Several landscape architecture faculty members presented their peer-reviewed research at the annual Conference for Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) held at Salt Lake City, Utah, March 23-26th. Hyejung Chang presented “Justice as Justification for Design.” Hala Nassar and Robert Hewitt presented “Cross-Cultural Participatory Design Methods and Techniques across Differing International Contexts.” Hewitt also was part of a Design Education and Pedagogy panel “Four Years or Five Years? Discussions on the recent movement of Several Undergraduate Landscape Architecture Programs from Five to Four Years in the United States.” Martin Holland presented his research on the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum as part of the panel on the conference theme: ” Dilemma: Debate.” He also presented his collaborative work, “Coming to Terms with a Troubled Past: Charting the Spatial Legacies of Segregation.” Matt Powers presented “The Role of Self-Regulated Learning in Design Pedagogy,” a preview of his Routledge book publication. Mary Padua delivered two separate history and theory presentations, “Mosaic Modernity: the Public Park in 20th century China,” and “Vernacular Minimalism: a 21st century Design Approach.” Nassar was re-elected as CELA Second Vice President. Thomas Schurch was awarded the 2016 CELA Excellence in Service Learning Award, Senior Level.
Robert Benedict (real estate development) was an invited speaker at the 7th National Forum for Historic Preservation Practice at Goucher College in Towson, Md. in mid-March. He spoke on ‘The Next 50 Years of Economics and Preservation.” Robert also moderated a panel discussion on emerging trends in economics and planning for the next 50 years. The annual conference draws academics and practitioners in historic preservation and related fields from across the country.
Cameron Bushnell (English) presented two papers at separate conferences:
Cameron Bushnell, Angela Naimou and Erin Goss (English) hosted a “Dialogue on Equity & Race” for Clemson’s Colloquium on Race & Ethnicity (CCRE) on March 24th-25th, 2016. The dialogue featured keynote speakers Kandice Chuh, professor of English and American Studies, CUNY Graduate Center, speaking on “On the Humanities ‘After Man’” and Sangeeta Ray, professor of English, University of Maryland, College Park, speaking on “Race, Caste, & Solidarity: ‘Liberal Imperialism’ and the Corporate University.” The talks were followed the next day by a reading group seminar for faculty and graduate students. The Office of Diversity, the Race and the University Initiative, and the English Department sponsored the events.
Andrea Feeser (art) gave a presentation on indigo in the dress of 18th-century South Carolina slaves and Cherokees at the Athens-Clarke County Library in Athens, Georgia on Friday, February 26th. Feeser also wrote an essay “Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Indigo in Colonial South Carolina,” which appears in the March/April print edition of Selvedge, a London publication dedicated to the aesthetics, history and politics of textiles.
On March 8th, C-Span filmed Roger Grant’s (Kathryn and Calhoun Lemon Professor of History) History of American Transportation class in Hardin Hall, which will be shown nationally at a later date. The Anderson Independent-Mail published a feature story on the Grant on March 7th which was subsequently picked up by the Associated Press. The story has been reprinted in scores of newspapers, including the Charleston Post and Courier, Greenville News and The State.
Steven Grosby (philosophy and religion) published two articles:
Cynthia Haynes (English) gave four invited lectures at the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark, during the week of March 11th-18th. She delivered two lectures to 160 M.A. students in “Digital Rhetorics” as the creator of the course at ITU ten years ago in 2005-06. Following these lectures, she gave a talk about her forthcoming book, The Homesick Phone Book: Addressing Rhetorics in the Age of Perpetual Conflict (Southern Illinois University Press, 2016), to a group of faculty in their Digital Culture and Communication Research group. Finally, she gave a talk to the Games Research faculty and Ph.D. students called “Toasters, Phone Books and the Secrets of Game Criticism.”
Carter Hudgins (historic preservation) was a keynote speaker for The Bahamas Hurricane Restoration Fund at the Jacaranda House in Nassau, Bahamas on March 18th, launching the “Island Arcs” restoration project. The fund addresses the devastation of islands affected by Hurricane Joaquin and their subsequent empowerment and rebuilding.
