By Kelly Ferguson

Oklahoma City filmmaker Kyle Roberts is proof that when you work hard at what you love, you’ll get noticed.

Roberts, 28, owner of Reckless Abandonment Pictures, was selected to participate in the new reality competition series “Viral Video Showdown.”

His team’s appearance on the show is scheduled to air during a marathon beginning at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday on Syfy. The specific episode featuring Roberts’ team will broadcast at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.

“One of the producers just contacted me. They found my work through different stop motions and music videos and stuff,” said Roberts, who is also a NewsOK videographer. “They said, ‘We love your work. We’d like you to send an audition tape,’ so I had to still go through a process. They didn’t just say, ‘Come out to L.A.’”

Each episode of “Viral Video Showdown” centers on two viral video creators being given a limited budget and a handful of days to complete a video featuring the same theme. The winner receives $5,000.

Although Roberts is a Missouri native, he has lived in Oklahoma since earning a double major in broadcast journalism and corporate media at Oklahoma Christian University.

His team for “Viral Video Showdown” is named after his production company and includes about 18 crew members, all from Oklahoma. Three of his fellow crew members – editor Hal Gatewood, production assistant Jason Oser, and writer/actor Lucas Ross – also are OC alumni.

“It was a big challenge, but I think we did a good job,” Roberts said. “The fact that we had five days to do this … we incorporated live action and stop motion and fights and not superhero stuff, but video game stuff ... and it was (an) all-Oklahoma based crew. It was awesome. I think everyone’s going to enjoy it.”

Roberts’ specialties are stop-motion animation and music videos, including an approximate one-minute re-creation of the 1987 “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” cartoon introduction, complete with action figures that took three months to film. Stop-motion animation is a film technique where a series of still photos are taken that when combined make static objects appear as if they were moving.

He has just started directing the independent movie “Posthuman,” which is expected to be released online next spring as a web series in eight to 12 segments.

“Posthuman,” written by The Oklahoman’s Features Editor Matt Price and DC Comics writer Sterling Gates, is a mix of the styles of two of Roberts’ favorite filmmakers – John Hughes and J.J. Abrams.

Oklahomans have shown support for Roberts’ filmmaking in the state.

“The biggest pro is just that everyone gets so excited, which is awesome,” Roberts said. “And they should be. We’re doing cool stuff. But that’s probably the biggest pro of pro-Oklahoma filmmaking is you tell someone you’re doing a movie of any kind, and then you tell them you’re doing a teen superhero movie or whatever, and they get so passionate about it.

“Things that could cost two or three thousand dollars for a space rental for that night is either free or like maybe 500 bucks tops,” he added.

As far as professional goals go, doing what he’s passionate about is at the top.

“I’ve just been kind of making videos and doing what I love, and then I started getting a bunch of attention and quickly realized it’s not just my friends watching this; it’s people all over the world. And, it’s like, ‘OK, maybe we’ve got something here.’

“I don’t do statistics on my personal YouTube account and figure out ‘OK, this is trending, I got to do that.’ I just do what I really want to do.”

For more information, go to www.ra-pictures.com and www.syfy.com/viralvideoshowdown.

By Melissa Hayer
Copyright 2012, The Oklahoman

Doors open at 7 p.m. for the free event. CDs and t-shirts will be available for purchase afterward.

Vanderzee is a senior English major at Oklahoma Christian and a frequent performer on OC’s stages. His album of original songs began as an assignment in Dr. Rebecca Briley’s Creative Writing class and developed further as part of his Honors Program Catalyst Project.

Vanderzee used one song as the basis of a proposal for an Honors “Catalyst Grant” project for his Senior Capstone project in Honors and English.

His Catalyst Grant committee, comprised of Dr. Briley, Dr. Allison Garrett and Dr. Scott LaMascus, awarded $1,500 for the project, which Vanderzee parlayed into much more in donations and advance sales through kickstarter.com.

“Brett signed a Catalyst contract and went to work taking things to a higher level than required by our syllabi. In a great OC tradition of overachievers, Brett also took many other steps of unusual initiative,” LaMascus said. “He listens more carefully and learns better than most of us, taking suggestions from many collaborators and incorporating them productively into his own vision for these lyrics and the project. 

The album title comes from a line in T.S. Eliot’s poem “Journey of the Magi.” The album features original artwork by his wife, Laura Bowles Vanderzee, an art major and performer in many OC productions. To preview and order the album and other merchandise, go to www.brettvanderzee.com.

“It doesn’t matter if you live in post-exilic Israel or postmodern America, faith has always been a struggle. These songs are an honest look at what it means to seek God through hardship,” Brett said. “I hope we’ve made an album that will bring a fresh perspective to both people of belief and unbelief.”

A native of Tea, S.D., Brett will graduate from Oklahoma Christian in December. He recently became the worship minister at Quail Springs Church of Christ in Oklahoma City.

-OC-

The special ceremonies were part of OC’s annual Homecoming weekend. The honorees were:

College of Arts and Sciences

Scott Filleman (05) - Music
Amanda Gauthier (11) - Nursing
Jennifer Hill (94) - Psychology and Family Studies
Russell Hill (93) - History and Political Science
Lisa Landrum (89) - Biological Sciences
Dana McMichael (83) - Language and Literature
Brian Simmons (87) - Communication
Roy Stevens (79) - Chemistry and Physics
Megan Wilkes (09) - Art and Design

College of Biblical Studies

Chris Stinnett (87) - Alumnus of the Year
Jeremie Beller (00) - Preaching/Ministry
David Duncan (88) - Missions
Josh Yaeger (04) - Youth Ministry 

College of Professional Studies

Jeff Dimick (83) - Mathematical, Computer, and Information Science
Jeremy Edwards (97) - Business Administration
Ben Knowles (00) - Mechanical Engineering
Tessa Tefertiller (95) - Teacher Education
Mitch Warren (05) - Electrical and Computer Engineering

Another OC team placed third in the contest, which featured 16 teams from 10 universities across the state.

OC’s winning team, the Aguilas, won all of its matches while its other team, the Eagles, went undefeated with one tie against a squad from the University of Oklahoma.

Both Oklahoma Christian teams advance to the Regional Ethics Bowl on Nov. 17 in San Antonio, with a chance to move on to the National Ethics Bowl in Cincinnati.

“It gives one confidence in the future when you consider that students from across our state are spending time considering the ethics involved with various situations,” said Dr. Jeff Simmons, an associate professor of business at Oklahoma Christian who coaches OC’s ethics teams. “I am proud to be able to work at OC where we have some of the best students you’ll find anywhere.”

The Statewide Student Ethics Challenge is sponsored by the Oklahoma Business Ethics Foundation, which supports initiatives promoting ethical behavior on campuses throughout the state.

The schools in the competition were OC, OU, Cameron University, Oklahoma Baptist University, Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma State University, Southern Nazarene University, the University of Central Oklahoma, the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, and the University of Tulsa.

The members of OC’s Aguilas team were Hannah Ketring, a junior English major from Flanagan, Ill.; Brandon McWaters, a senior history/pre-law major from Ponchatoula, La.; and Genesis Rodriguez, a senior political science major from San Antonio, Texas.

OC’s Eagles team members were Christian Asbill, a junior political science major from Grapevine, Texas; Chas Carter, a sophomore English/pre-law major from Allen, Texas; and Austin Hughes, a junior management major from Tuttle, Okla.

The contest cases covered a variety of topics, including employer response to employees’ personal social media sites, graffiti as free speech, student loan policy in a struggling economy, open-source citations in professor and student research, and the Family Medical Leave Act.

OC’s next ethics-focused activity is the sixth-annual J.J. Millican Ethics Symposium on Nov. 13. Former NFL and NCAA football coach Gene Stallings will be the keynote speaker for the on-campus event. More information is available at www.oc.edu/stallings.

Stallings led the University of Alabama to the 1992 national championship and also served as head coach at Texas A&M University and for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. He was a longtime assistant coach for the Dallas Cowboys under head coach Tom Landry.

-OC-

The free lecture starts at 7:30 p.m. in OC’s Judd Theatre. A panel discussion and free book-signing reception will follow. Lecture seating can be reserved at www.oc.edu/mcbridecenter.

During his visit, Hwang also will participate in symposia with board members of Ecumenica, a national journal and scholars association for theater and faith.

“Hwang continuously manages to navigate the precarious boundaries of enthnography, cultural criticism, and dramatic composition with facility and tenderness,” said Carolyn Roark, editor in chief of Ecumenica. “His contributions to American and world stages serve as a credit to the McBride Center’s commitment to exploring the breadth of the human condition through the humanities.”

Hwang received a Tony Award for the 1998 production of “M Butterfly,” a drama inspired by the music of Puccini. The play starred John Lithgow and BD Wong on Broadway, with the cast later including Anthony Hopkins. The 1993 film starred Jeremy Irons.

His most recent work to be performed on Broadway is “Chinglish,” a satirical look at the use of English in business communication between Western and Chinese enterprises.

He received the prestigious Steinberg Award for American Drama this year.

“Hwang remains a durable consummate of several dramatic mediums – librettist, dramatist and children’s plays,” OC theater professor Dr. Barrett Huddleston said. “His pedigree, accolades and social consciousness elevate his work among the best of the American theatrical experience.”

The McBride Lecture will serve as the keynote address for the annual meeting of the Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature, which will bring scholars from five surrounding states to OC’s campus for panel discussions by scholars and for student research presentations.

The SWCCL program will be coordinated by program chair Dr. Ben Myers, professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University and arrangements chair Merle Gatewood, associate professor of English and French at Oklahoma Christian. 

The McBride Center is named for Dr. Bailey and Joyce McBride, who have been academic leaders in the English faculty, campus community and Oklahoma’s higher education community since the 1950s.

“At Oklahoma Christian, we aspire to transform the lives of our students, faculty and community toward greater scholarship, faith and service. This always has included a vigorous public engagement with the humanities,” said Dr. Scott LaMascus, director of OC’s McBride Center for Public Humanities. “Bailey McBride has championed the humanities as a professor, chief academic officer and community wise man. He loves people and ideas, so nothing could be more natural than honoring Bailey and Joyce with these activities.”

Endowment and operational funding for the McBride Center is made available by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Oklahoma Humanities Council, the Kirkpatrick Family Fund and the Oklahoma City Community Foundation provided additional funding. Generous annual gifts have come from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation in New York City and the Inasmuch Foundation of Oklahoma City.

Past guests for the McBride Lecture include: bestselling novelist Kathleen Norris (2005); U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky (2006); Pulitzer Prize winner Marilynne Robinson (2007); best-selling religions author Dr. Charles Kimball (2008); environmentalist and bestselling author Bill McKibben (2009); past national chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and poet Dana Gioia (2010); and bestselling novelist Alice McDermott (2011).

For more information, call Frances Sawyer at (405) 425-5330 or go to www.oc.edu/mcbridecenter.

-OC-

“This NEH challenge grant is a huge victory for Oklahoma Christian,” deSteiguer said. “The size of the grant, larger than some states’ total grants, speaks to the high quality of our humanities programs here at OC and the noteworthy track record of nationally prominent guest speakers brought to our campus in connection with the McBride Center for Faith and Literature. Under Dr. Scott LaMascus’ leadership our students have had seven consecutive years of McBride Center excellence.”

LaMascus said, “Being selected for such a competitive financial award is not only an acknowledgement of the quality inspired by Bailey and Joyce McBride, but also a signal that alumni and community partners invest in the McBride Center because we continue to place high value on humanities symposia which speak with excellence to the deepest matters of the mind, heart, and spirit. Christian faith has a lot to say about human experience and our guest speakers have proven that the resulting dialogues can be civil, intellectual, meaningful and bridge-building.

“In addition to my gratitude to the NEH and its Oklahoma affiliate, the Oklahoma Humanities Council,” LaMascus said, “I’m also personally indebted to all the speakers and their generosity with the McBride Lecture, as well as to the donors, alumni, foundations, faculty hosts, and staff—including Will Blanchard, an OC alumnus and amazing grant writer, and Frances Sawyer, who coordinates all the logistics for our annual events.”

“The National Endowment for the Humanities supports projects that document and explore the human endeavor in its many forms,” said NEH Chairman Jim Leach. “Whether it is preserving a valuable historical collection, enabling the production of a film or exhibition, or providing support for scholarly exploration of important topics in the humanities, the grants awarded today ensure that the shared stories of our past are available to communities across the nation for generations to come.”
Institutions and independent scholars in 43 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico received NEH support this award cycle.
Noting that NEH gives virtually all its money in challenges, deSteiguer said, “The university will be seeking others who share the McBrides’ commitment to excellence in the humanities and who will want to partner with us to meet the NEH challenge.” 

About the National Endowment for the Humanities:
Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.

“Alice McDermott is an artist whose novels are loved for many reasons, including their ability to capture the poignancy of American life – whether an alcoholic and his family in Charming Billy, or the spiritual nature of life and death in After This. She will be sharing generously with writers, teachers, and the community during her visit” said Dr. Scott LaMascus, director of the McBride Center for Faith and Literature.

McDermott is Johns Hopkins University’s Richard A. Macksey Professor of the Humanities and author of many novels.  She lives in the Washington, D.C. area with her husband and is the mother of two children.

While in Oklahoma City, McDermott will participate in writers’ workshops with acclaimed novelist Rilla Askew, author of award-winning novels Mercy Seat and Fire in Buelah.  Askew is writer in residence at the University of Central Oklahoma.  Dr. Terry Phelps of the Oklahoma City University writing faculty also will be presenting a workshop and bringing students to the symposia. The writing workshops will be coordinated by Dr. Rebecca Briley, professor of writing at Oklahoma Christian. 

Seating is limited but the evening lecture is free and open to the public at 7:30 p.m. in the Gaylord University Center on the campus of Oklahoma Christian University, 2501 E. Memorial Road. The lecture will be followed by a free book-signing reception, with book sales provided by Best of Books, an independent bookseller located in Kickingbird Square, Edmond.

“We are delighted to share Alice McDermott with our colleagues at UCO and OCU,” said LaMascus.

This program is the 7th in a series which has been funded by an endowment provided by McBride family members and OC alumni in Honor of Bailey and Joyce McBride.  Bailey McBride, Ph.D., has taught English at Oklahoma Christian since 1956 and was the university’s chief academic officer for more than 20 years.  He is a member of the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame.
Annual support and/or endowment funding has been provided for the series and the McBride Center by funding partners including the Oklahoma Humanities Council (OHC) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH); the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation of Manhattan, N.Y.; the Oklahoma City Community Foundation; the Inasmuch Foundation; and Best of Books. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in the program do not necessarily represent those of the OC or the funding partners.

“Wil is very deserving of this of this great honor,” said Cami Agan, professor of language and literature. “I am so proud of him and the superb work he has done throughout his time at OC.”

Norton’s essay was also chosen for best work in the critical category. He will receive a $500 award and has been invited to present at the national convention in March in New Orleans.

Norton is currently working as one of 50 Teach for America teachers in OKC, along with OC spring graduates Henson Adams and Morgan Nash. More than 48,000 students applied to Teach America for 4,600 positions available nationwide.

“We are honored to be ranked among the best universities in the West region,” said Mike O’Neal, president of Oklahoma Christian. “This is a reflection of the hard work of our dedicated faculty, staff and students.”

For this project, The Princeton Review asked students attending the schools to rate their own colleges on several issues—from the accessibility of their professors to quality of the campus food—and answer questions about themselves, their fellow students and their campus life.

“We’re pleased to recommend Oklahoma Christian to users of our site as one of the best schools to earn their degree,” said Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s publisher. “We chose it mainly for its excellent academic programs. From several hundred schools in each region, we winnowed our list based on institutional data we collected directly from the schools, our visits to schools over the years, and the opinions of our staff, plus college counselors and advisors whose recommendations we invite. 

The Princeton Review also takes into account what students at the schools reported about their campus experiences on an 80-question student survey for this project.  Only schools that permit the group to independently survey their students are eligible to be considered for the regional “Best” lists. 

The 121 colleges that The Princeton Review chose for its “Best in the West” list are located in 15 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. Collectively, the 629 colleges named “regional best” constitute about 25 percent of the nation’s 2,500 four-year colleges.

Last year The Princeton Review also named Oklahoma Christian as one of the top 50 undergraduate gaming design programs in the nation. It was the only one in Oklahoma to make the list.

OC honors students to get new dorm
Oklahoma Christian University honors students will have their own dorm this fall. A $2.3 million renovation of Reba-Davisson Hall will become Honors House for about 80 to 85 students and their resident mentors.

Honors students at Oklahoma Christian University will have their own dorm next fall.

Crews are working on a $2.3 million renovation of Reba-Davisson Hall to house about 80 to 85 students and their resident mentors. Work should be completed by July, university spokesman Joshua Watson said.

“I’m pretty excited,” sophomore Hannah Bingham, 19, said. “I think it will be pretty neat to have all of the honors students together where we can get to know each other better.”

Honors students in the past have been scattered in dorms throughout OC’s campus in north Oklahoma City.

Scott LaMascus, director of the honors program, said the university is trying to create a living and learning community for its highest achieving students.

“We’re trying to keep the dorm from being a retreat from learning but instead an extension of it,” LaMascus said. “Students spend so much more of their time in the dorms than they do in the classroom. We hope to motivate and empower them to do their best work.”

LaMascus said the National Collegiate Honors Council, of which the OC honors program is a member, is explicit in its recommendation for separate housing for honors students to help hone their focus on academics.

The average ACT score for an honors student at OC is 31, LaMascus said. About 30 percent of the students are National Merit Scholars. Students are taught in smaller classes and visit cultural events and places together on a regular basis. All honor students are required to do international study.

Having their own space to live and study, particularly in their first two years of college, is critical, LaMascus said.

“This will help keep them on track toward successfully completing the program and graduating,” he said.

There are about 110 students in the honors college, he said, but many upperclassmen will choose to live in other housing on campus.

Reba-Davisson Hall was built in the 1970s, LaMascus said. Now, the screeching of saws can be heard and sawdust is thick in the air as crews work to rebuild the interior of the building with men’s and women’s wings, commons areas, new bathrooms, a cafe and a full kitchen.

One feature of the new hall will be individual and group tutoring rooms, LaMascus said. Another feature will be suites for resident mentors — people who have been through the honors program and are either in graduate school or well-advanced in the program. They will live in the dorm to offer tutoring and other help to younger students.

Bingham said after living in an older dorm this year, she’s excited about the new space.

On a recent walk-through of the building, she stopped to examine a dorm room.

“I’m pretty excited about the size of those closets,” she said. “And the new bathrooms will be nice.”
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At a Glance: Oklahoma Christian University’s Honors Summer Academy

Oklahoma Christian University is accepting applications for its Honors Summer Academy, which will be July 17-23.

High school freshmen, sophomores or juniors can earn up to two hours of academic credit and receive room and board for $450 per person. For full details and applications, go to www.oc.edu/honors/summeracademy. For more information, contact Lisa Carroll at lisa.carroll@oc.edu or 425-5304.

In creating this living environment for honors students, Dr. Scott LaMascus, director of the honors program, hopes to break down the boundaries between classrooms and dormitories. The dorm will feature a hall mentor who is a Christian scholar, such as an honors alumnus or alumna, or an advanced student who would teach the orientation course for the honors program. This will integrate housing with academics, which will ensure a smooth transition to the honors curriculum and a successful first year at Oklahoma Christian. The new dorm will also feature resident mentors who are successful junior or senior honors students.

“The new Honors House at Reba Davisson will be an environment designed to provide a Christ-centered, dynamic learning environment focused on relationships for young leaders who are eager to make the most of their undergraduate experiences,” said Scott LaMascus, director of the honors program at Oklahoma Christian. “The physical renovations are going to be very nice, but the intangible value to students is really what we’re offering; a chance to spend more of their time here in an environment where iron sharpens iron.”

The east wing of the remodeled dorm will be for male students, while female students will be housed in the west wing of the building. The rules for the house and facilities will be organized in consultation with the honors advisory council to create a living-learning community for academic success. Honors students have been conducting focus groups on campus to help learn how housing might be integrated to engage and enhance students’ learning.

“In talking to both upper and underclassmen, the honors students are excited about honors housing because it offers them unique amenities such as study rooms, individualized tutoring, as well as spaces for fun and relaxation,” said Cady Haas, an English major and president of the honors advisory council. “Students gain the added benefits that will help in study, but they will not lose the fun and interactive part of dorm life on our campus.”

The honors program at Oklahoma Christian is a thriving community of academic achievers. According to LaMascus, the average ACT score for honors students is 31, and more than a quarter of these students are National Merit Scholars. Admission is highly selective, but not solely exam-based. The program, which has more than 100 students, seeks leaders and is truly interdisciplinary, with every college and department represented. The program is a member of the National Collegiate Honors Council, which encourages the development of honors housing.

“The Council is quite explicit in its recommendations for housing options for honors students across the nation,” LaMascus said. “These should be places where academic achievers find a community designed specifically to enhance excellence in academics and all university activities. This new space communicates Oklahoma Christian’s dynamic dedication to our many outstanding students. We are offering a new housing option that is intentional about banishing any notion that dorms are a retreat from learning.”

Oklahoma Christian will welcome two new cohorts of honors students in the fall. These will be the first students admitted into honors housing, with current honors students filling the remaining spaces. Current high school students interested in applying to the honors program and housing at Oklahoma Christian can apply online at www.oc.edu/honors.

“Student Life is excited to work with the honors advisory council to establish the criteria and expectations for this new housing format,” said Neil Arter, dean of student life at Oklahoma Christian. “It is our experience that students will hold each other to a higher standard. It’s not our goal to separate the honors students from the rest of the student body. Instead, we hope to create an environment for honors students to have an even greater impact on our campus.”

Renovations are expected to be completed over the summer, according to Jay Jones, vice president of operations at Oklahoma Christian.

“The new Honors House will receive upgrades to the mechanical system, restrooms, furniture and the hall mentor’s living space,” said Jones. “Students will enjoy an upgraded facility featuring study rooms, a seminar space for holding classes as well as a student activity room with kitchen facilities and an outdoor patio.”

About The OC Honors Program and Summer Academy
The honors program at Oklahoma Christian includes more than 100 students and continues to grow each year. Accomplished alumni have gone on to attain professional degrees in business, law and medicine, and many others have received scholarships to prestigious doctorate and postdoctorate programs across the United States. The program also operates a summer honors academy for outstanding high school students from across the nation. More information is available at www.oc.edu/honors.

The Honors Summer Academy is an annual, seven-day college experience that encourages the pursuit of excellence by gifted and talented students finishing their freshman through junior years of high school. By the end of the program, students will have developed the confidence to continue their academic trajectory of excellence, link academics to their faith and demonstrate the impact of experiential learning in academic and in service activity. Each participant may earn two hours of university credit each summer.

OC student Ryan Groves, co-founder and director of Wishing Well: Water For The World, has been selected as a speaker for the inaugural TEDxOKC conference in April. Patterned after the TED world conference that brings experts together from around the globe to discuss all matters technology, education and design, TEDxOKC speakers combine to spark deep discussion and share ideas worth spreading.

Groves will speak about his community-changing nonprofit organization, as well as the award-winning documentary film produced about Wishing Well’s work in Rwanda.

On Saturday, Sophomore Lauren Craighead received an ADDY Award from the OKC Ad Club for her graphic design work. ADDY Awards recognize and reward creative excellence in the art of advertising.

In addition, OC had its largest group of language and literature students ever accepted to the national convention of Sigma Tau Delta, the international English honors society. All 15 students who submitted to the competitive application process were accepted to present papers on literary or pedagogical subjects, as well as creative works. After eight years of participating in the national convention, all OC students that applied have been accepted.

Below are the names of the students and the titles of the works they will present in March:

-Brazle, Claudia: Flor Maria, Creative Nonfiction
-Brazle, Claudia: Feminine Artistry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
-Bresee, Amy: Barely Distinguishable, Original Fiction
-Clift, Katy: I Prefer a Dimly Lit Bathroom, Original Fiction
-Eggleston, Jenna: Gertrude the Jointress: Marrying for Protection
-Frobisher, Kelsey: Anonymity in Frankenstein
-Haas, Cady: The Pregnancy Problem: Complicating Unique Femininity in Contemporary Romantic Comedies
-Hernandez, Laura: Tree Meanderings, Original Poetry
-Jordan, Amanda: Spoiled Coke, Original Fiction
-Lauer, Chelsey: On Hearts and Death: Poetry Justified, Original Poetry
-Lissolo, Ashley: Fanny’s Sense of “Self”: Identity in Mansfield Park
-Nash, Morgan: Literature in the ESL Classroom: A Focus on Developing Reading and Other Language Skills
-Norton, Wil: The Uncanny, Castration, and Sight as Perceived Remedy in Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut,” “A Clockwork Orange,” and “Full Metal Jacket” 
-Stapp, Hallie: Hal and Hotspur’s Relationship in 1 Henry IV
-White, Abigail: The Other in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis
-Wilson, Alyssa: Redefining the Homemaker: A Cultural Critique of Susan Glaspell’s Trifles

Earning national recognition is not new for the department of language an literature. OC’s literature journal, “Soundings,” won “Best Literary Journal” at the convention in 2008, and was runner up in 2009.

Fang has translated 12 best-selling English-language books into Chinese, with many of those translations becoming best-sellers in China. He is currently translating William Faulkner’s work, “The Sound and The Fury.” According to OC literature professor Cami Agan, this is one of the most difficult and finest works of American literature.

“I am so blessed to be able to cultivate this hobby, especially with all the support I receive from OC,” Fang said. 

Just last summer, Fang received a grant to translate another book by McCann, “Songdogs,” in Ireland at the same writing center in which McCann wrote the book. Other works Fang has translated include “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith, “A Bend In The River” by Nobel prize-winner W.S. Nepal, Annie Pruh’s “That Old Ace in The Hole” and “The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde” by Peter Ackroyd. Fang is also a widely quoted and interviewed source in Chinese media based on his Chinese language blog where he discusses education and technology, faith and his experience as a Chinese American.

Agan has also contributed a chapter in a book on British author J.R.R. Tolkien that will be published in the future.

In addition, two OC students who gave oral presentations at the Oklahoma Academy of Science Technical Meeting on Nov. 5 were first place winners in their sections. The winners were Thea Murray, a senior biology major, and Xuan Wang, a senior chemistry major.  Four other OC students also gave presentations at the meeting. 

Murray’s presentation in the social sciences section was titled “The Development of an Instrument to Assess Patient’s Attitudes Regarding Health Information Exchange.” Wang’s presentation in the biomedical sciences section was titled “The Effects of a Series of Ketone Compounds on Hepatic Carboxylesterase Activity in Mice.”

“We are very proud of their achievements this year,” said Bill Luttrell, chair of the department of chemistry and physics. “They are deserving of recognition.”

“Dana Gioia is an artist whose contributions to American culture are broad as well as deep,” said Dr. Scott LaMascus, director of the McBride Center for Faith and Literature. “He is a poet, a musician, a devoted public servant, an accomplished executive, and much more. We are delighted to share Gioia’s visit with Oklahomans – teachers, poets, opera lovers, scholars, and all who prize creativity and excellence.”

Gioia’s poetry collection Interrogations at Noon has been recognized by the American Book Award. While Chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts, Gioia helped the Poetry Foundation and others begin the national Poetry Out Loud project, which organizes annual, statewide competitions in poetry recitation and end with a national competition in Washington, D.C., where state winners compete for university scholarship funds.

Gioia also is editor of many anthologies and author of two essay collections:  Can Poetry Matter? (1992) and Disappearing Ink (2004).

The statewide kick-off for Poetry Out Loud 2010-2011 will include a luncheon for teachers offered by The Oklahoma Humanities Council and the Oklahoma Arts Council. Gioia will speak to teachers at the luncheon, followed by a workshop by University of Oklahoma poet Nathan Brown. The luncheon is free with RSVP to the OHC by calling 405-235-0280 before Sept. 24. Continuing Education credit is available from the workshop.

Also trained as a musician, Gioia also is recognized for his work with opera. His opera “The Last Broadcast of Tony Caruso” was recognized as the 2007 Best New Opera by the American Opera Association.

While in Oklahoma City, Gioia will participate in a presentation of selections from the opera “Nosferatu” with insights by the librettist. The event features Regina Grimaldi, soprano; Catherine McDaniel, mezzo soprano, Frank Ragsdale, tenor and the Oklahoma Christian University Chorale, conducted by Dr. Ken Adams, professor of music at OC. Seating is limited but the event is free with RSVP, LaMascus said. To reserve a seat, call 405-425-5330. The event is Sept. 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Recital Hall in Garvey Center on the OC campus.

“We are delighted to share Gioia with Oklahoma’s creativity leaders and, courtesy of the Kirkpatrick Foundation, we will be hosting arts leaders in a discussion of public funding for the arts,” said LaMascus. Arts leaders will gather for a breakfast roundtable with Gioia.

Literature scholars will gather for the Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature for their annual conference Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. As keynote speaker for this group, Gioia will deliver the sixth McBride Lecture on Oct. 1 at 8 p.m. in Gaylord University Center. The lecture is free and will be followed by a free book-signing reception, with book sales provided by Best of Books.

The theme for the SWCCL program is taken from Gioia’s essay collection Disappearing Ink, in which Gioia discusses how the position of poets has been changing in American culture. The theme, “Christian Literary Values and the Changing Print Culture,” will bring scholars from surrounding states and across the nation, according to Merle Gatewood, SWCCL program chair and OC professor.

