College of Arts and SciencesThe University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

2010-2011 in the College

Dr. Robert Swansbrough1938-2011

In this issue:• We lose a stalwart.• From the departments.

Bob Swansbrough—“A legacy of integrity, intellect, and kindness”

UTC veteran faculty member and long-serving associate dean Dr. Robert "Bob" Swansbrough died this past Febru-ary. He was 72, and he’d served the UTC family for 40 years.

Swansbrough was born in Chi-cago. Bob was still young when his family moved to Southern California. He re-ceived a B.A. in history from California State University at Long Beach, and later, both the M.A. and Ph.D. in political sci-ence from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Dr. Swansbrough served in the United States Navy from 1961-1965 as a junior officer on the destroyer U.S.S. Braine (DD630). After release from the Navy, Bob was selected one of twelve Congressional Fellows of the American Political Science Association. He taught at the College of William and Mary, and he served as a legislative assistant, congres-sional aide, and campaign manager for seven congressional campaigns in Tennes-see and California.

Dr. Swansbrough joined the UTC Political Science Department in 1971. He served as head of the department from 1981 to 1991. He was named Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1990, and Associate Dean in 1992. In 1993, he completed the Harvard University Management Development Program.

Bob was an expert on southern politics. His publications included: Politi-cal Change in Tennessee, The South's New Politics, and chapters on Tennessee politics in four editions of Presidential Elections in the South. In 2008, Palgrave McMillan re-leased his Test by Fire: The War Presi-

dency of George W. Bush. Swansbrough taught American Government, The Presi-dency, American Foreign Policy, World Politics, International Relations, Political Leadership, Presidential Personality, and Congress.

Dr. Swansbrough served as presi-dent of the Tennessee Political Science As-sociation in 1987-1988. He consulted as a political pollster. He was a highly visible TV political analyst, panelist, and show host. His comments and political observa-tions appeared often in newspaper and broadcast stories.

Bob was instrumental in the return of Military Science to UTC, and for his efforts, the U.S. Army Cadet Command recognized Swansbrough with its prestig-ious General William E. DePuy Award.

Dr. Swansbrough, flanked by his wife Mary and daughter Christina Marie, at the 2008 singing for his book Test by Fire: The War Presidency of George W. Bush

3Only one other individual has been singled out for the honor.

A highlight of Bob's professional career came the year before his death in 2009-2010 when he was named a Fulbright Scholar to China. During the Fulbright year, he taught courses at Sichuan University in Chengdu on American Government and United States Foreign Policy. He also deliv-ered guest lectures at a number of campuses throughout the country. During his year away from Chattanooga, he kept people back home informed with a regular and of-ten personal blog of his activities and ob-servations.

Bob is survived by his wife Mary and his children James Raymond and Christina Marie.

As was written about him shortly after his death, “Bob leaves behind a legacy of in-tegrity, intellect, and kindness for the count-less students, colleagues, and friends who he affected over a lifetime of teaching. He was a gentleman, scholar, and role model to his de-voted wife, children, and siblings throughout his full life.”

• • •

Bob and a group of Sichuan University students during his 2009-2010 Fulbright experience

With son James at the Great Wall during Bob’s Fullbright year in China

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Dean Herbert Burhenn

Our  new  program  with  the  long  name,  UTeaChattanooga,  was   launched  last  fall  and  has  gotten  off  to  a  9ine  start.    We  en-­‐

rolled  29  students  in  the  9irst  course  in  the  fall  and  32  in  the  spring.    Nineteen  of  the  29  students  continued  with  the  second  course  in  the  spring.    These  initial  courses  provide  immediate  experience  in  classroom  teaching  and  are  de-­‐signed  to  help  students  decide  whether  they  have  a  serious  interest  in  a  teaching  career.    This  fall  we  shall  begin  offer-­‐ing  the  advanced  courses  that  will  prepare  our  students,  along  with  the  completion  of  their  major,  for  teaching  sec-­‐

ondary  math  or  science.    It  is  our  hope  that  the  program  will  signi9icantly  increase  the  number  of  certi9ied  teachers  that  we  graduate  in  these  9ields.

