Janet Asper has been selected as Summer Fellow at the 2013 Office of Naval Research Summer Faculty Research Program.  She will be conducting her summer research at the laboratories at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren.

K. Nicole Crowder presented an invited talk and a poster at the 254th American Chemical Society National Meeting and Symposium in New Orleans, LA.Her invited talk “Tethered catalysts: Self-assembled monolayers of phosphonates as a platform for heterogeneous catalysis,” was presented to a full room in the Inorganic Chemistry Division.  She presented a poster entitled “Back to grad school with IONiC/VIPEr: Collaborative development of primary literature based learning objects in a workshop setting” was presented in the Inorganic Chemistry Division and was selected for presentation at the prestigious SciMix poster session.  Additionally, her research was featured on two posters that were presented by her student collaborators.  Eric Johnson (UMW 2014) presented “Modifying copper surfaces with azide-terminated phosphonic acids: A platform for surface functionalization via click chemistry,” and Karmel James (UMW 2013) presented “Modification of bipyridine ligands for the development of a tethered carbon dioxide reduction catalyst.”

You can view Dr. Crowder’s abstracts at

http://abstracts.acs.org/chem/245nm/program/search.php?search=do&andornot=&query=crowder&otype=presentation&event=all&where=&condition=ANY&%23.x=0&%23.y=0&%23=Go

Mary Beth Mathews, associate professor of religion, presented “‘What is the Matter with White Baptists?’ : African Americans’ Initial Encounters with Fundamentalism” at the International Fundamentals: Early Fundamentalism and the American Century Conference at Yale University.

Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the university’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, appeared on NewsChannel 8′s “NewsTalk,” on May 21 to discuss the latest issues in Virginia Politics.

In addition, Farnsworth’s analysis of the upcoming Virginia governor’s race has been part of reports appearing in Reuters, the Chicago Tribune, and WAMU.

“Social Skills Deficits in Students with Disabilities: Successful Strategies from the Disabilities Field,” edited by H. Nicole Myers, associate professor of education, was recently published by Rowman and Littlefield Education.  The book explores how social skills can impact students with disabilities and gives readers strategies to support social skill development. The text includes a chapter by Beverly D. Epps, associate professor of education.

Surupa Gupta, assistant professor of political science and international affairs, presented her research on Indian foreign economic policy at a conference on “IBSA: Experience and Perspectives on South-South Cooperation” organized by the Center for Study of International Negotiations at the University of Sao Paulo on May 17, 2013. She also made a presentation at the BRICS Policy Center in Rio de Janeiro on May 20, 2013.

Marjorie Och has been accepted into the third annual Summer Teachers Institute in Technical Art History to be held in July 2013 at the Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art. The focus of this summer’s seminar is “Behind the Image: The Painted Surface and its Technical Study.” STITAH is supported by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and Yale University.

University of Mary Washington Associate Professor and Chair of Mathematics Keith Mellinger was honored with the 2013 Young Alumni Achievement Award from his alma mater, Millersville University. Mellinger received the award during the Pennsylvania university’s annual honors and awards convocation.

Keith Mellinger received the 2013 Young Alumni Achievement Award from his alma mater, Millersville University.

Mellinger received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Millersville in 1995 and earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Delaware. Since joining the UMW faculty in 2003, he has received numerous internal grants, including a Jepson Fellowship. In 2006, Mellinger was awarded a young investigator grant from the National Security Agency and in 2008, he was recognized with the UMW Alumni Association Outstanding Young Faculty Member Award. In 2010, Mellinger and a Virginia Tech colleague received the Carl B. Allendoerfer Award, a national writing award, from the Mathematical Association of America.

Mellinger has delivered professional presentations throughout the country and in Greece, Italy and Canada. He also has published many articles on both mathematical research and pedagogy in a variety of professional journals.

On May 6th an interview with Jim Groom was aired on the Ohio State University’s radio program Writers Talk. The discussion focuses on the work he has done as part of UMW’s Division of Teaching and Learning Technology: ranging from the formation of UMW Blogs, the popular appeal of the Digital Storytelling class affectionately known as ds106 and its relationship to those confounded MOOCs, as well as DTLT’s current groundbreaking project Domain of One’s Own. The interview runs 30 minutes and you can listen to it below.

OSU Writers Talk

Maria Schultz, assistant director of design services, will sign copies of her new book, “How to SUP With Your Pup,” on Thursday, May 16 at the Lee Hall Terrace from 4 to 6 p.m. In the event of rain, the signing will be held in the University Bookstore. Riley, her Australian Shepherd and SUP companion, will join the book signing.