In addition to panels of scholars presenting research on topics related to literature and faith, the SWCCL program includes plenary sessions concerning the work of Ralph Wood. Long-time professor at Baylor University, Wood is being honored by alumni of the program in which he taught.

“These sessions, in particular, are drawing scholars from many states outside our region and make a marvelous contribution to the SWCCL program. All the CCL program is thanks to Merle Gatewood, 2010 SWCCL conference chair. She has worked hard on this project all summer long by leading a committee of OC faculty and staff,” LaMascus said.

This program is funded in part by the Oklahoma Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in the program do not necessarily represent those of the OHC or NEH.

Additional funding for the McBride Center for Faith & Literature is provided by Oklahoma Christian University and its alumni; and annual sponsorships by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation; the Inasmuch Foundation; and Oklahoma City Community Foundation. Best of Books in Edmond’s Kickingbird Square is providing book sales.

“Who else but Dana Gioia to get into our quiet little poetic rooms bringing vibrant music and busting out large openings to places where the rapper Sugargang Hill, Mother Goose, Kipling, and cowboy poet Wallace McRae live together, if not quite in peace, then in a meaningful, creative tension,” LaMascus said. “Hurrah for America, for all poets, and all of us who are listening!”

In the first weekend of October, Oklahoma Christian is holding the Southwest Regional Conference for Christianity and Literature, featuring poet Dana Gioia as the keynote speaker.

“The speaker I really, really wanted was Dana Gioia because he’s a poet, a wonderful lecturer, a literary critic, a terrific musician and was also the chairman for the National Endowment for the Arts under the Bush administration, so he’s a very well-known person,” Merle Gatewood, associate professor of English and French and the conference organizer, said. “He’s also been honored by the national Conference on Christianity and Literature, which gave him a lifetime achievement award. So he’s an absolutely spectacular person to come.”

This year’s SWCCL corresponds with the sixth annual McBride Lecture, filling the weekend with scholarship and discussion.

“You need to decide a couple of years in advance whether you want to host this because you have to start preparing,” Gatewood said. “So we’ve been doing this for three years, planning for it to be here because we wanted to piggyback it on the McBride Lecture.”

The Southwest region of the CCL includes Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas, and the conference rotates through the three states each year.

The conference opens Thursday, Sept. 30, with a performance by the Oklahoma Christian chorale of some of Gioia’s libretto of “Nosferatu,” conducted by Professor of Music Ken Adams.

“Some of our singers are going to come in and actually sing some of the arias from it, and Gioia’s going to talk about them,” Gatewood said. “That’s going to be very exciting.”

Following the performance is a poetry reading by five poets from the Southwest region, as well as Gioia.

“Gioia said, originally, that the way poetry should be read is to read your own poetry, but also poetry of other poets you like,” Gatewood said. “A poetry reading shouldn’t be a presentation of one person’s ego, but that it should be something pleasant and enjoyable, not stiff and formal. A group of our poets decided to do that sort of thing.”

Concurrent poetry panels are expected to read each hour in the Williams-Branch Center on campus that Friday.

Juniors Cady Haas and Claudia Brazle, senior Wil Norton and recent graduate Ben Rawlins, are among the panels reading during the conference.

“Our panel should be pretty interesting since we all speak on early English literature dating from the Medieval Period up to the Early Modern Period, a time when all art really strove to point to God in some fashion,” Norton said. “I think we will provide a very nuanced view of some of the building blocks for our own faith lenses that we put on every time we read the Bible or think about God.”

Norton said his paper, “The Body as Rhetoric: Milton’s Satan in ‘Paradise Lost,’” has clear faith-related applications dealing with God’s omniscience and the paper “felt like a natural fit to attempt to speak at the conference.”

Gatewood said she is proud of the Oklahoma Christian students participating in the panel.

“Our students really shine, and I think the other papers will be worthwhile, but we’re going to feel very good about the sessions we have students in,” Gatewood said.

Norton said all students should experience opportunities like this.

“Everyone should have to learn how to speak in front of a crowd, and we should have to propose our beliefs with the vulnerability to have our thoughts challenged or at least put into discussion,” Norton said. “When we allow ourselves to be in this position, I think everyone can grow in that experience.”

Gatewood anticipates approximately 500 attendees for the keynote presentation of the two conferences on Friday evening.

“Everyone kind of figures this will be a real high point in the regional conference,” Gatewood said. “We’re glad to be doing this on our campus. Going to hear Dana Gioia is going to be very, very worthwhile. All students are welcome to the public lecture, and I certainly would encourage that. You don’t get a national-level thinker like that all of the time.”

All conference attendees are invited to the presentation entitled “The Literary Ministry of Ralph C. Wood” Saturday morning. This specific conference offers five of Wood’s former Baylor University students discussing how his work contributed to contemporary Christian literary scholarship.

“It’s a very positive thing because it fosters Christian fellowship,” Gatewood said. “One of the things the CCL wants to do is foster Christian scholarship. Its main focus is to look at literature from a Christian perspective, so people do have the academic relationship. And of course, the Christian element makes it that much better.”

The conference schedule and further information can be found at www.oc.edu/swccl.

This story is adapted from Bailey Thomas’ article in the Sept. 24 issue of The Talon, OC’s student newspaper. 

“Oklahoma Christian is excited to have such experienced and creative individuals to join our talented faculty,” said Allison Garrett, vice president of academic affairs. “Dr. Briley’s deep experience and Richard’s proven teaching abilities help enhance two of the strongest programs on our campus.”

Briley holds holds a doctorate in American literature and drama from the University of Kentucky, where she also earned a master’s degree in creative writing and British literature. She was awarded the English-Speaking Union Scholarship by the University of London in 1987, and was awarded the Fulbright Award to teach American literature at Wulfrun University in Wolverhampton, England from 1990-1991.

Briley was also awarded the Metroversity Instructional Award for a women’s prison project called “Piecing Together Our Mother’s Stories.” This writing/quilting project reconnected women prisoners with their mothers at the Pee Wee Valley Correctional Institute for Women in Kentucky from 1999-2000. Kentuckiana Metroversity, Inc., is a consortium of seven institutions of higher education in the Louisville metropolitan area. It offers annually awards to persons who present the best designs for instructional development in college teaching.

While most of Briley’s career has been spent at the University of Kentucky and the Jefferson County Community College, she has also taught at several other universities such as the University of Maryland in Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands; the Department of Defense American Schools in Bitburg, Germany; and Girne American University in the city of Girne, located in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus.

Briley has written and produced numerous plays such as Shakespeare’s Sisters, Oprah’s Book Club, Colors of Autumn, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, Somebody Like I Am: Eula Hall’s Story, The Spiral & Arch, Of the Mothers and Scars. In addition, she published a book of poetry entitled Inside Out: Poems from a Workshop.

“Rebecca’s accomplishments and skills will help her department to continue to receive national recognition,” Garrett said.

Oklahoma Christian’s student literary publication, Soundings, was named number one in the nation in 2008 by Sigma Tau Delta, the National English Honors Society.

Richard Trout holds a masters degree in natural science from Oklahoma State University. He also did doctoral work in human ecology and environmental health at the OU Health Sciences Center. Trout recently retired from Oklahoma City Community College after 24 years as a professor of biology. He has also taught at Rose State College and the University of Central Oklahoma.

Trout has received numerous awards throughout his career such as the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from Oklahoma City Community College in 2007. 

In addition, Trout has authored seven action novels for young adults published by Pelican Publishing. His latest book is to be released in January. Two of his novels were selected by National Geographic for the JASON Project curriculum. Trout was also selected as curriculum advisor the project’s “Resilient Planet” ecology section. While at OCCC, he participated in an Eisenhower Foundation grant to teach secondary science teachers new laboratory skills.

“Rick’s excellent teaching reputation and creativity will help our Biology Department continue to have one of the highest placement rates for medical school of any university in the state,” Garrett said.

The students submitted their scholarly articles to a blind review process, wherein a board of editors read and accepted their work based solely on the papers’ scholarly and literary qualities. They were two of only 15-20 essays accepted from among thousands of submissions.

“Clearly, Wil and Cady’s papers represent the very highest level of undergraduate research possible in their discipline,” said language and literature professor Cami Agan, who teaches the Film As Literature course.

Cady’s paper was titled “The Pregnancy Problem: Complicating Unique Femininity in Contemporary Romantic Comedies.” It explored the representation of women’s bodies in pregnancy in recent comedic films such as Knocked Up and Juno. She also presented a version of the paper for her project in the class Race, Class, and Gender.

Wil’s paper was titled “The Uncanny, Castration, and Sight as Perceived Remedy in Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket.” It combined Freudian and Film theories of The Gaze to examine masculinity and violence in the works of director Stanley Kubrick.

Cady and Wil also presented their papers, along with relevant and integrated film clips, as part of the final project for the Film as Literature class.

“As their professor in the course, I am extremely proud of the work Wil and Cady produced, and I encouraged them to submit to the Review,” Agan said. “Their acceptance reveals the strength of the OC English major at the national level. Editors and reviewers recognized the superb level of their writing, their insights and their research. Such a publication is on par with undergraduate research in humanities programs across the nation.”

Agan noted that Wil and Cady are the first OC students to have work from the same course accepted for the same edition of the Review.

Norton and Haas are active leaders in the language and literature program. Cady will serve as president of OC’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta this year and is already making fundraising plans to help the chapter attend the national conference in 2011. Wil serves as one of the club’s chaplains and will organize weekly devotionals.

“They are outstanding examples of intellectual, spiritual and communal leaders on campus and particularly in our department,” Agan said. “Their success helps their peers see what strong critical skills can achieve.”

The Sigma Tau Delta Review is an annual journal that publishes critical essays on literature, essays on rhetoric and composition and essays devoted to pedagogical issues. Sigma Tau Delta is the International English Honor Society, with over 750 active chapters located in Europe, the Caribbean and the United States. There are more than 1,000 faculty sponsors, and approximately 8,500 members inducted annually.

The 2010 Curt C. and Else Silberman Seminar for University Faculty, hosted by the museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, focused on the Jewish responses to the Holocaust and was titled Teaching the Victims’ Perspective. The seminar, held annually, is a higher education program that promotes, protects and strengthens Jewish values in democracy, human rights, ethical leadership and cultural pluralism.

“This year’s Silberman Seminar caught my interest because it looked specifically at the victims’ perspectives, a view that has gained momentum in recent years,” Steele said. “Being a part of the 21 faculty from around the country chosen for this opportunity gave me a great chance to learn from experts in a variety of areas related to Holocaust studies.”

The seminar introduced Steele to the variety of Jewish responses to the Holocaust—the largest victim group—and expanded the knowledge base and pedagogical techniques that he uses in his Holocaust studies course. Jewish responses to persecution were explored through an investigation of both primary and secondary source readings, and included presentations, participant-facilitated discussions of classroom teaching methods and roundtable discussions of teaching strategies across multiple disciplines. 

“Having the opportunity to study under some of the top scholars was truly a once in a lifetime experience,” Steele said. “Dr. Deborah Lipstadt is one of the world’s leading scholars on disproving Holocaust deniers, and Dr. Susan Sulieman has written and lectured about the role of memory in Holocaust literature.”
According to Steele, the museum follows through on its mission to inspire citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, promote human dignity and prevent genocide.

“The entire staff at the Holocaust museum went out of its way to provide resources and materials that I plan on integrating in my Holocaust literature course,” Steele said. “Realizing the impact that the Holocaust continues to have, 65 years after the camps were liberated, continues to amaze me, and this seminar greatly reinforced the importance of teaching this subject for generations to come.”

Curt C. Silberman was a jurist, community leader and organizer of numerous Jewish organizations and social agencies in Germany and the United States. He devoted his life to fighting for the rights and serving the interests of Jews and Jewish victims of Nazi persecution, and to assuring that the roots of prejudice and the Holocaust are understood. He believed the lessons learned would contribute to the betterment of society.

