Dear A&S Colleagues, 

Congratulations to the newly elected officers of the UofL A&S staff association, aka ULASSA: 

• Rebecca Ledford, President
• Mary Elliott Stump, Vice President

Mattie Perez is continuing in her role as Secretary. The College is grateful to Rebecca, Mary, and Mattie for their willingness to serve!

All staff are invited to the second Staff Listening Session of the semester with Dean Touron on April 16. She will begin with a brief update on matters in the College—including the just-released revision of the remote work policy—and then take comments and questions from staff. This is an in-person session. See below for details as well as a full slate of ULASSA events in April:  

• Tuesday, 4/16 from 1-2 pm, Strickler 102: Listening Session with Dean Touron. Immediately following this session is: 
• Tuesday, 4/16 from 2-3 PM in BAB 218 - ULASSA Meeting
• Friday, 4/19 from 3:30-4:45 PM in BAB 218 - A&S DEI Strategic Planning
• Tuesday, 4/30 from 12-1:30 PM in BAB 218 - ULASSA Spring Derby Party RSVP here

We hope to see you at as many of these events as your schedules allow! 

Sincerely,

Julie Wrinn, Chief of Staff

Reseach Agenda

New Research Administration Portal: Cayuse

Cayuse is a new electronic research administration (eRA) portal for UofL. This document will be continuously updated with all Cayuse product training opportunities. Learn more by registering for a training, visiting the Cayuse website, or joining the UofL Cayuse MS Team Channel to ask questions via chat.

Cayuse Proposals (S2S) is UofL’s new system-to-system solution for the development and submission of federal grant proposals to Grants.gov. Visit the Cayuse Proposals S2SUser Guide for full guidance details.

Cayuse Sponsored Projects is for internally administering proposals and awards. All sessions will be recorded. Some topics will require multiple sessions to cover all material. We encourage users to attend all applicable sessions. Register here to be invited to the training sessions below.

Additional trainings will be added as Cayuse applications are released by UofL into the system throughout 2024:

• Animal Oversight is for administering IACUC protocols.
• Hazard Safety is for administering IBC protocols.
• The remaining applications are for Vivarium Operations and most users will not have access to Animal Procurement, Animal Inventory, Vet Care, Schedules, Service Charges, or Billing.

Alumni Achievements

A&S Careers Panel: Here and Beyond

Many thanks to the A&S alumni who participated in a careers panel for students on April 12. With Dawne Gee as moderator, Jennifer Brinkley, Jeff Hay, MK Lindsey, andMike Schuler spoke about the power of a liberal arts degree and what’s possible here and beyond. Student asked great questions, and it was an energizing, engaging, and authentic conversation!

Jerald Smith, Owner, NICE Cream and STEAM Education Co.

Jerald Smith’s love for science was sparked by a thrift store chemistry kit that gave him his first taste of mixing and creating scientific blends. That passion and childlike excitement for science stuck with Smith (2017 bachelor's in chemistry) at UofL and inspired him to start his own businesses aimed at making science fun, interactive and accessible for everyone.

Smith launched two businesses – NICE Cream and STEAM Education Co. – to help spark a similar passion in others for science. With NICE Cream, Smith runs liquid nitrogen ice cream and cocktail parties across Louisville where kids can learn the science behind the sweet treat and adults can craft their own concoctions. STEAM Education Co. is an interactive traveling education program that gives K-12 students hands-on learning experiences and a chance to explore STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math).

“This is how we can work together and use science and our community as a resource to better our world,” Smith said.

As a student at UofL, Smith was a Gates Millennium Scholar and involved in the American Chemical Society, Collegiate 100, the Pan African Studies Department, the Office of Minority Resources and the C.O.N.E.C.T. peer mentoring program in A&S, among other student organizations. Smith credits the connections he made as a student at UofL with helping him narrow his path to becoming a scientist and educator.

“Right off the bat at orientation, the culture of the SOSers (Student Orientation Staff) sparked a desire for me to be a mentor and guiding light myself,” Smith said. “I loved the overall culture at UofL and having faculty and staff that cared about us and our vision of building something great. To this day, I have relationships with so many people I met at UofL who I still work with.” Read more. 

Kudos

LA Review of Books publishes commemorations by 9 poets and critics at LCLC 2024 of the late Lyn Hejinian

Kudos to the 51st Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture for spontaneously creating a tribute to the late author Lyn Hejinian, who died at the age of 82 at her home in Berkeley, CA, on February 24. Working with former conference director Alan Golding and current director Matthew Biberman, writer Barrett Watten organized, with eight peers and collaborators, an ad hoc event on the final day of the conference that illuminated multiple facets of Hejinian's life in writing. Those nine presentations were recently published in the Los Angeles Review of Books as "Allegorical Moments: Lyn Hejinian's Life in Writing." From presentation to publication in six weeks: a rare feat for any conference in the humanities! Hejinian's obituary appeared in the New York Times.

