News and Events
Author Cassandra King to be commencement speaker
UM Theatre to present the musical ‘Assassins’
David Gergen travel award recipients announced
Author Cassandra King to be commencement speaker
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The University of Montevallo will hold spring commencement Saturday, May 4, at 9 a.m. on the Flowerhill lawn. A reception to honor graduates will be held at 8 a.m. on King Quad. Bestselling author Cassandra King will be the featured speaker. King, who earned both the B.A. and the M.A. in English from UM, will receive a Doctor of Letters honoris causa from her alma mater. |
King has published four novels including The Same Sweet Girls, which was inspired by a real-life group of women of the same name who attended Alabama College (now the University of Montevallo) together during the ’60s. The Same Sweet Girls was a Booksense nationwide number-one selection; was a Book-of-the-Month Club and Literary Guild selection; appeared on The New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists; and was a New York Post must-read selection.
Other titles by King include Making Waves in Zion, The Sunday Wife and Queen of Broken Hearts. Her latest novel, Moonrise, is scheduled for release in July. Her books have won national awards including three Literary Guild and Book-of-the-Month Club selections. King has also authored several short stories and essays as well as other writings.
UM Theatre to present the musical ‘Assassins’
UM Theatre will present its final production of the spring season with the musical Assassins. The production, which is directed by David Callaghan with musical direction by Laurie Middaugh, runs Friday, April 26-Sunday, April 28. Evening performances will take place Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with a Sunday matinee performance at 2 p.m. All performances will take place in the Chichester Black Box Theatre.
“Everybody’s got the right/to their dreams.” So begins Stephen Sondheim’s 1991 show Assassins (book by John Weidman) — and in this case, said dreams involve killing an American president. The characters form a veritable rogues’ gallery, including John Hinckley, Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth of course, but also half-forgotten luminaries such as Leon Czolgosz (who killed McKinley) and “Squeaky” Fromme (who aimed for Gerald Ford with an unloaded gun). While Sondheim’s lyrics are trenchant as ever, his music, which ranges from Sousa pomp to clever little waltzes, is technically brilliant.
The cast features:
Proprietor — Brandon Caruthers
Leon Czolgosz — Korey Wilson
John Hinckley — James Powers
Charles Guiteau — Joseph Wesolowski
Giuseppe Zangara — Jalen Brown
Samuel Bick — Matthew Smith
Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme — Sydney Fant
Sara Jane Moore — Katie Raulerson
John Wilkes Booth — Brendan Young
Balladeer — Taylor Lamm
Lee Harvey Oswald — Hunter Brown.
The ensemble includes Bailey Gaskin, Barrington McQueen, Caylan Sallas, Hannah Mansfield, Jenna McCown, Michael Hawkins, Michael Tallon and Shelley McMoy.
The artistic staff includes Callaghan and Middaugh, as well as assistant director/choreographer Sierra Michalkow; costume/prop/makeup designer Emily Gill; design assistant Leilani Hayes; set/lighting designer Kel Laeger; sound designer Michael Hawkins; and poster designer Emily Gill.
General admission tickets are $5 each, and seating is limited. For more information or reservations, call Ext. 6200.
Note: This production contains adult language and subject matter.
Faculty Development and Collaboration has recently announced the recipients of teaching and learning grants for 2013-2014. They are:
- Stephanie Batkie (English), An Online Supplement for Teaching with Middle English;
- Alex Beringer (English), The Language of Comics: A Collaborative Museum Exhibit;
- Linda Murdock (Communication Science and Disorders), Podcasts for the Millennial Learner; and
- Jennifer Alexiou-Ray, Jiji Lawley, Cassie Raultston, Glee Whitsett, Elizabeth Thrower (Education), Flipping Classrooms to Increase Student Engagement.
These grants are intended to strengthen teaching and learning by promoting collaboration, reflection and pedagogical experimentation. Preference is given to projects likely to have benefits beyond a single classroom or program. All proposals are reviewed by the Faculty Development Advisory Committee and endorsed by Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Suzanne Ozment.
David Gergen travel award recipients announced
Recipients of the David Gergen Professional Travel Awards for summer 2013 have recently been announced.
- Jennifer Alexiou-Ray and Catherine (Cassie) Raulston (Education) will travel to San Antonio, Texas, to attend the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference and facilitate a session in the Online Learning Institute.
- Lori Ardovino, Joe Ardovino and Alan Goldspiel (Music) will attend the 2013 International ClarinetFest in Assissi, Italy, where they have been selected to perform new music for clarinet, trumpet and guitar.
- David Callaghan (Theatre) will be participating in a panel for the Directing Group at the National Association for Theater in Higher Education (ATHE) conference in Orlando, Fla.
- Glenda Conway (English) will spend a week as a writer-in-residence at The Bowers House: A Writers Retreat and Literary Center located in northeast Georgia, where she will revise work in progress.
- Roderick George (Music) will attend the Vocal Pedagogy Professional Workshop at the Boston Conservatory.
- Carey Heatherly (Carmichael Library) will attend the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia to take a course in “Developing Collections: Donors, Libraries and Booksellers” in Charlottesville, Va.
- Edward (Ted) Hoffman (Music) will participate in the Alabama Bandmasters Association (ABA)/Alabama Music Educators Association (AMEA) Summer In-Service Conference in Orange Beach.
- Jody Landers will visit the Paul Sacher Institute, Basel, Switzerland, to examine archival material in the Institute’s collection of original manuscripts of Igor Stravinsky.
- Kathleen Lowe (Carmichael Library) will participate in the week-long Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
- Jennifer Rickel (English) will present a paper at the 16th Triennial Conference of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies at the University of the West Indies in St. Lucia.
- Dr. Lauren Wallis (Carmichael Library) will conduct research in Special Collections at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., for an invited chapter in The History of Virginia Literature to be published by Cambridge University Press.
All proposals were reviewed by the Faculty Development Advisory Committee and their recommendations endorsed by the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Suzanne Ozment.
These grants are owing to the generosity of political analyst and Harvard Professor of Public Service David Gergen, who served as UM’s fall commencement speaker and requested that the funds that would have been spent on his speaker’s fee be applied in part to faculty development.
Recipients of the first Service Learning and Community Engagement Committee Service Award were recently announced. This award recognizes faculty and students from each college, staff and administration for outstanding service to the Montevallo community.
Award recipients are:
College of Business
Faculty: Tom Sanders
Student: D’aundra Brown
College of Fine Arts
Faculty: Collin Williams
Students: Sydney Shell and Ashley Humphrey
College of Education
Faculty: Carolyn Miller-Kirby
Students: Laura Davis and Catherine Dewitt
College of Arts and Sciences
Faculty: Laurel Hitchcock
Student: Aaron Traywick
University Staff Award
John Nicholson and Cyndi Nash
University Administration Award
John Stewart