“Trip across the South opens UR students’ eyes”
By Karin Kapsidelis
Richmond Times-Dispatch
June 17, 2008
Nine Richmond students and two faculty members spent three weeks on a 4,000-mile road trip to study the civil rights movement and its ongoing influence over the last half century. The passenger van made stops at some of the South’s most significant civil rights memorials and monuments and introduced students to some of the movements’ most influential leaders.
Op/Ed: “Will McCain’s Letter Spark Spirit of 1963?”
By Kelly Congdon and Gordon R. Mitchell
Richmond Times-Dispatch
June 8, 2008
Assistant director of debate Kelly Congdon joins University of Pittsburgh associate professor of communication Gordon R. Mitchell in applauding John McCain’s June 4 letter to Barack Obama, which proposed a series of town hall debates reminiscent of those Sen. Barry Goldwater and President John F. Kennedy had planned before Kennedy’s assassination.
“Why we ‘R’ the way we ‘R’: How one little sound came to be the hallmark of ‘Standard American’ speech”
By Ruth Walker
Christian Science Monitor
June 6, 2008
Ruth Walker writes about modern literatures and cultures professor Tom Bonfiglio’s book “Race and the Rise of Standard American” and his theory on the conscious adaptation of “Midwestern” as the standard pronunciation for announcers in the early years of radio. A century later, Americans are still pronouncing the “r” despite the fact that the country’s power center has long preferred to “pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd.”
