The University of Alabama

Five graduating seniors at The University of Alabama will participate in the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. In addition, two students from other institutions will be using fellowships at UA The students are among 2,000 NSF Graduate Research Fellows selected from more than 13,000 applicants to receive financial support for graduate studies.

The University of Alabama Honors College has selected 41 incoming freshmen for the Randall Research Scholars Program. The nationally recognized undergraduate research program pairs exceptional students directly with leading research faculty to complete scholarly research projects. Students must apply to the program and are selected after a rigorous review process that includes an on-campus interview.

Morgan Ross, who studied metallurgical and materials engineering at The University of Alabama, received the 2019 Capstone Engineering Society Outstanding Senior Award. A native of Meridian, Mississippi, she earned 10 different scholarship awards and a 4.08 grade point average during her time at UA. Ross was in the University Honors Program and the Randall Research Scholars Program. She became a member of honor societies Tau Beta Pi, The Anderson Society, Mortar Board, Omicron Delta Kappa, Cardinal Key, The XXXI, Alpha Lambda Delta, Phi Eta Sigma and Golden Key International. Ross was named 2018 RRSP Outstanding Junior, 2017 UA Outstanding Sophomore and 2016 MTE E.C. Wright Outstanding Sophomore. In 2017, she won the C.H.T. Wilkins Award for Excellence. During summer 2017, Ross was a research intern with the Army Education Outreach Program conducting thin film studies. She also worked with Dr. Gregory Thompson, UA professor of metallurgical and materials engineering, studying ultra-high temperature ceramics and coatings. Ross has presented her work at seven events during her undergraduate career including the 42nd Annual Conference on Composites, Materials and Structures. "She has been outstanding asset to our department and my research group. She exhibited maturity, professionalism, and dedication in both the classroom, evident by an excellent GPA, and accomplishments in the lab," Thompson said. In 2018, she earned first place in the UA System Casting Competition and first-place oral presentation at the UA Systems Conference. At the 2018 Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Conference, Ross came in first in the College of Engineering category and second in the Engineering, Technology and Energy category. At the Capstone, she served in several leadership positions including secretary of the Materials Advantage/American Foundry Society, vice president of STEAM Alabama, professionalism committee head of RRSP, middle school outreach chairman of the Society of Women Engineers, vice president of involvement for University Stewards, and a student instructor in Honors Cultural Literacy. Ross was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority and participated in the UA Honors Study Abroad Program in New Zealand. She also worked as an assistant to UA President Emeritus Dr. Robert Witt. "She is extremely bright, creative, hardworking and very dependable," Witt said. "I would rank Morgan in the top 1 percent of students I have worked with in my over 50 years in higher education." In 2018, Ross was a summer measurement engineering intern at Corning, Inc. in Hickory, North Carolina. This summer she will intern with Chevron in Mississippi. In the fall, she will return to UA to finish her metallurgical engineering master's degree in UA's Accelerated Master's Program. The Capstone Engineering Society, the alumni association for the College of Engineering, was established in 1973. CES is dedicated to maintaining relationships with UA engineering alumni to ensure the College is able to provide UA engineering and computer science students with a superior educational experience. The CES began the Outstanding Senior Award in 1986 to honor an exceptional student who deserves distinction among his or her peers. An outstanding student is selected from the 11 academic programs in the College, and the overall winner is determined by a selection committee after assessing each student's academic performance, professional and technical activities, College leadership, external leadership and other activities.

The Order of Omega chapter at The University of Alabama presented awards at its recent annual banquet. Order of Omega is a leadership honor society for members of fraternity and sorority organizations. Order of Omega recognizes juniors and seniors who have exemplified high standards in the areas of scholarship, leadership and involvement within their respective organizations, the campus and the community.

