Cassandra Good, associate editor of the Papers of James Monroe, received the Mary Jurich Nickliss Prize from the Organization of American Historians for her book, Founding Friendships (Oxford, 2015). The prize, awarded annually, recognizes the most original book in U.S. women’s and/or gender history. The prize committee commended the book’s “remarkable body of evidence” and said that it “greatly enlarges our understanding of gender in the early republic.” Good received the prize in an award ceremony in Providence, R.I., on April 9.
Goodwill Drop N Go
For the fourth consecutive year, the Office of Residence Life and Commuter Student Services is partnering with Goodwill Industries to reduce the amount of waste going to the landfill from residence hall rooms as students move out for the summer. Over the last three years we have collected 34,000 pounds of waste. This year we are expanding this program to include faculty, staff and commuter students by placing a collection bin on the second floor of the University Center. Please consider bringing your gently used items and placing them in the designated donation bin between April 22 and May 6.
Questions should be directed to Bethany Friesner at bfriesne@umw.edu.
Harris talks to The Source about Soviet Aviation, Putin’s Russia
The Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991 might have been expected to make Russia a liberal democracy; instead we see broad popular support for Putin’s undemocratic regime. Historian Steve Harris turns to aviation to offer new ways of understanding the Soviet past and Russia’s present. See the full interview at The Source.
UMW Galleries Present Annual Student Art Exhibition
The University of Mary Washington Galleries is proud to announce the Annual Student Art Exhibition in the duPont Gallery. Of the many entries, only 28 artworks were selected for the show. We are proud to announce two recipients of the prestigious Melchers Gray Purchase Award: Michael Evart’s Horsehair Pot and Kacie Waters-Heflin’s Pas de Basque will be purchased for the UMW Galleries’ permanent collection.
Participating artists: Morgan Wallace, Kacie Waters-Heflin, Lily Radolinski, Evelyn Savaria, Lauren Rauch, Rachel Harkrader, Jade Brooks, Lillian Schloeder, Dominique Giles, Michelle Pierson, Hannah Morgan, Michael Evart, Dave Hansen, Maddox Palmer, Hannah McConaughy, Taylor White, Eliza Nolen, Laura Bufano, Megan Crockett, May Shorten Townley, Noah Enders, Courtney Greathouse and Christina Beckham.
The exhibition was guest juried by Sandra Gibson and Luis Recoder, artists whose work explores the relationship between avant-garde film practice and the incorporation of moving images and time-based media into the museum and art gallery. The artists have exhibited and performed nationally and internationally at the Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA PS1, The Kitchen, Anthology Film Archives, Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Fesival and Tate Modern, among others.
The Annual Student Art Exhibition is on view through April 29, 2016.
UMW Galleries Present Video: Shedding the Utopian Moment
The University of Mary Washington Galleries is proud to host the first exclusively video exhibition at the Ridderhof Martin Gallery. Video: Shedding the Utopian Moment features five groundbreaking moving image artworks from the 1980s by internationally renowned artists.
The exhibition explores feminist videos and films of the 1980s, taking its title and framework from artist and theorist Martha Rosler’s influential essay, “Video: Shedding the Utopian Moment” (1985-86)[1] . Rosler’s essay, first delivered as a talk in 1984, proposes that the utopian moment is at the birth of video art in the late 1960s. Apart from the apocryphal beginnings of video, however, the breadth of this artform and subsequent video art is paid little attention in standard art histories. Focusing on artworks by Cecelia Condit, Ximena Cuevas, Mona Hatoum, Maxi Cohen, Ericka Beckman and Mike Kelley, Video: Shedding the Utopian Moment seeks to counter the prevailing histories of video and art with the diverse experiences and formal languages employed by these artists.
The videos included in this exhibition are within a postmodernist discourse at odds with the critical or explicitly formal modes of the previous generation. The works largely center on specific events or narratives drawn from daily life and individual subjectivity, such as Maxi Cohen’s Anger, giving a voice to those marginalized by society through direct address to the camera. Mona Hatoum’s Measures of Distance centers on the artist’s relationship with her mother as they are divided by war. Cecelia Condit also uses contemporary events and her own experiences with violence against women to create Beneath the Skin. Antes de la Televisión by Ximena Cuevas as well as Mike Kelley and Ericka Beckman’s Blind Country feature humor, play and absurdity. As such, the videos offered in this exhibition provide an alternative to both modernist formalism as well as a male-dominated canon, which so often go hand in hand.
