Candi Cann: Hello former BICers! I hope this update finds you safe and well. This last year has been full of exciting changes– I received tenure, and am now a Faculty in Residence at Texana House in North Village. I’ve also got a new website featuring my various projects and media interviews if you want to check it out– www.candikcann.com. Maia is now in fifth grade and enjoying her new school and residence, and loves hanging out at Baylor. I hope this year brings you blessings and joy and please come visit us next time you are in Waco.
Paul Carron: I just finished my third year on tenure track in the BIC, but my eighth year teaching Social World I, which I once again coordinated. I also continue to teach Social World II, Biblical Heritage, and a philosophy elective in ethics (my main area of research). As I travel to academic conferences and talk to professors from around the world, I am continually reminded how fortunate I am to teach in the BIC! Bright, inquisitive, and enthusiastic students, wonderful colleagues, and a beautiful and vibrant university campus make for a magnificent place to call home. I really can’t imagine a better place to be. I continue my diverse research interests. I presented “Ape Imagination” at the Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress in August, my third paper critically engaging primatologist Frans de Waal’s evolutionary account of human morality. I also presented a paper on Aristotle at a 
conference in Cape Town, South Africa in August (the picture was taken at the Cape of Good Hope). This paper continues my project of putting Aristotle’s account of virtue into dialogue with contemporary research in psychology. I am also working on papers on Kierkegaard and Plato (the latter with Anne-Marie Schultz). My wife Jennifer—who has spent her career in Admissions—finished her first year overseeing Financial Aid in addition to Admissions. It was a busy and stressful year, but our undergraduate class continues to improve in academic achievement and diversity. My children continue to keep me young at heart (and old in body!). Ellie just started the fourth grade at a new school, and is very excited to be in class with her best friend Maia (Dr. Cann’s daughter)! The twins—Bennett and Mikaela—joined Ellie at school this year as they began kindergarten (where did the time go?). They are also joining her at piano lessons and gymnastics. And Nora—almost 3—is affectionate, gregarious, and obstinate as ever!
Sharon Conry: Professor Conry continues to teach in both Natural World I and II.
Stacey Hibbs: Dr. Hibbs continues to teach in both BIC and Great Texts. This semester she is teaching World Cultures I and Social World I, and in the spring she taught a BIC Capstone, “Friendship: Happiness, Virtue, and Love,” with her husband, Dean Thomas Hibbs.
Mark Long: Dr. Sam Perry and I completed an article titled “Depictive and Archetypal Metaphors in the Rhetoric of Daesh,” and I am finishing an article on the collapse of the caliphate. Our big family news is the birth of our third grandchild this summer. Her parents named her “Penelope,” a name which has morphed into “Pippa” at the last homely house.
Charles McDaniel: I am serving as director for the Baylor in St. Andrews study abroad program this semester. Eleven Baylor students are participating and taking BIC 4389 “The Moral Ecology of Capitalism” in addition to courses offered through various departments at the University of St. Andrews. Everyone is now settled in and becoming acclimated to life at this venerable institution in a land where one commonly experiences all four seasons on the same day. Our first group hike in and around Stirling, a location rich in Scottish history, will take place Thursday. This is the first of many updates to come.
Ivo Novakovic: Dr. Novakovic continues to teach across multiple BIC courses throughout the year. He is currently teaching World Cultures I, World Cultures III, World Cultures V, and Biblical Heritage. In the spring he also taught Social World II and World Cultures II.
Sam Perry: This year I am teaching World of Rhetoric I and the capstone course: The Allegory of the Cave and Contemporary Film. I am continuing to work on research that pertains to race, racism, and violence. I am in the revision phases of multiple projects that I hope will come out later in the Fall or early Spring, and there is a piece already in press that should come out soon looking at the political responses to the Charleston Church Shooting. Dr. Long and I continue our work looking at Daesh recruitment materials. Our Graduate Fellows program is continuing to thrive, and this year two fellows have gone on to top tier PhD programs in Communication. Also, and most exciting, Mary and I are expecting a little girl this Fall!
Anne-Marie Schultz: Hello BIC Alumni, I’ve had an eventful year. Highlights include hosting the Ancient Philosophy Society here in Waco in April and a trip to Pune India for a month of study at the Iyengar Institute. I’ve been busy writing various articles on Plato and am getting ready to turn more full attention to getting my second Plato book 
done. Hopefully, I’ll be able to report on that success this time next year. On the personal front, Jeff and I are celebrating our seventh anniversary this Labor Day weekend. Last November, we moved my parents from an assisted living place here in Austin up to Buena Vista, Colorado. They now live with my sister and brother in law. They are both flourishing in their new environment. Jeff, Milo, and I have made several trips up to Colorado to provide some back up respite care. Most recently, we spent the last two weeks of summer vacation up there avoiding Texas heat. The temperatures were pretty regularly 30 degrees cooler. We did some hiking and biking and fishing. (The picture is of me and Milo resting at the top of Continental Divide trail on Cottonwood Pass.) Another highlight, the total eclipse! At some point prior to our Colorado trip, we realized we would be only five or so hours from the path of totality. Jeff, Milo, and I drove to Wheatland, Wyoming and camped out in a tent in the back of our Honda Ridgeline. It was an awesome experience filled with the beauty of nature and human community of strangers coming together for a shared experience. It was well worth the all night drive to make it back for the first day of Examined Life I, which I’m teaching for the first time. I’m really enjoying connecting with the first year BIC students. Have a great year!
