Voices Spring 2020

SPRING 2020

NEW WAVES

The UofM, Crosstown Concourse and The Daily Memphian team up to bring big changes to WUMR 91.7 FM

THE MAGAZINE OF THE COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION AND FINE ARTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

PRESIDENT M. David Rudd EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY RELATIONS Tammy Hedges DEAN Dr. Anne Hogan EXECUTIVE EDITOR Casey Hilder CONTRIBUTING WRITER Phillip Tutor PHOTOGRAPHY Trey Clark ART DIRECTION AND DESIGN University of Memphis Division for External Relations PUBLISHED BY University of Memphis College of Communication and Fine Arts 232 CFA Building Memphis, TN 38152 901.678.2350 memphis.edu/ccfa To submit story ideas, alumni updates or other CCFA-related inquiries, please contact Casey Hilder at CCFA@memphis.edu.

The University of Memphis does not discriminate against students, employees or applicants for admission or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, disability, age, status as a protected veteran, genetic information or any other legally protected class with respect to all employment, programs and activities sponsored by the University of Memphis.

For inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies, please contact the Director for Institutional Equity, kpndrsn1@memphis. edu, 156 Administration Building, 901.678.2713. The University of Memphis policy on nondiscrimination can be found at policies.memphis.edu/UM1381.htm.

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contents CCFA | SPRING 2020

p10 2 Dean’s Message 4 News to Dance About 6 New Chair: Wendy Atkins-Sayre 8 Certified Newsmakers

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10 The Art of Good Health 16 New Waves 22 Excellence in Education

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28 Central to the Arts 32 Donor Spotlight: Patricia LaPointe McFarland 34 A Tale of Three Cities 38 News & Notes

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Brief updates from students, faculty, staff and alumni 44 Thank You Donors

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D E A N ’ S M E S S AG E

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APPY 2020 AND WELCOME TO THE SPRING ISSUE OF VOICES!

It is hard to believe that we are crossing the threshold of a new decade, and I am delighted to convey to you with confidence that the University of Memphis and the College of Communication and Fine Arts (CCFA) are poised to embrace the challenges and opportunities of this emerging epoch, and to achieve even greater levels of renown and impact locally, nationally and globally.

Under the inspired leadership of President M. David Rudd and Provost Tom Nenon, the University of Memphis is “Driven by Doing” at a pace set to ensure that our students receive the kind of high-quality experience they will require to thrive in a rapidly shifting world — one that is at once challenging and brimming with unformulated potential.

CCFA is an increasingly highprofile contributor to the impressive achievements of our fine University. As a means of contextualizing this issue’s celebration of our wonderful faculty, staff, students, alumni and broader community, I would like to highlight some of the strategic priorities that are helping us both clarify and strive to realize our collective vision.

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The grounding priority is, of course, our commitment to enhancing student success and ensuring that our talented, hard-working students receive their degrees and thrive in their pursuit of professional opportunities. Many of our students are the first in their families to undertake university study, and they often face considerable economic hardships as they work to complete their programs of study.

With your help, the CCFA community is working to increase the number of scholarships and other forms of financial support for our students. We have also implemented measures to provide a stimulating and supportive academic landscape for them, including innovative curricular developments (see pg. 4) and expanded opportunities for internships and study abroad (see pg. 34).

I am thrilled to confirm that our recruitment, retention and graduation rates for the college have improved ssignificantly. In fact, recruitment, is up 6.6% for undergraduate studies and 4.4% at the graduate level. The features in this issue offer ample evidence of the excellent teaching and support offered

by CCFA faculty and staff, and the high caliber of our students themselves.

A key aim of CCFA is to enrich the cultural life of our local and wider community, and one of the ways we do this is through top-quality performances,

concerts, exhibitions, public lectures and other events showcasing both our students and our faculty. CCFA welcomed more than 628,000 attendees to our events last year, and our students participated in over $1 million in pro-bono service learning projects for the local community.

Everyone in the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, and indeed throughout our college, is excited about the forthcoming Scheidt Family Music Center, which will offer a visually stunning, acoustically outstanding concert hall, rehearsal rooms and teaching spaces that will give our students a cuttingedge facility and transform the look and appeal of our stretch of Central Avenue. Building upon the citywide interest in the new music center, we are promoting the Central Avenue Arts Corridor (which also includes

Harris Hall, the Mainstage Theatre, the Art Museum of the University of Memphis, the Fogelman Art Galleries and a number of large lecture halls), as “Central to the Arts” (see pg. 28).

We have also grown our already extensive array of community and professional sector partnerships, and these important collaborations not only enhance our engagement with the Memphis community, but also offer our students invaluable experience with the professions in which they aspire to contribute. We are excited, for instance, about our partnership with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra (which is housed on our campus), and about the new radio partnership with Crosstown Arts and The Daily Memphian (see pg. 16).

CCFA has taken active measures to nurture research, creative activity and professional practice. These include the appointment of a Dean’s Fellow for Research, the implementation of a Research Working Committee, and internal seed grants available for CCFA faculty research projects.

We are also developing high-impact,

interdisciplinary projects within the college, across the University, and externally through collaborations with higher education and other partners. One exciting outcome of our interdisciplinary focus is the Arts and Health Initiative, a cross-institutional effort that was initiated by CCFA (see pg. 10).

CCFA is fully committed to cultivating an academic environment that is inclusive of cultural and individual differences, and our action-driven approach includes the implementation of professional development workshops for faculty and staff, featuring focused discussion topics such as unconscious bias, using the arts to bridge deep divides, and understanding and serving Gen Z students and their families. We kicked off this spring semester with a college-wide event focusing on how to best support our students with mental health concerns. Dr. Altha Stewart, who is (among other extraordinary accomplishments) the first African American to become president of the American Psychiatric Association, began the event with a keynote

presentation that was as riveting as it was informative. Faculty and staff convened in smaller breakout groups, giving them the opportunity to discuss among colleagues’ best practices as well as the challenges related to this crucial issue. We have also reviewed and redrafted our Faculty Search Guidelines.

These kind of efforts are helping us to attract and retain faculty and staff who represent both diversity and excellence.

I wish you health, happiness and peace for the year and for the decade ahead, and would like to thank you for your interest in, and generous support of, the College of Communication and Fine Arts. I hope you enjoy this spring issue of Voices, and I also welcome you to keep abreast of CCFA news and events as they unfold by subscribing to the online Voices blog (blogs.memphis.edu/ccfa).

Kindest regards,

Dr. Anne F. Hogan, Dean

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NEWS TO DANCE ABOUT New Concentrations in Theatre & Dance and Journalism & Strategic Media

by Phillip Tutor

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EW ACADEMIC CONCENTRATIONS THAT BEGAN IN 2019 offer College of Communication and Fine Arts students a pair of modern options.

In the Department of Theatre & Dance, chair Holly Lau has welcomed the first students pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre with a concentration in Dance Science.

Meanwhile, the Department of Journalism and Strategic Media has added a Creative Mass Media concentration that will prepare students to become media innovators who can create content in a variety of formats.

Dance Science is an interdisciplinary concentration at the University of Memphis that expands the possibilities for students. With classes divided between Lau’s department and the School of Health Studies’ Exercise, Sport and Movement Sciences, students seeking this concentration will receive dance training and skills in areas such as nutrition, biomechanics, exercise physiology and kinesiology.

The goal, Lau said, is to train graduates for careers in a variety of related fields, including health and wellness advisors for dance companies and trainers in fitness clubs. The concentration will also allow students who take additional classes and degrees to pursue careers in physical therapy or dance medicine.

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“We have had students in the past cobble this together on their own very successfully,” Lau said. “It creates a dancer who really is best aware of their own body and how to take care of their own self. Every single one of our dancers teach. People who dance teach dance.

They are now really very skilled, careful, healthy teachers. So no matter what else they do in their life, they have this.”

In the Creative Mass Media concentration, students will take classes in journalism, advertising, public relations, media design and photojournalism. With several classes cross-listed with the UofM’s Department of Art, students learn how to apply creativity to media production.

Graduates could work as an art director for an advertising agency, a content

creator for a news organization as a web content producer, a media designer or a photojournalist, according to Dr. Matt Haught, associate professor of journalism and strategic media.

“These classes aren’t new,” Haught said.

“These classes have been on the books, some of them for 50 years. And these aren’t new concepts to media, but they’re newly organized for 21st century media.

“We did this because we saw a lot of students wanting to go into media-based creative careers, and we saw that we already had the classes in place and we already had the resources in place. It just made sense.”

The addition of a Dance Science concentration positions the Department of Theatre & Dance among a small

collection of U.S. colleges and universities that feature Dance Science. Some offer it as a Bachelor of Science degree; others list it as a BFA in Dance with a concentration in Health Science. The UofM opted to offer it as a concentration to offer a broader range of options for Theatre & Dance students.

“Some of the people we’re thinking it might attract are returning professionals, especially people who may have been in the dance world,” Lau said. “They can come in and get a lot of experience-for-life credit for the dance portion for what they’ve done, and then they’ll fill that in with the science classes. We think this might have a unique appeal to a lot of people.”

The idea of importing Dance Science at the UofM gained steam when Dr. Anne Hogan became dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts in 2017.

Hogan had previously been the director of education at the Royal Academy of Dance, based in London, and its senior advisor for International Partnerships, based in the United States.

“The dean was absolutely for it,” Lau said, “and the professor I was working with primarily (in the School of Health Studies) was for it.”

The BFA in Theatre, with a concentration in Dance Science, will require 120 undergraduate hours, including 41 in general education classes, nine in Theatre, three for an internship in Exercise, Sport and Movement Sciences and 10 in electives. In the concentration, students will take 24 hours in Exercise, Sport and Movement Sciences and 33 in Dance.

“I spoke to someone out of Florida who runs a program,” Lau said, “and he said The thing that’s different about a person who comes out of dance science and becomes a physical therapist is they understand dancers, and they’re different from athletes. The bodies are different and the goals are different.”

Creative Mass Media students will be required to take 45 hours in the Department of Journalism and Strategic Media, including 24 in the Creative Mass Media concentration. Students will take Creative Strategy in Advertising, Multimedia Storytelling, Web Publishing I and Creative Media Lab, three additional classes in either journalism or advertising (such as Publication Design, Advertising Campaigns, Advanced Photojournalism) and a Journalism and Strategic Media elective.

“The coolest thing is that this is a subject that focuses on being that media person who can innovate,” Haught said. “The dean gave a great example when she was talking about this.

