A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff
Assistant Professor of Education Melissa Wells
Assistant Professor of Education Melissa Wells has been appointed to the National Council of Teachers of English committee. NCTE seeks to amplify the voice of educators through personal connection, collaboration, and a shared mission to improve the teaching and learning of English and language arts at all levels.
Stephen Farnsworth, professor of Political Science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, has been selected as the Spring 2024 Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Humanities and Social Sciences at the American Studies Center of the University of Warsaw in Poland. Dr. Farnsworth has previously served as Canada-U.S. Fulbright Research Chair in Public Policy, McGill University in Montreal and as a Fulbright Specialist in Malaysia at Methodist College Kuala Lumpur.
Farnsworth has also appeared in recent media mentions, including:
Filler-Corn Not Seeking Re-election (WTOP)
“I do think that the possibility of a gubernatorial run is something to be considered seriously,” said Stephen Farnsworth.
Miriam Liss, Mindy Erchull, and their co-author Kate Richmond (of Muhlenberg College) recently learned that their textbook, Psychology of Women and Gender, published in 2019 by Norton has become the best-selling textbook in the market for psychology of women and gender courses. This is an impressive feat for a book in its first edition in a niche market.
The authors are excited by the ability to reach a wide array of students with a text that is both readable and deeply grounded in science and theory. They used an intersectional lens throughout the book to both educate about the field and critique the current state of it and provide students with tools to help them use this lens both in this course and in their lives beyond it.
Miriam, Mindy, and Kate are currently finishing the revision of their book for the second edition which will be published in January 2024.
Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Jason Davidson
Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Jason Davidson‘s commentary was published in the Atlantic Council’s publication The New Atlanticist. The piece, “No ‘free-riding’ here: European defense spending defies US critics,” begins: “Barack Obama and Donald Trump agreed on very little. Yet both former U.S. presidents critiqued NATO allies for “free riding” off of U.S. military power.” Read more.
Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Surupa Gupta
Surupa Gupta, professor of political science and international affairs, was invited by the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University to discuss India’s economic policies and strategy for economic growth in a webinar titled “India’s Approach to Globalization in the 2020s.” Participants in the webinar, held on February 14, discussed India’s policy of self-reliance as a strategy for reducing its vulnerability to external shocks such as the Covid pandemic and foster jobs and growth in the Indian economy.
Professor of Economics Steven Greenlaw
Professor of Economics Steven Greenlaw authored a chapter on how to teach effectively online in Mark Maier and Phil Ruder’s forthcoming Teaching Principles of Microeconomics by Edward Elgar Publishing. While focussed on teaching introductory economics, the principles described are applicable to most disciplines.
Associate Professor of Linguistics Paul D. Fallon
Associate Professor of Linguistics Paul D. Fallon co-presented with Daniel Yacob of the Ge‘ez Frontier Foundation at the Virginia Humanities Conference on Friday, March 3, 2023. Their paper, “A Lighthouse of Language,” discussed the contributions of the late Tekie Alibekit, a native-speaker of Blin. Tekie helped analyze and develop the Cushitic language of Eritrea, and, with Yacob’s help, succeeded in computerizing letters necessary to write Blin in Ethiopic script, letters also adopted by other languages spoken in the Horn of Africa.
Associate Professor of History Will Mackintosh
Associate Professor of History Will Mackintosh will be among presenters in the Preservation Society’s six-part lecture series, “The Gilded Age Years: Transforming America.” Americans in the Gilded Age vacationed in a growing number of northeastern summer playgrounds, from the Adirondacks to Coney Island, from Martha’s Vineyard to the Catskills, and from Saratoga to Newport. Mackintosh will explore the many and diverse summer holidays of the American Gilded Age during his lecture, “The Many Playgrounds of an Industrial Age,” on Thursday, May 4, at 6 p.m. in The Breakers Great Hall in Newport, Rhode Island, and via Zoom. Read more at What’s Up News and The Newport Buzz.
Lecturer of Spanish Patricia Orozco
Patricia Orozco, Lecturer of Spanish, contributed a paper, “Galdós y artículos de prensa: visiones de ultramar en el libro IV “Política española” as part of the Peninsular Spanish II (1700 to Present) Quadruple Session of the 2022 SAMLA Convention last November. The conference was to take place in Jacksonville, Florida, but had to switch to a virtual conference as Tropical Storm Nicole was forecasted to hit just before November 11. The articles in reference originally appeared in La Prensa, a newspaper from Buenos, Aires, Argentina, between 1883 and 1894. Her work centered on three articles dealing with overseas issues to later make connections to his novels of modernity. Among others, she points out to two issues that are still relevant today: territorial questions about La Isla del Perejil and US politics dealing with Latin America. By studying these overseas matters, Orozco noted how the author’s understanding is later reflected in some of his emblematic characters e.g., Lucrecia Richmond in El Abuelo or Cintia-Pascuala in El caballero encantado. These topics led to a discussion of how his critical eye focused on current events to create fictional worlds with pedagogical interest in mind.
Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Larus
Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Freund Larus spoke to WION News for a segment titled “U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin makes unannounced visit to Iraq.” Larus indicated that the purpose of Secretary of Defense Austin’s trip to Iraq and other Middle East states is three-fold: reaffirm U.S. commitment to Iraq, contain Iran’s influence, and discuss how to address Russian-Iran military cooperation. Watch the segment.
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