Monday Memo, September 11, 2023

Dear A&S Colleagues,

All faculty and staff are invited to join the A&S Development team--Denise Bohn, April Waddell, and Jordan McGinty--for a training and overview of this year’s Raise Some L day of giving. The training takes place TODAY, September 11, in BAB 218, 3:15pm-4:00pm.

Raise Some L is a campus-wide initiative to bring together the support of alumni, community, and friends of the University. It's a great opportunity for your unit to engage with alumni, donors, and friends to raise money for your departments and programs. This year Raise Some L kicks off Tuesday, October 24^th at 6:02pm and continues through Wednesday, October 25^th at 11:59pm.

There are several changes and updates from years past, including a new online platform and a new Advocates program (formerly known as Ambassadors). The team will discuss creative strategies your area can use to ensure a successful campaign. We look forward to seeing you there!

Sincerely,

Julie Wrinn, Chief of Staff

Research Agenda

Congratulations to Psychology graduate student Lauren Girouard-Hallam on being recognized by the Society for Research in Child Development's (SRCD) 15th Annual Student and Early Career Council Dissertation Research Funding Awards, given to dissertation research proposals that are exceptionally noteworthy and display a strong potential to contribute to the field of child development. Girouard-Hallam received $2,000 to fund her dissertation research.

Deborah Lutz, a professor of English, has been named a Public Scholar in the NEH Grant Program and awarded $60,000 for her book project of a biography of British Writer Emily JBrontë (1818–1848), the acclaimed English novelist. NEH Public Scholar peer-reviewed grants support vital humanities education, research, preservation, and public programs. Read more.

The North American annual cicada, whose distinctive sound heralds the end of summer, are inhospitable to bacteria, antireflective, hydrophobic, and provide camouflage. A team of UofL biologists and engineers analyzed the nanostructure of cicadas' wings and developed a nanofabrication technique to replicate it for potential use in spaces where bacteria are undesirable, such as food service, health care facilities and medical devices.

The team, led by Biology professor Mark Running, along with UofL engineering faculty Chuang Qu and Kevin Walsh, has developed a process to synthesize a surface material that mimics the wings’ structure and has the same antibacterial and water repellant properties as the wings that inspired it. The development and testing of the innovative manufacturing process was made possible through the use of state-of-the-art facilities at UofL's Micro/Nanotechnology Center, which include a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and nanomaterial production capabilities. Read more.

Below, left to right: Kevin Walsh, associate dean of research and facilities and professor of electrical engineering at UofL’s J.B. Speed School of Engineering; Chuang Qu, senior engineering researcher; Jesse Rozsa, graduate research assistant; Mark Running, professor of biology; and Shamus McNamara, associate professor of electrical engineering. The project also included students Hyun-Jin Jung, Anna R. Williams, and Emmanuel Markin, UofL’s 2022 Homecoming King.

A&S Recruitment

The Majors Fair helps new students explore their academic options and connect with faculty and staff in their areas of interest. It will take place on Thursday, Sept. 21, 10:45 am - 1 pm in the Humanities Quad (rain location: Student Activities Center, Ballroom, SAC W215). Departments should have their table set up and ready to go no later than 10:45 am and be prepared to talk with students until the event ends at 1pm. Students who get their passport stamped by visiting at least three different tables will earn a free lunch. Estimated attendance is 500-700 students. Departments are asked to complete the Participation Form to let the office of First Year Experience know whether your department plans on being there. Questions: firstyear@louisville.edu.  

Outreach & Community Engagement

Professor Benne Holwerda of Physics and Astronomy has recently been awarded $222,148 from the National Science Foundation for involving minority students in the Commonwealth of Kentucky in astrophysical research. A new research and education partnership in astronomy called OAKS (explOration of Astronomy by Kentucky Students) will be developed to improve access for rural minority students to opportunities in astrophysical research across the Kentucky Commonwealth. The partners are rural-serving institutions such as Moorehead State and Berea University along with the astrophysics research departments of Northern Kentucky University and the University of Louisville. The program will pilot a substantive and sustainable partnership spanning Kentucky to provide personalized mentoring and financial and academic support to KY undergraduates, plus the resources to further their research and engage with the astronomical community on a national level. This will help to lower barriers to access such as finances, the hidden curriculum of academia, and familiarity with the basic tools of research. This project is jointly funded by the NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

Two A&S faculty are teaching short courses at the Louisville Free Public Library, free and open to the public. Last month Maegen Rochner, Assistant Professor of Geographic and Environmental Sciences, taught “Written in the Trees: Exploring the Past Through Tree-Ring Records.” This month, Andrea Gaughan, Professor of Geographic and Environmental Sciences, is teaching “Humans and the Environment: A Geographer’s Perspective,” Thursdays, September 7 – 28, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.

Student Government

As UofL’s Student Government Association kicks off the 2023–2024 school year, we note that three of the top leaders are A&S students:

• Katie Hayden – Student Body President, McConnell Scholar, studying neuroscience and political science. Improving communication with the student body is a vision of Hayden’s. She plans to implement a sign up where students can receive text updates on current SGA news. “How can we best get everybody in the know? How can we help students understand who SGA is? When you look at it, the big picture, your student government does make a lot of decisions that can drastically affect the student body,” she said.  
• Sawyer Depp –Student Body Services VP, political science major. Depp believes getting students involved in SGA is important for the small things as well as the big changes. “Being able to see change on a university level or even at an individual level — just seeing change at all — is really what I think the biggest draw to SGA is,” he said.
• Alex Reynolds – Student Body Academic VP, political science and history major. One of Reynold’s main goals is continuing to improve on student services. Carrying over from last year, are his plans to improve the Cardinal Cruiser transportation services. “We’re making some real headway this summer,” he said. “I want to make it more like an Uber, Lyft-type service.”

Reynolds, who is an advocate for free speech, says it’s important for students to get involved with SGA. “Not only does SGA provide these amazing opportunities for leadership and amazing connections, it also helps actually make a difference,” he said. “The university administration has done a really good job of including students within SGA and working with us to craft university policy and services.” Read more.

Kudos

Congratulations to Clest Lanier, Office of Diversity, Engagement, Culture and Climate, on her recognition as the Founder and Executive Director of the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage (KCAAH). Clest was celebrated for championing the proposal, guiding the planning, securing millions via fundraising, and facilitating the development of the building where KCAAH is located. A wing has been named in her honor, the “Clest Lanier Pavilion.” On August 14, current and past congressional, state, and local elected officials—including the former Governor Paul Patton—were joined by noted community leaders, members of the University of Louisville and Simmons College, family, and friends to present her with this prestigious honor, commemorated as “Clest Lanier Day at the Heritage Center.” Clest is a Political Science alum of UofL and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority.

Congratulations to Mark Alan Mattes on the publication of his edited volume, Handwriting in Early American: A Media History (University of Massachusetts Press, Aug. 2023). As digital communication has become dominant, commentators have declared that handwriting is a thing of the past, a relic of an earlier age. This volume of original essays makes it clear that anxiety around handwriting has existed for centuries and explores writing practices from a variety of interdisciplinary fields, including manuscript studies, Native American studies, media history, African American studies, book history, bibliography, textual studies, and archive theory.

“This is an exciting collection. To see handwriting as a kind of media—and to understand that media form as intersectional—is a major and most welcome shift in how scholars understand the material texts of early America and is crucially important for the field moving forward.”—Megan Walsh, author of The Portrait and the Book: Illustration and Literary Culture in Early America

Kudos to French Club President and Latin & French REACH Tutor Cody M. Smith (Middle and Secondary Education [French P-12] and French Major) on being the 2023 recipient of the prestigious Amici Linguarum (Friend of Language)-Post-Secondary award from Kentucky World Language Association. He will be receiving the honor in Lexington this month.

Louisville Tour for A&S Newcomers

By Sherri Wallace

Thank you to those who took the time to join us for our second “Destination Louisville” city tour on Saturday, August 19, 2023. We were delighted to welcome on the tour our new Dean, Dr. Dayna Touron, new(ish) faculty, and their guests. We extend a great big thanks to the honorable Dr. Tom Owen, UofL Archivist and Special Collections—renown historian of “All Things Louisville.” Tom has selflessly and generously shared his extensive knowledge of this city with many audiences for many years. Each time I have the opportunity to “sit at his feet,” I learn something new. . .   Should you wish to join him for “Walking Wednesdays” as part of the UofL Wellness program, please contact him for the fall schedule at: thomas.owen@louisville.edu.

Also, a special thanks to Clest Lanier, who works in the Diversity, Engagement, Culture and Climate (DECC) office, for spearheading this activity that is meant to be an “informal, down-home” way to welcome our new faculty to this fantastic city. This event was sponsored in collaboration with the Office for Faculty Affairs, and we are grateful for their support as well. 

Pictured left to right: First row, Shona Tucker (Chair, Theatre) with her mother, Mrs. Jessie Tucker, Aneri Tasker (A&S Dean’s Office), Sherri Wallace (Interim Assoc. Dean, DECC), Yolanda Demaree (Faculty Affairs), and Rae Stilwell (A&S Web Developer), with guest Luke Stone. Second row, Yara Mekawi (Psychological and Brain Sciences), Dean Dayna Touron, and Christine Ehrick (Chair, History). Third row, Elliot Rapp, husband of Cara Cashon, Cara Cashon (Assoc. Dean, Graduate Education), Ryan Coleman (Psychological and Brain Sciences), honorable Tom Owen (historian and tour guide), Maryem Riahi (Fulbright Fellow from Tunisia), Cathryn Johnson (Political Science), and standing behind her is Charisse Hodge, sister of Shona Tucker. Fourth row, Clest Lanier with husband, Chuck Lanier.

Human Resources

Benefits: Open Enrollment for 2024 benefits begins Monday, Oct. 23, 2023, and continues through Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, with benefit elections taking effect Jan. 1, 2024. Stay tuned for additional Open Enrollment communications in UofL Today and Open Enrollment mailers that will be mailed in the fall. New or continued health care and/or dependent care FSAs, must be elected during Open Enrollment each year.

Wellness:Enroll in Get Healthy Now and earn points for 2024. Employees must earn 480 wellness points between now and November 30, 2023, to qualify for the $40 Get Healthy Now monthly incentive in 2024. Employees are required to complete the Personal Health Profile (PHP), which is worth 200 wellness points, regardless of results. The remaining 280 wellness points may be earned through a variety of activities/programs from now through November 30, 2023. Full list of point opportunities is in the Get Healthy Now Incentive Guide. 

Workday: Additional WorkdayHR office hours. The WorkdayHR Project team is holding office hours every Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. During the office hours, you will have the opportunity to ask general WorkdayHR questions. Dates and registration are on the HRtalks webpage. For Workday questions, contact the WorkdayHR project team at workdayhr@louisville.edu and continue to review UofL Today and the Workday website for WorkdayHR related information.

Upcoming Events

TODAY: Kentucky Author Forum in partnership with UofL's Center for Engaged Learning (CEL), presents author and historian Jill Lepore (above) for a lecture and discussion with Political Science professor Jasmine Farrier, at 11 a.m. at the CEL, rooms 191-197. The event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Lepore and Farrier will discuss Lapore's upcoming book,  The Deadline: Essays, a collection of 46 of her essays written over the last decade - including three unpublished ones – that offer a prismatic portrait of Americans’ techno-utopianism, frantic fractiousness and unprecedented yet armed aimlessness.

Thomas Shanker, Director of the Project for Media and National Security at George Washington University and a 25-year veteran of the New York Times, including 13 years as the Pentagon correspondent, will deliver a lecture, "Keeping American Safe in a New Age of Danger," on Wednesday, September 13, 12:00 pm -1:00 pm, Shumaker Research Building 139. Free and Open to Public, light refreshments served, sponsored by the Political Science Department and the Liberal Studies Visiting Scholars Project. See flyer below for details.

