Dr. Gary L. McDowell, assistant professor of English, recently won runner-up in Prairie Schooner’s Creative Nonfiction Contest for his braided-memoir essay, “There Are Manuals for Those.” Poet and essayist Lia Purpura chose it out of over 500 submissions, and it will appear in a forthcoming issue of Prairie Schooner. He also has poems forthcoming in Barn Owl Review, Cheat River Review, Tupelo Quarterly (where he will be the featured artist), CutBank, Fourteen Hills, Salt Hill, Bluestem and others. He will read at the Southern Festival of Books on Oct. 11 as a featured presenter.
McDowell Runner Up for Writing Contest, Has Poems Published
Niedzwiecki Has Paper Published
Dr. John Niedzwiecki, associate professor of biology, has co-authored a paper titled “Species Tree Reconstruction of a Poorly Resolved Clade of Salamanders (Ambystomatidae) Using Multiple Nuclear Loci.” The paper was published in the September issue of Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (Volume 68 (2013): 671-682). This paper is the product of a collaboration with the Weisrock Lab at the University of Kentucky. Click here to read the paper.
Biles Presents at Math Conference
Dr. Danny Biles, professor of mathematics, gave a presentation at the Fall Southeastern Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) held the at the University of Louisville on Oct. 5 and 6. Biles talk was titled “Existence of Positive Solutions for a Fourth Order Differential Inclusion” and was part of a special session on “Fixed Point Theorems and Applications to Integral, Difference and Differential Equations.” The AMS holds eight sectional meetings annually and this was the 1,092nd Meeting of the AMS Southeastern Sectional. The AMS was founded in 1888 to further the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and to serve the national and international community through its publications, meetings, advocacy and other programs.
Hatch Invited to Lecture at Tennessee Tech
Dr. Duane Hatch, assistant professor of chemistry, was invited to give a research talk to the Department of Chemistry at Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, Tenn. on Sept. 20. The research talk was titled “Tyrosine Oxidation-Derived Electrophiles.”
Mathematics Students, Faculty Attend Actuaries Meeting
Dr. Danny Biles, professor of mathematics, and eight Belmont students attended the annual fall meeting of the Casualty Actuaries of the Southeast (CASE) at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Atlanta, Ga. on Sept. 25. The Belmont students are mathematics majors completing the Actuarial Track, which includes a business minor, and are members of the Belmont Actuarial Student Society. The meeting gave the students an opportunity to gain knowledge of current issues in the actuarial profession and to make contacts with several practicing actuaries. Those attending were Whit Whitson, Mallory White, Alice Curtis, Stephen Sells, Lesya Zhukovska, Annie Brunelle, Mary Yang and Savannah Halliday.
Political Science Alumnus Receives White House Scholarship
Belmont political science and English alumnus Kristopher Hill, now breaking news reporter for The Spokane Spokesman Review, received a White House Correspondents Association Scholarship while completing his master’s degree in journalism at the University of Missouri. In celebration of this honor, he attended the 2013 White House Correspondents Dinner. Those who know Hill say they hope he will one day return to host the event, as he describes himself as an amateur comedian. While at Belmont, Hill also ran cross country and track for the Bruins.
Mass Communication Student Blogs for Huffington Post
Mass communications student Libby Oellerich has become a blogger for The Huffington Post. Oellerich’s blog, called The Local Lady, supports small businesses and local artisans in Nashville by sharing their stories. The idea for the blog originated from a class project Oellerich completed for Dr. Sybril Bennett, professor of journalism, where students had to design a mobile app that also involved developing a blog. The blog’s slogan is “Embracing Authenticity and One-of-a-kind Legacies,” and Oellerich’s goal is to develop strong relationships with the businesses she highlights so that the blog’s followers are in the know about local homegrown products. With the encouragement of Bennett, Oellerich contacted Arianna Huffington about her blog, from which Huffington put Oellerich in touch with her blog editor. The Local Lady blog appears in the Huffington College and Huffington Small Business sections. Click here to read Oellerich’s most recent article.
University-Wide Box Drive to Bring Hope to Orphans
A small shoe box gave a Russian orphan hope and desire for more than the life she was living, and now Belmont has begun an initiative to bring that great joy to hundreds more children.
Forsaken by her prostitute mother and alcoholic father, Oksana Nelson became an orphan at age seven. Although she no longer had to steal food or spend nights on the street, she recalled the orphanage as a “difficult and challenging place.” There she shared one toilet, one sink, one bar of soap and one toothbrush with more than two dozen other children.
“Many other orphans who aged out of the system at 16 turned to drugs and prostitution to survive,” said Nelson, a spokeswoman for Operation Christmas Child, who shared her story during chapel in early October to kick off a University-wide service project. “We saw that and thought it was the path for our lives. You see, we were taught that we were the bottom of society and that we would never amount to anything. You were an orphan because you were an inconvenience, a nuisance; you were just in the way and not supposed to happen.”
At age nine, missionaries came to her orphanage, played games with the children and shared the Gospel.
Paisley to Receive Harmony Award from Symphony
Country artist and Belmont alumnus Brad Paisley will receive the 2013 Harmony Award at the 29th annual Symphony Ball. The award will be presented on Sat., Dec. 14, at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, where Paisley will join the orchestra to perform one of his hits.
Each December, at its annual Symphony Ball fundraiser, the Nashville Symphony presents the Harmony Award to an individual who exemplifies the harmonious spirit of Nashville’s thriving musical community. “As one of country music’s biggest stars, Brad has made a huge impact by staying true to his artistic and personal vision,” says Alan Valentine, CEO and president of the Nashville Symphony. “We can’t think of anyone today more deserving of this award, which over the years has honored the many artists who’ve helped make Nashville the thriving creative capital that it is today. Without a doubt, Brad’s talents and contribution to the music of Nashville have been outstanding.”
A 1995 graduate with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, Paisley majored in music business at what was then the Mike Curb School of Music Business. Last year he established the Brad Paisley Endowed Scholarship at Belmont to provide financial assistance for a deserving student with demonstrated need who is studying in the Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business.
Belmont Production Voted Best by Nashville Scene
This year’s “Best of Nashville” issue from the Nashville Scene released on Thursday, and Belmont’s musical theatre students, faculty and staff received special recognition for their work on last spring’s production of Les Miserables. Writer Martin Brady noted, “University faculty joined with some imported professional talent to mount the project, and a gifted ensemble of performers from the school’s excellent music and theater programs infused the staging with presence and wonderful voices.”
