English Faculty Member Honored with Fulbright Scholar Award
By Betsy Rhame, '01

Lucy Melbourne, adjunct instructor of English, is the recipient of a Fulbright Lecture/Research Scholar award for the 2005-06 academic year. Melbourne will be traveling to Morocco in September to teach English language and composition at Mohamed V University, a coeducational institution. The university is located in Rabat, the capital of the Muslim country.

In her classes she will focus on minorities in American culture, and more specifically, how the American dream manifests itself in multicultural America. Melbourne plans to use a variety of literary works and films to illustrate this concept. For example, the drama Death of a Salesman will be used to help show the idea of the American dream, while short stories by Amy Tan and a film of Malcolm X at Mecca will show how this dream can fall short in the lives of American minorities.

"I wanted to dispel the myth that we as Americans all look the same, act the same and think the same," Melbourne said.

She is also planning to hold film discussions once a week outside of class and as an extra-curricular activity, show "monthly films that are about the United States' social conditions and ones that are fun."

In Morocco, Arabic is the first language and French is the second. Melbourne is fluent in French but will teach her classes in English since many students speak some English. Morocco is also slowly switching over to a more American educational system, and universities have recently changed to the semester system.

"I'm going to be literally modeling American teaching and [professorship]," Melbourne said.

In her spring classes Melbourne hopes to find several female students who want to connect with Meredith students via the Internet so all the women may engage in an exchange on a message board or similar correspondence. At Meredith, Rebecca Duncan, associate professor of English will be organizing students and creating a web page.

For the research aspect of her Fulbright Melbourne plans to examine how women in Muslim culture fictionalize their life experiences.

"My theory is that women who have been suppressed have created a particularly unique way of expressing themselves [through writing]," she said. "It shapes and finds a voice for their own lives that have been silenced."

Melbourne says that in Morocco the veiling of women is voluntary, and the country is very different than Iran.

"Our misperceptions about Muslims are awful," she said. "This is my chance to do something about that. These people are just like us."

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Catholic Angels Launch Weekly Mass
By Jacqueline Stalls,'06

When Elizabeth Amor arrived at Meredith College in 2002 she found only one problem—there was no formal outlet or venue for her to practice her religion. Meredith College seeks to open its campus to diversity, and Amor is a good example of a student who is on the front line for change. Amor, founder and president of the Catholic Angels, has worked with other students, staff and local individuals to help create a place and time for Meredith's Catholic students to socialize and worship.

Amor and her colleagues have many plans for Catholic Angels and its followers. They plan to host monthly fellowship events, weekly Bible studies, a faith-based book club and service projects; one of which has already been planned in correlation with the Summit House.

But for now Amor is concentrating on her organization's newest, and most important, weekly event. The Catholic Angels have begun hosting a weekly Mass where Catholic and non-Catholic students, staff and faculty can come to worship. The Mass will be held every Thursday, at 3:30 p.m. in the Jones Chapel Prayer Room. After hosting the first Mass, Amor feels very positive about the event's attendance. "We had a huge turn out…over 20 people… we almost filled the prayer room," says Amor.

With the help of their advisor Carol Finley and Father Alex Gonzales, director for Catholic campus ministry at the Doggett Center, the Catholic Angels have received tons of support. Amor says that Campus Minister Sam Carothers, "has been a great help [and] a number of faculty members have been really helpful."

Now a senior at Meredith, Amor is proud of the progress the campus has made. When she arrived at Meredith, Amor knew that there were a growing number of Catholic students, and she has focused on creating an organization for these students.

For any questions, comments, or information please contact Amor at CatholicAngels@meredith.edu.

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