February 18, 2026

EagleEye

A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff

UMW CPRD and BU Classical Studies Co-host Webinar on Social Justice in the Discipline

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US and UK Scholars tackle social justice and the uses/misuses of Classics in Western education

The departments of Classics, Philosophy, and Religious Studies and Classical Studies at Boston University co-sponsored a webinar entitled “RES DIFFICILES: A Conference On Challenges and Pathways for Addressing Inequity In the Ancient Greek and Roman World,” on Friday, May 15, 2020, with American and British scholars and broadcast to nearly 250 attendees in the U.S., U.K., and a dozen other countries from Australia to Russia. The co-hosts, Joseph Romero (UMW Classics) and Hannah Čulík-Baird (BU Classical Studies), assembled a group of scholars to address a critical issue in a discipline that is rapidly transforming itself into a significant contributor in the humanities for social justice. Romero also delivered a paper entitled, “Walking the the Cleopatra Ode (Hor. carm. 1.37), Then and Now.” The conference had originally been scheduled to take place on the UMW campus, but the pivot to webinar after the COVID-19 interruption produced the happy result of convening scholars from all over the world.

Al-Tikriti Presents “Engaging with Higher Education in Azerbaijan”

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On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, Middle East History Professor Nabil Al-Tikriti presented a talk entitled “Engaging with Higher Education in Azerbaijan,” invited and hosted by Drexel University’s Global Education Curriculum. This talk was shaped by Prof. Al-Tikriti’s experiences as a Fulbright Scholar in Baku, Azerbaijan in academic year 2018-2019. In this presentation, he addressed points concerning American preconceptions of post-Soviet societies, Caucasus politics, and challenges of Higher Education in Azerbaijan. He wishes to thank Drexel University Professors Joyce Pittman and Kristy Kelly.

The event abstract read as follows: “In this talk, Prof. Nabil Al-Tikriti will describe his year serving as a Fulbright Scholar in Baku, Azerbaijan. In the course of that year, he compared his experiences teaching research methodology to undergraduates with Azerbaijani colleagues, conducted historical research in manuscript collections and university libraries, and assisted national counterparts in designing a proposed reform of Baku State University’s American Studies curriculum. In the course of his immersion, Prof. Al-Tikriti gained numerous insights into post-Soviet legacies in Higher Education, as well as in alternative models of university instruction.”

Those wishing to screen the presentation can access it via this event series link: https://drexel.edu/soe/resources/events/event-series/gec/May-12-2020-event/.

Lawson Graduates from Leadership Fredericksburg

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Kunle Lawson, head coach of UMW's cross country and track and field programs

Kunle Lawson, head coach of UMW’s cross country and track and field programs

Kunle Lawson, head coach of UMW’s cross country and track and field programs, was a graduate of the 13th Leadership Fredericksburg class, which graduated 31 fellows during a virtual ceremony May 15 on Facebook. Lawson has coached at UMW for the past four years; prior to that, he served as director of track and field at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. Congratulations, Kunle!

The 31 fellows – who came from such local organizations as Mary Washington Healthcare, Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, Rappahannock Area Community Service Board and the Central Rapphannock Regional Library – began their Leadership Fredericksburg experience last September with a personality profile assessment. Each month, community, business, nonprofit, political and educational leaders offered the fellows insights about their personal leadership journeys. In addition, each fellow was paired with a trained mentor from the business community who supported their progress throughout the program.

Prior to graduation, four teams from the class of 31 fellows presented the results of their Community Action Projects for the Fredericksburg Rescue Squad. Each team presented reports on their projects during the Project Presentations on Facebook Live. Read more.

Grothe Pens FLS Letter to the Editor on Clean Energy Act

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Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pamela Grothe

Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pamela Grothe

Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Science Pamela Grothe penned a letter to the editor of The Free Lance-Star, along with Julie Kay of the Climate Reality Project and Amanda Stebbins of Fossil Free Fredericksburg. Entitled “Cost of Clean Energy Act overblown,” the op-ed addresses the newspaper’s criticisms of clean energy and other efforts to combat climate change. The authors advocate on behalf of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, legislation that will help move the commonwealth away from reliance of fossil fuels and toward clean carbon-free energy. Read more.

Stommel Comments on Surveillance Platforms to Curb Cheating

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Jesse Stommel, Senior Lecturer of Digital Learning

Jesse Stommel, Senior Lecturer of Digital Learning

Jesse Stommel, a senior lecturer in Digital Studies, offered comments for an Inside Higher Ed article entitled, “Is the fight against cheating during remote instruction worth enlisting third-party student surveillance platforms?”

Jesse Stommel, senior lecturer in digital studies at the University of Mary Washington and co-founder of the Digital Pedagogy Lab, said “cheating is a pedagogical issue, not a technological one. There are no easy solutions.”

The work doesn’t begin “with an app or a license for a remote proctoring tool,” he said. Instead, teachers have to start by talking “openly to students about when and how learning happens,” so they take ownership of their educations.

“We have to start by trusting students and using approaches that rely on intrinsic motivation, not policies, surveillance and suspicion.” Everyone wants this pivot to all-online instruction to work, Stommel added, and anxieties about testing are high. But maintaining “the status quo isn’t possible and so-called solutions like remote proctoring tools will create many more problems than they solve.” Read more.

Farnsworth Comments on Trump’s Attacks on Mail-In Voting

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Stephen Farnsworth, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies.

Stephen Farnsworth, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies.

Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, was recently interviewed by Courthouse News about Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting.

Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington, which is nestled inside Fredericksburg, wasn’t surprised by the increased absentee turnout. In a phone interview, he said voters not only enjoy the convenience and safety of voting by mail, but it is commonplace even in some red states.

“Trump is trying to make absentee voting a partisan issue but it’s really not. Some of the most Republican states in the country have mail-in ballot systems statewide,” Farnsworth said about the president’s Twitter outburst. Read more.

Richardson Column in The Free Lance-Star

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UMW College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson

UMW College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson

College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson’s weekly column in The Free Lance-Star discusses setting routines and limits to your work schedule. Read SCHEDULES AND BOUNDARIES.

 

One of the biggest challenges of teleworking concerns schedules and boundaries. While some folks have adapted well to working from home, others would say they are failing.

Let’s start with college students. As I talked with faculty and students weekly during the last half of the spring semester, one of the recurring themes was the inability for many students to create a schedule for themselves.

It was especially difficult if the course had become asynchronous—it was not meeting at its regular time. Instead, faculty were posting videos of lectures and expecting students to watch the lectures and take quizzes or complete assignments to indicate they were “attending class,” albeit virtually. Some students, without the structure their face-to-face class schedule provided, were struggling to re-create their schedules at home. Read more.

President Paino Column Published in Richmond Times-Dispatch

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Mary Washington President Troy Paino. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.

Mary Washington President Troy Paino. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.

UMW President Troy Paino had a column published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “The importance of community in times of COVID-19,” on April 25.

Loneliness, isolation, social distancing. Our lives have been disrupted in ways we could not have imagined just a few weeks ago. While we know that now is not the time to leave our homes or relax our commitment to social distancing, now is the time to think about our lives after the pandemic ends. What will we have learned?

I am dubious of attempts to explain the particularities of anyone’s sorrow or the reasons for the more general suffering visited upon humanity in times of war, famine, natural disasters or pandemics. But amid the suffering, it is important to try to learn what the experience has taught us about ourselves and the world in which we live.

While nobody welcomes what we are going through, we have an opportunity to find meaning and purpose amid our collective suffering. In fact, suffering lays bare those things that infuse our lives with purpose in contrast to those things, while costly in time, energy, and money, that offer little in the way of enduring happiness and meaning. Read more.

Grothe Selected for American Geophysical Union’s ‘2020 Voices for Science’ Program

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Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pamela Grothe

Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pamela Grothe

Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Science Pamela Grothe was recently selected for the American Geophysical Union’s “2020 Voices for Science” program. AGU President Robin Bell shared the following with Earth and Environmental Science Chair Jodie Hayob-Matzke:

This program is available to U.S.-based scientists with strong communication skills and an interest in sharing the value and impact of Earth and space science with key decision makers, journalists, and public audiences, to increase the widespread understanding of and support for science. As a member of the 2020 class, Pamela was selected from a highly competitive applicant pool based on demonstrated leadership and the potential to positively influence the local community.

Voices for Science provides its participants with many resources, including unique skills-building workshops and toolkits focused on communications and policy; hands-on support from AGU staff in conducting and organizing outreach opportunities; and expense-paid travel to Washington, D.C. for an April workshop (made virtual this year but with a possible, later in-person component) and to San Francisco, CA for the AGU Fall Meeting in December. Beyond the professional development opportunities in the program, Pamela will also network and collaborate with the 39 other scientists selected for the program, and the 65 members of the past two year’s cohorts. 

The scientific enterprise depends heavily on federal support, and, as we are seeing now, the critical challenges of our time can only be solved if we let strong science inform our decisions. Now more than ever, it is essential for scientists to interact with policy makers, the public and the media on a regular basis. Lawmakers need to hear about critical issues both directly from scientists and from their constituents, and Pamela’s efforts to reach out to legislators on Capitol Hill and galvanize the local community can and will make a difference. 

Collectively, the Voices for Science participants will help to amplify science and its worth and help both policymakers and the broader community see that our nation continues to support and benefit from our scientific enterprise. With the help of their community of peers and AGU’s resources, these participants will be able to successfully connect with these audiences even when not speaking with them in person.

Pamela’s enthusiasm for developing and using communication and advocacy skills as part of the 2020 Voices for Science program shows a tremendous dedication to promoting science for the benefit of the scientific community and humanity at large, and AGU would like to commend her.