Division of Philosophy and Theology 2004-05

PHILOSOPHY

Mel Brandon

Lectures/presentations/workshops given:

• Two presentations at Grand Rounds, Department of Pediatrics, University of South Alabama School of Medicine

• Two talks to Odyssey-Elderhostel group at the University of South Alabama

• Moderator of Arun Gandhi lecture

• Panelist on AIDS and social justice for a nursing division workshop

• Reflection on Hans Kolvenbach

Attended:

• Conference on Institutional Integrity, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York

• Invited paper: "Leading for Institutional Integrity"  

• HEAL (Healthcare Ethics and Law) Institute Bioethics Conference, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama

Member

• University of South Alabama College of Medicine's Ethics Committee

Set up/coordinated/arranged lectures:

• Religion, Ethics, and Health Care Workshop, including the evening lecture by the Rev. James Keenan, S.J.

• Speakers from Muslim and Christian Science traditions on end-of-life care

• Susan Pace Hamill lecture on social justice

• Donald Mullan lecture on social justice

• Ethics workshop for Bedsole Scholars

Adjunct Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of South Alabama College of Medicine

Works in progress:

• Editing "Leading for Institutional Integrity" (Conference on Institutional Integrity paper) for possible publication in Business and Professional Ethics

Joanna Forstrom

Awarded:

• Tenure and rank of associate professor

• Teagle Summer Research Grant: "Locke and the Socinian Heresy"

• Named Lifelong Learning Adjunct Teacher of the Year

 Attended:

• NEH Summer Institute on "The Intersection of Philosophy, Science, and Theology in the Seventeenth Century"

• Web Conference: "St. Ignatius in Cyberspace"

• Heartland-Delta IV meeting:  "Companions in the Mission"

• Deli Long Table (University of South Alabama and SHC philosophers' local organization)

Lectures/presentations/workshops given:

• SHC Faculty Friday: "Locke and the Socinian Heresy"

Works in progress:

• "Descartes Against the Heretics"

• "Locke and the Socinian Heresy"

Carl Kobelja

Lectures/presentations/workshops given:

• Presentation to Odyssey group at University of South Alabama:  "How Poetry Transcends Mother's Tongue -- Akhmatova, Brodsky, Goethe, Neruda, Rilke, and Szimborska"

• Presentation to Stone, Granade & Crosby, P.C., Attorneys at Law, at their professional development retreat, Point Clear, Alabama:  "Dostoevsky's and Kafka's Roles in Existentialistic Atheism" 

• SHC Faculty Friday: "On Invariance of Form in Poetic Translation:  Akhmatova, Brodsky, Goethe, Rilke"

Served as SHC's coordinator for monthly discussions of the Deli Long Table (University of South Alabama and SHC philosophers' local organization)

Works in progress:

• Paper on the origins and meaning of analysis for presentation at either the Northwest Philosophy Conference, the Alabama Philosophical Society meeting, or the Mid-South Philosophy Conference

Gregory Morgan

Awarded SHC Teagle Research Grant

Elected to Phi Beta Kappa on the basis of my doctoral dissertation

Publications:

• Gregory J Morgan (2004) "Early Theories of Virus Structure" in R. Holland Cheng and Lena Hammar (eds.) Conformational Proteomics of Macromolecular Architecture, World Scientific Press, p 1-40.*

• Gregory J Morgan (2004) "Tobacco Mosaic Virus" in Jordon Goodman (ed.) Tobacco in History and Culture, Charles Scribner's Sons.*

*written prior to beginning teaching at Spring Hill but not published until 2004

Lectures/presentations/workshops given:

• Interview to The Mobile Entertainment Guide about foreigners' perceptions of Mobile, published in Volume 1, Issue 5, pp 12-19

Attended:

• Philosophy of Science Association Conference

• History of Science Society Conference

• Deli Long Table (University of South Alabama and SHC philosophers' local organization)

Member:

• Philosophy of Science Association

• American Philosophical Association

• International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology

Works in progress:

• Paper tentatively entitled "The Beauty of Beauty" which considers a positive role for beauty in science even if beauty is not related to truth

• Working with Angela Creager (History, Princeton) on a paper about Rosalind Franklin's work on virus structure in the 1950s for presentation at next year's American Phytopathology Society meeting

Mark Starr

Lectures/presentations/workshops given:

• "Art as Theology: Images as Primary Texts" (a Lenten Soup Supper series utilizing themes and ideas from my philosophy of art course), St. Matthew Episcopal Parish, Mobile, Alabama

Extensive reading on new developments in philosophy and on areas of special interest:

• K. A. Appiah, Thinking It Through: An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy

• J. Buchan, Crowded with Genius: The Scottish Enlightment

• D. Charles, Aristotle on Meaning and Essence

• D. Dennett, Kinds of Minds

• D. Edmonds and J. Eidinow, Wittgenstein's Poker

• P. Godfrey-Smith, Theory and Reality

• T. Nagel, The View from Nowhere

• R. Nozick, The Nature of Rationality and The Structure of the Objective World

• R. Rhees, Wittgenstein's "On Certainty":  There -- Like Our Life

• A. Sen, Development as Freedom

• S. Toulman, Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity

Works in progress:

