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Stephen F. Austin State University psychology graduate student Neusha Khaleghi received a $1,500 grant from Psi Chi, the international honors society in psychology, to help fund her graduate research project, “Weight-based Stigma, Self-efficacy of Dietary Control and Cortisol Levels in College Women.”

Khaleghi is studying whether or not there is a correlation between levels of cortisol, which is a steroid hormone that regulates processes throughout the body such as metabolism, and self-efficacy of dietary control in college women who are judged for their weight.

“Basically, we want to see if women who perceive themselves as overweight have higher levels of cortisol when they are stigmatized due to their weight.”

The Psi Chi grant will allow Khaleghi to purchase equipment that will help collect and analyze saliva samples in order to measure cortisol levels in participants.

In addition to her primary research, Khaleghi also is interested in determining whether stigmatized women will consume more high-calorie foods than participants who are not stigmatized.

For more information on SFA graduate research, visit http://www2.sfasu.edu/orsp/index.html.

By Emily Brown, marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Stephen F. Austin State University’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture and the SFA Division of Environmental Science will host a public lecture beginning at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 5, in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, 2900 Raguet St., in Nacogdoches.

Heidi Grether, director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, will present “Perspectives on Environmental Protection and Regulation, Day-to-Day and in Crisis.”

Grether brings a wealth of experience and knowledge from her time dealing with environmental disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. During this time she served as the general manager for external affairs for BP’s Gulf Coast Restoration Organization, which was responsible for managing all aspects of external affairs post-spill across states located along the Gulf Coast.

Prior to leading Michigan’s environmental regulatory agency, which has federal delegated authority for a broad array of environmental programs, as well as state-specific authorities, Grether served as the deputy director of the Michigan Agency for Energy.

Grether also served as legislative director for the Michigan speaker of the house, as well as policy advisor to the Michigan Senate and vice president of environmental affairs for the Michigan Manufacturers Association.

She has received recognition awards for strategic communications and outreach, issues advocacy and crisis communications.

This lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center and nearby Raguet Elementary School, located at 2428 Raguet St.

For more information, call (936) 468-1185 or email fullersa@sfasu.edu.

Stephen F. Austin State University’s dance program will showcase the SFA Repertory Dance Company in Concert, which premieres at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 25, in Turner Auditorium on the university’s campus.

An additional showing is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26. Tickets cost $8 for students, $12 for faculty and staff members and senior citizens, and $15 for general admission and can be purchased at the door. All proceeds benefit the SFA dance program.

The SFA Repertory Dance Company is a select group of 20 dancers that performs and represents SFA locally, regionally and nationally at conferences, recruitment events and a variety of other venues. Dancers are selected through an audition process and have the opportunity to work with guest artists and other professionals in the field of dance.

The production will feature nine choreographic works created by SFA dance faculty members and guest artists, including Jennifer Salter, an artist from Houston who choreographed an intense, athletic modern dance, and Brixey Blankenship-Cozad, an artist from Beaumont who created a high energy, acrobatic hip-hop dance.

The Dimensions Contemporary Ballet Company, which comprises SFA students, alumni, faculty members and non-SFA dancers, also will perform under the direction of Heather Samuelson, co-coordinator of SFA’s dance program and assistant professor.

Samuelson worked on two pieces in the production — one with a trio of dancers performing a contemporary ballet dance to Vivaldi and the second an intense modern dance based on dementia research.

Haley Hoss Jameson, co-coordinator of SFA’s dance program and associate professor, also is presenting two works in the concert. One dance is a quirky modern piece that utilizes the strength of dancers and spoken text. Her second piece is a fun, energetic jazz dance performed in the classic 1980s style with the whole company.

“This dance will definitely amuse the audience and take them back to a time of high-cut leotards, sweatbands and big hair,” Samuelson said.

Adjunct faculty member Sarah Sanchez choreographed an athletic piece for the company.

“Her piece is a structured, contact improvisational dance that displays the dancers’ strength, control, connection to each other, and how movement can evolve organically through touch and manipulation,” Samuelson said. “There are moments of stillness that will draw the audience in deeper to the evolution of the dancers’ movement.”

Sanchez’s piece and Samuelson’s piece on dementia will both be presented at the South Central American College Dance Association Conference in March.

By Kasi Dickerson, senior marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.

In 2018, America and the world will mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The College of Fine Arts and the Office of Multicultural Affairs at Stephen F. Austin State University, along with L.A. Theatre Works, will anticipate the anniversary with a touring presentation of the internationally acclaimed play “The Mountaintop,” written by Katori Hall and directed by multiple award-winner Shirley Jo Finney.

