2009 Rhodes Institute Faculty
Milton C. Moreland, Associate Profssor of Religious Studies and chair of the Program in Archaeology, is the director of the Rhodes Institute for Regional Studies. He teaches courses in Search and Life curricula. An Archaeologist and scholar of early Christianity, Prof. Moreland has worked on excavations at ancient archaelological sites in Israel and Cyprus. His publications include articles on Roman period Galilee and Jerusalem and two books on the sayings of Jesus. Prof. Moreland also co-directs the new Rhodes archaeology field school at the Ames Plantation in Fayette County, Tennessee, and his regioanl research intersts focus on Ames. This site contains the ruins of over thrity separate plantations and share-cropper farms spread across 18,600 acres. Research opportunities in the 2009 Institute include working on the excavated artifacts from a nineteenth-century manor house and slave quarters, studying economic development issues related to slavery and plantation life, and examining the social histories of families who lived on one of the plantations.
Carole Blankenship, Assistant Professor of Music, is heard regularly in recitals, chamber music concerts, and oratorio performances in the Memphis area and the region, most recently in recitals at the University of the Pacific, University of California, Santa Cruz, and Middle Tennessee State University (October 2008). Dr. Blankenship is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Her areas of expertise are German Lieder, American art song, oratorio, and chamber works. In April 2004, Dr. Blankenship received the Graduate Document Award for the most outstanding thesis as judged by the faculty at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis for her dissertation titled “The Unpublished Songs of Paul Bowles.” Her research continues in American song, particularly the songs created under the direction of the Federal Music Project 1935-1940. Dr. Blankenship teaches voice as well as Twentieth-Century American Music and Politics. She is co-director of the Memphis Music and Religion Archive at Rhodes. As part of the Rhodes Institute in 2009, she hopes to direct research focused on gospel music in Memphis as well as the political legacy of Stax Records.
Thomas S. Bremer, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Co-Director of the Memphis Music and Religion Archive project at Rhodes, teaches classes on American religious history, including courses on Religious Diversity in America, American Sacred Space, and The Music of Memphis Religions. He is author of the book, Blessed with Tourists: The Borderlands of Religion and Tourism in San Antonio, which recounts the history of religious tourist attractions in San Antonio, Texas. He also has authored articles on religious tourism, pilgrimage, sacred space, and displays of religion in museums. Opportunities in the 2009 Institute include historical research on the religious lives of immigrant and migrant communities; research on African American and Native American religious traditions in urban settings; and on the history of religious musical expression.
Kim Gerecke, Assistant Professor of Psychology, teaches courses in the areas of Psychology and Neuroscience. She has authored or co-authored many publications published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and regularly presents her reserach at international scientific conferences. Her research concerns the identification of mechanisms of neurprotection against neruronal dearth in aging and disease. Research opportunities in the 2009 Rhodes Institute involve using animal models to assess how lifestyle components, such as exercise and an enriched environment, can protect the brain against neurodegenerative diseases or environmental toxins. A second and related opportunity invoves the preparation and presentation of a Neuroscience "Road Show" to introduce local elementary children to the concepts of th brain and its functions.
David Jilg, Associate Professor of Theatre and alumnus of the College, has designed sets and/or costumes for nearly one hundred productions in Memphis, New Orleans and elsewhere, half of them for the McCoy Theatre, during his teaching career at Rhodes. Award-winning desgns include The Seagull (1998), J.B. (1999), Gianni Schicchi (2002), and Ubu Roi (2006). In addition to teaching design, his academic interests include Spanish American drama. He has directed several Spansh language productions with student actors, most recently La noche de los asesinos (2007). Research opportunities for the 2009 Rhodes Institute will focus on the history of theatres as producing organizations in the Memphis metropolitan area.
Robert Saxe, Assistant Professor of History, teaches courses in 20th Century US history, political history, and war and society. His book, "Settling Down": World War II Veterans′ Challenge to the Postwar Concensus (2007) examines the return of World War II vererans and their impact on Cold War American politics and culture. In 2007, he also was named chair of the American Studies program. As part of the Rhodes Institute in 2009, he will direct research projects focusing on recently processed collections at the Clinton Presidential Library in little Rock. Additional information about research topics can be found at http://clintonlibrary.gov/textual-systematic.html.
