Yuan-Jen Chiang, professor of mathematics, coauthored a research article “Transversally f-harmonic and Transversally f-biharmonic Maps between Foliated Manifolds” published in the JP Journal of Geometry and Topology. It generalizes their previous joint publication concerning the 4th order elliptic systems of partial differential equations of foliated Riemannian manifolds.
Steven Harris Publishes Book on Khrushchev-Era Housing
Associate Professor of History and American Studies Steven Harris’ book “Communism on Tomorrow Street” is now available through The Johns Hopkins University Press.
The book explores the role of mass housing and urban planning in the post-Stalin Soviet Union and argues for a new understanding of the Khruschchev-era apartments known as khrushchevka.
CVS is Newest EagleOne Vendor
CVS is now accepting EagleOne!
Your EagleOne ID card is already setup with a debit account so you can add funds at any time. Better yet, sign-up for payroll deduction and as an added bonus you will receive a punch card redeemable for one free meal per month at Seacobeck Dining Hall (that’s equivalent to $60 a year).
To sign up, print and complete the FORM and send it to Payroll, 4th Floor, Eagle Landing. The minimum is only $10 per pay period and you may withdraw from the plan at any time.
See link for a complete list of EagleOne Off Campus Merchant Partners
Black History Month Lecture, 2/21
Dr. Gene Allen Smith, professor of history and director of the Center for Texas Studies at Texas Christian University, will present a lecture “The Slaves’ Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812” on Thursday, Feb. 21. The lecture will begin at 7 p.m. in Lee Hall, room 411, and is free and open to the public.
Smith is the author of “The Slaves’ Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812.” The book explores the history-changing decisions made by the African-American combatants of the crucial conflict, and how the opportunity to fight changed the course of slavery in America. The lecture, in honor of Black History Month, is co-sponsored by the Papers of James Monroe, the James Monroe Museum and the UMW Department of History and American Studies.
Nabil Al-Tikriti Presents Great Lives Lecture on T.E. Lawrence
On Tuesday, Feb. 12, Nabil Al-Tikriti delivered a lecture entitled “Troubled Man, Troubling Legacy: T.E. Lawrence, 1888-1935” as part of the Chappell Great Lives lecture series at Dodd Auditorium on the UMW campus. The prezi visuals which accompanied the presentation can be accessed here: http://prezi.com/bjyci7hkur_a/te-lawrence-troubled-man-troubling-legacy/.
The Great Lives series official video production can be accessed here: www.umw.edu/greatlives/2013/02/14/video-lawrence-of-arabia/.
In advance of the lecture, The Free-Lance Star published an opinion piece by Prof. Al-Tikriti regarding T.E. Lawrence, which can be accessed here: http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2013/022013/02102013/752750/index_html?page=1.
Here is the entire text of the opinion piece, published by The Free-Lance Star on Sunday, February 10:
“RARE IS THE individual who attracts over 40 biographies within decades of his or her departure from this world. Thomas Edward Lawrence, whose troubled legacy we will examine in Dodd Hall on Tuesday starting at 7:30 p.m. is one of those rare specimens.
Certain facts about his biography are well-known to casual observers, usually informed by David Lean’s 1962 film classic, “Lawrence of Arabia.” As everyone knows, Lawrence organized and led the Great Arab Revolt, which delivered the Arabs from the terrible Turkish yoke and overturned the mighty Ottoman Empire. He was more a sensitive scholar than a classic warrior, and was reluctantly pressed into service to help his country in its hour of need. He shied away from the limelight, and hated the attention he received as a result of his fame.
While each point is defensible, all are interpretations that have reached the public only after several levels of distillation. The real story is far more complicated.
Lawrence was indeed a complex man, a visionary of sorts who as a child craved to be recognized as a hero and then grew arguably insane as an adult due to his success in this realm. He welcomed the publicity offered by the prominent American journalist Lowell Thomas, the individual most responsible for shaping the legend of “Lawrence of Arabia.” He carefully managed his own image and was not above reminding people who he was when they were either unaware or uninterested in his fame. By the end of his life, he had developed a series of personality quirks that suggested borderline psychosis, and the account of his death never fully satisfied all observers.
Real contention about Lawrence springs from his legacy and the overall British legacy in the Middle East following the Great War. The popular narrative suggests that without the “Arab” uprising, the “Turks” would never have been defeated, as well as that, without Lawrence, there would have been no “Great Arab Revolt.” Neither of these propositions passes without intense criticism in the region itself. While those participating in Lawrence’s military endeavor were certainly Arab when they weren’t loyal soldiers of the British crown, they never numbered more than a few thousand, and were never more than an idealistic core of committed activists leading a motley crew of criminals, opportunists, and tribal raiders interested far more in the violent privatization of spoil and plunder than the ideals of national liberation.
As difficult as it has been for subsequent Arab and Turkish nationalists to recognize, the vast majority of Ottoman subjects in what is today the eastern Arab world were loyal to their empire to the end. In many cases, they were loyal beyond the end, as when Iraqi peasants appealed to Mustafa Kemal to rescue them from their new British overlords in the early 1920s.
Lawrence, who repeatedly claimed in his own classic “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” to have been tortured by his irreconcilable loyalties to both the British Empire and Arab independence, was capable of a ruthless pursuit of his often inconsistent agenda. He was aware of allied agreements destined to betray British promises made to the Hashemite family, and he believed that Jewish settlement of Palestine need not conflict with the rights of the indigenous Palestinians. He felt that putting Faisal on the throne in the newly created country of Iraq, and his brother Abdullah in the equally unknown Transjordan, discharged his obligations to the Arab cause. Much like today’s Obama administration, Lawrence found the judicious use of air power to be modern, humane, and more efficient than alternative methods of exerting sovereign control over recalcitrant populations.
