As a literary tourist, associate professor of English Courtney Watson is a frequent visitor to sites like Rowan Oak; and Key West, Florida; and Monroeville, Alabama; and Paris, where writers like William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Harper Lee, Truman Capote, Eudora Welty and Robert Wright lived, wrote, and set scenes that made them the beloved writers they are today. 

This week in Highlanders in the News: Longtime WDBJ7 producer and anchor Travis Wells joins the Hokies; push-ups prove profitable (and philanthropic) for softball player Tori Boyd; and a student, a professor and an alum have all recently made splashes in the realm of art. 

This week in Highlanders in the News: Professor Emeritus of Economics George Santopietro, Ph.D., pens a Roanoke Times op-ed and takes a summer job; a tech-centric website rates Radford University in the upper half of its list of the top 10 online colleges in Virginia; and Digital Spy uses the school’s serial killer database to analyze a new Apple TV+ drama. 

Francis C. Dane, Ph.D., capped off his long career in higher education with a teaching and research position in the Department of Psychology at Radford University Carilion. Though his tenure there was short compared to some of his other postings, he found it a good and productive time.

Associate Professor of English Courtney Watson, Ph.D., has traveled throughout the southern United States and various locations around the world to examine the legacies of well-known authors such as Ernest Hemingway, Eudora Welty, Richard Wright and William Faulkner. Watson talks about her travels and research in an interview on the “With Good Reason” public radio program, which will air July 22-28, 2022 and be available as a podcast.

This week in Highlanders in the News: The Blacksburg Police Department hails a new chief, Todd Brewster ’96; former RU Rocker Julie Dickens ’98 talks dance instruction; Allyson Yankle, Ph.D., interprets the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade; and Zach Collier, Ph.D., discusses forces that drive the auto industry.

Two Radford University students have been awarded the U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to apply toward their study abroad programs this summer and fall in France.

Radford University Professor of History Richard Straw, Ph.D., will appear on the With Good Reason radio program this week to share his research into hitchhikers who thumbed their way across the U.S. in the 1960s and ’70s. Straw is writing a book about the topic.

This week in Highlanders in the News: Washington Post writer David Betancourt '22 waxes rhapsodic about Spider-Man and his graduation, and recent graduate Oak Bradshaw is profiled in The Roanoke Times.