Spring/Summer 2024 Issue
Explore the 2024 Spring/Summer Issue of the Davidson Journal.
Featured Story Common Ground
Davidson College and the Catawba Nation have grown a corn collaboration into a multi-year interdisciplinary project.
A Flourishing Partnership Between Davidson College and the Catawba Nation
Featured Story Divine Dining
Restaurateurs Jeff Tonidandel ’98 and Jamie Brown ’99 elevate Queen City’s spirits and communal cuisine in once holy spaces.
Featured Story Food Chain
They inhabit just about every corner of the food production and distribution infrastructure—Davidson alums are feeding their passions and communities.
Featured Story Plate Full of Promise
Bailey Foster ’94, founder of Real Good Kitchen, has increased culinary offerings and opportunities for food creators and aspiring entrepreneurs in her Knoxville hometown.
Family Album Paean to the Parm
Do you remember this dish from your Davidson days? What does it mean to you?
Prof. Malcolm Campbell Wraps a Career of Launching Pioneers of Discovery
At the end of his three decades at Davidson College, a symposium in April honored Malcolm Campbell, an academic Eras Tour where colleagues and former students saluted the retiring biology professor and told tales of his impact.
The Well
Introducing: Sandro Chumashvili '24
When Sandro Chumashvili started developing the idea for his wine import business, US-Georgia Wines LLC, he was too young to legally partake. In 2022, the economics major received $10,000 from the Avinger Impact Fund to help grow his business. The fund, established in honor of Economics Professor Robert L. Avinger Jr. ’60, is awarded through the Jay Hurt Hub for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Chumashvili has since acquired a federal importer permit and commercial license to bring kvevri wines to the U.S. from his home country of Georgia. The wine is fermented in gigantic underground clay vessels, a method Georgians have used for more than 8,000 years.
In addition to his work with the Hurt Hub@Davidson, Chumashvili is a Davis United World Colleges Scholar, has served as an SGA class president and career development ambassador, and co-founded the Davidson College Venture Capital Club.
Dining Squad Salute
They prepare fresh, crunchy salad bar vegetables, juicy burgers, spicy curries and delectable pastries. Food tastes may change, but the care, friendliness and commitment to students has remained a constant for Davidson’s Dining Services staff, a crew of 182 full-time, part-time and student workers. Chicken parmesan, a longtime favorite, is still one of the most popular dishes, though fried chicken, salmon bowls and chicken and biscuits have their own fan clubs. More than a thousand pieces of fried chicken—about 320 pounds —made their way onto diners’ plates one recent spring day.
Whether gluten free; allergic to dairy, nuts or shellfish; vegan or carnivore; this team has you covered. From a leisurely dinner at Vail Commons to a quick lunch at the Wildcat Den or Davis Café, they make sure no Wildcat goes hungry.
Viewfinder: On the Alp
After mucking out the barn, milking the cows and sending them out to graze on the Alp overnight, Neve Rauscher ’26 snapped this shot of Louis, one of three children of her host family on Alp Morgeten in Switzerland. Louis takes a drink from a makeshift water fountain after spending the day with the other kids practicing archery and playing a version of American baseball they learned from Rauscher.
Rauscher found meaning in the daily collaborative work on the Alp, from milking the goats and cows to field maintenance, and especially the technical art of alpine cheese-making. “Everyone gathered for mealtimes as well as coffee in the afternoon, and lively conversation always ensued,” she says. “Though I could never match the speed at which the Hauter family covered dinner table topics, my Swiss German language skills, especially my farm-related vocabulary, improved over the month I spent on Alp Morgeten.”
During her month-long stay, Rauscher learned about life on a traditional dairy farm and herself. “After I got over my fear of the cows, it was cool to see how quickly I could be happy and comfortable in a place where everything was totally foreign to me,” she says. “When my stay ended, I was sad to have to go home. I look forward to the day I can return to Alp Morgeten and the wonderful people there.”
Rauscher’s photo, “Taking a Sip,” placed 2nd in the Bliss Photo Contest sponsored by the Dean Rusk International Studies Program. Rauscher is the recipient of a Dean Rusk Travel Grant.
New Home for Wildcat Spirit
A midfield celebration featuring a lacrosse match and inter-squad spring football game marked the completion of the 5,000-seat Davidson College Stadium and Game Changers Field House—the new home for both sports.
The stadium’s gently sloping bowl, individual chairback seating and food and drink concourse create a next-level fan experience. The training and conditioning equipment and space put Davidson in the top tier of facilities. Anchored on the northernmost end of campus, the complex houses an expanded sports performance center to serve all 21 Division I teams; new locker room space for field hockey; and top-of-the-stadium hospitality space.
Just the Facts: Burkey Belser '69
What's black and white and all over every grocery store and pantry in the United States? The nutrition facts label. The person behind the ubiquitous design is Burkey Belser ’69. Belser died Sept. 25, 2023, but his legacy lives on in the celebrated simplicity of that label, hailed by Italian designer Massimo Vignelli as a “clean testimonial of civilization, a statement of social responsibility, and a masterpiece of graphic design.”
The label debuted in 1994 as diet-related illnesses topped the list of public health concerns. The Food and Drug Administration chose Belser for the task following his creation of the energy guide label for appliances. According to an obituary in The Washington Post, Belser and his team took the job pro bono and labored through three dozen iterations of the label. The design earned him the Presidential Design Award, presented by former President Bill Clinton.
Belser majored in English and minored in studio art at Davidson. He is survived by his wife Donna Greenfield, with whom he founded the design firm Greenfield/Belser. In addition to his wife, survivors include two children, Mikell Belser Rice of Bethesda, Md., and James Belser of Aurora, Colo.; two grandchildren; a sister; and a half brother.
The Union
Bookshelf
Alumni
The Public Humanities Turn: The University as an Instrument of Cultural Transformation by Philip Lewis ’64 (2024, Johns Hopkins University Press). Universities are uniquely equipped to act as catalysts for cultural change in the face of the climate crisis. In closely linked essays that explore the evolution of the academic humanities in the era of climate change, Lewis foregrounds the rise of the public humanities, a movement that has been gaining momentum over the past two decades.
True Tales of Old Alexandria by Edward H. “Ted” Pulliam ’65 (2023, The History Press). From the daring escapades of an English adventurer in 1623 to George Washington’s pivotal role in the city’s history, Pulliam presents a collection of stories that span centuries. Discover the dramatic events of the War of 1812, the colorful characters of Robinson Landing and Del Ray, and the military legacy of Fort Myer through this engaging narrative. Drawing on meticulous research, this book offers readers a glimpse into Alexandria’s past.
Here’s a Letter from Thy Dear Son: Letters of a Georgia Family During the Civil War Era by Edward H. “Ted” Pulliam ’65 (Mercer University Press). An intimate glimpse into the lives of a Southern farming family during the Civil War era, told through personal letters. Pulliam digs into the struggles and triumphs of the young men and women of a North Georgia family as they navigate the upheaval of war, confront questions of identity, love, and purpose, and strive to rebuild their lives in a changed world.
A Light Chop in Protected Waters by Calvin Jones ’69 (August 2023, Callimachus Press). When retired book aficionado J.P. returns to his Gulf Coast hometown after 40 years abroad, he is driven by a mission to confront past injustices inflicted by his brother and reconnect with his estranged daughter. Set against the backdrop of the late 20th century, this novel weaves together elements of classical literature, international intrigue, and heartfelt personal experiences.
Like a Woman in Travail: Human Suffering in Biblical Perspective by John A. Porter ’72 (January 2024, Wipf & Stock). A profound exploration of human suffering through a biblical lens. Porter challenges readers to reconsider suffering as not merely a darkness but as the birth pangs of a new creation, woven into God’s redemptive plan. With insightful interpretation and theological depth, this book invites readers to embrace suffering as a transformative force, leading to the emergence of new life and hope.
The Road to Picolata by Tracy Upchurch ’78 (2023, Palmetto Publishing). A sweltering day in 1863 thrusts 14-year-old Henry Whitlock into a harrowing adventure when he discovers a wounded Confederate soldier in the dense forests of north Florida. As Henry risks everything to save the soldier’s life, he grapples with loyalty and identity amidst the backdrop of the Civil War. Meanwhile, Henry’s Union-sympathizing parents embark on a desperate search, leading to a heart-wrenching reunion amid the chaos of battle lines and moral dilemmas.
Lights on Lancaster: How One American City Harnesses the Power of the Arts to Transform Its Communities by John Gerdy ’79 (2024, Top Reads Publishing). The city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, when viewed from the outside, looks just like other small cities in America, so what makes this city unique when it comes to the arts? Told through the stories of people who bring art and creativity to every aspect of life in Lancaster, this collection of essays gives us a glimpse into what makes this city so special and a template that other communities can use as inspiration to harness the power of the arts closer to home.
Laying Stones: Life, Loss & the Little Stories of Remembrance by Curtis Leathers ’79 (2024, Bonsai Rock Publishing LLC). Written following his parents’ deaths, Laying Stones is the author’s personal journey through loss, remembrance, regret and ultimately the timeless nature of love. Initially penned to impart revealing family moments to Leathers’s daughters and granddaughters, the result is a work all of us can relate to, with new ways to approach aging, grief and what we leave behind. Editor Karen Mulholland Alley ’96 provided invaluable expertise and insights.
Ethics at War: How Should Military Personnel Make Ethical Decisions? by Deane-Peter Baker, Rufus Black, Roger Herbert ’83 and Iain King (2024, Routledge). A trip into the complex world of military ethics and competing perspectives on ethical decision-making, the authors present diverse approaches utilized by the armed forces of liberal democratic states. Concluding with insights from philosopher David Whetham, this book provides a comprehensive exploration of military ethics, making it essential reading for students, professionals and scholars alike in the fields of moral philosophy, international relations and military studies.
The Ethics of Special Ops: Raids, Recoveries, Reconnaissance and Rebels by Deane-Peter Baker, Roger Herbert ’83 and David Whetham (2024, Cambridge University Press). In this groundbreaking work, the authors shed light on the moral complexities inherent in special operations, a facet of modern warfare often overlooked in ethical discourse. Drawing on historical cases and personal experiences, they challenge traditional moral frameworks, offering thought-provoking insights for both theorists and practitioners alike.
Plastisphere by Heather Flint Ford ’94 (November 2023, KDP). Set in a dystopian 2053, Plastisphere follows orphaned 17-year-old Tess and her grandmother as they embark on a precarious trek to escape their plastic-polluted world, navigating through lawlessness, climate chaos, and the grip of corporate control. As they seek refuge in a world ravaged by the aftermath of the Oil Wars, their quest for survival unveils the harsh realities of a future dominated by the Oil and Plastics Industry.
CancerKid Grown: The Battle of Long Term Childhood Cancer Survivorship by Heather Flint Ford ’94 (September 2021, KDP). The author shares her remarkable experience as the first known long-term survivor in the U.S. of a rare childhood cancer, offering invaluable insights into managing the challenges of survivorship. With a blend of personal anecdotes and the latest medical research, Ford addresses the progression of management of long-term and late effects, mental health struggles, and the importance of planning for the future.
Hall of Mirrors by John Copenhaver ’97 (June 2024, Pegasus Crime). Set in 1950s McCarthy-era Washington, D.C., Lionel Kane is thrust into a web of intrigue and danger when his lover and writing partner, Roger Raymond, dies suspiciously in a fire. Refusing to accept the official ruling of suicide, Lionel examines Roger’s past, uncovering connections to a serial killer and the shadowy world of government secrets.
