TROY News Center

DOTHAN—Troy University will host a pair of lectures at the Dothan Campus by a history professor who will provide insight into Islamic culture through his experiences as a traveler and resident in the Muslim world.

Presented by Auburn University professor Dr. Matt Malczycki, the two-part “Muslim Journeys” series aims to explain the historical and theological outlines of the Islamic faith in an informal and non-confrontational manner.

The first lecture, “An Arkansas Traveler’s Perspective on Islam,” will be held on Sunday, March 24, at 2 p.m. inside the Harrison Room in Malone Hall. The lecture attempts to explore Islam in a way that will foster greater understanding.

The second lecture, “Of Burkas and Honey Boo-Boo,” will be held on Sunday, April 7, at 2 p.m., also in the Harrison Room. This lecture will explore which society does a better job of protecting and respecting the rights of women and children: Islamic society or American society.

Both events are free and open to the public. The lectures are supported by a grant from the Alabama Humanities Foundation.

Dr. Malczycki, who received his doctorate from the University of Utah in 2006, is an expert in Islamic history who has also lived in Egypt.

The lectures are being held in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Humanities and America Library Association’s Muslim Journey’s Bookshelf grant, part of the Bridging Cultures program. The Muslim Journeys Bookshelf is a collection of 25 books, 4 DVDs, and other programming resources selected to help public audiences in the United States become more familiar with the people, places, history, faith, and cultures of Muslims around the world and within the U.S.

For more information contact Dothan Campus Library Director Chris Shaffer at (334) 983-6556, ext. 1320, or  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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MONTGOMERY--What’s in a name? To answer that question, 16-year-old Rosa Park from South Korea travelled across the world to Troy University’s Montgomery Campus to learn more about her famous namesake.

Park, a 9^th grader in her hometown of Seoul, was named by her parents in honor of Rosa Parks, whose 1955 arrest aboard a city bus helped launch the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Park and her mother recently spent a week at TROY’s Rosa Parks Museum, volunteering, studying and becoming better acquainted with the woman with whom she shares a name.

“When I was little, I really didn’t understand the origin of my name,” Park said. “But I started to research her and learned that she was an amazing woman who changed the world.”

Junglim Lee, Park’s mother, said she and her husband were inspired to name their daughter after Rosa Parks while they were living in Tuscaloosa years earlier. Her husband, who has the surname Park, was an MBA student at the University of Alabama, and Lee said that during that time they first learned about the Civil Rights movement in Alabama.

They were particularly inspired by the courage of Rosa Parks, Lee said.

“I would like her to grow up and have the character and dignity of Rosa Parks,” Lee said of her daughter.

Although some details of the African-American Civil Rights Movement are taught in Korean schools, Park said she felt inspired to journey to the U.S to learn more about the movement, and Rosa Parks, firsthand. Her stop in Montgomery in February was part of a longer trip that went on to include stops in Atlanta and Harlem.

“It is a great honor to be named after Rosa Parks,” she said. “She is a woman who made a choice and the whole world changed.”

Georgette Norman, director of the Rosa Parks Museum, said Park and her mother first contacted the museum via email before making the trip. Norman said she was excited to meet Park in person, and said Park spent several hours each day at the museum studying Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

“I was just so impressed, not only with her, but also her mother, that they would want to come here and explore her namesake,” Norman said.

Park has become a member of the museum’s youth ambassador program, and will carry information about Rosa Parks back to Korea to share with her high school and local library.

“We definitely plan on keeping in touch with her,” Norman said.

Rosa Park, right, and her mother, Junglim Lee, pose with a bust of Civil Rights leader Rosa Parks at Troy University’s Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery. Park, a 16-year-old from Seoul, South Korea, was named by her parents in honor of Rosa Parks, and she and her mother recently spent a week at the museum to learn more about her namesake.

TROY – Troy University students who participate in the International Student Cultural Association are broadening horizons with themed meetings this semester.

Each meeting focuses on a presentation of a particular nation by student members. ISCO, the longest-standing international organization at the University, includes not only international students, but American-born students as well.

Thursday, for example, is “Russian Night” where students from Russia will present their nation and its cultural heritage, and usually, a sample food, according to Joe McCall, a history lecturer who serves as the faculty advisor to the group.

“Each presentation from week to week is different depending on who is presenting, consequently each week’s session has the unique stamp of the cultural differences represented on our campus. We follow this weekly meeting format once our ISCO Festival is completed in November,” he said. “We have a great time with it, and it really does serve to give students and non-students a glimpse of real life in other countries.”

