Fordham University Press has accepted for publication a collection of essays co-edited by Donna Bowman, Associate Dean, Honors College, and Clayton Crockett, professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. The book, titled Theology and Energy: Divine Intersections, emerged out of the Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Theology and Energy held at UCA in February 2009, co-sponsored by the American Academy of Religion, the Steel Center at Hendrix, and several UCA departments and institutes. Catherine Keller of Drew University provides the keynote essay, anchoring contributions from nine other scholars, including Bowman, Crockett, and Jay McDaniel of Hendrix College.
Senior Honors student Isaac Jones, a philosophy major, journeyed to South Africa this summer to work in the field of human rights. While there, Jones helped an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo get a Cape Town Refugee Center grant to raise his son, who has cerebral palsy. Jones also worked in Bonnytoun, a juvenile detention center for boys aged 14-18. He gave character-building workshops, focusing on drug avoidance and gang resistance. Jones discovered that most of the Bonnytoun residents know very little about the litigation pending against them or the legal process. He designed a monitoring system whereby the Projects Abroad Human Rights Office can gather information, anonymize it, and present it to the officials in charge of Bonnytoun in hopes of improving the situation for these boys. He is currently working on a self-reflective essay on human rights monitoring for his senior Honors thesis project. Jones’ experience was funded in part by a Travel Abroad Grant (TAG) awarded by the Honors College. “I’ve always had a passion for human rights,” says Jones. “I was committed to going someplace to become a locus of hope for people who have had their rights violated, but my TAG made it financially possible.”
Honors alumna Sara Mullally, a 2009 International Studies graduate, is the new Assistant Director of the Casa Marianella immigrant shelter in Austin, Texas. She writes, “It’s been such a beautiful experience, full of growth and consciousness-raising moments. We to get to know the amazingly strong individuals who are the real life survivors of the stories we hear about in the news: people escaping sharia law in Somalia, Mara Salvatrucha and Las Zetas gang atrocities, hurricanes/natural disasters in Central America, and Maoist torturing in Nepal to name a few. We help traumatized and abused immigrants be able to restore themselves physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally while also preparing them for their political asylum court case and for life as a new American. I will always be thankful for the Honors TAG (Travel Abroad Grant) awards that allowed me to go on trips abroad. These trips provided me with invaluable insight and connections with people from other cultures. I now work with people escaping violence from the very cities in Central America that I traveled to and learned about on a TAG trip three years ago. Traveling abroad gave me a perspective that has ultimately shaped what kind of life I will live, how I will relate with others, and what kind of work I will dedicate myself to.”