INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES – David Blakesley, professor of Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design, published two book chapters: “Elaborate Rhetorics” in Writing Spaces 5: Readings for Writers, and “Illuminating Kenneth Burke, Engaging Publics” in In the Classsroom with Kenneth Burke, edited by Ann George and M. Elizabeth Weiser. Parlor Press, 2023, pp. 73–103.
ENGLISH – Sarah E.S. Carter, director of First-Year Composition, and Marley Bickley, assistant director of First-Year Composition, gave a presentation at Feminisms and Rhetorics (Sept. 30th—Oct. 3rd) titled “Re-Vamping FYC Professional Development to include Training Initiatives to Promote Diverse Student Populations.”
LANGUAGES – Assistant Professor Jody Cripps provided a presentation titled American Sign Language Acquisition: Building Blocks to South Carolina Hands and Voices’ Building Bridges Family Conference in Columbia on September 16, 2023. He was also a moderator for a panel on the topic of signed language delay and disorders at the Saffran Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience and Rehabilitation of Communication Disorders in Philadelphia on September 30, 2023. As an editor for the Society for American Sign Language Journal, he is pleased to announce that the special issue titled Deaf Women: Agents of Change (Volume 6, Issue 2) has been published in September 2023.
PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION – Assistant Professor Quinn Hiroshi Gibson published a paper,with Adam Bradley of Lingnan University, Hong Kong, in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science entitled ‘Monothematic Delusions and the Limits of Rationality.’ The paper argues that existing accounts of monothematic delusions in the philosophical literature over-rationalize them, likely because it is assumed that a rationalistic model is the only way to make sense of them. He argues that this is a mistake and that delusional cognition can be rendered intelligible if instead it is modeled on empathically traceable but non-rational forms of thought
PERFORMING ARTS – Brooks Center Director Emerita Lillian Utsey Harder, artistic director of the Utsey Chamber Music Series, secured seven broadcasts on America Public Media’s Performance Today during August and September: a broadcast on August 4 of pianist Alon Goldstein and clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein performing Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestucke from their concert at the Brooks Center on February 9, 2023; a broadcast on August 14 of violinists Stella Chen and Cho-Liang Lin, violist Matthew Lipman, and cellist Sihao He of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln performing Henry Purcell’s Chacony in G minor for String Quartet from their concert on October 18, 2021; a broadcast on August 17 of Sphinx Virtuosi performing Ricardo Herz’s Sisofo na Cidade Grande, a broadcast on August 31 performing Valerie Coleman’s Tracing Visions; a broadcast on September 12 of Sphinx Virtuosi performing Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasilieras No. 9 from their March 30, 2023 concert; a broadcast on September 15 of cellist Amit Peled and pianist Alon Goldstein performing Ernest Bloch’s From Jewish Life from their concert on February 9, 2023; and a broadcast of pianist David Fung and the Verona Quartet performing Grazyna Bacewicz’s Piano Quintet No. 1 on September 27 from their concert on November 1, 2022. The seven broadcasts reached an 1,820,000 listeners.
ENGLISH – Associate Dean Michael LeMahieu presented a paper, “Ordinary Logic, Generic Racism,” at a conference on “Logic and Modern Literature” at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.
LANGUAGES – Professor and Chair Joseph Mai published “Ordinary Ghosts: Care, Attention, and Media Critique in Cerno, une anti-enquête” in Contemporary French Civilization (Volume 48, Number 2, 2023, pp. 115-131). The article examines a creative use of podcasting media through the lens of ordinary language and care philosophies. Mai was also named to the editorial board of the same journal.
HISTORY – Professors J. Brent Morris and Vernon Burton’s co-edited Reconstruction Beyond 150: Reassessing the New Birth of Freedom was published by the University of Virginia Press. He served as a political analyst about race and politics with Karthik Ramswayamy on the Political Lens podcast. Burton was the first signature, responsible for obtaining other historians’ signatures, and one of the two historians who advised the attorneys preparing an amicus brief for Alexander v. SC NAACP to the US Supreme Court, upholding the federal judge decision in support of creating a second viable congressional district for minority voters to elect a candidate of choice. On September 12, he spoke at the premiere of SCETV “The World of Cecil” at the Nickelodeon in Columbia. On September 15, he was in conversation with former Clemson student Bob Elder on “Where History, Memory and Place Collide: John C. Calhoun and Clemson University” in the Self Auditorium at the Strom Thurman Institute. On September 25, Burton gave the College of Charleston’s Constitution Day Lecture, “Justice (Still?) Deferred: Race, Voting Rights, and the U.S. Supreme Court.” The next day,he spoke at the International African American Museum on the plaintiffs in the Briggs v. Elliot case from Clarendon SC, commonly known as Brown v. Board of Education (1954). On September 28, he was honored at Lander University in a program “A Celebration of Vernon Burton” a video of which can be seen here. Lastly, on September 20, Burton spoke at Penn Center on the Civil Rights movement.
ENGLISH – Assistant Professor Clare Mullaney published an article titled “Extra Consciousness, Extra Fingers: Automatic Writing and Disabled Authorship” in American Literature‘s Fall issue.
ENGLISH – Associate Professor Angela Naimou presented a paper on international law and Adania Shibli’s novel Minor Detail at the Association of Postcolonial Thought’s second annual symposium at the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor. She also participated, with a fellow Clemson ECAR chapter colleague, in the second annual Every Campus a Refuge national conference, held at Wake Forest University. Every Campus a Refuge is a national higher education initiative that envisions colleges and universities as key partners in refugee resettlement and integration. The Clemson chapter offers programs and services to support resettled residents while deepening significant place-based learning for students of any major.
LANGUAGES – Professor Johannes Schmidt presented at the biennial conference of the International Herder Society. This year’s meeting took place in the historic town of Bückburg (Lower Saxony, Germany) where Herder lived and work from 1771 to 1776. Herder is one of the city’s main historical figures, and the city welcomed the society with open arms and a full program of events, including a rare performance — on historical instruments — of the oratorio “Lazarus,” a collaboration of J. Chr. Fr. Bach and Herder. Schmidt’s presentation was entitled “Herder’s (Re-?)Orientation during the Bückeburg Years 1771–1776—Becoming Maverick, Dissenter, and Individualist.”
PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION – Associate Professor Ben White published a chapter entitled “Paul and His Diverse Champions” in the Cambridge History of Ancient Christianity.