Today’s Response
Middle Tennessee State University

Go for the Gilman

Two MTSU students are recipients of the 2010 Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, one of the most prestigious study abroad stipends in the nation. Murfreesboro’s Brock Downing, a junior concrete industry management major, and Whitney Rhodes, a junior radio/television major from Whiteville, will use their opportunities in very different ways. Rhodes, whose minors are art and Japanese, is attending Saitama University in Japan this semester. Downing will study during the summer 2010 semester in Morelia, Mexico. “Gilman also requires that students complete their service projects upon their return home,” says Rhonda Waller, director of MTSU Education Abroad and Student Exchange. “Those service projects help to get the word out about the value of study abroad. So this program keeps paying dividends to our campus even after students receive their awards.”

Contact Waller at 615-898-5179.
mtabroad@mtsu.edu

“There’s more to life than a little money, you know.”—Police Chief Marge Gunderson in “Fargo”

Their quirky, but entertaining and powerful films include “Blood Simple,” “Raising Arizona,” “Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” and the Academy Award-winning “No Country for Old Men.” The actors who have made their movies special include George Clooney, Brad Pitt, William H. Macy, John Goodman, Holly Hunter and Frances McDormand. Joel and Ethan Coen and their work are the subjects of a Special Topics in Film Studies class being taught this semester by Dr. David Lavery of the MTSU Department of English each Wednesday night from 6-9 p.m. in Room 308 of Peck Hall. Students will keep viewing journals and write critical essays on films of their choice, as well as a source paper on some aspect of the Coen brothers’ work. In addition, they will complete an essay final exam.

Contact Lavery at 615-898-5648.
david.lavery@gmail.com

A spirited discussion

“I’m not religious. I’m spiritual.” We’ve all heard people say that. But what does it mean? Can an atheist or agnostic say it? What, precisely, do atheists and agnostics believe—and believe in? What makes a non-religious person “spiritual?” Dr. Phil Oliver, philosophy, will guide his students through these and many other questions in “Atheism and Spirituality,” a new course being taught at MTSU this semester from 2:40-4:05 on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Room 202 of the James Union Building. Oliver’s class will reflect on texts by Epicurus, Pascal, Hume, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, among others, as well as the writings of “New Atheists” like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. Students also will examine works as widely divergent as Varieties of Scientific Experience by the late Carl Sagan and Letting Go of God by former “Saturday Night Live” comedienne Julia Sweeney.

Contact Oliver at 615-898-2050.
poliver@mtsu.edu

TR EXTRA

I’LL GRANT YOU THAT.--The MTSU President’s Commission on the Status of Women is offering three grants of $1,800 each to faculty members who want to integrate the experiences and perspectives of women into the curriculum. The grants are intended for use in the summer of 2010. The 2009 winners include Dr. Gretchen Webber, sociology, for her new undergraduate course “Gender, Work and Family in the 21st Century; Dr. Meredith Huey Dye, sociology, for her special topics course “Women in Prison;” and Dr. Tricia Farwell, journalism, for her “Advertising and Social Media” course. The deadline for faculty to submit applications for the 2010 grants is today, Jan. 19. For more information, contact Dr. Samantha Cantrell at 615-494-8751 or scantrel@mtsu.edu.