Fall/Winter 2021 Issue

Alumni

I Love to Tell the Story: Selected Sermons of Christian Faith by Reverend J. Harold McKeithen Jr. ’56 (2021, Botetourt Press). A collection of some of the best sermons by the Reverend J. Harold McKeithen, published posthumously by his family, Melissa, Dan and Lucy McKeithen. Compiled and edited by family friend and journalist, Wilford Kate.

The Assassination of James Forrestal by David Martin ’65 (2021, McCabe Publishing). Who killed our nation’s first Secretary of Defense? A work of revisionist history, Martin delves into the motives for murder behind Forrestal’s death.

The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation by David Martin ’65 and Hugh Turley (2018, McCabe Publishing). Did Thomas Merton die by accidental electrocution? Or did the CIA play a role in the death of the Trappist monk, one of the most prominent Roman Catholic thinkers and writers of the 20th century?

The Murder of Vince Foster: America’s Would-Be Dreyfus Affair by David Martin ’65 (2020, DCD Publishers). Martin explores the conspiracy behind fellow Davidson alum and Bill Clinton’s deputy White House counsel Vince Foster’s suicide.

Sacred Source: One Man’s Journey of Reunion with the Divine Feminine by Freeman Allan ’67 (2012, Mountain Magic Press). A memoir focused on connection to the divine feminine and its power to lead a new generation to a radical re-envisioning of what it means to be human.

Jennifer and William’s ENORMOUS Adventure: A recycling adventure for children young and old by Richard Freeman Allan ’67 (2014, Mountain Magic Press). An eco-fable intended to awaken young peoples’ desire to protect planet Earth.



Our Older Friends: A Guide for Visitors by Joel T. Keys ’69 (1983, Fortress Press). A guide for creating quality experiences with older people. Learn about the gifts you can share and receive by spending time with the elderly.

Closed for Repairs with Plumbing Problems by David G Scott ’70 (2021, Draft2Digital). A book of clean comedy, one-liners, humorous observations, standup routines and short silly screenplays. 

Journalism Education for the Digital Age: Promises, Perils, and Possibilities by B. Creech ’05 (2021, Routledge). Pressing debates about how and why journalism education should examine its relationship to the digital age and the changes it spurs.

Add Yourself to the Shelf

To submit your book for this column, as well as to E.H. Little Library’s Davidsoniana Room, please send a signed copy to: 

Davidson Journal 

Box 7171, Davidson College

Davidson, NC 28035-7171

We will no longer feature self-published books as of the Spring/Summer 2022 issue.

Africana Studies

Takiyah Harper-Shipman co-edited a special forum with K.Melchor Hall titled, “Stripping Away the Body: Prospects for Reimagining Race in IR” for International Studies Review. 

Anthropology

Laurian Bowles has been elected President of the Association for Africanist Anthropology, a section of the American Anthropological Association. She will serve as president-elect from 2021-22 and president from 2022-2024.

Art

Joelle Dietrick created a mural next to Dickinson College’s Goodyear Gallery. This fall, she and Owen Mundy also exhibited their online project, Tally Saves the Internet, at Digitale Düsseldorf 2021 and Athens Digital Arts Festival.

Biology

Mark Stanback had four students present at national conferences: Julia Barnfield ’22, “Orange Nectar Bats Avoid Foraging Near O’possums” for the Animal Behavior Society; Adam Gelman ’21, “How does the Color and Texture of Foreign Objects, and the Prior Experience of Eastern Bluebirds, Influence the Ejection of Foreign Objects from Nests?” for the American Ornithological Society; Max Rollfinke ’21, “Do Eastern Bluebirds Guard Nest Boxes During the Fall and Winter?” for the American Ornithological Society; and Max Saucier ’21, “Eastern Bluebird Ejection of Model Brown-headed Cowbird Eggs Influenced by the Number of Host Eggs” for the American Ornithological Society.

Communication Studies

Amanda R. Martinez published an article titled, “Representation Matters: Theorizing Health Communication from the Flesh,” in Health Communication journal. Martinez has also accepted an invitation from the incoming lead editor of Communication Monographs (a flagship journal) to serve as one of four associate editors.

Digital Studies

Mark Sample’s workplace horror game Content Moderator Sim was a featured work in the curated COVID E-Lit digital media exhibition organized by Aarhus University in Denmark. Over the summer Sample also taught a week-long workshop on creative coding for the University of Pennsylvania’s digital humanities lab.

Economics

Clark Ross gave three College Board-sponsored, one-week, Advanced Placement institutes for high-school teachers of micro and macroeconomics this summer. One of these remote sessions was coordinated by Davidson College and two by the University of South Florida.

Caleb Stroup’s research, “Macroeconomic Research Present and Past,” is forthcoming in The Journal of Economic Literature. The paper, co-authored with economists at Williams, Kenyon, and Wake Forest, interrogates the epistemological evolution of macroeconomics during the past 40 years.