AAPI Heritage Week keynote with Chef Edward Lee

Renowned Chef Edward Lee, our hometown chef with Korean roots, was the keynote speaker as part of the 2024 Asian, Asian American, Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Week events on April 9. Pictured above is Lee in conversation with Xiao Yin Zhao, executive director of the World Affairs Council of Kentucky and Southern Indiana. Lee shared cuisine from his local Nami Restaurant for this lunchtime event and presented “Breaking Down Barriers through Culinary Experience.” The A&S Office of International, Engagement, and Equity Programs (IEEP) was a co-sponsor of this event. More event photos may be viewed on Flickr here. 

Undergraduate Excellence

Congratulations to students who presented at the 18th annual ACC Meeting of the Minds hosted by the University of Notre Dame on April 5-7, 2024. ACC Meeting of the Minds is an annual research conference celebrating undergraduate research and creative inquiry at the 15 Atlantic Coast Conference member schools. UofL's five participating students are pictured above, and presentations by A&S students are listed below:  

• Divya Patel, Physics - An Analysis of Active Galactic Nuclei in Diverse Galactic Environments
• Allison Portaro, Chemistry - Assessing the Bioactivity of Salvia Phytochemicals Against Breast Cancers. Allison is pictured below with her poster. 
• Preeti Tanwani, Biology, Neuroscience - Understanding Mechanisms of Cancer Cell Killing by Novel Copper Containing Complexes

Calls for Submissions

ABI Social Justice Awards Still Accepting Paper Submissions

The Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research (ABI) is accepting submissions for the 17th-Annual Social Justice Research Paper and Multimedia Awards. All UofL undergraduate and graduate students are eligible to apply.

• Paper Submissions due by Monday, April 22, by 11:59pm

View full guidelines and the application here. For questions, email uoflabi@louisville.edu. 

Community Engaged Scholarship Grants

The Engagement Scholarship Consortium announces the 2024 Engaged Scholarship Research/Creative Activities Grants Program. Faculty and staff from ESC Member Institutions, which includes UofL, may apply for up to $5,000 to fund a one-year project. Collaborative projects among faculty and staff from more than one discipline or at more than one university are encouraged. Funds may be used for faculty, graduate, undergraduate, community partner, and administrative stipends; supplies and expenses; or project-related travel. No indirect costs will be associated with this seed award. Funds may not be used for travel to conferences. Application deadline: Friday, May 3, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST. Visit the program website for more guidelines and more information. 

A&S Events

2nd Staff Listening Session of the Semester with Dean Touron

All staff are invited to the 2nd Staff Listening Session of the semester with Dean Touron. She will begin with a brief update on matters in the College—including the just-released revision of the remote work policy—and then take comments and questions from staff. This is an in-person session. Tuesday, April 16, from 1-2 pm, Strickler 102. This is an in-person session. 

Health Care Ethics Speaker Series: Dr. Tehseen Noorani on the Ethics of Psychedelics

We are thrilled to announce the third and final talk in the Spring 2024 Virtual Health Care Ethics Speaker Series on the topic of the Ethics of Psychedelics. Dr. Tehseen Noorani (University of Auckland) will give a talk entitled “Collaboration Across the Psychedelic Therapy Ecosystem: A decade of questions, insights, and ongoing challenges.” You can click here to register. Please spread the word to your colleagues, students, friends, and social networks. MA in Health Care Ethics/Applied Philosophy The talk is on Wednesday, April 17 (12-1, EST). See flyer below.

"La Montagne" Concludes French Film Festival on April 17

All are invited to this year's French Film Festival. To read more about this year's final film, see: 

• The Mountain (La montagne), Thomas Salvador / 2022 / 113 min, https://strandreleasing.com/films/the-mountain/

Contact: Matthieu Dalle at m.dalle@louisville.edu or (502) 852-6115. The 2024 University of Louisville French Film Festival is made possible by the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, the Modern Language Fund, the French Club, and Ms. Nancy Brown.

Much Ado About Nothing: A Contemporary Reimagining! 

The stage is set, the lights dim, and the curtains rise as the Department of Theatre Arts proudly presents its latest production: a contemporary reimagining of William Shakespeare’s timeless comedy, Much Ado About Nothing. 

