A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff
Associate Professor of English Ben LaBreche
Ben LaBreche, Associate Professor of English, along with Jason Kerr of Brigham Young University, recently co-edited a special issue of the Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies on “The Varieties of Political Theology,” and that issue has now been released.
Associate Professor of English Shumona Dasgupta
Shumona Dasgupta, Associate Professor of English, presented the paper “Memory, Trauma, and Violence: The Partition in Indian Cinema” at the 28th annual British Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies conference in Savannah, Georgia, on February 16, 2019.
Nominations for Eagle Awards are now open! This ceremony highlights students, student organizations, staff, and faculty who have provided leadership and contributed outstanding service 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.
This year’s ceremony will be held on Thursday, April 18 at 6 p.m. in the Chandler Ballroom. Light hors d’oeuvres will be offered and everyone is invited to attend!
Learn more about the 2019 Eagle Awards ceremony and description of the awards here.
We hope that you’ll consider nominating any outstanding students, organizations, or faculty/staff. The nomination form can be found here. If that link does not work, copy and paste the following link into your browser: www.bit.ly/EagleAwards2019
Nominations will be open until 5 p.m. on Monday, March 18.
Thank you in advance for helping us recognize our outstanding student leaders!
Cedric Rucker, associate vice president and dean of Student Life
He’s been a big name on campus for nearly four decades. Now UMW’s Cedric Rucker joins other big names – tennis legend Arthur Ashe, former Virginia Sen. Henry Marsh III and opera singer Lisa Edwards Burrs – on Richmond Public Schools’ (RPS) Black History Month Influential list.
The honorees – all of whom attended Richmond schools, including Rucker, Mary Washington associate vice president and dean of Student Life – were recognized as African-Americans who have forged ahead and made a difference in their fields.
“We wanted to show our students that anything is possible, and Dean Rucker’s experiences are definitely a testimony to that,” said RPS’ Renee Carter, who shared the campaign on social media throughout the month. “Dean Rucker is the epitome of a successful black male as well as a trailblazer … He has shown that he is dedicated not only to his profession, but to the students he interacts with as well as his community.” Read more.
Political Science Professor Elizabeth Larus
Political Science Professor Elizabeth Freund Larus has received a prestigious 2019-20 U.S. Fulbright grant. She has been named a Fulbright Scholar who will conduct field research throughout Poland and parts of Eastern Europe during spring semester 2020.
Elizabeth Larus will manage research on the impact China’s Belt and Road Initiative, known as the new Silk Road, in Eastern and Central Europe will have on the European Union. She will interview government officials, business associates and academics to determine if the initiative is dividing the European Union into countries that support the initiative – such as Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and other Central and Eastern European countries – and the core EU countries of Germany France and UK who are critical of the initiative in Europe.
“I will seek to determine if this split will have a negative impact on European Union stability,” said Larus, who will be hosted by the Marie Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland.
A well-respected expert on the politics of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, Larus has been quoted in international media outlets, including The Financial Times, CNBC and the China Global Television Network (CGTN).
Before coming to UMW, Larus conducted field research when she lived three years in Asia and served as press secretary for former U.S. Congressman Hal Daub. She speaks Mandarin Chinese and is the author of books on Chinese economic reform, and politics and society in contemporary China. Her articles have been published in numerous professional journals. In 2015 Larus was awarded a Taiwan fellowship by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to conduct research on U.S. rebalance to the Asia-Pacific. Among her other awards, she was a 2007-08 academic fellow of The Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Other honors included a dissertation fellowship, two duPont fellowships from the University of Virginia, a Lingnan Foundation Research Grant and a Pacific Cultural Foundation Grant.
The Fulbright Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange program. The scholarship program gives professors a unique opportunity as ambassadors of American higher education, pursuing research and teaching opportunities around the world. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program sends American scholars, artists, faculty and professionals abroad to lecture and/or conduct research for up to a year.
For more information, visit https://www.umw.edu/news/2019/02/26/umw-political-science-faculty-receive-prestigious-fulbright-awards.
Stephen Farnsworth, professor of Political Science
Political Science Professor Stephen J. Farnsworth has received a prestigious 2019-20 U.S. Fulbright grant. He has been named a Fulbright Specialist and will spend much of the upcoming summer teaching American government at Methodist College in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
“With the fascinating Trump presidency well underway and with the 2020 presidential election season getting started, now is a great time to be talking with Malaysian students about American government and politics,” said Farnsworth.
This grant is the second Fulbright award for Farnsworth, who is director of UMW’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies. During the 2006-2007 academic year, he was a Canada-U.S. Research Chair in Public Policy at McGill University in Montreal where he collaborated on several research articles on Canadian and U.S. politics. He also began work on The Global President: International Media and the U.S. Government, one of the six books he has authored or co-authored.
The Fulbright Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange program. The scholarship program gives professors a unique opportunity as ambassadors of American higher education, pursuing research and teaching opportunities around the world. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program sends American scholars, artists, faculty and professionals abroad to lecture and/or conduct research for up to a year. The Fulbright Specialist Program provides short-term opportunities for overseas universities to collaborate with U.S.-based scholars on education projects.
For more information about Farnsworth and the recognition, visit https://www.umw.edu/news/2019/02/26/umw-political-science-faculty-receive-prestigious-fulbright-awards.
The award-winning documentary Intelligent Lives will premiere on the Fredericksburg campus Thursday, March 7, from noon to 3:30 p.m. in the Hurley Convergence Center Digital Auditorium. A panel discussion will follow the film, which stars three pioneering young adults with intellectual disabilities – Micah, Naieer, and Naomie – who challenge perceptions of intellig
ence as they navigate high school, college, and the workforce.
The documentary is co-hosted by UMW’s College of Education and Gladys H. Oberle School in Fredericksburg. Admission is free, but registration is requested at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/intelligent-lives-tickets-54981928428.
“Intelligent Lives is a film to help us better understand the value and potential of the lives of people with intellectual disabilities by challenging our assumptions about intelligence, said COB Dean Peter Kelly. “I am grateful to partner with the Gladys H. Oberle School to share this important learning experience with students, teachers, and educators in the area.”
Academy Award-winning actor and narrator Chris Cooper contextualizes the lives of these central characters through the emotional story of his son Jesse, as the film unpacks the shameful and ongoing track record of intelligence testing in the U.S.
“People with intellectual disabilities are the most segregated of all Americans,” said Dan Habib, a New Hampshire-based filmmaker who is the documentary’s producer, director and cinematographer. “Only 17 percent of students with intellectual disabilities are included in regular education. Just 40 percent will graduate from high school. And of the 6.5 million Americans with intellectual disability, barely 15 percent are employed.”
Don’t despair if you missed the Feb. 5 Great Lives lecture about Benedict Arnold at Dodd Auditorium. C-SPAN will air the show on Saturday, March 2, on C-SPAN3. The segment also can be seen online at https://www.c-span.org/video/?457569-1/benedict-arnold. The lecture was presented by George Washington Professor Joyce Lee Malcolm, author of The Tragedy of Benedict Arnold: An American Life.
C-SPAN also plans to be on the Fredericksburg campus next month to cover the upcoming lectures: Radium Girls, presented by New York bestselling author Kate Moore on Thursday, March 14, and Rocket Girls, presented by science writer and author Nathalia Holt on Tuesday, March 19.
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