Faculty News (from the President's Newsletter)
May
2007
- Terry McRoberts has been elected President-Elect of the Southern Chapter of the College Music Society.
- Walton Padelford and student Landon Preston attended the National Conference on Undergraduate Research April 12-14 at Dominican University, San Rafael, CA. Landon presented a research paper entitled, "Storing Up Treasures: A Quantitative analysis of Materialism, Religious Activity, and Ontology."
- Mike Salazar presented “Aging of PBX 9501: Hydrolysis and Free-Radical Oxidation” at the 2006 Tennessee Academy of Science in Clarksville, TN on November 17, 2006. His article, entitled “Getting prepared to deal with global warming” co-authored with E. Calvin Beisner, was published in Baptist Press News on November 21, and was also published as “Prepare yourself for the global warming debate” on crosswalk.com on December 6. His article with J. D. Kress, “Aging of the Binder in Plastic-Bonded Explosive PBX 9501 and Free-Radical Oxidation,” was published in Polymer Preprints. He also attended a seminar, “Toward a multilevel QM/MM methodology for performing molecular dynamic simulations of complex reactive processes” at the Material and Process Simulation Center, California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, CA on January 22.
- Gene Fant recently had essays published in The Chronicle of Higher Education and Madison Magazine; the latter essay won the 2006 Grand Award prize in feature story writing from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. Additionally, he and English major Katherine Kipp were a part of the team that received a 2006 Silver Medallion Award for Outstanding Reporting from the Parenting Publications of America group. He gave a paper, "Finding the Truth in Ruth: Why Genre Criticism Matters" at the Evangelical Theological Society, where he continues to serve on the Steering Committee for the Study Group on the Literature of the Bible. Additionally, he gave a three-day series of lectures on Worldview and Popular Culture at Impact 360 (a worldview academy in GA), as well as several lectures on Worldview and Language at the Evangelical Christian School in Cordova, TN. He also completed some consulting work on the revised Anthology of World Literature for A. B. Longman Publishers and was quoted in a Chronicle article on "RateMyProfessor.com."
- Patty Hamilton will be serving as the session secretary for the Restoration/18th century session at the upcoming 2007 South Atlantic Modern Language Association.
- David McClune, David Malone, and Vicki Malone led 22 Union students in the January term study abroad program’s educational tour of France and Italy.
- David Malone had an essay, "Somewhat Unreal Communities," published in Road Journal.
- David Malone and Roger Stanley presented papers at the Flannery O’Connor in the Age of Terrorism conference held in Michigan. Dr. Malone presented "The 'Predictable Employment of Racially Informed and Determined Chains': Morrison, O’Connor, and the Question of Race" and Prof. Stanley presented "'I Brake for Hallucinations': Sanity and Madness in Flannery O'Connor's 'The Partridge Festival.'"
- Roger Stanley also presented a paper, “The 'Southern Voice' in Fiction Writer Flannery O'Connor and Singer-Songwriter Lucinda Williams," at the national meeting of the Popular Culture Association. Additionally, he accompanied English majors Nellene Benhardus, Laura Fisher, Andrew Gray, Katherine Kipp, Jared New, Racheal Pressnell, Rebecca Poe, and Renee Roberson, who were invited to read original scholarship and creative writing at the International Sigma Tau Delta convention in Pittsburgh. Prof. Stanley serves as a Southern Regional representative on the Sigma Tau Delta board.
- Gavin Richardson’s paleography project has been solicited for inclusion in an upcoming special issue of Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching. He will also present on this project at the 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies in May.
- Bobby Rogers has poetry forthcoming in multiple journals: “Home Body,” Connecticut Review; “The Mind of the Poet,” Cimarron Review; “Real Estate,” Cimarron Review; and “Anagnorisis,” Southern Humanities Review. Under his sponsorship, The Torch, Union’s literary/arts journal, received a silver medal from the prestigious Columbia (University) Scholastic Press Association’s annual competition.
- Pam Sutton successfully completed her Fall 2007 research leave, which included several weeks of participation in the CCCU’s L.A. Film Institute.
- Julie Powell has been selected as a technical advisor for a video production called “Basketball Score Table Management and Operations,” which will be produced by the National Association of Sports Public Address Announcers.
- Kyle Hathcox and David Ward presented a session entitled, “The Hammer Falls: A Fresh Look at the Pile Driver,” and demonstrated that multiple physical quantities that can be obtained from a simple pile driver designed at Union University to the Tennessee Science Teachers Association in Nashville on November 17.
- Nancy Easley’s essay, “Jesus and Women in the Gospels,” was published in the January 2007 issue of the new Broadman & Holman Harmony of the Gospels.
- Ann Singleton co-presented “Creating a Responsive Community to Lead the Millennial Department” at the national Academic Chairs Conference in Orlando, Florida on February 3.
- Ralph Leverett was elected to the Board of the Foundation of the Tennessee Association of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists.
- Nancy Cherry and Kenneth Newman presented “Science and Social Studies Reading Strategies” for the Jackson Madison County Teacher In-service on January 2. Dr. Newman repeated the presentation for the faculty of Isaac Lane Technology Magnet Elementary School on January 22.
- James Patterson’s article, “Alternative Theological Education in the Southern Baptist Convention: A Case Study of Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary” was posted in a new online publication, The Journal of Baptist Studies 1 (2007):2-19, www.baptiststudiesonline.com. Also, his article entitled, “Cultural Pessimism in Modern Evangelical Thought: Francis Schaeffer, Carl Henry, and Charles Colson” was published in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 49 (December 2006):807-820.
- Randall Bush gave the keynote address at the annual Christianity in the Academy conference held on the Germantown campus on March 23. His address was entitled “Transgressing Holy Boundaries: How Archetypal Stories in Genesis Are Being Played Out in the Confrontation Between Western Societies and Radical Islam.” Jimmy Davis presented a paper, “Does Science Leave Any Room for God?”, and Ken Easley and Jim Patterson chaired sessions. Terry Lindley and Nancy Dayton attended.
- Darren Michael attended the Southeastern Theatre Conference in Atlanta on March 7-11, where he presented a workshop entitled, “Outdoor Drama Survival Skills” with two other presenters. Students Courtney Braswell and Jill Casey also attended the conference. Courtney participated in the SETC professional auditions for theatre companies from around the country.
- Walt Padelford and Darin White have been invited to present their paper entitled, “The Shaping of a Society’s Economic Ethos: A Longitudinal Study of Individuals’ Morality of Profit-Making Worldview” at the Society for Business Ethics Annual Meeting to be held in Philadelphia in August.
- Tom Proctor visited Sydney, Australia for two weeks in March to explore a partnership agreement between Union and Macquarie University. He also participated in an International Student Exchange Fair and met with department heads and other officials on campus. Tom was a Rotary Foundation Scholar at Macquarie in 1987 and this trip was made possible through an International Program Development Grant.
- Tom Proctor and Debbie Newell’s article, “IRS Issues FIN 48 Initiative for Expedited Resolution of Uncertain Tax Positions,” has been selected for reprint in the Massachusetts CPA Review. The article was previously published in the December 2006 edition of the TSCPA Journal.
- Bill Nance was an evaluator for The Robert W. Campbell Award sponsored by the National Safety Council. This award is given to companies that are the most proactive in accident prevention and employee health and safety programming. Other schools represented on this review board were McDonough School of Business (Georgetown University), The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania), and the Whittemore School of Business and Economics (University of New Hampshire).
- David Gushee presented the Horton Lectures at Brewton-Parker College in Mt. Vernon, GA on February 27-28. He taught the Impact 360 Program in Atlanta on March 26-28. He also led a weekend seminar on his book, Only Human, on April 21-22 at First Baptist Church in Asheville, NC.
- Rhonda Hudson presented her research entitled, “Adult romantic attachment, perceived HIV stigma, shame-proneness, psychological distress and disclosure responses among HIV-seropositive urban-dwelling African American women” at the 19th Annual symposium of Doctoral Research in Social Work at Ohio State University on April 21.
- Theresa Blakley’s article, “The Anatomy of Trauma and Faith: A Reflective Post-Mortem,” was published in The Journal of Social Work and Christianity 34(1), Spring, 2007. Theresa was the featured speaker at a two hour national audio conference hosted by the North American Association of Christians in Social Work on November 27, 2006. The title of her presentation was “Shadow and Light: The Anatomy of Trauma and Faith.”
- Hal Poe spoke at the Centurions Program (Wilberforce Forum) weekend on March 9-11 in Lansdowne, VA. His topic was “Culture and Worldview.”
- George Guthrie’s article “A Discourse Analysis of the Use of Psalm 8:4-6 in Hebrews 2:5-9,” co-authored with Russell D. Quinn, was published in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 49/2 (June 2006): 235-46. His review of Robert W. Yarbrough, The Salvation Historical Fallacy? Reassessing the History of New Testament Theology (History of Biblical Interpretation Series 2). Leiden, Deo Publishing 2004 in the journal BIBLICA 87/3 (2006): 442-46. Also, his article, “A Discourse Analysis of the Structure of James,” co-authored with Mark D. Taylor, appeared in Catholic Biblical Quarterly (October 2006). George made a presentation at the national meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature: "The Structure of Hebrews Revisited" (November 2006, Washington, DC).
- Michael Penny was elected to serve on the national board of directors of National Opera Association (NOA).
- Kevin Cooney traveled to Japan last summer on a PEW research grant. He conducted research on the foreign policy decision making process of Japanese government officials. While in Japan he traveled to the city of Fukuoka to present a paper at the 20th International Political Science Association World Congress. The paper was entitled “Measuring Foreign Aid: Public vs. Private.” In February he presented a paper entitled “How the Powerful Think: Foreign Policy Making in Democratic Japan,” at the International Studies Association Annual Convention, Chicago based on his summer research. In August he was elected treasurer of Christians in Political Science and attended the American Political Science Convention in Philadelphia. In October his second book Japanese Foreign Policy Since 1945 was published by M.E. Sharpe Publishers and in November he signed a contract with Routledge Publishers for an edited volume tentatively entitled Rising China: America and East Asia Respond.
- In October senior political science students Derrick Lambert and Andrea Otte were awarded the highly prized and prestigious Rotary Foundation Fellowship for up to two years of graduate study overseas. Both Derrick and Andrea speak French and will be studying at the prominent Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.
April
2007
- Pat Keene has been selected as one of the top 100 nurses in Shelby county this year. This is a great honor as her peers selected her. We are very proud of her and this reflects so favorably on our school of nursing to have faculty of this caliber. There is a banquet and other activities to recognize these outstanding 100 nurses - including write-ups in the news. Pat's recognition is even more special as this is the second time she has received this honor. She was also selected in 2004. Not only is Pat faculty for us, she is a doctoral student at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and she is a well respected hospice nurse.
January
2007
- Kenneth Newman and Ann Singleton presented “Multiple Intelligences: How Are My Students Smart?” for the faculty of Scotts Hill Elementary School on January 3.
- Kenneth Newman presented “Writing By and For Boys” at the Lifelines for Teachers area-wide teacher in-service on January 20 at Jackson State Community College. Nancy Cherry and Melessia Mathis co-presented “Activities for Integrating Social Studies and Reading” at the same event.
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