“If you’re a startup, you need a lot of things: you need a logo. You need social media accounts. You need brand standards. You need someone who can write about it. You need someone who can take pictures of it. You need someone who can build your whole identity, and that is what a Creative Mass Media student can do because they have that journalistic writing training, they have that photojournalism training, they have that advertising, design and branding (training), and they have that strategic piece that comes from interacting from all of these disparate disciplines.”

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“I think you could make a mistake by picturing yourself as the sole leader, taking charge and implementing changes. I think it really is a team effort and that involves listening to the ideas that are already there.�

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WENDY ATKINS-SAYRE NEW CHAIR:

S DR. WENDY ATKINS-SAYRE RECOUNTS THE HIGHLIGHTS OF HER PROFESSIONAL CAREER, the little things stand out. The chance meetings. The unscripted conversations. The quirks of daily life that have guided her along the way.

A comment from one of her first undergraduate professors — “How many people get to have a job that they love, get to do what they really love for work?” — sparked her lifelong interest in academia.

A chance encounter with a department chair led her to accept a position with the University of Southern Mississippi’s Department of Communication Studies.

More recently, Atkins-Sayre happened upon an advertisement for the University of Memphis’ Department of Communication & Film, which was seeking its next chair. She was curious, but hesitant.

“To be honest, when I read it, my first reaction was, ‘Oh, I wonder who might get that? What a great program, what a great opportunity,’” she said. “Then it kept rumbling around in my head.” As if on cue, or guided by fate, she applied.

Added together, those small items led to Atkins-Sayre joining the UofM this August.

“This program has always impressed me,” Atkins-Sayre said. “Great scholars and great students come out of this program.

The newly minted chair of UofM's Department of Communication and Film brings renewed focus and vigor to her position

by Phillip Tutor

“It’s such an honor to be chosen to lead this program, especially right now because there have been so many changes. I’m really excited to work with everyone in that department. It’s just a great group of people.”

Originally from Portland, Texas — a city of roughly 15,000 across Nueces Bay from Corpus Christi — AtkinsSayre traces her first attraction to the study of communication to her days in her home state. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas State University, where she also served as a teaching assistant.

Before earning her PhD in 2005 from the University of Georgia, she worked as an instructor at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, teaching five sections of Public Speaking each semester.

“I would listen to 125 speeches probably four times a semester,” she said. “I don’t know how I did it.”

At the University of Southern Mississippi, Atkins-Sayre became the interim associate director of the School of Communication in 2016 after serving as the chair of the Department of Communication Studies and the director of the Speaking Center. She also directed the Speaking Center and served as a visiting professor at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga., from 2005-07.

Her husband, Edward Sayre, is a professor of economics and director of the School of Social Science and Global Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi. For now, he will remain in Hattiesburg with the family’s dogs, Bennie and Sara (the

family’s cats, Rami and Lexi, made the move to Memphis). The Sayres have two children: Glenn, a senior in biology at Agnes Scott College, and Owen, a freshman at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.

At the UofM, Atkins-Sayre now heads a Communication & Film department that she says has “a very long and strong tradition” as well as a nationally ranked online bachelor’s degree program for communication.

Atkins-Sayre’s research area of interest, rhetorical studies and Southern identity, fits in well in the City of Memphis with its deep history in civil rights and all manners of Southern life and culture. Her most recent book, co-authored with Ashli Q. Stokes, is Consuming Identity: The Role of Food in Redefining the South (University Press of Mississippi, 2016).

Initially, at least, she believes one of her vital roles as chair is to soak in the department’s conversations and learn from those around her.

“I had one goal coming in: to find out more about the people and the department as a whole — listening to all different kinds of people, but especially faculty,” she said. “I think you could make a mistake by picturing yourself as the sole leader, taking charge and implementing changes. I think it really is a team effort and that involves listening to the ideas that are already there, which is really important, as is listening carefully to what administrators are saying.”

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CERTIFIED NEWSMAKERS New Graduate Certificates come to the Department of Journalism and Strategic Media

By Casey Hilder

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HE UofM DEPARTMENT OF JOURNALISM AND STRATEGIC MEDIA debuted two new graduate certificates in the fall semester.

Certificates in the fields of Multimedia Storytelling and Social Media Analysis and Strategy joined the department’s existing Entrepreneurial Journalism certificate as areas of specialized post-graduate study.

“The certificate program is great for students who don’t want to commit to a full MA program, but would like something to show their competency in a certain field on their resumes,” said Dr. Tom Hrach, director of graduate studies with the Department of Journalism and Strategic Media. “All earned credits can count toward an MA, so it’s also a good way to get started in the grad school program at the University and see if you like it here.”

All three of the graduate certificates offered by the Department of Journalism and Strategic Media are comprised of 12 credit hours achieved through four courses, each of which can be taken entirely online.

“Another nice thing about the program is that students aren’t required to take a major test like the MAT or GRE if they aren’t interested in pursuing an MA,” Hrach said.

The department launched the two new certificate programs at an informational open house conducted July 23 in the Meeman Journalism Building.

These new additions to the Department of Journalism and Strategic Media are part of a larger push within the UofM’s College of Communication and Fine Arts to offer specialized certification programs in a variety of departments.

For more information on the requirements of the graduate certificate program, visit memphis.edu/jrsm/graduate_ program/threecertificates.php.

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THE of ART GOOD

Health The UofM's CCFA kicks off an Arts and Health Initiative that aims to redefine wellness in the creative community

by Casey Hilder GROWING INTEREST IN ARTS AND HEALTH INITIATIVES within the higher education sector, both nationally and internationally, combined with the ongoing pursuit of high-profile research has led to the creation of the University of Memphis Arts and Health Initiative.

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The initiative, which was launched in spring 2018 by Dr. Anne Hogan, dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts, aims to facilitate opportunities for faculty, staff, community partners and graduate students to share best practices and explore opportunities to develop and secure funding for interdisciplinary research projects broadly related to the arts and health.

“I’ve always been interested in the way that artists can work together with people from STEM subjects, the humanities and social sciences on collaborative work,” Hogan said. “The challenge, however, is bringing everybody together to present those opportunities.”

Arts and Health Initiative meetings are held twice a semester in various venues across the UofM campus. Participating colleges are welcome to attend for an opportunity to explore ways to work together with different campus representatives to have an impact on the wider community.

“The Arts and Health Initiative is probably the biggest research undertaking that we’re working on at the

moment,” said Kevin Sanders, dean's fellow for research development with the College of Communication and Fine Arts. “I think Dean Hogan saw a space for this, both on campus and in the community, when she came onboard. Memphis has a tremendous medical community as well as a very active arts scene. These are two things the city has become known for, and combining them made sense.”

Hogan cited the Royal Academy of Dance in London’s Dance for Lifelong Wellbeing (DfLW) project as an early inspiration for the initiative, which is both a research and community outreach project.

“We basically trained teachers to safely work with older adults through dance and study its effect on general health and wellbeing,” Hogan said.

The Arts and Health Initiative is led by a trio of subcommittees, each focused on different aspects of arts and health. These subcommittees include Arts Initiatives for Health in the Community, chaired by Dr. Susan Elswick from the School of Social Work; Health, Wellbeing and the Built Environment, chaired by associate professor Jenna Thompson of the Department of Architecture; and Health Initiatives for Artists, chaired by Dr. Miriam van Mersbergen from the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders.

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ARTS INITIATIVES FOR HEALTH IN THE COMMUNITY he Arts Initiatives for Health in the Community subcommittee aims to promote engaging scholarship by seeking out opportunities to improve health and wellbeing for the community through collaborative efforts alongside artists. This subcommittee is currently focused on research centered around creative arts therapy and the study of how things like music, puppetry and theater can aid in expression.

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“A lot of hospitals are really working to incorporate art-based interventions such as clay, music and dance or movement therapy,” Elswick said. “Similarly, we’re seeing many of these same things embedded in mental health practices.

Nationally, doctors understand the significant cognitive benefit these activities have for clients, but locally, we don’t have too many opportunities to educate people on this topic.”

A significant component of the Arts and Health Initiative involves the development of an expressive art graduate certificate to help

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local clinicians and mental health professionals who are interested in incorporating arts therapy in their practices. The Arts Initiatives for Health in the Community subcommittee employs a multidisciplinary approach, encompassing a wide range of departments that includes representatives from the fields of psychology, social work, anthropology and nursing, as well as partners in the arts such as the Memphis Music Initiative. For Elswick, the slew of networking opportunities offered by the Arts and Health Initiative have proven to be among the most significant boons of the program early on.

“The beautiful thing is that most of the individuals involved were already embracing the concept of merging arts and behavioral sciences in practice, we just didn’t know each other,” Elswick said. “This committee is dedicated to connecting and bridging that gap that we often find ourselves facing in higher education since many people tend to work in silos.”

As chair of the Arts Initiatives for Health in the Community subcommittee, Elswick works to develop and innovate new programs alongside existing community partners like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which currently employs a music therapy program to enhance the outcomes for patients undergoing cancer treatment.

“It’s not that we don’t already have this happening around our University, we just haven’t quite had that opportunity to network and communicate with like-minded individuals about the research that is already happening,” said Elswick, who became interested in studying the intersection of arts and health after observing countless local musicians who were struggling with ways to address mental health issues like depression, anxiety and unresolved trauma in the music community. Many of these negative psychological impairments often found their way into the artists’ work.

“We’ve come to find that art and music teachers aren’t always well-equipped

HEALTH, WELLBEING AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

for navigating the world of mental health,” Elswick said.

Elswick works to provide additional mental healthrelated training to instructors in conjunction with Gregory Washington, professor with the School of Social Work, coordinator of the Hooks AfricanAmerican Male Initiative of the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change, and the director of the Center for the Advancement of Youth Development (CAYD). Together, Washington and Elswick worked to identify and support specific needs in the Mid-South community.

“We feel like the best collaboration comes through engaged scholarship in the local community,” said Elswick. “One of our goals this year is to host an interdisciplinary conference that will incorporate all three subcommittees in some form and highlight work that faculty members and community partners are doing so we can show all the great work that’s being done.”

Elswick, with the guidance from Washington, formed a music club curriculum template based around African drumming for students and adolescents in the region who have experienced trauma.

“The nature of art is very therapeutic, and in practice has shown to be a very effective intervention for individuals when it comes to mental health,” said Elswick.

he Health, Wellbeing and the Built Environment subcommittee, which is spearheaded by Thompson, looks at ways that an environment or space can be improved to affect overall health or increase the wellbeing of an individual.

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“We feel like the best collaboration comes through engaged scholarship in the local community.”

“Many, many factors play into the idea of health in the built environment,” Thompson said.

“From the location in general to the surrounding communities, we must account for things like pedestrian friendliness and walkable conditions in an area. Is the building where an individual lives or works inviting and open to the community? Does it feel like an inclusive space? These are the questions we’re asking.”

These subtle changes can be as small as adjusting the lighting of a room or the color of paint on the wall, both of which have been shown to increase the psychological and physical health of individuals in certain living spaces and public areas.

“Everything we do in design is connected,” Thompson said.

“Architecture is a holistic system that impacts the health of humans and the environment, so these two things really can’t be separated from one another.”

In addition to accessible areas that encourage active lifestyles, Thompson said one of the most significant environmental factors is how we source our energy. Fossil fuels, in particular, have a particularly negative effect on individuals.

“As a result, we need to look at air quality and the way we’re

contaminating our local water sources,” Thompson said. “But at the end of the day, there’s no one underlying thing. It’s a very complex system with many elements working together.”

Thompson has worked alongside several local personalities to build momentum for the Health, Wellbeing and the Built Environment subcommittee, including Miriam Levy, associate dean and professor with the Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences; Andy Kitsinger, former director of planning and development for the Memphis Center City Commission; and Michael Chisamore, director of Interior Architecture and director of the Center for Sustainable Design.

“We’ve been working to form a group with the intent to grow research and funding,” Thompson said. “Architecture isn’t typically a grant-heavy department, so any studies of the built environment have been historically difficult to get funding for. One of the biggest issues we’re currently dealing with is how to push forward as a subcommittee with our limited resources.”

Thompson’s subcommittee focuses on research interests geared toward social and environmental sustainability in relation to the built environment, including prototype projects like tiny homes for veterans or homeless individuals.

“We’ve taken up a very holistic process of thinking when it comes to the Arts and Health Initiative,” Thompson said.

Thompson said she hopes to work in collaboration with Shelby

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County Mayor Lee Harris’ Healthy Shelby Initiative program to form a citywide plan of action to address the issue of wellness in the built environment.

“We need people to participate, especially in terms of an added health component,” Thompson said. “The city and the county tend to promote and embrace

design that encourages healthy living. The wheel is moving slowly, but I believe that once it begins turning we’ll see a great thing.”

HEALTH INITIATIVES FOR ARTISTS he Health Initiatives for Artists subcommittee, chaired by van Mersbergen, aims to instill healthy habits in artists through education on proper physical and mental practices with a focus on potential collaborations between health professionals and artists.

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“Artists get a bad rap,” van Mersbergen said. “They tend to be viewed as ancillary to normal daily life and commerce, and told in subtle ways that what they do isn’t as important compared to other disciplines.

But imagine going through life with nothing beautiful to look at or hear? It would look an awful lot like a mid-century Soviet Union movie. Very gray.”

With a background that includes work as an assistant professor with the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, as well as a secondary career as a vocalist, the position of chair for the Health Initiatives for Artists subcommittee makes sense for van Mersbergen, whose personal background offers an additional layer of understanding when it comes to working alongside artists.

“We demand a lot of our artists,” van Mersbergen said. “We ask for continuous high-level activity, sometimes for peanuts in terms of payment. Oftentimes there is a lot of effort for very little reward.”

As a former performer who now works as a voice clinician, van Mersbergen understands many of the idiosyncrasies of the

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music community. For example, many singers tend to feel more comfortable getting their voice measures coming directly from a piano instead of digitized tones.

By addressing unique capabilities of the artist as an individual, van Mersbergen hopes to seek potential collaborations between healthcare professionals and artists in the Mid-South with an overarching goal of establishing a specialized regimen of care required for artists.

“Someone could come to an ENT physician with a hoarse voice, but a singer might have problems that arise much earlier in the disease process and seek services earlier, before they are obviously hoarse,” said van Mersbergen. “Or take the violinist who is having problems with dexterity in their fingers. They might go see a physical therapist who approaches care by trying to balance their upper body because that therapist might notice one side of the body tends to be asymmetrical. This is typical because of the body position in which the violin is played.”

In addition, van Mersbergen hopes to bring more accessible health services to the arts community, chiefly in the area of mental health, which she presents as yet another tool in the artists’ arsenal for health and wellness.

“We’re finally working to address the mental health aspect of the arts here at the college level, where we find ourselves training people to be artists,” van Mersbergen said. “In future

training, we hope to teach them to also carry around the tools they need to maintain a healthy mental state.”

With an emphasis on mental health, in addition to physical health, van Mersbergen’s area of study focuses on instilling an artist’s understanding of their own body and abilities to prevent overexertion, which could lead to burnout. Much of this study, according to van Mersbergen, centers around observing the physical and mental cost of certain activities and learning how to properly compensate for those expenditures. However, there are other more subtle solutions that require informed training as a care provider.

“At face value, some of the solutions can be fairly obvious: don’t be in the vocal room for three hours, don’t dance for 10 hours a day, things like that,” van Mersbergen said. “The stress on vocal folds can certainly reach a limit over a period of time.

The classic countermeasures that everyone knows about are drinking more water and avoiding smoking. Those were very novel ideas when I first started, but now I think they’re in the collective consciousness of all singers.”

To achieve this, van Mersbergen and her subcommittee have worked alongside individuals like UofM associate professor Dr. Kyle Ferrill, voice area coordinator with the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, to develop meditation courses and instill behaviors that allow the

artist to get back in touch with who they are as a whole individual. For some, this requires frequent use of checking in with counselors or coaches, as well as establishing boundaries of what can and can’t be done with an individual’s toolset.

“We’re talking about something as benign as mild depression to something as severe as suicidal thoughts,” van Mersbergen said. “We all approach our sense of identity differently, and some have a very strong sense of identity tied to artistic expression.”

The price artists pay when they lose their ability to express their art requires a delicate relationship with care providers. Much of the research done by van Mersbergen’s subcommittee aims to reinforce the notion of the body as an instrument. Vocal athletes are encouraged to utilize warm-up and cool-down exercises and a wellthought-out training regimen backed by an understanding of work time versus an expected rest period.

“For musicians, dancers, designers and actors, that is who they are; it’s how they express their humanity,” van Mersbergen said. “When those expressive components are impaired, we risk losing a little bit of ourselves or worse.”

According to van Mersbergen, a bevy of studies have been conducted to explore the psychosocial impairment of an individual who must give up their outlet for creative expression, most of which suggest the need for an understanding of the physical requirements and motivations behind creative work, as well as the consequences of suddenly being rendered unable to perform as expected.

This holds true for any artistic endeavor.

“Singers and musicians often demand much more of their voices, but they’re also much more aware when things aren’t working as they should,” van Mersbergen said. “A familiarity with what these common actions are, as well as what’s riding on the importance of these actions, adds a whole other dimension to care.”

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NEW

WAVES The University of Memphis teams with Crosstown Concourse and The Daily Memphian to bring big changes to WUMR 91.7 FM in 2020

By Casey Hilder

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“Through this partnership, we now have access to so many more ways of reaching the community at large.”

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NONPROFIT COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS, CROSSTOWN CONCOURSE AND THE DAILY MEMPHIAN will bring a fresh, new format to the campus radio station WUMR 91.7 FM. “I am delighted that this new partnership and its expanded programming will create further opportunities for our students and the wider Memphis community to engage with the station,” said Dr. Anne Hogan, dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts.

“As we make this exciting new transition, I'd like to thank Malvin Massey and the entire WUMR team, including community volunteers and students, who have all made terrific contributions to the station over the years.”

WUMR FM 91.7, which began broadcasting in 1974 as “The Jazz Lover,” will move from the basement of the Department of Communication and Film on campus to its new location in the central atrium of Crosstown Concourse, with the radio tower remaining on the UofM campus. The revamped WUMR promises a uniquely Memphis take on music, arts and news programming broadcast straight from the city’s newest cultural epicenter of Crosstown Concourse, a 1.5 million-square-foot, mixeduse vertical urban village reimagined in what was once a Sears, Roebuck & Co. distribution center. In addition to a massive music library of thousands of albums donated to Crosstown Arts over the years, the station will host news and talk radio content from The Daily Memphian.

“Through this partnership, we now have access to so many more ways of reaching the community at large,” said Hogan. “I am very grateful to President (M. David) Rudd for his willingness to explore potential modes of transformation that would allow the University and our students to continue to participate in nonprofit radio broadcasting on 91.7 FM.” The partnership between the University, The Daily Memphian and Crosstown Concourse which Rudd described as “Good for Memphis.

Good for the UofM. Good for our students. Good

for journalism,” was approved by the UofM Board of Trustees at a meeting held on Dec. 4.

Todd Richardson, president of Crosstown Redevelopment Cooperative and former associate professor of art history at the University of Memphis, credits Rudd for recognizing the asset that WUMR was and creating a new vision for its future as a community resource.

“I think the key to making something like this happen has been these three community organizations coming together in a partnership,” Richardson said. “You have the radio station itself, which has become well known locally and built a following of thousands and thousands of people over the years, then you have The Daily Memphian willing to provide recurring local news spots, surrounded with the arts and culture associated with Crosstown Concourse. You put the three of those things together and that’s where the magic is.”

The new station aims to provide a boon of new opportunities to the city, with an approach to college radio that promises to be student-centered, financially stable and broadly representative of the voice of the University of Memphis.

“At the same time, it’s very important to note that this is a community radio station, not solely the voice of these three entities,” said Richardson.

“It’s more that these three entities have come together to create a platform for much broader representation of the Memphis community.”

According to Richardson, WUMR’s relaunch presents a new way of thinking about radio with a decidedly old-school personal touch to the programming.

“Music is so digitized these days, what you listen to is often controlled by a computer algorithm or a record label that dictates what music is suggested to you,” said Richardson. “I love the idea of going back and including the human element in the mix, where people can walk by and be reminded of radio and see these DJs curating special lineups for folks to listen to.”

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A proposed format of music, news and talk radio will be broadcast by volunteer DJs with an underlying goal to represent all demographics of Memphis. In addition, the UofM will hire an instructor-coordinator to direct student involvement in the radio station.

“They’re super focused on the local culture, and it’s great to see them so steeped in what’s going on in the community,” said Grant. “WFMU out of New York has been around for 60-plus years and they’ve really developed the reputation of a totally freeform, locally focused effort worth taking note of.”

“Music will be the focus, but we’re leaning on The Daily Memphian to contribute stories, podcasts and local news at the top of the hour,” said Robby Grant, a former Crosstown artist-in-residence who will serve as an advisor for the changes happening at WUMR. “Crosstown will also be working with the University of Memphis to figure out how to bring in faculty and student voices to contribute to the station.”

