CAL Currents : The Newsletter of the College of Arts and Letters
Vol 3 | Issue 1 | September 2019
A Message from the Dean
The start of every new academic year is an exciting time, and this year promises to be an especially remarkable one in the College of Arts and Letters. 

CAL is rising: As you’ll see below, we welcomed 23 new full-time colleagues to the College of Arts and Letters and over 225 new first year students to set another enrollment record in the college. It is a remarkable series of numbers knowing the hardships facing many liberal arts and humanities colleges across the nation. We are also watching CAL rise literally on the corner of North Blvd and Spaulding Drive, where the new Ferman Center for the Arts is rapidly taking shape. 

This year, the college will once again be an important contributor to the Tampa Bay arts scene with the very best performances, recitals, film screenings, lectures, and exhibits. We also continue to strengthen our relationships with neighboring cultural institutions including the Tampa Museum of Art and the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, where students gain both access and experience. You can read about some of these collaborations below.

Just a small sampling of the remarkable achievements of College of Arts and Letters faculty and students are profiled in this edition of  CAL Currents  as well. In just a few days, the new Arts + Ideas guide that provides an overview of the entire “season” in the college will be available, and in the meantime, you can find out what’s happening by visiting the CAL online calendar .

Of course, much of what we do together in the college happens because of support from our friends on campus and in the community. One such example is the truly remarkable “Unbound” exhibit on display in the Scarfone/Hartley Gallery . The exhibit features a selection of artwork from CAL Advisory Board member Stanton Storer’s private collection. We are very grateful to Stanton for his generosity and support of the arts at UT and across Tampa Bay. If you haven’t been to the gallery yet this semester, don’t wait! 
David Gudelunas, Ph.D.
Dean and Professor
Welcome New CAL Faculty
This year the College of Arts Letters welcomed a record class of new faculty. The new faculty bring new scholarly and creative interests to an already diverse and talented group of faculty. Welcome to CAL!
Department of Art + Design:
  • Samantha Burns, MFA
  • Joe Scarce, Ph.D.
  • Rosemarie Trentinella, Ph.D.
  • Emma Quintana, MFA, Ed.M
  • Lisa Willard, MFA
  • Erica Isringhaus, MFA

Department of Communication:
  • Maggie Franz, Ph.D.
  • Lina Gomez, Ph.D.
  • Sonali Kudva, Ph.D.
  • Landon Palmer, Ph.D.
  • Samuel Tham, Ph.D.

Department of English & Writing:
  • Amy Elliott, Ph.D.
  • Elizabeth Forsythe, MFA
  • Jeremy Lakoff, Ph.D.
  • Zea Miller, Ph.D.
  • Julie Nelson, Ph.D.
Department of Film, Animation and New Media:
  • Taylor Curry, MFA
  • Marcio Goncalves, MFA
  • Tim Ridlen, Ph.D.

Department of Music:
  • Anne Hemminger, DMA

Department of Philosophy & Religion:
  • Devon Johnson, Ph.D.

Department of Speech, Theatre, and Dance:
  • Lacey Brown, Ph.D.
  • Michael Crotty, MFA
CAL in the News
The College of Arts and Letters is a place where a lot is going on, and our friends in the local and and national media can't help but notice too.
Dr. Susan Robinson, director of the UT Orchestra, was recently featured on ABC/WFTS discussing how the orchestra helps bring the Tampa Bay Community together over a shared love of music. If you watch closely you can spot Dr. Vanessa Ruckholm, Assistant Professor of Languages and Linguistics, who plays violin in the orchestra. You can see the clip online here.
Prof. Taylor Curry, Assistant Professor of Film, Animation, and New Media (FMX), was a featured guest on The Facade Project, an LA-based podcast celebrating the efforts of young artists making their mark on the motion picture industry.
The Scarfone/Hartley gallery’s current exhibition, “Unbound: Highlights from the Stanton Storer Collection” was rightfully named by Creative Loafing as one of the the best art events happening in Tampa Bay this Fall. The show, open through November 8, showcases works from the masterful collection of CAL Advisory Board member Stanton Storer. The show was curated by Dr. Francesca Bacci, Associate Professor of Art History. Read more about the exhibition here.
Above. Dr. Bacci is giving an expert tour of the collection to another capacity crowd.