This year our Theatre program applied for accreditation by the National Association of Schools of Theatre. A visiting team from the Association was on campus in November, and we received the good news in the spring that our program received accreditation on the first try. All of our fine arts programs—Theatre, Music, and Art—are now accredited by their respective associations.

This issue of the College newsletter features an extended tribute to Bob Swans-brough, who died at the beginning of February from a heart attack. Bob had served as Asso-ciate Dean of the College for many years and as editor of this newsletter. His unflagging en-thusiasm for teaching and for the world of politics is deeply missed. We are seeking to es-tablish an endowed scholarship in his honor. If you would like to contribute, please send a check, designated for the Swansbrough Scholarship, to the UTC Development Office, De-partment 6806, 615 McCallie Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37403.

The Arts and Sciences Newsletter and In-formation Bulletin is published periodically by the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

This number was organized and designed by Kit Rushing. Any value of the publication must be credited to the contributors. Blame or responsibility for faults, errors, and omissions rest on Rushing.

Summer 2011

Have you ever considered includ-ing an academic department in your will or estate plan? Did you know that you can establish a scholarship, professor-ship, or chair in your name as a deferred gift?

To learn more about the signifi-cant tax and financial benefits of a planned gift contact Matt Wilson at 423-425-4042 or by email Matthew-Wilson@UTC.edu

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From the DepartmentsEnglish Professor Dr. Richard Jackson Receives Eric Hoffer Award

Dr. Richard Jackson, University of Tennessee National Alumni Association (UTNAA) Distinguished Professor of Eng-lish, is the recipient of a 2011 Eric Hoffer Award. The award each year recognizes out-standing writing in a variety of categories for works published by small, micro, and aca-demic presses. The winning stories and es-says are published in Best New Writing. The US Review of Books announces and reviews the winning books. The Eric Hoffer Award, a memorial to the American philosopher Eric Hoffer. was established in 2001 with the pur-pose of “opening a door to writing of signifi-cant merit.”

An internationally recognized writer, Dr. Jackson is the author of ten books of poems, most recently Resonance Unauthorized Auto-biography: New and Selected Poems and Svetovi Narazen: Selected Poems. He has also published several chapbooks of translations, a book of criticism and one of interviews, and sev-eral edited books of Slovene po-ets and anthologies of Slovene poetry.

Dr. Jackson was the re-cipient of the 2009 Association of Writing and Writing Programs (AWP) George Garrett Award for Outstanding Teaching and Community Service in Litera-ture and the Order of Freedom Medal for literary and humani-

tarian work in the Balkans by the President of Slovenia, as well as Guggenheim, NEA, and NEH awards, two Witter-Bynner and Ful-bright fellowships, and five Pushcart Prizes. In addition he has won awards from Prairie Schooner Magazine, Crazyhorse Magazine and other publications. He has won teaching awards at UT-Chattanooga and the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program and is a regular workshop leader and reader at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Prague Summer Programs, Vermont College MFA Programs and other venues.

•••UC-UTC veteran English Professor

Tom Ware was feted this spring with a recep-tion recognizing his more than 40 years of teaching at UTC. Dr. Ware formally retired in 2007 from his full-time faculty position, and

Rick Jackson, Hugh Prevost, and outgoing English Department Head Verbie Prevost sharing observations at a recent English faculty dinner

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with the close of this spring semes-ter he ended four-years of part-time instruction in the English Depart-ment for a total of 44 years of class-room and admin-istrative services to the university.

•••

Philosophy and ReligionTimeliness and relevance continued

this year to be a hallmark of UTC’s Philoso-phy and Religion activities. Professor Irv Resnick brought three speakers to campus for the 2011 LeRoy Martin Distinguished Profes-sorship in Religious Studies lecture series. Early in the fall term, Jeremy Cohen from Tel Aviv University, Robin Darling Young from The University of Notre Dame, and Suleiman A. Mourad from Smith College explored “Holy Lands in Classical Judaism, Christian-ity, and Islam.” Later Dan Cheon (B.A. Phi-losophy, 2009 and B.S. Physics, 2009), UTC graduate and now a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Oklahoma, returned to campus to present a lecture on the philosophy of time.

Professor Talia Welsh arranged as part of the Women’s Studies lecture series visit from Vanderbilt University’s Lisa Guenther to talk on “Solitary Confine-ment: A Phenomenol-ogical Critique.”