Educational Studies

Brittany Murray was the keynote speaker for the Ohio Valley Philosophy of Education Society annual meeting. She gave a talk titled, “When Flight Is Not an Option: White Parent Collective Involvement and the Subversion of Desegregation Policy.”

English

Brenda Flanagan has been named as a reviewer for the August Wilson Journal, a publication that focuses on articles about plays written by one of America’s most esteemed playwrights, August Wilson.

Ann Fox presented a short video entitled, “Teaching Graphic Medicine as Disability Art During COVID-19” as part of the Graphic Medicine International UnConference. Fox’s comic, “#crockpotrunner: a not-finished tale of a midlife athlete” is part of Menopause: A Comic Treatment (ed. MK Czerwiec), which won the 2021 Eisner Award for best comics anthology at Comic-Con International San Diego. “Indisposable: Structures of Support After the ADA,” an online exhibition co-curated for the Ford Foundation Gallery by Fox and Dr. Jessica Cooley ’05, premiered its sixth video commission in September. 

Alan Michael Parker’s story, The Bridge, has been awarded Third Place in the River Styx 2021 Microfiction Contest, from among approximately 1,200 entries. Published bi-annually since 1975, River Styx is a prominent independent literary journal based in St. Louis. 

Andrew Rippeon’s artist’s book, Post-Oak, has been placed on exhibition in the Burroughs Wellcome Gallery at East Carolina University’s School of Art and Design. Rippeon’s work includes a series of prints made from hand-cut cross-sections of a 98-year-old post oak that fell during heavy rains. The book is bound in a “flutter”-style so that multiple page-spreads may be viewed simultaneously.  

German Studies

Burkhard Henke, Emily Frazier-Rath, and Scott Denham received a $7,870 grant for programming and events this fall from the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., as part of the nationwide initiative “Time to Act.” Programming at Davidson will include a German elections watch party, ongoing programming and speakers connected to the Black German Heritage Research Association, a talk by Ingeborg Bachmann Prize Winner Sharon Dodua Otoo, a week focused on Jewish life in Germany in the context of newly discovered archives, and an afternoon of German board games, framed historically.

Emily Fraiser-Rath, together with Sundi Richard, Daniel Lynds, Maddy Page, and Emmanuel Atia ’24 in the Digital Learning Center, created “Unpacking Activism for Davidson EdX.” Frazier-Rath is executive director of the BGRHA Institute.

History

Jane Mangan was one of 11 scholars invited to present their work at an international, interdisciplinary symposium sponsored by the British Academy and the University of York in July. The event was entitled “The Matter of Silver: Substance, Surface, Shimmer, Trauma,” and Mangan’s contribution was “Reflections in Silver: Colonial Identities and Material Culture in the Silver City of Potosí,” part of an ongoing research project on material culture and colonialism in the Andes.

Rose Stremlau has won a 2021-22 Howard Fellowship to support the completion of her book manuscript Barbara Hildebrand Longknife: A Cherokee Life in the Age of American Empire. Stremlau also co-authored an article entitled “Psychosocial Aspects of Historical and Cultural Learning: Historical Trauma and Resilience Among Indigenous Young Adults,” which appears in the May 2021 Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.

Latin American Studies

Britta Crandall and Russell Crandall reviewed David Edmond’s “The Murder of Professor Schlick: The Rise and Fall of the Vienna Circle” for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books.

Russell Crandall published “The US-Mexico Border: Asylum, Fear and Trump” in Survival. Crandall reviewed Suzanna Reiss’ “We Sell Drugs: The Alchemy of U.S. Empire” for the Journal of Cold War Studies; and Simon Hall’s “10 Days in Harlem: Fidel Castro and the Making of the 1960s” for Hispanic American Historical Review 101. Crandall discussed his book, Drugs and Thugs, on the “History as it Happens” podcast. Crandall also published “Review of John Washington The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum at the US-Mexico Border” and “Review of The Border and Its Bodies: The Embodiment of Risk Along the U.S.-Mexico Line” for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books.

Music

Marcus Pyle was invited to present a doctoral forum colloquium at The Juilliard School with a talk titled, “Heterot(r)opic Black Bodies.” He guest lectured at New York University as part of their Public Humanities Initiative, and performed Dvo˘rák’s String Sextet in A major with Quartet131 and Chamber Music Society musicians at Bohemia National Hall, in celebration of Dvo˘rák’s 180th anniversary.

Neuroscience

Julio Ramirez presented in person the 2021 Dr. Joe L. Martinez Jr. and Dr. James G. Townsel Endowed Lecture at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) at Woods Hole, Mass. The lecture was titled “Broken Brains and Breaking Barriers: Lessons from the Hippocampal Formation and Life.” He also presented professional development workshops at MBL, titled “Habits of Successful Scientists” and “Jimmy Buffett’s Got Nothin’ on Us: Teaching at an Undergraduate Institution.”