A Little Less Broken: How an Autism Diagnosis Finally Made Me Whole by Marian Schembari ’09 (coming September 2024, Macmillan). Follow Schembari’s quest from a lifetime of misdiagnoses to a revelation at the age of 34. Through candid storytelling and personal insights, Schembari navigates the complexities of self-discovery, shedding light on the challenges faced by women with autism. This memoir challenges societal norms and celebrates the beauty of neurodiversity while empowering readers to embrace their differences and find acceptance in a world that often misunderstands them.
Perspectives on Community-Based Corrections by Justin C. Medina and Jillian L. Eidson ’05 (2024, Oxford University Press). As incarceration alternatives gain traction in the U.S., the text guides students on current politics, practices, changing data and policies. It offers insight into the complexities and effectiveness of various methods and gives students options to examine new and differing perspectives.
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Faculty Notes
Biology
Karen Hales was appointed to the Equity and Inclusion Committee of the Genetics Society of America (GSA) for a two-year term. In 2023 she was an invited speaker at the southeast regional meeting of the Society for Developmental Biology to discuss inclusive language frameworks in biology; she also attended GSA’s Annual Drosophila Research Conference (Chicago, IL) with Claire Olson ’23, who presented her honors thesis research entitled, “Characterizing the function of dSLC25A46b, a mitochondrial shaping protein, in Drosophila spermatogenesis and in the nervous system.”
Chemistry
Cindy Hauser has been elected to a five-year term on the board of trustees at Washington and Lee University. She began her service on October 20.
Communication Studies
Amanda R. Martinez reflects upon her few years’ worth of experience serving as the Speaking Center Director in a review she published in the Communication Center Journal of Sanford & Steiner’s (2021) book, The Rowman & Littlefield Guide to Learning Center Administration: Leading Peer Tutoring Programs in Higher Education. Martinez also published a chapter, “Legacies of Land, Cultural Clashes, and Spiritual Stirrings: A Testimonio of New Mexican Ghost Stories,” based upon her multigenerational family stories about northern New Mexico in the book, Monsters and Saints: LatIndigenous Landscapes and Spectral Storytelling. The book is part of the Horror & Monstrosity Studies Series with the University Press of Mississippi.
Digital Studies
Mark Sample’s chapter “Deconstructing and Reconstructing Genre and Form with Tracery” was published in TextGenEd: Teaching with Text Generation Technologies (2023). This open-access volume is full of approaches, assignments and critiques of both AI and non-AI generative text technologies in the college classroom. Sample’s satirical video game, 10 Lost Boys, was featured in “Hops Ahead,” a juried interactive narrative exhibition at MIT in honor of the 60th anniversary
of Julio Cortázar’s nonlinear novel Rayuela (Hopscotch). Sample was also recently appointed to the board of directors of the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation, a non-profit devoted to the promotion, preservation and ongoing development of interactive fiction.
Economics
Clark Ross published an article with the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal entitled, “Can the UNC’s System’s Return-on-Investment Findings Be Trusted?”
Caleb Stroup was appointed lead organizer of the finance at liberal arts colleges group, which brings together experts and educators in the field of finance. The group provides a platform for discussing innovative teaching methods and the exploration of cutting-edge research in finance within the context of liberal arts colleges.
Education Abroad
Lauren Stikeleather has been accepted to the 2024 cohort of the Next Gen Global Leaders Network, a year-long program led by the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition with a focus on federal budgeting, development policy, media and communications skills, and advocacy training. During the program, she will take part in the USGLC 2024 Global Impact Forum and State Leaders Capitol Hill Day in Washington, D.C.
English
Suzanne Churchill was invited by the Digital Humanities Program at Michigan State University to deliver their annual distinguished visiting lecture. The two-day campus visit included her public lecture on “Inclusive DH Design,” meetings with faculty and students, and a seminar.