Professor Welsh also directed the sen-ior thesis of Chelsea Cooper, a Humanities major, whose work on phenomenology helped her win the most outstanding senior award.

•••

GeologyJapanese and Spanish earthquakes and

their devastating aftermaths—tsunami, mud-slides, billions in property damage, and thou-

sands of lost lives dominated the UTC Geol-ogy faculty this year. Tennessee contains two significant earthquake zones, The New Ma-drid in the west and the Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone (ETSZ) stretching in the east from north of Knoxville to the south of Chat-tanooga. With more than twenty applications for nuclear facilities pending in the eastern United States, events in Japan and Spain fo-cused public attention on the ETSZ, the sec-ond most active area in the eastern part of the country. UTC faculty are incorporating into their instruction information and lessons from the events in Japan and the relevance of those lessons to our part of the world.

Dr. Talia Welsh

UC-UTC veteran English Profes-sor Tom Ware joined the Univer-sity of Chattanooga faculty in 1967.

Map of special seismic zones in the Central and Eastern United States. Note the cluster of earthquakes that form the Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone. USGS image.

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Department Head and UC Foundation Professor Habte Giorgis Churnet said one must “be careful of those who do not catch up

with others, they may later cause tremors!”

•••

ChemistryChemistry is back home

this year in a refurbished but still venerable Grote Hall. The de-partment now occupies fully the third and fourth floors of the modernized facility.

Dr. Greg Grant receivied national recognition this year from the American Chemical Society with the ACS Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution. The highly competi-

tive and prestigious honor is sponsored by the Research Corporation for Science Advance-ment. The award underscores the importance

of research with undergraduates with national recognition of a chemistry faculty member and re-searcher whose work in an under-graduate setting contributes signifi-cantly to chemistry and to the pro-fessional development of under-graduate students. The department also this year cele-brated 25 years of its annual sum-mer research program for under-graduate students. During the summer program, chemistry stu-dents undertake at least ten weeks of research with faculty members.

•••

CommunicationCommunication students and fac-ulty are active and engaged inside the classroom and out in the 2010-2011 academic year. More than 70 communication majors this year completed internships in a number of professional settings—news, web content management, public rela-tions, advertising, marketing, corpo-rate communication, and sales. Im-portantly, the Volkswagen Group of America is now sponsoring a paid internship in media and community relations for UTC Communication students. Communication instructor and pro-duction manager Mike Andrews is overseeing student video services for a number of university and community clients, including the UT Chancellor’s Office, the College of Business and School of Nursing,

National award winning UTC chemistry professor, Dr. Greg Grant with his wife, retiring UTC business professor Dr. Paula Haynes.

UTC Chemistry summer research students and faculty taking a break with a cookout at the Tennessee River Park. Taking part in the cookout (not neces-sarily in the order pictured) are Daniel Burriss,  Jessica Moerman,  Christina Brosius, Dr. Steve Symes, Tess Cannon, Eli Rodriguez, Dr. Manuel Santiago, Hitesh Vashi, Dr. Greg Grant, Nick Daugherty, Dr. John Lynch, Austin Hall, Dr. Tom Rybolt, Matt Stephens, Dr. Gretchen Potts, Vijay Patel, Dr. Rob Me-bane, Lindsey Redmond, Dr. Kyle Knight,  Natalie Talbott, Zac Perry,  Marko Bajic ,  Nancy Tolar,  Jim Narramore,  Bailey Hudson, and Dr. Larry Mehne and Thomas Holcombe from Covenant College.

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University Relations, the Admissions and Re-cords offices, Volkswagen, Woodbridge Foam, and Chattanooga Women’s Leadership Institute. Andrews also coordinated a long-needed upgrade to the department’s produc-tion facilities. The upgrade provides students with digital facilities in the production control room and the audio-video edit bays.

Communication students remain ac-tive and engaged in campus media, including The University Echo, the on-line Mocs News, and The Perch, the university’s streamed ra-dio station. The Perch celebrated its one-year broadcasting anniversary in March 2011.

