CAL Currents : The Newsletter of the College of Arts and Letters
Volume 02 | Issue 01 | October 2018
A Message from the Dean
This Fall you can’t help but to feel the excitement from all corners of the College of Arts and Letters. From the Damron Concert Artists series to welcoming “Coraline” animator and UT alum Brad Schiff back to campus for a special screening, there is always something innovative happening in CAL. Once again, we welcomed a new class of students (the largest ever in the College of Arts and Letters!) and faculty to the college, and we’ve made important progress in raising the profile of the college both on campus and with our partners in the Tampa Bay arts community. I’m especially proud of a new performing arts series at the Tampa Museum of Art once a month that brings the talents of UT students and faculty to a diverse downtown audience. Last month when the UT Dance Program, under the direction of Prof. Susannah LeMarquand finished a stunning performance to a packed lobby, two different community members commented to me that they had no idea UT has such a strong dance program. We sure do, and it is not a secret! Thank you for what you do in helping tell the story of the College of Arts and Letters and our extremely talented students and faculty.
David Gudelunas, Ph.D.
Dean and Professor
Welcome New CAL Faculty! 
We would like to greet the newest members of the faculty in the College of Arts and Letters. If you have not already done so, be sure to seek out your new colleagues and welcome them to the University of Tampa.
Kristopher Jon Atkinson, MFA

Visiting Assistant Professor of Film Animation & New Media

• MFA, Vermont College of Fine Art (Filmmaking and Screenwriting)
• BFA, Rogers State University (Graphic Design)
Jordan Carroll, P.h.D.

Assistant Professor of English and Writing

• P.h.D., University of California, Davis (English Literature)
• M.A., Miami University of Ohio (English & American Literature)
• B.A., University of Louisville (English)
Meredith Clements, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Speech

• Ph.D., University of South Florida (Health Communication)
• M.A., University of North Carolina (Organizational Communication)
• M.A., Georgetown University (Communication, Culture & Technology)
• B.A., University of Alabama (Communication Studies)
Carter Hardy, P.h.D.

Assistant Professor of Philosophy

• P.h.D., University of South Florida (Philosophy)
• M.A., University of South Florida (Philosophy)
• B.A., University of Central Florida (Philosophy)
Minjie Li, P.h.D.

Assistant Professor of AD/PR Communication

• P.h.D., Louisiana State University (Media & Public Affairs)
• MMC, Louisiana State University (Mass Communication)
• B.A., China Institute of Industrial Relations (Journalism)
Alyssia Miller, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Spanish

• P.h.D., University of Alabama (Romance Languages)
• M.A., University of Alabama (Spanish Linguistics)
• B.A., Pennsylvania State University (Spanish)
• B.A., Pennsylvania State University (Italian)
Amanda Sieradzki, M.F.A.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance

• MFA, Florida State University (Dance)
• B.A., The University of Tampa (Writing)
Christina Singer, M.F.A.

Assistant Professor of Art, Graphic Design

• MFA, University of Florida (Studio Art, Graphic Design)
• BFA, East Tennessee State University (Studio Art, Graphic Design)
Adam Wertel, M.F.A.

