Fall/Winter 2022 Issue
Stephen Curry '10 returned to Davidson College in August to celebrate his graduation, jersey retirement and Hall of Fame induction.
Stephen Curry ’10 on the Improbable Journey That Began at Davidson
“Love you Coach! Thank you for everything you’ve done for me, my family, Davidson and every person you’ve impacted along the way."
- Stephen Curry’s social media post when Bob McKillop announced his retirement.
Read more about the unbreakable bond between a beloved coach and a star player.
While Stephen Curry may be the only Davidson graduate to make the cover of Rolling Stone, the college has a storied history of producing music influencers. A few from the 1970s stand out.
Find out more about their influence behind the scenes.
Davidson College Professor Brittany Murray offers a glimpse into a popular course and its relevance.
The Well
Miguel Donado started programming using Scratch in his high school’s coding club. Now, he is majoring in Computer Science and Studio Art at Davidson (where he uses more sophisticated software). Donado was born and raised in Cali, Colombia, moved to São Paulo, Brazil, and then came to North Carolina. He celebrates and shares his culture as a member of BRASA (Brazilian Student Association). Donado’s trilingualism has allowed him to make connections with people from a wide range of backgrounds, expanding opportunities to find co-curators for his art projects, as well as jobs in a variety of settings.
Orientation leaders welcome fellow fresh-starter Doug Hicks ’90, who came to Davidson as a first-year student a few decades ago and returns as the college’s 19th president. First-years from the Class of 2026 followed Hicks through the tunnel, an orientation tradition, where they were welcomed by the students, faculty, staff, alumni, and town residents who’ll support them through their college journey and beyond. “I’m starting my work here, too,” Hicks told students and families at an assembly in Baker Sports Complex. “You’re my class—I’m part of the Class of 2026. I’m going to learn with you and from you.”
The Kyiv City Ballet Company performed at Davidson in front of a sold-out crowd on the second stop of its premier United States tour. Founded in 2012, the Kyiv City Ballet had no designs on a global tour until this past February, when the company unknowingly took one of the last flights out of their home city before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “We are honored to share the beauty of ballet with U.S. audiences, through Ukranian artists,” said Ivan Kozlov, artistic director.
Photo Credit: Duc-Binh Nguyen-Mau '26
Cafés lining Copenhagen’s streets promise great coffee, pastries, bread and other foodie fare. In this photo, Sydney Schertz ’24 captures the laid back vibe at a café near her study abroad host institution. Denmark’s cooler weather and fading daylight prompted Schertz to seek out light and color in the cityscape. An Educational Studies major, Schertz is studying Scandinavian educational systems and philosophies while abroad.
The Wildcats took on ACC foe Duke University in non-conference play for their “Red-Out” home opener. Seniors Chloe Welch and Suzi-Rose Deegan made strong showings, with Welch scoring 12 points to go along with seven rebounds, four assists and two steals, and Deegan with nine points and 10 boards. With a series that dates back to 1978, the Blue Devils are 5–1 all-time when meeting the Wildcats. Davidson won the first-ever meeting against Duke, 62–61, from inside Johnston Gym. This contest marked the Blue Devils’ first time back to Exit 30 since the initial meeting.
The new, professional Common Thread Theatre Collective debuted at Davidson College this year. The summer theatre company included students and professors from Davidson and North Carolina A&T State University, as well as professional actors. They performed two highly acclaimed shows, Violet and Barbecue, that ran consecutively in June and July.
Olivia Ware ’78 arrived at Davidson in 1974. A first-generation college student and current chair of the college’s Board of Visitors, Ware is among the pioneering women who changed the face of Davidson College. The first serious step toward co-education came in 1969, when female "exchange students" from seven other colleges took classes at Davidson, usually during their junior year. The first full class of women entered in the fall of 1973. The college will celebrate 50+ Years of Co-Education at Davidson College in the fall of 2023.
Family Album
Would You Like to Build a Snowman?
The novelty of snow in the North Carolina Piedmont brings out the kid in all of us. Recognize any of these snow structures or classmates from your Davidson winters? And if you care to share, send us your campus winter wonderland photos from winters past at davidsonjournal@davisdon.edu, or tag us on instagram @DavidsonCollege.
