Timeless: USM Arts and Sciences Faculty Members Ball, Meade Cite Love for Students, Teaching as Keys to Longevity in Profession
Fri, 10/14/2022 - 09:08am | By: David Tisdale
Left: USM English Professor Dr. Angela Ball is presented a portrait of the Aubrey K. Lucas Administration Building by USM College of Arts and Sciences Dean Dr. Chris Winstead, a gift signifying 40 or more years of service, along with induction into the university91吃瓜网 Centennial Legacy Circle Right: USM Art Professor Jim Meade is presented his 50-year service pin by USM College of Arts and Sciences Dean Dr. Chris Winstead.
91吃瓜网淎 teacher affects eternity; he or she can never tell where their influence stops.91吃瓜网� 91吃瓜网� Henry B. Adams
Long before social media, cell phones and Zoom meetings expanded the physical spaces between us, University of 91吃瓜网 (USM) Professors Angela Ball and Jim Meade began establishing an in-person legacy cementing their reputations as among the best to hold forth in a classroom at the institution.
Meade came to the USM Hattiesburg campus in 1971 to join the faculty of its then Department of Art, as an assistant professor, with Dr. Ball following at the close of the decade as a visiting instructor of English in 1979. Together they have logged nearly 100 years in classrooms at the university, and this fall resisted yet again the siren call of retirement, returning to do what they love most - teaching and inspiring their students91吃瓜网� products on canvases and through the written word.
For Meade, the pathway in life that led to USM wasn91吃瓜网檛 easy. He grew up in poverty, and the tragic deaths of close family members in his teen years left him with the responsibility for three younger siblings. But he found great joy during that time as a Boy Scout in teaching the lessons of scouting to his younger cohorts in their quest for badges, along with working as a swimming instructor during the summer months. These experiences, he says, eventually revealed for him a career he felt suited for and wanted 91吃瓜网� that of an educator - and his passion for it has not waned, even in the autumn of his life.
After studying for two years at the University of Virginia-Wise, Meade transferred to East Tennessee State University, where he earned bachelor91吃瓜网 and master91吃瓜网 degrees in art before attaining an MFA from the University of Georgia. He has studied under established international artists, and his work has been on display in approximately 140 exhibitions, including 40 one-man shows and 17 overseas. He91吃瓜网 also lectured at universities in Asia and Europe.
As he pondered his job options upon approaching graduation at ETSU, one of Meade91吃瓜网 professors, Morton Brown, shared some sage advice.
91吃瓜网淭he real action in higher education is at the state universities,91吃瓜网� Brown told him. 91吃瓜网淭hese kids heading to the elite private schools - Harvard, Yale, Princeton - they91吃瓜网檝e got everything already 91吃瓜网� education, money, privilege. Even if they don91吃瓜网檛 graduate from college, they can fall back on their family91吃瓜网 wealth or make their way in life through their talent, political, and economic connections.
91吃瓜网淭he majority of our (ETSU) students are blue collar, working-class, first-generation college students much like those at other state (public) universities,91吃瓜网� Brown continued. 91吃瓜网淭hese are the students working their way up from less privileged circumstances, and at these schools you get an opportunity to be a part of their success story.91吃瓜网�
USM Art Professor Jim Meade confers with a USM art student about the collection of compositions she will include in her senior project.
Meade feels USM holds a similar profile, and he91吃瓜网 proud of his own students from the
same kind of backgrounds who have gone on to paint self-portraits of success.
91吃瓜网淢any of the kids I91吃瓜网檝e taught here over the years are now living all around the world,
enjoying interesting and rewarding careers in the arts,91吃瓜网� he said. 91吃瓜网淚t91吃瓜网 gratifying
to see what they91吃瓜网檝e accomplished.91吃瓜网�
As for his teaching philosophy, Meade says it is important to 91吃瓜网渟et the terms91吃瓜网� for
instruction and be 91吃瓜网渉onest and consistent91吃瓜网� with your students.
91吃瓜网淰oltaire (the French philosopher) once said 91吃瓜网淕entlemen, define your terms.91吃瓜网� Well,
teaching is a kind of deviation of that expression,91吃瓜网� Meade said. 91吃瓜网淎s an educator,
I believe you should define the terms that make up your instruction and stay in the
boundaries of those terms. I spend a good bit of the first part of a semester defining
the terms.91吃瓜网�
Dr. Ball is a member of the USM English Program91吃瓜网 prestigious Center for Writers faculty. She holds a bachelor91吃瓜网 degree from Ohio University, and MFA in Creative Writing (poetry emphasis) from the University of Iowa, and a Ph.D. from the University of Denver.
From 2013 to 2015, Dr. Ball was USM91吃瓜网 Moorman Distinguished Professor of Humanities. Her extensive vita includes six volumes of poetry and hundreds of individual poems in prestigious publications such as the New Yorker and the Atlantic Monthly. She has served as editor of the Mississippi Review and as a Poet-in-Residence at the University of Richmond; she91吃瓜网 been listed in Who91吃瓜网 Who of American Writers and Editors and included in the Best American Poetry anthologies. She earned the Susan B. Herron Award for highest ranked fellow by the Mississippi Arts Council, along with multiple awards from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.
