The UA faculty and staff continue to produce scholarly and creative work recognized around the world.
2021 Provost’s Assessment Award
The bachelor’s degree program in human development and family studies has been named the winner of the 2021 Provost’s Assessment Award at UA.
The award, established in 2017, recognizes excellence in program-level assessment and improvement of student learning outcomes. Each year’s winner is selected by the University Assessment Council from a pool of degree program assessment reports that exhibit meaningful, measurable, manageable and innovative processes.
The program is offered by the department of human development and family studies within the UA College of Human Environmental Sciences. The curriculum is designed to produce graduates who have a genuine concern for children and families and seek the challenge of helping people learn, solve life problems and successfully interact with others. Student learning is assessed in a variety of ways that promote input from multiple instructors and supervisors. UAC award voters were impressed by several aspects of the assessment report — including the thorough design/detail of the assessment plan, the clear presentation of results, and the way faculty collaborated to interpret and use those results to further enhance teaching and learning.
Appointments and Elections
David L. Albright, Distinguished Research Professor and the Hill Crest Foundation Endowed Chair in Mental Health Research, has been appointed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to the Committee on Progress towards Human Health and Community Resilience in the Gulf of Mexico Region, which includes Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
Olivia Arnold has been selected as the new permanent director of the Paul W. “Bear” Bryant Museum. She has served in various roles at the Bryant Museum over the past 19 years, most recently as business operations manager and interim director. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history, a master’s degree in higher education, and is currently enrolled in the UA graduate Museum Studies Certificate program.
Dr. Ron Buta, professor emeritus of astronomy, has been selected as the 2021 recipient of the Alabama Avocational Paleontologist Award, created in 2020 to honor individuals who have made outstanding contributions to Alabama paleontology.
NAFSA: Association of International Educators has selected Aurian Eghbalian, education abroad adviser, as one of 10 international education practitioners/professionals across the United States to receive the prestigious NAFSA RISE Fellowship for 2022-2023. NAFSA’s flagship inclusion, diversity, equity and access program, the NAFSA RISE Fellowship is designed as a two-year, fully funded professional development opportunity for international educators from underrepresented minority backgrounds.
Alabama Heritage magazine has named Rebecca Todd Minder as its new director and Dr. Susan E. Reynolds as editor. The appointments were made after the retirement of previous Editor-in-Chief Donna Baker.Minder, who started with the magazine in 2012, earned a master’s degree in American studies with a focus on Southern popular culture and a bachelor’s degree in public relations, both from The University of Alabama. Reynolds is a native Alabamian and has been with the magazine for nearly 13 years, overseeing the daily editorial functions for Alabama Heritage. She earned a doctorate in English at The University of Alabama and has a master’s degree in library science.
Dr. Jamie Campbell Naidoo, Foster-EBSCO Endowed Professor at the School of Library and Information Studies, has been named interim director of SLIS. He earned his doctorate in information science from The University of Alabama SLIS program. He teaches courses in library services to diverse populations, youth programming, and children’s and young adult materials and services. His research centers on the representation of LGBTQIA+ and Latinx populations in children’s materials as well as public and school library services to LGBTQ+ children and/or families.
Exhibitions
Jonathan Cumberland, assistant professor, department of art and art history, had three poster designs selected for international juried exhibitions. “Habitat,” was selected for the Peru Design Biennial. Only 465 entries were selected from 95,972 entries from around the world. “Connected” received a bronze award in the Poster Stellars Intercontinental Poster Competition. The work will be part of an in-person exhibition of the selected and awarded posters in Poland. “Not For Sale” was selected for inclusion in the juried exhibition 2021 Uruguay Cartel at the Bastión del Carmen Cultural Center in the city of Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay.
William Dooley, associate professor, department of art and art history, exhibited 14 paintings and works on paper in a two-person show, “Alabama Abstractions: William Dooley and Alex McClurg,” at the Downtown Gallery at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Allison Grant, assistant professor, department of art and art history, curated the exhibition “Lucinda Bunnen: Inward, Outward, Forward” at the Atlanta Contemporary. Grant’s photographic work was part of the West Town Pop Up Project, put on by the Chicago photo gallery f22. Grant is one of 22 contemporary photographers whose work f22 will also feature throughout the year in a series of limited edition prints.
Daniel White, director of the Paul R. Jones Museum and the UA Gallery, was the juror for the Monte Sano Art Festival in Huntsville and juror for the River Clay Fine Arts Festival in Decatur.
Publications
William L. Andreen, Edgar L. Clarkson Professor of Law: “Separating Fact from Fiction in Evaluating the Endangered Species Act: Recognizing the Need for Ongoing Conservation Management and Regulation,” 56 Idaho Law Review 39-48 (2020).
Dr. Wendy Castenell, assistant professor, department of art and art history: an essay on the portrait “Ashur Moses Nathan and Son” by the 19th-century New Orleans painter Jules Lion, for the catalog for the upcoming Louisiana Purchase Auction at Neal Auction Company.
Deepa Das Acevedo, assistant professor, Law School: “Just Hindus,” 45 Law & Social Inquiry 965-994 (2020); “Changing the Subject of Sati,” 43 Political and Legal Anthropology Review 37-53 (2020); and “A Tale of Two Courts,” 105 Cornell Law Review Online 67-80 (2020).
Richard Delgado, John J. Sparkman Chair of Law, and Jean Stefancic, professor, Law School: “Love in the Time of Cholera,” 68 UCLA Law Review Online176 (2020). Delgado also published “Groundhog Law” at 21 Journal of Law and Society 1 (2021).
Allison Grant, assistant professor, department of art and art history, had her photography project “Within the Bittersweet” published in the “Climate & Environment” issue of 월간사진 (Monthly Photography Magazine).
Julie Andersen Hill, Alton C. and Cecile Cunningham Craig Professor of Law: “Cannabis Banking: What Marijuana Can Learn from Hemp” [Symposium—Marijuana Law 2020: Lessons from the Past, Ideas for the Future], 101 Boston University Law Review 1043-1104 (2021).
Jolene Hubbs, associate professor, department of American studies: “Untranslatable Creole: Language Suppression, Racial Segregation, and Louisiana Local Color Fiction,” American Quarterly 73, no. 3 (September 2021): 619-638. American Quarterly is the official journal of the American Studies Association.