Physics

Anthony Kuchera presented an invited talk titled “Search for 15Be via 12Be+3n” at the Neutron Unbound Systems Around the Dripline workshop hosted by the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. He also gave an invited talk titled “Understanding Neutron Scattering in Plastic Scintillators and the Future of MoNA-LISA” at the 2021 Neutron Detector Workshop hosted by the Center for Excellence in Nuclear Training And University-Based Research (CENTAUR) and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Physics & Applications (JINPA). Kuchera and Robbie Seaton-Todd ’20 published a research article titled “Neutron-unbound States in 31Ne” in Physical Review C.

Michelle Kuchera co-authored a paper with Braden Kronheim ’21, “TensorBNN: Bayesian Inference for Neural Networks using Tensorflow,” for Computer Physics Communications. Kuchera also co-authored a paper with Evan Pritchard ’22, Michael Robertson ’20, and Ryan Strauss ’19, titled “Simulation of Electron-proton Scattering Events by a Feature-Augmented and Transformed Generative Adversarial Network (FAT-GAN),” in the Proceedings of the 30th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Kuchera and Prof. Raghu Ramanujan also co-authored a paper with John Blue ’21 and Braden Kronheim ’21, titled “Conditional Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Networks for Fast Detector Simulation” for the 25th International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP). 

Kristen Thompson, Shane Winner ’24 and Allura Baker (Community School of Davidson ’23) published an article titled “Astrometric Measurements of WDS 17103-7523” in the Journal of Double Star Observations. Kristen Thompson and a Wingate collaborator published an article titled “Astrometric Analysis of Binary Star WDS 07508-1854” in the Journal of Double Star Observations.

Political Science

Katherine Bersch was the co-organizer and served as discussant/chair of Oxford’s Brazilian Studies talk on “Keeping One Job Versus Doing One’s Job.” She was also invited to present at the Latin American Studies Association’s Charlemos Series, “The Story Behind Critical Research in Latin America,” on the topic of “Expanding State Capacity in Latin America: A Conversation with Lapis’s Recent Award Winners.”

Melody Crowder-Meyer published “How Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Their Intersections Shape Americans’ Issue Priorities” in the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy.

Shelly Rigger published a book in June entitled The Tiger Leading the Dragon: How Taiwan Propelled China’s Economic Rise (Rowman & Littlefield).

Psychology

Kristi Multhaup has been elected president of the American Psychological Association Division 3, Society for Experimental Psychology & Cognitive Science. She will serve as president-elect 2021-22, as president 2022-23, and as past president 2023-24. Multhaup is also a co-PI on an NSF Standard Grant ($49,937) “Women in Cognitive Science: Networking, Visibility, and Career Pathways,” with Catherine M. Arrington (PI, Lehigh University), Joo-Hyun Song (Brown University), & Nazbanou Nozari (Carnegie Mellon University).

Public Health

Dave Wessner and students Alexis Pheng ’20 and Abby Miller ’20 published an article titled “Melding Art and Science to More Fully Explore Issues of Public Health” in IMPACT: The Journal of Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning.

Sociology

Gayle Kaufman is part of an editorial team for the International Network on Leave Policies & Research. They have published a report that provides information on parental leave for 47 countries and has summary comparison tables for quick comparisons of maternity, paternity, parental, and other leave entitlements across countries. The report is: Koslowski, A., Blum, S., Dobrotić, I., Kaufman, G. and Moss, P. (2021) International Review of Leave Policies and Related Research 2021.

Gerardo Martí was a featured guest on several podcasts this summer, including an extensive discussion of Pastor Rick Warren and the development of the American megachurch on “Quick to Listen” as well as still continuing episodes of the prestige podcast on Pastor Mark Driscoll on “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.” Both podcasts are produced by Christianity Today and available on all platforms.

Theatre

Ann Marie Costa and Olanike Oyedepo ’20 presented at the Directing Focus Group pre-conference for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. The presentation was titled “Shifting Gears: Addressing Racism and Intolerance at Your Institution Through Performance.” The talk zeroed in on the directing process of “Unveiled and Unvarnished: Original Stories of Intolerance and Racism amongst Us,” which was produced in March 2021 at Davidson College. Costa was also invited to join the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) Consulting Working Group. 

Sharon Green was an invited speaker at the International Federation of Theatre Research: Galway (virtually), where she spoke on a book launch panel titled, Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Plays by Women: The Early Twenty-First Century. She spoke about her chapter in the forthcoming book. Sharon’s collaborative research project (completed with 4 students), “The Count for Liberal Arts Colleges: Data on Gender and Race in the Production Seasons of Davidson College and Its Peers,” has been included in a national initiative called, “Counting Together”.

Writing Program

Jason Blum published an article, “Beyond Methodological Axioms,” in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion.