CAL Currents: The Newsletter of the College of Arts and Letters
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Volume 7 | Issue 2 | April 2024 | |
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The end of the semester is always both celebratory and eventful. Senior art exhibitions, recitals, film screenings, and performances, not to mention graduation and finals.
In this edition of CAL Currents, you'll read about just some of the activity and accomplishments of our amazing students and faculty, and at the end of the newsletter you can see some of the major events happening in the coming days that you'll not want to miss.
And today, April 19th, just happens to be UT Give Day. If you'd like to support the College of Arts and Letters, please help me climb the minaret.
My goal for Give Day is just $2500 and as of this writing I have a way to go yet! Your support, no matter the amount, means a lot.
I hope everyone has a wonderful end to the academic year. Congratulations to all of our graduating students.
Thank you for your support of the arts here on campus and in Tampa!
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The College of Arts and Letters is at the center of
the Tampa Bay cultural scene.
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Graphic Design Students and Faculty Partner with IKEA | |
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Graphic Design students and faculty partnered with global retailer IKEA for a unique exhibit focused on sustainability. Graphic Design students, under the guidance of Professor Luciana Gassett, embarked on a transformative journey through the lens of sustainability. Embracing their unique perspectives, they delved deep into the art of storytelling, illustrations, information design, and pattern design.
Professor Maria Blokhina's project, also on display at IKEA, breathes new life into discarded fabrics, elevating them into captivating symbols of nature's splendor. It's a testament to the power of design to not only inspire, but also to repurpose.
The display is on view at the Tampa IKEA through May 3rd.
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Students Shine in Plant Museum Documentary | |
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“Henry Plant's Playlist: The Evolution of French Operetta in America” recently premiered at the Henry B. Plant Museum. The short documentary film, featuring UT voice students Logan Almeida, D'Andre Carver, Parker Greenblatt, Hope Lelekacs, Ava Shore, and Benjamin Sutherland, combines archival research with historically informed performance to recover forgotten artistic works and to examine their significance in Guilded Age America.
Among the works explored are The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein by Jacques Offenbach, and The Mascot and Olivette, both by Edmond Audran. The film features commentary from Dr. Charles McGraw Groh, History, and Dr. Rodney Shores, Music, and was filmed, edited, and mixed by Professor Troy Cusson. It is on permanent display online at the Henry B. Plant Museum.
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Music Video Filmed in Virtual Production Studio | |
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The Department of Film, Animation and New Media hosted a workshop featuring the band Jumping Planets in the Virtual Production Studio on campus.
Jumping Planets, a dynamic duo consisting of DJ Buck Rodgers and hip-hop artist Zeale, led the workshop focusing on music production using Ableton Live, a popular digital audio workstation. This session is part of an ongoing collaboration with Ableton Live, Film Tampa Bay and Vū Technologies, highlighting the College's commitment to integrating cutting-edge technology and industry partnerships into its curriculum.
The workshop coincides with a music video shoot for Jumping Planets, conducted by students from Professor Gregg Perkins' Virtual Production class. This unique project provides students with hands-on experience in music video production, combining their skills in film, animation, and new media with live music performances.
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Faculty Record New Album in Ferman Center Studio | | |
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It's all done in-house!
A new record, “Songs of Sergei Rachmanivov,” was released this month on Centaur Records. The album features UT Music faculty Dr. Hein Jung and Dr. Grigorios Zamparas.
The album was recorded on campus in the Ferman Center for the Arts recording studio and engineered by Dr. Bradford Blackburn, also from the Department of Music. You can listen to the exciting new work on Spotify.
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Ferman Center Hosts Gasparilla Film Festival | This semester the Ferman Center for the Arts hosted the Gasparilla International Film Festival. Screenings were held in the Charlene A. Gordon Theater and Black Box Theater, while panels happened in classrooms and receptions in the Charlene and Mardy Gordon Performance Gallery. UT students were able to access festival programming without charge and Professor Aaron Walker, Film, Animation and New Media, helped welcome filmmakers and moderate discussions. | |
Students throughout the college find success in academic, artistic, and professional endeavors | |
Music Majors Place in Prestigious Competition | |
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Music majors Logan Almeida, Anna Jeffries, Keagan Kantor, Hope Lelekacs, Benjamin Sutherland and Gabrielle Takacs participated in the Tampa Bay NATS vocal auditions earlier this semester.
The students were model representatives of the College of Arts and Letters and are pictured above with Dr. Rodney Shores, Music.
Several students took home prizes as well.
