Honors Wednesday Memo
Opportunities and Information for Honors Students
edited by Lakin Stevens
Volume 4, Issue 30
April 21, 2021
Dear Honors students, faculty staff, parents, friends,
In this space two weeks ago I described attending our students’ Honors thesis defenses—in the Honors College and in departmental Honors programs—as “one of the great privileges of my life,” and I wrote: “I emerge from each [defense] with new hope for our human future, and proof of the power of an Appalachian education.” How so? Because our students emerge from their learning and living in Honors and their time at Appalachian ready to help heal the hurts and take on the problems of the world, both one at a time and—in part because of their thesis work—systemically and structurally. Our graduating students may not yet have an exact answer to Mary Oliver’s wonderful question in her 1992 poem The Summer Day:
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
But we know—and they know—that they are ready to make useful, important, unique contributions. We can’t wait.
Jeff
Photo above features Dr. Howie Neufeld's HON 3515 seminar titled The Future of Human Civilization, having socially distanced class outside. Photo taken April 2021 by Dr. Heather Waldroup.
Upcoming Opportunities:
Dean Jeff is happy to help you apply; send him an email at vahlbuschjb@appstate.edu.
ACT Team Blood Drive
Appalachian and the Community Together, is hosting a 400 pint blood drive on April 22nd from 9:00 am – 7:00 pm in the Convocation Center. Safety measures have been taken to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, including temperature checks, distancing, and sanitizing. Blood donation is a critical, lifesaving gift that takes about 20 minutes and can save up to 3 lives. Check your eligibility here and register here.
High Country Cooking Class
Students created a digital fundraising event for High Country Food Hub called High Country Cooking Class. The class will be led by two students and will feature a vegetable beef stew and easy apple pie with ingredients available from High Country Food Hub. Shop locally and support this local non-profit. The live streamed event will be free and donations are encouraged to High Country Food Hub. If you donate $5 or more, you will gain access to our private, interactive Zoom session. Donations can be made here and then send a record of your donation here to receive the Zoom invitation. The class will take place virtually on April 24th from 4:00 – 6:00 pm. Contact here with any questions.
Dear COVID: Public Art Experience
The Honors College, Beaver College of Health Sciences, and the Belk Library invite your participation in the community art project “Dear COVID: A Public Art Experience to Share What We’ve Learned and Lost Through COVID.” As the one year marks the starts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the public art project invites campus and community members to “unmask their voice” and to share what’s on their minds and hearts as we acknowledge this past year. Write a word, emotion, song, name, or anything that captures your pandemic experience. Find more information here.
Applied Geophysics (GPR) Workshop
The Ground-Penetrating Rader (GPR) Field Applications Workshop is a five day intensive training program in GPR survey, data acquisition and analysis. The program offers students practical, useful professional and research skills in the field/urban survey and exploration job market. The sessions run throughout June and July of 2021 and take place in Rapoltu Mare, Transylvania, Romania. For more information, visit here or contact Dr. Andre Gonciar.
Human Osteology Laboratory Research Training Workshops
The Osteology Research Workshop, Adult or Juvenile, offers 4-week long intensive laboratory programs that train students to conduct extensive osteological analyses and frame bioarchaeological research questions. The program runs in June and July. More details here and questions can be directed to Dr. Andre Gonciar.
Upcoming Thesis Defenses:
Dean Jeff urges, “Support your fellow Honors College students and faculty by attending Honors thesis defenses! You'll marvel, learn, and grow. And each defense you attend, you'll make your own easier.”
To receive the Zoom link to a thesis defense this semester, please write to honors@appstate.edu.
