Belmont’s Honors Program recently hosted two guests from Aquinas College in Nashville: Joseph Pearce, writer-in-residence and director for the Center for Faith and Culture, and Dr. Aaron Urbanczyk, dean of Arts and Sciences at Aquinas. Urbanczyk delivered a special lecture to the entering class of first-year Honors Program students on one of the foundational texts of Western philosophy and Christian theology, St. Augustine’s Confessions. The Honors students read Augustine’s Confessions as a text in their entry course on “Classical Civilizations.” Urbanczyk talked about the importance of reading, literacy and the Roman education system in the life and conversion experience of St. Augustine.
Pearce has written on a wide variety of literary figures including William Shakespeare, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, Oscar Wilde and Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He was awarded the prestigious John C. Pollock Award for Christian biography for his book on Solzhenitsyn. His most recent books include Shakespeare on Love: Seeing the Catholic Presence in Romeo and Juliet (2013) and Bilbo’s Journey: Discovering the Hidden Meaning in the Hobbit (2012). Pearce is the editor of the St. Austin Review and editor for the Ignatius Critical Editions published by Ignatius Press. Pearce will return to Belmont in January as a special guest lecturer in an Honors course on the Inklings of Oxford.
Dr. Urbanczyk’s teaching and scholarly interests include American literature, literary theory and 20th century Catholic fiction. His essays, articles and reviews have appeared in Religion & the Arts, the St. Austin Review, The Intercollegiate Review, Modern Age, Essays in Arts & Sciences, Papers on Language & Literature, the Journal for Cultural & Religious Theory, Perspectives in Religious Studies, The Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly, The Catholic Thing, and the Ignatius Critical Editions of Frankenstein, The Scarlet Letter and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Instructor of Entrepreneurship and Management Jose Gonzalez was recently interviewed for WalletHub.com’s study examining 2014’s Best and Worst Cities for Hispanic Entrepreneurs. 
The Belmont University School of Physical Therapy recently hosted two health professionals from Istituto Prosperius Tiberino, a 75-bed rehabilitation hospital in Umbria, Italy. Since 2012, nine Belmont physical therapy students have completed a clinical affiliation at the hospital, and three more students are scheduled for an eight-week clinical affiliation during the spring of 2015.
Belmont University hosted the annual 
Ten Belmont College of Business students participated in the first-ever Case Competition hosted by Cat Financial Young Professional’s group on Sept. 16. The competition was created to use diversity of thought and inclusion to solve a real business problem at Cat Financial. Five teams, each comprised of two Belmont students and three Cat Financial employees including a six Sigma Black Belt, competed against each other to come up with the best and most innovative solution to the problem posed in the case study. The teams were given 24 hours to work as a team to come up with a solution and develop a presentation to present their recommendations. They each had 15 minutes to present in front of a judging panel and audience. Maggie Fincher, a junior entrepreneurship major, and Ananta Sharma, a senior economics and applied mathematics major, were members of the first place team.
Curb College professors David Herrera and Clyde Rolston received Best in Track for the Arts, Music and Entertainment track for their paper “Using Group Projects for Problem-Based Learning in Music Business Courses” at the Atlantic Marketing Association 2014 Conference held Sept. 24-27 in Asheville, NC. The paper detailed how problem-based learning helps students achieve course outcomes and improves learning in two music business courses.
Professor of Art History Judy Bullington recently published a chapter titled “Cultivating Meaning: The Chinese Manner in Early American Gardens” in the book “Global Trade and Visual Arts in Federal New England.” The volume, published by the University of New Hampshire Press, was edited by Patricia A. Johnston, the Mears Chair in Fine Arts at The College of Holy Cross, and Caroline Frank of Brown University.