The Department of English is proud to be home to two superb, nationally distributed literary journals.
Birmingham Poetry Review features some of the finest poets working in the U.S. and abroad, and works first published in BPR have won Pushcart Prizes, Best American Poetry accolades, and have been regularly featured in outlets such as Verse Daily. BPR has grown in stature and importance since its founding in 1987, and the journal was awarded the 2020 Small Press Publisher Award from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.
NELLE features some of the most exciting writing by emerging and established female authors (both cis and transgender). The journal was originally founded under the name pms: poemmemoirstory and then renamed in honor of legendary Alabama author Nelle Harper Lee. Submissions to NELLE have received honorable mention for the Pushcart Prize, one of the highest honors for works in small publications. Other submissions have appeared in prestigious compilations including Best American Essays, New Stories from the South, and Best American Poetry.
For both journals, English faculty serve as lead editors, and they work with a student editorial team that reviews submissions and assists with production and distribution. This allows students to gain invaluable experience in the publishing process and to connect with the thriving world of contemporary authorship.
Video: Learn about the creative writing program at UAB
The Department of Music has distinguished itself as one of the finest centers for educating young musicians in the Southeast.
With performances by faculty, and students in Egypt, Russia, France, England, Scotland, Brazil, South Korea, the Czech Republic, and Mexico, the department is sharing its talents and showcasing students’ musical training around the world. Musical series hosted every year bring the world’s finest musicians to Birmingham.
Graduates have consistently found success in graduate study at some of the nation’s most prestigious schools, and work in the music business and music technology, music education, churches, and as active performers.
Two of the department’s signature bands and choirs are thriving under dynamic leaders, with Sean Murray, Ph.D., leading the Marching Blazers, and Reginald Jackson, Ph.D., leading the renowned UAB Gospel Choir.
The Department of Art and Art History is committed to training artists and art historians to make a mark in the classroom, across campus, and throughout the local and global community.
The department’s exceptionally talented art studio, faculty, students, and alumni are active in the global arts community with exhibitions and installations of their work. Art history faculty have been recently awarded with major prizes and fellowships, and graduates have gone on to significant careers in museum curation, program management, and academia.
The department’s creativity intersects with the community through the work of BLOOM Studio, a community outreach program that gives students and local nonprofits the opportunity to work together on issues of interest. Through BLOOM, alumna Sydney Williams designed a license plate for Alabama Audubon that features a red-shouldered hawk in a long-leaf pine—it is now available to purchase.
The Department of Theatre is developing the next generation of actors, set designers, and performers.
The department funds five fully-mounted productions each year and supports four touring companies who perform throughout Alabama. In addition, the department also produces short films, student showcases, and directing projects.
The productions often shine a light on social issues and historical figures or illuminate parts of America’s tragic history, like the original musical, Savage, based on the true story of Ota Benga, a Mbuti tribesman taken from his home in the Congo to be put on exhibition at fairs and zoos in the United States in the early 1900s.
Every production provides innumerable opportunities to students, both as performers and as crew members, to create shows from start to finish. Students can assist in directing, choreography costume design and creation, set design, dramaturgy, and as a documentarian of the entire process.