Monday, June 30, 2008

Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Going straight to the source

A grant of $300,000 to the MTSU Department of History will provide Tennessee educators with opportunities to access some of the most important historical documents of the American experience. The money comes from the Library of Congress through its Teaching with Primary Sources program. Some of the primary sources available through the Library of Congress include the complete papers of Abraham Lincoln and the complete papers of Thomas Jefferson. The Age of Jackson, the Civil War and Reconstruction period, the Depression Decade and World War II, and the Civil Rights Movement will be the first four eras on which the center will focus, says Dr. Stacey Graham, research professor at the center and project coordinator. “Those are points in Tennessee history that are also important in American history,” Graham says.

Contact Graham at 615-494-8783.
sgraham@mtsu.edu

A foggy day in Music City

Charles Fogg is the first African-American criminal court judge in Nashville history, but his climb up the ladder of jurisprudence isn’t an easy one. Fogg dispenses justice and wisdom as his personal life crumbles under the expectations of power and wealth in the decadent 1980s. This is the basis of Judge Fogg, a novel by Randy O’Brien, News Director for MTSU’s public radio station, WMOT-FM. Steven Womack, Edgar Award-winning author of Dead Folks Blues, says, “Judge Fogg is compelling and engaging and I guarantee you, if you’ll just read the first chapter, you won’t be able to put it down. It’s not only a page-turner, but a page-turner that makes you think and moves you profoundly.” O’Brien will discuss and sign copies of Judge Fogg at Davis-Kidd Booksellers, 2121 Green Hills Village Drive in Nashville, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 10.

Contact O’Brien at 615-898-2800.
robrien@mtsu.edu

Cool, clear water

The absence of clean drinking water is more of a problem globally than many people in the industrialized world realize. That’s why the National Academy of Engineering created a $1 million award to encourage creative solutions to the problem. The first prize was awarded last year to Abul Hussam for his system of removing arsenic from water. Dr. Preston MacDougall, chemistry, says Hussam’s system is easy to manufacture and is maintenance-free. “It simply consists of sand, charcoal, bits of bricks and shavings of cast iron—the active ingredient,” MacDougall says. “Porous iron forms strong bonds to arsenic, and when the filter is saturated, the contents can be safely dumped. The filtered arsenic is in non-toxic form—immobilized and chemically bonded to iron—and it will remain so as long as there is oxygen around, since this element blocks the chemical processes that dissociate arsenic and iron.”

Contact MacDougall at 615-898-5265.
pmacdoug@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

ATTACK THE TAX!--The MTSU College of Continuing Education and Distance Learning and the Tennessee Department of Revenue will offer a Tennessee Business Tax Seminar from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 16, at the DoubleTree Hotel in Murfreesboro. Continuing Education and Distance Learning Director David Foster says, “This seminar is extremely valuable and pertinent to anyone who prepares or pays taxes. In this economic environment when we all have to tighten our belts, we want to make sure we’re paying our legal obligations but no more. One idea from here could save thousands of dollars.” Online registration is $155, a savings of $10 per registrant over other methods. Registration includes all materials, breakfast, lunch and refreshments. For more information or to register, go to http://www.mtsu.edu/learn.
Contact Foster at 615-898-5033 or dfoster@mtsu.edu.

THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SLOW BUSINESS.--The Summer 2008 edition of “Tennessee’s Business,” a publication of MTSU’s Business and Economic Research Center, includes articles from major Tennessee politicians on the state of the economy. Senator Bob Corker sounds off on what he thinks Congress should do. Senator Lamar Alexander makes the case for a “Manhattan Project” for energy independence. Congressman Jim Cooper advocates the creation of a “bipartisan commission with teeth” modeled after the Iraq Study group and the military base closing commission to force leaders to take action. In addition, the full text of Governor Phil Bredesen’s May 12 address to the General Assembly is included, along with academic perspectives on the regional Southeast economy and the return of “stagflation.” Due to budget cuts, “Tennessee’s Business” is available only online at http://www.mtsu.edu/~berc. Contact the Business and Economic Research Center at 615-898-2610.