In addition to a highly visible new headquarters on the west side of the central atrium of Crosstown Concourse, where visitors will be able to walk by and see WUMR DJs at work, the station will also have the capability to broadcast live concerts from local music venues including the Green Room, the Kemmons Wilson Family Stage at Crosstown Theater and the future Scheidt Family Music Center.

Grant, a longtime radio enthusiast, previously worked on a committee to improve community radio station WEVL 89.9 FM, and in his current role will act as a representative of Crosstown to bring together ideas from all three parties.

The Green Room, a lounge-style venue that houses around 100 people, hosts three to four live shows a week with a range of music that includes everything from blues, soul, jazz, rock ’n’ roll, hip-hop and performances from guest DJs.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in Crosstown, especially around the musicians in the area,” said Grant. “I’ve always had an interest in radio, especially community radio stations. When the opportunity came to Crosstown, they called me right away and I jumped at it.”

“That’s the whole idea behind the Green Room: when you walk in you know it’s something that not everybody gets access to,” said Richardson. “With this new partnership, we hope to invite a few more people in to listen to what’s happening there.”

Grant said inspiration for the WUMR’s new format came in part from forward-thinking nonprofit radio stations that utilize a similar private-public partnership like WWOZ in New Orleans.

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The Kemmons Wilson Family Stage at Crosstown Theater is a 420-seat performing arts theatre that has hosted musicians like the North Mississippi Allstars and also functions as a movie theater. It currently hosts a monthly ongoing jazz series: Kafé Kirk with Kirk Whalum.

“There’s some really great ongoing jazz programming happening over here, so it’s not going to be going away anytime soon,” said Richardson. “It’s always going to be part of the station, but it won’t be just about jazz like it was before.”

While Crosstown Concourse will provide the location and a good deal of the programming, The Daily Memphian will provide additional content in the form of news broadcasts and locally produced podcasts.

“When we were first approached for this project, we wanted to come up with a new plan that will have a bigger impact on the community with broader opportunities for students,” said Eric Barnes, CEO of The Daily Memphian.

“I think the end result will be a very meaningful, very cool music station with news, talk and public affairs.”

Barnes, the man behind Memphis’ newest nonprofit, alldigital approach to local news, is no stranger to innovation.

“Our whole mission when we launched in 2018 was to bring locally focused journalism back to Memphis,” Barnes said. “I believe it’s brought the spotlight back to Memphis in a big way.”

The Daily Memphian currently produces up to nine podcasts a week from its downtown headquarters with subjects that include sports, food, politics, arts and culture.

“The podcasts are on the table in some form or fashion, and we’re exploring options for a quick, locally focused

newscasts derived in part, but not exclusively from, The Daily Memphian’s content of the day,” said Barnes.

“I think the end result will be a very meaningful, very cool music station with news, talk and public affairs.”

In addition to news content from The Daily Memphian, Barnes said the door is open to all kinds of content produced by UofM students.

“There are big opportunities to get students involved — and not just on the music side of the radio station — on the news and talk end, as well,” said Barnes. “We won’t be the exclusive provider of the news and talk side of things, but we’re definitely looking to be one of the chief participants.”

The new WUMR 91.7 FM is slated to go live in late spring of this year.

“We’re looking to get our FCC approval by March and hopefully make it on the air by sometime in late spring,” said Grant. “At the end of the day, it all depends on timing and resources. It’s a very exciting time for us, with a little bit of unpredictability thrown in for good measure.”

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ANITA “JO” LENHART

Professor and head of BFA in Performance with the Department of Theatre & Dance

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U

ofM PROFESSOR Anita Lenhart, known affectionately as “Jo” to her peers, doesn’t seek out an “it factor” when training the next generation of stars. She creates “it” in her students through countless hours devoted to perfecting a performance with knowledge gleaned from decades of experience acting, directing and singing.

Over the years, Lenhart has performed in nearly 60 productions ranging from operas to musicals to comedies and dramas in a variety of theatrical venues. She has won awards for directing in both the college and professional/community divisions of Memphis' Ostrander Theatre Awards. Her most recent directing projects — including “King Lear” for New Moon Theatre, “As You Like It” for Theatre Memphis and “Bad Jews” for Circuit Playhouse — have all been met with critical acclaim in both the Memphis Flyer and The Commercial Appeal, as well as multiple award nominations and subsequent wins at the Ostranders.

A native of Louisville, Ky., Lenhart got her start in acting with The Young Actors Company of Louisville at age 15, working under Jon Jory, the son of the legendary actor Victor Jory.

“In theater circles, (Jon Jory) is basically our version of Steve Jobs,” she said. “He brought a huge renaissance in playwriting back to the country in the 1970s.

EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION He was an amazing man and fond of experimental theater projects.”

In 1975, one of Jory’s experiments was to launch a professional troupe of young actors to tour the city and surrounding counties with a bicentennial show. He launched a citywide search for talent, with Lenhart among the 10 young actors chosen.

“At the time, I had done 4H talent shows and state fairs because that’s what you did in those days when there was no America's Got Talent or American Idol," she said. “That was my first real opportunity to perform.”

By 16, Lenhart regularly performed in front of more than 200,000 people. She credits her time with The Young Actors Company of Louisville for inspiring her to pursue a career in classical voice, as well as musical theatre.

“At the time, it was one of the premiere resident theaters in the world,” Lenhart said. “That theater is so important in American live theater history that it was really a career-maker for me.”

Lenhart’s multidisciplinary approach to theatre stems from her wildly varied on-stage career that includes stand-up comedian, live disc jockey, Shakespeare and clowning.

“Those last two are actually more similar than you might realize,” she said. “I know how to use a nail gun and a router and how to build sets. I can also hit the F above High C in Queen of the Night Arias by Mozart.”

Highlighting the impact of outstanding faculty members of the College of Communication and Fine Arts

As an instructor, Lenhart is a teaching artist, bringing relevant and current professional experience and knowledge into the classroom at every opportunity with an emphasis on skill building and realworld application of talent.

“I think the very finest teachers in the classroom are the ones that are actively engaged in their professions and remain up to date, relevant and can prove that they can actually do what they’re teaching,” she said. “We have many excellent examples at the UofM, and not just traditional artists. We have professional architects, chemists and engineers that bring that field experience that really lights up the classroom.”

Much of Lenhart’s style as an instructor revolves around the practice of a modicum of different acting tricks or, as they’re more formally known in the syllabus, “competencies.”

Unusual exercises, like practicing polyphonic vocal toning to emit three different types of sound at once, are par for the course with Lenhart. In fact, this particular exercise came in handy when crafting vocal soundscapes for the three witches associated with a certain Scottish play.

“As a director, anything that I’m going to ask an actor to do, I need to be capable of myself,” she said. “These exercises are just some of the things you sit around and explore as an actor.”

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MARCIN ARENDT

Assistant Professor of Violin with the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music

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EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION

NE DOESN’T NEED MORE THAN A CURSORY GLANCE at Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music professor Marcin Arendt’s instrument of choice to know that he’s serious about his work. Arendt performs on a Jan van Rooyen original custom violin modeled after Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù's “Carrodus,” and uses a bow that was handcrafted by the award-winning bow maker David Forbes.

“The bow in particular is a fine instrument and one that is perfectly balanced for my playing,” said Arendt. “I remember talking to David when he was making it for me. I tried out many different bows with him, finding out exactly what I liked and what I didn’t.”

The violin has a similar story. Arendt opted for a powerful, yet subtle ringing sound in contrast to the popular Stradivari model of violin’s decidedly more salient tone.

“It has the look and feel of an old instrument,” said Arendt. “It was made in 2010, but you might guess it was from 1743 at first glance.”

Since coming onboard as a visiting professor in 2014 and subsequently accepting a tenure track full position in 2016, this attention to detail and respect for tradition has shaped Arendt’s teaching style and approach to weekly meetings with his studio class.

“A lot of my classes tend to be one-on-one or small groups, but even in the larger classes I model my teaching around the Socratic method, making sure that the students are very much part of the learning process,” said Arendt.

Arendt currently works with more than two dozen UofM students who are enrolled in the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music’s violin program, with around 15 under his direct tutelage. According to Arendt, effort typically outweighs innate natural talent when it comes to excelling in the University of Memphis’ music program.

“We look for teachable spirits,” said Arendt.

“If you’ve got the work ethic and the will to learn, we’ll do our best to show you the path.”

Highlighting the impact of outstanding faculty members of the College of Communication and Fine Arts

A native of Poland, Arendt immigrated to the U.S. and lived in Illinois and subsequently Florida at a young age along with his family just as the country’s tumultuous Solidarity Movement began. The son of an organic chemist and researcher, Arendt chose to pursue a career in music in his early teens, picking out the aforementioned custom bow at just 18 years old.

Following a stint as concertmaster of Colorado’s premiere conductor-less string orchestra, the Sphere Ensemble, and the featured violinist with the nationally touring crossover-fusion band FEAST, Arendt came to Memphis to perform with Iris Orchestra.

Arendt would eventually take the reigns as community involvement coordinator and orchestra manager with Iris Orchestra while accepting a full-time position at UofM. “It’s hard to put my finger on what makes Iris so special,” he said. “There’s an equality among the different players that I haven’t seen elsewhere, and that builds a great feeling of comradery.”

In addition to the strong sense of family and quality of musicians associated with Iris Orchestra, Arendt said the community partnerships forged during his time with the organization, now run by his wife Rebecca, are among the greatest experiences during his time there.

“I feel good that I was able to be in a leadership role, but I love that I am able to do more on-the-ground stuff like going to different schools,” said Arendt.

One of Iris Orchestra’s early partners, the Memphis Oral School for the Deaf, provided Arendt with the unforgettable experience of working with hearing-impaired children who had just received cochlear implants to explore listening skills with the tool of music.

One of Arendt’s most memorable recent concerts came in the form of a three-violinist solo with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra (MSO) alongside Tai Murray & the MSO’s concertmaster, Barrie Cooper. The trio performed a piece by Christopher Brubeck which presented a fusion of jazz, classical and Celtic music, with Arendt providing the jazz.

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JOY V. GOLDSMITH Professor of Communication Studies with the Department of Communication & Film

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EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION

J

OY GOLDSMITH knew the important role that caregivers play in everyday life well before she founded the University of Memphis Center for Health Literacy and Health Communication.