Assistant Professor of Art, Graphic Design

• MFA, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Design & Visual Communication, Augmented Reality and Participatory Arts)
• BFA, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Graphic Design)
Southern Circuit of Independent Filmmakers Series Comes to UT
Faculty members Sarah J. Lauro, Assistant Professor of English and Aaron Walker, Associate Professor of Film, Animation and New Media were instrumental in arranging for UT to serve as a screening partner for the Southern Circuit of Independent Filmmakers Series for 2018-2019. As part of this program, a total of six films will be presented connecting audiences and filmmakers in a communal experience. This format allows for a question and answer session with the filmmakers that provides the viewer an opportunity to discuss theme, meaning and content, as well as the efforts and process of the filmmaker, or their work and experiences in the industry. The films to be presented are: The Unafraid; Las Sandinistas!; Farmsteaders; Don’t Get Trouble In Your Mind: The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Story; Bathtubs Over Broadway ; and This Is Home . The Southern Circuit Series is being sponsored by the UT Board of Fellows. Please contact Sarah Juliet Lauro ( slauro@ut.edu) or Aaron Walker ( awalker@ut.edu) for more information.
Professor Lopez Receives National Endowment for the Humanities Grant 
Congratulations to James Lopez, Professor of Spanish, Language and Linguistics and Prof. Denis Rey (Political Science) on receiving a $190,000 National Endowment for Humanities grant. The grant The University of Tampa will host a summer institute, “José Martí and the Immigrant Communities of Florida in Cuban Independence and the Dawn of the American Century.” The goal of the institute will be to advance research and “awareness of how American immigrant communities have helped usher in political transformations both at home and abroad, and to accentuate the rich and complex cultural world established by the Cuban, Sicilian and Spanish immigrants around the cigar industry in turn-of-the-century Florida." The institute will convene for four weeks (June 17 to July 13, 2019). Approximately twenty-five university and college professors from throughout the U.S. will be invited to participate in this prestigious event.
CAL Arts + Ideas
‌
The College of Arts and Letters provides a wealth of events and activities to UT and the Tampa Bay community. The Arts + Ideas Guide is a full-color calendar which captures the vastness and variety of the arts and humanities that our college offers for all to enjoy. Fall 2018 marks the second edition of the guide. 
CAL In Partnership with the Tampa Museum of Art
This fall marks the beginning of a partnership that will highlight our students in performance on the first Wednesday of the month during our 2018-2019 academic year at the Tampa Museum of Art. According to CAL Dean David Gudelunas, these performances will be “… a nice chance for additional exposure of our talented student artists, and it is an important strategic relationship for the university and the college.” This new Performing Arts Series will occur at noon on the first Wednesday of every month at the Tampa Museum of Art and will provide UT the opportunity to reach a varied audience within the downtown business and arts community. Next up in November: A preview of the Fall musical "Pirates of Penzance."
CAL Professional Development
& Experiential Education
Faculty around CAL regularly make connections with professional artists and introduce students in the College to professional opportunities. It is what makes studying the Arts at UT so special.
Brad Schiff, UT graduate ('93), Oscar-nominee, and animator on the film "Coraline" met with students from the Film, Animation and New Media Program as part of Homecoming weekend in October.
The cast of Norwegian Cruise Lines' production of "Jersey Boys" stopped by the theatre to meet with students from the musical theatre program and offer tips on auditioning and life on the seas.
Mikhail Svetlov has performed at New York City's Metropolitan Opera and at London's Royal Albert Hall, but last month he was in the Sykes Chapel delivering a master class to UT music students. Svetlov was praised by the Washington Post as a "titanic, all-encompassing bass."
Poet Laureate of the United States Tracy K. Smith visited campus recently to meet with students in the MFA in Creative Writing Program. She read from her poetry to a packed room of students and community members, including members of the CAL Advisory Board, pictured here.
Videoarts Festival presented by FMX 
In mid-September, the Film, Animation and New Media Department (FMX) premiered 10 new videoart and visual music pieces by internationally recognized artists in the Vaughn Center’s Reeves Theater. The Videoarts Festival was presented in a total of eleven cities throughout ten countries in Europe, Latin America and the US: Brazil, Portugal, UK, France, Sweden, Mexico, Chile, Italy, Uruguay and Tampa. The Videoarts Festival is directed by Brazilian electroacoustic musician and percussionist Antenor Ferreira, with the curatorial and organizational help of Alejandro Casales (MX), Loreto Ledezma (CL), Roberto Musanti (IT), Massimiliano Viel (IT), Dave Payling (UK) and Santiago Echeverry, Associate Professor of Film, Media and New Animation (who premiered his latest piece SHAMANS). For more information on the venues, artists and pieces  – click here.
CAL Faculty Achievements and Publications
A hearty congratulations to our colleagues on their recent successes.
When Rap Spoke Straight to God , a new book by Erica Dawson, Director/MFA Program Director; Associate Professor of English and Writing was released by Tin House Press on September 18, 2018; and a party to honor the event was held at Oxford Exchange that same evening. The book length poem was recently profiled in The New York Times.
Grigorios Zamparas, Associate Professor of Music; Director, Piano Studies has been invited to perform the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no. 1 this coming November with the Tampa Bay Symphony. He also performed in Vienna, Austria this past May and at the Portoheli International Festival for the Arts in Greece, in August.
Marcus Arvan, Chair and Associate Professor of Philosophy contributed a chapter, “Human and Hosts in Westworld: What’s the Difference?” to Wiley-Blackwell’s Westworld and Philosophy book.
Sarah J. Lauro, Assistant Professor of English had her recently edited collection  Zombie Theory  nominated by the University of Minnesota Press for the SCMS (Society for Cinema and Media Studies) award of best edited collection of the year. Sarah also gave the keynote address at Pitt's graduate conference on September 29, 2018. Her presentation was titled "No More Room in Hell: A half century of Undead Media."  Check out the keynote address here.
Two faculty members in the Communication Department, Stephanie Tripp, Chair/Associate Professor of Communication and David Wheeler , Assistant Professor of Journalism appeared on Midpoint, a WMNF live talk show, on Sept. 13. Tripp and Wheeler joined host Rochelle Reback in a discussion of an anonymous op-ed piece recently published in The New York Times that was reportedly written by a senior White House official. Listen to it here.
Hein Jung, Associate Professor of Music taught at the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Acqui Terme, Italy during the summer. Also attending were UT voice performance students: Allie Stow and Faith Kopecky.

