A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff
Assistant Professor of Communication Adria Goldman
Adria Goldman, Assistant Professor of Communication, was recently quoted multiple times as an expert in African American women and popular culture in the opinion piece “Is Gabrielle Union’s truth really that different from Julianne Hough’s?” in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/gabrielle-union-truth-really-that-different-from-julianne-hough/apuKsK3NXBpXvrPqUKayVJ/
On December 6, 2019, Jennifer Barry, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, was invited to give a talk at the University of Pennsylvania hosted by the Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins. Barry presented material she has been working on during her Jepson Fellowship held for the 2019-2020 academic year. Research from the talk, “A Bad Romance: Domestic Violence in Late Antiquity,” is included in a section of her book that focuses on hagiographical narratives that promote and preserve gender based violence.
A recording of the talk will soon be made available for the public.
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry
Jennifer Barry, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, recently presented in two panels and moderated a third panel at the national conference for the Society of Biblical Literature and American Academy of Religion held in San Diego, CA.
For the first panel, Barry presented new research for her next book project. The paper titled,“Queen Mab visits the Fathers: Fantastic Dreams and Male Desire Revisited,” was presented in the program unit on Religious World of Late Antiquity.
The second panel was held in honor of the esteemed career of Judith Perkins. Barry was asked to contribute her paper, “A Bad Romance: Melania the Younger and the male fantasy,” which builds on many of the important interventions Perkins has made to the subfield of Christian Apocrypha.
In addition to these two panels, Barry organized and moderated a pre-arranged panel on biblical receptions of exile. She now serves as an appointed Steering Committee Member for Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature program unit. The pre-arranged panel, Late Antique reception histories of biblical flight: Part I pre-Constantinian period, is the first of two invitational sessions on the reception histories of biblical exile in the long late-antiquity. Many early Christian and non-Christian thinkers looked to biblical text(s) for types and models of flight. Invitees were asked to engage the topic of biblical exile and its reception in the late ancient period. The first session engaged the pre-Constantinian period. A select number of papers will be published in peer-reviewed special journal issue.
She was also elected to serve as a council member on the SBAllies. The informal group is committed to the idea that every scholar, no matter their identity, should be able to participate in a thoughtful and open exchange of ideas without fear or intimidation. Their primary purpose is to inform society members about the SBL anti-harassment policy and to provide information and resources for those who are considering reporting when that policy is violated.
Associate Professor of Middle East History Nabil Al-Tikriti joined a roundtable entitled “Iraqi Studies across Disciplines: The Future for an Iraqi Research Center,” at the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Conference on Friday, November 15, in New Orleans, LA.
The roundtable abstract was: “Due to the ongoing legacies of sanctions, authoritarianism, violence, and foreign interventions we have now suffered over 20 years of disconnect between international scholars, who do research in Iraq studies, and their ability to conduct that research inside of Iraq. Following on The Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TARII)’s recently established Center for Research in Baghdad we propose a roundtable to review the state of Iraq Studies in all disciplines and how our research center in Baghdad can contribute to the future of the field. TARII is a registered non-profit devoted to promoting scholarly research on and in Iraq and to strengthen relationships between Iraqi and American scholars and institutions. At this time in particular, Iraq’s important role on the world stage necessitates facilitating research on Iraq with a full and accurate context that can be best accessed inside Iraq. With this panel we hope to provide the opportunity for a robust discussion covering Iraqi history, contemporary politics, cultural heritage, and cultural production across disciplines today.”
Prof. Al-Tikriti originally intended to provide a summary of today’s scholarly literature addressing Iraq during the Ottoman era, he instead provided a set of ideas concerning the future of Iraqi studies with a newly re-opened TARII center in Baghdad, Iraq, based on his experiences with other regional research institutes.
Other participants in the roundtable included Drs. Alda Benjamin, Antoine Borrut, and Katharyn Hanson, who organized the event on behalf of TARII.
Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, is co-author of a new book, Late Night with Trump: Political Humor and the American Presidency, published this week by Routledge Press, an academic publisher. The book was funded by Dr. Farnsworth’s Waple Fellowship .