In 2002, Goldsmith’s sister, Janet, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Goldsmith acted as her caregiver in the nine months leading up to her sister’s death later that year, shuttling her back and forth between Georgia and MD Anderson cancer treatment facilities in Texas. At the time, Goldsmith was studying to earn her PhD as a theatre director.

“After that experience, I didn’t really care about theatre anymore,” Goldsmith said. “I just wanted to figure out how some of it could have gone better for us.”

In the months following her sister’s death, Goldsmith’s thoughts were often preoccupied by what-ifs surrounding her sister’s suffering, thinking of how things might have gone if she and the many providers had taken a different approach to her sister’s care.

“If they would just come out and say, 'You won’t survive this. You will live well for a few months, but it will get very painful and hard,’ we would have known,” she said. “Then, the central question becomes, ‘How do you want to spend this time that you have left?’”

Goldsmith credits the nine months she spent caring for her sister for instilling the drive to pursue an understanding of the

impact of patient and family choices and rights, as well as the roles of the various players involved in the healthcare field.

“No one ever told us the cost or how you never really get over it,” she said. “My sister had 26 clinicians and it never came up among a single one. She was 34 years old, a reverend and associate pastor. She was unquestionably a great person.”

“Memphis has significant health inequities and challenges, so it’s a great place to take on an unending series of projects.”

In 2013, Goldsmith joined the UofM Department of Communication & Film with a recognized research program examining communication and illness, specifically in the context of chronic and terminal illnesses.

“When I came here, my focus was on oncology and palliative care, and that’s still at the core of what I do,” she said. “But health literacy has given me the chance to learn about lots of other health challenges facing the community.”

Goldsmith came to the UofM seeking more clinic involvement in her daily work life, as well an opportunity to make a difference in Memphis.

“Memphis has significant health inequities and challenges, so it’s a great place to take on an unending series of projects,” she said.

Health literacy describes a patient’s ability to understand, find, enact, make decisions and communicate about health care. That ability is based on interactions with providers, family, community and health systems. In essence, it is not just the patient’s ability, but instead the experience of understanding and decision-making that

Highlighting the impact of outstanding faculty members of the College of Communication and Fine Arts

is informed by everyone involved with that patient.

“People hear literacy and automatically assume it’s about reading,” Goldsmith said. “Health literacy is about more than words; it’s really about conceptual understanding. If someone doesn’t really get it, even if they understand the language, there will not be good health outcomes.”

As part of her day-to-day, she meets with medical administrators, community health workers, patients, family caregivers and other research partners in Memphis and across the country.

Local community partners include Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Friends for Life, Caregivers Respite, Shelby County Schools, CareMore and many others.

“My job is different every day and I work with many, many different partners across the healthcare spectrum,” she said.

“So I have a window into the stakeholder experience from multiple stakeholder positions.”

While health literacy often deals with more complex concepts such as medication adherence and disease progression, often the most important health literacy issues are the practical ones like the amount of parking spaces at the VA hospital, the readability of facility signage or usability of patient portals.

“The patient and caregiver, they have nothing to do with things like that, yet they can be victimized by having minimal access to resources before they can even get in the door,” she said.

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CENTRAL TO The Central Avenue Arts Corridor development project envisions an exciting future for creative work on campus and beyond

by Casey Hilder

W

ITH THE LAUNCH OF THE CENTRAL TO THE ARTS HUB on Oct. 5, 2019, the College of Communication and Fine Arts took the first step toward reimagining the stretch of land between Patterson Street and Zach Curlin Street as the Central Avenue Arts Corridor, an all-new civic centerpiece and destination for creative minds in the Greater Memphis Area.

“The Central Avenue Arts Corridor is something we’ve been thinking about for a long time,” said Dr. Anne Hogan, dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts. “It’s a designation for the northern end of campus that has become known for its fantastic arts, music and theater facilities. Now, we want to make it something more and invite the rest of the city in to see what we’re up to.”

The inaugural event of this rebranding effort came when the former Visitor Information Center at the corner of Patterson Street and Central Avenue was transformed into The Central to the Arts Hub, a gateway to the UofM art scene that grants student artists an ongoing opportunity to display their work year-round in a pop-up gallery format. According to Hogan, this was also the first step toward making the artistic endeavors of the University of Memphis more visible to the public at large.

“The Arts Hub is significant in terms of giving our students entrepreneurial experience and an opportunity to sell their work while considering creative production and how it fits into the local economy,” said Richard Lou, chair of the UofM Department of Art. “It will also serve as a visual marker that the visitor is entering a creative cultural landscape that encompasses everything related to the visual arts, film, theatre, dance and music.”

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“THE ARTS HUB IS SIGNIFICANT IN TERMS OF GIVING OUR STUDENTS ENTREPRENEURIAL EXPERIENCE AND AN OPPORTUNITY TO SELL THEIR WORK.”

THE ARTS Handcrafted ceramics from UofM artisans were available for viewing at the Central to the Arts Hub launch event this past October. Dean Anne Hogan hopes the new hub will soon provide a permanent place to purchase student artwork.

Student and faculty artists shared their craft in live demonstrations for visitors at the Central to the Arts Hub launch event.

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ogan, who came onboard with the College of Communication and Fine Arts three years ago, said her earliest observations of Memphis related to the way that the arts served as a catalyst for the growth of some neighborhoods.

“You can see it in places like downtown, Broad Avenue and the Cooper-Young district,” she said. “With the resources we already have on campus, coupled with the new activity going on with the revitalized Highland Strip, we really feel as if this can be a new arts destination venue for people in Memphis.”

In addition to the new hub, the Scheidt Family Music Center, a $40 million building that was announced in late 2017, will serve as an additional anchor point for the Central Avenue Arts Corridor. With more than twice as many seats as Harris Concert

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Hall and a bevy of high-tech resources, the 90,000-square foot Scheidt Family Music Center will offer one of the largest and most elaborate performance spaces on campus.

“The importance of the music building and how it fits into the Central Avenue Arts Corridor really can’t be understated,” Hogan said. “While we have a number of wonderful facilities on this side of campus, you can’t really see those from Central Avenue. We hope that the new Scheidt Family Music Center helps with some of that visibility and lets people know that this space is where the community can come together and focus on the arts.”

While the new music center is slated to open its doors in 2021, a range of existing campus facilities will serve as the backbone of the Central Avenue Arts Corridor, including the Martha and Robert Fogelman Galleries of

Photography by Casey Hilder

Contemporary Art, the University of Memphis Art Museum, the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology, Mainstage Theatre, Harris Concert Hall and several venues for public lectures from across all departments.

“This development will obviously provide a chance for us to showcase the resources of the College of Communication and Fine Arts, but it’s also part of the vision of the University to have a larger impact on the city as a whole,” Hogan said.

“One of the bigger things to keep in mind here is that our students — no matter what college they’re in or what they study — are welcome to come and attend any of the theatre performances, art shows, public lectures or concerts that they please.”

The Central Avenue Arts Corridor represents a true interdepartmental collaboration across the CCFA in the form of contributions such as the Department of Architecture’s mock-up

sketches for possible developments around the new hub and the Department of Art’s proposals for public art around the north side of campus.

“WE REALLY FEEL AS IF THIS CAN BE A NEW ARTS DESTINATION VENUE FOR PEOPLE IN MEMPHIS.”

Hogan credits the project’s steady progress to UofM provost Dr. Thomas Nenon and President Dr. M. David Rudd, the Scheidt family, supporters of the new music center and donors to the Art Museum of the University of Memphis, the Fogelman Galleries and every department across the College of Communication and Fine Arts.

“They’re the ones investing in the resources that we want to promote to the city so that it benefits the wider community as much as possible,” Hogan said. “And the more we can have an exchange with the wider community, the more vibrant the environment becomes for our students, which in turn gives them more opportunities to showcase what they do best.”

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DONOR SPOTLIGHT

Patricia

LaPointe McFarland A former adjunct history professor gives the gift of fine art to AMUM

by Casey Hilder

W

HEN PATRICIA LAPOINTE MCFARLAND thinks about her recent gift of four paintings to the Art Museum of the University of Memphis, she remembers the many art gallery visits she made alongside her late husband, Dr. L. Gordon LaPointe, during their winter trips across New England.

“My husband and I always took trips between Christmas and New Year’s, just to have a little bit of a breather between the holidays,” LaPointe McFarland said. “We were always on the lookout for little out-of-the-way art shops and galleries.

That’s essentially how we acquired many of these paintings.”

The set of paintings donated by LaPointe McFarland includes a pair of landscapes by Royal Academy painters Alfred Bennett (British, 1861–1923) and Thomas Creswick (b. Sheffield, England, active Birmingham, London, 1811-1869), as well as a still life by Arthur Jones (American, b. 1928) and a rural landscape by Roswell Morse Shurtleff (American, 1838-1915).

“I am delighted to find a new home for these paintings,” LaPointe McFarland said. “They have great value and I think they will make a fine addition to the University of Memphis, either on display in the Art Museum or used as teaching examples. There are a lot of different ways that creative minds could come up with to utilize these paintings.”

Bennett was born in London, England, which served as inspiration for much of his artwork. He was known for his paintings, etchings and drawings of landmarks around his home and capital city. Four of his works were exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1861 and 1880. McFarland’s donated painting, an 1875 piece titled “Plowing on The Downs,” depicts the countryside of South Downs, West Falner, Sussex, England. The Creswick piece, titled “The Hay Gatherers,” was first shown at the Society of British Artists in

London in 1827. A well-regarded landscape painter, Creswick was elected a full member of the Royal Academy in 1850.

“These are paintings that have an excellent provenance and the museum was able to come up with a few more excellent details that I was not aware of,” LaPointe McFarland said. “I’m making it as easy for the museum as possible and, in return, they’re making it easy for me.”

While LaPointe McFarland built a diverse collection of paintings from small towns like Hanover, N.H., and larger cities including New York and Chicago over the years, only a select few were chosen to present to the Collection Committee of the AMUM. “We’re grateful to Mrs. LaPointe McFarland for offering these paintings to us and look forward to sharing them with our students and the public,” said Leslie Luebbers, director of the Art Museum of the University of Memphis.

The decision to donate these works of art to the UofM was an easy one for LaPointe McFarland, who received her BA and MA from the University of Memphis and worked as an adjunct professor with the Department of History in the 1970s and ’80s. Her daughter, Lynsey LaPointe Freeman, earned her BA from the UofM’s Department of Communication & Film and MA from the UofM Department of English in 2009.

“I’m so pleased that the University accepted this gift and I feel very good about where many of these pieces of art are headed,” she said. “It was a pleasure to work with them, and I have always been very proud of my association with the University of Memphis.”

