jlaiacon, Author at EagleEye

Farnsworth Lectures at Scouting’s World Jamboree

August 28, 2019 by jlaiacon

Professor of Political Science Stephen Farnsworth

Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, recently presented a lecture, “Made-up News and Democratic Discourse,” at Scouting’s World Jamboree near Beckley, WV. The international jamboree is held once every four years and brings tens of thousands of scouts together to promote international understanding.

Dr. Farnsworth has also been interviewed for several stories on CTV News Channel:

Markets Tank Over Trade War

Joe Walsh Launches Campaign Against Trump

Trump Lashes Out at Puerto Rico

Whalen Presents at Two Conferences

August 28, 2019 by jlaiacon

Associate Professor of English Zach Whalen

Zach Whalen, Associate Professor of English, gave two professional presentations over the summer. In June, he gave a talk titled “Against Blogging” at the Domains 2019 conference. He reflected on the decline of blogging as a digital writing assignment and speculated on possible futures for digital writing in the classroom. In July, he went to Cork, Ireland for the 2019 conference of the Electronic Literature Organization. There, he presented about his ongoing research on computer-generated text, specifically the “National Novel Generation Month” community of practice (NaNoGenMo). He will be continuing that project this fall as a URES 197 project with the help of some research assistants.

Blevins and Whalen Present at Conferences

August 28, 2019 by jlaiacon

Assistant Professor of English Brenta Blevins

Brenta Blevins, Assistant Professor of English, and Zach Whalen, Associate Professor of English, with Lee Skallerup Bessette, Learning Design Specialist of Georgetown University (previously Instructional Technology Specialist at UMW). recently gave presentations that constituted a panel at the 2019 Computers and Writing Conference, held at Eastern Michigan University in East Lansing, MI in June 2019.

The panel, entitled “The Digital Studies 101 Website: Developing and Using an Ethical ‘Un-Textbook,’” described teaching Digital Studies 101 at UMW using the Digital Studies 101 DGST101.net website, which is a common, free, open educational website used in lieu of a physical textbook. In describing the development and uses of the UMW Digital Studies 101 website, the panel addressed the ethical priorities, pedagogical benefits, and curricular opportunities for UMW’s Digital Studies program. The presenters described the programmatic history and impetus for the initial development of the website; presented on continuing development, instructor use, and pedagogical implications of the website; and addressed student use of the website.

Associate Professor of English Zach Whalen

The DGST101.net OER resource has had 30,000 visits since 2016 and supports the #OpenEdVA initiative and the Commonwealth’s goals around open educational resources (OER).

This trio also presented a poster on this same topic at the Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH) in Pittsburgh, PA, in July 2019. There they had the opportunity to talk one-on-one with Digital Humanities faculty and staff from around the world.

At the same conference, Blevins also presented her project “Developing Avatar Ethos in Mixed Reality Protests” analyzing the rhetorical strategies recent protesters in Spain, France, and South Korea employed using Mixed Reality, a medium that combines virtual elements with material objects. When in-person gatherings have been legally banned or prohibited by such existential threats as terrorism, protesters have used digital technology to create virtual avatars for demonstrating at physical protest sites. While the three analyzed protests all successfully used Mixed Reality to achieve traditional protest aims related to political and environmental activism, these technologies in the future could be disrupted or employed by counter-protesters, to attack or misrepresent protesters, or otherwise subvert demonstrations.

Finally, at the same conference, Whalen also presented a paper as part of a cross-institutional panel on “What Do We Teach When We Teach DH across Disciplines?”

Stommel Comments on Cellphones in Classrooms, Teacher-Student Communication

August 28, 2019 by jlaiacon

Jesse Stommel, Senior Lecturer of Digital Studies

Jesse Stommel, Senior Lecturer in Digital Studies, commented in several national media outlets on students’ use of cellphones in classrooms. “It’s better to help students figure out how to manage distractions instead of trying to eliminate it,” said Stommel to NBC News. He believes that schools shouldn’t ban the devices from classrooms. “It’s better to harness it and help make it productive.”

“What I’m particularly opposed to are blanket device bans that fail to recognize that different humans learn in different ways at different times,” Stommel said in another interview with Yahoo news.

