On Monday, Belmont hosted a convocation event featuring University of St. Andrews senior lecturer Dr. Caron Gentry as the Women’s History Month keynote speaker.
Author of “This American Moment: A Feminist Christian Realist Intervention” and various articles on gender, terrorism and feminist political theology, Gentry has formed ideas to problems of police brutality, women’s reproductive health and the rise in fascist politics. She also serves as an associate editor for the International Feminist Journal of Politics.
She said when people are anxious, they tend to cling to people like themselves and hold others at a distance, placing negativity on them. She added that creativity is how we build relationships with others and how we may respond to anxiety that causes us to distance ourselves from people who are different from us.
“We have to engage in hope and how that creates community with others,” said Gentry. “Creativity is deeply relational and is about relationship with God and His relationship with us.”
She provided students with simple, concrete ways to work against the power dynamics that limit feminism and equality, including showing up instead of thinking “that’s their issue.” Gentry advocated for students to listen and educate themselves more on issues that are important and create more abstract conversations to prevent guilt or polarization.
Gentry was introduced by Dr. Mimi Barnard, associate provost of Interdisciplinary Studies and Global Education.
Dr. Tim Schoenfeld, assistant professor in the Department of Psychological Science, published an article in Hippocampus titled, “New neurons restore structural and behavioral abnormalities in a rat model of PTSD.”
Using pharmaceutical and genetic models of adult rats, Schoenfeld manipulated the creation of new brain cells in an area called the hippocampus, which is important for processing learning, anxiety and stress. Rats went through a stress model that mimicked that seen in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and rats without the ability to create new neurons in the hippocampus were unable to recover from traumatic stress.
These rats continued to demonstrate high anxiety levels and poor learning and memory long after stress was over. These findings help explain some of the brain mechanisms involved in PTSD and offer new insight into developing treatments for those suffering from it. The abstract of his published article can be found here.
Belmont students are always living out the “from here to anywhere” theme, and for several groups of students, Spring Break took them from Belmont to different places around the world. These non-traditional spring break trips gave students the opportunity to travel and serve their neighbors in different areas.
Approximately 100 Belmont students, faculty and staff participated in both international mission trips and Immersion trips within the U.S. The trips gave students an opportunity to serve communities in five different countries around the world, including China, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Mexico as well as several cities in the U.S.
Immersion and international mission trips give students the opportunity to experience a different culture, immerse themselves in it and give back to the community. The trips are also a chance for students to live out Belmont’s mission of empowering “men and women of diverse backgrounds to engage and transform the world.” Student immersion and service ranged from building a house for a family to spending time and worshiping with people who are homeless. They were able to experience, see and live out God’s work in different parts of the world first hand.
While on their trips students kept up with the Belmont community by sharing their experiences on the Belmont on Mission blog. Through the blog, students shared how God was impacting their lives through their interactions with the people they were serving and through the work they were doing.
Belmont University mission trip to the Dominican Republic.
Senior international business student Sean Grossnickle shared his thoughts and experiences on his international mission trip to the Dominican Republic with a group of other Belmont students.
Grossnickle detailed their work saying, “our mornings consist of installing water filters, which we brought, and then doing sports ministry with the children in the afternoon. We do various activities in the evening, including playing basketball with the neighborhood kids at the local court, hosting movie nights for the school children and doing devotionals for the group,” Grossnickle shared. “We are blessed that our group from Belmont has good synergy, and I think everyone will be truly blessed by this experience.”
The group that was in Acuna, Mexico spent their week building a house for a family through the organization Casas por Cristo. At the end of the week the house was complete, and the group had formed strong bonds with the family. “As the building came to a close, we gathered as a group and poured immensely into our relationships with the family,” said a blog post by students Sarah, Jamie and Delaney. “This particular portion of the experience was a standout to our team members and was impactful in ways that exceed words. Seeing a project that we poured our hearts into come to completion and reach others for Christ was life-changing to say the very least and is the root of change in many hearts.”
Belmont Mission Trip in Acuña, Mexico.
The chance to take part in Immersion and international trips sparks students passion for serving others and gives back to communities in impactful ways. Student Hannah Rae Melis, who took part in the El Paso immersion trip, stated what it means to go on an immersion trip and how it impacted the lives of both students on the trip and the lives of the neighbors they were serving.
“An immersion trip… is an immersion into stories, the realities of our neighbors’ lives and an education on the deep complexity of issues and experiences encountered,” she said. “Hearing and seeing stories help us become informed and spark our compassion for our brothers and sisters.”
Dr. Mark Anderson, associate professor of philosophy, recently published a book, “Diamythologõmen: A Philosophical Portrait of a Philosopher Philosophizing,” with S. Ph. Press. The book depicts through narrative the various activities of a philosopher, as a thinker, a teacher, a scholar and a creative-intellectual writer. With reference to various philosophers, to Plato and Nietzsche in particular, it develops accounts of philosophy as ‘Creative Pyrrhonism’ and of the philosopher as superior to the sage.
