Top News

SEVEN SOUTHWESTERN FACULTY MEMBERS RECEIVE FUNDING FOR RESEARCH PROJECTS

Southwestern University faculty members have received more than $11,000 in research funding for the upcoming year from the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church.

The money comes in the form of Sam Taylor Fellowship awards that are funded by the board.  The Fellowships are awarded to full-time faculty members at United Methodist-related colleges in Texas.

Seven Southwestern faculty members received a total of $11,620 for 2010-2011.

Read more here.

Events

LOW BRASS ENTHUSIASTS TO PUT ON ANNUAL TUBA CHRISTMAS DEC. 4

Music Professor Eileen Russell and other local low brass enthusiasts will stage Georgetown’s annual TubaChristmas event on Saturday, Dec. 4, at 2 p.m. on the steps of the Williamson County Courthouse facing Main Street. The guest conductor this year will be Mike Lynch, a lawyer from Austin who owns 180 tubas. Lynch will perform on a tuba that was owned by Bill Bell and Harvey Phillips. Phillips started TubaChristmas in honor of his teacher, Bill Bell.

TubaChristmas is part of Georgetown’s 30th annual Christmas Stroll event, which will run from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

DEC. 8 SALON WILL FOCUS ON 1994 GENOCIDE IN RWANDA

The Williamson Museum’s Dec. 8 Salon will focus on the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The speaker will be a representative from the Human Rights Documentation Initiative sponsored by the libraries of The University of Texas at Austin. The UT libraries are engaged in a unique partnership with the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre in Rwanda to collect and preserve documentation of the genocide with the goal of supporting education and advocacy to combat genocide ideology and conflict in Rwanda and around the world.

The Salon will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the back room at Wildfire Restaurant, 812 S. Austin Ave. in Georgetown. For more information, visit The Williamson Museum’s website at www.williamsonmuseum.org. The Salon is free and open to the public.

HOLIDAY HOME TOUR SET FOR DEC. 11-12

The Georgetown Heritage Society is sponsoring its annual Holiday Home Tour Dec. 11-12 from noon to 5 p.m. The tour will showcase five homes in Old Town, several of which have connections to Southwestern. Among the houses on the tour will be the house at 1403 Elm St., which was once live in by William Dwight Wentz, Southwestern’s first theatre professor.

Tickets for the tour are $15 in advance and $18 the day of the tour. Tickets may be purchased in advance at any of these locations:

  • Georgetown Visitor Center at 101 West 7th St.
  • Hill Country Bookstore at 719 South Main St.
  • Georgetown Antique Mall at 110 West 8th St.
  • Sun City Community Association Office at 650 Sun City Blvd.

On the day of the tour, tickets may be purchased at Grace Heritage Center, 811 South Main St.

For more information, call 512-869-8597 or visit http://www.georgetownheritagesociety.com

Media Coverage

The Williamson County Sun did a story about Southwestern’s good grade on the 2011 College Sustainability Report Card.

The Austin American-Statesman ran a story about Music Professor Lois Ferrari being the first female conductor to lead a concert on the Dell Hall stage at Austin’s Long Center for the Performing Arts.

Religion News Service ran an interview with Religion Professor Laura Hobgood-Oster about her new book. Read the interview here.

Notables

Barbara Anthony, assistant professor of computer science, presented a poster at the INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) Annual Conference in Austin Nov. 8 titled “Operations Research in a Liberal Arts College.”

Daniel Castro, professor of history, has been invited to serve on the National Screening Committee that will select graduate students to train abroad during the 2011-2012 academic year under the Fulbright-Hays Program sponsored by the United States Department of State. Castro will serve on the committee that nominates candidates for study in South America. The committee is meeting in Houston next week.

Richard Denman, professor of mathematics and computer science, had an article published in the November 2010 issue of the College Journal of Mathematics, a publication of the Mathematical Association of America. The article, titled “The Tower and Glass Marbles Problem,” was co-authored by Michael Rothenberg and Southwestern alumnus David Hailey.

Junior Zach Freeland has earned All-Region honors for cross country in NCAA Division III. Freeland earned the honor after placing in the top 35 at one of the nine regional meets held Nov. 13. Freeland placed 32nd at the South/Southeast Regional Championships held in Memphis with a time of 26:36.

Seniors Sarah Holifield and Danielle Madison have been named to the 2010 All-SCAC Third Team for women’s soccer. Read more here.

Melissa Johnson, associate professor of anthropology, presented a paper titled “Circulating Nature, Producing Identity: Rural Belize in Motion” at the 109th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in New Orleans last month.

Senior Juan Juarez was awarded a Top Attorney Award and the Southwestern University Mock Trial Team composed of Juarez, Will Cozzens, Okatsu Romero, Ali Berner, Danny Jozwiak and Emi Anderson placed fifth at the Dallas Fort Worth Invitational Tournament Nov. 20-21.

Seniors Alex Keller and Fernando Leon were named to the men’s soccer All-SCAC First Team and sophomore Evan Perkins and junior Nick Pierce were named to the All-SCAC Third Team. Read more here.

Juniors Christina Nicholls and Lindsay Thompson were Honorable Mention selections for the NCAA Division III women’s volleyball All-America teams. Read more here.

Sophomore Rachel Thibodeau was named to the Regional All-Tournament Team for her performance with the Pirates at the NCAA Volleyball Regional Tournament in Atlanta Nov. 13-14. Read more here.