The Union
ALUMNI
King Fish’s Legacy: A Life in Education by Ben Jay Drymon ’51 (2022, Lulu.com). A story of a lifelong educator of youth and young adults framed as a humorous and raw conversation.
Tracking the Tyrant Muse: Poems Against Hate by Kemmer Anderson ’67 (2022, Independently Published). A virus has metastasized in the veins of society: Hate. Follow Anderson as he explores peace and justice through poetry.
Buried Treasure: Unearthing the Riches of the Gospel of Mark by Hunter R. Hill ’67 (2021, Resource Publications). A dissection of Mark’s Gospel in light of transformation, discovery, and individual experience.
Letters from the War: A Chronicle of Dan Chandler’s Service in the Army Air Corps, 1944-1945 by Jeff Chandler ’75 (2022, Palmetto Publishing). A compilation of riveting letters sent home by Dan Chandler, a U.S. soldier and tail gunner who flew in some of the most dangerous Nazi-fighting missions of his time.
Parenting in Repentance: Growing Together in Love, Gratefulness, and Joy by Fr. Stephen Muse ’76, Ph.D. (2021, Sebastian Press). With vulnerability and transparency, Fr. Stephen Muse draws on his journals of over 30 years to offer glimpses of parenting as a lifelong spiritual journey.
Word into Spirit: Pastoral Perspectives on Confession edited by Fr. Stephen Muse ’76, Ph.D. and Vasileios Thermos (2019, St. Tikhon’s Monastery Press). A wealth of practical and applicable advice from 15 authors aimed at pastors, who are guiding their flocks in an age of anxiety.
The Savage Kind: Nightingale Trilogy 1 by John Copenhaver ’97 (2021, Pegasus Crime). A 2022 Lambda Literary Award-winning book in LGBTQ mystery that follows the lives of two unassuming teenage girls as they grapple with their inclination toward solving and committing crimes, and their newfound feelings toward each other.
Dodging and Burning: A Mystery by John Copenhaver ’97 (2018, Pegasus Books). A master storyteller, Copenhaver crafts his award-winning novel around a grim and revealing crime scene photo. Accompany three teenagers on a quest to unravel the story of a beguiling woman’s death.
Someone Other Than a Mother: Flipping the Scripts on a Woman’s Purpose and Making Meaning beyond Motherhood by Erin S. Lane ’06 (2022, TarcherPerigee). By interweaving Lane’s story with those of others who also chose to go off-script, Someone Other Than a Mother creates a vision for a woman’s life that affirms the beauty of motherhood while decoupling female purpose from procreation.
Herodotus and Imperial Greek Literature by N. Bryant Kirkland ’07 (2022, Oxford University Press). A monograph focused on debunking and refracting ancient opinions on Herodotus’s reputation.
I Made A Place For You: by Damian White ’13 (2022, Atmosphere Press). Hailed as a wholly original work, this collection of poetry explores spirituality, religion, perseverance, and humility.
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
AFRICANA STUDIES
Takiyah Harper-Shipman received an American Political Science Association (APSA) Diversity and Inclusion Advancing Research Grant for Early Career Scholars for her second book project on the political economy of family planning in the U.S. and Senegal.
ANTHROPOLOGY
Matt Samson published two articles: “Maya Cosmology and Contesting Climate Change in Mesoamerica,” in Understanding Climate Change through Religious Lifeworlds, and “Persisting Worldviews and Conflicted Development along the Ruta Maya” (with Alisha Kendrick-Pradhan ’20), in The Mayanist.
ART
John Corso-Esquivel began a four-year term on the editorial board of Art Journal and Art Journal Open, the flagship contemporary art journals published by the College Art Association.
BIOLOGY
Debbie Thurtle-Schmidt has been awarded an R15 AREA grant from the National Institutes of Health, entitled “Genomic Analysis into Transcriptional Regulation of Cell Identity,” which will support Davidson-student-driven research over the next three years.
Dave Wessner co-authored “Kathryn V. Holmes: A Career of Contributions to the Coronavirus Field” in a special issue of the journal Viruses, dedicated to women in virology.
