Jamie Bishop
{{Short description|American academic}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2017}}
{{For|the Welsh cricket player|Jamie Bishop (cricketer)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| image = JamieBishopVT.jpg
| birth_name = Christopher James Bishop
| birth_date = {{birth date|1971|11|9}}
| birth_place = Pine Mountain, Georgia, U.S.
| death_date = {{dda|2007|4|16|1971|11|9}}
| death_place = Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.
| death_cause = Gunshot wounds
|spouse = Stephanie Hofer
| field = German language
| work_institution = University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Virginia Tech
| alma_mater = University of Georgia
Christian-Albrechts University
}}
Christopher James Bishop (November 9, 1971 – April 16, 2007), known as Jamie Bishop, was an instructor of German language at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, as well as an artist and craftsman. He was among those shot and killed in the Virginia Tech shooting.{{cite web |title=Christopher James Bishop |url=http://www.remembrance.vt.edu/biographies/bishop.html |publisher=Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University |date=April 16, 2008 |access-date=September 5, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706232405/http://www.remembrance.vt.edu/biographies/bishop.html |archive-date=July 6, 2017 |url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-apr-17-na-victim17-story.html |title=Popular teacher among the first victims |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=September 5, 2017 |first1=Greg |last1=Miller |first2=Richard |last2=Fausset |date=April 17, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161114171353/http://articles.latimes.com/2007/apr/17/nation/na-victim17 |archive-date=November 14, 2016 |url-status=live}} He was the son of Michael Bishop, an award-winning science fiction author.
Biography
{{Virginia Tech shooting}}
Bishop grew up in Pine Mountain, Georgia, and earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in German from the University of Georgia.[http://chronicle.com/article/Christopher-James-Bishop/29908/ Chronicle of Higher Education, April 17 2007] He was a Fulbright scholar at Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany. He helped run an exchange program at Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany. Bishop spent four years living in Germany, where (according to his web site) he "spent most of his time learning the language, teaching English, drinking large quantities of wheat beer and wooing a certain fraulein,"{{cite news|url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266466,00.html|title=Victims of Virginia Tech Shooting|author=Fox News | date=April 20, 2007}} Stephanie Hofer, who later became his wife. From 1995 to 1996 he taught at the Zentrales Sprachlabor of Ruprecht-Karls University[https://web.archive.org/web/20160120112207/http://seacoos.org/News/jamie-bishop/ SEACOOS website] (retrieved November 20, 2007) of Heidelberg, and collected survey data for his Master's Thesis, Jugendsprache: a critical study of German "Youth Language."Christopher James Bishop, Jugendsprache: a Critical Study of German 'youth language', University of Georgia (1998)
Before teaching at Virginia Tech, Bishop worked in the Office of Arts and Sciences Information Services (OASIS) as an academic-technology liaison at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he provided technical support for faculty and staff members and graduate students. While at UNC, in addition to instructing German language classes, he developed a software package for students to digitally record and submit spoken language assignments to professors, a significant improvement over the previously used magnetic tape method. He received an OASIS Director's Choice Award in 2004.
He left UNC in 2004 for Virginia Tech, where he was an instructor in German, and taught information technology for VT's Faculty Development Institute. In addition to being a German teacher, Bishop was a multimedia artist, photographer and graphic designer, who spoke of "changing the world with art"."Jamie Bishop: He talked about 'changing the world with art'," [https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20080416041634/http://www.roanoke.com/vtvictims/wb/xp-113476 Roanoke Times April 18, 2007] (retrieved November 18, 2007) He produced the cover art for Michael Jasper's book Gunning for the Buddha, and for five of Michael Bishop's books; and designed "ingenious pieces of furniture."[http://www.michaelbishop-writer.com/ Michael Bishop Website] (retrieved November 18, 2007) One of Bishop's "haunting" wrap-around book jackets is featured on the anthology Passing for Human, edited by Michael Bishop and Steve Utley.Introduction to "Vinegar Peace, or the Wrong-Way Used-Adult Orphanage" by Michael Bishop, Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, July 2008, pages 64-5.
