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Nic Wood gave a talk at the History Museum of Mobile’s Learning Lunch Lecture Series titled “‘Let the Oppressed Go Free’: The American Revolution’s Antislavery Legacy,” on September 13, 2023.
I participated in the Society for New Testament conference in Vienna, Austria. I participated in the Catholic Biblical Association conference online, held in Omaha, NE, at Creighton University. I presented a paper, “Called to a Higher Ethic of “Care for Creation” in Light of Paul”. My article, “The Worst of the Passions: Desire in Philo of Alexandria” has been published by Biblical Research Journal. My Book, San Pablo, el Espiritu y las Virtudes has been published by Wipf & Stock Publishers.
Attended and completed Hudson Alpha’s CODE (Characterizing Our DNA Exceptions) training in Huntsville AL (along with Dr. Salazar). This training allows for access to special software that can be shared with faculty and students on campus to provide undergraduate research opportunities.
Dr. Balmori conducted research on poetry and human rights at the National Library of Spain in Madrid over the summer, and attended several cultural and literary events.
Nic Wood gave a conference presentation titled “Biblicism, Providentialism, & War in Early Black Abolitionist Thought,” at the annual meeting of the Society of Historians of the Early American Republic, in Philadelphia on July 14, 2023
Presented a paper, “There is wild in us yet”: The Community of Living Things in Brian Doyle’s Nature Writing,” at the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE) in Portland, Oregon, July 8-12, 2023.
Spring Hill College’s master’s degree program in nursing is now FULLY accredited! Congratulations, Drs. Kathy and Erin Sheppard!
“Pushing the Boundaries of Dystopia: Anna Burns’s Milkman” was published in the journal Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction. The published version can be viewed at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00111619.2023.2208263. A reading copy is available at this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CFOjOSpn8o4aaTYWtztI1sSXTJhHi6HS/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=108745925519572651812&rtpof=true&sd=true
Chelsea Haramia has signed a contract with Routledge to publish a book on the ethics of METI.
In February 2023, Alexandria Ruble won a teaching grant ($4000.00) from the Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University to fund course development of a new course titled “Holocaust and Human Rights.” The grant will be used to purchase library books; host a virtual speaker; and fund a campus-wide trip to the Museum of Southern Jewish Experience in New Orleans.
Stephanie Balmori was invited to read, and won three awards, at the Alabama State Poetry Society’s ceremony in Columbiana, AL.
Brian Druckenmiller’s short story “Shoofly” will be published in the upcoming issue of The Fourth River. The issue will be available in print in March/April.
Stephanie Balmori has a new poem published in Poetry South, “Wedding Photographs.”
Invited Guest Speaker at the Coloquio TIDLE on Technology & Second Language Acquisition, December 15 & 16, 2022 at Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha n Albacete, Spain. On December 15, 2022, Dr. Bregni delivered (in English) the Workshop “(e)LIfe is (not) Strange: Video Game-Based Foreign Language Learning in Higher Education (& the New Frontiers of VR). On December 16, 2022, Dr. Bregni delivered (in French) the Presentation “It’s Just Like Being There: Jeux vidéo VR, immersivité et apprentissage des langues étrangères”
On December 1, Nic Wood attended the “Somerset v. Steuart @250” conference hosted by the American Philosophical Society, in Philadelphia, where he work-shopped his essay, “Somerset, the Bible, and the End of Hereditary Slavery in Massachusetts.” He has been invited to submit the essay for publication in an edited volume.
Dr. Bagot presented a paper entitled “Helping Students to Fashion this World Anew According to God’s Design and Reach its Fulfillment: The Pedagogical Legacy of Gaudium et Spes” at the Vatican II and Catholic Higher Education Conference: Leading Forward, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT, October 13-15, 2022
Chelsea Haramia gave an invited Bioethics Colloquium talk at Penn State University on Nov. 14, 2022. She also gave an invited presentation to the Center for Science and Thought Research Group at the University of Bonn on Nov. 25, 2022. She will present a paper titled “Challenging Assumptions of Moral Equivalence Among Earth’s Detectable Signals” at a meeting of the Georgia Philosophical Society on Dec. 2, 2022. She will give an invited talk to the Religion and Astrobiology in Culture and Society Network in the UK titled “Astrobiological Searches for Life and Shared Knowledge” on Nov. 30, 2022. Finally, she has accepted a temporary position as Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bonn and will be joining a collaborative project between the Universities of Bonn and Cambridge to research just and sustainable AI.
