UA In the News — May 25

UA In the News — May 25

What Is Ecstatic Dance – and Can It Improve Your Health?
US News and World Report – May 24
The stars. That’s what Karen Bond remembers most from her first ecstatic dance experience on a farm in Wales in the 1980s. She also remembers the drumming, chanting and, of course, the dancing that lasted until the sun replaced the stars. While she didn’t know anything about the people around her (save her boyfriend, with whom she had traveled), she felt deeply connected to them. “The feeling of unity, universal love – it’s really actually hard to describe what it’s like, and yet we know what a person is talking about in a sense when they describe this experience,” says Bond, who was working in the dance department of an Australian university at the time.  Fast forward 35 or so years, and that kind of spontaneous, joyful movement to music that wordlessly connects people is formalized in classes, programs and meetups across the U.S. Called many things including conscious dance, ecstatic dance, improvisational dance, trance dance and spontaneous dance, the practice is easiest to describe in terms of what it’s not,says Sonya Pritzker, a Chinese medicine practitioner and assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama who runs a monthly dance “tribe” in Tuscaloosa.
 
UA offers BERTHA training for schools
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – May 24
The UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA is working to combat school violence. Physical violence, sexual abuse, sexting, bullying, and many other offenses are occurring at schools increasingly more often. The university is teaming up with firestorm solutions to offer behavioral risk threat assessment or BERTHA training to local schools.
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – May 24

Writers Hall of Fame inducts new members
May 24, 2018
Eight distinguished authors will be inducted into the 2018 Alabama Writers Hall of Fame tonight. The ceremony will be held at the Bryant Conference Center on the UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA campus. One of the inductees is Winston Groom. He’s best known for his novel, “Forrest Gump” which, as we all know, was made into the academy award winning movie, starring Tom hanks. Winston is a Mobile county native and a UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA graduate.
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – May 24

UA to host Gubernatorial Debates
WKRG-CBS (Mobile) – May 24
Next week Alabama gubernatorial candidates will take center stage for debates at the UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA. The GOP candidates are up first on Tuesday, May 29th at 7:00. All have accepted the invite except for current Governor Kay Ivey. And the Democratic debate is next Wednesday at 7:00. Candidates Sue Bell Cobb, Christopher Countryman, James Fields and Walt Maddox will participate.

UA expert talks about volcano in Hawaii
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – May 24
Geysers of hot lava and ash have erupted from underground fissures for nearly a month. And no end is in sight according to UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA volcanologist Kim Genareau. “Fissures opened up in a neighborhood and, fortunately, they were able to evacuate people, because you don’t want lava coming up in your living room.” She calls what we’ve seen so far tame compared to some historic volcanic eruptions.
WDFX-Fox (Dothan) – May 24
WSFA-12 (Montgomery) – May 24

UA professor receives award from U.S. Navy
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – May 24
A professor at The University of Alabama is honored by the Navy. Dr. Andy Lemmon, a UA engineering professor, who has participated in a three-year study on how to better equip Navy ships for the future was given a half-million dollar grant.

UA Study: Seat belt use is critical
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – May 24
Researchers at the UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA say someone not wearing a seatbelt is forty times more likely to die in a crash. The Center for Advanced Public Safety examined the state crash records from 2013-2017. The records show that 1/25 unrestrained motorists suffered a fatal injury.
WYDE-FM (Bimringham) –May 24
WPMI-NBC (Mobile) –May 24
Alabama News Center – May 24