Letter from the Dean
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the 2018 issue of Tapestry, the magazine of the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts at Coastal Carolina University. As I read this issue, I was struck with how wide the Edwards College world has become. We are still based here on the main CCU campus and Conway, S.C., but more and more our academic lives are characterized by comings and goings, by delightful visitors and fulfilling visits. The Edwards College, as the following pages reveal, is a global college, and Coastal Carolina University has become an international institution.
The most literal manifestation of our globalization has been the rapid expansion of our international travel. From Belgium to Ghana, Germany to Costa Rica, almost 200 Edwards College students and faculty crossed borders and visited other countries. Whether it was performing steel pan music in Trinidad or learning about international communication in Italy, we made the world our classroom.
But not all students can travel, and our faculty and staff made special efforts to bring the world to campus. We hosted our first Fulbright scholar for a yearlong residency, learned firsthand from a Holocaust survivor and chatted in real time with Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. In true Edwards fashion, our faculty employed innovative methods for maximizing students’ direct contact with people and ideas, and thus, the Edwards College became a crossroads for international scholars, artists and teachers.
Lastly, we did not forget the journeys one can take in the mind. From history simulations to philosophical debates, some the most transformative passages our student experienced this year consisted of intellectual and artistic expeditions. Our students created worlds on the stage and on the page, and they crossed metaphorical borders that had very real consequences.
I hope you enjoy learning about our wanderings in the pages that follow.
Sincerly,
Dan Ennis, Dean Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts