David Gudelunas, Ph.D.

Dean, College of Arts and Letters

Arts & Ideas: 2024-2025 Season

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Studio TV's YouTube Channel

Studio TV has a YouTube channel. All productions are student-created from concept to graphics to the live directing. Studio TV II will stream live programs from the channel in the Spring.

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Mark Your Calendars: Honors Program Welcomes 2025 Speaker Natasha Trethewey

Honors Director Dr. Kacy Tillman (English/Writing) and Associate Director Dr. Vanessa Rukholm (Languages/Linguistics) want you to please mark your calendars for an exciting 2025 guest. The Honors Program's Distinguished Speaker Series will feature Natasha Trethewey, former Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner, on February 6, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. in the Gordon Theater. Trethewey will be reading from The House of Being and signing books at this event. The event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required. Watch for more information coming soon.

This Fall term featured the Out of Context: Jason Hulfish exhibit in the Scarfone/Hartley Gallery in the Bailey Art Studio. Jason Hulfish is a Tampa-based artist, renowned muralist, 3D sculpturist, and furniture designer. Many thanks to Gallery Director Jocelyn Boigenzahn and team for her work on this whimsical exhibit. Photo credits: CAL student Lennon Chrones.

Très Magnifique: Albertine French Film Series

Congratulations to the Department of Languages and Linguistics and the Department of Film, Animation and New Media for a successful Albertine Cinémathèque French Film Series filled with six diverse, intriguing, and award-winning films that spanned the Fall term. Special thanks to Dr. Vanessa Rukholm for this culturally enriching series secured through a grant from the Albertine Foundation. This series supplemented our curricular offerings and enriched our students and our community.

Meet the Press! Royal Road Volume 8 Launch

Did you know that our University of Tampa Press began in 1952 and publishes oldest continuously published literary journal in Florida? The UTampa Press publishes books and journals featuring poetry, prose, and scholarship from Florida and around the globe. It is led by several members of the Department of English and Writing, including Director Dr. Julie Nelson, Managing Editor Jay Aja, Tampa Review Editor Professor Yuly Restrepo, Studies in the Fantastic Editor Dr. Sarah Juliet Lauro, and Student Press Director Dr. David Reamer.

Additionally, UTampa Press offers a few student imprints that are completely student written and produced, including Q: Journal of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry and Royal Road. The eighth volume of the Royal Road journal was launched by faculty editor Dr. Steven Mollmann on Friday, October 4 in the Gordon Performance Gallery of the Ferman Center for the Arts. The articles are available here. Congratulations to our student authors Logan Cooper, Lilliana Haight, and Gabriel Mudd pictured below with Dr. Steven Mollmann.

The University of Tampa Opera Workshop led by Dr. Hein Jung and the cast who presented a comic opera, Naughty Marietta Act 1, on Friday, November 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the Sykes Chapel.

Where's Professor Cessna? Can you spot Staff Pianist and Ars Sonora Curator Joshua Cessna playing on September 17?

Dr. Brandon McDannald, Director of Bands, Music Education, and Horns leads the band in concert in Sykes Plaza on a beautiful Fall evening in Sykes Plaza.

Conductor Megan Maddelano leads the University of Tampa Orchestra in Plant Hall's Fletcher Hall.

The Department of Communication offered a well-attended, thought-provoking Fall series that probes and investigates various controversies related to communication with both invited and University of Tampa scholars in the Communication Department, including Dr. Alisha Menzies, Dr. Amanda Firestone, Dr. Stephen Kromka, Dr. Stephanie Tripp, Dr. Lauren Malone, Dr. Wesley Johnson, Professor Christopher Novak, and Dr. Robert Apiyo. This series collaborates with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (USF) to foster intergenerational discussions. This Fall featured sessions that explore celebrity culture, teaching misbehaviors, and our relationship with technology and privacy (the Internet of things).

The Department of Theatre and Dance presented Bamboozled in the Black Box Theater in mid-October. Directed by Assistant Professor Dr. Nicole Crowther, this commedia dell'arte play featured a fast-paced plot with twists and turns. Commedia dell'arte is a form of political street theatre, involving archetypal characters that delight audiences with their foolishness. Congrats to the cast, crew, and director on captivating scenes, memorable performances, and a stunning set.

Stepping into Dance This Fall

Scholars Symposium in Review

The English and Writing Department hosted author Dr. Sohini Sarah Pillai, Assistant Professor of Religion at Kalamazoo College, on Friday, October 18 as part of the Scholars Symposium series. Dr. Pillai addressed her new book, Krishna’s Mahabharatas: Devotional Retellings of an Epic Narrative, which was recently published in the American Academy of Religion’s Religion in Translation Series at Oxford University Press. This event was masterfully coordinated and led by Dr. Sucheta Kanjilal.

Congrats to Our CAL Masters Students!

Congratulations to the dozens of students who graduated from our two CAL Masters programs in August. In CAL, we offer a Master of Art degree in Professional Communication (MAPC) and a Master of Art degree in Social and Emerging Media (MASEM).

Three graduate students were honored at the fourth annual student exhibition for the University of Tampa's Master of Arts in Social and Emerging Media (MASEM) program on Tuesday, August 6 at the Scarfone-Hartley Gallery. 

• Best of Show: Abigail Higgins, Student Recipe Network, an app created for college students and recent graduates to share and access easy, budget-friendly recipes
• Second place: Paula Quinones-Roman, Treasured Moon Coffee: Community Through Coffee, Books & Greenery, designed to address the critical issue of social isolation through a unique blend of books, plants and coffee
• Third place: Katherine Porter, An Exploration of Parasocial Relationships within the Sphere of Twitch, curated a Twitch channel identity through aesthetics, interactivity and hierarchy to examine how parasocial bonds influence viewer engagement and community building

Lit Students Work with Tampa's Sustainable Living Project

Dr. Cari Hovanec, Assistant Professor in the English and Writing Department, offered an experiential learning opportunity for her students in LIT 280: Flashpoints--The Environmental 1960s. She took them to the Sustainable Living Project to get a community garden tour and do some volunteering, working on invasive plant removal.  The Sustainable Living Project is a working urban farm and community education center. They grow food on a city lot and teach about the importance of a sustainable lifestyle with renewable clean energy, aquaponics, and traditional growing methods.

University of Tampa Ethics Bowl Team competed at the Southeast Regional Ethics Bowl Competition at Rollins College in Winter Park in mid-November.

The team, led by Department of Philosophy faculty advisor Dr. Alexandra Lloyd, argued valiantly and placed eleventh out of sixteen teams. To prepare for the competition Ethics Bowl, the team spent hours analyzing and preparing to see who has thought most deeply and presented their arguments most clearly. Students develop ethical understanding of complex, ambiguous, and difficult to resolve issues as well as key virtues associated with democratic deliberation.

Congrats, team!

CAL students Lena Malpeli (English) and Noelani Segree (Communication) presented at the Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry's SURF Symposium on August 30 in the Grand Salon.

CAL Honors Students Shine

Bachelor of Arts in Music Students Lauren Swezey (Class of 2025) and Brianna Davies (Class of 2024) performed at the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Acqui Terme, Italy in July 2024. Pictured with Dr. Hein Yung.

Communication Students Present at FCA

Assistant Professor of Communication Dr. Sarah Smith-Frigerio's students presented their thematic analysis of over one thousand comments at the mid-October Florida Communication Association annual conference. Congrats to Meghan Osiol, Emma DiPietro, Emma Henjes, and Madison Goon (not pictured). We look forward to seeing where your research takes you next!

Music Technology Students Thrive

Students in the B.A. in Music (Music Technology) degree have been achieving great success with their professional and creative projects, as the program continues to grow in both quality and scope.

Recent Music Technology graduate Dallas Clark (2024), has produced, mixed, recorded, or mastered two albums and ten singles this past year that have been released to streaming platforms. He has also been working as an AVL tech at a church and was recently employed by Morrisound Recording in Tampa to be an assistant engineer after a year of shadowing work.

Current Music Technology student, Isabella Diaz, released her debut album “Trapped In Time” this past summer and gave a solo concert at the FCA Gordon Theater for her album release party. She also recently performed her original music at the International Music Festival in St. Augustine, FL, and performed a set of original songs and covers at KRATE at the Grove in Wesley Chapel, FL. Isabella was featured in the press by Bold Journey Magazine, Canvas Rebel,

and Voyage Tampa Magazine. Her original music and social media can be found here.

John “Jack” Dunning (2024), recent Music Technology graduate, completed and released his senior project “Blossoming,” an original and stylistically varied album of electronic dance music, across the major streaming platforms.

Jack successfully served as the president of the UT Music Producers student organization at UTampa, while completing his Music Technology degree and collaborating with other Music Technology majors in the student-run producer collective Stratus Sound.

Students Publish their Nonfiction Writing

New UTampa faculty member Dr. Rajpreet Heir prides herself on creating opportunities to get her students' work published in WRI 274: Creative Nonfiction. This fall three students were published, including two CAL students.

Dr. Asli Arslanbek, Assistant Teaching Professor in Art Therapy, recently published a peer-reviewed article in the Frontiers in Psychology journal. The article, "Exploring the Evocative Qualities of Masks’ Visual Imagery and Their Associations with Adversity and Trauma" examines the relationship between the visual content of mask images and viewers’ responses.

Dr. Christopher Boulton, Professor in the Department of Communication, screened his 360 VR film Cosmic•Atomic, spoke to a documentary class, and presented on a panel titled “New media, new stories, new publics?” at the Narrate the Future Festival of Cinema and New Media in Bogotá, Colombia. You can watch excerpts of his remarks (with English subtitles) here.

Dr. Nicole Crowther, Assistant Professor of Theatre, and Paul Finocchiaro, Associate Professor of Theatre, published a nine-page review of Tampa-based Stageworks Theatre's rendition of Thornton Wilder's Our Town in the Performance Reviews journal.

Dr. Andrew DeMil, Professor in the Department of Languages and Linguistics, was a volunteer at Learning Gates Community Middle School for the Great American Teach In on Thursday, November 21. Dr. DeMil offered five 15-minute presentations entitled "Education as a Passport to the World" to seventh and eighth grade students. Dr. DeMil previously volunteered at Channelside Elementary and Gaither High School for previous Great American Teach In opportunities.

Stephen Dinehart, Assistant Professor of Film, Animation and New Media, published a new classical music album made with AI with scores, including one score entitled, "Hyperspace." Check out his work on Spotify here.

Dr. Matthew Diomede, part-time instructor in the Department of English and Writing, was published in volume 15 of The Mailer Review. Additionally, Dr. Diomede gave two presentations, one based on Pietro DiDonato, The Master Builder (Bucknell UP, 1995) and one based on his poetry book, For Father and Many Other at the 56^th Italian American Studies Association Annual Conference on October 17-20, 2024 at Florida Atlantic University.

Dr. Suchismita Dutta, Assistant Teaching Professor of English and Writing, published a paper titled, "The Performance Culture of Mandatory Assimilation in Moustafa Bayoumi's "Yasmin," in Impost: A Journal of Creative and Critical Work, a peer reviewed journal published by the English Association of Penn State Universities in October 2024. 

She also presented a paper, "AI in the Classroom: From Concerns to Opportunities" at the 2024 Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Conference was hosted by the University of Florida at Gainesville on October 25. 

Santiago Echeverry, Associate Professor in the Department of Film, Animation and New Media, was interviewed by La Moviola, the literary and cinema studies magazine of Politécnico Grancolombiano University in Bogotá, Colombia.

Please find the article here (in Spanish).

Dr. Lina Gomez-Vasquez, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, was selected to participate in the 2024 ANA Educational Foundation Visitor Program in New York from June 3-7, 2024 (130 applications were received and only 40 professors were selected). This week-long program was hosted by marketers, agencies, and media companies in NYC, enhancing professors’ understanding of the latest developments and practices in advertising and marketing to inform their teaching and research. For Dr. Gomez-Vasquez, this was an incredible experience to learn from top brands (Lego, NFL, Mastercard, Disney, The New York Times) and top agencies (McCann, Ogilvy, Edelman, Publicis Groupe). She learned how they engage in branding, creativity, sustainability, talent and DEIB, and data and technology practices.

Dr. Chris Gurrie, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, was the invited guest on UTampa’s inaugural “Hot Seats” segment discussing the Master of Arts in Professional Communication and the Communication and Speech Studies program in August 2024. Additionally, Dr. Gurrie showcased UTampa's Master of Arts in Professional Communication (MAPC) as a model that has thrived and withstood the COVID-19 pandemic at the National Communication Association convention in New Orleans, LA in November.

Kirk Hazlett, part-time instructor in the Department of Communication, was a featured virtual speaker at the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) International Conference organized by Ravenshaw University in Cuttack, India on November 16. In his presentation, "Reclaiming Roots: The Adivasi Question and the Role of Media, Movements, Policy, and Politics in Development," Hazlett shared experiences and insights on the challenges and opportunities of effective public relations in building and maintaining community relations.

Dr. Rajpreet Heir, Assistant Professor of English and Writing, published a pedagogical essay in Hippocampus Magazine. Dr. Heir describes her process of helping her undergraduate students publish book reviews and how it supports the memoirist and the students. Review her how-to here.

Dr. Lola Hidalgo-Calle, Professor of Spanish, and Dr. Mark Putnam, Professor of English and Director of the Saunders Writing Center, published two volumes of Spanish/English translations of women writers in Spain:

• Volume I: A Collection of Short Stories and Micro-stories by 21st Century Spanish Women Writers:  Carmen Fabre González, Rosa María García Barja, and María Luisa García-Ochoa Roldán.
• Volume II: A Collection of Short Stories and Micro-stories by 21st Century Spanish Women Writers: Ana Ibáñez, Isabel Martín Salinas, María Sangüesa, and Marta Sanz Pastor.

Dr. Sarah Juliet Lauro, Associate Professor in the Department of English and Writing, gave an invited lecture at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia entitled, “After Zombies: What Comes Next?” on October 3, 2024.

Dr. Hein Jung, Associate Professor of Music, performed a recital by the invitation from Chugye Conservatory of Music, Seoul, Korea where she also conducted a vocal master class. Additionally, she performed in the Gala Concert as an Artistic Voice Faculty in the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Acqui Terme, Italy.

Dr. Sucheta Kanjilal, Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Writing, published the article, "Irreverent Readers, Worshipful Viewers: Post-Emergency Epics and Diverging Indian Nationalisms” in the 2024 Routledge book entitled, Epic of the Moment: Exploring the Contemporaneity of the Narrative Cultures of the Mahabharata, edited by Anirban Bhattacharjee and Dhrubajyoti Sarkar.

Dr. Stephen Kromka, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, and his colleagues were awarded the National Communication Association (NCA) Top Paper within the Instructional Development Division for their paper entitled Students’ Listening Predispositions and Motives for Communicating with Their Instructors, presented at the National Communication Association (NCA) conference in New Orleans later this month. 

Dr. James López, Professor of Spanish and Co-Director of the Center for José Martí Studies at the University of Tampa was recently selected for the Speaker’s Bureau of the Florida Humanities Council to travel the state talking about the fascinating history of the Cuban émigré communities of 19^th century Florida. Detailed information and an introductory video can be found here.

Theresa MacNeil, Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Communication, presented four conference papers at various state, national, and international conferences, including one for the International Association of Conflict Management in Singapore with UTampa colleagues Professor Kristin Foltz and Dr. Stephen Kromka.

Dana Plays, Professor in the Department of Film, Animation and New Media, received the Honorary Award for Efforts in Social Filmmaking for her commitment and intention to address social issues through film, for her films Demise of Sugar and The Longest Walk, both also with nomination for Honorable Mention by the by the Activists without Borders Film Festival, for their November 30, 2024 film festival in the United Kingdom. Activists without Borders is an organization based in London, England dedicated to protecting human and environmental rights, empowering frontline activists, and addressing global injustices. 

Amanda Shaw, MA, LMHC, ATR and part-time professor of Art Therapy, presented "Art Therapy & the Power of Creativity in Healing" at the 40^th Annual National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI) State conference on September 21 in Orlando, Florida. She addressed the clinical significance of creativity in healing, what art therapy is and is not, and a review of recent case studies in the field. This workshop offered an art experiential in combination with lecture to promote learning outcomes, community and connection for participants who had a chance to engage in the art activity. Shaw notes, "When words are not easy to find, traditional talk therapies can appear daunting and stress provoking to a client who may have experienced trauma. That is why healing through expressive modalities and approaches, such as art therapy, can be paramount to successful treatment outcomes."

Dr. Sarah Smith-Frigerio, Assistant Professor of Communication and her colleague Dr. Mildred “Mimi” Perreault (USF) engaged in a lively discussion on October 18 entitled, "Looking Back at the Pandemic: Forward Thinking Communication Lessons from COVID-19." This event featured opening statements by Professor Kristen Foltz, Director of the Master of Arts in Professional Communication and Dr. Josh Scacco, founding and current Director of the Center for Sustainable Democracy (USF). Additionally, the event was expertly moderated by Spectrum Bay News 9 reporter Saundra Weathers, ending a reception and book signing for their co-edited volume, Crisis Communication Case Studies on COVID-19: Multidimensional Perspectives and Applications. The edited volume is the ninth volume in the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and Peter Lang series.

Dr. Stephanie Tripp, Associate Professor of Communication, won first prize in New Media at the University Film and Video Association’s 2024 annual conference for “The Sacred Clearing,” an interactive Virtual Reality (VR) experience she created. Dr. Tripp’s Virtual Nekuomanteia VR project appeared in two international online exhibitions over the summer: the 2024 Electronic Literature Organization exhibition, which launched in July, and “The Future of Reality,” the 2024 ACM SIGGRAPH DAC online exhibition, which launched during SIGGRAPH’s annual conference in Denver.

Dr. Lesley Wolff, Assistant Professor (Art + Design), published a chapter about Haitian history, the sugar economy, and the visual art of Edouard Duval-Carrié in an article entitled, "From Raw to Refined: Edouard Duval-Carrié’s Sugar Conventions" in the new volume Creolization and Transatlantic Blackness: The Visual and Material Cultures of Slavery, edited by Charmaine A. Nelson (Routledge 2024).

Dr. Wolff recently published a curatorial essay on the work of contemporary visual artist Scherezade García in the exhibition catalogue Scherezade García: When the Sea is My Land (Praxis 2024).

Scherezade García, A Splendid Soil I, 2023

Dr. Wolff accepted an invitation to join the editorial board of the newly launched Oxford Research Encyclopedia on Food Studies as an area editor for art and visual culture. The encyclopedia is a major compendium for the growing and interdisciplinary field of food studies.

Dr. Daniel Wollenberg, Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of English and Writing, published the peer-reviewed chapter, "One Foot in Europe and the Other in Dixie: Neo-Confederates, Holy War, Chivalry, and the Crusades," in Routledge's Engaging the Crusades series in a volume entitled The Crusades and the Far-Right in the Twenty-First Century.

Student Success in CAL

Have You Met Erin?

