Dr. Andrea Davis (left), assistant professor of history, and Dr. Vicent Moreno (right), associate professor of Spanish, were roundtable speakers for the Association for Computers and the Humanities Conference. They discussed “Memory and History: Transforming the Narrative of the Spanish Civil War and Francoist Dictatorship,” a project Davis is directing. Collaborators from North America and Spain are transcribing, translating and indexing interviews with militants, witnesses and victims of the war and 40-year dictatorship that followed.

Dr. Mohammad A. Alam, associate professor of chemistry, and research colleagues have been awarded a National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant of $345,935 to purchase 400 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance equipment. This state-of-the-art equipment will increase the capabilities of several research groups related to organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, natural product chemistry, and material science. The grant’s project personnel include Alam, principal investigator, and co-principal investigators: Dr. Fabricio Medina-Bolivar, professor of plant metabolic engineering, Dr. Hashim Ali, professor of chemistry, Dr. John Hershberger, associate professor of chemistry, Dr. Allyn Ontko, associate professor of chemistry, and Dr. Zahid Hossain, associate professor of civil engineering. Alam also is co-PI of another MRI grant to acquire a single crystal X-diffractometer at the University of Memphis.

Dr. Edward Salo, associate professor of history, published the chapter “More than Just a Way across the Water: The Identification, Preservation, and Commemoration of Ferry Sites in South Carolina,” in a book on public history published by the University of South Carolina Press. Salo examined nontraditional spaces to interpret pre-Civil War African American history by removing enslaved people from agriculture and placing them on the state’s waterways, then looking at them through cross-disciplinary scholarship.

A collaborative research study conducted by faculty from two colleges has been published in Cogent Education. Dr. Pamela Lewis-Kipkulei, assistant professor of occupational therapy, Dr. Jacques Singleton, associate professor of special education, Dr. Topeka Small Singleton, assistant professor of educational leadership, and Dr. Kimberley Davis, associate professor of special education, authored the study, titled “Increasing Student Engagement via a Combined Roundtable Discussion and Flipped Classroom Curriculum Model in an OT and Special Education Classroom.” Results show that student engagement and participation were positively impacted by these models. The article is available online.

Congratulations to former sports information director and longtime staff member Gina Bowman, who will be recognized as an Honorary Letter Winner at the Lettermen’s Club Hall of Honor banquet Sept. 3. Bowman has served 45 years on staff, including 32 as sports information director (SID). After beginning in collegiate athletics as assistant SID, she was promoted to assistant athletic director for media relations in 1994 and was senior woman administrator (SWA) from 1994-2002.