According to Michael Bishop, Jamie "spoke German like a native, understood computers inside out, played drums in a basement band, bicycled and hiked, followed the fortunes of the Atlanta Braves as obsessively as his mother, grandmothers, and I did, and made friends everywhere. He was a people lover from the get-go, and his energy levels put mine to shame."
Death
Bishop was killed on April 16, 2007, during the Virginia Tech shooting, while teaching an Introductory German class with 15 to 20 students. Four students lost their lives: Lauren McCain, Michael Pohle Jr., Maxine Turner and Nicole White. Two more made it out alive without critical or serious injury while six others were injured and helped barricade the door to prevent the shooter entering the classroom a second time.{{cite news |title=Student Survivors Recount Shooting |url=https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3048457&page=1 |publisher=ABC |date=April 17, 2007 |access-date = April 25, 2007 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18248298/site/newsweek/page/7/ |title=Making of a Massacre |access-date=November 19, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070828075748/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18248298/site/newsweek/page/7/ |archive-date=August 28, 2007 |publisher=Newsweek}}
Memorials
A scholarship fund was established in Jamie Bishop's name for German majors at Virginia Tech.{{cite web |title=RIP: Jamie Bishop (1971-2007) |url=http://www.sfwa.org/2007/04/rip-jamie-bishop-1971-2007/ |website=SFWA.org |publisher=Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. |access-date=September 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122042955/http://www.sfwa.org/2007/04/rip-jamie-bishop-1971-2007/ |archive-date=January 22, 2017 |date=April 19, 2007 |url-status=live}}
The annual "Jamie Bishop Memorial Award for an Essay Not in English" was established by the [http://www.iafa.org/ International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts] as a prize for an essay on the subject of science fiction or speculative fiction not written in English,{{cite web|url=http://www.escribirte.com.ar/concursos/170.htm |title=20º Premio Anual Jamie Bishop Memorial Award |access-date=November 21, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090430111339/http://www.escribirte.com.ar/concursos/170.htm |archive-date=April 30, 2009 |language=es}} {{cite web|url=http://www.portal-cifi.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=721 |title=2º Premio Anual Jamie Bishop Memorial Award for an Essay Not in English |access-date=November 21, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071211164759/http://www.portal-cifi.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=721 |archive-date=December 11, 2007 |language=es}} open to students and scholars presenting papers at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts.
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
{{Portal|Virginia|Biography}}
- {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613234256/http://www.memory39.com/ |date=June 13, 2007 |title=Jamie Bishop's portfolio website }}
- [http://www.sondheimguide.com/bishop/brighten.jpg Cover art by Jamie Bishop for Brighten to Incandescence] (Golden Gryphon Press, 2003)
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20071112123130/http://www.vt.edu/remember/biographies/christopher_james_bishop.html Jamie Bishop bio at Virginia Tech]
- [http://www.alexwilson.com/projects/journal/christopher_james_bishop.php Jamie Bishop on Alex Wilson's blog]
- Tribute to Jamie Bishop at [https://web.archive.org/web/20080222132836/http://jlundberg.livejournal.com/466650.html LundBlog: Beautiful Letters]
- "Through Virginia Tech death, a life is reborn," Michael Kruse, [https://web.archive.org/web/20080416232312/http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article453767.ece St. Petersburg Times, April 11, 2008] (article about Michael and Jamie Bishop)
- "Va. Tech families, survivors turn grief into action," Donna Leinwand, [https://web.archive.org/web/20160527231247/https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-04-10-vatech_N.htm USA Today April 10 2008] (article about Michael Bishop talking about Jamie Bishop)
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bishop, Jamie}}
Category:People from Pine Mountain, Harris County, Georgia
Category:People murdered in Virginia
Category:University of Georgia alumni
Category:University of Kiel alumni
Category:Virginia Tech faculty
Category:Deaths by firearm in Virginia