The performance is part of the College of Fine Arts’ University Series and will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

“This play takes us back, not to the idealism of ‘I have a dream,’ but to the contentious racial and class issues, the questions of conflict and social justice that led to Dr. King’s murder, and that still haunt America,” said Scott Shattuck, associate dean of the College of Fine Arts and director of the University Series. “It does so in fanciful and even shocking ways that no audience member would anticipate.

“We are grateful to present this controversial play in association with SFA’s Office of Multicultural Affairs under the leadership of Veronica Beavers,” Shattuck continued. “As Black History Month begins, we hope that this performance will stimulate important dialogue among students and other audience members that may not have attended University Series events in the past.”

On the evening of April 4, 1968, less than 24 hours after his famed “I’ve been to the mountaintop” speech, Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered outside Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. In “The Mountaintop,” Hall fantasizes an unexpected conversation inside that room on the night before the assassination.

Recipient of London’s 2010 Olivier Award for Best New Play, Hall’s gripping re-imagining of events is “rife with humanity and humor as the great civil rights leader reveals his hopes, regrets and fears to a motel housekeeper that seems inconsequential, at first, to his destiny,” according to Shattuck.

“It was really important for me to show the human side of King,” playwright Hall said. “During this time, he was dealing with the heightened threat of violence, he was tackling issues beyond civil rights – economic issues – and was denouncing the Vietnam War. So I wanted to explore the emotional toll and the stress of that. King changed the world, but he was not a deity. He was a man, a human being, like me and you. So it was important to show him as such: vulnerable.”

“The Mountaintop” stars Gilbert Glenn Brown (CBS TV’s “The Inspectors,” upcoming feature film “The Best of Enemies”) and Karen Malina White (“The Cosby Show,” “A Different World,” “Malcolm and Eddie”). The production will travel to 38 cities across the United States. “The Mountaintop” contains mature language and controversial themes.

For three decades, L.A. Theatre Works has been the leading radio theater company in the United States, committed to using innovative technologies to preserve and promote significant works of dramatic literature and bringing live theater into the homes of millions. The company’s public radio series, featuring stage plays performed by America’s top actors augmented by interviews with the artists and others, can be heard on public radio stations across the U.S. The producing director is Susan Albert Loewenberg.

L.A. Theatre Works’ national touring program brings audiences at venues across the country the experience of a “live-in-performance” radio drama. Since 2005, L.A. Theatre Works has visited over 300 civic, performing arts and university venues. They last visited the SFA campus with “Dracula” in 2016.

Prior to the performance, Cleo House, director of the SFA School of Theatre, will present an informative talk at 7 p.m. in Griffith Gallery. The gallery is located across the hall from Turner Auditorium, which is inside the Griffith Fine Arts Building, 2222 Alumni Drive.

Single event ticket prices for the University Series are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and $10 for non-SFA students/youth. Tickets for SFA students are $3.

For more information, visit finearts.sfasu.edu, stop by the Fine Arts Box Office in Room 211 of the Griffith Fine Arts Building, or call (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS.

A faculty recital by Dr. Brad Meyer, director of percussion studies at Stephen F. Austin State University, has been rescheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.

Originally scheduled for Tuesday night, Jan. 16, Meyer’s recital was canceled because of the university’s closure due to inclement weather.

Meyer will perform “Mourning Dove Sonnet” by Christopher Deane, “Stop Speaking” by Andy Akiho and “Intersection Lines” from Meyer’s own composition, “Seven Images for Solo Concert Snare Drum.” Other selections to be performed include “Roar” from John Luther Adams’ “Mathematics of Resonant Bodies” and “Madera Viento y Metal” by Alejandro Viñao.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

Music the Stephen F. Austin State University Wind Ensemble will perform at this year’s Texas Music Educators Association convention will be presented in a concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

“This concert is a preview of pieces we will perform at the TMEA convention in San Antonio in February,” said Fred J. Allen, director of bands.

“The SFA Wind Ensemble was selected to perform at the convention following a competitive round of adjudicated recordings last April,” Allen said. “We are proud to represent SFA before this large gathering of music educators.”

There are two main works in the program, according to Allen. “Angel of Mercy” by David Maslanka fuses three chorales harmonized by Johann Sebastian Bach 400 years ago.

“The performance will also be a tribute to Maslanka, who died in August 2017,” Allen said.

Another large-scale work is the first movement of the “Symphony No. 2” by the American composer Howard Hanson.

“I received permission from the Eastman School of Music to transcribe this movement for concert band,” Allen said. “It is a beautiful work from 1930 by one of this country’s most romantic composers.”

David Campo, associate director of bands, will conduct “American Salute” by Morton Gould, and Tamey Anglley, assistant director of bands, will conduct “Saisei Fanfare” by Brett William Dietz. The band will also play a march by Franz von Blon.

Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.