Ovations

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The College of Liberal and Fine Arts

Ovations Awarded Again!
Ovations, Vol. 6, 2011, won the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District IV Bronze Award in the Magazine Design, Single Editorial Spread category for the “Hiding in Plain Sight, the Photojournalism of Jack London” story. This is the fifth CASE award Ovations has won.


For the second year in a row, the Department of English Ph.D. program was named a finalist in the Excelencia in Education awards competition. Excelencia in Education’s goal is to accelerate higher education success for Latino students by providing data-driven analysis of the educational status of Latino students and by promoting education policies and institutional practices that support their academic achievement.


Students

English undergrad Victor Hernandez- Jayme won 2nd prize in the Elie Wiesel Foundation Prize in Ethics for his essay entitled “The Uniformed Merchants of Death: Exploring the Role of Consumer Ethics in the War on Drugs.” Victor attended a ceremony in New York where he received a $2400 cash award and had the opportunity to speak to Mr. Wiesel about his essay. The Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics Essay Contest, now in its 23rd year, challenges college students to analyze the urgent ethical issues confronting them in today’s complex world.


UTSA juniors and twin brothers Travis Merriweather and Rustein Merriweather were selected to attend this year’s Clinton Global Initiative in Washington, D.C. The proposal they submitted for the conference focused on creating sustainability initiatives at The University of Texas at San Antonio. Their ideas included establishing a farmers’ market to help reduce the distance food must travel and encouraging more eating of organic foods. Another proposed initiative was a green design expo in which campus engineers, architects, and student teams would present their ecological inventions and designs to be used on campus.

Christian Arredondo, UTSA’s first public health student in the Department of Sociology, completed a 10-week intensive internship in the Columbia University Medical Center’s (CUMC) Summer Public Health Scholars Program. The focus of the CUMC SPHSP is on academic and professional development within the field of public health.


Will Marshall Pirkey, candidate for the Ph.D. in anthropology, received the UTSA Presidential Dissertation Fellowship in Fall 2011 for his dissertation titled “Hybridizing Conservation: Collaboration in a Co-Managed Community National Park, Western Belize.”


The UTSA Chamber Singers were one of five choirs invited to perform at the National Symposium on American Choral Music in Washington, D.C. in June 2012. Professor John Silantien conducted the concert at the historic Coolidge Auditorium in the Library of Congress.


Alumni

Keyhla Calderon Lugo, 1998 Communications, won a 2011 National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Lone Star Chapter Emmy in the community service category for her reporting at KWEX Univision 41.


Brian St. John, 1986 MFA in Art, is the San Antonio Art League & Museum 2012 Artist of the Year. The artist selected for this honor is celebrated with a retrospective exhibition and a cash prize.


2011 Master in Music alum Aaron Carter- Cohn received a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct research in Nigeria. During 2013 he will teach at the University of Lagos and begin his research into the systematic organization of sounds in the languages of Nigerian music.

Faculty

John Morris, professor of geography, was selected to receive the Piper Professor Award for his dedication to the teaching profession and for outstanding academic, scientific and scholarly achievement. The Piper Professor Award, established by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation in 1958, recognizes outstanding college professors across Texas.


David Vance, assistant professor, Department of English, was selected for the 2012 Elixir Press Antivenom Poetry Award for his book manuscript Stupor, which will be published in 2013.


Wing Chung Ng, associate professor of history, will research and teach as a Fulbright Scholar at Hong Kong Baptist University in the 2012-2013 academic year. Ng’s research will focus on his book manuscript on the history of Cantonese opera in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Fulbright provides the luxury of time to do research as well as access to local archives. Ng will teach two courses, one on Modern China and another on Chinese immigration in Southeast Asia.


Seven COLFAbulous faculty members received University Excellence Awards:

  • President’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching Excellence
    Marian Aitches, History
    Catherine Nolan-Ferrell, History
  • President’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Core Curriculum Teaching
    Joel Christensen, Philosophy and Classics
  • President’s Distinguished Diversity Award
    Joycelyn Moody, English
  • President’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Excellence in Community Service
    Eugene Dowdy, Music
  • President’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Research Achievement
    Jill Hernandez, Philosophy and Classics
  • President’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Performance, Creative Production or Other Scholarly Achievement
    Jeanne Reesman, English

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