NEWS & CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS

Poet John Hoppenthaler will read from his work and announce his choices for winners of the 2011 Curtis and Billie Owens Literary Awards on Tuesday, March 22, at 7 p.m. in the Chalmers Conference Center in Niswonger Commons on the Tusculum College campus.

The reading is part of The Humanities Series, sponsored by the Tusculum College English Department. The event is free and open to the public.  Arts & Lecture credit is available for Tusculum College students. 

Hoppenthaler has received numerous awards and honors, including an Individual Artist Grant from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, grants from the New York Foundation on the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts and residency fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

His books of poetry are “Lives of Water” (2003) and “Anticipate the Coming Reservoir” (2008), both from Carnegie Mellon University Press. With Kazim Ali, he has co-edited a volume of essays on the poetry of Jean Valentine (forthcoming, University of Michigan Press). His poetry appears in “Ploughshares” “Virginia Quarterly Review,” “McSweeney’s Internet Tendency,” “West Branch,” “Christian Science Monitor” and “Southern Review,” as well as in many other journals and anthologies. He also edits “A Poetry Congeries” for the cultural journal “Connotation Press: An Online Artifact” and curates the “Guest Poetry Editor Feature.”

An assistant professor of creative writing at East Carolina University, Hoppenthaler received his master of fine arts degree in poetry writing from Virginia Commonwealth University.

The Curtis and Billie Owens Literary Awards are annually given to recognize the literary achievements of Tusculum College’s creative writing students. The literary award was named for Curtis Owens, a 1928 graduate of Tusculum College who went on to a teaching career at what is now Pace University in New York. He and his wife established the award at his alma mater to encourage and reward excellence in writing among Tusculum College students.

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The “Pickin’ at the Doaks,” the monthly traditional music jam session, will continue at the Doak House Museum on Friday, March 25. Traditional musicians and music lovers are invited to the jam session from 6-8:30 p.m. at the museum on the Tusculum College campus. Admission to the event is free. The music program takes place the last Friday of each month. Follow the museums on Facebook and Twitter to learn the latest news and upcoming events or visit its website at www.tusculum.edu/museums to learn more about the variety of programs offered at the museums.

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Representatives the Confucius Institute at the University of Memphis visited the Tusculum College campus to discuss potential partnering opportunities for students and faculty at the college. The group was in town to meet with officials at the Greeneville City School System, with which they already have developed partnership programs, said Dr. Kim Estep, academic vice president at Tusculum College.

The Confucius Institute at the University of Memphis promotes understanding of the Chinese language and culture among the people of the United States, develops friendly relations between the two countries, accelerates the expansion of multiculturalism and provides opportunities for students studying the Chinese language. “We asked to have an exploratory meeting to discuss future partnerships with Tusculum College, particularly in the areas of language and culture classes and travel opportunities,” said Estep.

The group met on the Greeneville main campus and gave the Tusculum representatives a presentation on what they do and what kinds of partnership they have already developed with other institutions, including the Greeneville City School System. Also joining the group was Tusculum College alumnus Noah Wagner. Wagner, a 1951 graduate, has long been interested in strengthening the foreign language program at Tusculum College, as his business and language background at the school has been key to his successes throughout the years.

“I think after our discussions we really feel there are two main areas where a partnership might develop with the Confucius Institution,” said Estep. Those areas include the possibility of offering Chinese language and culture courses to students not only on the residential campus, but potentially through the Graduate and Professional Studies program as well.

“The discussions went really well, and we are continuing to explore paths to implementation,” said Estep. “We are opening up dialogue now with faculty to see about incorporating some of the ideas discussed into existing courses in our curricula.” She added the further discussions will be held in the upcoming weeks and a teleconference with representatives of the college’s Center for Global Studies Advisory Council and representatives of the Business Administration Department is being planned.

“We look forward to partnering with the faculty, students and staff at Tusculum College to provide Chinese language and cultural classes and programs independently and through interdisciplinary means as well,” said Dr. Hsiang-te Kung, director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Memphis.

“We are committed to providing a global, world-class education to students as young as two up to ninety-two,” said Riki Jackson, assistant director of the Confucius Institute. “Our commitment is to reach as many students as possible at the preschool, K-12, collegiate and post-collegiate level as well as in the business community from the far southwest corner of the state all the way to the far northeast corner of Tennessee. We are very pleased to have the opportunity to explore a partnership with the wonderful students and faculty at Tusculum College.”

