Professional Notes Archives

Erchull Comments about Gendered Marketing

April 29, 2019 by Marty Morrison

Professor of Psychological Science Mindy Erchull

Professor of Psychological Science Mindy Erchull was quoted in the article “Selling confidence or starvation: How gendered marketing will call you a ‘babe’ and sell you diet suppressants” for the publication MEAWW. Erchull, who focuses on feminist issues said: “These campaigns send the message that one way to be empowered – often a key way – is to focus on one’s appearance,” she laments, adding, “[The claim that] one way to ‘improve’ one’s appearance to better conform to the narrow, largely unachievable, societal beauty standards for women would then be to use the products being advertised. Essentially, the positive message about empowerment is being tied to problematic cultural practices thereby undermining the likelihood that girls and women really benefit from this seemingly positive message.” To view the article, visit
https://meaww.com/jameela-jamil-appetite-suppressants-kardashian-family-flat-tummy-co.

Richardson Column in The Free Lance-Star

April 29, 2019 by jlaiacon

College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson

Read College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson’s latest column in The Free Lance-Star: Having an Opinion with no Experience.

I seem to hear more and more stories about people expressing an “expert” opinion when they’ve not had personal experience with the subject for which they have an opinion.

It reminds me a bit of when people who don’t have children have all of the answers about raising children.

The workplace is complicated, comprising many individuals, each with their own issues. Sometimes I wonder how we get anything done. Businesses are made up of people who generally work together to achieve a common goal. Considering the problems that could arise, it’s amazing the goal is ever reached. Read more.

Dreiss Presents Paper at Virginia Humanities Conference

April 24, 2019 by jlaiacon

Professor of Art History Joseph Dreiss

Professor of Art History Joseph Dreiss presented a paper entitled “The Aesthetics of Flow: Achieving Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Optimal Experience through Contemplative Practice with Visual Art” at the Virginia Humanities Conference at Virginia Wesleyan University on April 12-13, 2019.

Al-Tikriti Publishes Article on Turkish Municipal Elections

April 24, 2019 by jlaiacon

The Middle East Report Online (MERO) published an article by Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies Nabil Al-Tikriti, entitled “Turkish Voters Upset Erdogan’s Competitive Authoritarianism.” In the course of this article, Professor Al-Tikriti analyzed the political and economic dynamics driving the results of the March 31, 2019 Turkish municipal elections, which proved a major defeat for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

“Turkish voters sent a strong message to its long-standing ruling party and its leader on March 31, 2019 that the government’s authoritarian turn has not fully succeeded,” Al-Tikriti said. “In nationwide municipal elections, for the first time in a quarter century, the political movement largely associated with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lost control over both the country’s economic and political capitals, as well as numerous other districts throughout the country…” Read more.

Barry Publishes Monograph Bishops in Flight

April 24, 2019 by jlaiacon

Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry

Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Jennifer Barry published her first monograph, Bishops in Flight: Exile and Displacement in Late Antiquity, with the University of California Press.

A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.

Book Abstract:
Flight during times of persecution has a long and fraught history in early Christianity. In the third century, bishops who fled were considered cowards or, worse yet, heretics. On the face, flight meant denial of Christ and thus betrayal of faith and community. But by the fourth century, the terms of persecution changed as Christianity became the favored cult of the Roman Empire. Prominent Christians who fled and survived became founders and influencers of Christianity over time.

Bishops in Flight examines the various ways these episcopal leaders both appealed to and altered the discourse of Christian flight to defend their status as purveyors of Christian truth, even when their exiles appeared to condemn them. Their stories illuminate how profoundly Christian authors deployed theological discourse and the rhetoric of heresy to respond to the phenomenal political instability of the fourth and fifth centuries.

Foss Presents at Popular Culture Association National Meeting

April 24, 2019 by jlaiacon

Professor of English Chris Foss

Professor of English Chris Foss presented a paper entitled “My Favorite Comic Is Monster Girl: Helene Fischer’s Crip Re-appropriation of Monstrosity” as part of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association national conference at the Wardham Park Marriott in Washington, DC. In his paper, Foss argued that for all the well-deserved accolades that have greeted Marjorie Liu’s Monstress and Emil Ferris’s My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Helene Fischer’s humble and unheralded Monster Girl most fully realizes the transformative potential of a crip re-appropriation of monstrosity. Monster Girl features an autistic artist’s rendering of an autistic protagonist. It not only is explicitly engaged in illuminating the lived experience of disability, but it further constitutes a generative starting point for the further exploration of the metaphorical assumptions about disability and monstrosity while reaffirming the crucial role of the genre’s own hybridity in foregrounding such considerations. Even though it is only a short four-page comic, Monster Girl offers a complex tapestry of the nexus of disability and monstrosity, suggesting various enabling possibilities for a crip re-visioning of disabled monstrosity. Embodying the particularly promising potential such a hybrid genre holds for the deconstruction of traditional templates and the (re)construction of empowering alternatives to said monstrosity, it speaks to the wonderful extent to which such a comics text may productively produce excitement and empathy instead of hatred and horror.

Mathews Presents Paper at Harvard University Symposium

April 24, 2019 by jlaiacon

Professor of Religious Studies Mary Beth Mathews

Professor of Religious Studies Mary Beth Mathews presented an invited paper, “Doctrine, Race, and Education: The American Baptist Theological Seminary and Jim Crow,” at Harvard University’s Symposium on Religion and Public Life in Africa and the Americas, sponsored by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. She argued that African American theological seminaries in the American South are a neglected but necessary avenue for understanding how African American evangelicals negotiated racial barriers to education and constructed autonomous spaces for theological development.

Magrakvelidze Wins Chi Beta Phi Faculty Award

April 24, 2019 by jlaiacon

Assistant Professor of Physics Maia Magrakvelidze

Assistant Professor of Physics Maia Magrakvelidze was awarded the 7^th annual Chi Beta Phi Faculty Award. Chi Beta Phi is an interdisciplinary math and science honor society for undergraduates, which seeks to promote STEM disciplines and recognize academic achievements. The Faculty Award is a student-nominated award given to a professor in the STEM disciplines who demonstrates outstanding teaching and outreach to students. Students commented that Dr. Magrakvelidze is enthusiastic in the classroom, always willing to help students understand, and makes difference in their lives.

Erchull Quoted in Article on Teen Body Image and the Rise of Cosmetic Surgery

April 24, 2019 by Christie Pugh

Professor of Psychological Science Mindy Erchull

Professor of Psychological Science Mindy Erchull was quoted in an article on MEA WorldWide entitled “‘Unrealistically perfect images’ on social media influencing more and more teens to go under the knife.” Professor Erchull said, “The answer to more and more teens opting for cosmetic surgeries lies in how these young kids perceive their own body image and their thought process built around it.” Read more.

Greenlaw Quoted on Grade Distribution in Inside Higher Ed

April 24, 2019 by Christie Pugh

Professor of Economics Steven Greenlaw

Professor of Economics Steven Greenlaw was quoted in an article on InsideHigherEd.com entitled “Forced to Fail Students?” The article examines an accusation by a former professor at Arizona State University who says he was fired for failing to adhere to grading quotas. “Asking professors to strictly follow a grade distribution is highly unusual,” Greenlaw said. “If a professor is giving out too many A’s, that might necessitate a conversation, but not a mandate to fail a specific proportion of the class.” Read more.

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