The Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business recently welcomed artists Chuck Wicks and Luke Bryan to campus as guests for The Insider’s View. Both are currently nominated for CMT Music Awards, and the two shared their experiences in the music industry with the audience.
RCA Nashville recording artist Chuck Wicks has garnered his first 2008 CMT Music Awards nomination for USA Weekend Breakthrough Video of the Year for his Top 5 hit “Stealing Cinderella,” from his debut release Starting Now. After a hugely successful run as the opening act on the final leg of Belmont alumnus Brad Paisley’s Bonfires & Amplifiers Tour earlier this year, Paisley announced that Wicks will be back on the road touring with him this summer on the Hershey’s Presents: The Paisley Party.
Luke Bryan, a new recording artist on Capitol Records, hails from Leesburg, Georgia. Bryan starts 2008 with nominations for the CMT Music Awards’ USA Weekend Breakthrough Video of the Year and for the Academy of Country Music’s Best New Male Artist. Since January, Bryan has been opening for Trace Adkins’ “American Man” tour and Dierks Bentley’s “Throttle Wide Open” tour and will be part of some of Kenny Chesney’s “Poets & Pirates” stadium dates this summer.
Wicks, Bryan Offer Students Insiders’ View on Music Business
School of Sciences to Host Academy of Sciences Meeting
On Sat., April 12, the School of Sciences will host the Tennessee Academy of Sciences (TAS) Middle Collegiate Division Meeting from 8:30 a.m. until noon. This spring meeting of the TAS provides an opportunity to focus on undergraduate research, and 43 presentations will be given by students representing eight universities and colleges in the Middle Tennessee district. Additionally, many of the graduating seniors from Belmont’s School of Sciences will be presenting their senior research projects.
Hare Named Mid-Major Most Valuable Player
Earning perhaps his most significant national on-court honor to date, Belmont Basketball senior Justin Hare has been named Mid-Major Most Valuable Player by CollegeInsider.com, the site announced today.
Hare, who earlier this week was named to the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major All-America team, led the Bruins to a third consecutive Atlantic Sun Conference Championship and third consecutive appearance in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Seeded 15th in the West Region, Belmont challenged three-time national champion Duke to the final horn, before losing 71-70. The Bruins finished the 2007-08 season with a record of 25-9. All told, Hare won 82 games in his four-year career.
“This is a tremendous honor for Justin,” says Belmont head coach Rick Byrd. “He has represented our program well, both on the court and in the classroom, during his time at Belmont. With all he has achieved and all he has meant to our program, it will be difficult not having him in a Belmont uniform to open next season. There is little doubt he will graduate as the most significant player of our Division-I era.”
“Justin Hare was a program-changer at Belmont,” says CollegeInsider.com’s Joe Dwyer. “Belmont had been a very good program at the division I level, but Hare helped to make them a great program. As he had done in each of the past two seasons, Hare was the driving force behind a third straight trip to the NCAA tournament. He’s has been a leader to his team in so many ways. Justin Hare epitomizes all that is good about collegiate athletics.”
He is on schedule to graduate in May with honors before pursuing medical school and will depart as the most decorated student-athlete in Belmont history.
Hare was named Preseason Mid-Major All-American by CollegeInsider.com.
Homeless, Working Poor to Offer Photo Exhibit at Belmont
Thanks to an idea developed by Belmont University students, the new Mobile Loaves and Fishes Photography Exhibit will be unveiled on the Belmont campus next week. The exhibit will display photographs taken by many of the homeless and working poor people from the streets of Nashville. Public viewings are scheduled for Wed., April 9 from 6-9 p.m. and Fri., April 11 from 10-11 a.m. in the University Ministries Student Lounge in the Gabhart Student Center at Belmont.
Mobile Loaves and Fishes (MLF) is a growing social outreach ministry to the homeless and indigent working poor that seeks to provide food, clothing and dignity to those in need. MLF started its Nashville relief efforts in Summer 2007, and before long, Belmont’s Sociology Department had signed on with a commitment to lead the way in providing volunteers. Numerous Belmont University students, faculty and staff have since joined in efforts to assist the organization. The goals of this exhibit include raising awareness about local issues of hunger and homelessness, introducing students to the work of Mobile Loaves and Fishes and showing the artistry that can be found in unexpected places.
