MTSU Mondays: Shroud of Turin event, TBI grant garnered, free concert
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Middle Tennessee State University this week will offer several free public events.
'Shroud Encounter'
Experience an in-depth visual exploration through "Shroud Encounter," presented by international expert Russ Breault at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 22, in Tucker Theatre, 615 Champion Way.
The Shroud of Turin, an artifact that has been debated for centuries, will be explored using a CSI approach through early church history, ancient art, modern science and medical forensics.
Named for its discovery in Turin, Italy, the shroud is a 14-foot-long linen cloth bearing bloodstains some say match the biblical account of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.
This cloth has been subjected to chemical, mechanical and carbon dating analyses of varying credibility. In 1981, a group of scientists found no trace of artistic substances on the cloth. They found that the shroud contained human DNA and that the blood was type AB positive. However, the shroud shows no body decomposition stains.
Breault, president of the Shroud of Turin Education Project Inc., will present more than 200 big-screen images pertaining to numerous aspects of shroud research.
RELATED: Pigeon Forge museum dedicated to Shroud of Turin includes cloth's replica
Free concert
Two MTSU groups will celebrate women composers in a free concert as part of National Women’s History Month.
The MTSU Symphonic Band and the MTSU Wind Ensemble will perform works by three women composers at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 24, in the T. Earl Hinton Hall of the Wright Music Building, 1439 Faulkinberry Drive.
The wind ensemble will open with “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, No. 5” by Grammy Award-winning Joan Tower, who is the Edelman Professor of Music at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
“To date, Tower has composed six works in the ‘Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman’ series, some of which are written for full orchestra,” said Dennis Hawkins, a lecturer in the MTSU School of Music and assistant director of athletic bands.
MTSU alumna Stacy Jernigan, band director at Wilson Central High School in Lebanon and president-elect of the Middle Tennessee School Band and Orchestra Association, will be the guest conductor.
“Ceremonies” by Grammy-nominated Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, the 1983 Pulitzer Prize in Music, will also be performed.
The symphonic band will perform “Italian Rhapsody” by Julie Giroux, who won the 1992 Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Direction. Her television and film credits include “North and South” and “The Karate Kid Part II."
Jo Ann Hood, winner of the 2020 True Blue Citation Alumni Award for Achievement in Education (not from MTSU), will be recognized at the concert for her achievements.
TBI research grant
Former police officer and MTSU associate criminal justice administration professor Ben Stickle used his past law enforcement experience to garner a federal grants for the TBI.
His research and evaluation efforts netted a combined $950,000 in funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Two of these grants fund studies on the impact of coronavirus on crime and criminal justice at the state and local level, the first at $79,000 evaluating data from 2020 and the second at $80,000 evaluating data from 2021.
Adam Rennhoff, MTSU economics professor and economics graduate director, assisted Stickle with research on the 2020 project.
The third grant awarded Stickle $800,000 as part of the state’s Enhanced Collaborative Model Task Force to Combat Human Trafficking program, which brings together stakeholders from multiple disciplines — from law enforcement to academia — to combat all forms of human trafficking across the state.
MTSU criminal justice master instructor Carter Smith works as senior personnel on the project and provides research assistance.
This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: MTSU Mondays: Shroud of Turin event, TBI grant garnered, free concert