Dr. Sarah Fryett, Professor of Instruction in English and Writing, discussed “Women Who Make Us LOL” on the podcast Most Popular .
Prof. Alex Nixon , part-time faculty member in Art+Design, was recently profiled by WFTS/ABC for his creative use of bamboo in his artwork. Check out the article here .
Banned Books Week and talks by English professors Dr. Kacy Tillman and Dr. Jordan Carroll were given attention by Creative Loafing . The celebration promotes awareness about censorship.
Profs. Stephanie Wray and Joe Scarce from the Art Therapy program responded to Hurricane Michael by painting stars of hope in Panama City with over 15 elementary schools participating in the project. They returned over the summer to work with Port St Joe, which was also impacted by Hurricane Michael, and their contributions were noted by the Port St. Joe Star . You can read more here.
Around CAL
Prof. Taylor Curry and the Film, Animation and New Media Department hosted Disney Animation’s Tim Albaugh in a lively screenwriting masterclass in the Black Box Studio sponsored by Film Tampa Bay as part of the Tampa Animation Festival this month. Curry and her colleagues also hosted a Skype session with Kristi Whistler, Director of Documentary Film and TV at Participant Media ( An Inconvenient Truth and When they See Us) as part of a series to bring talented writers, directors, producers to speak with students about film industry conventions, career opportunities, and the fundamentals of creating successful content.
Dr. Christopher Boulton, Associate Professor of Communication, screened his latest documentary film Life After Life at the Reeves Theater on campus in August. Dr. Boulton was joined by the cast of the film, Tampa senior citizens who joined a dance outreach program. The film also features UT Professor Emerita of Dance, Susan Lennon. You can learn more about the award-winning film here.
The first ever College of Arts and Letters Convocation was held during orientation weekend as a way to formally welcome new students joining the college. Over 60 CAL faculty participated, and students and families in attendance were treated to a rousing keynote from Dr. Erica Dawson, Associate Professor of English and Director of the MFA in Creative Writing.
The Tampa Museum of Art and The UT Art Therapy program have teamed up to offer several more sites for art space programming. This will provide opportunities for employment for art therapists in the field through TMA and incorporate the UT art therapy major in offering students a chance to be actively engaged in building programming to serve underserved populations. Prof. Joe Scarce coordinates the UT Art Therapy major.
Student Achievements and Experiential Education



Kelly Collins  (Music Education) and  Catherine Chapman  (Music Performance), were recipients of CAL student travel awards and attended the 2019 InterHarmony International Music Festival in Acqui Terme, Italy, where they studied with Dr. Hein Jung , Voice Faculty and Artist in Residence at the festival.


Collins and Chapman performed opera arias and vocal chamber pieces in Outstanding Student Recital (selected) and International Student Chamber Recital along with 120 international student performers from 20 countries of the world for the international audiences.
Dr. Laura Kane, Assistant Professor of Philosophy , presented a paper “Promoting A Duty to Adopt” at the North American Association for Philosophy & Education (NAAPE) 2019 Conference in Illinois. The paper was co-authored by recent UT Philosophy graduate Anne Merrill, who is now in a Ph.D. program in Philosophy at the University of Tennessee. 




Graphic Design major Patchanit Sriviroch helped create the winning logo for Super Bowl LV which will be held in Tampa in 2021. Her design was completed while interning with the Tampa advertising firm, Schifino Lee. 
Dr. Meredith Clements, Assistant Professor of Speech Communication, used support from a Board of Fellows Grant to work with students Mary Knutson, Rachel Wall, and Preston Wimbish on a health communication research project examining the American Cancer Society’s “Look Good, Feel Better” program. Dr. Clements and the team of 3 students later collaborated with UT Student Government during 2019 Diversity Week to host a research roundtable titled, “Cancer, Coffee & Conversation” where they created art pieces that Clements and Wimbish will photograph to publish as cover art for a clinical research journal. 




Callie York , a Museum Studies major, was a part of the team that brought the Extraordinary/Ordinary show to life at the Tampa Museum of Art.

During York's internship, directed by Dr. Francesca Bacci , Associate Professor of Art History, she assisted TMA Curator Joanna Robotham on the curation of three linked Latin-Caribbean Contemporary art exhibitions with 70 Haitian Flags, 91 works by Purvis Young and two Jean-Michel Basquiat works.
Prof. Kristen Foltz, Professor of Instruction in Speech, worked with Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow Sophia Gullo on research regarding academic freedom and professors’ use of social media in employment termination lawsuits. Sophia will be presenting her research at the Florida Communication Association Annual Conference in Orlando in October.
CAL Faculty Excellence
CAL Faculty are productive scholars and creative leaders. This is just a small sampling of their recent achievements.