Department head Betsy Alderman and colleagues Felicia McGhee-Hilt and Mike Andrews began work in the spring on a documentary on the desegregation of the Uni-versity of Chattanooga in the early 1960s. Drs. Alderman and Hilt interviewed Dr. Hor-ace Traylor, the first African-American to graduate from the then-UC, as well as other black graduates and civil rights leaders. The documentary will be screened in November as part of the university’s 125th anniversary cele-bration.

•••

Foreign LanguagesThis past year has been one of accom-

plishment for the people in Foreign Lan-

guages and Literatures. Enrollment increase continues and the faculty curriculum revisions in Classics, French, German, Latin, and Spanish are strengthening the programs and giving the department greater breadth.Professor of Romance Languages, Dr. Pedro Campa, was recognized by a Festschrift in his honor for his achievements in the field of Emblem Studies. Dr. Campa also coordinated the university’s faculty honors din-

ner, during which classics professor Joshua Davies was announced as this year’s outstanding teacher in the col-lege.

The depart-ment continued its emphasis on study abroad this past summer with Span-ish Assistant Profes-sor Dr. Lynn Purkey leading a student adventure to Spain to study at the Franklin Institute of the University of Alcalá.

•••

Military ScienceArmy ROTC is alive and well at UTC!

The MOCS Battalion, 65 Cadets strong, proudly commissioned seven Second Lieu-tenants into the Active Duty and Reserve Forces during the 2010-2011 academic terms. Congratulations to Second Lieutenants Jer-emy Davis, John Dennis, Alistar Fider, Ran-dal Kizziar, Daniel Ley, Joshua Standifer, and Mark Vines.

ROTC participated in the October 2010 Military Appreciation Day MOCS Foot-

Dr. Horace Traylor, the University of Chattanooga’s first African-American, interviewed by communication faculty member Dr. Felicia McGhee-Hilt as part of the department produced special on UC-UTC history.

In addition to his scholarship and committee service to UTC, Foreign Languages Professor Pedro Campa’s interests in-clude growing orchids.

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ball game ceremonies. Chancellor Brown got in on the action and fired a round out of the salute cannon in celebration of one of the many Home Team touchdowns!

Congratulations to Mr. Josh Philpott for gaining acceptance into the UTC School of Nursing. Mr. Philpott, upon completion of the nursing program, will commission as UTC’s first Army Nurse since the reintroduction of Army ROTC on the UTC Campus in 2007.

•••

History UTC’s Depart-

ment of History contin-ued this year efforts to serve the discipline with scholarship and outreach. This past fall the depart-ment, with support from Provost Phil Oldham,

hosted the annual meeting of the Western Theater Historians Association. Membership in the association is limited to published scholars who study the Western Theater of the U. S. Civil War. This year’s meeting resulted in association members voting to meet in Chattanooga every other year beginning in 2012.

History faculty led by Dr. An-drea Becksvoort continued to host and to sponsor the annual Tennessee History Day secondary school student research competi-tions. History Day is a national initiative to encourage and to support the study of history in secondary education. History faculty and senior students served as paper and presenta-tion judges during the day’s events. After this year, the department will support UTC’s Col-lege of Health, Education, and Professional Studies’ School of Education in a joint His-tory Day effort in southeast Tennessee.

In April, UTC’s chapter of the Na-tional History Honor Society (Phi Alpha

Several participants from the annual meeting of the Historians of the Western Theater, hosted by the UTC History Department, visited Sherman's Reservation, the northern ex-treme of Missionary Ridge. Left to Right: Sam Elliot, James McDonnough, David Powell, Jim Ogden, Jean Marszalek, John Marszalek, Beth Murray, Smith Murray, Kit Rushing

Spring 2011 Military Science Commissioning Ceremony (Front to Back, Left to Right, SFC Pierce, 2LT Kizziar, SFC Fisher, 2LT Dennis, SFC Irvin, 2LT Standifer,

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Theta) welcomed to campus the Seventh Annual Southeastern Tennessee Student His-tory Conference. UTC History faculty members served as panel chairs for research presentations from 19 students from UTC, Covenant College, Southern Adventist Uni-versity, Lee University, and Bryan College. The conference papers were on subjects that included “Elizabeth [I’s] Androgynous Im-age as Reflected in Shakespeare’s Comic Heroines,” “Cherokee Civilization, Land Rights, and National Sovereignty, 1825-1828,” “Civil War Attitudes as seen in Chil-dren’s Media and Toys,” and “Moham-mad Mossadegh and the July 21 Uprising.” UTC’s chapter of Phi Alpha Theta has par-ticipated at the annual conference since 2006; this year marked the second time UTC served as host.