If you would like to support the University of Memphis with a gift of artwork or other appreciated assets, please contact Wesley LaRue at wtlarue@memphis.edu or 901.678.3468.

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A Tale of

THREE CITIES Exploring the international impact of the study abroad program with students and faculty from the UofM’s College of Communication and Fine Arts

by Casey Hilder

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Venice, Italy OR STUDENTS LIKE SOPHOMORE CHORAL MUSIC EDUCATION MAJOR ROMAN AUSTIN, performing at locations such as St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Italy, was a far-flung dream before enrolling in the UofM’s study abroad program.

F

“People always see pictures and videos, but it’s absolutely breathtaking to see in person,” Austin said.

Austin was among 24 members of the UofM Chamber Choir that toured Italy under the direction of associate professor of Music Education and CCFA associate dean Dr. Ryan Fisher this past summer, earning an opportunity to partake in an a cappella performance during mass at St. Mark’s Basilicia.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I originally didn’t even consider going because it was financially out of my reach,” said Austin. “But Dr. Fisher talked to some people and was able to help me pull together some funding so I didn’t miss this great opportunity.”

The choir trip was orchestrated in part through Perform International, an Atlanta-based company that specializes in overseas tourism for student musicians. According to Fisher,

the initial goal of the venture was to seek out prominent performance opportunities, as well as experience Italian history and archeology.

However, the greatest boon of the trip may have come when members of the choir got a chance to connect firsthand with things they had only seen in the pages of a textbook.

“We had a number of students along on the trip that had never been overseas, so it was a very eye-opening experience for the majority of them,” Fisher said.

Fisher’s group performed four pieces throughout a daily Mass ceremony at St. Mark’s Basilica (known to the locals as Basilica di San Marco), serving as openers and closers for the proceedings. In the hallowed marble halls of St. Mark’s, the choral hymns sung by Fisher’s group rang out in a fresh, new way thanks to the cathedral confines that were specifically designed to house such music 1,000 years ago.

“It’s widely considered the secondhighest profile Catholic church in the world,” said Fisher. “We also performed

Members of the UofM choir perform at St. Mark’s Basilica in northern Italy.

at St. Peter’s in Vatican City. Both masses were different, and the last one even included a few responsorial songs.”

In addition to the performance at St. Mark’s Basilica, the choir performed several times throughout the trip, including a concert at San Gaetano Church in Florence and a public performance in Rome with Coro Aramus, a local choir.

“That concert stands out to me because as we were singing some especially moving pieces, I noticed an older man in the audience weeping at the beauty,” Fisher said.

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Mainz, Germany he Department of Journalism and Strategic Media’s study abroad trip to Mainz, Germany, this past May provided a similar life-changing experience for journalism student Brandon Howard. Not only did the 19-year-old from Oakland, Tenn., get to leave the United States for the first time, it was also the first time he had ever been on a plane. So, when he arrived in Europe on May 11, his eyes were opened to a whole new world.

“Going on this trip was truly something amazing,” Howard said.

“I never thought I would fly or go international until I was 25 or 30. More or less, with this trip, it felt like I was in the right place at the right time. It was in my major.

My foreign language is German.

And it was with one of my favorite professors. I feel blessed to have been able to do it at this time.”

Howard was part of the Department of Journalism and Strategic Media’s exchange program with Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. The program, which is more than two decades old, has brought dozens of students from Germany to the UofM and vice versa.

Sanford and the students also visited other places in Germany, including a train trip to the capital Berlin, Cologne and Rudesheim.

Mainz is a city located in a convenient part of Europe right on the Rhine River, the major river flowing through the continent.

Gutenberg University hosted at least three students at the UofM this past fall with at least three more coming in spring of 2020. The department will again send a professor and UofM students in May. Howard said it is an opportunity that no UofM student should bypass.

“I hope it is not my last trip aboard before I graduate,” Howard said. “want to go back to Germany; I want to go back to Europe. Germany was amazing. Three weeks was not enough. The place was huge.

But I hope to go back for school, and maybe with my family.”

Associate professor of Journalism and Strategic Media Thomas Hrach contributed to this feature.

UofM students Brandon Howard and DeeDee Noel pose for a photo in front of the Mainz Cathedral in Mainz, Germany.

The program’s goal is to connect students and professors from the two universities. This past May, professor Otis Sanford and department chair Dr. David Arant made the trip and taught a course called “Politics, the Press and Race in America.” Political science student DeeDee Noel also attended the trip. Noel, 20, who is from Memphis, said the trip changed her life just like it did for Howard.

“It was my first time on a plane, first time out of the South, first time out of the country — all happening at once,” Noel said.

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Associate professor Dr. Thomas Hrach and Marco Riehl, a German student who spent time at the UofM in fall 2017.

Medway, England UofM photography students pose in front of the Tower Bridge, one of the 19th-century bridges across the River Thames, in London.

ine students from the Department of Art and the Department of Journalism and Strategic Media got an in-depth look at the history of photography this past May when Photography instructor David Horan led a trip to the University of Kent in Medway, England, about 40 minutes southeast of London.

“We wanted to start a kind of dialogue going between those older film processes and artistic aesthetics and contemporary digital imaging,” Horan said. “Students have to understand that balance, that inter-informational dialogue that goes into the study of art.”

The group of students, which ranged from seniors to second-semester freshmen, researched several 19thcentury British photographers and landscape painters in advance of their trip. They were eager to catch a glimpse of the integration of different stylistic ideas in person through traditional art history, as well as photographic art history.

Horan, who is now entering his 35th year as an instructor at the UofM, has taken UofM students on several independent study trips to art centers around the world since 1996, well before the formation of The picturesque countryside of Medway, England, provided plenty of inspiration for UofM photography students.

the UofM’s current study abroad program formed in 2010.

The goal of Horan’s most recent trip required students to construct a portfolio inspired by the 19thcentury portraiture and landscape work they viewed on the trip, and then transform their work to include a 21st-century style digital aesthetic.

“Photography and graphic design have always had a very mutually inclusive relationship,” said Horan. “We had several design students working on some very detailed, intricate work with some thoughtfulness to capturing the history of the area we visited.”

Among these students was senior journalism major Frank Ramirez, a first-generation college attendee who learned about the program at the University’s annual Study Abroad Fair.

“When I came to UofM, I didn’t know study abroad was a thing,” Ramirez said. “When I found out about the program, I still wasn’t sure that I could make it. Then I met David Horan at the Study Abroad Fair and he was really easy to talk to about it.

England was always on my bucket list of countries to visit one day and I had to jump at the chance.”

When the day finally came for the eight-hour flight from Memphis to Chicago to England, Ramirez had never boarded a plane before and had previously left the country only to visit family in Mexico.

“I never had much of an opportunity to travel, much less do the things we were doing,” he said. “The castles, the cliffs, the streets of London, Abbey Road — it was all surreal, but I didn’t just want to go for the experience. I wanted to make this a trip where I could really improve my skills as a photographer.”

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A RC H IT E CT U R E FACU LT Y

•T he Department of Architecture has partnered with the Department of Civil Engineering this semester in an effort to bring students together to address design problems similar to what they will face in architecture and engineering firms post-graduation.

Architecture students in Design Studio 3, taught by professor JENNIFER BARKER , and engineering students in Civil Engineering Design, taught by professor ADEL ABDELNABI , are working together on the project in the Memphis Medical District.

•A djunct professor of Architecture JIMMIE TUCKER was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects.

•A NNE BALLAM was appointed to the position of administrative associate II in the department.

CARPENTER ART GARDEN

•P rofessor JENNIFER BARKER presented “Visualizing Thinking” at the 2019 Commission for International Adult Education and “Community Engagement in Beginning Design Education” at the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education Conferences in St. Louis, Mo. Barker focused the presentations on work produced in the graduate Contemporary Architecture course and on a role-playing exercise for introducing community engagement to first year architecture students in the Introduction to Architecture + Design course.

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• B ARKER presented “Critical Reflection and the Role of the Architectural Educator in the Design Studio” at the 2019 joint Teachers Conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and the European Association for Architectural Education in Antwerp, Belgium.

Barker developed the presentation from work in her major research area that focuses on the process and product of architectural education.

•B ROCK TERWILLEGER received the AIA Memphis Scholarship.

•P rofessor MICHAEL CHISAMORE presented “Rules of Engagement: A Semester Long Approach to Drawing the Life of the City” at the Interior Design Educator Conference at Auburn University. Chisamore focused on the work of the Design Visualization class that he has taught with professor PAMELA HURLEY for the past three years. The presentation discussed the advantages of longterm interaction with the urban fabric using a variety of drawing and visualization techniques.

•K ATE WHITAKER (M.Arch ’19) received the Jonathan King Medal from the Architectural Research Centers Consortium.

STU D E NTS

•S tudents in the Introduction to Architecture + Design course participated in a one-week community engagement partnership with Carpenter Art Garden. Founder Erin Harris and executive director Henry Nelson talked with the students and offered a tour of the CAG spaces, including multiple projects designed and built by the UofM AIAS Design+Build Studio over the past five summers. The AIAS Design+Build Studio completed more work at the Carpenter Art Garden this year, including a new sandbox with sails for the play area and a CAG flag that is flying high. This project came together thanks in part to architecture alums OSCAR ANDRADE , MARTIN PANTIK , MEGAN HOOVER and professors MICHAEL HAGGE and SHERRY BRYAN .

•B ROCK TERWILLEGER (1st Year M.Arch) and HANA ABDELRAOUF (4th Year BFA-Architecture + Interior Architecture) were awarded the 2019-20 CSI Memphis Dempsie Morrison Jr. Memorial Scholarship courtesy of CSI: Memphis.

• J EEVAN THAPA (2nd Year M.Arch) and MAKENZIE MORSE (3rd Year BFAArchitecture + Interior Architecture) each received a scholarship from the Tennessee Architecture Foundation.

•A NDREA JIMENEZ CARRION (M.Arch ’19) received the AIA Chattanooga Scholarship. Carrion was also awarded the AIA Henry Adams Medal.

•C HRISTEN AYOUB (1st Year M.Arch) and JAEMI GUIEB (4th Year BFA-Architecture + Interior Architecture) received the Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal for leadership, service and academics.

•C HRISTEN AYOUB and BROCK TERWILLEGER were also recognized for their leadership at the 2019 AIA Memphis Gala and Celebration of Architecture.

A LU M N I

•M ARIO WALKER (M.Arch ’12, BFAArchitecture ’07) and EMILY REDDING (M.Arch ’18, BFA-Architecture ’15) recently passed the Architect Registration Examination. Walker is an architect and project manager with Self+Tucker Architects and Redding is an architect at designshop, both in Memphis.

