The University of Tennessee Pre-game Faculty Showcase returns this fall for its 15th season of entertaining and educating Volunteer football fans.
UT faculty will discuss timely topics or give a musical performance two hours before kick-off of each Tennessee home game. The programs are sponsored by the UT College of Arts and Sciences with support from the UT National Alumni Association and the UT’s Men’s Athletic Program.
Each session will last about 30 minutes and most will be held in the University Center Shiloh Room on the UT campus.
The presentations are free and open to the public. Free refreshments are provided.
The schedule for this year’s series is:
Sept. 5, UNLV, Dr. David Northington, professor of music (piano) and Dr. Wesley Baldwin, assistant professor of music (cello), “Calling the Plays on the Musical Gridiron: A Piano and Cello Duo.” This performance will be held in the University Center Ballroom.
The New York Times has called Northington “..an immensely gifted musician..who combines the technical mastery of a virtuoso with the musical sensitivity of a poet.”
The Washington Post describes Baldwin’s playing as “..almost orchestrally rich in sound; bold, but well-controlled in phrasing and dynamics.”
Sept. 18, Florida, Dr. Lynne Parker, associate professor and director of the UT Distributed Intelligence Laboratory in the Department of Computer Science, “Smart Machines: Robots that Integrate Perception, Reasoning and Action to Perform Cooperative Tasks.”
Sept. 25, homecoming game against Louisiana Tech, Dr. Robert Bast, associate professor of history and director of UT’s Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, “The Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction?”
Bast has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Fulbright Foundation and is a past recipient of the UT National Alumni Association Outstanding Teacher Award.
Oct. 2, Auburn, Dr. Anthony Nownes, associate professor, of political science, “Campaign 2004: The Race for the White House – Last Lap to the Finish Line.”
Nownes has twice been named Pi Sigma Alpha Professor of the Year.
Oct. 23, Alabama, Dr. Lorri Glover, associate professor of History, “2 July 1776: The Most Important Day in American History.”
Nov. 6, Notre Dame, Dr. Michael Lofaro, professor of English, “The Literary Genius of Knoxville’s James Agee: From A Death in the Family to The African Queen.”
Lofaro is a past recipient of the Governor’s Award for Literary Achievement and a Senior Fulbright Lecturing-Research Award-winner.
Nov. 27, Kentucky, Dr. Barry Bruce, associate professor of biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, “Genetically Modified Organisms and the Bio-Technology of Agriculture: America’s Cornucopia of Environmentally Threatening ‘Franken-foods’?”
Bruce studies the import of proteins into chloroplasts as well as molecular chaperones.
For more information, call 865-974-4676, or visit the college’s web site at: http://www.artsci.utk.edu/outreach.