Please join us on September 14 as we kick off the Fall semester of the Yearlings Club Forum Series as we welcome Dr. Kim Schatzel, UofL President. Reservations Required via Eventbrite.

Latinx Heritage Month Kick-Off: Join the Hispanic, Latinx, & Indigenous Initiatives (HLII) in kicking off Latinx Heritage Month with music, art, and food at the Speed Art Museum! See you there! Friday, September 15 at 5:00pm to 10:00pm, Speed Art Museum, 2035 S. 3rd St.

The Health Equity Innovation Hub has partnered with the College of Arts & Sciences to bring an exciting new series for students called Entrepreneurship Live! The first two events take place on September 20-21 featuring:

John Mays

• Date: 9/20/2023
• Speaker: John Mays
• Time: 12:00PM-1:00PM 
• Location: 9/20/23 (SAC W116)
• RSVP & more details about the speaker

Kela Ivonye

• Date: 9/21/2023
• Speaker: Kela Ivonye
• Time: 12:00PM-1:00PM 
• Location: 9/21/23 (SAC Floyd)
• RSVP & more details about the speaker

The Individualized Major Information Session (Tue., Sept. 26, 12:15 – 1 PM, Shumaker Research Building, 139). Are you interested in creating your own unique major? Do you know what you want to do but can’t find the right major? Learn more about the Individualized Major at this informational event. Hear from the program director and academic advisor about the process, requirements, and benefits of an individualized major. See the flyer below.

30th Anniversary of the UofL African American Theatre Program: Black Light Awards Gala, “Changing the World One Performance at a Time." We will produce a dynamic large-scale event to highlight the African American Theatre Program alumni who have built lifelong careers in the theatre and film industry and have made a significant impact both locally, nationally, and internationally. The gala is a black-tie affair and will feature a keynote speaker anticipated to be a celebrity and/or nationally recognized theatre artist. Our vision is to host an evening full of powerful celebration and honor for the three decades of groundbreaking accomplishments which have led to this special 30th anniversary. In so doing, this gala presents an invaluable opportunity to serve as a fundraiser to continue fortifying this legacy and ensuring the expansive growth of the program. Saturday, September 30, 2023, 6:00–10:00pm, Louisville Central Community Center, 1300 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd, Louisville, KY 40203. For more information contact LaShondra Hood at aatpta@louisville.edu. RSVP by August 31. Tickets

Next up in the Department of Geographic and Environmental Sciences' speaker series is Patrick Piuma, UofL Envirome Institute/Urban Design Studio, on October 3. See series flyer below for details.

Pride Month Signature Events

At the University of Louisville, we celebrate Pride during the month of October, in conjunction with LGBTQ+ History Month. On behalf of everyone at the UofL LGBT Center, we hope you’ll join us in celebrating Pride Month 2023, on the Belkap and Health Sciences Center (HSC) campuses. Considering the impact of the current climate on our LGBTQ+ students, employees and loved ones, your ongoing support and advocacy mean more than ever.

Pride Kick-Off & Resource Fair, Belknap, October 4, 11:00 AM-2:00 PM, Red Barn & West Plaza

Pride Picnic & Resource Fair, HSC, October 12, 11:30 AM-1:00 PM, HSC Courtyard

Black Queer Symposium (New!), October 18, 7:00-8:00 PM (virtual); October 19, 6:30-8:30 PM (Belknap | SAC Ballroom); and October 20, 7:00-8:00 PM (virtual). For complete information, visit EngageUofL and search “Black Queer Symposium”: https://louisville.campuslabs.com/engage/events

Pride Keynote Address/LGBTQ+ Affirming Healthcare Series, Session Two, October 19, 12:00 – 1:00 PM, Health Sciences Center (Kornhauser Auditorium).

For questions about these events contact: Byron Terry, Belknap LGBT Center, Director: byron.terry@louisville.edu; or Lisa Gunterman, HSC LGBT Center, Director: lisa.gunterman@louisville.edu. For general information about the LGBTQ+ Affirming Healthcare Series, visit: https://louisville.edu/lgbt/hsc/lgbtq_affirming_healthcare_series.