Desktop News November 2016 – College of Arts & Sciences

UA Professor Receives Highest Award in Geosciences

December 14, 2016

From the November 2016 Desktop News | The American Geosciences Institute recently announced that Dr. Berry H. “Nick” Tew Jr., the state geologist of Alabama and the director of The University of Alabama’s Center for Sedimentary Basin Studies, has received the AGI Medal in Memory of Ian Campbell for Superlative Service to the Geosciences, the institute’s highest award. Tew is recognized for his role in bringing academia, government, industry and the public together to address major societal challenges in the geosciences. Tew […]

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 […]