Stommel also spoke to Inside Higher Ed about email communication between students and teachers:

Stommel “warned against advocating broadly ‘for one specific way students should address teachers.’ The relationships between teachers and students are ‘idiosyncratic and influenced by the pedagogical approach of individual teachers, the institutions where they work and the specific courses they teach,’ he said. “And teachers from marginalized communities have different challenges than those with more privilege. There is no one and no easy solution.’ ”

Marsh Speaks About Suffrage Movement on 19th Amendment Anniversary

August 28, 2019 by jlaiacon

Kristin Marsh, associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Kristin Marsh, associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, spoke at the League of Women Voters of the Fredericksburg Area meeting at the Central Rappahannock Regional Library Monday in celebration of Women’s Equality Day. It honors the anniversary of the date when the 19th Amendment, which prohibits states and the federal government from denying the right to vote on the basis of sex, became official.

Marsh discussed how the women’s movement occurred in three waves, beginning with the suffrage movement in the 1920s, and continuing with the push for Equal Rights in the late 1960s and 1970s, who fought and won access to law school, medical school and academia, resulting in half of Ph.D.s being women. Their daughters and students began the third wave. Marsh noted that since 1980, more women have cast ballots than men, and she discussed the forecast for women voters in next year’s presidential election. “All predictions are that in 2020, the turnout is going to be even higher.”

Richardson Column in The Free Lance-Star

August 28, 2019 by jlaiacon

College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson

College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson’s weekly column in The Free Lance-Star discusses when it’s acceptable to move an employee to another division:

SUPPOSE a manager comes up to you and says “I know Lynne is bad at her job, but she’s a lovely person, so I’m transferring her to your team.”

How would you react?

I happen to know that this exact thing once occurred at a business that will remain nameless.

Mary Washington Names New Baseball Coach

August 27, 2019 by jlaiacon

The University of Mary Washington announced the hire of Kelly Swiney as the new baseball coach. He is only the third man to lead the program in its three-decade history. He previously spent two seasons at Westminster College, and spent nine years at his alma mater, Allegheny College, before that. Read more.

UMW Museums Featured in Civil War Magazine

August 27, 2019 by jlaiacon

University of Mary Washington museums, Gari Melchers Home and Studio and the James Monroe Museum, were both highlighted in the fall quarterly issue of The Civil War Monitor magazine. Read more.

SlideFXBG Returns This Saturday

August 22, 2019 by jlaiacon

Grab your swimsuit and sunscreen because SlideFXBG returns this Saturday, Aug. 31 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m! The three-lane, 1,000-foot slip-and-slide moves from Hanover to William St. this year, and will start from just below the intersection on College Ave. and runs to the intersection of Sunken Road.

SlideFXBG is open to young and old, but sliders must be at least 40 inches tall and must use an inflatable tube. Tickets, which cost $27, are available at slidefxbg.com in two-hour blocks that begin at 11 a.m. No one will be able to enter the line for the slide after 6:45 p.m.

Volunteers from University of Mary Washington athletic teams will be on hand to assist with set up, quality control, breakdown and cleanup. Fredericksburg’s Economic Development Authority will make a donation to UMW Athletics for their work.

Farnsworth Lectures at Fake News Hackathon in Malaysia

August 21, 2019 by jlaiacon

Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of UMW’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies

Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, recently presented a lecture, “How Governments and Media Companies Struggle with Fake News,” at the Break the Fake Hackathon, a project of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative and U.S. Department of State. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Professor Farnsworth, who was in Malaysia this summer as a Fulbright Specialist at Methodist College Kuala Lumpur, also judged the hackathon entries, projects designed to assist in the identification of fake news or to reduce its dissemination.

Dr. Farnsworth has also been quoted in several national and world news stories:

Virginia Republican in close race now backs ‘red flag’ gun bill (The Washington Post, Greenwich Time)

Trump steps up attack on Congresswoman (CTV News Canada)

Presidential Health, a private or public matter? (Revista Credencial)

Democrats see boost in fundraising (Chesterfield Observer)

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