Faculty/Staff Accomplishments December 2023 

In this issue, we share the accomplishments of faculty and staff in economics, education, English, political science, and religion.

Heather Frese, adjunct English instructor, will publish her second novel, The Saddest Girl on the Beach, in April. Grieving after her father’s death, a young woman seeks solace in an Outer Banks beach town on North Carolina’s coast where her best friend’s family runs a small inn. The family welcomes Charlotte with chowder dinners and a cozy room, but her friend Evie has a looming life change of her own, and soon Charlotte seeks other attractions to navigate her grief. Will she, like in some television movie, find her way back through a romance, or are there larger forces at play? Heather Frese, winner of the Lee Smith Novel Prize and author of The Baddest Girl on the Planet, sets Charlotte on a beautifully rendered course through human frailty, unrelenting science, and the awesome forces of the Carolina coast.

Professor of Religion Shannon Grimes presented a paper at the national Society of Biblical Literature conference in San Antonio this November titled “Great Mother of the House of Life: A Study of the Goddess Seshat in the Book of Thoth.” Her paper focused on the role of the Egyptian goddess of writing in a recently translated initiation text for the scribes of the House of Life, a scriptorium and center of knowledge production affiliated with major temples.

Professor of Education Julie Schrock and Associate Professor of Political Science Whitney Ross Manzo attended the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education conference in Pittsburgh, Pa., from November 16-18. They facilitated an interactive session titled “Assisting First-Generation Students with the Transition to College.” 

Professor of Economics Anne York presented “Using LinkedIn in the Economics Curriculum” on November 11 at the 20th Annual UNCW Teaching Workshop sponsored by Cengage and the UNCW Department of Economics and Finance. Dr. York explained how she devised an assignment to help students further develop their LinkedIn profiles and make posts that demonstrated their ability to connect economics to their career goals or everyday life. She also showed how she used LinkedIn to help with program promotion and assessment. Dr. York would be glad to work with any Meredith faculty to adapt the use of LinkedIn to their courses or programs.