Johnson’s Advanced Public Speaking classes are unique,
centered around a role-playing game that provides topics
for their speeches throughout the semester. This can be a
challenge, so Johnson is hoping the Fellows program will
bring fresh strategies for incorporating the game into his
teaching.
His project for the program is his game, “Romans... in Space!,”
which centers around the question, “What would happen if the
Roman Empire had not fallen?”
Students are put into “factions” or “colonies” with different
resources and powers, which forces them to interact with each
other, develop their speaking skills, and get involved in the
class.
On top of learning new ways to incorporate his game into
a classroom setting, Johnson feels he can learn a lot from
observing how others handle certain tasks and situations and
is excited to have this opportunity with others who share the
same passion for teaching and learning.
Whatever he brings back from his year as a Governor’s
Teaching Fellow, we know it will be engaging!
Doug Joiner, MFA
Lecturer, Department of Communication
Congratulations to Professor Doug Joiner who received a
grant from the Porter Fleming Foundation. Porter Fleming
awards are given to those who show great interest, productivity,
and creative ability in the arts, and are intended to aid the
recipient in creating a new project.
In Professor Joiner’s case, the grant will be used to bring
the novel, Here To Get My Baby Out Of Jail, by Louise Shivers,
to the stage as a musical this coming spring term. Shivers
was an artist-in-residence at Augusta University for many
years.
“It starts to take on this other worldly atmosphere at times a
bit, it blends the everyday story of a relatively isolated woman
who moves from her father’s house into her husband’s house
and how she, in essences, has for someone that’s helping her
husband on the farm because he’s living with him and how
that develops and what she goes through. There’s a thick
tension of deception shrouded by some other worldliness.
I think it’s going to turn out to be kind of cool,” Joiner
said.
Quoting Henry James, Joiner said, “‘We work in the dark. We
do what we can. Our task is our passion and our passion, our
task. The rest is the madness of art.’ So, we’ll see.”
Jim Minick, MFA
Assistant Professor, Department of English and Foreign Languages
Congratulations to Assistant Professor Jim Minick for
receiving the 2017 Appalachian Book of the Year Award. He
won the award for his debut novel Fire Is Your Water.
The award was presented this past June at the 13th Annual
Mountain Heritage Literary Festival meeting at Lincoln
Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn.
“This is an organization I’ve been a part of for over 20 years,
and I know there are many fine writers in it. So to have their
validation is a huge honor,” Minick said.
The book is set in the 1950s and follows Ada Franklin, a
young powwow doctor in the Pennsylvania Dutch country
whose life of healing changes when a fire destroys her barn,
shakes her faith, and in turn causes her to lose her ability to
heal.
Minick is the author of four other books: The Blueberry Years,
Burning Heaven, Finding a Clear Path, and Her Secret Song. He is
currently working on a book about a tornado and a collection
of essays.
Shannon Morris, MA
Gallery Director and Lecturer, Department of Art & Design
Shannon Morris has only been curating the exhibits in the
Mary S. Byrd Gallery since 2016, but she has already landed
one of the most coveted exhibition grants in the country. In
June, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in New York
announced the Byrd Gallery as this year’s recipient of the
Ellsworth Kelly Award, a$40,000 grant to support a solo
exhibition of a contemporary visual artist at a U.S. art museum
or university art gallery.
The Kelly Award is competitive and by invitation only; ten
galleries are invited to submit proposals, and only one award
is given, to support the work of an emerging, mid-career, or
under-recognized artist.
Morris proposed an exhibition by an artist whose work
crosses the boundaries of art and science, and whose profile
seems perfectly designed to fit Augusta University. Bojana
Ginn first received an M.D. from the School of Medicine at the
University of Belgrade in Belgrade, Serbia. Then, after moving
to the United States, she received a Master of Fine Arts from
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