Susana Wadgymar and collaborators have been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation, entitled “Integrating the Evolutionary and Migratory Potential of Chamaecrista Fasciculata into Forecasts of Range-wide Population Dynamics Under Climate Change,” which will support Davidson-student-driven research over the next four years. Along with collaborators, she also published a paper, titled “Local Adaptation: Causal Agents of Selection and Adaptive Trait Divergence,” in the journal Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics.
CHEMISTRY
Nicole L. Snyder was recently named a 2022 ACS Fellow by the American Chemical Society. The award, which was created by the ACS Board of Directors in 2009, is awarded to “members who have made exceptional contributions to science and the profession, and have provided excellent volunteer service to the ACS community.” Snyder is one of only a handful of faculty members from predominantly undergraduate institutions (~5%) out of over 1,200 recipients to receive the award since its inception.
COMMUNICATION STUDIES
Amanda R. Martinez won the inaugural Excellence in Teaching and Mentorship Award from the Latina & Latino Communication Studies Division of the National Communication Association.
ECONOMICS
Clark Ross wrote an essay, entitled “Failing Introductory Economics,” published by the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal in October 2022.
ENGLISH
Ann Fox published an essay co-written with Dr. Jessica Cooley ’05, entitled “Becoming Indisposable: Curating Disability in a Time of Pandemic,” in Curating Access: Disability Art. Activism, and Creative Accommodation.
FRENCH AND FRANCOPHONE STUDIES
Caroline Fache started her term as the vice president of the CIEF (International Council of Francophone Studies) in Trent, Italy. She will serve two years as the vice president and subsequently two years as the president.
GERMAN STUDIES
Maggie McCarthy gave a paper in Lisbon, Portugal, at the 2022 Council for European Studies Conference, which this year focused on “The Environment of Democracy.” Her contribution focused on memory culture and lingering utopian traces in the film In the Aisles, a fictional story about shelf-stackers at a big box store in the former East Germany.
Scott Denham and Barbara E. Mann, Chana Kekst Professor of Jewish Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, are teaching a Humanities in Class Webinar together in November through the National Humanities Center called “Why Teaching Maus Matters Now More Than Ever.” In February and March 2022, Denham offered a free online course for students in McMinn County, TN, after the school board there banned Maus from the curriculum.
HISTORY
Anne Blue Wills has published An Odd Cross to Bear: A Biography of Ruth Bell Graham, which sets Mrs. Billy Graham in a 20th century historical and cultural context shared by millions of white evangelical women. The book received a starred review in Publishers Weekly and was officially released on October 13 from Eerdmans in their Library of Religious Biography series.
Rose Stremlau and colleague Julie Reed (Penn State) are the recipients of a $250,000 National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Grant to write a new history of the Cherokee Nation. Stremlau also contributed an essay about engaging students in the history of federal Indian policy to Understanding and Teaching Native American History, published by the University of Wisconsin Press as part of their Harvey Goldberg Series for Understanding and Teaching History.
MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE
For his sabbatical over the 2022-23 academic year, Tim Chartier has been appointed the Distinguished Visiting Professor for the Public Dissemination of Mathematics at the National Museum of Mathematics in New York City.
MUSIC
Marcus R. Pyle was elected president of the Southeast Chapter of the American Musicological Society for a two-year term. He is also area editor of Grove Music Online with Oxford University Press for the next five years; his focus will be women, gender, and sexuality from 1900-present. Additionally, he was named guest editor of Opera Quarterly (OUP). He performed at Carnegie Hall this July and invited Davidson student Victoria Fusco ’23 to perform in the orchestra. He was also appointed a visiting lecture faculty at the Aspen Summer Music Festival and Institute, where he provided lectures and penned articles for their publications.
PHYSICS
Anthony Kuchera has been appointed to serve on the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams Users Organization Executive Committee.
Michelle Kuchera co-authored a review article in the Reviews of Modern Physics journal, entitled “Machine Learning in Nuclear Physics,” and an International Atomic Energy Agency report, entitled “Artificial Intelligence for Accelerating Nuclear Applications, Science and Technology.” Kuchera also gave a plenary talk at the International Nuclear Physics Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, entitled “Overview of Quantum Computing, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in Nuclear Physics.”
