Just the other day someone who recently relocated to Tampa asked me about the local arts and intellectual scene. I was happy to respond that Tampa has a lot going on, much more than many people suspect, and that the College of Arts and Letters is really at the heart of it.

In this edition of CAL Currents, there is ample evidence for my argument. From the Gasparilla International Film Festival happening the the Ferman Center for the Arts BlackBox Theater and Charlene A. Gordon Theater, to a wonderful new exhibit at the Tampa Museum of Art featuring four UT alumna (and one professor). The impact made by our students and faculty not just on campus, but in the surrounding community as well, is significant.

The talented faculty and students that call the College of Arts and Letters home also have a lot to celebrate as you'll note in this newsletter. New books from major University presses, top honors at competitions and festivals, and a major mid-career exhibition are just some of the things we are proud of. And, on April 1st, we'll (finally) properly celebrate at the grand opening of the Ferman Center for the Arts - there are details about that too in this edition of CAL Currents.

We do hope you'll celebrate with us!

David Gudelunas, Ph.D.

Dean, College of Arts and Letters

The "Controversies in Communication" lecture series features faculty from the Department of Communication engaging with contemporary topics and scholarship for engaging and participatory forums. So far this semester Dr. Lacey Corey Brown and Prof. Cassidy Ellis presented on MTV's Floribama Shore and the performances of Florida-southern identity, and Dr. Amanada Firestone discussed her research on Harry Potter fandom. Next up: Dr. Patrick Ellis will introduce aeroscopics to the lifelong learners.

The series is a special partnership with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at USF and brings in dozens of community members to the Charlene A. Gordon Theater to participate in what are always lively discussions.

The lifelong learners were also present for a special talk this semester with Dr. Emily West, UMass Amherst, who talked about her new book, Buy Now: How Amazon Branded Convince and Normalized Monopoly. The lecture was followed by a lively discussion moderated by Dean David Gudelunas, Dr. Francesca Romeo and Communication, Media and Culture senior Eric Mendelowitz (pictured above).

"Verde: The Poetics of Shade" opened in February at the Tampa Museum of Art and features five artists regional to Tampa - four of whom graduated with degrees in Art+Design from the University of Tampa. Nneka Jones (pictured above), Jodi Minnis, Princess Smith and Kendra Frorup. Frorup is both an alumna and a current Associate Professor of Art + Design. The show "speaks to feminine energy and artistic contributions" and is on display through July 24. All UT students and faculty receive free admission to the Tampa Museum of Art.

Jones was recently also profiled by ArtNews where she cites her UT education as formative.

Filmmakers, producers, cinema buffs and industry insiders all flocked to the Ferman center for the Arts for the 15th annual Gasparilla International Film Festival. For the first time the festival took up residency in the Ferman Center for two days of screenings in the Charlene A. Gordon Theater and BlackBox Theater, and industry networking events in the gallery spaces. Classrooms were also utilized for special educational panels. One panel on diversity in the film industry was facilitated by Prof. Taylor Curry, Assistant Professor of Film, Animation and New Media.

The College of Arts and Letters was a supporting sponsor of the festival that also featured a special program of film shorts created by Film, Animation and New Media students that screened at the AMC Westshore. Prof. Aaron Walker, chair of FMX, said the festival was a great opportunity for film students to learn about the workings of the industry and meet with professionals.

Professor of Music Dr. Hein Jung (pictured above, center) performed with Opera Tampa Bay in their production of The Tales of Hoffman. Students in Dr. Jung's opera classes attended a preview performance for a chance to see their professor in the spotlight. Jung played the role of animatronic doll Olympia to rave reviews.

Caroline McDaniel, Mathew Rosa and Alisa Cervellino, all students in Dr. Minjie Li's Advertising Creative Direction course, won the "Pick of the Pros" award from the Tampa Bay Chapter of the American Advertising Federation. This is the second consecutive year that a UT team took home the award for their work on an advertising campaign.

Music students had a very strong showing at the Tampa Bay National Association of Teachers of Singing competition held at Florida Gulf Coast University. The UT delegation is pictured above with Dr. Hein Jung and Dr. Rodney Shores. Students taking home honors included:

Ethan Lucas, First place, First Year College Classical Male Division

Faith Kopecky, Third place, Fourth Year College Classical Female Division

Ashely Campbell, First place, Upper Class Musical Theater Female Division

Dylan Glover, First place, Upper Class Musical Theater Male Division

Logan Almeida, Second place, Upper Class Musical Theater Male Division

Ava Shore, Second place, Lower Class MTR Female Division

Hope Lelekacs, Third place, Lower Class MTR Female Division 

Next year the annual competition will be held in the Ferman Center for the Arts.