Brenda Flanagan’s book, Women’s Artistic Dissent: Repelling Totalitarianism in Pre-1989 Czechoslovakia, co-authored with University of Nebraska Professor Hana Waisserova, has been published by Lexington Books-The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group. Flanagan was invited to give a public lecture on March 6 at the Anglo American University’s School of Journalism, Media & Visual Arts, about her recently published book. Flanagan also was invited by the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts and Culture in Charlotte to introduce and facilitate a public conversation with the artist Christopher Myers at the February opening of his exhibition, “Please Trouble, Carry Me.” Flanagan talked with Myers about the links between his glass and applique works to African American history, literature and Greek mythology.
Ann Fox has received a three-year appointment to the Fulbright Specialist Program Roster.
Hispanic Studies
Angela Acosta was awarded the 2023 Creative Writing and Artistic Creation Prize from the organization Feministas Unidas. Her group of poems in English and Spanish, titled “Poetic Tributes to ‘las Sinsombrero’: The Legacies of Modern Spanish Women,” will appear this spring in the Feministas Unidas journal Ámbitos Feministas. Her Latinx speculative poem “La (Mal)inche” appears in Issue 6 of Radon Journal.
Brandon Cannon, Kyra Kietrys and Mili Paredes recently hosted the first annual conference for secondary and post-secondary Spanish educators in North Carolina: I EPE-NC. 1er Encuentro Práctico de Español. This conference welcomed over 100 educators to hear four keynote speakers, five classroom experiences from peer educators, and four posters from Davidson College students: Gaby Cubias Aguilar, Isabella McCormick, Anya Neumeister and Matthew Skolar. The event was held in collaboration with Duke University and Klett World Languages and with support from Davidson’s Center for Teaching and Learning, Dean Rusk International Studies Program, and the Hispanic Studies Department.
Kyra Kietrys recently published a co-edited collection of essays titled Nexos culturales en el mundo hispano: Ni de aquí ni de allá [Cultural Connections in the Hispanic World: From Neither Here Nor There].
Samuel Sánchez y Sánchez published “Spectatorship, Dead Bodies, and Medical Discourse in Celestina” in Celestinesca, a leading journal in Hispanic Medieval Studies devoted to one of the ground-breaking texts in Late Medieval Iberia: Celestina by Fernando de Rojas (1499). Sánchez y Sánchez examines how Rojas’ literary imagination vis à vis the shift from a medieval to a pre-modern medical gaze and informs a post-medieval understanding of the concept of the dead body at the dawn of modernity in Iberia.
Angie Willis and her co-authors were interviewed by the New Books Network regarding their book, The Dissidence of Reinaldo Arenas Queering Literature, Politics, and the Activist Curriculum. The podcast is available on Spotify, Apple, and other streaming services.
Library – Collections Strategies
Kelly Denzer co-led a preconference titled “OA as a Catalyst: Shifting Budgets and Emerging Publisher/Library Collaboration” at the Charleston Library Conference in November.
Mathematics & Computer Science
Professor Emeritus Rich Neidinger was inducted into the Hall of Honor of his high school, Lutheran North, in St. Louis, Missouri.
Philosophy
Paul Studtmann published “God and the Numbers” in the Journal of Philosophy. Studtmann shows that a neo-Platonic/ Augustinian conception of the Divine Mind can be axiomatized within 1st-order non-well-founded set theory and that the resulting theory interprets Peano Arithmetic.
Physics
Anthony Kuchera co-authored a research paper with three current Davidson students, Branner D’Amato ’24, Pat Kielb ’24 and Garrett Ryan ’24, titled “The CeBrA demonstrator for particle-gamma coincidence experiments at the FSU Super-Enge Split-Pole Spectrograph” in the journal Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A. Kuchera gave an invited talk titled “Multi-neutron experiments with MoNA-LISA” at the 6th Joint Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Nuclear Physics and the Physical Society of Japan. Additionally, four of his research students presented posters. Kuchera also co-authored a research paper titled “Suppressed electric quadruple collectivity in 32Si,” published in the journal Physical Review C in January.
Political Science
Katherine Bersch published “Political Control and Bureaucratic Resistance: The Case of Environmental Agencies in Brazil” (with Gabriela Lotta) in Latin American Politics and Society.