It’s football time in Tennessee—which kicks off another game day tradition: the Pregame Showcase.
Football fans are invited to hear from some of UT’s exceptional faculty during the twenty-sixth annual College of Arts and Sciences Pregame Showcase, which begins Saturday, September 12.
Topics include the last days of American space flight, discoveries in southeastern archeology, and sleep health.
Free and open to the public, each showcase will take place two hours before kickoff and feature a thirty-minute presentation followed by a fifteen-minute question-and-answer session. A brief reception will be held immediately following each program. Door prizes will be awarded.
This year, all sessions will be held in the auditorium of UT’s McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, 1327 Circle Park Drive, the original home of the Pregame Showcase when it began in 1989. The program moved to the University Center the following year and was held there for twenty-four years. The University Center was torn down to make room for the new Student Union, so the showcase is relocating to the McClung Museum.
The showcase is sponsored by UT’s College of Arts and Sciences with support from UT Athletics, the McClung Museum, UT Office of Alumni Affairs and WUOT 91.9 FM.
The lineup for this season includes:
September 12—”Home, Away, and Back Home: How the Language of Music Works.” Wesley Baldwin, professor of music, will discuss the human need to interact with music. He will demonstrate how the language of music engages listeners and evokes various emotions and responses.
September 19—”Leaving Orbit: Notes from the Last Days of American Spaceflight.” Margaret Lazarus Dean, associate professor of English, will explore what space flight has meant to ordinary Americans in terms of past history and potential future directions.
October 3—”Navigating Genre, Tweaking Type: Romance, John Cusack-Style.” Chris Holmlund, professor of modern foreign languages and literatures, will examine the traits and conventions that characterize performance in romance films using illustrations from the work of actor John Cusack.
October 10—”Venezuela in Crisis: The Deterioration and Polarization of Party Politics.” Jana Morgan, associate professor of political science, will explore the shift in Venezuela from a stable democracy to an unstable, conflict-ridden regime and look ahead to what might become of Venezuelan politics in the future.
November 7—”Recent Developments in Southeastern Archaeology.” David Anderson, professor of anthropology, will discuss discoveries in Southeastern archaeology in recent years and tools such as remote sensing equipment that have revolutionized data collecting.
November 14—”Searching for Extraterrestrial Rocks in Antarctica.” Devon Burr, associate professor of earth and planetary sciences, will discuss her recent participation in the research expedition on the East Antarctica Plateau searching for meteorites.
November 28—”The Brain Basis of Sleep Health.” Ralph Lydic, professor of psychology, will focus on sleep disorders and ongoing research related to sleep health.
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CONTACT:
Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)
Jeremy Hughes (865-974-0963, jhughe19@utk.edu)