This is the second seminar that Steele has attended at the Holocaust museum. In addition, he was one of three faculty winners in the 2009 Faith and Learning scholarship contest at Oklahoma Christian. Steele won for his essay titled “Suffering with Faith: The Holocaust and Christian Education.”

Cady Haas; Enabling Disguise: Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
Chelsey Jackson; It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To
Benjamin Rawlins; Nwoye’s Search for and Discovery of Identity in Things Fall Apart
Maggie Reilly; Liminality
Bailey Thomas; Romancing the Village Idiot
Bailey Thomas; Ellison’s Use of the Epic Form in Invisible Man
Abigail Townsend; Associating Industrialization of the Soul with Gender in Charles
Dickens’s Hard Times
Abigail White; Tennyson’s Use of Symbolism in Lady Clare

It is my sincere pleasure to report that we’ve had a record number of eleven students accepted to the Sigma Tau Delta National conference to be held in Minneapolis this March. This marks the seventh year that our students have attended, and in that time every student that has applied has been accepted to the conference. I think this success truly speaks to the kind of intellectual community we have created in L&L, and the extent to which students are starting to make our name known across the nation. The Rho Mu chapter has also been asked to participate in the best chapter displays at the conference, and the 2008 edition of Soundings is also under consideration for best literary journal.

Here are the names of the students and the titles of the works they will present:
Matthew Miller: “Hotspur and Machiavelli: the Death of Chivalry”
Bailey Thomas: “An Afternoon in Hiroshima”
Ben Rawlins: “The Music of Connection and Individualism in James Baldwin’s ‘Sonny’s Blues’”
Roy Rhodes: “Sexual Autonomy and Authorial Power in Emma”
Justin Neill: Excerpts from “Posts”
Brandon Chism: “Small Dark and Handsome”
Taylor Walling; “The Lie I Am a Poet”
Jaclyn Kaissling: “Don’t Feed Chickens in Your Underwear”
Taylor Boston: “Homophobic Anxiety in The Maltese Falcon”
Angela Bebb: Exposing the Deux Ex Machina: The Conflict of Merit and Reality in Mansfield Park
Ashleigh Hess: Preservando Cultura en Corridos Mexicanos: Machismo, Modernismo, e Identidad Chicana

Please join me in congratulating these exceptional students.

Amongst a sea of graduate students and faculty, six Oklahoma Christian University undergraduates presented their literature research papers. Amid such pressure the students were able to share papers at two conferences, the Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature and the Midwest American Society for 18th Century Studies conference.

The conferences were held on Oct. 2-4 and Oct. 9-11 respectively.

“We felt very young and very honored to be there,” senior Taylor Boston, participant in the MW/ASECS conference, said. “It was intimidating, but at the same time it was exciting and encouraging.”

The conferences consisted of multiple hour and a half long sessions held throughout each of the three days.

One panel made up a session, three speakers constituted a panel, and each speaker – or panelist – read their paper and answered questions from the audience or the panel chair. After the entire panel presented their papers the audience was encouraged to ask questions.

Both conferences lent themselves to the purpose of gathering responses and gaining perspective on original ideas and thoughts about literature and its pertinence to the world today.

“We had the freedom to be creative,” Boston said.

The MW/ASECS had its collaboration of scholarly discussions at the Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City while the SW/CCL convention occurred in Shawnee, Okla. at Oklahoma Baptist University.

The time period of 1660-1820 was the primary focus of the Midwest regional conference.

Boston, along with seniors Angela Bebb and Roy Rhodes, wrote and presented their papers on the works of Jane Austen and made connections between the period her novels were written and society today.

Chair and Professor of Language and Literature Cami Agan had the opportunity to chair the panel centering on the topic of Austen and her many world-famous novels. As head of the panel, Agan served as moderator, introduced the speakers, and kept the energy of the discussion at a balanced level of intellectual stimulation to keep things interesting.

“For the most part, these conferences are places for scholars to get together to discuss ideas,” Rhodes said. “For undergraduates, it’s a great way to shake hands with the gateway to graduate schools.”

Besides the work done at the conference itself, there were weeks of time spent laying groundwork for the presentation of ideas to an audience of literature and history enthusiasts.

Topics were researched, practice panels were held, and papers were written and rewritten numerous times.

“The students are all extremely dedicated and passionate; they’re the cream of the crop,” Agan said. “They represent the intellectual work that OC is doing.”

The theme standardizing the panels at the SW/CCL conference that weekend focused on modernism literature and its relation to Christianity.

Senior Matt Miller said speaking on the differences between the despair and skepticism of modernism and the beauty and truth of God was an interesting way to compare beliefs.

“Relationships between religions, faiths, Christianity and the art of literature, [is] a really interesting way to look at literature works,” Miller said.

Senior Jessie Sanders joined Miller as they also represented two of the few undergraduate students participating in the SW/CCL conference. Oklahoma Christian alumnus Paul Mitchell also attended the convention.

Sanders enjoyed listening to Mitchell because she understood and appreciated the ideas he presented. She said the opportunity to share her ideas with these graduate students was unique and contributed to what she considered one of the highlights of her experience.

Interaction between all levels of scholarship helped give students an idea of what it’s like to be an academic.

Associate professor of English and French Merle Gatewood accompanied the students participating in the SW/CCL conference.

She has attended this particular conference every year since 1994 and represented the organization as secretary-treasurer for nine of those years.

“It has been a joy to meet Christian colleagues from a variety of institutions, both private and public,” Gatewood said.

The atmosphere of Christian scholarship and the common pursuit of higher academia allows attendees and participants the opportunity to grow through learning experiences.

“Students who attend are exposed to Christian writers and ideas they might never encounter in their classes,” Gatewood said. “Those selected to read their papers and answer questions have a challenging experience that builds their self-confidence for academic work and graduate school.”

Faculty members of the English and literature department were pleased with the preparedness and maturity the students exhibited.

“I’m extremely proud of them, and I think the whole campus should be extremely proud of them as well,” Agan said.

The SW/CCL annual convention location travels throughout the region each year. In 2010, the Oklahoma Christian language and literature department will hold the SW/CCL convention in conjunction with the annual McBride lecture.