Filmmaker Luke Grigg presented his documentary "Our Children - Twana Twitu" to UAB students in March. The film tells the story of brave women in the remote village of Mwingi in northeastern Kenya who stepped up to care for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. When no one else would care for the children due to fear and stigma, the women opened their hearts and held out their hands to take them in. Drawn together in common purpose, they devoted themselves to ending the neglect and misery that are the orphans’ lives, understanding that while poverty can be crippling, it doesn’t have to be. Grigg, along with With My Own 2 Hands Foundation in Laguna Beach, CA, put their story on film. 

The filmmaker spent the day on campus and gave a class lecture to the Ethnography and Film class taught by Michele Forman. He was on hand for the screening and answered questions from students and community members across a wide range of issues. His talk focused as much on when not to take photos as when to take them. He detailed his philosophy of not taking the camera out of the bag on the first day in a place, and, instead, building a sense of friendship with community members. He also discussed his efforts to provide photos to community members who have never had their photographs taken by bringing a portable printer and taking family photos at no charge for those who want them.

The documentary has been nominated for a Webby Award. The screening and lecture were hosted by the Department of Social Work in collaboration with the Institute for Human Rights, the Department of Anthropology, the UAB Office of Service Learning, and the Media Studies Program.

Our university enables faculty to make connections across various disciplines, schools, and centers, and being a part of the College of Arts and Sciences provides my colleagues and me with a broad platform to support this kind of effective interdisciplinary work. Even in the short time I've been at UAB, I have developed three interdisciplinary courses that have service learning goals and ongoing research endeavors.

By working with willing faculty members from the Departments of History and Art and Art History, we developed a "Birmingham Neighborhood Studies" course that involves student examination of four specific Birmingham Neighborhoods from a historical perspective, a contemporary perspective, and an artistic perspective. In that course, students complete a project-based final portfolio. Their projects range from architectural histories of places to walking tours of women buried in Oak Hill cemetery.

This year, in a joint effort between the Departments of Social Work and Criminal Justice, we have enhanced an existing "Community-Based Corrections" course—making it interdisciplinary and including both team-based learning and service learning elements. Students in the course participate in re-entry simulations in which they experience what it is like to be a person returning to the community after a period of incarceration. The U.S. Attorney’s office developed this curriculum and the Department of Social Work has taken a lead role in bringing the simulations to our campus. Last year, we received a Quality Enhancement Plan grant to continue the simulations and to conduct research around their effectiveness. Students also work with women incarcerated at Tutwiler Prison and Birmingham Work Release to produce holiday greeting videos for their families, as well as with Jefferson County Veterans Court to recruit veteran volunteers to support court efforts.

Last year, I developed a study abroad course that examines women’s rights and health in Kenya. This year, the social work course will be team-taught with Dr. Tina Kempin-Reuter, director of the UAB Institute for Human Rights, and will involve international service learning in which students create health-based lesson plans and assemble reusable feminine hygiene supplies that they deliver in rural Kenya. Since last year’s successful trip with 12 students, we have written a grant to support the continuation of the women’s hygiene project and the addition of a micro-business sewing initiative. All of these efforts will be evaluated through community partners in Kenya.

The common thread through all of these courses are that they all involve social work principles that advance human rights as well as social, economic, and environmental justice. And they are all led by female faculty and directors from across the College.

As service learning is considered a high-impact learning tool, these courses are expected to strengthen student learning and engagement in multiple ways outside of the course content. And just as women are leading the efforts to craft these high-impact courses, women are benefitting from them as participants—as student and as community collaborators.

Dr. Jonathan Wiesen comes to UAB from the Department of History at Southern Illinois University (SIU) Carbondale, where he has been department chair since 2016. He received his B.A. in history with highest distinction in 1990 from the University of California, Berkeley, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Brown University in 1992 and 1998, respectively. He also studied history and philosophy at the University of Sussex in England.

Dr. Wiesen joined the faculty at Southern Illinois University in 1998 as an assistant professor and was named associate professor in 2003 and full professor in 2012. Prior to his arrival at SIU, he was a visiting assistant professor in the Department of History at Colgate University. He has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and grants, including a Gerda Henkel Foundation Research Fellowship, a German Academic Exchange Fellowship, and an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship.

Dr. Wiesen’s research interests include modern European history, modern German history, histories of racism and antisemitism, Nazi Germany in history and memory, and the history of advertising and consumerism. His current projects include articles and a future book on German views of American anti-black racism from 1918 to 1968, and a textbook on Nazi Germany.

