In March, nine students from Belmont University presented their research at the Alpha Chi National Honor Society Convention at the Union Station Hotel in St. Louis, Mo. Faculty advisor Dr. Sarah Ann Fleming (Mathematics) also attended the convention.  The annual Alpha Chi convention is organized around student presentations by juniors and seniors from their respective chapters.

Membership in Alpha Chi is the highest academic honor awarded by Belmont University.  Its members are invited based on their academic standing in the top 10 percent of the junior and senior classes within any academic major.  Belmont has had an active chapter of Alpha Chi for over 25 years. Dr. Fleming and Dr. Caresse John are the current Belmont Alpha Chi faculty sponsors.

Belmont student presentations at the national convention:

• In the Art section, Sam Frawley presented his work on “North Dakota Parks and Recreation Rebranding.”
• In the Political Science section, John Thomas (J. T.) Faircloth presented “Race and Rhetoric: How Obama’s 2008 Race Speech Sought to Build a ‘More Perfect Union.’”
•  In Music, Jesse Peck presented his composition “Tunnel Tonicization.”
• In World History, Christy Vitkus discussed “Lithuania: The Road to Freedom and Independence.”
• In the Sociology section, Emily Snyder presented “Things that I Learned from My Mother: The Impact of Family Narratives on Resilience.”
• Also in the Sociology section, Miranda West presented her work on “Exploiting the Homeless.”
• In the Psychology section, Savannah Ladage and Elizabeth Wilson presented their research on “The Effect of Positive Training on Attention to Negative Stimuli in Anxious Individuals.”
• In the Nutrition section, Sofia Elmaliki discussed “Oh, Sugar. Oh, Sweet, Sweet Drug.”

Three current Belmont English students and one recent graduate of the master’s program had papers accepted at the 109th Meeting of the Tennessee Philological Association on Feb. 20 through 22 at Lipscomb University. Dana Perry, a December Master of Arts alumna, delivered a paper called “Shattering the Myth: Lorraine Hansberry’s The Drinking Gourd.” Cathy Kelly presented “Nabokov, O’Neill, and the Pathos of Place.” Will Hodge presented “REMYTHX: Adaptation as Remix in Eugene O’Neill’s Desire under the Elms and Mourning Becomes Electra.” Misty Ayres-Miranda presented “Electra’s Release in Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra.” Dr. David Curtis, professor of English and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, moderated the session and presented another paper at the conference.

Psychological Science faculty and students attended the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association in Boston, Mass. on March 13 through 16. Eastern Psychological Association (EPA) was founded in 1896 and is the oldest of the regional Psychological Associations in the United States. Its sole purpose is to advance the science and profession of psychology through the dissemination of professional information about the field. Those attending were, pictured left to right, Dr. Lonnie Yandell, Savannah Ladage, Antario Jones, Caroline Baumgartner, Breanna Wood, Monica Roufael, Savannah Johnson, Jasmine Jarupat, Jade Tucker, Stephanie Seeley, Shelby Wall, Melanie Chinsoon, Dr. Pete Giordano and Dr. Linda Jones.

For the second year in a row, a Belmont student won a research award for research presented at the conference. Jasmine Jarupat’s psychology senior capstone study titled “Prosocial Behavior and Just World Belief Predicted by Mortality Salience and Religiosity,” supervised by Shen-Miller and Giordano, received the sixth place award out of 100 competitors. The award was given in a graduate student competition, and Jarupat’s poster was inadvertently considered even though she is an undergraduate. The award citation indicated to her that “you have been recognized for your excellence in presentation, research methodology and research idea,” she said.