A Festive Fall and a Warm Winter
Our Fall semester was as busy as ever and was capped off by two signature events: Homecoming Week, and the UAB Marching Blazers trip to the Bahamas Bowl to play alongside the UAB Blazers Football team.
In the midst of the hectic fall schedule, it's always a joy to be able to come together as a College community to have fun and celebrate another successful semester. And to end the return of the football season with a bowl game—where so many of our students participated as athletes, musicians, auxiliary, and spirit teams—sent us into the holiday season with hearts bursting with pride.
The 2017 Homecoming theme was Blazers United, and the College had great fun decorating the float and Heritage Hall Building, featuring Senior Associate Dean Dr. Catherine Daniélou as Lady Liberty, and mathematics major Mary Allison Caufield as Uncle Sam. In Nassau, Blaze and the Marching Blazers entertained bowl game attendees.
In early 2018, we recognized our 17 faculty members who published 18 books in 2017 at the annual One for the Books celebration, where we also honored our three first-ever winners of the Dean's Awards for Excellence in Teaching. It was another outstanding achievement by arts and sciences faculty.
Faculty authors honored at the One for the Books faculty book party included Dr. Alison Chapman, chair of the Department of English, Dr. Da Yan, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, Dr. Rebecca Bach, professor in the Department of English, and Dr. Kevin McCain, assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy. Dr. Sami Raut, assistant professor in the Department of Biology, was one of the first winners of the Dean's Awards for Excellence in Teaching.
Go Blazers!
Ireland Award and AEIVA
Professor Heith Copes from the Department of Criminal Justice was named the winner of the 2017 Ireland Award for Scholarly Distinction. We celebrated his recognition at a dinner at The Club, where President and Mrs. Watts, along with Dean Palazzo and Mrs. Caroline Ireland, who established the award endowment with her late husband Charles, joined Dr. Copes' colleagues and special guests. The Fall semester also meant the opening of Misremembered, the installation by artist Titus Kaphar, along with Jordan Eagles' Blood Equality exhibit, which also included pieces at the Birmingham Museum of Art and Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.
Dr. Copes' work focuses on individuals who engage in both crime and drug use. Specifically, his research centers on criminal decision-making and narrative sense-making. As the Ireland selection committee noted, he is a leader in the field of narrative criminology.
Kaphar appropriates different styles and techniques from past periods of art history to create reconstructive historical narratives that address issues of race throughout history. A large part of his AEIVA exhibit featured The Vesper Project, a life-sized, two-room house constructed inside the main gallery.
