University of Alabama to observe moment of silence for James Hood on Thursday
Al.com – Jan. 22
The University of Alabama will observe a moment of silence at 11 a.m. Thursday in remembrance of James Hood, one of the first black students at UA. Hood, 70, died on Jan. 17 in his hometown of Gadsden. The moment of silence at the university will be held at the same time as the beginning of Hood’s funeral service at Gadsden’s First United Methodist Church. He and Vivian Malone broke the color barrier at the university when they enrolled in 1963. In 2010, UA dedicated Malone-Hood Plaza outside Foster Auditorium, the site of Gov. George Wallace’s “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” in 1963, in honor of Hood and Malone, who died in 2005.
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 22
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Jan. 22
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Jan. 22
UA criminal justice professor discusses new book ‘The Myth of Martyrdom’ on campus today
Al.com – Jan. 22
University of Alabama criminal justice professor Adam Lankford will discuss his new book “The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers” today at the university. To commemorate the release of the book, he’s speaking in room 205 at Gorgas Library at 4 p.m. “The Myth of Martyrdom” offers his take on suicide terrorists and his belief that they are suicidal without just working for their cause. “In the book, I present overwhelming evidence that suicide terrorists are actually suicidal in the clinical sense just like many school shooters and rampage shooters,” Lankford said. “By understanding these attackers more accurately, we have a great opportunity to revise our countermeasures and successfully prevent many of these attacks.” Lankford said he is excited for the opportunity to speak today at Gorgas Library. “For decades, foreign terrorist leaders have essentially fooled our government officials and leading scholars into believing that suicide bombers are motivated by the desire to sacrifice their lives for an ideological cause,” Lanford said.
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 23
UA archaeologists dig at Tuscaloosa CityFest lot
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Jan. 22
Before Tuscaloosa goes forward with a downtown hotel, folks will dig into its past. Archeologists are digging up a park and most of the free parking lot in what’s known as the Old City Fest lot. Here’s what it looks like from the 6th floor of the PNC bank building across from the dig site. Four tents are set up. Fences have also gone up around some of the tents. Digging is already underway. It’s being done by archeologists with the University of Alabama. Deidre Stalnaker says: “They are looking for a little bit of anything, anything of significance. Significance could mean a lot of things depending on who you ask. But they are looking for anything they can study and get a better understanding of the history of Tuscaloosa.”
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 23
Space Daily – Jan. 21
Terrific Tuesday concerts at Shelton State today features UA piano students
Al.com – Jan. 22
The Shelton State Community College Department of Music’s “Terrific Tuesday” concert series continues today at 1:15 p.m. at the Martin Campus. Today’s concert will be a little different than the rest. They will feature University of Alabama piano students in the concert. The University of Alabama piano department is a branch of the School of Music and the school boasts that they offer more diverse piano courses than most other schools. The piano department has had guests artists and teachers including Robert Roux, Stephen Hough, Emanuel Ax, Nelita True, Jerome Rose, Christopher O’Riley and Andre Watts among others.
Researchers looking for tech innovation, including disaster/terrorism response
Government Security News – Jan. 22
A newly-announced, government-funded research program aimed at spurring technical innovation across a wide array of information and computing technologies includes an effort to examine how cities can respond to natural disasters or terror attacks more efficiently … The six academic teams are grouped into the following centers: … Electron spin-based memory and computation have the potential to overcome the power, performance and architectural constraints of conventional CMOS-based devices. C_SPIN focuses on magnetic materials, spin transport, novel spin-transport materials, spintronic devices, circuits and novel architectures. C_SPIN is hosted at the University of Minnesota with collaborators from Carnegie-Mellon University, Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, University of Alabama …
UA professor discusses 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Jan. 22
Forty years ago today, the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade, which gave women the right to have an abortion. Today, anti-abortion groups are still working to pass legislation to make it harder for women to end their pregnancies…But experts say what has seemed like 40 years of the same fight, hasn’t always been divided by choice and life. Dr. Lisa Lindquist Dorr, associate professor of American women’s history. “In the early women’s rights movement, in the late 1960’s when this debate was still up and a state level issue, even seemingly conservative men saw abortion on demand as a no-brainer for women’s rights, and that there was an acceptance that women could not be truly equal if it was possible for them to get pregnant at any time.”
Select students dine, converse with Tuscaloosa community experts
Crimson White – Jan. 23
Two dozen students from the University of Alabama have the opportunity this spring to eat a good meal and have a conversation with interesting people from the Tuscaloosa community as part of the program Dinner with Strangers. Dinner with Strangers is a collaborative conversation event series developed by the Ferguson Student Center Union to connect students and members of the community interested in the same topics. “Dinner with Strangers is a great event for students to join with the community,” said senior Dillon Dyer, event coordinator for Dinner with Strangers. “It is a resource to talk about certain topics that is the core of Tuscaloosa.” The topics of discussion for this semester are visual expression and downtown Tuscaloosa. “For the spring, we’ve chosen two topics – visual expression and downtown revitalization – and will pick 12 students for each of these topics,” said Heather Roberts, programming coordinator for the Ferguson Center. The selected students and community members will first discuss the topics in a social media-style blog discussion from Feb. 17 until March 2. This will occur before they actually meet in person for a casual dinner downtown hosted by the Ferguson Center, and the entire series will end with an after-party open to the public on Friday, March 8 at the Bama Theatre, where there will be local entertainment, art, food and a bar.
70s art collective returns to campus
Crimson White – Jan. 23
The revolutionary artistic movements of the 1970s were not lost on The University of Alabama’s campus. In the mid 70s, a group of UA students gathered together to make improvisational and avant-garde music, art and performances. They called themselves the Raudelunas. The name Raudelunas (pronounced ra-DELL-uh-nus) comes from the Armenian word referring to the moon and its mythical powers. Craig Nutt, a UA alumnus and member of Raudelunas, referred to the group as a venue for misfits. “We had sessions where anyone who wanted to pick up an instrument and play it could,” he said. “Anyone could be a part of this.” Nutt said he could remember exactly how the group got started, but it turned into meetings of like-minded people who, over the years, turned into a support group for experimental artists…The Raudelunas art collective has returned to campus to recreate their 1974 exhibition-performance, Pataphysical Revue in the Ferguson Student Center, the same location the original exhibition took place.
Ferguson Center hosts law school career fair Thursday
Crimson White – Jan. 23
The University of Alabama’s College of Arts and Sciences will host its Law School Fair on Thursday, Jan. 24th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Ferguson Center ballroom. Students interested in furthering their education with law school can attend the fair to learn about admissions processes, facts and figures for law schools across the nation, then gauge their ability to apply.
Tarpley earns master’s from UA in Library Studies
Demopolis Times – Jan. 22
The Demopolis Public Library children’s librarian, Kelley Tarpley, graduated from The University of Alabama on Dec. 15 with a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Studies. “I learned that most anything goes when it comes to planning programs for children and young adults. A library doesn’t always have to spend a lot of money to have fabulous programs. There are times when the best programs came from an idea that you developed while talking to other librarians,” Tarpley said. Tarpley has worked as the children’s librarian at DPL for five years.