This coming September, the His-tory Department is organizing the annual Tennessee Historians

Conference. This year’s conference will be the first time UTC has invited the state’s his-torians to meet in Chattanooga. The meeting will include panels and presentations focus-ing on current history scholarship by histori-ans who live or work in Tennessee.

The department experienced this year its five-year program review. The ex-ternal reviewer commented in his report that UTC’s history department has “enormous potential” and that the department’s activi-ties are impressive.

•••

Theater and SpeechUTC’s Theater Department is ac-

credited! The department hosted this year a successful accrediting visit from the Na-tional Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST). With the recognition as an associ-ate member, the first step to full NAST status, our UTC department is now one of only 168 accredited theater programs in the United States.

Theatre and Speech faculty and stu-dents this year produced four mainstage shows, two student honors projects, and

History Professor Michelle White and UTC history major Sam Parfitt reviewing Parfitt’s presentation, “The Great Ex-hibition of 1851 and the Conflicts of Modernity in Great Britain,” at the Southern Eastern Tennessee Student Hiistory Conference.

Theater and Speech’s Spring production of "The Robber Bridegroom," directed by Professor Steve Ray. The four guys in the front are: (l-r) Jarred Clemons, Aiden Smith, Michael Hag-garty and Will Park. The cast across the back are (l-r) T. K. Kelly, Gregory Jackson, Brandy Johnson, Nicole Pavol, Forrest Pruit, Hannah Tumlin, Justin Holderman, Erin England, Maggie McNulty, Alex Whittle, Tyler Mascia, Maadiye Davies, Iesha Vann, T. C. Cox and Megan Cobb's elbow

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three studio series shows. One of the main-stage production was a musical directed by theater major Blake Harris.

•••

BiologyBiological and Environmental Sci-

ences continues to grow and now has over 700 majors. This year brought the retire-ment of Dr. Charles Nelson, long serving leader of the department. Dr. Nelson made many contributions during his 42 years at UTC, including serving as Department Head for 25 years, Acting Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for one and a half years, and co-chair of the UTC Strategic Planning Committee in 2006-2007. John Tucker, cur-rent Department Head, said of Dr. Nelson, “He has enriched his students, his col-leagues, and his university through his pro-fessionalism, wisdom, dedication, and sup-port. He shaped one of the most productive departments in the College as measured by student enrollment, research, publications, and collegiality. We have all benefited im-measurably from his tenure at UTC.” Dr. Nelson plans to continue to engage in research and publication.

Department faculty and stu-dents continued to acquire external grant funding, conduct research, and disseminate findings through professional presen-tations and publica-tions. Many re-search projects involve environmental qual-ity and human health in the Chattanooga

region, including evaluating effects of large animals on a threatened plant (large-flowered skullcap), documenting native plants of the Ocoee River Gorge in response to plans to modify Highway 64, measuring levels of toxicants in human placentas to help determine whether this is a cause of low weight births, documenting levels of pharmaceuticals (drugs) in the Tennessee River, investigating the genetics of colon cancer, deafness, and abnormal bone and muscle development, studying salamander populations in the Enterprise South indus-trial park, studying the effects of urban de-velopment on fish assemblages in local streams, evaluating the habitat value of ur-ban green space (Greenway Farm) for mi-gratory songbirds, and use of Algaewheel® systems to treat TVA fossil plant aqueous pollutants.

•••

Biology-Environmental Science student working with a friend during the ongoing Mouse Creek project.

Dr. Charles Nelson served the UTC Biology and Environ-mental Sciences Department for 25 years as program head.

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College of Arts and Sciences118 Holt HallUniversity of Tennessee at ChattanoogaChattanooga, Tenn. 37403

College of Arts and Sciences2010-2011 News and Information

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Newly named head of the UTC English Depart-ment Joe Wilferth accepting Philosphy head John Phillips’ congratulations during a meeting of the college department heads.