In November, Jung will perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City as part of their concert series.

Daniel C. Wollenberg, Assistant Professor of English had his book,  Medieval Imagery in Today’s Politics,  published by Arc Medieval Press in Spring 2018. He also published “The Breaking Point: Alain de Benoist’s Critique of Medieval Nominalism” in the edited collection  Studies in Medievalism XXVII: Authenticity, Medievalism, Music  (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2018. pp. 65-83).
Steven Geisz, Professor of Philosophy published an article on Chinese yoga (i.e., qigong) and its relevance to philosophy in May 2018 in a peer-reviewed academic newsletter of the American Philosophical Association: Geisz, Steven. “Traditional Chinese Body Practice and Philosophical Inquiry.”  American Philosophical Association Newsletter for Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies 17, no. 2 (Spring 2018): 5 - 9. 
Ryan Hebert, Associate Professor of Music; Director, of Choral Studies; and University Organist organized the first annual Voices United choral workshop at UT in September 2018. This year’s workshop was open to students throughout Hillsborough County and featured a nationally-known choral clinician.
Daniel Dooghan, Associate Professor of English had his essay “Lu Xun’s Indigenous Modernity: Philology and Resistance in Old Tales Retold” published in the collection  History, Imperialism, Critique: New Essays in World Literature, edited by Asher Ghaffar. Routledge, 2018, pp. 95-112.  
John Capouya, Professor of Journalism was featured in an episode of WEDU Arts Plus that aired on Sept. 13. The episode focused on Capouya’s award-winning book Florida Soul, which was published in 2017. Check out the video here.
Sarah Iker, Assistant Professor of Music was the featured woman in music theory for the Society for Music Theory in May 2018. Check it out here.
Gregg Bachman, Professor of Communication had his brief personal essay entitled “The Choice” accepted for inclusion into the book entitled  Daily Reflections to be published by Library Partners Press at Wake Forest University, edited by Mary Dalton.
Kyle Mcintosh, Assistant Professor of English, had his co-authored chapter “Language Testing and Assessment” published in the  Palgrave Handbook of Applied Linguistics Research Methodology. Ginther, A. & McIntosh, K. (2018). 
Student Achievement
Senior Writing Major Mina Buzzek had her multi-genre piece “Little Love Circles” published in  The Rumpus,  an online literary journal, in September. 
Senior English Major Adeline Davis will present “The Birth of New Identities” at the American Conference for Irish Studies West in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, November 11-13, 2018. She will also present her paper “Behind the Mask” at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association conference in Birmingham, Alabama on November 4. 2018. 
Film major Zane Austin Willard had his short film "Switzerland" screened at the historic Tampa Theater as part of the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
Tess Sheets (Journalism major/Communication minor ’17) has been hired as a full-time reporter with the Orlando Sentinel. Among her recent stories was a multimedia package on an Orlando firefighter who was a paramedic in New York City during the September 11 attacks and who has dedicated his life to community service since that time.
Kavin "Sam" Alderman (Music, '19) participated in the 52 nd International Organ Festival in Haarlem, Netherlands where he studied Bach and Improvisation.
Catherine Chapman (Music Performance, ’19) was a participant in the Eastman School of Music in Paris Program - Theory of Contemporary Music & IRCAM ManiFeste 2018 Conference (Paris, France June 3 to July 1 2018). 
Liane Houde (Musical Theatre, ’18) is serving as Musical Director for the PowerStories' Theater Company Production of "Raising 12 on a Nickel and a Prayer" Performances are November 29-December 16, 2018.
Chase Parker (Music, ’19) wrote an orchestral suite for a horror-themed video game, Machiavillain which was completed May 22, 2018. Listen to it here.
Coming CAL Attractions
A major new Art Show and the Fall Musical.
Don't miss "Stories vs. HiStories: The Art of Pedro Pablo Oliva" opening on Nov. 9 in the Scarfone/Hartley Gallery. Many works in this show have never before been displayed in the United States. Opening reception happens on Nov. 9 from 7-9 PM and the show runs through Dec. 4.

The Fall musical is always a major UT attraction and "Pirates of Penzance" promises to deliver. The show runs from Nov. 15 through Nov. 17th with performances at 8 PM and a matinee on Nov. 18 at 2 PM.