A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff
UMW’s College of Business created a YouTube video to congratulate the Class of 2020, and specifically COB graduates, on completing their degrees. Compiled by Assistant Professor of Management Alexandra Dunn, the video features COB Dean Lynne Richardson, President Troy Paino and faculty from across the college.
Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation Lauren McMillan
Lauren McMillan, assistant professor of historic preservation, was recently elected president of the Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference. She will serve as the president-elect until March 2021, at which time she will transition into the president position. The Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference facilitates a yearly conference and professional journal for archaeologists working the Mid-Atlantic region. McMillan has been a member of this conference since 2007, while a student at UMW, and has previously served as the program chair, social media chair, and as a student paper judge.
Vice President for Enrollment Management Kimberley Buster-Williams
Kimberley Buster-Williams, vice president for enrollment management, participated in American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) virtual Coffee Talk event on Friday, May 1, 2020. Buster-Williams presented with colleagues Tom Green, Stan Henderson, and Jody Gordon (University of the Fraser Valley). The 60-minute session was titled, “AACRAO Coffee Break: Enrollment Planning for COVID-19 and Beyond.”
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.
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/.
Yuan-Jen Chiang, Professor of Mathematics, published a research article “Exponentially Harmonic Maps, Gauss Maps and Gauss Sections” in the Mediterranean Journal of Mathematics in Europe.
Professor of Mathematics Yuan-Jen Chiang
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.
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.
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.
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.