Second Year College Classical (TBB voices) - Benjamin Sutherland, First Place
Second Year College Musical Theatre (TBB voices) - Benjamin Sutherland, First Place
Second Year College Musical Theatre (TBB voices) - Keagan Kantor, Second Place
Fourth and Fifth Year College Classical (TBB voices) - Logan Almeida, Second Place
Fourth and Fifth Year College Musical Theatre (Treble voices) - Anna Jeffries, First Place (tie)
Fourth and Fifth Year College Musical Theatre (Treble voices) - Hope Lelekacs, First Place (tie)
Fourth and Fifth Year College Musical Theatre (TBB voices) - Logan Almeida, Second Place
In addition, all participating voice faculty from across the Tampa Bay area were asked to vote from all first-place winners for the Annetta Monroe Most Promising Vocalist Award; this award for TBB voices went to Benjamin Sutherland.
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Speech Students Partner with Animal Rescue | |
Dr. Lacey Corey Brown’s Group Presentation and Leading Change class partnered with the Mercy Full Project this semester. Students volunteered at the animal rescue facility, helping to deep clean, build new shelters, and prepare food bags for community outreach initiatives. As a final project, students organized various fundraiser events for the Mercy Full Project and are grateful for the support of local businesses such as Pups Pub, the Jade Apartments, and Santoro's. | |
Art+Design Students Receive Gasparilla Festival of the Arts Collegiate Scholarships | |
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Alissa Pradera, Art+Design major, was awarded the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts Collegiate Scholarship for the second year in a row. Gianna Ritornaro, also an Art + Design major, was awarded a scholarship as well. Pradera's piece is pictured above and Ritornaro's below.
The work of the artists can also be seen in UT's Neon Art and Literary Magazine which launched this week.
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English Majors Explore Tampa | |
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English Majors in class with Dr. Sarah Juliet Lauro visited two local museums to supplement their study of enslaved resistance in art (Haitian exhibit at Art Museum) and history at Tampa Bay History Museum (Travails and Triumphs).
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PR Major Named Emerging Professional | | |
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Jennifer Rodriguez, Advertising and PR major, was selected by a team of Public Relations Society of America Tampa Bay as an "Emerging Professional 2024." This award recognizes a University of Tampa AD/PR major whose accomplishments and aspirations best reflect the level of professionalism and drive found in truly outstanding PR practitioners.
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Students Present at National Research Conference | |
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Three CAL students travelled with Dr. David Reamer, English and Writing and Director of OURI, to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Long Beach, CA. Cassandra Disharoon, Communication, presented a poster on student multitasking; Hannah Caraker (pictured), Music, presented on a female composer from the late 19th century; and Hope Pohlman, Philosophy, presented on demilitarization policies for police forces.
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Voice Major Performs with Opera Tampa | |
Music Major Brianna Davies will perform in Opera Tampa's production of La Traviata tonight and Sunday. Davies is also president of the Music fraternity on campus and performs in several ensembles. Twenty of friends from UT will be in the audience tonight (and the Dean, too!), courtesy of Charlene Gordon, UT Trustee, who provided tickets fr the students (and Dean!). | |
The College of Arts and Letters is home to a dynamic community of scholars and creatives | |
Dr. Bradford Blackburn’s jazz sextet arrangement of his piece Broken Records was performed at UT by the award-winning Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project, during their southeast tour. Blackburn also presented an immersive, octophonic cube mix of his electroacoustic composition, Canticum Avium, at the SEAMUS National Conference in NYC, in February. On April 25, the UT Symphony Orchestra is premiering Blackburn’s newest orchestral work, Triptych (for orchestra and electronics), commissioned and conducted by UT’s new orchestra director, Dr. Megan Maddaleno. | |
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Dr. Lina Gomez-Vasquez, Communication, was interviewed by Vilma Luoma-aho & Mark Badham, hosts of the podcast "Digital Corporate Communication-Dialogues with Scholars," who engage in dialogue with some of the most recognized Corporate Communication scholars across the globe.
Dr. Gomez-Vasquez was interviewed about her research in Digital Corporate Communication and Corporate Social Responsibility Communication and discussed a case study about Grupo Nutresa, one of the leading processed food companies in Colombia. You can listen to her podcast episode here.
She also traveled to RheinMain University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden, Germany, during Spring Break to explore international summer school opportunities for students in the Department of Communication. She met with faculty and staff from the Media Management Program, the Teaching and Learning Center, and the International Office, to learn more about possible international cooperation agreements between The University of Tampa and RheinMain University of Applied Sciences.
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Dr. Lesley Wolff, Art + Design, is co-editor of the new volume Nourish and Resist: Food and Feminisms in Contemporary Global Caribbean Art, published by Yale University Press.
The volume represents decolonial and intersectional approaches to contemporary Caribbean art, food and feminisms by scholars, curators and artists. Wolff co-edited the volume and co-authored multiple chapters with Dr. Hannah Ryan (St. Olaf College).
