Category: News

Articles about news in the College, from student and faculty accomplishments to research advances, new academic programs, and the impact of giving.


Bridging the Gap

Growing up, Seth Panitch thought he would be a doctor like his father. He dreamed of going to medical school and was familiar with the apprenticeship-like process of residency that allows young professionals to apply their academic training in the real world. But when Panitch, now the director of UA’s acting programs, pursued theatre instead of medicine, he was on his own. Despite the classical training he received at the University of Washington, the professional theatre world was uncharted territory […]

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From Space to Surgery: Student revamps NASA technology for cardiologists

NASA’s high-tech inventions aren’t just for outer space. Through the NASA Technology Transfer Competition, UA students are able to take NASA patents and re-envision them for use on earth. Virginia Morgan, a senior studying neuroscience in New College, re-envisioned a panoramic lens—which NASA designed to measure heat distribution efficiency in rocket engines—and retooled it to improve heart surgery. “When doctors perform heart surgery, they often try to look at the walls of a heart valve, but their cameras only look […]

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Freedom and Fire! A Civil War Story

When Colonel Thomas M. Johnston and the Second Michigan Cavalry arrived in Tuscaloosa in 1865, they carried with them orders to destroy The University of Alabama—the Confederacy’s makeshift West Point at the time. The war was nearly over—Johnston arrived only five days before the surrender at Appomattox—and professors like Andre DeLoffré pleaded for campus, especially the library, to be spared. But the order to burn everything remained. Still, some structures including the President’s Mansion were preserved. The president’s wife, Louisa […]

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The Next Generation of Scientists: Hands-on outreach encourages middle school students to consider careers in science

When Dr. Laura Reed passed around two dozen photos of racially and gender diverse UA students to a classroom of seventh graders, she asked them to choose which ones were scientists and which ones weren’t. The kids responded with comments like, “This person is wearing big earrings, so she couldn’t possibly be a scientist,” but, in reality, each photo was of a member of Reed’s biology lab. “I wanted the students to recognize and address some of their potential stereotypes,” […]

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Police and the Polls: Student Receives First-Ever Pre-Doctoral Fellowship at Brown University

Brandon Davis, a doctoral student in the Department of Political Science, recently received a paid pre-doctoral fellowship from Brown University to study how negative experiences with the criminal justice system keep people from voting—and hinder political involvement in general. While research has shown how incarceration negatively impacts political participation, Davis looks more closely at how second-tier experiences with the police—like getting pulled over, being verbally or physically harassed, or having a family member go to jail—also impact political involvement. Davis […]

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Racing in Rio

When recent graduate and first-time Olympian Alex Amankwah moved to the United State as an eight-year-old, he said that he expected to see futuristic marvels like flying cars and hoverboards. He had grown up in a poor part of Ghana, and his mother brought him to Los Angeles, California, so he and his family could have a better life. But in L.A., Amankwah didn’t find the high-tech fantasy he’d dreamed of. Instead, he found a poor neighborhood full of gangs […]

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Student Sculpture Exhibited at UA Gallery’s BFA Show

Tuscaloosa, Ala. —Bachelor of Fine Arts students Kat Bornhoft and Graham Harrison will showcase their sculptures at The University of Alabama Gallery in the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center in downtown Tuscaloosa Nov. 1–30. A free, public reception will be held Friday, Nov. 4 at 5 p.m. Bornhoft, who presented a 3D printed piece as a part of the gallery’s EnterConnect show in 2014 and the 2016 Annual BFA Juried Exhibition, will be featuring mixed-media sculptures that explore the relationship […]

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Community Forum to Discuss U.S. Mass Incarceration 

This year’s criminal justice community forum “Mass Incarceration in Modern America: Where Do We Go From Here?” will include a panel of experts with the prison system to discuss mass incarceration on Oct. 19 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in Room 1000 at North Lawn Hall. In response to President Barack Obama’s announcement that the government will end private prisons and the fact that the U.S. has the highest number of prisoners in the world, the criminal justice department is […]

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A Name to Reflect Change

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 […]

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Psychology Professor Honored for Contributions to Geropsychology

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. […]

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