The exhibition will also feature a special screening on Wednesday, April 20 from 7-8:30 with two additional media artworks, Damnation of Faust Trilogy (video, 1983-1987) by Dara Birnbaum and Mayhem (film, 1987) by Abigail Child.
Video: Shedding the Utopian Moment is on view in the Ridderhof Martin Gallery through April 29.
Rachel Hutcheson, Assistant Curator & Exhibition Coordinator
[1] Martha Rosler, “Video Shedding the Utopian Moment,” was originally delivered as a talk, “Shedding the Utopian Moment: The Museumization of Video,” at the conference “Vidéo ‘84” (Université de Québec à Montréal).
April 20, MetLife 403(b) Rep on Campus: Retirement Planning Workshop
Our MetLife 403(b) representative will be on campus on Wednesday, April 20, conducting a retirement planning workshop at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. in Lee Hall 412. For registration details, please visit the Human Resources website under the “What’s New“section.
Delgado-Poust Publishes Article
Antonia Delgado-Poust, assistant professor of Spanish, recently published a research article, “(It’s) All about the Mother: Scarred Memories and Amnesic Bodies in Rosa Montero’s La hija del caníbal,” in Bulletin of Spanish Studies.
Al-Tikriti Participates in Debate, Presents UMW in Turkey, more
In his capacity as a board member of the United States section of MSF/Doctors Without Borders, Nabil Al-Tikriti, associate professor of history and American studies, participated in the annual Field Associative Debate (FAD) for MSF staff serving throughout Jordan, Syria, and Iraq, in Amman, on March 5-6.
This year’s regional FAD topic covered MSF’s “Medical Care Under Fire” initiative and MSF’s social and traditional media communications profile in the Middle East. After debating this year’s topics, staff members then presented recommendations and motions for consideration by the MSF International General Assembly. Immediately prior to and following this year’s FAD, Prof. Al-Tikriti joined several colleagues on brief field visits to MSF projects in Za’atari Refugee Camp, al-Ramtha and Amman. Upon his return, he reviewed a FAD report and completed a brief memo on regional operations for internal review.
Prior to visiting Jordan, Al-Tikriti presented UMW’s cooperative academic programs to an audience of 200+ students and faculty at Istanbul Sabahettin Zaim Universitesi (IZU) in Istanbul, Turkey, on Feb. 25 (see picture). In the course of this presentation, it grew clear that there is great interest among IZU’s student body to study English as a Second Language, Education, and Business at UMW.
Shortly after his return to Virginia, Al-Tikriti made a presentation to students at the Georgetown University School of Medicine on March 21. Appearing with Prof. Daniel Neep of Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS), the event was titled “The Syrian Conflict and Humanitarian Crisis: A Panel Discussion.” In the course of this presentation, he discussed MSF’s ongoing role in the Syrian civil war, as well as his personal experiences serving as Deputy Head of Mission with MSF in cross-border operations along the Turkish-Syrian border in 2013.
Dasgupta Presents at Comparative Literature Conference
Shumona Dasgupta, assistant professor of English, presented the paper “Decolonizing Trauma Studies: Writing the Partition of Bengal” at the American Comparative Literature Association’s annual conference held in Boston on March 17-20.
Kait Brogan Named Wagner Wealth Management March Athlete of the Month
Sophomore tennis All-American Kait Brogan has been named as the March winner of the UMW Wagner Wealth Management Athlete of the Month.
Brogan led the 18th ranked Eagles to a 9-1 record in the month, with the only loss coming to the No. 1 ranked team in the country, Pomona-Pitzer College. Individually, Brogan stepped up to one singles in the lineup, finished with a 7-1 record in singles and finished with a 5-2 record in doubles play.
She is pictured here with Aric Wagner, Senior Vice President, Investments, of Davenport & Company LLC
UMW Wagner Wealth Management Athletes of the Month
September – Emma Olson (volleyball)
October – Jenna Steele (field hockey)
November/December – T.J. Jones (men’s basketball)
January – Brianne Comden (women’s basketball)
February – Dallas Tarkenton (men’s swimming) and Anna Corley (women’s swimming)
March – Kait Brogan (women’s tennis)
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