Cash Forshee, a Belmont student who has volunteered with MLF and who first had the idea for a photo exhibit, said, “This project has been a year-long effort that began in the sanctuary of Trinity Presbyterian Church. My best friend, Micah, has been my partner in creating the project. Together, we wanted to create a project that would bring reality to the Belmont community, acknowledging the enormous differences and surprising similarities, as privileged students, that we share with the homeless. We had to de-generalize the homeless and remove the stereotypes that surround the homeless and their personal stories.”
Psychology Alumna Published in Journal
Psychology alumna Kate Ranganath (’03) is a doctoral student in social psychology at the University of Virginia working in the lab of Dr. Brian Nosek. She recently published, as first author, an article in the journal Psychological Science, the flagship journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The article, titled “Implicit Attitude Generalization Occurs Immediately: Explicit Attitude Generalization Takes Time,” appears in the March 2008 issue. This line of research is a continuation of undergraduate research she started while a psychology major at Belmont, where her research mentor was Dr. Lonnie Yandell.
Hare Named to CollegeInsider.com All-America Team
Belmont Basketball senior Justin Hare was named Monday to the 2008 Mid-Major All-America Team by CollegeInsider.com. Just last week, Hare received a similar honor from CollegeHoops.net.
This season, Hare was named Preseason Mid-Major All-American by CollegeInsider.com. Twenty-one players were selected for the honor, with 10 more receiving Honorable Mention distinction. Division-I coaches and NBA scouts are part of the selection process, but final decision rested with the CollegeInsider.com staff. Among those joining Hare on the exclusive list are Stephen Curry and Jason Richards of Davidson, Mike Green of Butler and Courtney Lee of Western Kentucky.
Last week, Hare was also chosen as Atlantic Sun Conference Most Valuable Player by the college basketball website for a second consecutive year. For more information, log onto www.collegeinsider.com.
Webster Judges Regional Science Fair
School of Pharmacy Professor and Chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences Dr. Andrew Webster recently served as a judge for the Middle Tennessee Science and Engineering Fair which was held at Austin Peay State University.
Inc.com Praises Entrepreneurship Program
Belmont’s Entrepreneurship program received a nice mention March 27 on Inc.com, the daily resource for entrepreneurs. Click here to read the story.
Art Historian to Discuss Post 9/11 Memorial Mania
Dr. Erika Doss, chair of the Department of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame, will present two lectures on modern memorials and the effect on national identity in April. Both lectures are free and open to the public.
On Thurs., April 3 at 5 p.m. in the Vince Gill Room in the Curb Event Center, Doss will present “Memorial Mania: Fear, Anxiety and Contemporary American Monuments.” This lecture will focus on the frenzy surrounding memorialization in contemporary America. “Memorials are the physical and visual embodiment of public feelings and emotions,” said Doss. “The spectacular profusion of memorials reveals a contemporary investment in experiencing history, especially histories of trauma and tragedy.” Concentrating on recent 9/11 memorials, this talk considers how memorial mania has altered the style and substance of American public life and the assumptions of contemporary national identity.
“The Gates: Memory and Civic Identity in Post 9/11 New York” will be presented on Fri., April 4 in room 117 of the Leu Center for the Visual Arts. In February 2005, artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude unveiled The Gates in New York’s Central Park. A temporary art project featuring some 7,500 bright orange fabric sculptures spread out along 23 miles of pedestrian pathways in the park, The Gates was an incredibly popular project, visited by some four million tourists during its brief two-week installation. Although dismissed by some critics as light-weight sensationalism, this talk considers the dimensions and dynamics of popular public art in contemporary America, especially after 9/11.
Doss’s primary teaching and research interests lie in the areas of modern and contemporary American art history and material/visual cultures. She is the author of numerous publications including Benton, Pollock, and the Politics of Modernism: From Regionalism to Abstract Expressionism (1991), Spirit Poles and Flying Pigs: Public Art and Cultural Democracy in American Communities (1995), Elvis Culture: Fans, Faith, and Image (1999), Looking at Life Magazine (editor, 2001), and Twentieth-Century American Art (2002). She is currently writing the books Memorial Mania: Self, Nation, and the Culture of Commemoration in Contemporary America and Picturing Faith: Twentieth-Century American Artists and Issues of Religion.
PT/OT Students, Faculty Serve Rehab Hospitals in Guatemala
An 11-member team of Belmont University students and faculty are serving rehabilitation hospitals in Guatemala over Spring Break. The group is working to provide physical and occupational therapy to the needs of the local hospital as well as train the hospital staff in up-to-date knowledge and treatment techniques. The students will also have the opportunity to visit a local school and inspire students to pursue health professional goals. To read a blog of the students’ activities this week, click here.