Ten University of Alabama students were chosen as Fulbright Student Award Winners for 2019-2020. "Congratulations to UA's 2019-2020 Fulbright winners and alternates," said Dr. Teresa E. Wise, associate provost for international education and global outreach. "During their year abroad, these leaders of tomorrow are putting into action the diverse and intercultural experiences and education that UA provides." The highly competitive U.S. Student Fulbright Program provides grants for individually designed study and research projects or for English-teaching assistantships to 160 countries. More than 10,000 applicants compete for approximately 2,100 awards each year. "These students have emerged from the national Fulbright competition as the best in the nation," said Dr. Beverly Hawk, UA Fulbright program adviser and director of global and community engagement in the Center for Community-Based Partnerships "They represent our excellence in education to the nation and the world. Through their individual community engagement activities overseas, these Fulbright winners will develop lasting international ties for Alabama and the USA." Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Fulbright is the largest U.S. international exchange program, offering opportunities for students, scholars and professionals. Alternates may be brought forward to serve at any time should winners be unable to travel to the designated country, or if additional federal funds become available.

Apparel design students at The University of Alabama's College of Human Environmental Sciences let their imaginations run wild for a special fashion show that celebrated Earth Week. Tasked with upcycling finds from thrift stores, family attics and a few unconventional sources, designers created a array of clothing for the annual Tee Time Fashion Show on April 16.

Beat Auburn Beat Hunger staff members have started planning for their 26th year food drive campaign at The University of Alabama. Beat Auburn Beat Hunger is an annual student-run event that was created by the Center for Service and Leadershipand the West Alabama Food Bank in 1994. During the six weeks leading up to the Iron Bowl, the food drive unites University of Alabama students, faculty, staff, alumni, and Tuscaloosa and Northport community members to help fight hunger and poverty in West Alabama. In competition with Auburn University and the Food Bank of East Alabama, BABH challenges both institutions to collect the most food and monetary donations to help their local food bank. This good-natured competition has made an impact that reaches far beyond the campuses where it began. Since its inception, Alabama and Auburn have combined to raise 6.6 million pounds of food for Alabamians in need.

The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program has selected three University of Alabama students as Goldwater Scholars for 2019-2020. The selections bring to 56 the number of UA students who have received Goldwater scholarships. The three UA students are: Thomas "Hank" Richards is a physics and mathematics major and Randall Research Scholar from San Antonio, Texas. At UA, he has worked under Dr. Igor Ostrovskiy, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, with the EXO-200 project, an experimental search for a hypothetical form of exotic nuclear decay called neutrinoless double beta decay. His role in the project is to use deep machine learning methods to search for signals of this decay. Outside of UA, he completed a nuclear physics research project at Vanderbilt University in summer 2018 under Dr. Joseph Hamilton. His parents are Michael and Beth Richards. Ryan Tuckey is a third-year undergraduate from Middletown, Maryland, and is the vice president of the Alabama Undergraduate Research Association and a Research Ambassador at UA. His parents are Taraneh and Brian Tuckey, and he has come to UA with 1.5 years of research experience from the National Cancer Institute. While working at NCI, Tuckey was able to contribute to a publication in the journal Nature and also has recently been published as a co-author in Disease Models and Mechanisms from work done during the three years he has worked in the Caldwell Laboratory at UA. Peyton Strickland is a junior from Pelham pursuing his Bachelor and Master of Science in aerospace engineering and mechanics. He has conducted research under the advisement of Dr. Semih Olcmen, professor in aerospace engineering, since the spring of his freshman year. His work, sponsored by The MITRE Corp., investigates the use of a low-cost K-band communication satellite constellation to meet our nation's low Earth orbit space object communication needs. Outside of research, Strickland is a volunteer C++ coding instructor at Central High School, UA American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics president-elect and a member of the Alabama Rocketry Association's Project ARES. Scholarships of up to $7,500 a year are provided to help recipients cover costs associated with tuition, mandatory fees, books and room and board.

The University of Alabama has inducted a new group of students into its chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Founded on Dec. 5, 1776, The Phi Beta Kappa Society is the nation's most prestigious academic honor society. It has chapters at 286 colleges and universities in the United States, 50 alumni associations, and more than half a million members worldwide. Noteworthy members include 17 U.S. presidents, 39 justices of the Supreme Court of the United States and more than 130 Nobel laureates. The mission of The Phi Beta Kappa Society is to champion education in the liberal arts and sciences, foster freedom of thought, and recognize academic excellence. UA's chapter was founded in 1851. Students are elected to membership on the basis of outstanding academic achievement in the liberal arts and sciences.

The Coca-Cola Foundation is continuing its support for the Coca-Cola First Generation Scholars program at The University of Alabama with a new four-year grant award of $1 million. The new grant will fund the program through 2022. The program was first established at UA in 2006 with an initial $1 million gift. Since that time, The Coca-Cola Foundation has awarded $4 million to support first generation scholars at Alabama.

The University of Alabama Division of Student Life awarded the 2019 Penny Allen Awards to Brooke Bailey and Courtney Thomas. The Penny Allen Award is an annual award given to one student and one faculty or staff member at UA. The award recognizes selfless service, unfailing commitment, leadership and contributions to student life at UA.

Erin Behland, a University of Alabama graduating senior from Chicago, has received a Critical Language Scholarship to study Mandarin in China. Behland is majoring in international relations, history and anthropology with a minor in Chinese. She previously received a Critical Language Scholarship in 2017. Since her first scholarship, Behland has studied at The University of Glasgow in Scotland and traveled across Greece studying ancient western civilization via the UA in Greece study abroad program.

The Omicron Delta Kappa Society is the national leadership honor society for college students, faculty, staff, administrators and alumni that recognizes and encourages superior scholarship, leadership, and exemplary character. Membership in ODK is a mark of the highest distinction and honor. Omicron Delta Kappa recognizes and encourages achievement in scholarship; athletics; campus or community service; social and religious activities; campus government; journalism, speech and the mass media; and creative and performing arts.

Blue Key is a premier honor society that recognizes college students for balanced and all-around excellence in scholarship, leadership and service.

The Anderson Society is a leadership honorary that recognizes students who have made significant contributions to The University of Alabama. Twenty-four students are accepted each year; and seven honorary memberships are awarded to faculty and graduating seniors. While these contributions often take many forms, there are certain qualities of members of the Anderson Society that are prominently and ubiquitously found -- an immersion into some sort of community service, passion for improving the university community through both explicit and implicit means, and persistent effort to attain excellence in some sphere of university life. Once an Anderson initiate, members are expected to continue to devote themselves to service, some directly under the auspices of the Anderson Society, but much more individually.

Mortar Board is the premier national honor society recognizing college seniors for superior achievement in scholarship, leadership and service. The University of Alabama's Hypatia Chapter is one of the oldest chapters in the nation. Only a select few students on each campus are invited to join this esteemed society. Mortar Board members are presented with the opportunity to join a diverse group of students from different disciplines and interests.

The University of Alabama's Black Faculty and Staff Association recently recognized students who received premier academic awards for 2018-19. The students were honored on Black Scholars Day. The mission of the Black Faculty and Staff Association is to contribute to the betterment of UA a by serving as an advocate for educational equity, with an emphasis on African-American students, and the professional needs of its members. To that end, this organization promotes and provides opportunities for networking among individuals and groups to articulate mutual concerns and advance educational opportunities.

Two University of Alabama students have received Boren Scholarships for the study of languages in world regions critical to U.S. interests and underrepresented in study abroad.

Kiley Lord, a senior in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at The University of Alabama, was awarded the Franklin Shirley Award for the Top Undergraduate Honors Conference Paper at the Southern States Communication Association Convention in Montgomery, Alabama.

The University of Alabama Honors College selected 29 students to serve as college ambassadors during the 2019/2020 school year. Ambassadors represent the college during recruitment, alumni, and donor events on and off campus.

The University of Alabama's department of art and art history is presented the master of arts thesis exhibition of Katie Adams, titled "Space Between the Ears." The exhibition was held March 21-31, 2019, at Harrison Galleries, in downtown Tuscaloosa. Adams designs and builds sculptures that visually express the effects of neurological disorders on those afflicted as well as the people around them, both in form and through the media in which she works. "My sculptures examine the complications of neurological disorders," she said. "Each piece builds a perspective for viewers to experience simultaneously the breakdown of neurological systems as well as the disruption of function and communication." She wants the experience of viewing her sculpture to bring a realization to the viewer that, as she says, "perspective can be distorted without materially changing objects." Adams works with metal, glass, ceramics and photography for the work in this exhibition. "Each brain model is different: with each disease the portions of the brain affected are either missing or made of glass instead of metal," she said. Adams hopes that by bridging the gap between art and medicine through her work, she will help people understand what is happening physically and mentally with neurological diseases. Katie Adams is a graduate student in sculpture. Adams received the BA from Western Kentucky University in art with a concentration in sculpture. Her work has been included in numerous juried and group exhibitions including Height x Width x Depth (HWD) in Kettering, Ohio; 51st Annual National Drawing and Small Sculpture Show, Corpus Christi, Texas, and 24th Annual Jack Lunt Memorial Juried Art Exhibition, Bowling Green, Ky. She demonstrated at the 2016 Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design Convention (SOFA) in Chicago. Her work consists mostly of metal, wood and glass components. Adams says that she searches to understand and combine nature's physical elements and systems with emotional connections.

The University of Alabama's Contemporary Ensemble presented an evening of music composed by students. "Composers Present" was performed April 12 in the concert hall of the Moody Music Building,

The National Alumni Association of The University of Alabama recognizes and honors one male and one female in the senior class to receive the Alumni Student Award. The association also recognizes and honors students in the senior class. The students have excelled in academics and extracurricular activities, shown strength of character and maturity and displayed exceptional hospitality.

The University of Alabama department of art and art history presents "Earthworks," the master of fine arts thesis exhibition of Patrick Hoban, April 16-30, at Harrison Galleries, 2315 University Blvd. in Tuscaloosa. The public is invited to a reception for the artist Friday, April 19, from 6 to 9 p.m. Hoban expresses the relationship between the fragility of humans and nature through art work that suggests force, separation and compression of materials. He works in ceramic and incorporates found objects in his art. "The moment when a plant breaks the surface of concrete and continues to grow is a forceful moment with which I relate," he said. "Being rooted in Philadelphia exposed me to the extremes of the natural world and how they interact with the spaces of an inner city. Childhood spent on beaches and by rivers, observing, experiencing, collecting and documenting the extreme forces of nature has allowed me to connect my personal struggles to those of nature. There will always be barriers to deal with, but much like nature, I must find a way to survive." Hoban is a graduate student in ceramics with an assistantship teaching ceramics and 3D design. He received the BFA in sculpture from Pennsylvania State University. Hoban's cast bronze sculpture of a jon boat is part of the Literary Capital Bronze Sculpture Trail commissioned by Monroeville, Ala., to be unveiled April 26 His work has appeared in the Tuscaloosa Monster Takeover project, the Alabama Clay Conference, and was selected for the Waterloo Arts 2018 Juried Exhibition in Cleveland, Ohio. His public art proposal for a sculptural bike rack to be installed near Government Plaza, was accepted by the city of Tuscaloosa. He was juried into the 19th Annual National K-12 Ceramic Exhibition in Kansas City, Mo. Hoban was the recipient of a full scholarship to ceramic summer class at Penn Valley School with the renowned artist, Chris Staley, and a recipient of the Emerging Artist Award at Malvern Preparatory School.