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Tusculum College Library Director Myron “Jack” Smith, Jr. has published an article in the March 2011 issue of “North & South,” the magazine of the Civil War Society. “Interdicting the Mississippi” tells the story of how Union vessels, passing through a series of river bends near Greenville, Miss., in May-June 1864, were interdicted by Confederate horse-drawn artillery in a series of rapid attacks.  

In this time, the gray-clad cavalrymen fought 21 Northern vessels, of which five gunboats were sunk or badly damaged, five transports were damaged, one was sunk, two were boarded and seized and two others were captured and burned. It took an entire division of Yankee troops to drive off the enterprising Colonel Colton Greene of South Carolina, whose tactics were later adopted by the likes of John Marmaduke, Jo Shelby, and in Tennessee, Nathan Bedford Forrest. 

After the war, Greene became an insurance executive and banker in Memphis. Active in civic affairs, the one-time terror of the Mississippi was a founder of the Memphis Public Library.

Copies of the magazine are available in supermarkets and newsstands nationwide.

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Students, faculty and staff on the Tusculum College Greeneville campus participated in a webinar that featured top Harvard professor and expert on the subject of happiness.

The event, sponsored by the Tusculum College Psychology Club, allowed students, staff and faculty access to Harvard College Psychology Professor Dan Gilbert presenting “What Your Mother Doesn’t Know About Happiness.” 

Dr. Gilbert is known for having one of the most popular courses at Harvard College on the subject of happiness and is a leading scholar and voice on that part of the field called “positive psychology,” which focuses on healthy functioning, resilience and “what works.”

Gilbert’s book, “Stumbling on Happiness,” on which the presentation was based, draws on psychology and neuroscience and explores the various ways people attempt to make themselves happy.”

Gilbert has won numerous awards for his teaching and research, including the Harvard College Professorship, the Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Forbes and TIME.

The group was treated to a 40-minute lecture from Dr. Gilbert on what research indicates does and does not make people happy, as well as discussion on the  common disconnect between what people think will make the happy and what actually does make them happy.

 ”What a great opportunity for our students to be able to learn from and talk to one of the most eminent psychologists of our day - live, from his living room, lo less,” said Dr. Bill Garris, assistant professor of psychology and sponsor of the Psychology Club.

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Tusculum College student Nathan Carver was recently awarded a silver ADDY, one of the most prestigious awards in advertising and design.

Carver, a junior graphic design major from Clarksville, Tenn., was honored at a banquet on Saturday, February 26, at the Crown Plaza Hotel, where he received his award and certificate.

This was the 46th annual event for the organization that honors print, broadcast and interactive media with 287 awards given to 32 companies for creativity, originality and strategy.

The Knoxville ADDY Awards is the first tier of a three-tiered national ADDY competition, which is the advertising industry’s largest recognition of creative excellence. The Student ADDY section includes 18 design categories that incorporate graphic design, digital video, photography and advertisement.

Carver’s victory came in the Collateral Material/Poster category for a poster he designed for Stay True Tattoo Company in Johnson City.

The poster started out as a competitive project in one of Carver’s graphic design classes at Tusculum College, taught by Keith Herrin, assistant professor of art. Carver submitted several poster designs and had his design selected not only to be used by the company, but also to be displayed as part of a gallery show held in conjunction with First Fridays activities in Downtown Johnson City.

The poster which eventually went on to win the Silver ADDY was one of two contest submissions of Carvers that was selected for the display.

At Tusculum Carver has not only excelled in the his academic performance and in a number of class projects through Tusculum graphic and fine arts programs, but has also worked with many of the departments on campus, gaining real world design experience.

Carver has worked with athletics, Enrollment Management and others where he has designed programs, advertisements, marketing pieces and other work used by the college. In addition, he has served as an athletics photographer for the past two years.

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Congratulations to head coach Adell Harris and the Tusculum College women’s basketball team as the Pioneers captured their second straight South Atlantic Conference Tournament Championship on Sunday with a 77-66 win over Wingate University.

With the victory, Tusculum earns the league’s automatic bid to the 2011 NCAA Division II Tournament, which begins next weekend at a site yet to be determined. This is Tusculum’s fourth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament.

The NCAA II Women’s Basketball Selection Show will air on-line Sunday night at 9:30 p.m. (EST) at the following link: <http://www.ncaa.com/live/2011-03-05/dii-womens-basketball-selection-show>

For more information, please visit the Tusculum College Athletic Web Site at www.TusculumPioneers.com <http://www.tusculumpioneers.com/>

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The performance schedule for the “Midnight Mind of Edgar Allan Poe” has been changed to Wednesday, March 30, through Friday, April 1.