• Article comparing the 20th century analytic philosopher G. E. Moore with the Hellenistic skeptic Sextus Empiricus on the topic of certainty (result of sabbatical research)

THEOLOGY

Lynn Bridgers

Publications:

• Monograph: Contemporary Varieties of Religious Experience: James's Classic Study in Light of Resiliency, Temperament, and Trauma, Sheed & Ward/Rowan & Littlefield. Under contract and scheduled for release Fall 2005 

• Solicited journal article: "Is Anybody Listening?: Trauma, Abuse, and Healing in the Roman Catholic Community," Journal of Religion and Abuse.  Forthcoming (peer-reviewed) 

• Solicited book review of Wake for a Fat Vicar, Fray Angelico Chavez and Thomas E. Chavez (LPD Press, 2004), in The Catholic Historical Review, forthcoming

• Solicited book review of Archbishop Lamy: In His Own Words, John Baptiste Lamy, Thomas J. Steele, S.J. (editor) (LPD Press, 2000), in The Catholic Historical Review, forthcoming

• Book review of Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic, Martha Beck, (Berkeley Books, 2000), in Off Campus, SHC's theology newsletter, October 2004

• Solicited book review of Nurturing Morality, Theresa Thorkildsen and Herbert Walberg (Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers, 2004), in Journal of Moral Education, Volume 34, Number 1, March 2005

• "When the Amygdala Meets the Unfamiliar," solicited book review of The Long Shadow of Temperament, Jerome Kagan and Nancy Snidman (Belkap/ Harvard University Press, 2004), in PsychCRITIQUES (journal for the American Psychological Association), forthcoming

Lectures/presentations/workshops given:

• Theology on the Grapevine, "Trauma, Transformation, and the Mystic Saints," L'agniappe, Ocean Springs, Mississippi

• Presentation at adult education class: "Teresa Looks at the Incarnation," St. Lawrence Church, Fairhope, Alabama

• Spring Hill Day featured lecture: "Vocation and the Laity:  Challenges We Face, Challenges We Undertake"

• SHC Spiritual Direction Seminar Presentation:  "Conversion, Temperament, and Religious Experience"

• SHC breakfast workshop:  Respondent to Dr. E. Glenn Hinson, "Ministers as Midwives of Grace"

• SHC guest lecture for Dr. Rita Durant's BUS 520 Organizational Behavior class: "The Dialectic of Trauma in Organizational Dynamics"

• SHC guest lecture for NUR 300 Foundations of Nursing class: "Spirituality in Responding to Traumatized Populations"

Attended:

• American Academy of Religion annual meeting, San Antonio, Texas

• Invited paper presented at the Augustine and Augustinians Consultation meeting: "A Snare of My Own Choosing: Love and the Captive Will in Augustine and Comblin"

• Paper presented at the Mysticism Group meeting:  "Mystics as Activists: Trauma, Mimesis, and the Currents of Consciousness" 

• College Theology Society 50th Annual Convention and Teaching Workshop, Washington, DC

• Presented paper:  "Reading the Texts of Our Lives: Schneider's Revelatory Text and the Practice of Vocation"

• SHC Teaching for Solidarity summer seminar

• SHC Faculty workshop

Nominated for:

• "Rising Star" in the Chronicle of Education, by my editor at Rowman & Littlefield

• Membership in the International Academy of Practical Theology

Served on Ph.D. Qualifying Exam Committee for one person for Emory University's Person, Community, and Religious Life Program;  John Snarey, Chair

Works in progress:

• Monograph: In Sun and Shadow: An Introduction to the American Religious Experience, Sheed & Ward/Rowan & Littlefield.  Undergraduate textbook under contract; manuscript due July 1, 2005; release date not yet scheduled

• Journal article: "The Conflicts Behind the Conflict: New Mexico's French and Hispanic Clergy in  the Aftermath of Revolution," New Mexico Historical Review.  Solicited for special edition on the impact of French clergy in New Mexico; waiting for notice of acceptance (peer-reviewed) 

• Journal article: "A Snare of My Own Choosing: Love and the Captive Will in Augustine and Comblin," Augustinian Studies.  Solicited for submission; waiting for notice of acceptance (peer-reviewed) 

Tim Carmody

Lectures/presentations/workshops given:

• Led five groups through the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Exploreum, Mobile, Alabama

• Lectures on the Dead Sea Scrolls:

• Christus, Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama

• Mobile Public Library, Mobile, Alabama

• Odyssey Group, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama

• Spring Hill Avenue Methodist Church, Mobile, Alabama

• Trinity Episcopal Church, Atmore, Alabama

• St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, Mobile, Alabama

• Government Street Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama

• Corpus Christi Church, Mobile, Alabama

• Pure Word Church, Mobile, Alabama

• Episcopal Church of the Advent, Lillian, Alabama

• Rotary Club of Mobile, Mobile, Alabama

• Theology Coffee House, Ocean Springs, Mississippi

• Women's Book Club

• Visiting high school students from Natchez, Mississippi

• Workshop on reading the Bible, St. Mark's Parish, Birmingham, Alabama

• Three lectures on "Theology of St. Paul": St. Lawrence Parish, Fairhope, Alabama

• Lecture on "Bible as Living Word of God":  St. Mark's Parish, Birmingham, Alabama

• Lecture on "Eucharist in the Gospel of Luke and the Letters of Paul": St. Richard's Church, Jackson, Mississippi

Attended:

• Catholic Biblical Association meeting, Halifax, Nova Scotia

• Participated in the Continuing Seminar on the Gospel of Mark

• Association of Graduate Programs in Ministry annual meeting

Selected to participate in the University of Notre Dame's Wabash Study, Teaching Introductory Theology and Religion: Lessons from the practices of Fifty Effective Teachers

Served as a consultant on the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Exploreum

• Worked with the director and the curator to select the scholars who would give lectures

• Served on the team that reviewed the guide audio tapes for the exhibit

• Gave numerous lectures and interviews before and during the exhibition period

• Served as host for Dr. James VanderKam, professor of Hebrew Scriptures at the University of Notre Dame and member of the international committee that is editing and publishing the remaining unpublished scrolls, when he came to Mobile to lecture at the exhibit

Works in progress:

• Book (part of a commentary series) for Paulist Press on the Gospel of Mark 

George Gilmore

Publications:

• Two book reviews for the SHC graduate theology newsletter

Attended:

• College Theology Society annual convention, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC

• Presented paper

• Most SHC Faculty Friday presentations

Lectures/presentations/workshops given:

• Presentation on the Dead Sea Scrolls: Mobile Public Library, Mobile, Alabama

• Two talks: Trinity Presbyterian Church, Fairhope, Alabama

• Two adult education talks: Holy Spirit Parish, Atlanta, Georgia

• Presentation on religious diversity at the Anytown Religious Oppression Workshop

• With Dr. Michael Johnson, represented SHC and the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation at an economic development seminar in Tuskegee, Alabama

• SHC Faculty Friday presentation on the Lifelong Learning General Studies Program (with Dr. Michael Kaffer)

Member:

• St. Lawrence Parish Adult Education Committee

• Marietta Johnson Museum Board of Directors, Fairhope, Alabama:  President, 

Organized ecumenical evenings for the St. Lawrence Parish (Fairhope, Alabama) Adult Education program which included presentations on Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Zen

Works in progress:

• Manuscript reading of a fiction book on a New Testament scroll with two pages translated into Greek

Frederick Gunti

Member:

• SHC Committee for Theology Newsletter 

Chris Viscardi, S.J. [Division Chair]

Hold the Caestecker Chair in Liberal Arts

Publications:

• Essay contributions to Off Campus (graduate theology annual newsletter)

• Several book reviews

 Attended:

• American Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) Mission and Identity annual meeting, Wheeling Jesuit University, Wheeling, West Virginia

• American Academy of Religion (AAR) annual meeting and American Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) conference of theology department chairs, San Antonio, Texas

Lectures/presentations given:

• Parish lecture presentation: St. Richard, Jackson, Mississippi

• Parish lecture presentation: St. Paul's Episcopal, Mobile, Alabama

• Frequent media interviews with Kristen Campbell, religion editor of Mobile Register

• Historical presentations for SHC 175th Anniversary Celebration events, including dedication of the Rites of Passage sculpture and Byrne Hall

• SHC Celebration of Our Learning (COOL) PowerPoint lecture: "Spring Hill College and the American Empire: Southern Expansionism in 19th-Century Mobile"

Member:

• College Theology Society

• American Academy of Religion

• Society for the Study of Spirituality

• Sub-commission on Jesuit Higher Education Ministry for New Orleans Province

Chair of Christus Theological Institute and Christus/Quest lecture program

Works in progress:

• Continuing work on book on the history of Spring Hill College as a case study of Jesuit-Catholic mission in higher education over the last 175 years

Stephen Wilson

Attended:

• New Wine, New Wineskins Symposium for young Catholic moral theologians, South Bend, Indiana

• Presented paper on the relationship between liturgy and virtue

• SHC faculty workshops

Lectures/presentations given:

• Interview for Alabama Public Radio on magisterial authority and ecumenical relations

• Interview with Kristen Campbell of the Mobile Press Register on theology and film

• Guest lecture on the social thought of John Calvin:  Dr. Alex Landi's LIS 503 Modernity course 

Member

• North American Academy of Liturgy

Works in progress:

• Revising for publication the paper on the relationship between liturgy and virtue that I presented at the New Wine, New Wineskins Symposium