Steve Katz (R. Roy and Marnie Pearce Professor of Professional Communication and Fellow of the Rutland Institute for Ethics) with co-founder Lesly Temesvari (biological sciences), David Blakesley (Campbell Chair of Technical Communication), and Lea Anna Caldwell (M.A. in professional communication), on February 25th conducted the second in a series of three new Writing In the Disciplines (WID) Initiative Workshops. The workshops focused on constructing and presenting effective and persuasive visual and verbal arguments in the sciences, technology and industry. Katz also traveled with his wife to Santa Barbara, California, to participate in the marriage ceremony on March 19th of his former doctoral student, Patricia Fancher, for which he composed and delivered a poem.
Alexander Kudera’s (English) second novel, Auggie’s Revenge, was published in March by Beating Windward Press. Also in March, Fight for Your Long Day was reprinted as a Classroom Edition by Hard Ball Press. This new edition includes essays on the academic novel, contract labor and more.
Thomas Kuehn (history) presented “Estate Inventories as Legal Instruments of Credit in Renaissance Italy” to the History and Religious Studies Workshop at Washington University, St Louis, on March 18th.
Megan MacAlystre (English) organized and chaired a roundtable of four Clemson University English students and alumni on the fairy tale adaptations of Southern author Ursula Vernon at the 37th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts: “Wonder Tales.” Beth Buchanan (B.A., 2015), Laura Wells (B.A., 2015), Chelsea Clarey (M.A., 2015), and Matt Duncan (M.A., 2017) engaged in a rigorous discussion on the intersections of disability, posthumanism and feminist criticism in Vernon’s works.
Tom Oberdan (science and technology in society) has completed “The Vienna Circle,” forthcoming in Oxford Bibliographies, published by Oxford University Press (2016).
An excerpt from the introduction of Barton Palmer’s (Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature) recent book, Multiplicities in Film and Television, co-edited with Amanda Ann Klein, was published recently in The Atlantic magazine.
Christine Piper (construction science and management) received the 2016 “Modular Building Fellow” award from the Modular Building Institute at World of Modular on March 20, 2016 held in San Diego, Calif. Annually the Modular Building Institute recognizes the efforts of an individual in promoting and advancing modular and offsite construction in an academic or institutional setting. Piper worked with MBI for the past three years on the Introduction to Commercial Modular Construction book (published March 2015). Currently, Piper is developing an online course with Michael Griffin, curriculum coordinator with Clemson Online, based on the book. The online course will be available to anyone interested in learning about commercial modular construction. The Modular Building Fellow Award is awarded for dedication, thoroughness, professionalism and interest in the modular building industry.
On March 24th, Elizabeth Rivlin (English) presented a paper titled “Blood Memory in Ron Rash’s Serena” in a seminar on “Shakespeare and the South” at the annual Shakespeare Association of America Meeting in New Orleans.
Richard St. Peter (performing arts) was notified on February 25 that he had been selected as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar. He will spend the 2016-17 school year teaching at the University of Craiova in Romania.
Kate Schwennsen (architecture) and Lori Pindar (communication studies) were chosen as recipients of the Outstanding Women Award this year. The President’s Commission on the Status of Women annually honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to improve the status of women.
Gabriela Stoicea (languages) participated in the Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association in Hartford, Conn. in mid-March, where she presented a paper entitled “Narrating Dis-Order: Psychiatry, the Law and Literature in Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften.”
William Terry (geography) has published an article in the geography journal Area titled “Solving seasonality in tourism? Labour shortages and guest worker programmes in the USA.” This work is timely as it focuses on the extensive use of migrant guest workers in tourism and hospitality to deal with seasonal demands. This issue has recently been used as a political chip in the GOP presidential debates and will be an ongoing portion of discussions concerning immigration reform in the United States.
Jillian Weise (English) is making a satirical series on YouTube called “AWP Tips for Writers by Tipsy Tullivan.” This is in response to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference’s rejection of all panels proposed by disabled writers on the topic of disability aesthetic. Publishers Weekly reported on the controversy in “HuffPo Article Stokes Claims of Discrimination Leveled Against AWP.”