The University of Alabama's department of art and art history presents the master of arts thesis exhibition of Nasrin Iravani, "I'm a Woman Here Standing in the Mist." The exhibition will be through April 30 at the UA Gallery in the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center, in downtown Tuscaloosa. Nasrin Iravani is a graduate student in ceramics and serves as a teaching assistant in ceramics. Iravani received the MA in Handicrafts (ceramics) from Tehran University of Art. Her work is inspired by Persian art and she is particularly interested in figurative forms. She presents a critical view of ethical, social and cultural issues in her art work and is currently working on a collection of pieces titled Femininity, which refers to women's rights and concerns. "The history and culture of Iran, my home country, gives me a sense of identity, tranquility and confidence," she said. "I use symbols and signs of traditional Iranian art to showcase some of that history and culture. In my work, I explore feminine narratives in aesthetics, politics, history and personal experiences, and I use the concept of art as a tool to address contemporary women's rights and concerns." Iravani uses elements such as asymmetry, color contrast and the simultaneous presentation of the inside and the outside of some of her pieces to convey her own conflicts with Iran's traditional ways, especially regarding women. The title of her exhibition is taken from a poem, written by her husband the Iranian poet Saeid Ranjbar, which she feels expresses her relationship to the culture she loves but struggles with. "While incorporating signs of traditional and contemporary art, I strive to reflect the view that the relationship between tradition and modernity needs to be continuously reconsidered." Nasrin Iravani's selected international, national and juried exhibitions include L'artigiano in Fiera 2016, Milan; Fitur 2016, Feria de Madrid, Spain; International Handicraft Exhibition; Tehran; 46th International Art Show, Brownsville Museum of Fine Art (Texas); The Millennial Show (juried), TEJAS Gallery, Dayton, OH; Clay: A Southern Census (juried), New Orleans; 33rd Annual Alabama Clay Conference, Montgomery, AL; The Ritual Table: A Place of Memory, A State of Mind, Corning, NY; and Vitreous (juried), Clay Center of New Orleans.

The University of Alabama recently selected 40 students as Capstone Men and Women. Capstone Men and Women serve as official ambassadors of UA. They assist the University president's office, admissions and alumni during functions held on campus and in other locations, as well as host daily tours of the campus for prospective students and other visitors.

Down the road comes the Hear Here Alabama mobile audiology clinic. Stocked with equipment and staffed with eager undergrads and professionals, the clinic heads out several times a year from UA to health fairs, county health departments and other places in West and South Alabama to offer hearing screenings and do research in areas where audiology resources are limited. Now The College of Arts and Sciences is asking the public to help expand the mobile clinic's mission and reach as part of Bama Blitz, UA's online fundraising event for alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends. The Hear Here Alabama program is a "passion project" to which Bama Blitz contributors may give directly. Bama Blitz will run from noon April 10 to 8:31 p.m. April 11. "I love making a difference and seeing the look on people's faces when they get their sense of hearing back," said Madison McCullough, a senior from Sand Rock who helps run the clinic. "No one thinks about their hearing until it's gone." Research and screenings The project grew out of the research agenda of Dr. Marcia J. Hay-McCutcheon, associate professor of communicative disorders. After she came to UA in 2008, she started performing research on people with hearing implants. She discovered that because of lack of income and health resources, people with hearing loss in the Black Belt were not getting implants. To continue her research into hearing loss and implants, she had to reach out with more mobile resources. "Lots of counties don't have health care resources or hearing health care resources," she said. "I needed to go to the people rather than have the people come to me." So Hay-McCutcheon got the idea for the Hear Here Alabama mobile clinic. The program started in 2013 with $433,000 from UA's College of Arts and Sciences, the Office of Research and Economic Development, Academic Affairs, and the Center for Economic Development - money earmarked for buying equipment. Hearing and isolation Loaded with expensive instruments, the clinic represents a key research tool for Hay-McCutcheon. She and her colleagues have produced papers on hearing and memory, rural populations and social isolation for such publications as the International Journal of Audiology and the Journal of Clinical Psychology. "We're looking at hearing loss in general and trying to understand how it's associated with social interaction," Hay-McCutcheon said. "It makes sense that if you don't hear people, you withdraw from social interaction. It's just too challenging." Hay-McCutcheon, audiologist JoAnne Payne and a team of undergrads in the communicative disorders department head out both to offer hearing screenings and, if the participants consent, gather additional data. Each trip costs about $1,000. McCullough joins Hay-McCutcheon in performing the screenings in two booths in the quiet environment of the clinic as well as perform crowd control and keep the area tidy. Visitors who fail the hearing tests are offered referrals or discounts to the clinic on the UA campus. Sometimes people getting the screening are in for a surprise. "I had one man come in and say, 'My wife says I can't hear, but my hearing's fine,'" McCullough said. "If people fail the screening, we offer a discount to come to UA and get a full evaluation." Assessing needs Because the mobile clinic has to go to an area and come back in a day, the range of locations it can visit is limited. Places the truck returns to often include Pine Hill, Demopolis, Livingston and Selma as well as events in Tuscaloosa. The College is asking for donations to allow the truck to visit each community at least once a month over a one-year period. Hay-McCutcheon also would like to expand into Pickens County. "We'd like to more fully understand what the needs are in the community among professionals who work with people with hearing loss or people who have hearing loss," Hay-McCutcheon said. "We also need funds for the operation of the truck -- not just the upkeep of the truck, but upkeep on the equipment." People interested in contributing to Bama Blitz may go to https://bamablitz.ua.edu/. Bama Blitz will run from noon April 10 to 8:31 p.m. April 11.