Dr. Wiesen is also widely published as a first author, co-author, and editor of numerous publications, including three books: Creating the Nazi Marketplace: Commerce and Consumption in the Third Reich (Cambridge, 2011), Selling Modernity: German Advertising in the Twentieth Century (Duke University Press, 2007) and West German Industry and the Challenge of the Nazi Past, 1945-1955 (The University of North Carolina Press, 2001), which was the winner of the Hagley Book Prize.

His teaching has been awarded by SIU and by outside organizations. He received SIU’s Outstanding Teaching award in 2008 and recognition from the Center for Education Policy Research, which selected his World History course as one of the top examples of best practices in a national study of World History. He is active in service at SIU and with a number of professional organizations, including the American Historical Association, the German Studies Association, the Central European History Society, and the Working Group for the Critical History of Business and Industry in Germany.

Dr. Wiesen will begin his position in the College of Arts and Sciences on January 1, 2019.

Join us Wednesday, April 18, for a Jemison Visiting Professorship in the Humanities lecture by Dr. Nancy MacLean. MacLean is the William H. Chafe Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University and the immediate past president of the Labor and Working Class History Association. She is the author of several books, including Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan; Freedom is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace; The American Woman’s Movement, 1945-2000: A Brief History with Documents; and Debating the American Conservative Movement: 1945 to Present. Her most recent book, about which she will speak, is Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America.

Sponsored by the Jemison Visiting Professorship in the Humanities and the Department of History, University of Alabama at Birmingham.

• Opening Reception: 1:00 p.m.
• Lecture: 2:00 p.m.
• Location: Heritage Hall Room 102
• For More Information: (205) 934-8701 or email Melanie Daily

The 2017 College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Awards recipients were honored Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018, at a reception at the UAB Alumni House. Honorees and guests were welcomed by Dean Palazzo, and the awards presentation was emceed by WVUA-TV managing editor, Mike Royer.

These annual awards highlight the diverse talents, professional accomplishments, and community service of our alumni. Congratulations to the five deserving award winners!

Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award

The College's highest honor, this award is reserved for prominent alumni with a history of excellence in their careers.

Stephen G. Odaibo, M.D.

B.S. in Mathematics, 2001; M.S. in Mathematics, 2002

Dr. Stephen G. Odaibo is an ophthalmologist and retina specialist, as well as a mathematician, computer scientist, and physicist. He is currently the co-founder and CEO of RETINA-AI, a biotechnology company the specializes in developing artificial-intelligence software technology to improve physicians' ability to diagnose and treat retinal disease.

Xiaqing Wu, Ph.D.

M.S. in Computer Science, 2001; Ph.D. in Computer Science, 2003

Dr. James Wu is the co-founder and CEO of DeepMap, a startup in Silicon Valley which develops high-definition maps for self-driving cars. After graduating from UAB, Dr. Wu worked as a TechLead software engineer for companies such as Apple and Google.

Distinguished Young Alumni Award

This award honors young alumni who have made significant professional accomplishments at an early stage in their careers.

Andrew Brashier

B.A. in History; B.A. in Political Science, 2007

Andrew Brashier, principal at Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles P.C., has practiced law in the consumer fraud section since joining the firm in Sept. 2010. He has focused primarily on consumer class action lawsuits and whistle blowing, including representing consumers and financial institutions harmed by the Target, Home Depot, and Community Health Systems data breaches.

Walter Eric Meyer, IV

B.S. in Individually Designed Major, 2001

Eric Meyer is a managing partner and head brewer at Cahaba Brewing Company, founded in 2011 with the goal of providing clean and consistent craft beers. Meyer is also a full-time paramedic and firefighter for the Mountain Brook Fire Department.

Alumni Service Award

This award honors alumni who have demonstrated extraordinary service to the local, national, or global community.

Gillian Goodrich

M.A. in History, 1975

Gillian Goodrich, along with her husband Mike, is the co-founder of the Mike & Gillian Goodrich Foundation which serves and supports communities in the Birmingham metropolitan area, the Black Belt, and the State of Alabama since 2008. Goodrich later established the Woodlawn Foundation in 2012, whose mission is to serve as a catalyst and facilitator for the transformation and revitalization of the Woodlawn community in Birmingham.

She currently serves on the Boards of the YWCA, Gateway, and the Alabama Heritage Foundation Board of Directors.