January 16, 2026

EagleEye

A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff

Barrenechea Publishes Essay Review

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Professor of English Antonio Barrenechea

Professor of English Antonio Barrenechea

Antonio Barrenechea, Professor of English, recently published a review essay in the journal American Literature. The review discusses recent developments in the literature of the Americas field, with attention to three recent books: The Poetry of the Americas: From Good Neighbors to Countercultures (Feinsod), Anxieties of Experience: The Literatures of the Americas from Whitman to Bolaño (Lawrence), and Whiteness on the Border: Mapping the U.S. Racial Imagination in Brown and White (Bebout). To read the review, please see: https://read.dukeupress.edu/american-literature/article/92/1/169/156859/Whiteness-on-the-Border-Mapping-the-U-S-Racial?searchresult=1

 

Foss Publishes Wilde Article as Part of Waple Professorship Work

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Professor of English Chris Foss

Professor of English Chris Foss

Professor of English Chris Foss has published a refereed article entitled “Reconsidering the Role of Pity in Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Star-Child’” for the current number of Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, one of the top venues for scholarly work on disability and literature. This piece will serves as the basis for the second content chapter in Foss’s Waple Professorship book project tentatively called The Importance of Being Different: Intersectional Disability and Emotional Response in Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales, and on the basis of this and other work already completed on the manuscript Foss recently has been offered an advance contract for his book from the University of Virginia Press.

The article aims at a critical reconsideration of pity through a close reading of Wilde’s fairy tale “The Star-Child,” exploring how it seems both to replicate stereotypically pejorative assumptions about disability and to contain more progressive aspects. Through the disability-aligned characters of the Star-Child (initially the embodiment of physical perfection, but eventually transformed into a scaly toadfaced freak) and his mother (a queen turned beggar-woman so physically repulsive her son finds her too horrible to look upon), Wilde’s text requires one to consider the extent to which its representation of pity reinforces a hierarchical division between the fortunate and the unfortunate while encouraging a view of disability as an “evil” fate, but also the extent to which it endorses a more empowering version of pity founded upon love, reciprocity, and action. It may remain unclear whether Wilde is teasing readers for allowing themselves to be manipulated into sentimentalized pity for his protagonist or offering them a sincere attempt at theorizing a more properly humanizing and efficacious version of the much maligned emotion, but, regardless, the complexities of parsing such complicated and contradictory possibilities within “The Star-Child” justify the importance of an earnest reconsideration of the relation between pity and disability.

Devlin Interviewed about National Parks Segregation Study on WVTF

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Assistant Professor of History Erin Devlin

Assistant Professor of History Erin Devlin

Assistant Professor of History and American Studies Erin Devlin was interviewed by WVTF 88.3 Radio IQ about her study on segregation in Virginia’s national parks, commissioned by the National Park Service with the Organization of American Historians:

She’s poured over planning documents, blueprints, and maps in the hopes of understanding how segregation was implemented at the park. She’s built a whole filing cabinet full of sources. One drawer holds documents relevant to the state of Virginia, which resisted federal efforts to desegregate.

That evidence of segregation is right in front of park visitors all over Virginia, it’s just a matter of seeing it. “There are some picnic tables that are in an open meadow and there are other picnic tables that are in a shaded wood,” Devlin notes. “And that is a product of, in some cases, this legacy of planning for segregation and that there was a desire to tuck away African-American visitors in quiet corners of the parks.” Read more.

Great Lives Continues with Frederick Douglass on Feb. 27

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The 17th season of the William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series continues on Thursday, Feb. 27, with abolitionist, orator and author Frederick Douglass, with David W. Blight, author of The New York Times bestseller Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. This series is open to the public free of charge and no admission tickets are required. Programs begin at 7:30 p.m. in Dodd Auditorium in George Washington Hall. Each lecture concludes with an audience Q&A session with the speaker and a book-signing. The Synergy Periodontics and Implants Lecture.

As a young man Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was taught to read by his slave-owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence, he bore witness to the brutality of slavery.

Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass spoke widely, using his own story to condemn slavery. By the Civil War, Douglass had become the most famed and widely travelled orator in the nation. In his unique and eloquent voice, written and spoken, Douglass was a fierce critic of the United States as well as a radical patriot. After the war he sometimes argued politically with younger African Americans, but he never forsook either the Republican Party or the cause of black civil and political rights.

In this “cinematic and deeply engaging” (The New York Times Book Review) biography, David Blight has drawn on new information held in a private collection that few other historians have consulted, as well as recently discovered issues of Douglass’ newspapers. “Absorbing and even moving…a brilliant book that speaks to our own time as well as Douglass’” (The Wall Street Journal), Blight’s biography tells the fascinating story of Douglass’ two marriages and his complex extended family. “David Blight has written the definitive biography of Frederick Douglass…a powerful portrait of one of the most important American voices of the nineteenth century” (The Boston Globe).

