Tags: Society


The humanities: is everything contextual and contingent?

In 1996, a hoax perpetrated by NYU physics professor Alan Sokal exposed some of the ideological and professional blinders of academic publishing, particularly in the humanities. This and other examples build an interesting criticism of academic life as construed in the work of writer Stanley Fish in the New Republic: The empirical truth that Fish proffers can hardly be challenged—intellectual life in this country has been highly professionalized…


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Student and Faculty features

Well, in a way, I live a double life. In the spring semesters, I teach Organic Chemistry II. This is one of the more challenging courses for pre-professional students in their curriculum, and the class size averages approximately 350 students. This class is high intensity, and I really enjoy lecturing to this class size. On one hand, I get to interact with some of the best students in the university. On the other, many students struggle…


Franklin Alum honored with Benjamin Franklin book award

We point out this terrific award for an alum's book for obvious reasons, I think.   Franklin Alum honored with Benjamin Franklin book award Book tells real history through fictional characters By JESSICA LUTON jluton@uga.edu   For author and Franklin alumnus Jonathan Grant, Benjamin Franklin has been a recurring theme. He began his career as an English major (AB, ’76) in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and now he is also…


Faculty in the News, Summer 2013

(Many) classes were out, but the media kept the phone calls and emails coming to our faculty this summer. Here's a sampling:   Michael Terns, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, is quoted in an MIT news article about genome editing.  The work of Mark Abbe, professor of ancient art in the Lamar Dodd School of Art, is featured in Archeology magazine “Brown ocean” can fuel inland tropical cyclones – Several reports on a newly…


Professor reveals artistry of the natural environment

Great service feature on the work of Lamar Dodd school of Art professor R.G. Brown on the UGA homepage: Brown, a sculpture professor with the Lamar Dodd School of Art, won a Public Service and Outreach Faculty Fellowship last fall to beam sonar into salt creeks on the coastal islands near Savannah as a creative way to help people see the natural environment from an unexpected point of view. The fellowships offer UGA professors the opportunity…


August Kudos

  Here are just a few of the terrific honors recently received by Franklin College faculty and students (plus one from an alumnus). Faculty   Senior associate dean Hugh Ruppersburg was named interim vice provost for academic ­affairs and began the new position on Aug 1. Earlier this year, Ruppersburg was named University Professor, an honor bestowed electively on UGA faculty who have had a significant impact on the…


New Faculty Tour

Each year, the Franklin College welcomes many new faculty members to the University, which itself welcomed over 120 new full time faculty members since September 2012. Now, for the first time since 2008, 40 of these new professors are taking a tour of the state to become better acquainted with the place and the people they serve: Forty new University of Georgia faculty members will embark on a five-day journey across Georgia Aug. 5-9. They will…

teacher and student with computer
Young Dawgs research program

The pipeline that connects university research to the public, from new drug treatments to insights about our own history, is one of the very important functions of higher education. The pipeline that connects young students to one day become those very researchers is just as important: Run by UGA Human Resources, Young Dawgs is doing more than capturing the imaginations of high school students and preparing them for future careers. It's also…


Okie wins Fite dissertation award

We've been on a roll with history department students this week (and let's hear it for the humanities) and so in keeping with the theme, congratulations again, Tom Okie: On June 15, 2013 the Agricultural History Society announced the winners of its annual publication and societal awards. The awards banquet was part of the Society’s annual conference, which was held in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The Agricultural History Society was founded…


2013 history graduate Chelsey Cain wins Gilder Lehrman Award

Recent UGA history graduate Chelsey Cain has been named one of fifteen winners of the 2013 Gilder Lehrman History Scholar Award, it was announced on June 19. Selected from candidates across the country, the Award recognizes outstanding graduating college seniors who have demonstrated academic and extracurricular excellence in American History or American Studies. Founded in 1994 by Richard Gilder and Lewis E. Lehrman, the Gilder Lehrman…


Humanities: building faith in the enterprise

The New York Times' David Brooks was kind enough to give the humanities prominent placement in his column last week. Unfortunately, the New York Times' David Brooks was kind enough to give the humanities some prominent placement in his column last week: Back when the humanities were thriving, the leading figures had a clear definition of their mission and a fervent passion for it. The job of the humanities was to cultivate the human core,…


Alum ambassador event at Griffin

The UGA-Griffin campus is home to some great university and Franklin College programs, and allows UGA to serve more students from different parts of the state. In service of expanding these offerings, the Griffin campus is hosting an event with UGA alumni to encourage prospective students to learn about opportunities at the Griffin campus: [The] inaugural Alumni Ambassador Reception June 27 from 6:30-8 p.m., in the Student Learning Center in…