As part of a collaborative, interdisciplinary research project funded by an OURI grant and undertaken in partnership with a student and faculty team in Chemistry, Emily Turbeville (Museum Studies and History, ’23) presented preliminary results of her project, “A Potential Picasso: A Stylistic Analysis of a Thrift Store Purchase” at the recent FURC conference in Orlando. Working under the guidance of Dr. Rose Trentinella, Assistant Teaching Professor of Art + Design, Emily conducted a comparative stylistic analysis of five authentic paintings made by Picasso in the years just before and after the date painted on the subject work, concluding that the style of the thrift store artwork was too inconsistent with Picasso’s known pieces to suggest a positive attribution.

Other faculty in CAL working with students on cutting-edge scholarship include:

Communication and Speech Studies major Riley Robertson and Professor Kristen Foltz completed research on public speaking as affected by the pandemic as part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship at UT. Riley presented the paper at the National Communication Association Conference in Seattle in November.

Professors Foltz and Dr. Meredith Clements also worked with recent UT graduates Alexandra Stinson and Aislinn Fallon on this project about understanding why students attend events in regards to extra credit. The article, "Extra credit and decision-making: Understanding college students’ motivation to attend on-campus events" was published in the Journal of Campus Activities Practice and Scholarship.

Senior photography major Chandler Culotta captured the sights of the annual Gasparilla Music Festival for QRO magazine. He had the unusual experience of being able to capture an Art + Design professor, Michael Ingold (pictured above), as part of his assignment.

Professor Kendra Frorup, Associate Professor of Art + Design, has a major mid-career exhibition opening at The National Art Gallery of the Bahamas this month that will run through mid-June.

"The Whimsical Collector" features over 70 pieces of work that span from Frorup's time as a BFA student at UT to her current work that incorporates printmaking and sculpture.

You can see more of Frorup's work online and in the Ferman Center for the Arts.

English and Writing faculty member Dr. Sarah Juliet Lauro published "Dread Scott's Slave Revolt Re-enactment: Beholding the Gap in Commemorations of Resistance" in TDR: The Drama Review. Lauro and colleague Dr. Caroline Hovanec also published "Speaking Animals: Fables of Resistance in Get Out, Sorry to Bother You and Atlanta" in Black Camera.

Dr. Patrick Ellis, Assistant Professor of Communication, had his book, Aeroscopics: Media of the Bird's-Eye-View published by the University of California Press.

Ellis also published "Motion Picture Mappaemundi: On Location Cartography in California" as the lead article in Film History.

Part-time Professor of Advertising and Public Relations Kirk Hazlett was cited in Forbes about the strengths of Ukraine President Zelensky.

Dr. Christopher Boulton, chair of the Department of Communication, received a Special Mention in the International Fragments section of the 16th Annual DocsMX, a highly selective documentary film festival in Mexico City for his short film "Salvage."

Prof. Cassidy Ellis, Visiting Assistant Professor of Communication, published "'Doctors Don’t Kill Babies! Monsters Do!': Using Performance and Personal Narrative to Identify the U.S. Abortion Monster" in Text and Performance Quarterly. She also published a chapter in Badass Feminist Politics (Rutgers University Press) that interrogates body politics and anti-fat bias in media to push for greater attention to sizeism in critical communication, media, and cultural studies. Ellis additionally published an article with departmental colleague Dr. Lacey Corey Brown titled “Eat, Pray, Party!”: Reflections on MTV’s Floribama Shore, the Florida Panhandle, and Floridian-Southern Identity" in Departures in Qualitative Research.

Dr. Kyle McIntosh, Associate Professor of English and Writing, was a co-editor of Building Internationalized Spaces: Second Language Perspectives on Developing Language and Cultural Exchange Programs in Higher Education from the University of Michigan Press.

Three Communication and Speech Studies faculty members - Dr. Meredith Clements, Professor Kristen Foltz, and Professor Sean Sawicki - researched the application of their respective industries to a communication center in their article "Ethics, technology, and standard practice in communication centers: Proposing a continuing education credit program based on lessons learned from law, business, and healthcare" published in the Communication Center Journal.

Department of Music chair Dr. Ryan Hebert was recently profiled in the Tampa Bay Times. Hebert is also the University organist and director of choral studies.

Dr. Stephen Kromka, Assistant Professor of Communication, co-authored "A Comparison of Instructors and Students' Perceptions of Effective Teaching Behaviors" in the Journal of the Speech and Theatre Association of Missouri .

Dr. Lina Gomez-Vasquez, Assistant Professor of Advertising and PR, published a journal article titled "Keeping Citizens Informed and Engaged During the COVID-19 Pandemic Using #YoMeInformoPMA: A Case from Latin America" in Health Communication. 

The much delayed grand opening celebration for the Ferman Center for the Arts will be held (no joke this time!) on Friday, April 1st at 5:30 PM. The building will be brimming with performances from students around the College of Arts and Letters and faculty and student guides will be on hand to explain the many features of the amazing new facility. Be sure to make plans to attend.