The Great Lives series will continue on Tuesday, March 10 with Female Internet Inventors, featuring Claire L. Evans, author of Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet. Visit https://www.umw.edu/greatlives/ for more information.

Larus Participates in Seminar on South China Sea Disputes

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Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Larus

Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Larus

Elizabeth Freund Larus, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, participated in the seminar “Regional and Global Implications of Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea,” at the University of Warsaw, Poland, on February 21, 2020. Dr. Larus joined scholars from the University of Warsaw, the Warsaw School of Economics, and Marie Curie-Skłowdowska University for a discussion of legal aspects of the disputes and the increasing militarization of the South China Sea. Guest speaker Professor Stanislaw Pawlak, a judge on the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, commented on the Philippines’ case against China’s claims, and the landmark 2016 arbitral decision in favor of the Philippines. Dr. Larus commented on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent decision not to renew the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States. Dr. Larus claimed that the failure to renew the VFA was the most serious threat to the nearly 70-year military alliance that the United States has with the Philippines. She continued that the U.S. loss was China’s gain, and that the lack of VFA threatens the Philippines’s domestic security as well as the security of the Asia-Pacific. Professor Larus also commented on recent Freedom of Navigation Operations in the South China Sea carried out by the UK’s Royal Navy. She claimed that the UK has maintained interest in Southeast Asia since the colonial era, and as a sea power, is determined to maintain freedom of the seas, even after Brexit. Comments were followed by discussion with scholars from Poland, the United States, and New Zealand.

Liss, Erchull Study on Selfies and Self-Objectification Featured on WVTF

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Professor of Psychological Science Miriam Liss

Professors of Psychological Science Miriam Liss and Mindy Erchull’s recent study into selfies and self-objectification among young women was recently featured on WVTF 88.3 Radio IQ.

YouTube is loaded with videos advising young women on how to take a good selfie.

“You just have to find your good side. Like this is my good side, but this side is a no!” says one.

Professor of Psychological Science Mindy Erchull

Professor of Psychological Science Mindy Erchull

Which is why psychology professor Miriam Liss chose to take a closer look. She and her colleague Mindy Erchull studied 165 female students at their school – the University of Mary Washington. They found some girls took as many as 30 selfies before posting one.

“They’re thinking ‘How does my body look? Is my tummy looking big, are my arms flabby, does my nose look too big?’” she explains. “We’re often putting ourselves in a state of self-objectification.”

And that could lead to serious psychological problems: eating disorders, depression, anxiety, sexual dysfunction, a loss of a sense of flow, which is the ability to be in the moment and enjoy what you’re doing. Read more.

Supplier Expo March 3, 10 AM – 2 PM

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UMW’s Procurement Services Department is hosting the Annual Supplier Expo on March 3, 2020 at 10 a.m.!

Featuring 50+ vendors – showcasing all sorts of goods and services!

Find Micro & Contracted vendors to fill your department needs!

Sample products and find services galore!

Free Event!

Sodexo snacks, Pepsi, vending companies, & more!

This is a work event! Bring your boss or coworkers!

Door Prizes every 30 minutes!

 

Nominate a Student for 2020 Eagle Awards!

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Looking for a way to recognize exceptional student leadership on campus?  Every year, the Office of Student Activities and Engagement (SAE) hosts the Eagle Awards gathering in partnership with the Center for Community Engagement.

The UMW Eagle Awards program highlights students, student organizations, staff, and faculty who have provided leadership on campus through involvement in activities and organizations. The Eagle Awards are an opportunity for the University community to recognize those who have made extraordinary contributions to the campus and greater community. There are over 15 awards for students, organizations, and programs.

Any member of the student body, faculty, or staff can nominate deserving students or organizations. Nominations are due by March 11, and the Eagle Awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, April 16, 2020, at 6:00 PM in Chandler Ballroom. Winners will be announced at the ceremony. The event will offer light hors d’oeurves and is free and open to all students, faculty, staff, friends, and family.

Martin Discusses Eagle Resource Closet on WVTF

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UMW first-years work with CCE Faculty Director Leslie Martin to stock the Eagle Resource Closet, a food pantry on the fifth floor of Lee Hall. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.

Leslie Martin, faculty director of UMW’s Center for Community Engagement and associate professor of sociology, was recently interviewed by WVTF 88.3 Radio IQ about food insecurity among college students and how the Eagle Resource Closet at UMW is addressing this issue.

Many schools around Virginia try to attract students from low-income families with scholarships, grants and loans – but with the cost of living going up, some of those kids run out of cash. That’s prompted universities to open food pantries.

In the attic of an administration building at the University of Mary Washington there’s a large room known as the Eagle Resource Closet. Professor Leslie Martin says you might not know it was there.

“It does provide a lot of privacy,” she explains.

And that’s by design. When the university questioned students they said anonymity was important, and a food pantry was definitely needed.

“We did a survey of students to see how much need there was, and actually almost a quarter of our student population reported being food insecure at some point,” Martin says. Read more.