March 29, 2024

UMW’s Great Lives Series Announces 2024 Lecture Lineup

UMW’s Great Lives Series Announces 2024 Lecture Lineup

UMW’s Great Lives Series Announces 2024 Lecture Lineup

Some subjects of the 21st William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series are universally known – William Shakespeare, Martin Luther King Jr. and Elizabeth Taylor, for example. Others, including liberator and visionary Mary Lumpkin and spymaster Wild Bill Donovan, are less familiar.

But all are intriguing characters whose stories are bound to enlighten audiences of the University of Mary Washington’s hugely popular Great Lives series. Lectures will be held Tuesdays and Thursdays from January through March 2024. All are open to the public free of charge and begin at 7:30 p.m. in Dodd Auditorium of George Washington Hall.

The 2024 Great Lives lineup was announced Tuesday evening at a gala presentation that drew about 140 community supporters, donors and sponsors to the ballroom of UMW’s Jepson Alumni Executive Center.

Series founder and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History William Crawley reminded the crowd of the program’s beginnings as an academic class focused on biography as a key to understanding history. Because prominent speakers were coming to campus, a decision was made early on to open lectures to the public. Read more.

UMW Swimmer Competes in Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile

UMW swimmer Amanda Sheward will represent Team USA at the Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile.

UMW swimmer Amanda Sheward will represent Team USA at the Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile.

As a high school student in Villanova, Pennsylvania, Amanda Sheward was sure of two things: She wanted to go to college in Virginia, and she wanted to swim for her collegiate team.

Those goals achieved, the University of Mary Washington junior is on to her next challenge, and it’s a big one.

Sheward will represent the United States as a swimmer at the Parapan American Games in Santiago, Chile, Nov. 17 – 26. Held every four years, the Parapan Games bring together elite athletes from North and South American countries for a multi-sport competition. The games are a precursor to the worldwide Paralympics taking place in Paris in summer 2024.

Sheward earned her spot on the U.S. team by excelling at the Citi Para Swimming World Series meet in Minneapolis last spring. She’s on the team of 19 women and 14 men, including former UMW assistant swimming coach Zach Shattuck, a 2020 Paralympian.

Like more than half of her fellow athletes on Team USA, Sheward will be making her first major international appearance in Santiago. Read more.

UMW Theatre’s Matilda Broadens Audience Appeal With Sensory-Friendly Performance

With a smart, magical young heroine, UMW Theatre’s production of Matilda the Musical is a family-friendly spectacle. It’s fast-paced, funny, and just defiant enough to satisfy anyone who’s ever faced a bully. The production runs through Nov. 19. Shows begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, with 2 p.m. matinees on Sundays and on […]

UMW Theatre’s Matilda Broadens Audience Appeal With Sensory-Friendly Performance

With a smart, magical young heroine, UMW Theatre’s production of Matilda the Musical is a family-friendly spectacle. It’s fast-paced, funny, and just defiant enough to satisfy anyone who’s ever faced a bully. The production runs through Nov. 19. Shows begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, with 2 p.m. matinees on Sundays and on […]

UMW Honors Students Share Impressions Through City as Text Showcase

Fredericksburg neighborhoods can be welcoming and whimsical, contrasting history with a modern vibe, accessibility with obstacles, and well-tended spaces with wildscapes. Those are some of the perceptions UMW’s Honors Program students shared this week as a culminating activity in their City as Text (CaT) activities. Since late summer, they’ve explored sections of the city under […]

Gallery Exhibit Showcases UMW Studio Art Faculty Works

Studio art faculty at the University of Mary Washington are passionate about teaching, but they are also talented and dedicated artists themselves. Selected works from faculty artists are on display through Oct. 8, 2023, at the duPont Gallery on campus.

Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesdays through Sundays, and admission is free. There will be an artists’ lecture at 5 p.m. Oct. 5, 2023, at the duPont Gallery. Read more.

Gallery Exhibit Showcases UMW Studio Art Faculty Works

Studio art faculty at the University of Mary Washington are passionate about teaching, but they are also talented and dedicated artists themselves. Selected works from faculty artists are on display through Oct. 8, 2023, at the duPont Gallery on campus. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesdays through Sundays, and admission is free. […]

Students, Families Embrace New Beginnings on Move-in Day

First-year student Matt Serafin adjusts to his new room while dad Bob Serafin works on setting up a bunk bed. (Suzanne Carr Rossi photo.)

First-year student Matt Serafin adjusts to his new room while dad Bob Serafin works on setting up a bunk bed. (Suzanne Carr Rossi photo.)

It was only 5 a.m. when Matt Serafin and his parents drove away from their home in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, headed for Matt’s first year at the University of Mary Washington.

If Tamara and Bob Serafin felt any anxiety about taking the older of their two children to college, Matt wouldn’t have known. Once settled in the car with a semester’s worth of possessions, he went right back to sleep.

When the Serafin family arrived at UMW, they and hundreds more students, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents and other helpers found the unloading process running smoothly.

This year’s entering class numbers 770, with another 260 transfer students. But several student groups had arrived on campus days early to participate in pre-semester activities, and returning upperclass students will move in this weekend. So first-year move-in day – Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023 – was chill both figuratively and literally. Read more.

UMW Summer Study-Abroad Programs Open a World of Learning

Students leaned into the theatre experience, seeing at least 17 productions during their London trip.

Students leaned into the theatre experience, seeing at least 17 productions during their London trip.

It wasn’t just the chance to earn summertime academic credit that inspired Emma Magner ’24 to join “UMW Theatre in London,” a three-week immersion in one of the world’s greatest and most historic theatre cities.

“We do earn six credits for going on the trip,” Magner said, “but I signed up for the experience of being abroad in London and the opportunities to see amazing shows and to learn more about the history of theatre.”

Led by Assistant Professor of Theatre Marc Williams, the trip was packed with performances, theatre history and other cultural opportunities. Students took a behind-the-scenes tour of William Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and visited Shakespeare’s birthplace, baptismal church and burial site in Stratford-upon-Avon.

They attended 17 plays and musicals as a group, then sought out additional performances to see on their own. To encourage deeper reflection, Williams asked participants to wait 24 hours after each performance before discussing what they’d seen, heard and experienced.

The London trip was just one of several summer study-abroad experiences led by UMW faculty and facilitated by the Center for International Education (CIE). This season’s programs and destinations – some still ongoing – include ancient and early modern empires in Italy; cultural tours of France; digital production, international business and historic preservation in Paris, France; and an exploration of the cities and culture of Spain. Read more.

UMW Summer Study-Abroad Programs Open a World of Learning

It wasn’t just the chance to earn summertime academic credit that inspired Emma Magner ’24 to join “UMW Theatre in London,” a three-week immersion in one of the world’s greatest and most historic theatre cities. “We do earn six credits for going on the trip,” Magner said, “but I signed up for the experience of […]