A University of Alabama student team is continuing a three-year tradition of local outreach projects. The University of Alabama Astrobotics team and a group of engineering senior design students partnered with the RISE Center, a school for infants and preschoolers with and without special needs on UA's campus, to provide the children with a sensory cube to assist with in-class therapy. The sensory cube, called the Stimulation Station, is a 4-foot-tall, 2-foot-wide machine that was designed around the idea of an electronic fidget cube. This device helps with physical therapy, occupational therapy and music therapy in a way that is engaging for the children. "It increased the [engineering] students' awareness of the needs that they can help with," said Angela Parham, a physical therapist for the RISE Center. "It gave them an opportunity to offer their services in a way that meets specific needs for our children. It has been a learning experience for all of us." The Stimulation Station took one year to complete and was delivered to the RISE Center during a holiday party in December 2018. The cube is made up of three sides of interactive stimulation that the children can use to assist with different forms of therapy such as helping with muscle strength and the association of sounds to objects. "Sometimes they don't even know they're doing [therapy], because they're just playing," said Joylyn Boggs, RISE service coordinator. "The sensory cube provides a fun way to explore all of the areas of development." Specific aspects of the cube include a music center, push buttons to control various light patterns, mechanical games, elements that teach cause-and-effect, and a mirror to help with early developmental stages of crawling and standing. The Stimulation Station is made of clear Plexiglas to show the kids the wires and the LED blinking lights on the computers inside the machine. The cube has proven beneficial for students of all ages at RISE with children starting from 8-weeks old to 5- and 6-year-olds. The project has also proven beneficial to the UA students involved with this. Dr. Kenneth Ricks, electrical and computer engineering associate professor and Astrobotics faculty adviser, stresses the importance of students gaining a deeper perspective on the different challenges others are facing in life. Meeting the RISE students can do that. And, knowing the engineering students widens the world for the RISE children, too. "Let's see what we can do to introduce K-12 students to engineering and science and then show them how STEM can help the disabled." In addition to members of the Astrobotics team, the UA students who participated in the designing and building process of this project were Kevin Townsend, Kristin Harris, Cody Colangelo and Trent Gibson. "We've been doing projects like this for the past few years. And we really enjoy doing projects like this, and they're really special to us," said Max Eastepp, senior Astrobotics team lead. "We're building something that is not just going to sit in a room, it's really helping children and people in need."

The University of Alabama's department of art and art history presents a group exhibition by four BFA candidates: Samantha Joslin, Jonathan Lanier, Caroline Rothschild and Dana Tokarzewski. The quartet will display their work April 16-23 in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery on UA campus. A reception for the artists will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, April 18, in the gallery. The BFA is the professional degree for artists with a focused program of study in visual art. These students have completed intensive research in a primary and secondary concentration in art. Lanier's concentrations are in sculpture and ceramics. Since 2016, he has won several scholarship awards including the Farley Moody Galbraith Scholarship, Windgate Charitable Fund - Studio Arts, and the Paul R. Jones Endowed Scholarship. Lanier will also hold a solo exhibition of his work at Harrison Galleries in Tuscaloosa in May. Joslin's concentrations are in ceramics and sculpture. Her current body of work has come out of studio research that focuses on the exploration of forms, surfaces and interactions among different media. Joslin has won numerous scholarships and awards, including a UA Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity grant in spring 2019. She will exhibit her sculpture in a solo exhibition at Harrison Galleries in April. Joslin plans to continue her studies in a post-baccalaureate program that combines her ceramics and sculpture work. Rothschild's concentrations are in drawing and painting. Tokarzewski's concentrations are in digital media and photography. This group of BFA majors have approached their work from diverse viewpoints - from a focus on abstract form, to creating work that expresses the tensions of the outer world and nature, embodied in the inner conflicts common to all humans. The artists employ a variety of media to carry these ideas into physical form, using cast bronze, digital media, clay, wood, foam, paint, graphite, and photography.

The University of Alabama's department of art and art history is presenting the BFA solo exhibition of Samantha Joslin titled "Matter of Normalcy." The exhibition will be April 5-15 at Harrison Galleries in downtown Tuscaloosa. A reception for the artist will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, April 5, in the gallery. Samantha Joslin's BFA concentrations are in ceramics and sculpture. Her current body of work has come out of studio research that focuses on the exploration of forms, surfaces and interactions among different media. "These interactions are reflective of life in its most intimate moments and conditions," she said. "My current body of work centers on pieces which imitate experience in life and the human form, thus speaking of the relationships between ourselves, the world around us, and its interpretations through emotion. I am interested in illustrating the human condition in a way which is simultaneously familiar yet peculiar and understandable yet puzzling. The balancing of such physical and conceptual contrasts leads to an investigation of visual formlessness, which obscures categorization. I want to expand upon this notion of blurring identity as it connotatively relates to social circumstances and interactions, and how visual factors like contrast, scale, visual speed and interactions of materials can subtly reflect these themes." Joslin was a UA Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity grant recipient in the spring of 2019 and a Windgate Fellowship nominee in 2019. She received the Carolyn Haddon "Julie" Matthews Memorial Endowed Scholarship, the Farley Mood Galbraith Annual Scholarship and the Paul R. Jones Endowed Scholarship. She was a student employee in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery and was awarded UA work-study grants in sculpture and ceramics. In 2018, Joslin was awarded a paid internship under Tuscaloosa sculptor Lee Busby. She has been awarded tuition grants to participate in 'Sculpture: Clay, Wood, and Steel' by Trey Hill, Anderson Ranch Workshop, Snowmass Village, Colo. and has served as a volunteer demonstrator in clay for the Arts Renaissance in Tuscaloosa Schools at Matthews Elementary School. She was also a member of Crimson Clay Club, serving as treasurer. After her graduation in May, Joslin hopes to undertake a post-baccalaureate program. "I am planning to focus mainly on ceramics while still incorporating sculptural elements and other materials." This exhibition is part of the bachelor of fine arts degree program in the department of art and art history at UA. For more information about all our programs, visit this link: https://art.ua.edu/academics/. Harrison Galleries LLC is at 2315 University Blvd. in downtown Tuscaloosa. Hours are Monday through Friday, 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m., by appointment, and First Fridays of the month, 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. For more information call (205) 464-0054 or visit the website: http://www.firstfridaytuscaloosa.com/art-galleries/harrison-galleries-llc.