•A NTONIO TIRADO (M.Arch ’18, BFAArchitecture + Interior Architecture, ’16 ) was recognized at the 2019 AIA Memphis Gala and Celebration of Architecture for winning the Outstanding Thesis Award from the Tennessee Conference of Graduate Schools. Tirado is a project coordinator at Self+Tucker Architects.

•T he following alums were elected to the AIA Memphis Board of Directors: MEGAN HOOVER (M.Arch ’15, BFAArchitecture + Interior Design ’13) LRK; JOSHUA BELLAIRE (M.Arch ’19, BFA-Architecture ’07) The Crump Firm; CHASE PERCER (BFAArchitecture ’10) Pickering Inc.; JASON WEEKS (BFA-Architecture ’01) LRK.

• I SAAC AKERS (M.Arch ’19) was recognized by AIA Memphis as its 300th member. Akers is an architectural associate with Architecture Incorporated in Memphis and is also in the MCRP degree program at the UofM. •A NDREA JIMENEZ CARRION (M.Arch ’19) has joined Self+Tucker Architects as a project coordinator.

•K ATE WHITAKER (M.Arch ’19) has joined H Design Group in Springfield, Mo. •H OLLY-LYNN TEDDER (M.Arch ’19, BFAArchitecture ’17) and JAEMI GUIEB (BFAArchitecture + Interior Architecture, ’19) have joined LRK Architects.

•A MANDA MCGILLVERY (BFAArchitecture + Interior Architecture, ’19) has joined Self+Tucker Architects as a project coordinator.

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FACU LT Y

•K ATE ROBERTS , assistant professor of Ceramics, was among nearly 40 artists selected to participate in the 10th Korean Ceramics Biennale. This event is held in the Gyeonggi-do Province, the most populated province in South Korea and one that is well known for its ceramics industry.

•A piece by UofM professor of Art JED JACKSON has been selected for the 2019 Irene Rosenzweig Biennial Juried Exhibition at The Arts & Science Center in Pine Bluff, Ark. •D R. JOSHUA ROBERSON was presented with the Dean’s Academic Award for Outstanding Research at the 2019 CCFA Awards Banquet.

•K . BRANDON BELL was presented with the Dean’s Academic Award for Creative Achievement at the 2019 CCFA Awards Banquet.

•T he dynamic duo of UofM art instructor K. BRANDON BELL , assistant professor of Graphic Design, and his student, E. MARSHALL , brought the Third Democratic Party Presidential Debate on Sept. 12 to life with an array of onscreen graphics. The debate was broadcast nationwide on ABC.

STU D E NTS

•G raduate and undergraduate art education students under the tutelage of DR. BRYNA BOBICK , associate professor of Art Education, participated in The Memory Project during the spring semester. The Memory Project

is a global art exchange where students create portraits for children facing challenges around the world. The University of Memphis art education students received photographs of children from Pakistan and created a portrait of each child. Employees of The Memory Project delivered the portraits to the children in Pakistan during the summer.

A LU M N I

•N utgrass, a pop-up gallery of contemporary art curated by TONI ROBERTS , MFA graduate of the University of Memphis Department of Art, made its debut this past fall at the Southaven Sunflower Festival.

C O MMUNI CAT I O N & FI LM FACU LT Y

•A cclaimed UofM adjunct instructor and filmmaker TOM SHADYAC was featured on the Aug. 8 Memphis Flyer cover for his work on the film “Brian Banks.” The movie tells the story of the titular Brian Banks, a rising high school football star whose career was cut short when he was convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. Shadyac served as director for the project, which was filmed locally through Memphis Mountaintop Media.

•D R. JOY GOLDSMITH and DR. SACHIKO TERUI worked with recent PhD graduates DR. CRYSTAL DAUGHERTY and DR. JAMES BRISCOE on a research project that was accepted for a publication at the Journal of American College Health. The article is titled, “A Student-Driven HIV/ PrEP Communication Intervention Using a Modified Social Network Strategy.” The journal has an impact factor of 1.455 (2018) and 2.215 (for five-year impact factor).

•D R. JOY GOLDSMITH was presented with the Dean’s Academic Award for Excellence in Engaged Scholarship at the 2019 CCFA Awards Banquet.

•D R. JOY GOLDSMITH , DR. SACHIKO TERUI and SHUKURA UMI published “Providing Support for Caregiver Communication Burden,” Goldsmith., J., Wittenberg, E., Terui, S., Kim, H., & Umi, S. (2019). Providing support for caregiver communication burden: Assessing the Plain Language Planner resource as a nursing intervention. Seminars in Oncology Nursing. 35(4), 354-358.

•D R. ANDRE JOHNSON served as an academic consultant for the PBS documentary from Henry Louis Gates, “Reconstruction: America After the Civil War.” •D R. ANDRE JOHNSON was the host of the RainbowPUSH Hour on WLOK radio.

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•T he work of AMANDA NELL EDGAR PhD, assistant professor, was highlighted as a “spotlight article” with “Communication and Critical/ Cultural Studies” (CC/CS), a peerreviewed publication of the National Communication Association. In addition, Edgar was recognized in the Memphis Flyer for co-hosting the international conference “New Perspectives on Elvis” in collaboration with Mark Duffett, Reader in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Chester in England.

•D R. TONY DE VELASCO published “I’m a Southerner, Too: Confederate Monuments and Black Counterpublics in Memphis, Tennessee” in the Southern Communication Journal.

PHIL CANNON MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP (DR. M DAVID RUDD AND JACK SAMMONS)

•D R. ANDRE JOHNSON was the special guest lecturer for the GAAAH conference (the University of Memphis Graduate Association for African American History) Oct. 23. His talk was titled, “Hell is a Concern as Far as the Negro is Concerned: The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner.”

•D R. ANDRE JOHNSON published (with Earle Fisher, department alum (’18) and of Memphis Theological Seminary) “But I Forgive You?”: Mother Emanuel, Black Pain and the Rhetoric of Forgiveness” in the Journal of Communication and Religion.

•D R. ANDRE JOHNSON published (with Katherine Whitfield of Memphis Theological Seminary) “Tyler Perry and the Rhetoric of Madea: Contrasting Performances of Perry’s Leading Lady as She Appears on Stage and Screen” in the journal “Religions.”

•D R. ANDRE JOHNSON and DR. AMANDA NELL EDGAR ’s book, “The Struggle Over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter.”

Lexington Books, 2018, received the Outstanding Book Award for the 40 VOICES | UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

African American Communication and Culture Division of the National Communication Association.

•D R. ANTONIO DE VELASCO was named a Faudree University professor for 2019-22.

•D R. CRAIG STEWART ’s 2009 Communication Theory paper “Socioscientific Controversies: A Theoretical and Methodological Framework” was recently republished in “Landmark Essays on the Rhetoric of Science: Issues and Methods” (Routledge). This volume “compiles the essential readings of the vibrant field of rhetoric of science, tracing the growth and core concerns of the field since its development in the 1970s.”

•D R. MARINA LEVINA published a new book series “Horror and Monstrosity Studies” (University Press of Mississippi). This is the first academic book series on the topic of monstrosity in the United States.

• Professors STEVE ROSS and DAVID GOODMAN have been awarded a grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission to support their documentary on Ballet Memphis.

•D R. CICELY WILSON joined the Department of Communication and film as the new full-time online instructor/coordinator. Wilson earned her PhD from the UofM COMM department in 2013 and holds an MA in English from UofM, an MA in Speech Communication from Kansas State and a BA in English from Philander Smith College.

Wilson has been a part-time faculty member for the COMM department since 2016 and has previously held faculty positions at Chicago State University and Victory University.

A LU M N I

•U ofM graduate KEVIN BROOKS took home this year’s $10,000 Memphis Film Prize with his film, “A Night Out,” which was written and directed

by Brooks and Abby Meyers. This is the second year Brooks has taken home the big prize following his win for his 2018 entry “Last Day”.

•U ofM alumna SHANNON MCINTOSH served as producer for Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood,” a box office smash on track to earn $400 million globally.

•M CINTOSH earned a Golden Globe Award in January for her work on the film.

JOU RN A LI S M A N D ST RAT E G IC M E D I A FACU LT Y

•F aculty presented six papers at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication annual conference in August 2019 in Toronto. DR. MATT HAUGHT presented “Visualizing the Finish Line: Exploring Capstone Courses in Visual Communications Programs” with UofM graduate DAVID MORRIS , now a professor at the University of South Carolina-Aiken. Haught also presented “A Crisis in Pictures: Visual Framing of the Opioid Epidemic in the Cincinnati Enquirer” along with former UofM professor DR. ERIN WILLIS and KATHLEEN I. ALAIMO of the University of Colorado. DR. TERI DEL ROSSO and DR. MELISSA JANOSKE MCLEAN who presented “The Pied Piper of R&B: An Intersectional Analysis of News Coverage of R. Kelly’s Sexual Abuse Allegations in the Era of #Metoo” with STEPHANIE MADDEN of Penn State and UofM master’s graduate JENIECE JAMISON .

JANOSKE MCLEAN also presented “Activating Audiences: Using STOPS to Predict Engagement With Issues of Women’s Mass Incarceratio” with DR. GEAH PRESSGROVE of West Virginia University and DR. CRISOBAL BARRA of the University of Chile. DR. RUOXU WANG presented “User Experience Matters: What Are the Most Desired Skills in the UX Designer and UX Researcher Job Ads” with DR. JIN YANG and graduate student LOUIS ASSER .

WANG also presented “Exploring the Effects of Compliance/Noncompliance Framing, Desirability of End States and Brand Zealotry on Consumers’ Responses to Wearables Advertising.”

• I n honor of her decades of service to the Department of Journalism and Strategic Media, DR. SANDRA UTT was honored with the naming of an award in her name. Utt, who retired in spring 2019, is now the namesake for the Outstanding Advertising Student award, which is given each spring to the best student in the advertising major. The award is now the Dr. Sandra Utt Outstanding Advertising Student Award. In addition, Utt was recognized by the American Advertising Federation for her years of service.

•D R. MELISSA JANOSKE MCLEAN was awarded the Dean’s Academic Advising

Award at the 2019 CCFA Awards.

•D R. JIN YANG and DR. MELISSA JANOSKE MCLEAN were awarded the D. Mike Pennington Outstanding Mentoring Award at the 2019 Journalism and Strategic Media Alumni Awards. The award is named for D. Mike Pennington, an alumnus who worked in public relations and took pride in his mentorship of his staff.

