‘Spectacular Now’ and its director James Ponsoldt coming to UA for screening
Al.com – Sept. 18
University of Alabama students have an exciting opportunity to see what many consider one of the best films of 2013 so far and hear its director talk about it on campus in September. “The Spectacular Now” is a coming-of-age romance starring Miles Teller as a hard-partying popular high school kid who finds an unlikely romance with Shailene Woodley’s nice and mild-mannered Aimee. The film’s director James Ponsoldt will appear at a UA screening in the Ferguson Center Theater at 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 23. Ponsoldt will discuss the film with Rachel Raimist, assistant professor of telecommunication and film and co-director of Creative Campus, following the show. “I saw the film as part of the ‘TCF AT SUNDANCE’ course that I teach with Dr. Kristen Warner in the telecommunication and film department and absolutely adored it,” Raimist said in a UA release. “It is a bittersweet coming of age story that twists and turns, and it is extremely relatable to college-age students.”
University of Alabama trustees approve $30 million baseball stadium overhaul
Al.com – Sept. 18
University of Alabama Trustees gave the green light last week to the first phase of construction plans for a new Sewell-Thomas baseball stadium, which is slated to begin at the end of the 2013-14 season. While the project is being touted as a renovation, due to plans to retain the existing site and basic structures, the $30 million project is expected to give the complex an entire face-lift. Trustees said an alternate location was considered but it was decided the current location is ideal with its close proximity to other athletics facilities like Coleman Coliseum and the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility…Alabama players will enjoy all new facilities, including a new locker room, weight room, bullpen and four new batting cages.
WHNT (Huntsville) – Sept. 17
How Often Do Mass Shooters Die In Their Attacks?
PopSci.com – Sept. 17
Details are starting to emerge in the aftermath of yesterday’s deadly shooting at the Washington Navy Yard in D.C., a military administrative headquarters…While we don’t know very much about the psychology of rampage violence, we do know that it’s quite common for perpetrators to die in a mass shooting incident–almost half do. A recent study in the journal Justice Quarterly highlighted significant differences between mass shooters who survive their attack and those who die. Adam Lankford, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Alabama who studies mass shootings, performed a statistical analysis of a 2010 New York City Police Department report that attempted to encapsulate all “active shootings,” defined as one person killing others in a well-populated confined area, between 1966 and 2010. The study refined the data to only include U.S. shootings in which two or more people were killed or injured. That resulted in a total of 185 mass shooters–including both workplace and school shooters. “Unlike most murderers and terrorists, mass shooters almost never escape the scene of their crimes,” Lankford writes.
Professor promotes critical thinking, diversity
Crimson White – Sept. 18
Paul Landry, a McNair fellow in the College of Education’s Instructional Leadership, Social and Cultural Foundations Ph.D. program, has spent a great deal of time researching and finding ways to fix the issue of diversity in school systems domestically and abroad. Landry, who completed his undergraduate degree at Macalester College, attended the Boston University School of Law before transferring and finishing up at the Georgetown University Law Center, is currently seeking his master’s and Ph.D. degrees from The University of Alabama. Before becoming a prominent voice among socioeconomic and intercultural education, Landry spent 30 years practicing law. As a lawyer, he was the first black partner in a major corporate law firm in the state of Minnesota, was designated as a “Super Lawyer” by his peers and fellow associates and was the founding member of the minority partners conference for the American Bar Association. He also helped organize and conduct the first national conference on diversity for the American Bar Association.