The meetings take place in Room 119 of the Trojan Center, and are open to all students, staff, and faculty. The organization was founded in 1975 by nine students under the leadership of the late Dr. Nolan Hatcher and specifically designed to promote student awareness of the world around them. The organization’s signature event, the “ISCO Festival,” features ethnic cuisine and entertainment.

The organization also organizes other events and field trips for members that showcase Alabama, the region and the United States.

Members of Troy University's International Student Cultural Organization, or ISCO for short, participate in a traditional Pakistani circle dance at a recent meeting. Each week, ISCO highlights a particular country and hosts a cultural presentation on traditions, customs and current events. (TROY photo)

TROY – A group of Troy University students are going to the dogs this summer.

The dogs were buried during the Persian period in Ashkelon, Israel several thousand years ago, and unearthed by TROY anthropology professor Dr. Bill Grantham nearly a quarter century ago. This summer five of his students are returning to the Leon Levi Expedition to Ashkelon to study the skeletal remains for the first time since they were encapsulated in plaster and removed from their burial places.

“It’s a real mystery as to why the dogs were buried,” Grantham said. “There’s just not a good explanation as to why they were buried.”

Equally perplexing is the fact the burials only occurred over a relatively short time period – perhaps 50 years of the more than 200-year rule of the Persians, he said.

The students will be working with zooarchaeologist Dr. Paula Wapnish, who worked with Dr. Grantham and is the widow of his major professor at University of Alabama - Birmingham, Dr. Brian Hesse, who was also a long-time Ashkelon scholar.

The 150-acre site alongside the Mediterranean in southern Israel, the Ashkelon area is home to at least 20 ancient cities dating from at 3500 B.C. to 1500 A.D. Canaanite, Philistine, Babylonian, Persian, Phoencian and Israeli civilizations are reflected in the strata of the excavation.

“I’ll be a long way from Andalusia,” said John Barbaree, a senior social science-anthropology major. “But the people there (Israelis and Arabs) do things just like we do – they’re people just like us.”

Barbaree and fellow students Joel Jackson, a junior from Millbrook and junior Benjamin Conner from Prattville won’t be strangers in the Holy Land, either. All three worked on the “Ashkelon Dig” last summer.

“(Last year) we were introduced at the site as ‘Bill Grantham’s students.’ Everyone there knew what I was about when that happened,” Barbaree said. “That says a lot about the quality that’s expected of us all.”

Joining the three veterans are Hailey Hillsman, a senior from Sandersville, Ga., and Jared Aquayo, a senior from Stone Mountain, Ga.

“Our students are being recognized as bone specialists and they’re being singled out,” said Hillary Wikle, an anthropology graduate who now directs TROY’s Ashkelon component.

The dog burials, she said, would give a glimpse of the ritualistic life of the ancient Persian people, but more importantly the recognition TROY students are receiving in the field is giving contemporaries a unique view of the University.

“When people think ‘TROY’ they don’t think ‘archaeology,’” she said. “We want to see that change.”

Indeed, the archaeology program is growing, thanks in part to the consortium the University joined this year with Harvard University, Wheaton College and Boston College and its efforts in Israel.

“It’s hard to put a price on it,” Wikle said. “Our students are receiving Harvard training, making contacts for graduate school and Ashkelon is just an incredible draw for students.”

Grantham and Wikle last year took all students who applied for the summer excursion. This year, she said, some 45 students – many from other disciplines – applied and the field had to be narrowed to just five.

As part of the consortium agreement, the University will send five students for the next five years to Ashkelon. Since 1985, the Leon Levy Expedition has been the premier America expedition in Israel, training two generation of students to appreciate the ancient culture and uncover history, said Dr. Lawrence Stager, the Dorot Professor of the Archaeology of Israel at Harvard.

“Over the past two seasons, students from Troy University have become an integral part of this Ashkelon experience. Their excitement about the work at hand, capacity for learning new skills, and leadership among their peers have made them true assets to our team and example to our other participants,” he said. “We are excited to see what new abilities TROY students will bring over the coming seasons and we are happy to know that the excavation will continue to benefit from their integrity and ingenuity.”

For Grantham’s part, he’s enjoying seeing both his students find meaningful study while laying the groundwork for future academic study. He’s also proud of his institution.

“For TROY to part of the formal agreement is very satisfying,” he said. “It brings so many opportunities for our students.”

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