Stand up paddling, known as SUP, has increased in popularity in recent years, including among pet owners. “How to SUP With Your Pup” includes simple training techniques and tips for dog loving paddlers who want to teach their best friends to ride on a paddleboard.

Schultz is an outdoor enthusiast and ACA certified stand up paddleboard instructor. She also has a degree in education and hands-on experience in animal training.

Stephen Hanna

Stephen Farnsworth

Stephen P. Hanna, professor of geography, and Stephen J. Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, are co-authors of a research article,  “Visualizing Virginia’s Changing Electorate:  Mapping Presidential Elections from 2000 to 2012,” which was published in the May 2013 issue of The Virginia News Letter. The Virginia News Letter is published by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.

Eric Bonds

Eric Bonds recently published an article, entitled “Grappling with Structure, Social Construction, and Morality: Towards a Human Rights Approach to Social Problems Instruction,” in the journal Societies Without Borders: Human Rights and the Social Sciences.  In the article, Bonds makes the case for a human rights approach and situates it within the theoretical traditions more traditionally used in social problems classes.  The article includes a sample syllabus and an overview of Bonds’ Social Issues class taught at UMW.  The article can be accessed here.

Debra Schleef will serve as the Chair of the Committee on Professional Ethics (COPE) for the American Sociological Association during 2013-2014.

Abbie McGhee, coordinator of community events, presented a session on Free Online Resources at the 33^rd Annual Conference of the Association of Collegiate Conference and Event Directors – International (ACCED-I) in Toronto, Canada.  Attendees included campus professionals who design, market, coordinate and plan conferences and special events on the campuses of colleges and universities in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.

Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the university’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, talked about his book, “Spinner in Chief: How Presidents Sell Their Policies and Themselves,” on C-SPAN’s Washington classroom for a session that focused on the White House and the media. The program aired nationally on April 26.

The session was part of a joint educational partnership involving C-SPAN, the Washington Center, George Mason University, and Purdue University. The course focused on “The Presidency, Congress, and Media,” examining all facets of politics in the TV and digital age, taking a look at the issues and events shaping the agenda for the next Congress and next round of elections, as well as the historical process of public policy making.

In addition Farnsworth, and Benjamin F. Hermerding, an Alvey Scholar at UMW and a research associate at the Center, are coauthors of an opinion column, “Could the Old Dominion Give Birth Again?” published in the Free-Lance Star on April 24. The column was based on an analysis of the Center’s recent survey of Virginia voters that found considerable interest within the state in having both Sen. Mark Warner (D) and Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) seek the presidential nominations of their respective parties.

John P. Broome, assistant professor of curriculum & instruction in the College of Education, was selected to join the Editorial Board of Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE Journal).

“Established in 2000, Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE Journal) is a peer-reviewed publication of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) and is co-sponsored by four other teacher education associations. It is an interactive electronic journal, capable of incorporating into its articles video, sound, animated images, and simulations, as well as ongoing dialog about issues that advance the field.” (Source: CITE Journal website)

Laurie Abeel, Associate Professor of Education, is the Virginia Affiliate Director for Destination Imagination. On April 13, she ran a state tournament with 162 teams of students from around the state. Teams of up to 7 students, from elementary through university level, presented their solutions to technical, science-based, fine arts, improvisational, structure, or service learning challenges. She will lead the 43 advancing teams to the Global Finals tournament at the University of Tennessee at the end of May.

Daniel Preston, editor of the Papers of James Monroe, was interviewed by Voice of America for a segment on Elizabeth Monroe, wife of President James Monroe.  The interview will be part of program broadcast in South Korea and North Korea on May 8.

Claudia Emerson, Arrington Distinguished Chair of Poetry and professor of English, is the recipient of the university’s inaugural Waple Award for Professional Achievement. The award was announced during the General Faculty Meeting on April 24.

The award, based on faculty nominations, recognizes Emerson’s scholarly, creative and professional achievements.

Three faculty members have received Waple Professorships to support two years of research and scholarship. In the inaugural year of the professorships, awards went to one faculty member from each of the three colleges: Allyson Poska, professor of history; George Meadows, professor of education; and Dave Henderson, assistant professor of accounting and management information systems.

The professorships are supported by an endowment from the estate of Shirley Van Epps Waple’52. For more information about the professorships, visit http://cas.umw.edu/dean/waple-professorship/.