Kristen Thompson and Caroline Capuano ’22 have published an article in the Journal of Double Star Observations, entitled “Astrometric Analysis of WDS 20418-0430 and WDS 06367-2237.”
POLITICAL SCIENCE
Peter Ahrensdorf’s book, Homer and the Tradition of Political Philosophy: Encounters with Plato, Machiavelli, and Nietzsche, has been published by Cambridge University Press. The book discusses the interconnectedness of religion, politics, and philosophy, and highlights the crucial role Homer played in shaping the thought of other political philosophers.
Katherine Bersch published “Patronage and Presidential Coalition Formation” with Matthew Taylor and Felix Lopez in Political Research Quarterly. She, along with collaborators, also held the first launch event of the Global Survey of Public Servants at the 2022 Public Management Research Conference.
PSYCHOLOGY
Brian Eiler, along with colleagues from Baylor University, Northern Arizona University, and Fuller Theological Seminary, published a paper in Frontiers in Psychology: Personality and Social Psychology, entitled “Quiet Ego is Associated with Positive Attitudes toward Muslims.”
Jessica Good was named as a Fellow within the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (American Psychological Association Div. 8).
PUBLIC HEALTH
Kata Chillag is serving as a senior evaluator through an Intergovernmental Personnel Act agreement on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Data Modernization Initiative (DMI). She is part of a U.S. national effort to create integrated, real-time public health data and surveillance systems for all public health hazards. Her work on DMI is in collaboration with colleagues from the Western Michigan University Evaluation Center and Interdisciplinary Health Sciences program that focuses on state, territorial, local, and tribal (STLT) public health jurisdictions/efforts. Additionally, with E. Fenton (Bioethics Centre, University of Otago) Chillag recently published an ethical analysis focusing on health care worker shortages, COVID-19, immigration policy, and the role of foreign health workers in New Zealand and elsewhere.
RELIGIOUS STUDIES
Karl Plank has written the poem “Olive Hill Flood” and has been nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology (2022) by River Heron Review.
SOCIOLOGY
Gayle Kaufman co-authored “Parental Leave-taking and Perceptions of Workers as Good Parents” in the online first edition of Journal of Marriage and Family. They also co-authored “Sharing the Load: Housework, Joint Decision-making, and Marital Quality in Japan” in the latest issue of Journal of Family Studies.
Gerardo Martí lectured on the theme of “Whiteness and Racial Justice” at George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University in October 2022. This pre-conference event was followed by a keynote presentation at the No Need Among You conference, organized by the Texas Christian Community Development Network, a non-profit organization that works with community organizers to educate and network advocates for the poor and marginalized in their state.
THEATRE
Anita Tripathi designed scenery for three professional productions this past summer. The first was a New York City premiere, The Refugees, directed by fellow Davidson professor
Steve Kaliski. The second was Little Women at the Virginia Theatre Festival in Charlotteville, VA. The third show was The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Playmakers Summer Youth Conservatory in Chapel Hill.
WRITING PROGRAM
Andrew Rippeon published an essay in MELUS (Journal for the Society of the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States). Rippeon’s article, “Audiovisual Materiality and the Technopoetical Gesture in Recent Black Poetry and Performance,” focuses on the work of Claudia Rankine, Kendrick Lamar, and Douglas Kearney, and considers the ways in which media and technology bear upon representations of race and identity. Moreover, he hosted the North Carolina Writers’ Network for a workshop in the Davidson College Letterpress Laboratory (July 15, 2022). On top of his notable essay and his interactive workshop, he co-chaired an ACS panel on academic contingency, “Mentoring and Supporting Contingent Faculty: Fostering Inclusive Department Culture and Practice.” Lastly, he published an article in a special issue of the Journal of West Indian Literature (vol. 30, no. 2) devoted to the work of poet Kamau Brathwaite (1930-2020).
Davidson College Prof. Cynthia Lewis reflects on the many talents of the students, faculty and staff members she has encountered in more than four decades of teaching.