Dr. Kacy Tillman , Associate Professor of English and Writing, published her first book Stripped and Script: Loyalist Women Writers of the American Revolution with the very-well respected University of Massachusetts Press.
Dr. Bradford Blackburn , Associate Pofessor of Music, presented his music theory research in Harry Partch’s eclectic musical theatre work Revelation in the Courthouse Park  at the International College Music Society Conference in Bruges, Belgium, this past July. In early September, he performed his recent interactive electroacoustic work  Wash Cycle  at the 2019 Electronic Music Midwest Festival in Kansas City, Missouri.
In July, Dr. Hein Jung , Associate Professor of Music, was a featured soloist in Fone Classic Concert Series in Seoul, Korea, a sponsored recital series by the city of Seoul. The  Dongbuck Times  review of the concert praised Dr. Jung’s performance: “Soprano Hein Jung, delivered a magnificent performance in Olympia's aria, known as Doll Song and the audiences were memorized by her exuberant coloratura runs floating through the mechanical doll acted by the soprano... Her voice sparked humorously in Art is calling for me, and the flawless rich vocal lines in Rachmaninov's Vocalize…. She represented the depth of beauty in all-time favorite Korean art songs  Arirang  and  Lovely Kumkang Mountain.”
Dr. Landon Palmer , Professor of Instruction in Communication, published a co-authored article with archivist Jimi Jones titled "A Record for Your Television: The Capacitance Electronic Disc's History of Failure" for  The Moving Image . He also had a book chapter published for the anthology  William S. Burroughs: Cutting up the Century  titled "The Disembodied Fry: William S. Burroughs and Vocal Performance."

Dr. Minjie Li , Assistant Professor of Advertising and Communication, published “Transitioning Together: Negotiating Transgender Subjectivity with Family and Other Trans People on Reality Television” in the Journal of Homosexuality . His co-authored paper “Gender Expression and Contribution Amounts in Social Responsibility Advertising for Pride Collections: Does Doing More Make a Difference?” also won the Top Paper Award of Professional Freedom & Responsibility from the Advertising Division at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in Toronto in August. At the same meeting, Dr. Li was elected the Research Chair for the LGBTQ Interest Group at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. 
Dr. Marcus Arvan , chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion, published “Nonideal Justice as Nonideal Fairness” in the  Journal of the American Philosophical Association and “The Dark Side of Morality: Group Polarization and Moral Epistemology” in the  The Philosophical Forum.







Prof. Taylor Curry, Assistant Professor in FMX, wrote, directed, and produced the experimental short film El Roi that screened at the Vero Beach Wine and Film Festival in Vero Beach, FL in June.
Dr. Kyle McIntosh , Assistant Professor of English and Writing, published “Cross-Cultural Memoir as Borderland Negotiation of Identity in Language Education” in the  International Multilingual Research Journal.
Prof. Warren Cockerham, CAL media production coordinator and director of FLEX Florida Experimental Film Festival, curated Models for Mutiny at the Quaid Gallery in Tampa. He also screened his own experimental films at PlySpace, in the historic downtown Muncie, Indiana, in August.
Dr. Meredith Clements , Assistant Professor of Speech Communication, recently co-authored two articles: “Previving: How Unaffected Women with a  BRCA1/2  Mutation Navigate Previvor Identity” in Health Communication and “Intersections of Health and Gender Imperatives: Stratified Decision-Making Among Women with a  BRCA  Mutation” in BioSocieties . 






Prof. Santiago Echeverry, Associate Professor in FMX, presented new works Shamans, Anatema, and Monday Night Scandals at international film festivals in Berlin, Germany, Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Los Angeles, California.
Dr. Devon Johnson , Professor of Instruction in Philosophy, published “Existentially Dope” in  The Philosophers’ Magazine.
Prof. Dana Plays, chair of FMX, presented two documentary films, Demise of Sugar and The Longest Walk at Ethnografilm in Paris.
Dr. Jordan Carroll , Professor of Instruction in English and Writing, published “Geek Temporalities and the Spirit of Capital” in Post-45.
Dr. Tim Ridlen, Professor of Instruction in FMX, published "Early Video Art, Educational Television, and the Positivity of Practice” in  ASAP/Journal.



Professor Kristen Foltz, Professor of Instruction in Speech, was named the Vice President of the Florida Communication Association for the 2019-2020 academic year. Along with her colleagues from the rapidly growing Speech program, Drs. Chris Gurrie, Meredith Clements and Lacey Brown, she will be presenting research at the Florida Communication Association Conference in October. Dr. Gurrie recently stepped down from a three-year term editing the Florida Communication Journal.
CAL is a hub for Arts and Creativity in Tampa
Just a few events that you'll not want to miss.
“Unbound: Highlights from the Stanton Storer Collection” is on display at the Scarfone/Hartley Gallery through Nov. 8. The show has been bringing record crowds to the gallery; be sure to see it while you can.
The UT/TMA Collaboration returns for a second season: The first Wednesday at noon every month the Tampa Museum of Art hosts various College of Arts and Letters musicians and performers. Admission is free for GENERAL PUBLIC or UT STUDENTS/STAFF?.
The Damron Concert Artist Series at the Sykes Chapel for Faith and Values returns with a world-class lineup of guest musicians. The full schedule can be found online.
The Connect 2019 VideoArt Festival features 16 artists from 13 different countries in one of the only videoart events in Tampa Bay. The free screening happens October 23 from 6 - 9 PM in the Reeves Theater, Vaughn Center second floor.