“ENGLAND SWINGS LIKE A PENDULUM DO.”—ROGER MILLER--The Fab Four, miniskirts and go-go boots, the “mods” versus the “rockers”—If you’re looking for a fun and informative course to take this summer, MTSU is offering British Popular Culture from 10:10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday July 7-August 7. This English course, taught by Dr. Jill Hague, will look at the development of popular culture in the United Kingdom after World War II, focusing on innovations in music, film and drama. Students will examine the cultural, historical and political contexts of the 1950s, the phenomenon of “Swinging London” and the Beatles in the 1960s and the rise of punk culture in the 1970s. Contact Hague at 615-904-8123 or ahague@mtsu.edu.

THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT--You can spend part of your summer examining the fascinating Native American history and prehistory of the Southwest and get geography or history credit for it at MTSU! The class is titled “Geography of Native Americans” and will be conducted for the 15th consecutive year by Dr. Doug Heffington, professor of historical geography and director of the Global Studies Program. “The class focuses on the examination of the human/land relationships between the native peoples of New Mexico and their natural environment,” Heffington says. “Most of our base camp is in the small colonial village of Truchas, which dates to the mid-1700s with its blend of Genizaro, Mestizo and Hispano cultures. The trip/course starts July 21st and takes about nine days to complete.” The cost is approximately $400 per student and includes transportation, two meals a day, lodging and entry fees. Contact Heffington at 615-898-5978 or jheffing@mtsu.edu.

ROLL OVER, JUNIOR!--Everything a human being is concerned with is based on learning and theory. That’s what makes the Learning Theories class being taught by Dr. Donald Kendrick through Thursday, July 3, at MTSU so fascinating. Kendrick, a psychology professor, says, “For example, students will gain insights and learn specific techniques to train their pets to do fun and funny things. These training techniques also generalize to raising children, the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of punishment, accepted practices on permitting young children to sleep with Mom (and Dad), the nature of the mother-infant bond, breaking bad habits and acquiring new ones, and how to get your roommate to have more respect for your things!” Contact Kendrick at 615-898-2706 or psyskip@mtsu.edu.

DAD, TAKE THE LAMPSHADE OFF YOUR HEAD WHILE THE CAMERA’S ROLLING!--Working with perhaps the most technology-savvy generation of young adults ever, Dr. Lorne McWatters, history, will teach a class titled “Genealogy and Documentary Film: Doing Your Own Family History in Film” to undergraduates for the first time at MTSU this fall. “The fall class will have 15 students, and each student will make a film about 10 minutes long on either some aspect of his/her family (genealogy) or some aspect of the history of MTSU,” McWatters says. “In speaking to students about the class, I found the undergraduates to be very enthusiastic, much more so than the graduate students, in general.” Contact McWatters at 615-898-5805 or dmcwatte@mtsu.edu.

SCOTT AND ZELDA SAY IT’S THE CAT’S MEOW!--The Jazz Age, that era when flappers danced the Charleston and speakeasys were all the rage, will find new life via art in downtown Murfreesboro through the creativity of Erin Anfinson, assistant professor of art at MTSU. Beginning July 1 and continuing through mid-August, Anfinson—along with MTSU students Emily May-Ragland and Sarah Sullivan—will work each afternoon to create a Jazz Age-inspired mural more than six feet tall and nearly 20 feet long at The Heritage Center of Murfreesboro and Rutherford County. “Art deco design, patterns and color palettes have always struck me as exceptionally lively and fun subject matter, which made conducting research for this project a pleasure,” says Anfinson. Contact Melissa Zimmerman, heritage programming specialist for the Center for Historic Preservation, at 615-217-8013. For an interview with Anfinson, contact Lisa L. Rollins in the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-2919 or lrollins@mtsu.edu.