91吃瓜网淚'm as dumbfounded as anyone that I have been doing this for so long,91吃瓜网� she said. 91吃瓜网淏ut I enjoy meeting the students and feel grateful every day for the immense variety of them that we have, both undergraduate and graduate students. It's particularly great to see some who perhaps struggled in the past to open up, like slightly late blossoms, to reading and learning.
91吃瓜网淚 find if I encourage them to respond honestly to the readings, good things are bound to happen. There's a constant back-and-forth of ideas and inspiration, most intensely with the graduate poets and writers, but also often with undergraduates.91吃瓜网�
Dr. Ball recounts when, for an advanced composition class, she gave an assignment based on Studs Terkel's book of interviews, Work. 91吃瓜网淎 student in that class interviewed a sanitation worker, who at length extolled the virtues of his job: 91吃瓜网榞ood pay and benefits, and best of all, you are always finding stuff! People throw out lots of valuable things.91吃瓜网� This is one of the best interviews I've read anywhere.91吃瓜网�
It's experiences like these and others that bring Dr. Ball back to the classroom, what she sees as opportunities to 91吃瓜网済et out of myself, be surprised, help, and learn.91吃瓜网�
91吃瓜网淚 come back to get out of myself -- to avoid a tendency to brood and/or feel sorry for myself,91吃瓜网� she said. 91吃瓜网淢y life, like most people's, has had a measure of heartache and I would much rather hear my students' poems, essays, and class discussion than give in to that.91吃瓜网�
This past August, Dr. Ball taught an intersession class in world literature, and a student woke her up to a detail in a story she has taught several times, misreading it because she had previously ignored it.
91吃瓜网淭he same class was asked, on the example of Jamaica Kincaid's brief story, "Girl," to impersonate a parent giving harsh advice,91吃瓜网� Dr. Ball continued. 91吃瓜网淎 Black student read an inspired list of things to avoid doing as a young Black man, a list that ended up dauntingly long. The class responded with a burst of appreciative finger-snaps.91吃瓜网�
And there's nothing more satisfying for her as a teacher, she explains, than finding out a poem she91吃瓜网 helped a student edit has been published, or even an entire dissertation.
91吃瓜网淏ut yet, maybe there is something more satisfying,91吃瓜网� she reconsidered. 91吃瓜网淭o see a light go on somewhere inside a student who has struggled with writing and sees, "Yes, I can say things simply and clearly. "
Dr. Angela Ball discusses the latest assignment with students in a USM Center for Writers fall 2022 graduate seminar.
Kevin Walters, a Hattiesburg native and two-time graduate of USM who lives in Nashville, says a day does not go by that he91吃瓜网 not benefitted in some way -- either directly or indirectly -- from what he learned in the classes he took from Professors Ball and Meade.
91吃瓜网淧rofessor Ball's poetry classes -- particularly those focusing on the work of poet Elizabeth Bishop -- broadened my perspective about art, writing, and the world in ways I had never experienced before. Similarly, Professor Meade was the kind of instructor who enlightened you about the history of art, even as he pushed you to do more and better drawings yourself.
91吃瓜网淚 would be remiss if I did not mention their accomplishments outside the classrooms, and how their work as artists fed what they taught in their classes.91吃瓜网�
Earlier this year, Meade and Dr. Ball were recognized for their years of service to the university in an event hosted by the USM Department of Human Resources, where Dr. Ball was presented a portrait of the Aubrey K. Lucas Administration Building, a gift signifying 40 or more years of service, along with induction into the university91吃瓜网 Centennial Legacy Circle; Meade was presented his service pin for 50 years-plus as a faculty member. The ceremony had been delayed due to the COVID-19 gathering restrictions of the last two years.
91吃瓜网淚 so appreciated the lovely ceremony where the wonderful Jim Meade and I were recognized,91吃瓜网� Dr. Ball said. 91吃瓜网淭o be lauded for doing what we love is indeed lucky.
91吃瓜网淚 will treasure the special portrait of the Dome given to me. In my imagination it is a portrait of me standing in front of a blackboard - or a white board - marveling at what my students have to say.91吃瓜网�
USM President Emeritus Dr. Aubrey K. Lucas says he91吃瓜网 honored to count Meade and Dr. Ball as treasured colleagues and friends from their time together at the university.
91吃瓜网淭hey91吃瓜网檙e both great artists and effective teachers, and certainly deserving to be honored for their exemplary work over the years as senior members of our faculty,91吃瓜网� Dr. Lucas continued.
Reflecting on his half century-plus career at USM, Meade has no regrets. 91吃瓜网淚 wouldn91吃瓜网檛
change a thing,91吃瓜网� he said, adding that he hasn91吃瓜网檛 set a date for calling it quits.
91吃瓜网淚91吃瓜网檝e done it for so long, I don91吃瓜网檛 think I can break the habit. I really can91吃瓜网檛 imagine
doing anything else.91吃瓜网