Lynn Tatum: Dr. Tatum is continuing his work on academic freedom and keeping up with developments in the Middle East. As for BIC related activities, Dr. Tatum is the father of two recent BIC alumni. His daughter, Talj, got married this summer and moved 
down to Austin where she is a graduate student in archiving at a large state university in Austin that shall go unnamed. His son, Tane, (BIC 2016), just headed out for graduate school at Stanford in astro-nautical engineering (i.e. yes, it’s “Rocket Science”). This past summer, Dr. Tatum, along with his son, has been working on his pilot’s license. Dr. Tatum calls this a “mid-life crisis”; his wife refers to pilot lessons as an “end-of-life crisis”.
Sarah Walden: Dr. Sarah Walden is in her fifth year as a professor of Rhetoric in the BIC. She is currently teaching Rhetoric I and Examined Life I, and is excited to teach her first capstone in the spring. Her first book, Tasteful Domesticity: Women’s Rhetoric and the American Cookbook, 1790-1940, will be published in January by the University of Pittsburgh Press. She is currently researching maternal rhetoric on social media, in particular rhetorics of failure, self-care, and professionalism. She also enjoys her time with her husband, Dan, her son, Liam, and she continues to pursue her passion for cooking and yoga.
Xin Wang: Dr. Wang is teaching World Cultures V and Elementary Chinese this fall and continues to teach World Cultures II in the spring.
Jason Whitlark: This year I traveled to Italy to participate in Baylor in Italy Summer 2 session with some excellent BIC students. It was a remarkable time for me, Jennifer, and Hannah to spend time with all the students learning about Roman and Christian history in Italy, hiking the Via Francigena, and experiencing both socialized and privatized medicine in Italy. Regarding publications, my book on the rhetorical structure and purpose of Hebrews was accepted for publication and an essay on Jesus as the ideal king in Hebrews was completed and will appear in an edited volume. The picture is taken at Villa Jovis on the beautiful island of Capri.
Lenore Wright: Lenore Wright, Ph.D., is the Director of the Academy for Teaching and Learning (ATL) and Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies & Philosophy at Baylor University. As director of the ATL, she facilitates faculty development programs and acts as a liaison with Deans and Departmental Chairs. Wright’s scholarly interests include theories and representations of the self and feminist philosophy. In 2006, she 
published The Philosopher’s ‘I’: Autobiography and the Search for the Self. Other select publications include “Becoming a (Wonder) Woman: Feminism, Nationalism, and the Ambiguity of Female Identity” in Wonder Woman and Philosophy (2017), “Sameness and Difference: Simone de Beauvoir and the Question of Female Identity” in Identity, Freedom, and Responsibility, ed. Fernando di Mieri, Edizioni Ripostes (2017), “From ‘I’ to ‘We’: Acts of Agency in Simone de Beauvoir’s Philosophical Autobiography” in Philosophy of Autobiography (2015), and “Who’s Afraid of Naomi Wolf: Feminism in Post-feminist Culture” in Feminism and Popular Culture (2013). Wright is also engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning and teaching-related initiatives. She has published in Teaching Philosophy and the Journal of Interactive Instruction Development. She is an academic consultant for the International Organization for Student Success, publisher of the College Portfolio for Success. She received Baylor’s Outstanding Professor Award at Baylor in 2008-09 for distinctive teaching.
Davide Zori: Looking back on my third year at Baylor I am so thankful for my experiences with the BIC students and my colleagues. This has become a true home to me and my family. In research, I have continued work on the Vikings and have an article forthcoming on our discovery of an Icelandic Viking Age harbor. At the moment, I’m spending most of my time writing about Viking conceptions of death as depicted in their burial rituals. But I’ve been branching out too. I used my previous research on iron hardware from Viking-style boats to make an argument for the discovery of the first 
archaeological evidence of northern European ships entering the Mediterranean during the Crusades. The evidence seems small—a hoard of five distinct iron nails found in a reused Roman tomb in Jaffa, Israel—but the relevance is much broader. And that is the beauty of archaeology! My wife, Colleen, and I ran an archaeological research project and field school in Italy for the second year. This past summer, twenty-one Baylor students joined us in the search for an Etruscan city and the excavation of a medieval castle. We have put together a team of faculty from across the Baylor campus that work closely with students in original research. I am enjoying this project immensely and look forward to a third season in the summer of 2018. For those interested in joining us, please contact me… it’s work, and discovery, but we also have time for seeing the sites of Italy— as evidenced by this picture of Colleen and I in Florence.
