Limestone University's Ridsdale, Guffey Present Research At New Mexico Conference

Limestone University’s Dr. Noel Ridsdale and Dr. Dale Guffey recently attended the 43rd annual Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference in Albuquerque, NM where they both presented original research.

Ridsdale is an Associate Professor of Management and Guffey is an Assistant Professor of Law at Limestone.

The Southwest Popular/American Culture Association (SWPACA) is an organization devoted to promoting an innovative approach to the examination and celebration of America’s cultural heritages, as well as increasing awareness of America’s cultural traditions and diverse populations. The organization has a long-standing commitment to supporting the development of new and young academic professionals in the fields of popular and/or American cultural studies through conference travel grants, paper awards, and professional development opportunities. It also provides a professional network for scholars through the open-source, peer-reviewed academic journal, “Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy.”

Ridsdale called upon his extensive training as an executive chef by presenting a paper in the Food Studies area detailing the lengthy contributions and deep roots of African-Americans towards creating a uniquely American cuisine in a presentation titled The Assimilation of African Influences into the Cuisines of America.

Guffey, who serves as the Chair for the area of “Lawyers and the Legal Profession in Popular Culture,” presented a paper detailing the odd twists and turns of the California legal system in a presentation titled Perry Mason and Kim Kardashian Walk into a Bar (Exam).

“It was great to get back to in-person conferences,” Guffey said. “The ability to meet other academics face-to-face and learn from each other had been sorely missed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The SWPACA, with its strong pedagogy track, never fails to give me new ideas to use in the classroom.”

Guffey also served at the conference as a member of a roundtable examining Critical Race Theory in the classroom – detailing both what CRT is and, just as importantly, what it is not.

Ridsdale holds a Doctoral Degree in International Business and a Master’s degree in Hospitality and Tourism.  He is also a professionally certified executive chef, with 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry, mostly in the sports and entertainment sectors. His professional experience has included stadiums, arenas, a convention center, and a performing arts center. He has worked with the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL as well as a number of years with the PGA Tour in their club facilities.  Before coming to Limestone University, he was the Chair of Culinary Arts and Hospitality for the Art Institutes, working on three different campus locations across the United States. He has been teaching for over 15 years at all levels of secondary education. Ridsdale teaches international business, leadership, ethics, and organizational behavior to graduate and undergraduate students at Limestone.  Having been active in sports and entertainment, he finds that the use of pop culture examples from the real world resonates well with his students.

Guffey has written about lawyers and the law in popular culture, as well as the intersection of faith and popular culture, for more than fifteen years. Her books include Faith and Choice in the Works of Joss Whedon, Wanna Cook? The Complete, Unofficial Companion to Breaking Bad (which has been translated into German, Portuguese, and Turkish), and A Dream Given Form: The Unofficial Guide to the Universe of Babylon 5. Her work has appeared in a number of edited collections as well. She teaches a variety of law classes at Limestone University for both undergraduate and graduate students, where she frequently uses popular culture examples in her lectures.

ACCOMPANYING PHOTO: Dr. Dale Guffey (left) and Dr. Noel Ridsdale.