Top News

TWO FACULTY MEMBERS NAMED TO ENDOWED CHAIRS

Two Southwestern faculty members have been named to endowed chairs.

Traci Giuliano, professor of psychology, has been named holder of the John H. Duncan Chair. The John H. Duncan Chair is one of six endowed positions funded at Southwestern by The Brown Foundation Inc. of Houston. It was previously held by Psychology Professor Jesse Purdy. Giuliano will hold the position for five years.

Holders of the Brown Chairs receive additional funds and time to conduct their scholarly research. They also are responsible for hosting Southwestern’s annual Brown Symposium on a topic of general interest to the university and the community.

Read more about Giuliano and her research here.

Helene Meyers, professor of English, has been named holder of the Carolyn and Fred McManis University Chair. The McManis Chair was established in 1972 by the trustees of the McManis Trust.

As holder of the chair, Meyers will receive extra funding to support her current and future research.

Read more about Meyers and her research here.

SOUTHWESTERN WELCOMES FIVE NEW FACULTY MEMBERS

An art history professor, a communication studies professor, two religion professors and a sociology professor are among the new faculty members who will be on campus this fall. Several aren’t new to Southwestern, though.

Patrick Hajovsky is returning to Southwestern this fall as a tenure-track assistant professor of art history. He was a visiting assistant professor at Southwestern in 2007-08.

Hajovsky holds a new position in Latin American Art History that Southwestern was able to fund initially with a $200,000 grant from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.

“Having four full-time faculty members in art history will make it possible for the department to rely almost exclusively on full-time faculty rather than part-time faculty, so we will do a much better job of following students through their four years, and into graduate schools,” said Thomas Howe, chair of Art History in the Department of Art and Art History.

Read the rest of the story here.

Events

PIANISTS TO PRESENT GUEST RECITAL SEPT. 9

Pianists Carolyn True and Brad Beckman will present a guest artist recital titled “An Evening of Violence and Dancing!” on Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 7 p.m. in the Alma Thomas Theater.

The recital will feature works by Astor Piazzolla, Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber.
It is free and open to the public.

FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL BEGINS SEPT. 9

The French Program at Southwestern has received an $1,800 grant that will enable it to host its third annual communitywide Tournees Film Festival. The festival will feature five recent films from France. Films will be shown Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m. beginning Sept. 9 in room 105 of the F.W. Olin Building. They are free and open to the public.

For the complete schedule of films, go here.

FACULTY RECITAL SEPT. 10

Faculty members Oliver Worthington (baritone) and David Utterback (piano) will present a faculty recital on Thursday, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m. in the Alma Thomas Theater.

The program will include works by Handel, Mendelssohn, Faure and Strauss. It is free and open to the public.

ART EXHIBITION OPENS SEPT. 10

An exhibition of paintings, prints and plates by Holly Hughes will open in the Fine Arts Gallery Sept. 10 and run through Oct. 8. Gallery hours are 1 to 5 daily, including weekends. The exhibition is titled “Off the Plate/Under the Sheets.”

Hughes is a professor of art at the Rhode Island School of Design and maintains a studio in Manhattan. A public reception for the artist will be held in the gallery on Thursday, Sept. 10, from 4 to 6 p.m.

For more on the exhibition, go here.

Media Coverage

The Williamson County Sun ran an op-ed piece on healthcare by Professor Emeritus Dan Hilliard.

The Williamson County Sun ran a story about Southwestern employees who received the Joe S. Mundy Exemplary Service Award.

Notables

Lynn Guziec, assistant professor of chemistry, Frank Guziec, professor of chemistry, and Southwestern chemistry honors graduate Kyle Marshall were co-authors on a recent paper titled “The structure-based design, synthesis and biological evaluation of DNA-binding amide linked bisintercalating bisanthrapyrazole anticancer compounds.” The paper was published in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, 2009, 17, 4575-4582.

Ed Kain, professor of sociology and University Scholar, has been named the 2010 recipient of the Southern Sociological Society’s Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award. The award will be presented at the organization’s spring meeting in Atlanta. To read about Kain’s contributions to the teaching of sociology, go here.

Shannon Mariotti, assistant professor of political science, will present a paper titled “Emerson’s Transcendental America and the ‘Disagreeable Particulars’ of Slavery: Vision, Politics, and the Costs of Idealism” at the American Political Science Association conference to be held this month in Toronto, Canada. A revised version of this essay will also be published in A Political Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson (forthcoming from the University Press of Kentucky in 2011).