Athletic Director Ken Tyler was the featured guest on the WFVA 1230 program “Town Talk” on Tuesday, April 23. The interview is available in four segments: Segment #1; Segment #2; Segment #3; Segment #4.

Assistant Professor of Mathematics Julius Esunge received a grant from the National Science Foundation to support his participation in the Summer School and Conference on Financial and Actuarial Mathematics in Cameroon. The conference will be held at the University of Buea in Cameroon from April 22 to May 3. As part of the grant, Esunge will present a series of lectures from May 5 to 10.

Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Jangwoon “Leo” Lee, traveled to Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, last weekend to deliver an invited talk at the Spring Central Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society. His talk was titled Discretization of Stochastic Optimal Control Problems by the h x p Version of the Stochastic Galerkin FEM.

Mark Snyder, Assistant Professor of Music, had his multimedia work, Butterfly for processed clarinet, electronics and video performed at the 2013 Society of ElectroAcoustic Musicians in the United States (SEAMUS) conference in St. Paul, Minnesota on April 19th.

On April 10th, Mark gave a master class about his music and video art to the computer music department at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore Maryland.

On April 5th, Mark was a guest artist at Fairmont State University in Fairmont West Virginia. In addition to concertizing his own work and giving a masterclass, Mark took Junior Music and Computer Science major Becky Brown along so she could perform one of her original compositions, Rex for processed harp and voice, and she also gave a master class on harp performance and processing. Out of all his accomplishments this semester, he was most pleased with this since host composer Dan Eichenbaum requested it after hearing Becky perform her piece in composition class when he came to visit UMW.

[vimeo width="600" height="337"]http://vimeo.com/60746178[/vimeo]

Becky Brown discussing the harp and live processing.

Mark Snyder at Peabody Conservatory

Andréa Livi Smith, assistant professor of historic preservation and director of the Center for Historic Preservation, wrote an op-ed, “We Don’t Need a Modern-Looking Metro,” for The Washington Post. The piece, which argues that the D.C. metro system’s distinctive design should be appreciated and maintained, appeared in the print edition of the newspaper on Sunday, April 21.

Ben LaBreche, assistant professor of English, has been awarded a month-long fellowship at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. His research will focus on Milton’s conception of liberty, 17th-century natural law, and debates in modern political theory.

LaBreche also is the recipient of a fellowship at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas-Austin, a Clark Short-Term Fellowship for research at the University of California, Los Angeles William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, and of a year-long Solmsen Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Research in the Humanities.

(From left to right): Mariah Young, Danielle DeVille, Professor Esther Yook, Russell Michaelson, and Tom Pacheco.

Four UMW Speaking Center consultants and Speaking Center Director Esther Yook presented papers at the National Association of Communication Centers conference held at the University of North Carolina Greensboro from April 19 – 21.

Mariah Young and Danielle DeVille received the Undergraduate Research Award for their research “Achieving the Unachievable: The Effectiveness of a Communication Center in the Absence of a Communication Department.” They, along with Tom Pacheco and Russell Michelson, will be presenting at the Undergraduate Research and Creativity Day on Friday, April 26.

Associate Professor and Chair of Mathematics Keith Mellinger recently attended the Mathematical Association of America‘s regional meeting held at Salisbury University.  At the meeting, Mellinger presented Eigentriads – a musical offering in which he discussed eigenvectors, a topic found in any undergraduate course in linear algebra, and an amusing relationship they have with diminished and augmented triads.

A ceremony and reception on Friday, April 12 celebrated the work of faculty members in the realm of digital pedagogy.

Professor of Spanish Elizabeth Lewis and Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation Andrea Livi Smith were awarded the Innovative Digital Pedagogy Fellowship. Assistant Professor in the College of Education Janine Davis, Associate Professor of History Susan Fernsebner and Assistant Professor of Music Mark Snyder received honorariums for their work in digital pedagogy and scholarship. Faculty who participated in UMW’s first Domain of One’s Own Faculty-centered Initiative also were recognized at the ceremony.

President Richard V. Hurley was on-hand to congratulate the award recipients and to express his support for the initiatives. The Innovative Digital Pedagogy Fellowship Award Ceremony was a collaboration between the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies and the Center for Teaching Excellence.

Jason Davidson

Associate Professor of Political Science Jason W. Davidson delivered a briefing titled “Italy’s Security Policy after the 2013 Elections: Still in the Game?” at an invitation-only event on April 16 organized by the National Intelligence Council and the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

Davidson, who argued that the 2013 elections will have a minor impact on Italy’s security policy, was one of 11 presenters from around the world. About 40 members of the U.S. intelligence community attended the event.

