Monday Memo April 10, 2017

Dear Colleagues,

I want to thank the many faculty members planning to teach summer school this year and all of the staff members who help make summer school a success. It is especially important this year that we entice students to attend summer courses and have robust enrollments.

A plan was finalized recently to provide an extra incentive to undergraduate students. For any undergraduate student who enrolls in three credit hours in any unit at UofL this summer, the tuition (in-state and out) for any additional summer 2017 on-campus classes in Arts & Sciences or Education will be discounted per credit hour (refer to the website for discount amount). The format will be a grant, which will be deducted from their tuition bill. It has been complicated to work this out, but we hope it will provide an additional incentive for summer 2017 enrollment.

Attached please find an announcement you can provide to students, and here’s a website with more information if they have questions. We’ll all benefit from anything you can do to encourage students to sign up. Please urge your students to take advantage of this summer program.

Please also know that in order to make this feasible, we will cancel classes that do not have sufficient enrollment by the week before the start of each summer session. In consultation with chairs, I will make a few exceptions for courses our students critically need.

Sincerely,

 Kimberly Leonard

Kimberly Kempf-Leonard

Dean, College of Arts & Sciences

Kudos

UPA ranks number 14 in the nation
In the latest issue of the highest ranked academic urban planning journal, Journal of Planning Education and Research, the A&S Department of Urban & Public Affairs ranks among the top 15 programs in North American Planning Schools and number 14 in the U.S. The department ranks second in the South behind the University of North Carolina. Also notable:

  • The department has the smallest amount of faculty members – just six professors compared to other top ranking programs with up to 27 (University of Maryland) faculty members. 
  • The department ranks higher than Ohio State University, Columbia University, University of Wisconsin, University of British Columbia, and New School for Social Research. 
  • The department’s strength comes from its collaborative nature, coordinating with disciplines like Economics, Anthropology, Urban Studies, Sociology, and Geography in addition to traditional planning.

Prof. Gilderbloom’s papers rank among most widely read
A paper on historic preservation by Prof. John Gilderbloom (Urban & Public Affairs), co-authored with UPA Ph.D. students, published in the Journal of Urbanism is the most cited article, and ranks number seven in downloads. Another paper by Prof. Gilderbloom, also co-authored with UPA Ph.D. students, on real estate measurement error published the Journal of Housing and Society also ranks as one of the most popular downloaded articles (number eight).

Prof. Jarosi elected to search committee
Prof. Susan Jarosi (Women’s & Gender Studies/Fine Arts) was elected to represent Arts & Sciences on the faculty committee in the presidential search process.

Teaching, Research, Creative Activities & Engagement

Prof. Sherri L. Wallace (Political Science)joins Robert C. Smith and replaces the late Hanes Walton, Jr. as co-author of the nationally recognized textbook American Politics and the African American Struggle for Universal Freedom, 8e, now available from Routledge Press.

Prof. Lutz’s book translated to Japanese
Prof. Deborah Lutz's (English) book, “The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects” (Norton, 2015) has been translated into Japanese and was just published in Japan.

Prof. Swinehart to speak at Univ. of Illinois
Prof. Karl Swinehart (Comparative Humanities/Anthropology) has been invited to offer a presentation entitled, “Andino Futurism, Tupac Katari in Space, and Decolonial Time in Bolivia’s Pacha Kuti,” to the Department of Anthropology at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.

First-ever online creative writing course available fall 2017
The Creative Writing Program in the Department of English is offering its first-ever online workshop, ENGL 599: Writing from Life, in fall 2017. This course offers a chance to turn the events, adventures, and milestones of your life into compelling works of literary art. The online format will enable students to engage with course materials from anywhere in the world. Taught by UofL creative writing professor Sarah Anne Strickley, the course is open to poets, fiction writers, memoirists, and playwrights, and is eligible for employee tuition remission. 

Scholarship honoring Savannah Walker established by UofL
The University of Louisville has set up a scholarship fund to honor Savannah Walker, an A&S student whose life was taken at an off-campus tragedy March 19. Contributions for the Savannah Walker Scholarship Fund can be made by check to the University of Louisville Foundation or online.