Twenty middle and high school teachers attended a May 29 workshop on Food & Gardening intended to grow partnerships between science and English teachers to support instruction of the sixth through 12^th grade Reading (Literature and Informational Text) CC Standards.  Leading the discussions were Belmont professors Lauren Lunsford, Darlene Panvini, Sally Barton-Arwood and Bonnie Smith-Whitehouse.  Dinner, books and teaching items were provided by the Middle Tennessee STEM Innovation Hub and the event was coordinated by Glenn Acree.

A follow-up workshop will be held at Belmont on June 16 through 20 and will focus on using cooking and gardening to develop partnerships between Science and English teachers to support instruction of the sixth through 12^th grade Reading:  Literature and Informational Text CC standards.  Twenty-four teachers from five school districts will participate.

This workshop is funded by a Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) $75,000 grant received by Lunsford and Panvini earlier this year. Lunsford and Panvini worked with Acree and the Middle Tennessee STEM Innovation Hub’s Director Vicki Metzgar on the grant, with the purpose to unite English and Science teachers to help their students explore text in interactive and fun ways. Their project will provide teachers with the professional development and time to explore and plan lessons that utilize hands-on activities like community gardens and classroom kitchens to support the teaching of informational texts. Teachers from Bedford County, Davidson County, Dickerson County, Montgomery County and Franklin City Schools will have the opportunity to participate in workshops this summer and receive continued support in the fall.

Dr. John Niedzwiecki and Dr. Steve Murphree, of biology, led 16 home schooled students, grades seven through 10, in their Vertebrate Anatomy Home School Science Discoveries session on May 28. The students performed dissections to learn about muscles, organs and organ systems and how they function.

Mary Ellen Pethel, of the Honors Department, had the article “The Coming Woman: Ward Seminary, 1865-1913” published in the April issue of Tennessee Historical Quarterly. The subject of her article was also featured on the back cover in the form of a historic postcard.

Assistant Professor of English Joel Overall recently presented at the International Rhetoric Society of America Conference in San Antonio, Texas. His paper was entitled “Kenneth Burke and Nazi Musical Propaganda”. The presentation examined noted rhetorician Kenneth Burke’s review of Paul Hindemith’s “Mathis der Maler” symphony to understand how Nazi propagandists persuaded the German public to join the National Socialists in 1934. In addition, his multimedia presentation breaks new ground in rhetorical studies by investigating how Burke’s extensive rhetorical theory might apply to nonlinguistic rhetorics.

Dr. Bonnie Parnell Riechert was interviewed in the June 2014 issue of PRSA Tactics. In the article “Writing and Leading for the Future,” she says the best advice she ever received was, “Be honest. Be grateful. Be kind. Develop your character and the right actions will follow.” Riechert is chairman of the Department of Public Relations and serves as faculty adviser for Belmont’s chapter of Public Relations Student Society of America.

Cheryl Slay Carr, associate professor of music business in Curb College, had her proposal selected to present  a workshop titled “Teaching the Business of Jazz: A Pedagogical Approach to Teaching the Commerce of Diversity in the Performing Arts” at the 27^th Annual National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education, which took place May 21-31 in Indianapolis, Ind.

The 31st Annual International Country Music Conference was held at Belmont University on May 22 through 24. Hosted by Belmont Professor of Music Business Don Cusic and Tennessee Technological University Professor  James Akenson, the conference featured a special panel on the late CMT Editorial Directort Chet Flippo.

The conference also included a special one woman show by Sue Masset, “Precious Memories,” about labor activist Sarah Ogan Gunning. The show was written by singer-songwriter and social justice activist Si Kahn. Kahn also presented the keynote speech during the conference. There also were sessions from country music scholars covering topics including the Bluebird Café, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Gram Parsons, Barbara Mandrell, Marty Robbins and the Beatles and Country Music. Scholars from Norway, Japan and Canada as well as those from California, Illinois, Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri, Georgia, Ohio, Arkansas, Indiana, West Virginia, North Carolina, New York, South Dakota, Louisiana, Texas and Tennessee attended.

The Nashville Business Journal has named Dr. Phil Johnston, dean of Belmont’s College of Pharmacy, as a “Health Care Hero.” Winners were selected for their contributions to Music City’s health community by a panel of industry judges. Johnston was recognized in the “Health Care Professional Services” category along with other local leaders, including Anne Sumpter Arney of Bone McAllister Norton PLLC, Vicki Estrin of C3/Consulting, Berry Holt of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, Rosemary Plorin of Lovell Communications, Jerry Taylor of Stites & Harbison PLLC and Tommy Yeager of M.J. Harris Construction Services. The honorees will be recognized at an awards luncheon on June 6 at Loews Vanderbilt Hotel and in a special publication in the June 6 print edition of the Nashville Business Journal.  The luncheon celebrates “the accomplishments of the leaders, innovators, strategists and caretakers, whose work is helping to grow the region’s health care industry and reinforcing Nashville as the health care capital of the nation.”