“The Midnight Mind of Edgar Allan Poe” will bring some of the classics and lesser known works by the American literary giant to the stage in the Behan Arena Theatre in the lower level of the Annie Hogan Byrd Fine Arts Building (side entrance). All three performances will be at 7 p.m.

The program will feature dramatic readings of Poe’s works enhanced by music, movement and innovative theatrical techniques. A historical narrative will provide interesting details of Poe’s life and times.

Poe’s works have been in print since 1827, and the versatile writer’s output includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and as an innovator in the science fiction genre. While his reputation today is based primarily on tales of terror and his haunting lyric poetry found in such classics as “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Raven” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe made his living as a literary critic and theoretician.

The public’s imagination has also been captivated by the character of Poe himself. The legend of Poe, created primarily as a result of a biography written by one of his enemies to defame the author’s name, characterizes the writer as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows. The true Poe was a complex man who endured many tragedies in his life while seeking success in the literary world and left one of his biggest mysteries in the nature of his death, which has prompted a score of theories over the years.

The Museums of Tusculum program to explore the works and life of one of America’s greatest writers has been funded through a grant from the Arts Builds Communities fund of the Tennessee Arts Commission administered through the Johnson City Area Arts Council.

Admission is $5 for the general public and $4 for senior citizens. Tickets will be sold at the door only. Area middle and high school students will be admitted free of charge as will Tusculum College students, faculty and staff.

For more information about the program, please call 423-636-8554 or e-mail lwalker@tusculum.edu. To learn more about the Museums of Tusculum College, follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

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An article by Dr. Angela Keaton, assistant professor of history at Tusculum College, has been selected for the 2011 Carl Bode Award for the Outstanding Article published in the Journal of American Culture in 2010. 

The award will be presented at the Popular Culture/American Culture Association Conference in San Antonio on Friday, April 22.

Dr. Keaton’s article, “Backyard Desperados: American Attitudes Concerning Toy Guns in the Early Cold War Era,” was printed in the fall 2010 volume of the journal. The Journal of American Culture combines studies of American literature, history and the arts with studies of the popular, the taken-for-granted and the ordinary pieces of American life to produce analyses of American culture with breadth and holism.

            “We are very proud of Dr. Keaton. She has not only dedicated herself to teaching and campus service, but also has remained committed to her vocation as an academic as she does important work to expand our understanding about the complexities of Cold War culture,” said Dr. Joel Van Amberg, assistant professor of history and chair of the Tusculum College History Department.

The article describes how child’s play with toy guns was not only accepted but also encouraged by parents, psychologists and other experts and society at large in the early period of the Cold War in the 1950s, Keaton said.

            Also explored is the popularity of children playing “cowboys and cowboys” with the toy guns. Investigated in the article are the prevalent attitude of psychologists and other experts who described toy gun play as a good way for children to vent aggression and to reinforce strong masculine traits and the reassurance that the toy gun play gave parents as they saw their children mimicking a symbol of patriotic, American heritage in a time of great uncertainty as the nation faced the rise of Communism.

            The marketing and business side of toy gun play are also described as television and movies popularized cowboys and westerns and gave rise to a demand for toy guns and holsters. The article also notes the decline of popularity of toy gun play in the 1960s as parents began to be distrustful of experts and “G.I. Joe” was introduced, a toy that concentrated not on America’s past but on what was the country’s contemporary battle against Communism.

            Keaton presented the paper a few years ago at the American Cultural Association Conference, where it received an award for best paper.

            The article is from Dr. Keaton’s doctoral dissertation, which she is working to turn into a book for publication.

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The Tusculum College Psychology Club will sponsor a webinar today, March 3, from 5-6 p.m. , featuring Harvard College Professor Dan Gilbert as he speaks about “What Your Mother Doesn’t Know About Happiness.” 

Dr. Gilbert teaches a very popular course at Harvard on happiness and is a leading scholar and voice on that part of the field called “positive psychology,” which focuses on healthy functioning, resilience, and “what works.”

Not a psychology major?  Neither was Dan Gilbert… initially.   A unique twist to his story, he was a high school drop-out who wanted to be a science fiction writer. Gilbert earned his GED, and attempted to enroll in a community college course to strengthen his writing.  However, that course was full, and the only class that had spaces at the time was psychology.

The webinar will take place in the Brotherton Board Room (main floor of library) and everyone with an interest is encouraged to attend.

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