Campus Update - November 30

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November 30, 2022

A note from the Dean

Dear Faculty and Staff Colleagues,

Welcome back from Thanksgiving break! I hope you each had a relaxing few days.

With the runoff election for the Georgia Senate taking place next week (Tuesday, December 6), I encourage you to vote and remind you that all faculty and staff can take up to 4 hours of paid time off for early or Election Day voting. The last day of early voting is Friday, December 2. For more information, check out Emory’s 2022 Georgia Runoff Election Guide here or the Emory Votes Initiative webpage here. Please encourage your eligible students to vote as well.

This Thursday and Friday, December 1 and 2, the Oxford Chorale—along with Oxapella and members of the Chamber Orchestra Ensemble—will perform its annual Holiday Concert at 7:30 p.m. in the Chapel. Tickets are limited, so purchase yours from the OxBox here. This is a great way to support our talented students and to get in the holiday spirit!

Best regards,

Ken

Submitting to Campus Update

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Oxford in the news

Ken Carter, Interim Dean and Charles Howard Candler Professor of Psychology, was interviewed on the podcast Something You Should Know for an episode on thrill seekers. You can listen here.

Daphne Orr, Director of International Student Programs, was quoted alongside Oxford student Sandy Ge, originally from Shanghai, in a U.S. News & World Report story titled "6 Ways International Students Can Spend the U.S. Holidays." Read more here.

Lyn Pace, Oxford Chaplain, has a new book just released from the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate Press, The Sacred Year: A Contemplative Journey Through the Liturgical Year. The book draws from his six years of writing for The Covington News and explores our relationship to time as seen through the seasons of the Christian liturgical year. It's accessible to all readers regardless of your religious or spiritual identity. Purchase a copy here or on Amazon.

You can also grab a copy and have it signed at the book release event on Thursday, December 8 from 4:00–6:00 p.m. in Candler Hall.

Natalia Bayona Vasquez, Assistant Professor of Biology, co-authored a paper with researchers from NIH, University of Southern Mississippi, and others in the journal Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases titled "A draft of the genome of the Gulf Coast tick, Amblyomma maculatum." The work used the DNA from a single male tick and innovative genomic technologies to assemble the first genome reported for the species and its annotate protein-coding genes. This information is relevant to better understand the biology of a species that is a vector of various diseases including Rickettsiosis in humans. Read more here.

Staff updates

Megan Hulgan is the new Assistant Director of the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership. In this role she will oversee student-facing community engagement opportunities. Prior to coming to Oxford, Megan worked with one of our campus partners as the Director of Food Ministry at the First United Methodist Church in Covington and as a special event consultant with Youth Villages in Atlanta. Megan received her MS in social work management from the University of Tennessee. Please join us in welcoming Megan to the Oxford community!

Alumni news

Jordan Hasty 20Ox, now a fourth-year sociology major on the Atlanta campus, was profiled in an Emory Report story on first-generation college students. Read more about Jordan and other first-gen students across Emory here.

Dan Owens 92Ox 94C, CEO of Emory University Hospital Midtown, was installed as chair of the Board of Trustees for the Georgia Hospital Association earlier this month. Read more from the Emory News Center here.

Oxford Dance Company Fall Concert

All are invited to the Oxford Dance Company Fall Concert on Monday, December 5 at 7:00 p.m. in Williams Hall. Encourage your students to attend this Oxford Studies event!

Emory Talks Climate Action

Oxford will host a community conversation to set priorities for Emory's climate action plan on December 2 from 10:00–11:30 a.m. in the Dean's Dining Room. Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to attend and share their perspectives! To learn more, visit the initiative's website here.

Remembrance Gathering for Professor of English Emerita, Dr. Gretchen Schulz

You are invited to join the Oxford community at a remembrance gathering of Gretchen Schulz for a time of sharing, a short video of Gretchen, and a live performance by the recorder group she was a member of on Sunday, Dec. 4 at 3:00 p.m. in the Dean's Dining Room. Contact Chaplain Lyn Pace with questions.

Call for proposals: Black Emory and Women of Emory Impact Circles Grant Cycle

The Black Emory and Women of Emory Impact Circles invite Emory students, staff, and faculty to submit funding proposals for Emory projects and programs that advance the causes of their respective communities of interest on campus, in the city, and beyond. Learn more about grant eligibility and submit your application for the Black Emory Impact Circle here or the Women of Emory Impact Circle here. Applications will be accepted online through January 27, 2023, with funds to be used during the 2023-2024 academic year.

Contact Julie Earnhart ([email protected]) with any questions.

Oxford students share their work at Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference

15 Oxford students—accompanied by Emily McLean, Assistant Professor of Biology; Eric Solomon, Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies and English; and Daniel Walter, Assistant Professor of German and Linguistics—took their research on the road for the 2022 Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference at Valdosta State University.

For second year student Anusha Kothari, the trip was her second of the semester, having previously traveled to York, Pennsylvania, with faculty mentor Gwendolynne Reid, Director of the Writing Program and Assistant Professor of English, for the Naylor Workshop on Undergraduate Research in Writing Studies.

Read more about students traveling with their research on the Oxford website here.

Emory Cares 2022

For the 18th year, the Oxford community came together in service to others as part of the annual Emory Cares International Day of Service. This year’s events—packing holiday care boxes for children in Newton County foster care and a clean-up of the campus’s Hearn Nature Trail—drew nearly 100 volunteers eager to lend a hand to those in need and care for the local environment.