Janine Davis, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction in the College of Education, has published a new article entitled “Storying the Student Teaching Experience: Trying on Teaching Personae.”  The article appears in the current issue of The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues, and Ideas.

Ben LaBreche, assistant professor of English, has been awarded a month-long fellowship at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas-Austin. His research will focus on Milton’s conception of liberty, 17th-century natural law, and debates in modern political theory.

LaBreche also is the recipient of a Clark Short-Term Fellowship for research at the University of California, Los Angeles William Andrews Clark Memorial Library and of a year-long Solmsen Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Research in the Humanities.

Susan Knick

Susan Knick, director of conferences and scheduling, presented a session on emergency management planning at the 33rd Annual Conference of the Association of Collegiate Conference and Event Directors – International (ACCED-I) in Toronto, Canada.  Attendees included campus professionals who design, market, coordinate and plan conferences and special events on the campuses of colleges and universities in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.

Warren Rochelle, professor of English, presented the paper “Crises of Faith: God(s) and Humankind in Caprica” at the joint meeting of the Science Fiction Research Association and the Eaton Science Fiction Conference in Riverside, Calif. The international conference, sponsored by the University of California at Riverside, was held from April 11 through 14.

Stephen Farnsworth

Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the university’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, recently presented a co-authored research paper,  “Election News Coverage across the Atlantic: 2008 US Presidential Election Campaigns on German, UK and US Television,” at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association in Chicago. The paper is part of a chapter in Dr. Farnsworth’s latest co-authored book, “The Global President? International News and the U.S. Government,” which will be published by Rowman & Littlefield later this year.

Courtney Clayton, Assistant Professor of Education, and George Meadows, Professor of Education, published their article, Action Research in Preservice Teacher Education, in the Spring 2013 volume of The Teacher Educators’ Journal. The journal is published by the Association of Teacher Educators in Virginia. The Association of Teacher Educators was founded in 1920 and is an individual membership organization devoted solely to the improvement of teacher education both for school-based and post secondary teacher educators. ATE members represent over 700 colleges and universities, over 500 major school systems, and the majority of state departments of education.

Scott Powers, associate professor of French, presented the paper “The Mourning of God and the Ironies of Secularization in Baudelaire’s ‘Le Spleen de Paris’” at the annual Society of Dix-Neuvièmistes Conference at the University of Exeter in England.

Ben LaBreche, assistant professor of English, has been awarded a Clark Short-Term Fellowship for research at the University of California, Los Angeles William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. The fellowship will support a month of research at the Clark Library through the UCLA Center for 17th- and 18th-Century Studies. His research will focus on Milton’s conception of liberty, 17th-century natural law, and debates in modern political theory.

LaBreche also is the recipient of a Solmsen Fellowship for 2013-2014. The fellowship will support a year of research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Research in the Humanities.

Antonio Barrenechea, associate professor of English, co-organized and co-chaired the panel “Mapping the Literatures of the Americas” at the annual conference of the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), held in Toronto, Canada from April 4 through 7.  As part of the panel, he presented the paper “American Literature as Comparative Literature: Hemispheric Navigations in the Classroom.”

The University of Mary Washington Small Business Development Center’s Early Venture Specialist, Susan Ball, recently completed the SBDCGlobal Consultant Certification Series.  This program prepares SBDC consultants to assist clients with international trade activities.  SBDCGlobal is a powerful online trade platform that will link clients of the U.S., Mexican and Columbian Small Business Development Center networks for international trade opportunities.

Stephen Hanna

Stephen Farnsworth

 Stephen P. Hanna, professor of geography, and Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University of Mary Washington Center for Leadership and Media Studies, recently presented a co-authored research paper,  “Visualizing Virginia’s Changing Electorate:  Mapping Presidential Elections from 2000 to 2012,” at the Virginia Social Science Association Annual Meeting in Richmond, VA.

  University Librarian Rosemary Arneson is presenting a session on the ThinkLab makerspace at the Association of College and Research Libraries conference in Indianapolis this week.  The session, titled “Made in the Library” is part of the ACRL CyberZedShed series on innovative uses of technologies in academic libraries.  The UMW ThinkLab is among the first general-purpose 3D printing labs in an academic library in the country.  Arneson will also present a poster session showcasing items created in the ThinkLab.

As part of an attempt to start imagining what open systems for publishing and sharing a community’s work—as UMW has done exceptionally well with UMW Blogs, ds106, and Domain of One’s Own—Jim Groom (the Director of the Division of teaching and Learning Technologies) has been invited to the Open Learning Hackathon at MIT this weekend to work with a range of thinkers to start framing an architecture that might harness and expose the power of loosely coupled syndication systems modelled on the qweb rather than monolithic information systems..