Although this individual’s illegitimate birth, proclivity for whippings, misanthropic and chaste approach to sexual relations, and extreme personality tendencies are all psychologically fascinating, our talk on Tuesday evening will focus more on public interpretations of his legacy than his private demons. Those planning to attend should do their utmost to first screen Lean’s film classic, as all good history should begin with a great flick.”
The Sounds of Spirit
Radio Show Features UMW Psychology Professor
University of Mary Washington Associate Professor of Psychology Miriam Liss will discuss the link between attachment parenting techniques and feminism in an interview scheduled to air on the “With Good Reason” public radio program. The show, “Humor Works,” will air beginning Saturday, Feb. 23.
The interview will focus on the 2012 study “Feminism and Attachment Parenting: Attitudes, Stereotypes, and Misperceptions” by Liss and her colleague Mindy Erchull. The study, based on a survey of hundreds of self-described feminists and non-feminists, shows that attachment parenting techniques, like co-sleeping, breastfeeding and carrying a child in a body sling, are more popular with feminists than non-feminists. The study also reveals that people hold stereotypes about the ‘typical feminist,’ when in fact those stereotypes aren’t true.
Liss, a licensed clinical psychologist, is an expert on gender issues and autism and developmental disorders. She received the UMW Outstanding Young Faculty Member Award in 2005 and was a finalist for the SCHEV state award in 2006 and 2009. Her research has appeared in numerous journals including the Journal of Personality and Individual Differences, the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines. The 2013 study “Helping or Hovering? The Effects of Helicopter Parenting on College Students’ Well-Being” and the 2012 study “Insight into the Parenthood Paradox: Mental Health Outcomes of Intensive Mothering,” both co-authored by Liss and her colleague Holly Schiffrin, garnered international media attention.
Liss earned a Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Connecticut and a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University.
“With Good Reason” airs weekly in Fredericksburg on Sundays from 1-2 p.m. on Radio IQ 88.3 Digital. To listen from outside of the Fredericksburg area, a complete list of air times and links to corresponding radio stations can be found at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/when-to-listen/.
“With Good Reason” is the only statewide public radio program in Virginia. It hosts scholars from Virginia’s public colleges and universities who discuss the latest in research, pressing social issues and the curious and whimsical. “With Good Reason” is produced for the Virginia Higher Education Broadcasting Consortium by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and is broadcast in partnership with public radio stations in Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Historian and Author Presents Lecture, 2/18
Donna Murch, associate professor of history at Rutgers University, will present “A Time Before Crack: The Destruction of the Southern California Black Panther Party and the Transformation of Black Youth Culture in Late 20th Century Los Angeles” on Monday, Feb. 18. The lecture, part of UMW’s Black History Month celebration, will explore the social, political and cultural issues that influenced the demise of the Black Panther Party and its impact on African-American youth culture in Los Angeles, Calif. Murch is the author of “Living for the City: Migration, Education, and the Rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California.”
Chamber Music Festival Starts Tonight
The Department of Music’s annual Chamber Music Festival begins tonight with a concert of student and faculty performances at 7:30 p.m. The Festival will continue on Friday, Feb. 15 with the U.S. Navy Brass Quartet’s master class at 4 p.m. and performance at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, Feb. 16, the U.S. Air Force Clarinet Quartet will offer a master class at 6 p.m. followed by a performance at 7:30 p.m.
All of the master classes and performances will be held in Pollard Hall, Room 304 and are free and open to the public. For more information, call (540) 654-1012.
Office Sustainability Tip of the Week
We are creatures of habit. Fifteen or so years ago when offices first began using e-mail, you may have found yourself printing out every single one that you would send and receive. Was it really necessary to print out that “Thank you for my birthday card!” e-mail from your co-worker? At the time with e-mail being so new, maybe many of us DID think it was necessary! Hopefully you still do not take printing out e-mails to that extreme, but if you took a moment to think about it, is it necessary to print out the e-mails that you do on a regular basis? Maybe there are some annual projects that involve always printing out the correspondence between involved parties so that you have it as a reference for the future. But is there another way to manage that in order to reduce the amount of printing that you do?
One suggestion that might be useful is to utilize the Folder feature in MS Outlook to store correspondence. Hopefully you already do this as it’s an excellent way to stay organized. But if you are not utilizing the Folder feature in Outlook, it is very easy to do. Simply go to the Help feature in Outlook and browse “How to create a Folder” to get started. Once you get familiar with using folders in Outlook, you will likely start to think of more and more ways to reduce the amount of e-mails that you normally print out. Another great aspect of using folders is that if you’re checking your e-mail from home using EagleNet, you will be able to access your folders to pull up information that you might need while away from the office. Much more convenient than having to wait to get back to the office to browse through a binder or stack of papers with that information printed out. In addition to e-mails, also consider (if applicable) saving documents, presentations, and projects on your office’s shared drive as opposed to printing them out. Always remember that not everything should be saved electronically — refer to the UMW policy regarding the Electronic Storage of Highly Sensitive Data as there are specific restrictions regarding how and when data can be electronically stored.
If you have any suggestions for things we can all do differently each day to create more sustainable environments, please feel free to leave a comment or email me the idea to be featured in a future Tip of the Week.
The PCS Action Group members for the “Office Sustainability Tip of the Week” are Kevin Caffrey, Elizabeth Sanders, Robert Louzek, and Dre Anthes.
Last week’s Tip of the Week: Donations.