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FSC faculty pursue academic projects

LAKELAND, Fla. (Dec. 12, 2003) - Florida Southern College faculty continued their extracurricular academic pursuits by giving presentations, conducting workshops, publishing articles, and attending conferences. Following is a summary of their recent endeavors. 

Dr. Alexander Bruce, English professor, spoke at the Santa Fe Catholic High School Medieval Festival Nov. 6, reading to the audience from Old and Middle English literature, including lines from "Beowulf" and "The Canterbury Tales." Bruce also served on the executive committee of the English I (Medieval) session of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference in Atlanta Nov. 14-16. At the conference, he presented "Fire on the water as the aurora borealis: A new perspective on 'Beowulf' 1365-1366a," suggesting that the lines in question contained a reference to the Northern Lights. 

Dr. James M. Denham, history professor, presented a workshop on "Creating a Collaborative Historical Violence Database" at the Social Science History Association Conference in Baltimore Nov. 14. In addition, Denham presented a workshop for the Orange County public school teachers on "Pioneers on Florida's Nineteenth Century Frontiers" Nov. 22. 

Dr. Keith Huneycutt, professor and chair of the English department, presented "The Brown Sisters Contemplate Marriage in Frontier Florida" at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association conference in Atlanta Nov. 15. His paper focused on letters written by two young women from New Hampshire who lived in Florida from 1835 to 1850. 

Dr. Susan Opt, communication professor, has written a book chapter titled, "Public Relations and the Rhetoric of Social Intervention," accepted for inclusion in a public relations theory textbook to be published in early 2005 by Allyn & Bacon. 

Dr. Alan Smith, religion professor, presented a paper at a conference of the Religious Education Association and Association of Professors and Researchers in Religious Education Nov. 7-9 in Chicago. He discussed "The Lexington 'Heresy' Trial: William Clayton Bower and the Progressive School," an event in which Bower, a leading figure in the Progressive era of religious education, was charged with heresy in 1917 for teaching the historical-critical method of interpreting Scripture and for teaching the theory of evolution. 

Gwendolyn H. Walton, computer science professor, co-authored a paper with Robert Patton of Oak Ridge National Laboratory on "An Automated Testing Perspective of Graphical User Interfaces." Walton presented the paper at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference Dec. 1-4 in Orlando, Fla. 

About Florida Southern College
Florida Southern is a four-year, private, co-educational liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The college offers more than 40 undergraduate majors and a master of business administration degree accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Located in Lakeland, Fla., the college is home to the largest, single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture in the world.

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