From the publisher: “Political humor has been a staple of late-night television for decades. The Trump White House, however, has received significantly greater attention than that of past presidents, such as Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and even Bill Clinton. In response to Trump’s strident politics, late-night comics, including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Trevor Noah and Jimmy Fallon, have sounded key policy notes, further blurring the boundary between news and satire. Weekly humorists, including John Oliver and Samantha Bee, extend the critique with in-depth probing of key issues, while Saturday Night Live continues to tap the progression from outrage to outrageousness.”
“Using unique content analysis techniques and qualitative discussions of political humor, Farnsworth and Lichter show how late-night political humor, and these seven programs in particular, have responded to the Trump presidency. Employing a dataset of more than 100,000 late night jokes going back decades, these noted media scholars discuss how the treatment of Trump differs from previous presidents, and how the Trump era is likely to shape the future of political humor. The authors also employ public opinion survey data to consider the growing role these late-night programs play in framing public opinion and priorities. This book will interest scholars, the curious public, and students of politics, communications and the media, and contemporary American culture.”
Dr. Farnsworth has also been quoted in several regional and national news stories:
The Growing Cost of Virginia Elections (WVTF)
Post-election, Virginia dodges Medicaid work requirements (WHSV)
Democrats Outline Articles of Impeachment Against President Trump (CP24.com)
UMW College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson
College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson’s weekly column in The Free Lance-Star explores how business owners should manage the people who handle the books. Read TRUST, BUT VERIFY.
TOO OFTEN, I read about organizations that have employees embezzle money. In the last year in my community, an organization had it happen to them for the second time in about five years. That really makes me scratch my head.
I am biased as a business school person, but shouldn’t everyone know a little bit about business? And if it’s a business you own, wouldn’t you really want to understand what’s going on?
I have a friend who is fond of saying, ‘trust, but verify.’ I think he’s onto something. Read more.
Associate Professor of Political Science Rosalyn Cooperman
Associate Professor of Political Science Rosalyn Cooperman was interviewed for an article in the Sunflower State Journal on a Women’s Republican PAC’s decision to get involved in a primary race between two female GOP candidates.
“It’s highly significant,” said Cooperman. “What is unusual about this move is that it came so early and it came in a race with other Republican women. That to me is the most noteworthy thing.” Read more.
Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pamela Grothe
Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Science Pamela Grothe has had the results of a study she co-authored published in several scientific journals and websites, as well as Forbes. According to the study, originally published in Geophysical Research Letters, El Niño swings have intensified to 25% stronger in the Industrial Age. Grothe performed the study under Kim Cobb, principal investigator and professor in Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. As the study’s first author, Grothe compared temperature-dependent chemical deposits on coral that was recently extracted to that of older coral records showing relevant sea surface temperatures from the past 7,000 years. Then, with the assistance of Georgia Tech collaborators and other partner research institutions, she identified patterns in the El Niño Southern Oscillation, swings of heating and cooling equatorial Pacific waters that cause El Niños and La Niñas to form every few years.
New and Strange Climate Pattern Includes More Violent El Nino Swings (SciTechDaily)
El Nino seeing extreme swings in the industrial age (Space Daily)
Has El Nino Become More Intense In The Industrial Age? (Forbes)
Elizabeth Freund Larus, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs
Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Freund Larus spoke to the South China Morning Post in an article on how the Hong Kong protests are impacting the Taiwanese elections. Larus said “that in most polls Tsai had a significant lead over Han, bolstered by young voters who supported the Hong Kong protesters. ‘The Tsai camp clearly has momentum, while Han appears to be stuck looking for the right message, which is much too late in the campaign cycle,’ she said.” Read more.
Janie Lee, Associate Professor of Linguistics
Janie Lee, Associate Professor of Linguistics, presented her research at the 2019 meeting of the American Anthropological Association and the Canadian Anthropology Society in Vancouver. Her paper was “Migrants as Language Experts and Subtitles as Listening Subject in South Korean Television” and was part of the panel “Redefining the Language Professional: Shifting Duties and Changing Institutional Climates.” The paper investigated the way Korean ethnonationalism was enabled in entertainment media through the use of unconventional subtitling practices for migrant speech.