ART – The artwork of Todd Anderson was recently acquired by the New York Public Library Print Collection. The collection is one of the few comprehensive, national repositories of printed ephemera and artwork in the country. As such its holdings represent the historic roots of printmaking while simultaneously being a physical collection of fine art prints that collectively constitute the field’s canon. Anderson’s artwork was also recently acquired by U.S. Library of Congress — the de facto national library for the country and the oldest national cultural institution in the U.S. It holds the second-largest library collection in the world. Artwork acquisition by the U.S. Library of Congress is considered one of the most significant career achievements for a visual artist. Lastly, Todd Anderson’s artwork was acquired by the The Metropolitan Museum of Art. With over 2 million artworks in their permanent collection, the “Met” is the largest museum in the United States. The Met’s collection spans 5,000 years of art from around the globe. Artwork acquisition by the Met can be considered the pinnacle career achievement for an artist. Examples of Todd’s artwork can be seen at www.TheLastGlacier.com.
HISTORY – A review essay by Stephanie Barczewski appeared in the Aug. 19 issue of the Times Literary Supplement. Barczewski’s article, entitled “Imperial measurement: Arguing that the British Empire was neither as dominant nor as unified as is often thought,” reviews new volumes by Bernard Porter and Antoinette Burton.
CONSTRUCTION SCIENCE AND MANAGEMENT – Joe Burgett is the first recipient of the Construction Science and Management Endowed Professorship. The professorship was established at Clemson University in 2015 as a result of an endowment fund established by an anonymous donor in recognition of the contribution to the construction industry made by the department faculty through teaching, research and service. Candidates must have an outstanding reputation in the construction discipline as demonstrated by a sustained record of scholarly accomplishment, excellence in classroom teaching and service to the construction industry on a regional, national and/or international level.
HISTORY – On Sept. 14, Vernon Burton presented a paper entitled, “Proving Intent in Voting Rights Cases” at the Harvard University Center for Governmental and International Studies. He spoke at USC – Aiken on “Race and the Supreme Court” for Constitution Day on Sept. 16, and on Sept. 17, spoke on the Civil War at the Edgefield Southern Literary Showcase. Burton was interviewed and quoted in the State newspaper about the scholarship of historian Charles Joyner on Sept. 16; he also published an obituary on Joyner for the College of Charleston’s Lowcountry and Atlantic World (CLAW) website. An interview on his edited book, “Becoming Southern Writers,” was aired on Walter Edgar’s Journal on SC ETV radio. On, Sept. 29, Burton participated in the “The People Speak: Clinton v. Trump,” a Clemson TV webcast. In August, Burton was informed that he had been selected for the S. C. Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Humanities to be awarded by the S.C. Humanities Council.
ART – In September, Andrea Feeser was asked by PBS NewsHour to comment on a recently found ancient, indgo-dyed Peruvian textile. The story, “Blue jeans have a 6,000 year-old Peruvian ancestor,” is about a scrap of indigo-dyed fabric that may “rewrite the history of clothing.” Feeser was interviewed because of her research on indigo and her book, “Red, White, and Black Make Blue: Indigo in the Fabric of Colonial South Carolina Life.”
HISTORY – Roger Grant’s article, “Whatever Happened to the Little Red Caboose” appeared in September on the Smithsonian’s “What It Means to Be An American” website. In August, Grant was quoted in the New York Times article “‘A Piece of Penn Station:’ An Existing Departures Board Prompts Wistful Goodbyes.”
ENGLISH – Cynthia Haynes published a new book, “The Homesick Phone Book: Addressing Rhetorics in the Age of Perpetual Conflict, from Southern Illinois University Press.” From the catalog description: “Terrorist attacks, war, and mass shootings by individuals occur on a daily basis all over the world. In “The Homesick Phone Book,” author Cynthia Haynes examines the relationship of rhetoric to such atrocities. Aiming to disrupt conventional modes of rhetoric, logic, argument, and the teaching of writing, Haynes illuminates rhetoric’s ties to horrific acts of violence and the state of perpetual conflict around the world, both in the Holocaust era and more recently.”
ARCHITECTURE – Ulrike Heine was appointed by S.C. Governor Nikki Haley to the Energy Independence and Sustainable Construction Advisory Committee. The purpose of this committee is to assist the state engineer and State Fiscal Accountability Authority (SFAA) by reviewing and analyzing current rating systems referred to the committee by the SFAA board, monitoring the development of new ratings systems as well as updates to current systems, making direct recommendations to the state engineer concerning regulations of rating systems and reporting to the SFAA board concerning the effectiveness of current rating systems.
LANGUAGES – Joseph Mai published an article on how a contemporary French novelist uses literary experimentation to explore ways in which humans and animals are defined in relation to one another: ‘“Un tissu de mots”: Writing Human and Animal Life in Olivia Rosenthal’s Que font les rennes après Noël ?’ appeared in Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal: 49, 3. He also participated in the scientific committee and was an invited speaker at the World Cinema and Television in French Conference, held in September at the University of Cincinnati.
CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING – Eric A. Morris, won a major paper award for “Negotiating a Financial Package for Freeways: How California’s Collier-Burns Act Helped Pave the Way for the American Interstate Highway Era.” The paper was co-authored with Jeffrey Brown (Florida State) and Brian Taylor (UCLA); Dr. Morris was first author. It won the Wootan Award for best paper in transportation policy and operations from the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, one of the seven awards given in 2016 from among the roughly 5,400 manuscripts submitted. The paper examines legislation in California that pioneered a method for paying for a massive freeway system, arguing that 1) the inclusion of urban routes at a time when highway systems were thought to be meant to serve rural areas, 2) a trust fund that sequestered driving-related revenues for use exclusively on roads, and 3) under-taxation of trucking relative to the road damage trucks cause were essential for funding our highway system both in California and later at the national level. The paper will be published in the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN SOCIETY – Tom Oberdan was invited to deliver the 24th Vienna Circle Lecture at the University of Vienna on September 16. The topic of his presentation was “‘Our Common Method’ in Logik, Sprache, Philosophie.”
PERFORMING ARTS – Shannon Robert was nominated for a Suzi Bass Award award (an Atlanta-area theatre award) for her scenic design of “In The Heights,” a co-production of the Aurora Theatre and Theatrical Outfit in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
ARCHITECTURE – The photography of Rob Silance was included in a national exhibition of photography titled “Man in the Landscape” at the Photo Place Gallery in Middlebury, Vermont. The opening call for the exhibit states, “The hand of man may lie lightly or heavily on the landscape but few places on Earth are completely untouched; the visible presence of humans on the planet is almost unavoidable. Here we seek images that demonstrate human impact in ways ranging from the subtle to grotesque.” Silance is currently showing a portion of an ongoing photographic project titled “Dirt for Sale: Constructing the Landscape of the New American South” at the Spartanburg Museum of Art in the group exhibition “(Un)common Space(s).” This national exhibition “broadly examines the relationship between natural, deconstructed, and decaying space. As the health well-being of our planet continues to decline, viewers are challenged to consider such themes as the loss of natural resources, the lack of interaction between humanity and nature, and the decay of urban landscapes.”
ART – Kathleen Thum presented her paper “Depicting Carrying Capacity: Imagined Petroscapes,” at the Petrocultures Conference at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, Aug. 31- Sept 3. This international conference brought together scholars, policy makers, industry employees, artists and public advocacy groups to discuss the social and cultural dimensions of oil and energy. Her solo exhibition, “Carrying Capacity,” was on view at the Wiseman Gallery at Rogue Community College in Grant Pass, Oregon until Aug. 25.
ENGLISH – Inside Higher Ed profiled Jillian Weise’s video art “How to Rush the Academic Job Market.” Weise was an invited speaker at Ohio State University (Sept. 16-17) and the University of Toledo (Sept. 19). At OSU, she led a graduate workshop on academic and creative personae. She also gave a master class on digital production, disability activism and public writing.
RELIGIOUS STUDIES – Benjamin White’s book, “Remembering Paul: Ancient and Modern Contests over the Image of the Apostle” (2014, Oxford University Press) will appear in paperback later this fall.
ART, LEE GALLERY – Denise Woodward-Detrich has a ceramic work titled “Mechanical Alveoli” included in an exhibition titled 10x10x10xTieton. The exhibit is hosted at the Mighty Tieton Warehouse Gallery in Tieton, Washington, and was juried by Adam Gildar of Gildar Gallery in Denver, Colorado. The work is on view through October 9th.
ART – Falling Water, an exhibition of video and photography by Anderson Wrangle is on display through December 8 at the Crutchfield Gallery in the Spartanburg County Public Library. Wrangle describes this body of work as “an exploration of the power and wonder of falling water and the dichotomy between winter and summer. He says, “The fountain has always been a rich metaphor for inspiration, and for a rich inner life, and I see these waterfalls as playing a part in that mode. The contemplation is restorative and rich, even as the subject is powerful and inexorable.”