Andy Mendoza
9:00 am – 10:00 am April 21st
Presenting “The Effect of Apple Peel Extract Supplementation on Eccentric Muscle Damage and Muscle Function”
Julia Urh
2:00 – 3:00 pm April 21st
Presenting “Shoulda Coulda Woulda”
Sophia Lang
4:00 – 5:00 pm April 21st
Presenting “Monetizing a Lifestyle: How Social Media Influencers Transform Their Hobbies into a Career”
Logan Decker
9:00 am – 12:00 pm April 22nd
Presenting “Benefit of Cost Analysis of a Ground to Air Heat Transfer System”
Rachael Kelley
10:00 am – 11:00 am April 23rd
Presenting “The Light We Share: A Book of Interconnected Short Stories”
Paige Skinner
12:00 – 1:00 pm April 23rd
Presenting “The Influence of Amicus Curiae Briefs on Dissents from Denial and the Opinion of the Court”
Kiah Silver
3:00 – 4:00 pm April 23rd
Presenting “A Brief Sociocultural and Historical Analysis of African American English”
Gracyn Travitz
10:00 – 11:00 am April 26th
Presenting “A Systematic Review of the Impacts of Food Insecurity in China: Evidence Reveals Six Key Themes”
Jenna Elliott
12:00 – 1:00 pm April 26th
Presenting “The Semantics of Emotion Across Language: English-Spanish Language Transfer in Emotion Words”
Stay in the Know:
A Conversation with Victoria Walters
The ACT Office is hosting Victoria Walters (she/they), Appalachian alum, who now runs A Revolutionary Education. Walters will talk about blackness in Boone, the importance of intersectionality, and how we can move away from bigotry and move towards a more just society. Attend here from 5:30 – 6:30 pm on April 22nd.
Earth Day Climate Justice Film Series
Watauga Public Library, Working Films, Sustainable Development Department, Climate Stories Collaborative, and Climate Action Collaborative, and sponsored by North Carolina Humanities hosts “Revisioning Recovery: Uncovering the Roots of Disaster,” a part of the climate justice film series. The program features a collection of five short films telling environmental disaster recovery stories and examining historical inequities that worsen when disasters hit. This free event will take place on April 22nd from 6:30 – 8:30 pm and you can register here.
Indigenous Cinema 2021
Hosted by the Hemispheric Institute and the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage of the Smithsonian, Indigenous Cinema ’21 is a series of short and feature films from across the hemisphere with a focus on Indigenous voices, languages, and narratives. This five week series presents films from April 23rd each week until May 24th. Find more details here.
Sculpture Forum Artist Talks
The Western North Carolina Sculpture Center is hosting an outdoor sculpture forum event. The forum will feature artist talks by Patrick Dougherty, Rachel David, and Daniel Shieh. The socially distanced event will have live jazz music and wine. Attend here this free event on April 24th from 6:00 – 8:30 pm.
Queer, Trans, and POC Connection Space
The Multicultural Center, Wellness and Prevention Services, LGBT Center, and Black Student Association is hosting a queer, trans, people of color (QTPOC) connection space. This in-person meeting will take place on Sanford for socially distanced games. Register here to attend on April 26th at 5:30 pm.
In the Honors Spotlight
Dr. Eric Karchmer Conducts Fulbright Research in Taiwan
Featured above is Dr. Eric Karchmer (far left) during his Fulbright assignment in Taiwan from March through December. Dr. Karchmer posed beside his wife and children, removing their face coverings for the photo. Photo courtesy of Dr. Eric Karchmer.
Dr. Eric Karchmer, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, is currently in Taiwan with the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program studying the role of traditional Chinese medicine in treating emerging diseases and illnesses, primarily in children. This research project fits within Dr. Karchmer’s subfield focus of medical anthropology. For the Honors College, Dr. Karchmer has taught medical anthropology as an interdisciplinary junior-level Honors seminar in both the Fall 2016 and 2017 semesters. He has also directed two Honors theses in his subfield of medical anthropology. He worked with Sarah Snouse ’17 on her thesis titled Epilepsy: Beyond the Brain, and Madeline Marcellino ’19 on her thesis titled An Entanglement of Crisis: A Symmetrical Analysis of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Teaching and serving in the Honors College provides faculty like Dr. Karchmer opportunities to develop their own research and teaching. To read more about Dr. Karchmer’s Fulbright research project in Taiwan, click here to read the story by Jessica Stump, posted March 26, 2021 in AppalachianToday.
Have news to share? Submissions can be made by emailing honors@appstate.edu. Any content received by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday will be considered for the following week’s issue.
To stay in the know, learn about opportunities, and take part in the Honors community, find us below!