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Most rankings of the American classics are populated with the usual suspects, from F. Scott Fitzgerald and Harper Lee to J.D. Salinger and Mark Twain. Less often included are the contributions of ethnic American novelists, says Dr. Holly Jones, associate professor of English at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).

"When people are asked to rank works by American authors, they tend to choose novels that speak for all America - and that America tends to be a white America," says the Indiana native, whose husband is fellow UAH professor Dr. Nicholaos Jones. "But ethnic American books are presenting a whole new aesthetic, trying to reimagine what narrative can do or mean outside of those old standards."

Several graduates of The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) have already gone on to work in the video game design industry, among them Charlotte Ellett and Falco Girgis. But there's no doubt that more will soon follow in their footsteps thanks to the debut of Game Design & Development, a brand-new cross-disciplinary minor, this fall.

Comprising a mix of courses offered primarily by the Department of Art & Art History and the Department of Computer Science, with assistance from the Department of Music and the Department of Communication Arts, the minor will provide students with a strong foundation in video game creation basics. Topics will include animation, mobile app design, digital composing, game engine development, and team game development among others.

This fall, the Department of Sociology at UAH will offer a brand-new 300-level course on the sociology of tourism and travel. The impetus, says associate professor Dr. Bhavani Sitaraman, was twofold: first, to expand the department's curricular offerings, and second, to enhance students' understanding of the social dimensions and consequences of tourism around the world.

How do climate change, population change and economic factors affect water resources in Panama?

Seven students from a variety of disciplines at UAH are spending two weeks in Panama doing cross-disciplinary field research on sustainability and climate change to help answer that question.

The students arrived Sunday, June 8, escorted by UAH Earth Systems Science Center Research Associate Eric Anderson. On Thursday, June 12, Dr. Rob Griffin, assistant professor of atmospheric science, and Dr. Kyle Knight, assistant professor of sociology, will join them.

"We'll be going to a couple of small communities in the highlands," says Dr. Griffin, who will be on his fifth trip to Panama. The communities are Santa Fe and San Francisco, which are in the Santa Maria Watershed area that will be studied by the research team.

When Monique Whitaker decided to delve into the psychological ownership of cancer for her senior research project at UAH, her interest was more than just intellectual. The former nurse and Ohio native is, as it turns out, a breast cancer survivor. But what began as an assignment, she says, "was very healing for me personally."

Whitaker was first introduced to the world of online cancer support forums by assistant professor of psychology Dr. Aurora Torres, who suggested she research the language used in posts to determine ownership. So with the help of fellow student researcher Adam Schneider, she set out to collect, analyze, and compare hundreds of posts from two cancer discussion boards, one for breast cancer and one for prostate cancer.

"I copied the whole post or a series of posts, took out any personal identification, and assigned them a number," she says, adding that any non-cancer posts were immediately eliminated. "Then I took note of any information about their or type or grade or stage of cancer, and I started counting pronouns."

John O'Brien wasn't expecting to win the award for best paper at the Phi Alpha Theta Alabama Regional Meeting in Tuscaloosa last month. But that's exactly what the history major and brand-new graduate of UAH did with his presentation on migration and divorce in antebellum North Alabama.

Dr. Clarke Rountree, Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Arts at UAH, was the distinguished speaker at this year's Southeast Regional Legal Writing Conference held April 25-26 in Gulfport, Fla.

The conference, hosted by Stetson University College of Law, offered workshops to law professors on preparing students to be "practice-ready" and developing writing and research skills for the 21st century. Discussions highlighted developments in legal pedagogy, advances in advocacy, and theory on teaching the digital millennial lawyer.

Dr. Rountree, who was recently named editor of a new series on rhetoric and law, spoke to conference attendees about the connection between rhetorical theory and legal writing in a lecture entitled "Legal Argument as Motive Construction."

As the newly minted graduates of UAH make their way out into the world this summer, so too will three slightly more seasoned members of the UAH community.

Drs. Daniel Schenker, Julie Early, and David Neff, all professors in the Department of English, are retiring – and with almost 100 years of service between them. "It's a natural progression," says Dr. Neff. "The baton has been passed."

Here the longest of the three, Dr. Neff received an offer from UAH shortly after graduating from the University of Illinois. "It was supposed to be a one-year job but it turned out to be a 35-year job," he says. "And I was going to stay wherever the job was since we'd just had a baby that May!"

Dr. Clarke Rountree is no stranger to publishing. The professor and chair of the Department of Communication Arts at UAH has already written five books and numerous articles. But now he's taking on another role: series editor of "Rhetoric, Law, & the Humanities" (University of Alabama Press).

"I made my pitch by saying that we have a critical mass of scholars ready to write in this area," says Dr. Rountree, who is also a UAH alumnus. "Most series about rhetoric tend to be directed more toward the communication field, but I'm specifically trying to bring people from law and people from communications together."

Next month, psychology major Deanna Nicholas will graduate with honors from UAH. It's a milestone anyone would be proud of, but for Nichols, it takes on an even greater significance given the many obstacles she has faced along the way.

So it was with great excitement – and more than a little nervousness – that Nicholas presented her Honors thesis entitled Poverty, Domestic Violence and Intimate Partner Homicide in the U.S. to a rapt audience at this past week's Honors Lecture Series.

As for what's next for the West Palm Beach, Fla., native, Nicholas says she's already applying to graduate schools to earn her master's in social work. And if past performance is any indicator, there's no doubt she'll soon be helping other women like her realize their own amazing achievements.