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Be prepared. That's what we're taught in the event of a disaster. But Dr. Marita O'Brien, an assistant professor in the Psychology Department of The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), is conducting research that shows preparation is only half of the equation when it comes to safety among the general public.

In this age of smartphones and Facebook and photo-editing software, anyone can be a photographer. Or can they? That's the question José Betancourt, a photography professor in the Art & Art History Department at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), poses to students each spring semester in his Documentary Photography class.

"I feel strongly about what's happening with the world of journalism and how it seems like everyone is going to this idea of the person out on the street uploading the photos," said Betancourt. "The way things are now, people are always putting up photos and you don't know what's real. But if you have a reliable source, you can take what you see as true."

To get students to understand that concept, he gives them a crash course on the history of documentary photography before he sends them out to shoot. "From the early 1900s there's been this artistic influence in documentary photography," he said, referring to the influential work of artists like Walker Evans, Lewis Hine, and Jacob Riis. "So I give them things to think about and read like 'Doing Documentary Work' by Robert Coles, which talks about social documentary."

Venomous Speech: Problems With American Political Discourse on the Right and Left, by UAH Dr. Clarke Rountree, gives a blunt assessment of the dysfunction in our political system today.

Huntsville (Images of America) is the title of the new pictorial recently published by UAH's Dr. John F. Kvach, and the Huntsville Madison/County Public Library.

Maybe the boss' staff meeting shouldn't be such a boring snooze, but rather a more structured event to improve the performance of the team, new basic research at UAH indicates.

UAH Theatre will present Urinetown: The Musical Comedy in the Chan Auditorium on March 13-16 and 20-23 at 7:30 p.m. Matinee performances will be on March 17 and 24 at 2:30 p.m. Chan Auditorium is located in the Business Administration Building. 

Nationally recognized sociologist Arthur G. Cosby, distinguished professor of sociology and director of the Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State University will lecture Tuesday, Jan. 22, at UAH.

The American Shakespeare Center on Tour will perform three plays on the UAH campus in February.

What do Jesus of Nazareth, Halle Berry, David Letterman, Benjamin Franklin and Shania Twain have in common?

They all experienced periods of homelessness in their lives.

Aaron Sexton, a senior art student at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), used documentary photography to tell the untold stories of a small population of homeless men and women in the Huntsville area.

For Sexton, the controversial art project was fueled in part by inspiration, and a challenge by UAH art professor David Stewart's poignant question: "Can truth be found in art?"

"This theory really perplexed me and I searched and searched for the truth in art, without much success. Finally, I turned to my own work and it occurred to me the truth could be captured with photography."

Thinking he would have easier access to photographing individuals and collecting personal histories outside of Huntsville, Sexton headed to his hometown of New Orleans. But, he soon realized he was not as detached from the issue of homelessness as he thought.

We all know about preparations typically made ahead of time for disasters – filling our gas tanks, stocking up on batteries and food, retrieving our weather radios. But what about the psychology behind our decision-making when a disaster actually strikes?