVUA – Dec. 12

Lizzie Bowen is a University of Alabama senior English major from Birmingham. “I think poetry is important because it’s good for the mind and soul and is important to create and express yourself.” Avery Brooks, also from Birmingham, is a senior creative media major.

Emmett Till

Details of Emmett Till killing still a mystery as probe ends: Eagle Tribune – Dec. 12

… From the beginning, prosecutors portrayed the lynching as the work of a group, said David Beito, a retired University of Alabama professor and author who researched the case.
Alpena News
CBS (Birmingham)
The Philadelphia Sunday

Marshall Scholarships

UA student, alumnus receive Marshall Scholarships: Tuscaloosa Patch – Dec. 13

A University of Alabama student and alumnus were among 41 Americans selected to study in the United Kingdom through the prestigious Marshall Scholarship.
Forbes
Government World

Miss America

UA student to compete in Miss America pageant: ABC (Albuquerque) – Dec. 13

A woman from Albuquerque is competing in the Miss America pageant. Sienna Muscarinas was recently crowned Miss New Mexico. She’s a junior at The University of Alabama studying chemical engineering with a minor in math. She talked about what it means to be at the pageant.

State Biodiversity

Alabama has a unique biodiversity: WVUA – Dec. 14

Alabama has 67 counties, spanning more than 52,000 miles, and is home to more than 5 million people, and hundreds of species of animals and fish. We visited the director of The University of Alabama’s Natural History Museum today. He told us our state is really unique because it is one of the most bio-diverse states in the country.

Alt-Right Movement

Alt-Right expert claims movement includes a “lot of gnostics and atheists”: Patheos – Dec. 16

Professor George Hawley of The University of Alabama has a new book out next month called “Making Sense of the Alt-Right.” It’s a deep dive into the movement and the people who make it up. That’s presumably why he was invited on NPR’s All Things Considered yesterday to comment on the white supremacist march in Charlottesville.

False Tree Rings

‘False’ tree rings could provide a new record of long-ago hurricanes: Science – Dec. 17

A tree’s annual growth rings reveal how it has flourished—or floundered—over time, with the size of the rings indicating years of health or hardship. But sometimes nature throws a wrench into the works, and a tree will form more than one growth ring in a year. Now, such “false rings,” found in trees along the U.S. Gulf Coast, have been linked to hurricanes, researchers report today at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union. … Clay Tucker, a geographer at The University of Alabama, and his colleagues spent much of 2020 and this year wading and canoeing through stands of bald cypress trees across three river basins in coastal Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.