Stephen Farnsworth

A new Virginia public opinion survey sponsored by UMW’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies and created by Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science, has generated considerable media attention, with two front-page news stories on the poll in the Richmond Times-Dispatch and reports in a variety of media outlets, including Slate.com, the Daily Kos, the American Prospect and the Washington Post.

Marie E. McAllister, professor of English, authored the lead article in volume nine of Eighteenth-Century Novel, “Pox Imagery in Clarissa.“

Eric Lorentzen, associate professor of English, gave a scholarly talk at this year’s annual Northeastern Modern Language Association conference in Boston, for a panel called “Dickens at 201.”  The talk was titled “Cultural Studies, Critical Pedagogy, and Connecting with ‘Boz’ in the 21st Century.”

Chris Foss, professor of English, presented a paper entitled “The Aesthetics of Bharautism: The Articulation of Autistic Identity and Indianness in Raam, My Name Is Khan, and How Can I Talk If My Lips Don’t Move?” at the 43rd annual national meeting of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association on Wednesday, March 27.  This year’s conference, which featured more than 3,000 program participants, was held at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park.

Three UMW faculty participated in the recent Virginia Humanities Conference at Christopher Newport University on Friday, March 16. Professor of Art History Joseph Dreiss presented a paper, “The Landscape Interventions of Any Goldsworthy,” while Associate Professor of English Danny Tweedy delivered a paper entitled, “Faith and Ecology: Spirituality versus Eco-collapse in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.”  Mary Beth Mathews, associate professor of religion, served as UMW’s delegate to the VHC.

Margaret Ray, professor of economics and director of the Center for Economic Education, recently received a M.Ed. from UMW. Ray previously earned a Ph.D. (1988) in economics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, an M.A. (1985) in economics from Western Illinois University, and a B.S. (1984) in economics with a minor in agriculture from Oklahoma State University.

John P. Broome, assistant professor in curriculum & instruction and director of  secondary education and preK-12 education programs in the College of Education, has co-authored a book chapter entitled, “Three States: A Comparison Across Diverse Policy Contexts” to be published in Research on the Status of Social Studies: Views from the Field by Information Age Publishing in Summer 2013.

Since 2008, Broome has served on a national research team studying the state of social studies education in the United States. The first study of its kind, this 50-state survey-based research sampled K-12 social studies educators in America. Research on the Status of Social Studies: Views from the Field focuses on the impact of high-stakes standards, use of instructional time, methods of instruction and assessment and application of technology in U.S. K-12 social studies classrooms. The book is divided into six parts: I. Foundations, II. Types of Schools; III. Curricular Emphases; IV. Teaching Strategies; V. Professional Issues, and; VI. What It All Means

Collaborating with Dr. Gayle Y. Thieman (Portland State University), Dr. Joseph E. O’Brien (University of Kansas),  Dr. Thomas Barker (University of Kansas) and Dr. Patrice Preston-Grimes (University of Virginia), Broome co-authored a chapter comparing K-12 social studies practices of three states: Kansas, Oregon and Virginia.

An abstract of “Three States: A Comparison Across Diverse Policy Contexts” is included below.

Much of the recent data on the state of social studies teaching has focused on the impact of NCLB on the decline of instructional time in elementary classrooms, though little is known about what occurs during instruction. To address this concern the Survey on the Status of Social Studies (S4) asked K-12 teachers to report on the current status of their social studies curriculum and instructional practices. The survey investigated the impact of mandated testing, social studies curriculum goals and concepts, and teachers’ instructional strategies in the classroom. This chapter analyzed the findings from three states (Kansas, Oregon, and Virginia) and compared the results to data from the national survey.  Our analysis addressed four questions: 1) How much instructional time is devoted to social studies in elementary and secondary classrooms and how has mandated testing influenced the time available? 2) How often and in what types of instructional activities are students engaged? 3) What are the major goals and key concepts of the social studies curriculum? 4) How do the three states compare to each other and to the national findings?

The co-principal investigator for the Virgina study, Broome continues to examine the status of social studies education in our state. This past year he conducted an explanatory mixed-method study by convening focus groups with K-5 Virginia social studies educators throughout the Commonwealth  of Virginia. As he develops manuscripts on this work, Broome’s research is being used to inform school-, district- and state-level policy and instructional decisions around the Commonwealth.