Directed by Jennifer Pennington, this production promises to captivate audiences with its fresh perspective on a beloved classic. Following a troupe of modern-day university students, the production delves into the lives of young theatre artists, while exploring themes of love, deception, and the power dynamics within creative spaces. Performance dates:

• Wednesday, April 17 at 10:00am to 12:30pm
• Thursday, April 18 at 7:30pm to 10:00pm
• Friday, April 19 at 7:30pm to 10:00pm

$10 Students; $15 Seniors, Faculty, Staff; $20 General Admission. At the Thrust Theatre, 2314 South Floyd Street Louisville, KY 40292. See flyer below.

Spring 2024 BFA Thesis Exhibition Reception

The Hite Institute of Art and Design is excited to announce our Spring 2024 BFA Thesis Exhibitions. The presentation of our BFA Students Thesis Exhibitions is a celebratory moment for our students and the Hite, as it marks the beginning of their journey’s as professional artists. This semester, participating students include:

• Natasha Campbell
• Corinne DeWolfe
• Thomas Hays
• Nala Joy
• Tanner Sawyer
• Veronica Torres Martinez
• Claire Vicars
• Samuel Wilding

While each artist is exploring their own concepts and themes, similarities do appear throughout, in whimsical and vibrant content, and themes of identity, place, nostalgia, and the body.

A reception for the Spring BFA Thesis Exhibition will be Thursday April 18 from 5-7pm in the Schneider Hall galleries. This event is free and open to the public, we hope you will join us! Schneider Hall Gallery, 2300 S. First Street Walk , Louisville, Kentucky, 40208

CeLoubrate Print: a Humanities Interdisciplinary Professional Project

Join Hite Art at the Portland Museum backyard for a day of inky fun. CeLOUbrate Print connects community members to Louisville printers and artists, inviting them all to come together for hands-on workshops (like creating letterpress posters with our own Beechgrove Press), demonstrations of print techniques (like printing cyanotypes and making paper with UofL students), and exhibitions of local print artworks and artifacts.

We will also be printing large, hand-carved wooden stamps, or "woodcuts," by driving over them with a "steamroller" instead of running them through a printing press to print the image. Leading up to the event itself, we will hold free workshops for woodcarving so that anyone who wants to carve a stamp can do so and bring it to print with the steamroller. Visit the Portland Museum website to see our ever-updating schedule of workshop times and locations.

Feel free to reach out to William Smith (william.smith@portlandky.org) and Erica Lewis (erica.lewis@louisville.edu) if you are interested in getting involved—teaching about print through show-and-tell, selling prints, and/or promoting local print resources. We hope to see you there or even collaborate in whatever way makes you most excited to be involved. We are so excited to celebrate Louisville print! 

Collaborators/Sponsors: Hound Dog Press, Brad Vetter Design, Printed Zine, office of Community Engagement, UofL Humanities Department, UofL Hite Institute of Art & Design, UofL Graduate Student Council

All are welcome. Admission is free, with free street parking. Saturday, April 20 at 10:00am to 6:00pm, Portland Museum 2308 Portland Ave, Louisville, KY 40212. See flyer below.

UofL Events

Instructors’ Fall Courses in Blackboard Ultra

UofL’s Blackboard team is excited to announce all fall 2024 course shells have been created in Blackboard Ultra. Don't wait; prepare yourself now to ensure a smooth transition. Delphi recommends attending a virtual training first to learn the basics, and then a pop-in session this week for personalized support. It’s essential for even users familiar with Blackboard Original to attend Ultra training due to significant user experience and feature differences. https://louisville.edu/delphi/blackboard/bb-ultra-course

Grant writing workshops

Register now for the last remaining grant writing workshop taking place on May 14, 2024, 12 noon - 1:30 pm, from the Office of Community Engagement, Office of the Provost, and Office of Institutional Equity for faculty, staff, and graduate students. Workshops will introduce the basics of grant writing from the lenses of community engagement, present the foundation for developing a letter of inquiry and a full proposal, provide approaches to engage funders, and provide insights into the review process. Register at this link.

Deadline extended: Apply for the 2024 Green Threads Workshop by June 1

Interested in integrating themes of ecological, social & economic stewardship into your courses? The Sustainability Council invites all full- or part-time faculty, instructors & GTA Academy members from ANY discipline to apply for the 2024 Green Threads teaching enrichment program. We’ll explore ways to weave sustainability into your curriculum through a one-day workshop in August. You’ll receive a $500 honorarium, course development resources, local sustainability insights, & a network of colleagues from across UofL. Apply by June 1st, with Chair’s approval. Website & Application. Contact: Brent Fryrear bfryrear@louisville.edu, (502) 852-8854. See below for the 2023 Green Threads faculty cohort.