Kudos, April - May

Tremendous accomplishments by Franklin faculty of late, as noted below. But we share our our top item with great pride and no small measure of sadness as the Franklin College bids farewell and good luck to one of our great colleagues, Linda Bachman, as she begins an important new job at UGA:

Assistant dean Linda Bachman has been named director of university experiential learning. Her appointment is effective May 1 in the Office of the Vice President for Instruction.

Bachman, who chaired a university-wide committee convened by Provost Pamela Whitten in 2014 to explore an experiential learning requirement for undergraduate students, brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to provide immediate and effective leadership for this groundbreaking academic initiative. Bachman has worked closely with deans and other academic officials for the last year to help shape the proposal for a graduation requirement in experiential learning. 

Andrew Zawacki, associate professor of English and director of the creative writing program has been awarded a Fellowship from the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation for the 2015-2016 academic year. The nine recipients represent the fields of Creative Writing (Fiction and Poetry) and Philosophy, will be announced in an upcoming edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Dr. Zawacki also recently received include a National Endowment for the Arts translation fellowship in fall 2014 for translation of Sébastien Smirou's second book, and in March 2015, the Centre National du Livre in France awarded him a translation fellowship to conduct research this summer in the Centre International des Traducteurs Littéraires, in Arles.

Athletic Association Professor in Arts and Sciences and professor of marine sciences Samantha Joye has been named UGA's 2015 recipient of the Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award. The award, which is administered by SEC provosts, recognizes professors with outstanding records in teaching and scholarship who serve as role models for other faculty and students.

Eidson Distinguished Professor of American Literature LeAnne Howe has been selected by the Western Literature Association to receive its 2015 Distinguished Achievement Award. The award will be presented to Howe on October 15, 2015 at the Association’s 50th annual conference in Reno. The Distinguished Achievement Award honors transformative contributions to the field of Western American literary studies.

On March 26-27 David P. Landau, Distinguished Research Professor and Founding Director of the Center for Simulational Physics, presented a two-part invited talk sequence at the IGER International Symposium on Science of Molecular assembly and Biomolecules in Nagoya, Japan.  The title of his sequence was: Wang-Landau Sampling at the Interface Between Statistical Physics and Biophysics.  His lectures first described traditional importance sampling Monte Carlo methods used in statistical physics and then introduced the Wang-Landau sampling algorithm developed at UGA. 

Michael Marshall, a professor and area chair of photography in the Lamar Dodd School of Art, is one of two winners of the 2015 Service-Learning Teaching Awards. Sponsored by the Office of Service-Learning, the award recognizes faculty who have developed innovative academic service-learning courses that integrate relevant community service with academic coursework to enhance student learning, develop civic responsibility and address community needs.

Three Franklin faculty members were among six UGA faculty were honored with 2015 First-Year Odyssey Teaching Awards at a reception April 1. Award recipients and their seminar titles are:

• Janet Frick, associate professor of psychology, "Humans and Animals in Society"
• Lisa Fusillo, professor of dance, , "Creating Magic: Inside the Creative Process
• L. Stephen Miller, professor of psychology, "Psychology of Aging"

 

The DigiLab and the DIGI certificate program were launched by Franklin faculty in the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts. Both efforts both grew out of the Digital Humanities Initiative, a Willson Center Faculty Research Cluster chaired by Stephen Berry, holder of the Gregory Chair of the Civil War Era in the history department; William Kretzschmar, the Harry and Jane Willson Professor in Humanities in the English department; and Claudio Saunt, the Richard B. Russell Professor in American History and chair of the history department.