Faculty/Staff Accomplishments and Departmental News 5/6/20

In this issue, we celebrate the accomplishments of faculty and staff in the President’s Office, the Department of History, Political Science, and International Studies, the Department of Music, and from Corporate and Community Education.

President Jo Allen and Pepperdine University President Emeritus Andrew Benton collaborated on an opinion piece about the ways that higher education continues to be on the front lines of innovation for the public. Allen and Benton are both former chairs of the National Association of Independent Colleges & Universities (NAICU) board. The piece was published by University Business on April 30, 2020.

Assistant Professor of History Amy O’Keefe had two conferences canceled because of the coronavirus. She had planned to present a paper called “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Women Navigating Confucian and Christian Traditions of Patriarchy at the National Christian Conference of China, 1922,”  at the Currents, Perspectives and Methodologies for the Study of World Christianity and its Interactions with Other Religions Conference, which was to be held at Princeton Theological Seminary (March 11-14).

O’Keefe was also going to present a second paper, “Christianize the Home Week: Dissemination of a Chinese Christian Family Ideal, 1930-1951,” at the Conference on Generational Legacies: The Family in Chinese Christianity at the Purdue University Center on Religion and Chinese Society (May 4-5).

Corporate & Community Engagement Offers COVID-19 Relief Webinar
Meredith’s new Corporate & Community Engagement initiative sponsored a free webinar,  How to Apply for Covid-19 Relief Funding for Small Businesses. Two sessions of the webinar were held including one exclusively for alumnae. The webinar, presented by Meredith’s Director of Sponsored Programs Janey McMillen, who has more than 25 years experience obtaining federal funding and experience as a small business owner. The webinar was designed to guide small business owners, independent contractors, and self-employed people through the process of applying for COVID-19 funding for small business relief.

#MCStayingStrong Spotlight: Meredith College Chorus Virtual Performance

As part of our #MCStayingStrong series, we asked faculty to share ways that their classes stayed strong this semester. Director of Choral Activities Shannon Gravelle shared this performance by the Meredith College Chorus, Meredith’s non-auditioned ensemble.

“Students submitted videos to me every week and I gave them feedback. Each week had different focus concepts that were based on varying educational goals. Then students submitted a final video, and I put it together using Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Audition,” Gravelle said. “Students had a conversation over Zoom with the composer and also participated in discussion questions each week.  We talked about text analysis and discussed things such as what music they were listening to, how they were making music outside of choir, and the biggest challenges to learning online.”

Share other examples of #MCStayingStrong in the (virtual) classroom by emailing Melyssa Allen, Campus Connections editor, at allenme@meredith.edu or by using the social media submission form.