On Sunday, October 23, Dr. Bregni presented “It’s Just Like Being There! – Video Games, Immersion and Foreign Language Learning” at the “Game Ground” Festival on Video Games & Learning in Bolzano/Bozen, Italy with Marco Mazzaglia, Video Game Evangelist at Synesthesia.
Abstract: Some commercially available video games can be helpful in understanding and communicating better in foreign/second languages, and in some cases, even delivering cultural content effectively. This session aims to explore and evaluate the impact that game-based learning, particularly in VR, can have for the development of language skills, intercultural competence or critical thinking in learning foreign languages and cultures, by exploring the benefits of immersion offered by recent virtual reality video games. The element of simulation, combined with interactivity and the involvement of body and mind, amplify language learning. Moreover, the simulation aspect of VR allows to recreate real communication situations, which the player perceives as stress-free, reassuring, and preparatory to real communication. No previous gaming experience required!
Two talented faculty writers from the Division of Languages and Literature, Dr. Cathy Swender and Mrs. Stephanie Balmori, won the Writers in Nature Mobile Botanical Gardens Fall 2022 Poetry Contest, in honor of E. O. Wilson. Dr. Swender’s poem “Loon Song” won first place and Mrs. Balmori’s poem “Missing Redbirds” won second place.
Chelsea Haramia’s recently published paper “Geopolitical Implications of a Successful SETI Program” was featured in an IFL Science article
Dr. Paula Celis-Salazar attended the 8th International Conference on Metal-Organic Frameworks and Open Framework Compounds (MOF 2022) on September 4th – 7th of 2022 in Dresden, Germany. The conference dealt with new developments within the area of metal-organic frameworks, open framework compounds, porous coordination polymers and other porous materials.
The specific topics of the conference included Novel Materials, Synthesis, Composites, Functions, Novel Fundamental Phenomena, Properties and Characterization, and Industrial Applications
Dr. Metcalf was invited to guest edit a special issue of the journal Religions (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions). The topic of the special issue is arguments for the existence of God.
The Elementary Education faculty completed LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) training this summer. This work required eight full days of learning in order to take the first step toward achieving LETRS Facilitator status. LETRS is the gold standard of professional learning in the emerging research on the science of reading. Once our faculty completes this process, our Elementary Education majors will have the opportunity to be trained in LETRS as well. The training was provided free of charge to our faculty through a partnership with the Alabama State Department of Education.
Dr. Aultman achieved Level 1 Google Certified Educator status during the summer by participating in professional learning sessions with Google for Education personnel and by passing an extensive assessment at the end of the course. This training will support Dr. Aultman’s work with preservice teachers in our Instructional Technology course by providing them with a more thorough understanding of Google Suite products which are used extensively in K-12 classrooms.
Dr. Haramia’s article titled “Geopolitical Implications of a Successful SETI Program” has been accepted for publication in the journal Space Policy
Division of Nursing faculty Maj. Stacy Clements, MSN, RN (USA Ret.) and Tracy Radczenco, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, CEN provided pre-deployment obstetrical and pediatric nursing training to United States Army medics from SHC’s simulation lab using Lucina, its state of the art high-fidelity simulator. Lucina is among the most innovate interactive nursing tools available today: she blinks, talks, breathes, and has a pulse. She can be used to demonstrate all forms of childbirth, including Caesarean, can demonstrate postpartum hemorrhage, and shoulder dystocia, among other things. We are so proud of our faculty’s embodiment of this core element of SHC’s mission: living in service to others.
Dr. Metcalf had a paper accepted for American Philosophical Association (Central Division) colloquium titled “Underestimating the Problem of Evil” and paper published in the journal Teaching Philosophy titled “The Case for Philosophy as a General-Education Requirement”
Dr. Torres published a selection and critical introduction to the work of three Brazilian poets, Thiago de Mello, Astrid Cabral, and Márcia Wayna Kambeba, for Cantos del meandro. Muestra de ecopoesía amazónica. Gathering the work of fifteen poets writing in seven languages, Cantos del meandro reflects on the different perspectives on nature, ecology, culture, territory, and the environment in the Amazon Basin.
Dr. Ruble will deliver a lecture and facilitate a discussion of the preview of Ken Burns’ forthcoming documentary, “The US and the Holocaust,” on Wednesday, September 7th at 7pm at Bernheim Hall, Ben May Library (753 Government Street, Mobile, AL). The event is hosted by the Mobile Jewish Film Festival, Mobile Area Federation, Alabama Public Television, and Gulf Coast Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education.