•T he University of Memphis will host the 45TH ANNUAL AEJMC SOUTHEAST COLLOQUIUM from March 19-21 at the FedEx Institute of Technology at the University of Memphis.

•D R. RUOXU WANG was awarded the third place promising professor award by the Mass Communication and Society Division of AEJMC. In addition, Wang was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing for her study “Encouraging Volunteering in Nonprofit Organizations: The Role of Organizational Inclusion and Volunteer Need Satisfaction.”

•A ward-winning Memphis journalist DAVID WATERS joined the staff of the Institute for Public Service Reporting on March 1 as assistant director. Waters, 60, joins the institute after a 35-year career in journalism, mostly at The Commercial Appeal.

STU D E NTS

•F ollowing three years of year-toyear funding for the PHIL CANNON MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP , the board of Youth Programs Inc., the charitable

foundation of the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, has permanently endowed this scholarship awarded to University of Memphis journalism students. Since 1958, Youth Programs Inc. has been the charitable arm and host committee of the annual golf tournament held in Memphis. This scholarship was made possible through a $250,000 contribution from Youth Programs Inc. and will provide a full scholarship to be awarded each year to one journalism student interested in a career in sports journalism. As part of the scholarship, the student also has the opportunity to intern at the annual WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.

• J ENNIFER NICHOLS and CYNTHIA CASTOR , two advertising students who graduated in May 2019, were named to the American Advertising Federation’s list of Most Promising Multicultural Students. Both were honored Feb. 13, 2019, at AAF’s “Building Bridges for Our Future Luncheon” at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City.

•T hree graduate students were recognized on March 8 at the 2019 AEJMC Southeast Colloquium in Columbia, S.C., for their research; one student took home a top award at the conference. GARRETT PILGRIM presented his research paper, entitled “Holy Smokies! Information Design, Humor and Trail Safety,” which was recognized as the top student research paper in the Visual Communication Division. Also presenting research was JORDIN HOWELL , with her research

SANDRA UTT AAF (L TO R: STEVE PACHECO, SANDRA UTT AND CONNIE FRAZIER)

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•A LICE RAINEY BERRY was presented with the Ann Dunn Award at the 2019 CCFA Annual Meeting.

• J ILL GUYTON NEE , director of Dance, performed a piece titled “(living)(room)” at the International Women in Dance Leadership Conference in October at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS

paper titled “Out of the Shadows: Female Representation in ‘Shadow of the Tomb Raider.’” The research examined how the main character Laura Croft of the new Tomb Raider video game is portrayed much differently than in earlier games.

The third student, WILL SUGGS , presented his research paper “Come Wind or High Waters: Reimagining Hurricane Reorganization.” The research offered some new insight into graphic designs on how to convey the seriousness of hurricane warnings.

• J ORDIN HOWELL received a top paper award from the Entertainment Studies Interest Group of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication for her presentation of “Out of the Shadows: Female Representation in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.” Graduate student TERESA DANIEL also presented “Retailers in the Age of E-Commerce: How Instagram User-Generated Content Frames the Target In-Store Experience” at the AEJMC annual conference in Toronto.

•T he UofM chapter of the PUBLIC RELATIONS STUDENT SOCIETY OF AMERICA will host the

2020 international PRSSA convention in October in Nashville. The PRSSA convention is in conjunction with the international PRSA convention, and the UofM chapter won the right to host with a bid and pitch competition against other chapters in the Southeast region.

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A LU M N I

•P AUL D’AMBROSIO , MA ’18, and his reporting team won an Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting at the Asbury Park (NJ) Press/APP.com. The 19-part series changed state law after exposing the secret agreements that allowed violent cops to remain on local police forces until they maimed or killed innocent people. The series also won the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association.

D’Ambrosio is the executive editor at APP and was the investigations editor during the development of the series.

• S TEVE PACHECO was named president and CEO of the American Advertising Federation in June 2019. Pacheco has formerly been advertising director at both FedEx and International Paper and most recently was chief marketing officer of Ducks Unlimited.

THE AT RE & DANC E FACU LT Y

•O nstage Blog listed the University of Memphis among the TOP 30 COLLEGE DANCE PROGRAMS in the nation for 2019-20. The schools were selected on criteria that included cost versus scholarships, quality of facilities, performance/production opportunities and post-graduate support, as well as diversity of students and faculty.

A new consideration this year was security, both on- and off-campus.

•A ssistant professor of Dance MICHAEL MEDCALF’S proposal to present his research on legendary choreographer Talley Beatty has been accepted by the International Association of Blacks in Dance. He will present his research at the association’s annual conference in January 2020 in Philadelphia.

STU D E NTS

•T he Orpheum hosted the 36th annual Ostrander Awards this past August, which featured several UofM honorees throughout the evening.

The Ostrander Awards recognize the best in Memphis Theatre, with an array of categories dedicated to creative achievements like Best Set Design, Best Leading Actor and Best Overall Production. UofM productions INTIMATE APPAREL and BE MORE CHILL took home 12 and six awards, respectively, while several UofM alumni like ERICA PENINGER (Leading Actress in a Musical) also won numerous awards.

•T ennessee Shakespeare Company has announced UofM’s own EMILY MCCORMICK and TYLER J. VERNON as its 2019-20 Fellows. McCormick and Vernon will perform throughout the upcoming season, where they’ll be acting on stage, teaching thousands of Memphis-area children and working in the TSC administrative offices as artist-managers — just like William Shakespeare.

A LU M N I

•A s a former backing vocalist with Harry Belafonte, BFA theater graduate GABRIELLE LEE will join fellow former backing vocalists and musicians to honor Belafonte each year on his March 1 birthday in their original creation of “Turn The World Around” — a live concert celebration of the music and legacy of icon and activist.

•C ASSIE BECK (BFA ’99) returns to Broadway as Miss Yorke in The Rose Tattoo at Roundabout Theatre Company with Marisa Tomei. Her previous Broadway credits are Picnic and The Humans. Beck is joined by fellow UofM grad BEN FICHTHORN (BFA ’12), who is the programmer on “The Rose Tattoo.”

•D ONNA KIMBALL (BFA ’85) is a puppeteer with Sid & Marty Krofft and The Jim Henson Company. Donna is the voice of Aughra in Netflix’s series “The Dark Crystal.” She is also working on “Crank Yankers” and “Puppet Up-Uncensored.”

•Y OSSEF K (MFA ’15) is assistant directing Scott Schwartz on “Big Fish” opening at the Seoul Arts Center in 2020. He recently had a very successful run of Joyce, a show written by DAVID COUTER (BFA ’16) at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh.

RU DI E . S C HE I DT SC H OOL O F M U S I C FACU LT Y

• I n September 2019, the SCHOOL OF MUSIC entered into a partnership with the LEVITT SHELL . That month, the UofM Wind Ensemble and commercial music groups performed a concert reflecting the legacy of Memphis music.

That was just the beginning because in 2020, the school’s ensembles will present a series of concerts at the Shell.

•T he School of Music’s professor emeritus, DR. DAVID EVANS , won the 2019 Grammy for Best Album Notes. Evans wrote the pieces for the boxed CD set, Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris. The CDs contain the performances of various artists recorded

by Ferris in Mississippi in the late 1960s.

•R YAN FISHER , associate professor of music education, co-authored a chapter with Dr. Dru Davison, Shelby County Schools Fine Arts Advisor, in The Oxford Handbook of Assessment Policy and Practice in Music Education, Vol. I. • E LISE BLATCHFORD , associate professor of flute in the School of Music and a sponsored artist of Powell Flutes, presented a recital at the Buffet-Crampon showroom in New York City on Oct. 8. Blatchford’s trip included a visit to Rutgers University for a recital and master class.

• J ANET K. PAGE , Pearl Wales Professor of Music, recently published the first ever edition of music by the Austrian Baroque nun-composer Maria Anna von Raschenau.

•G REELY MYATT , professor with the Department of Art, who has been with the University for 30 years; will retire at the end of this academic year.

•P AGE was presented with the Benjamin W. Rawlins Jr. Meritorious Professorship award at the 2019 CCFA Annual Meeting.

• S USAN OWEN-LEINERT , associate professor with the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, who has been with the University for 14 years; will retire at the end of this academic year.

• P ROFESSOR KEVIN SANDERS accepted the role of director of the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music in late 2019. For the full story on Sanders, visit CCFA Voices Online at blogs.memphis.edu/ccfa.

• S TEVE ROSS , professor with the Department of Communication & Film, who has been with the University for 37 years; will retire at the end of this academic year.

STU D E NTS

• J OHN CHIEGO stepped down from his role of director of the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music in October to return to the faculty.

•L ast Saturday, School of Music DMA composition major JUAN SEBASTIÁN CARDONA-OSPINA won the National Composition Competition for Choir and Orchestra in Colombia. His work, “Cuando fui mortal,” was composed last spring for his lessons with DR. KAMRAN INCE . The work will be performed this November in Bogotá at the Leon de Grieff Concert Hall.

• S HANNON MOORE , who is pursuing a DMA in flute performance, was selected to join the U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Middle Tennessee State University, a performance certificate from the Trevor Wye Summer Course in England and a master's degree from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

Moore is a student of Elise Blatchford.

•S ophomore flute performance major CHEN-YU (JAMES) LEE attended the Japan Flute Convention in Fukuoa, Japan, in August of 2019.

A LU M N I

•U niversity of Memphis School of Music alumna DELARA HASHEMI was announced as the newly appointed 2nd Flute of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Hashemi graduated with an MM in flute performance in 2015.

•W AYNE SIMPKINS , associate professor with the Department of Art, who has been with the University for 45 years; will retire at the end of this academic year.

•D AN PHILLIPS , associate professor with the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, who has been with the University for 20 years; will retire at the end of this academic year.

• S HERRY BRYAN , associate professor and director of Architecture and director of Graduate Studies in Architecture Sherry Bryan will retire at the end of this academic year.

•M ARGARET ALLISON GRAHAM , professor of Communication Studies, who has been with the University for 39 years; will retire at the end of this academic year.

• J AMES F. WILLIAMSON , professor with the Department of Architecture, who has been with the University for 12 years; will retire at the end of this academic year.

C C FA RE T I REME NTS A N D RESI G NAT I O NS • F RED ALBERTSON , professor with the Department of Art, who has been with the University for 32 years; will retire at the end of this academic year.

• J OHN BAUR , professor with the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, who has been with the University for 40 years; will retire at the end of this academic year.

SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS

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