Defining the mix

Diversity on campus can be construed as a conundrum, wrapped around an enigma, especially when we approve the goals but are not quite convinced about the means to achieve them. Absent a clear acceptance of the policies to promote ethnic, socio-economic and/or geographical diversity among the student population, the goals and benefits thereof remain murky and mired in controversy. And there arise additional questions: how can a place be made at…


New Franklin College websites

With the very large number of Franklin College departments, programs and centers, our IT department and web development team have a steady stream of new websites in progress. The volume of sites and level of performance and accessibility required of them have led our web developers to design Franklin themes for unit-level websites that both retain the units' unique identities and allow for a certian unity of feel and experience across the…


Amazing student Victoria Ramenzoni

Afterward, I joined NOAA as an intern for the Northwest Pacific Fisheries Center where I worked in the development of socio-ecological indicators to measure coastal communities’ resilience dealing with climate change. In March 2011, we received support from the Society for Psychological Anthropology, the Graduate School and the department of anthropology at UGA to present at the biennial meetings of the Society for Psychological Anthropology…


Amazing student Victoria Ramenzoni

Afterward, I joined NOAA as an intern for the Northwest Pacific Fisheries Center where I worked in the development of socio-ecological indicators to measure coastal communities’ resilience dealing with climate change. In March 2011, we received support from the Society for Psychological Anthropology, the Graduate School and the department of anthropology at UGA to present at the biennial meetings of the Society for Psychological Anthropology.…


Tom Okie wins Nevins Dissertation Prize

By all accounts, this award is akin to winning a Pulitzer Prize for a dissertation. Huge congratulations to our history department and to newly minted Ph.D. Tom Okie: University of Georgia doctoral graduate Tom Okie was awarded the 53rd annual Allan Nevins Dissertation Prize at the annual meeting of the Society of American Historians at the Century Club in New York City on May 20. The prize—$2,000 and publication of the winning dissertation—is…

OED spine
Ruppersburg: Dictionaries as Big Data

Do you keep a dictionary close? Consult it everyday? Multiple times per day? Do you realize the vast amounts of knowledge sitting idly by within those covers? Wonderful to consider. And then consider how language as a source of power has been controlled at various times in the past, and how much we have at our fingertips now. Are we doing enough with it? The question is self-refuting. The Dictionary Society of North America held is holding…


2013 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship

  Fantastic - two Google scholarships. Difficult to verify, but we think Jennifer is the first UGA student to be selected for both awards. Big congratulations to her, Thiab Taha, and the computer science department. Image: Women-inspired Google doodle honoring Anita Borg, Grace Hopper and Lada Ada Lovelace


Franklin presented USCOTS Lifetime Achievement Award

Senior Lecturer, undergraduate coordinator and Lothar Tresp Honoratus Honors Professor in the department of statistics Christine Franklin (no relation but a big part of our family) was awarded the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award by the United States Conference on Teaching Statistics at the USCOTS Award Banquet on Friday, May 17: This biennial award is presented at the U.S. Conference On Teaching Statistics to an individual who, over an…


Focus on the Faculty: William Finlay

Intellectually curious, open to new ideas, and excited about learning. This regular feature, in the format of a Q & A, is a great way to learn about our faculty members across the university. Who they are and what they do creates the outstanding experience that is UGA for so many students - be sure and check it when you can. Image: courtesy of UGA photographic services


student, alumni NSF Fellowships

Ten current or former UGA students have been awarded graduate research fellowships from the National Science Foundation. Six of the ten are from the Franklin College: [The fellowships will allow students] to conduct research while working on their master's and doctoral degrees. The awards provide students with up to $126,000 during a five-year period to conduct research in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Eleven…

library columns pediments
2013 Lecture on Scholarly Communication

The UGA Librairies presents a lecture by Kenneth D. Crews, director of the Copyright Advisory Office at Columbia University in New York City, "Copyright and the Academy: The Battle turns to the Courts," on Monday May 20 at 10 am in 271 Auditorium of the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries. Crews will discuss recent U.S. court decisions that shape fair use for higher education: For many years, universities and some…


Graduation Day

The long and winding road leads to here. Congratulations to all students, parents, friends and standers-by. For a much more eloquent rendering, I turn the blog over to Franklin College senior associate dean Hugh Ruppersburg, from his prepared remarks at the Lamar Dodd School of Art commencement and awards ceremony earlier this week: I am pleased to be here to offer congratulations and best wishes to those of you who are marking your graduation…
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