Dr. Hoffman participated in a month-long National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon this summer. The institute, “David Hume in the 21st C: Perpetuating the Enlightenment,” explored the legacy of the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher in epistemology, ethics, political philosophy and history and drew scholars from around the world.
Over summer, Dr. Fillmore attended ISTELive22 (International Society for Technology and Education) meeting in New Orleans as part of the Faculty Innovation grant award to incorporate augmented reality into anatomy and physiology course. She also worked with Office of Advancement to secure funds from the Crampton Trust ($50K) to finish upgrading histology lab
Dr. Balmori had poem has been accepted for publication in Poetry South, a refereed literary journal. She also attended the Longleaf Writers Conference in Seaside, Florida.
Rachael’s Litter Letter Project was recently adopted in Greenville, South Carolina. She’s been working with them for over a year to plan this one. Here is a video explaining how they used the exhibit.
Wanda’s art exhibition, Gardens of Hope, will be on exhibit at the Mobile Museum of Art September 16, 2022 – April 2, 2023. Wanda will be presenting her paper, “About Color,” at the Southeastern College Art Conference, SECAC, in October in Baltimore, MD.
In July 2022, Palgrave Macmillan published Dr. Kravstov’s book “Autocracy and Health Governance in Russia.” It answers a call to explore how and why different types of authoritarian regimes undermine the performance of governance systems and fail to serve the public interest. Challenging conventional accounts that equate corruption and neoliberalism with bad governance, his research points to institutional setup as the underlying reason for massive failures in the health sector. It exposes the enduring patterns of bargains among rulers, elites, and intermediaries that sustain the regime but undermine people’s welfare. Empirically, he shows how drug shortages, hospital reductions, fake vaccines, and harm-reduction criminalization have become possible in Putin’s autocracy.
Dr. Metcalf had two entries accepted and published in the open educational-resource, 1000-Word Philosophy
Sr. Cordova, CDP, had a paper accepted to present at the Society of Biblical Literature: “Luke 16:19-31: Human Perspective in Question.” Denver, CO, November 20-23, 2022. She is also working on a forthcoming chapter: “Cultural Diversity within Catholicism” in Routledge International Handbook of Sex Therapy and Religion. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. Sr. Cordova signed a book contract: The Parables of Jesus and the Power of Transformation in Virtue. Paulist Press. Over July 1-10, she led a Biblical Tour (Study Abroad) to Turkey: Seven Churches of Revelation and Island of Patmos. She was also accepted as Member of the International Society for New Testament Studies and established a Charity, Andean Christian Children, in Peru.
Dr. Gapud had papers accepted by an international conference on PLS-SEM. She also attended the ICP Cohort 15 Orientation, Monday, July 11- Thursday, July 14, at Loyola University Chicago Retreat and Ecology Center (LUREC) Woodstock, IL.
Dr. Grimley published, with a then-undergraduate math SHC student now-graduate student in Artificial Intelligence, M. van den Oever, L. E. Grimley, R. M. Veras, Using q-learning to select the best among functionally equivalent implementations}, ARRAY 2022: Proceedings of the 8th ACM SIGPLAN International Workshop on Libraries, Languages and Compilers for Array Programming (June 2022), 37-45. She attended her American Institute of Mathematics (AIM)-funded SQuaRE meeting on Schur Duality of Quantum Toroidal Algebras remotely and has been given continuation funding for a follow-up meeting next year.
Dr. Wood published an essay on the US Constitution’s complex relationship with slavery and abolitionism: “Abolitionists, Congress, and the Atlantic Slave Trade: Before and After Ratification,” in From Independence to the U.S. Constitution: Reconsidering the Critical Period of American History, eds. Douglass Bradburn and Christopher Pearl (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2022), 93-125
Dr. Haramia gave an invited plenary talk titled “Astrobiological Searches for Shared Knowledge” at the Astrobiology, Exo-philosophy, and Cosmic Religion conference at Willamette University in May. She presented a paper titled “Is There a Moral Difference Between Messaging and Mere Detection?” at the PSETI Symposium at Penn State University in June. She was also invited to compose a publication for the international, interdisciplinary art project A Sign in Space, for which she serves as a lead collaborator. The project’s team members are working with the European Space Agency and the SETI Institute and have secured permission to transmit a signal from a Mars satellite to Earth as part of a global theatrical performance.
Update (9/13) – Dr. Haramia’s paper “Is There a Moral Difference Between Messaging and Mere Detection?” was accepted for colloquium presentation at the American Philosophical Society’s Central Division Meeting.
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