UT Art + Design Professor, Luciana Gassett, designed the graphics for the book’s cover. In honor of Women’s History Month, Drs. Wolff and Ryan were interviewed in March by Yale University Press about this new publication.
In March, Dr. Wolff also gave an invited lecture at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, entitled “Diego Rivera and Postrevolutionary Mexican Art,” which placed the murals of Southern US artist Walter Anderson into dialogue with contemporaneous work by renowned Mexican muralist Diego Rivera.
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Dr. Chrissy Auger, English and Writing, published a peer-reviewed journal article, "SyllabAI," in the first issue of the Journal of Writing and Artificial Intelligence (jwAi)/
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Dr. Marcus Arvan, Philosophy, has numerous, insane numbers actually, of publications this semester including “Educational Justice and School Boosting” in the journal Social Theory & Practice, “Allies Against Oppression: Intersectional Feminism, Critical Race Theory, and Rawlsian Liberalism” in the Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy; “Doing Masculinity Better” in the edited volume Ted Lasso and Philosophy, published by Wiley-Blackwell; and “Trans Women, Cis Women, Alien Women, and Robot Women Are Women: They Are All (Simply) Adults Gendered Female” in Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy.
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Dr. Sarah Smith-Frigerio, Communication, along with her colleague Dr. Mildred “Mimi” Perreault (USF) published their co-edited volume, Crisis Communication Case Studies on COVID-19: Multidimensional Perspectives and Applications this spring.
The edited volume is the ninth volume in the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and Peter Lang Scholarsourcing series.
The Scholarsourcing series is an annual competition where AEJMC members and the editorial board vote on which book proposals will receive contracts from Peter Lang Publishing for inclusion in the series. The chapters contributed to this volume are written by a diverse group of scholars and cover a wide array of communication contexts, including public relations, advertising, health communication, organizational communication, political communication, and beyond.
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Prof. Keven Renken, Communication part-time faculty and UT MFA graduate, will be presented with the Distinguished Favorite Award from the Independent Book Awards at their awards dinner in New York City on June 24. The award is for his debut novel, Welcome to the Day. His sophomore novel, Graphic: The Novel just won a Bookfest Award - first place in the category of contemporary fantasy fiction.
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Twelve exceptional faculty members in the College of Arts and Letters were promoted this year.
Promoted to Associate Teaching Professor: Dr. Lacey Corey Brown, Communication; Dr. Amy Elliot, English and Writing; Dr. Devon Johnson, Philosophy; Dr. Jeremy Lakoff, English and Writing; Dr. Timothy Ridlen, Film, Animation and New Media; and Dr. Rose Trentinella, Art +Design.
Promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure: Dr. Meredith Clements, Communication; Dr. Julie Nelson, English and Writing.
Promoted to Professor: Dr. Christopher Boulton, Communication; Dr. Andrew DeMil, Languages and Linguistics; Dr. Daniel Dooghan, English and Writing; Prof. Gregg Perkins, Film, Animation and New Media.
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End of Semester Happenings Not To Miss! | |
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All events are free and open to the community.
- Spring Art + Design BFA Exhibition – Friday, April 19 – Friday, May 3, Bailey Art Studio, Scarfone/Hartley Gallery
- Cabaret/Musical Revue: Hello Mr. Herman: A Jerry Herman Tribute – Friday, April 19, 7:30 PM, Ferman Center for the Arts Black Box Theater
- FMX Presents The Yvonne Rainer Collection: Journeys from Berlin/1971 – Saturday, April 20, 6 PM, Charlene A. Gordon Theater
- Choral Masterworks Concert – Saturday, April 20, 7:30 PM, Fletcher Lounge
- Damron Concert Artist Series: David Higgs, Guest Organist – Sunday, April 21, 2 PM, Sykes Chapel
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The Conservation Game Film Screening and Discussion – Monday, April 22, 6 PM, Charlene A. Gordon Theater
- The Spring Dance Happening – Wednesday, April 24, Thursday, April 25, and Friday, April 26, 8:00 PM, Falk Theatre
- Wind Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble Concert – Wednesday, April 24, 7:30 PM, Fletcher Lounge
- University of Tampa Symphony Orchestra – Thursday, April 25, 8 PM, Fletcher Lounge
- Black Box Film Festival – Friday, April 26, 7 PM, Charlene A. Gordon Theater
- Ars Sonora 23/24 Most Requested Songs Concert – Friday, April 26, 7:30 PM, Sykes Plaza
- Opus: Spring Show – Sunday, April 28, 3 PM, Falk Theater
- FMX Senior Thesis Showcase – Monday, April 29, 7 PM, Charlene A. Gordon Theatre
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