Author: Brynn Boyer

Gary Richards, associate professor of English, led the book talk “One Book One Festival: ‘A Confederacy of Dunces'” at the Ninth Annual Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge, La., on  Saturday, Oct. 27. At the same event, he was part of a panel discussion by contributors to “Comics and the U.S. South” (University Press of Mississippi, 2012), edited by Brannon Costello and Qiana J. Whitted. Richards contributed the essay “Everybody’s Graphic Protest Novel: ‘Stuck Rubber Baby’ and the Anxieties of Racial Difference” to that collection.

Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies, appears in the BBC News segment “U.S. Election: Could South Asians Decide Who Wins the White House?” The piece, in which Farnsworth discusses the impact of South Asians in the Northern Virginia area to the upcoming presidential election, originally aired on Tuesday, Oct. 30.

Farnsworth is also the co-author, with Benjamin Hermerding, of an opinion column, “Virginia Senate candidates ratchet up attacks, seek last sliver of undecided voters,” published in The Chamberlink, a publication of the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Brian Baker, Executive Director for Entrepreneurship at the University of Mary Washington presented at the International Economic Development Council Annual Conference in Houston, Texas on October 1.  His topic covered approaches for business assistance employed at the UMW Office of Entrepreneurship.  Following the presentation, Baker led a discussion titled “Empowering Entrepreneurs.”  The group discussion enabled colleagues in economic development to explore best practices on approaches to encouraging innovation, small company incubation, support services for business owners, and financing.

The UMW Office of Entrepreneurship is a division of the Center for Economic Development and hosts the UMW Small Business Development Center, the EagleWorks Accelerator and Innovation Program, the Engagement Council, and the Virginia Business Incubation Association.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream are coming to the Fredericksburg Forum!

Purchase your discounted tickets before it’s too late! Tickets are limited.

See Ben and Jerry Saturday, November 10 at 8 p.m. in George Washington Hall’s Dodd Auditorium.

Tickets for faculty, staff and students are $15 per person, limit two tickets per person.  Stop by the third floor of George Washington Hall, room 308 to purchase tickets.

To learn more about the Forum program, call 540-654-1065 or visit www.umw.edu/forum.

Visiting art historian and University of Mary Washington alumna Dr. Allison M. Stagg’s lecture “James Akin: The First American Caricaturist” has been cancelled due to travel difficulties associated with the weather. The lecture was originally scheduled for Thursday, November 1 at 5 p.m. in Lee Hall, Room 411. The lecture would have been sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History, with funding from the Wendy Shadwell ’63 Program Endowment in Art History.

Her talk would have focused on American artist James Akin, who gained the title as the most notorious caricaturist of his time after he published a satirical caricature of President Thomas Jefferson criticizing his relationship with one of his slaves.  His caricature, boldly entitled “A Philosophic Cock,” along with later caricature designs, went on to influence many of the popular caricaturists of the nineteenth century.

Stagg  has extensive museum experiences curating at prestigious museums such as the Metropolitan Museum and organizing exhibits at the National Portrait Gallery in London and the National Gallery in Washington. Her research on political caricature in the U.S from 1780-1830 has resulted in extensive papers and articles, along with a forthcoming book “The Art of Wit: American Political Caricature.” Stagg has received numerous fellowships and grants from institutions such as the American Philosophical society, Smithsonian American Art Museum and Yale University.