{"id":3122,"date":"2017-02-09T13:05:08","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T18:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/?p=3122"},"modified":"2017-02-09T15:36:51","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T20:36:51","slug":"gwu-professors-achieve-life-long-goal-through-honors-seminar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/?p=3122","title":{"rendered":"GWU Professors Achieve Long-Term Goal Through Honors Seminar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Story by Chelsea Sydnor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two Gardner-Webb professors are accomplishing a long-term goal this semester. Dr. Don Olive of the Department of Natural Sciences and Dr. David Parker of the English Department are co-teaching an Honors Seminar: Rock and Roll and American Culture.<\/p>\n

According to the syllabus, the course will focus on the history and evolution of rock and roll, but also its social influence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been around to see the connectivity of political and musical movements,\u201d said Olive. \u201cStudents may not feel as connected to that history, so we want to share that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Image courtesy of David Parker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, Olive and Parker are also looking forward to getting to know their students throughout the semester, and perhaps even expanding their own knowledge of new music genres.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re thankful to the Honors program and committee for allowing us to teach the course, and would love to see if it may happen again someday,\u201d said Parker.<\/p>\n

The idea for the course first came together when Olive\u2019s daughter took a similar class at another university.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I would love to take a class like that,\u201d said Olive. \u201cI figured since I couldn\u2019t take it, might as well teach it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, former Gardner-Webb English professor, Dr. Matt Theado, had a similar concept in mind. According to Parker, Theado now teaches a similar course at the Kobe City University of Foreign Studies in Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe exchanged notes with him, but we\u2019ve had it in the works for a while,\u201d said Parker.<\/p>\n

Parker and Olive share an early appreciation for music.<\/p>\n

Olive likens his love of music to the \u201celectricity\u201d described in the musical \u201cBilly Elliot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something scientific about the way the brain processes rhythmic information,\u201d said Olive. \u201cIt\u2019s a physiological response, and early on I knew it was different than anything I\u2019d ever experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re evolved to want patterns and organized rhythm,\u201d added Parker.<\/p>\n

Olive and Parker are each involved with music in the local community. Olive has been running the weekly open mic night at Broad River Coffee House for 11 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s provided a space for a musical culture of rock and roll to exist in Boiling Springs where there wasn\u2019t before,\u201d said Olive. \u201cWe have friendships that form from that, but also a continuous flux of students from year to year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on his connections from open mic night, Olive has had the opportunity to join several bands that perform in the local area.<\/p>\n

While Parker has been playing guitar since childhood, advancing technology has allowed innovation in his music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have electronic guitar pedals that will generate a bass drum based on the tune,\u201d said Parker. \u201cI end up playing a one-man band. I call it my solo-guitar trio.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information about Parker\u2019s music, visit davidparker.bandcamp.com. For more information about the Honors Student Association, contact director Dr. Tom Jones at tjones@gardner-webb.edu<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Story by Chelsea Sydnor Two Gardner-Webb professors are accomplishing a long-term goal this semester. Dr. Don Olive of the Department of Natural Sciences and Dr. David Parker of the English Department are co-teaching an Honors […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[894,3,893],"tags":[53,524,896,895,145],"class_list":["post-3122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-academics","category-feature","category-honors-student-association","tag-chelsea-sydnor","tag-david-parker","tag-don-olive","tag-honors-seminar","tag-honors-student-association"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}