Marianne Dougherty

Marianne Dougherty

Hidden Gems

A walk across Baylor’s 1,000-acre campus surely illuminates the care and artistic details put in at every step. It’s easy to notice the striking red brick and white cornices that make up the buildings’ Georgian-style architecture, Pat Neff Hall’s gleaming 23.5-karat gold cupola, and the many eye-catching statues and monuments that serve as iconic waypoints […]

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The Voice

The landmark 1927 musical Show Boat, which was based on the novel by Edna Ferber, was groundbreaking for its time, tackling controversial social issues like racial prejudice, miscegenation (interracial marriage), the struggles of marginalized workers, and the societal limitations experienced by women. For nearly a century, large flat-bottomed showboats traveled the inland waterways of the

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The Call of Duty

Nick Bradford, who will graduate from Baylor with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2027, was on active duty with the Army before enrolling at Baylor. Initially he didn’t plan to self-identify as a veteran, preferring instead to “keep my cards close to my chest,” but he’s grateful Veterans of Baylor (VoB) encouraged him

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God of the Whirlwind

In the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 32:35), God tells the people of Israel, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” For members of Waco’s Black community steeped in faith, God seemed to be exacting his revenge, albeit 37 years later. Tyler B. Davis’ book God of the Whirlwind revisits the 1916 lynching of Jesse Washington, which W.E.B.

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Hart and Soul

Hall of Fame coach Clyde Hart’s accomplishments are well-documented.  Coach to Olympic 400-meter champions Michael Johnson, Jeremy Wariner, and Sanya Richards-Ross, he also produced 34 NCAA champions and 566 NCAA All-Americans over the course of his 56-year career. A career highlight was being selected as men’s assistant coach for the 2000 Olympic Track & Field

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An Illuminated Bible for a New Millennium

In 1998 Saint John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota, commissioned renowned calligrapher Donald Jackson (he was senior scribe to Queen Elizabeth II) to create a handwritten and illuminated Bible similar to the richly embellished manuscript Bibles that monks produced in workshops during the Middle Ages. The first Benedictine illuminated Bible to be completed since

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The Music Man

Senior lecturer of piano Dr. Bradley Bolen admits he was hesitant when Dr. John Ferguson, founder and executive director of American Voices, called him in 2009 to do some teaching in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. “I didn’t think anyone in Iraq would care about the arts because they’d been through so much tragedy,” he said,

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A Marriage of True Minds

Theirs was a love story for the ages with all the passion and intrigue of a Victorian-era romance — a courtship that included 573 love letters and a secret marriage at St. Marylebone Church in London on September 12, 1846, over her tyrannical father’s objections. He later disinherited her, and she never saw him again after she and her husband started a new life in Italy, where their son was born three years later. His given name was Robert Wiedeman Barrett Browning, but they called him Pen. Though inseparable during their lifetimes, the lovers are buried nearly a thousand miles apart: Elizabeth in the Protestant Cemetery in Florence and Robert in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, London. Six years his senior, Elizabeth was just 55 when she died in her husband’s arms at their home in Florence of chronic lung disease. Father and son moved back to London where Browning established himself as a leading literary figure. He never married again, nor did he visit Florence after his wife’s death. Then in 1889 while visiting Pen at his home in Venice, Browning died of natural causes. He was 77 years old.

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The Purpose Driven Life

Why am I here? What was I made to do? Existential questions to be sure and ones that many students grapple with during their college years. In his experience as Assistant Director for Pastoral Care, Tyler Conway has found that students at Baylor have “a desire to connect with God or a community of people to find a sense of meaning and belonging,” and as an unapologetically Christian university, Baylor strives to help them make those connections. “There is a beautiful tapestry of ministers, staff and students whose dedication enhances the spiritual environment at Baylor and that ultimately has resulted in increasing numbers of church attendance,” said Charles Ramsey, Ph.D., Associate Chaplain, Director of Campus Ministries & Church Connections. “Can we track the numbers of students in church? Not yet. But from what we see and hear, there is a vibrancy of faith in our Baylor community, and this is translating into increased Christian commitment and church participation.”

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On Death and Dying

Candi K. Cann calls herself a death scholar. Technically, the associate professor in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core of the Honors College is a thanatologist, though she allows that most people don’t know what that is. For the record, a thanatologist is a specialist who studies death, dying, grief, and loss. It’s no secret that Americans have been remarkably averse to talking about death, but a 2018 survey released by The Conversation Project suggests that a huge cultural shift may be under way. “We have begun to break the taboo around talking about death,” Ellen Goodman, founder of The Conversation Project, reported at the time.

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Is Comfort the New Couture? Current Baylor Campus Fashion Trends

From miniskirts to platform shoes, leg warmers to parachute pants, ripped jeans to cargo pants, fashion trends come and go. Classic looks like a plain white tee seem never to go out of style, but even some fads, like athleisure, that seem like passing trends end up having real staying power. Others — acid-wash denim, stirrup pants, and jelly shoes — have become downright cringe-worthy in retrospect. So, what influences our fashion choices in the first place?

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