News Archive - 2012


Franklin Dean Finalists Announced

  When former dean Garnett Stokes stepped down this past August to become provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Florida State University, senior associate dean Hugh Ruppersburg was named interim dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. A longtime faculty member with vast institutional knowledge of Franklin College as well as a noted scholar of American film and literature, Ruppersburg has taken on the role…


Stonehenge at LDSOA

In Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy described the solitude of Stonehenge:  ‘What can it be? … A very Temple of the Winds’ … ‘It seems as though there were no folk in the world but we two’ … they … listened a long time to the wind among the pillars … Presently the wind died out, and the quivering little pools in the cup-like hollows of the stones lay still." A prehistoric icon that is also an enduring puzzle, recent excavations and…


The Onus of Responsibility

Interim dean Hugh Ruppersburg addressed the UGA chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in December, 2011 on the thread of responsibility running through Arthur Miller's All My Sons, the scandal at Penn State and the future of these UGA graduates: Arthur Miller’s play is about men who fail to do what is right, about a man whose desire to protect his name and his business causes the death of his own son and of other American young men fighting in the Second…


Universities and Internationalization

  In preparing some advance press for a news item, I was interviewing a faculty member about her Fulbright experience earlier this week and it brought us around to a wider discussion about students and faculty going abroad. Our university and Franklin College very much encourage international experiences and collaborations. The art exhibition that was the focus of my interview offers a case in point of the benefits therein: an international…


Music Notes

  Sorry - that title was too easy. But there is so much in terms of news and events coming out of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music that I hope to make this a regular feature on the blog.  For example, coming up on Monday, February 20, the Music Therapy program will offer their Music Therapy Musicale, featuring students and faculty from the program in performances of the many styles of music used in therapy, including pop and rock,…

face in a cracked mirror
Hidden Man

Howard Finster was a very fascinating Georgian - a minister, visual artist and visionary who died in 2001, but not before having an outsized impact on our culture as a result of his unique confluence of pursuits. These and more are explored in a new play that will have its world premiere at UGA beginning Feb. 23. University of Georgia Theatre, in collaboration with Atlanta's 7 Stages Theatre, will present the world premiere of "Hidden Man" by…


Genome Mapping to Biofuels

  Since at least the 1970's, University of Georgia researchers and engineers have been working on the many different facets of developing renewable energy sources, from biodiesel to fermentation, soil sequestration and more. The many different avenues provided opportunities for crucial bench-scale breakthroughs that have allowed further related research to flourish. That progress continues today: Researchers at the University of Georgia…


Heavens

The UGA department of physics and astronomy has been hosting a monthly open house at the UGA Observatory since at least 1998 (trying to confirm the actual beginning*). This tradition continues on Feb. 24 from 7:30 - 9 p.m. on the fourth floor of the physics building. Jupiter, Venus and the crescent moon will be visible if the sky is clear. Visitors will be able to view the planets through the 24-inch telescope in the dome on top of the…


Cook named associate provost for institutional diversity

Former Franklin associate dean Michelle Cook has been named as the new associate provost for institutional diversity at the University of Georgia: Cook has been leading the university's Office of Institutional Diversity as interim associate provost since Cheryl Dozier stepped down to become interim president of Savannah State University. An internal search was conducted to fill the associate provost position. "Dr. Cook has done an outstanding…


Drawing Across Borders

  There is a fantastic, international show up at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, featuring great artwork and highlighting an important mechanism for faculty collaboration: the Fulbright Scholarship Program: The Lamar Dodd School of Art is hosting an exhibition of works by Diane Edison, a Fulbright scholar and UGA professor, and Ekaterina Russiniova of the New Bulgarian University fine arts department. The exhibition, titled "Drawing Across…