We are delighted to welcome Erin Setelius, the CAL Student Success Coordinator to our team in CAL. Here's more about Erin:

Q: How long have you worked at UTampa?

I have been at the University of Tampa for a little over nine years. My former roles include Staff Assistant for Academic Advising and First Year Advisor for CAL students, where I managed a caseload of 350-400 students. Over the years, I’ve handled a range of student caseloads, from first-year students to upperclassmen exploring major options, which has helped me grow as a coordinator and advocate for student success. 

Q: Why is CAL the best college at UTampa?

CAL is the best because it fosters creativity, critical thinking, and personal expression. It’s a vibrant community where students explore their passions and turn them into careers. Our faculty, programs, and events truly set us apart at UTampa.

Q: What are some of your favorite parts of the job?

I love working with the talented and passionate faculty in CAL. Some of my favorite events include group advising sessions that I have been invited to be a part of with the Communication and Art Departments. I hope to expand on these with other departments in CAL moving forward. It's rewarding to help students achieve their academic goals. 

Q: English majors are known to be analytical and great problem solvers, but they can sometimes shy away from data. What draws you toward data?

I majored in English with a focus on Creative Writing. My love of literature and being an avid reader sparked my interest—I’ve always loved getting lost in a good book. Studying English allowed me to dive deeper into the art of storytelling and explore different perspectives. As an English major who pursued a Master’s in Library Science, I developed a strong appreciation for organization, analysis, and problem-solving. Working with data and spreadsheets feels like a natural extension of those skills. I enjoy identifying patterns, organizing information, and creating tools that improve efficiency and effectiveness. It’s incredibly rewarding to turn raw data into meaningful insights. 

Q: What’s your favorite part of meeting with students?

I enjoy helping them navigate challenges, watching their confidence grow, and helping them create a plan to achieve their academic goals. I have had some students stay in touch after they graduated. One of those students is now in UTampa's PA program, and it’s been so rewarding to witness their academic and professional growth. 

Q: What career advice do you have for CAL students?

Be open to exploring different paths, even ones you didn’t initially consider. Take advantage of networking opportunities, internships, and UT resources like the Career Services office. Your major can open doors to many unexpected opportunities, so stay curious and adaptable.

Q: What’s a great weekend day look like for you? What do to relax?

A great weekend day starts with being at home with my three dogs—Domino, Gambit, and Rogue. I love relaxing on the couch with them while I read a good book.

Q: What are some of your personal favorites?

I love anything related to DC and Marvel Comics, and some of my all-time favorite books are The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Domino

Rogue

Gambit

All three together, preparing for the holiday break

All events are free and open to the community!

• Fall Art + Graphic Design BFA Exhibition – Monday, December 2 through Friday, December 13, Monday – Friday 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Student Study Gallery, Ferman Center for the Arts
• Ars Sonora Holiday Concert – Monday, December 2, 7:30 p.m., Sykes Plaza
• Wind Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble Concert – Wednesday, December 4, 7:30 p.m., Sykes Chapel
• University of Tampa Symphony Orchestra – Thursday, December 5, 7:30 p.m., Sykes Chapel
• Studio Production: The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe (Abridged) – Friday, December 6, noon & 8:00 p.m., Black Box Theater, Ferman Center for the Arts
• Black Box Film Festival – Friday, December 6, 7:00 p.m., Charlene A. Gordon Theatre
• Holiday Concert University Concert Chorus, Camerata, and Chamber Singers – Sunday, December 8, 2:00 p.m. & 4:30 p.m., Sykes Chapel
• FMX Senior Thesis Fall Showcase – Monday, December 9, 7:00 p.m., Charlene A. Gordon Theatre
• College of Arts and Letters Graduate Hooding Ceremony – Wednesday, December 11, 6:00 p.m., Charlene A. Gordon Theatre
• Fall Art + Graphic Design BFA Celebration – Thursday, December 12, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., Student Study Gallery, Ferman Center for the Arts