BGSU Zoom News

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Nagarajan named to ‘Course Hero' fellowship | ALICE video wins Emmy Award

Subhalakshmi Nagarajan (right) will use her fellowship grant to enhance her service-learning chemistry course.

Nagarajan is ‘Course Hero’
Fellowship to provide support for research-based service-learning

Part of the study of chemistry involves learning what happens when different elements are combined. BGSU Firelands instructor Dr. Subhalakshmi Nagarajan has found a way to combine chemistry classes, research, service-learning and community engagement to produce learning that students will not soon forget. Her methods take them out of the classroom to address water quality problems facing not only their area but the world.

Nagarajan’s innovative approach has earned her a Course Hero-Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, a one-year grant of $20,000 she can use to enhance her teaching and research activities. She is one of only four faculty selected in the non-tenure track category from several hundred applicants and 12 finalists nationwide.

“The fellowship, created by Course Hero and administered by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, is a ‘genius grant’ for outstanding teachers in higher education,” said Andrew Grauer, cofounder and CEO of Course Hero. “This fellowship highlights college educators who are using innovative, forward-thinking methods to teach their students.”

For Nagarajan, BGSU Firelands’ location and the growing problem of toxic algal blooms that threaten drinking water sources add up to a perfect teaching and research opportunity. The college is close to Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve, one of the few remaining natural freshwater wetlands on the Ohio shore of Lake Erie. Research has shown that algal blooms can be stimulated by nutrients from fertilizers that run off into streams and lakes, and because wetlands can serve to reduce nutrient concentrations, they hold great promise for playing a role in reducing these blooms in Lake Erie and other freshwater sources.

Miller on parents running for office – The New York Times
WWII oral history project digitized – Sentinel-Tribune

ALICE training video

Safety video used to train students, employees
WBGU-TV staff wins Emmy for ALICE training video

Staff from WBGU-TV, Bowling Green’s PBS affiliate, won an Emmy Award June 15 for their ALICE training video, created for the Bowling Green State University Police Department, with the assistance of the BGSU Office of Marketing and Communications.

Zachary Mills produced the video, while Joe Goodman directed. Marketing and Communications Specialist Amber Stark assisted with scripting.

ALICE, which stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate, is an active-shooter civilian-response training used by BGSU and organizations across the country. The video was used for student, faculty and staff training.

Matthew Donahue in "The Amsterdam T-shirt Project

Donahue honored by Ohio Senate

Dr. Matthew Donahue was surprised recently when, upon returning to campus from a research trip, he opened his mail and found a proclamation from the Ohio Senate commending him “for remarkable attainment” on a recent project. Donahue, a lecturer in popular culture in the School of Cultural and Critical Studies, said he was astounded to learn that the legislature, thanks to Sen. Theresa Gavarone (R., 2nd District), had recognized him for his documentary “The Amsterdam T-Shirt Project.”

An icon of popular culture, the T-shirt has been used since the late 1950s almost as a “removable tattoo” to express oneself, Donahue said, and has also turned into a huge industry, especially in the travel sector. He found that Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, is particularly known for producing commemorative T-shirts. He received a travel grant from the Popular Culture Association to explore and document the phenomenon, including Amsterdam artists, vendors and T-shirt shop owners. The resulting film placed in the top four among American independent filmmakers in the 2019 Travel Video Awards sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters.

Among those involved in the making of the documentary were BGSU alumni Joshua Lightle and Walter McKeever. Donahue wrote the music for the film, which was performed by guitarist Skip McDonald, a frequent collaborator.

Donahue plans to continue his explorations of the unique popular culture of Amsterdam.