Songwriter Emily Landis has signed a new worldwide publishing agreement with BMG Nashville. A graduate of Belmont University, where she studied songwriting, Landis highlighted her musical skills in spring 2016, co-writing four of the eight original songs performed in the esteemed Belmont Showcase Series for the country genre.
Since then, Landis has joined the Nashville songwriting community co-writing songs with recording artists Kassi Ashton, Seaforth, Walker McGuire, Cassadee Pope, Tegan Marie and James Otto, among others.
Said Landis, “I am so excited to work alongside everyone at BMG. They are some of the most passionate individuals in the business, and those are the kinds of people you want on your team. It is an honor to call myself a BMG writer.”
Kos Weaver, EVP BMG Nashville, said, “Emily is a perfect fit for us, gifted and versatile. We are fortunate she has chosen us to shepherd her career.”
Rakiyah Marshall, Creative Director, BMG Nashville, said, “We are thrilled to have Emily join BMG. Her talent, fresh perspective and passionate work ethic have her destined for a bright career. We look forward to a long and successful partnership.”
Andrew Trask, a 2015 Belmont graduate with a B.S. in Applied Discrete Mathematics and B.B.A. in Finance, is the featured guest on the March 21 episode of This Week in Machine Learning & AI (TWIML&AI). Ranked among “The 10 Best AI, Data Science and Machine Learning Podcasts” by Medium.com, TWIML&AI hosts weekly conversations with researchers from Facebook, Microsoft, Google, as well as other leading corporations and universities on the cutting edge of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Trask, currently a Google DeepMind Scholar and Ph.D. student at Oxford University, is the author of Grokking Deep Learning, which teaches readers to build deep learning neural networks from scratch. Trask is also the coauthor of the Udacity Deep Learning curriculum and founder of the OpenMined project, an open-source framework that will allow developers to gain insight from users’ data without compromising their privacy.
His conversation begins with a generous shout-out to Belmont University. The entire episode can be heard online here.
The inaugural Todd Givens Memorial Scholarship was awarded to promising new songwriter-artist and Belmont alumnus Chris Housman recently by the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI).
Housman, a 2012 music business graduate who is originally from Hanston, Kansas (population 200), taught himself to play the fiddle at age seven. Singing followed, which led to the formation of a traveling family bluegrass/gospel band, opening for major country acts, receiving national recognition for singing classical solos, and fronting a punk rock band. Since attending Belmont University, Housman is now actively songwriting and performing (upright bass and vocals) country-wide touring colleges.
“Chris is already making a name for himself in the industry,” said NSAI Membership Representative, Erin Kidd. “With instinctive writing intuition and a voice that can melt hearts, he’s one of our most signable artist/writers. From our first meeting, his talent, passion and likability has been obvious and undeniable.”
Todd Givens was the head of NSAI’s tech department and unexpectedly passed away on February 27, 2018. Givens was involved with the Screamin’ Cheetah Wheelies, and the Eric Hamilton Band for many years. Band members and front men Mike Farris of the Wheelies and Eric Hamilton have agreed to help mentor Housman and future scholarship recipients.
“Todd would be proud of this choice,” said NSAI Executive Director Bart Herbison. “Housman has that ‘it’ thing and an ability when performing to draw you into his world. NSAI will fund his membership, costs for all of our events and give him staff-wide attention over the next two years with the idea of helping him secure a publishing and record deal.”
Earlier this month, Belmont Law sent two teams to compete in the American Bar Association National Appellate Advocacy Regional Competition in Brooklyn, New York.
The team of Allyson Lynch, Paul Madden and Sarah Martin were not only crowned the best brief in the region but went undefeated the entire tournament. They are advancing to the national competition in Chicago in mid-April.
The team of Marisa Garcia, Joseph North, and Richard Swor also went undefeated until the very last round, where they missed advancing by one point on one ballot. Garcia was also named the third best advocate in the entire region.
Director of Academic Success and Associate Professor of Law Dr. Tracey Carter presented at the University of Memphis Law Review 2019 Symposium’s Voter Identification Law Panel on Friday, March 15, 2019. She discussed her forthcoming 2019 University of Memphis Law Review article, “Eliminating Barriers to Voting: How Allowing College Students to Use Their Student IDs to Vote in Certain Southeastern States Can Help Make Voting Great in America.” The Symposium reached capacity with more than 250 Memphis-area lawyers registered.
Dr. Tracey Carter, associate professor of law and Belmont Law’s director of academic success, recently served on the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation’s Regional Review Panel in Nashville. Dr. Carter, a 1993 Truman Scholar, and other panelists interviewed the 2019 Truman Scholarship Finalists from Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee, and she participated in the selection of the Truman Scholars from these states. The 2019 Class of Truman Scholars will be announced in April.
The Truman Scholarship is a highly competitive national scholarship and is considered “the premier graduate fellowship in the United States for those pursuing careers as public service leaders.” The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation “awards merit-based scholarships to college students who plan to pursue careers in government or elsewhere in public service. Truman Scholars receive up to $30,000 for graduate or professional school, participate in leadership development activities, and have special opportunities for internships and employment with the federal government.”
