Lauren McMillan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Historic Preservation, was elected to serve on the Nominations and Election Committee for the Society for Historical Archaeology, the lead organization for post-medieval archaeology in the world. This is a three-year position, from 2019-2021. The Society for Historical Archaeology is an international organization and is the largest scholarly group focused on the archaeology of the modern world (A.D. 1400-present).
Rochelle’s Story Chosen for Inclusion in Anthology
Professor of English Warren Rochelle’s story “Mirrors,” a gay-themed retelling of “Beauty and the Beast,” was accepted by Cuilpress and will be published in their forthcoming queering romance anthology So You Think You Know Love?.
Dasgupta Presents at Popular Culture Conference
Shumona Dasgupta, Associate Professor of English, presented a paper on Bollywood and the Partition, entitled “Mothers of the Nation: Gender and Identity in Indian Partition Cinema,” at the 29th annual Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association conference in Baltimore (November 8-9, 2018). The paper has since been nominated for the MAPACA Donald Award, which recognizes an outstanding paper and presentation delivered at MAPACA’s annual conference.
Larus Offers Insight on 2018 Taiwan Elections
Dr. Elizabeth Freund Larus, professor of Political Science and International Affairs, participated in the panel discussion “Midterm Elections in Taiwan and the United States: What Happened and What are the Implications for Taiwan-China-U.S. Relations?” organized by the Foreign Policy Research Institute and hosted by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Manhattan, N.Y., November 26. She offered insight on the impact of the election results on the U.S.-Taiwan security calculus, which can be viewed at https://udn.com/news/story/6813/3504484.
In addition, Dr. Larus was recently quoted in the Financial Times about the 2018 Taiwan elections. “The election results have introduced a high degree of uncertainty in cross-Strait relations and the U.S.-Taiwan security calculus,” said Dr. Larus. To read the article, visit https://www.ft.com/content/266c5896-f03a-11e8-9623-d7f9881e729f.
Farnsworth Discusses New Presidency Book on C-Span
Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, discussed his new book, “Presidential Communication and Character: White House News Management from Clinton and Cable to Twitter and Trump” at the Fall for Book Festival, held at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.
The book talk was recently broadcast on C-Span. Link here: https://www.c-span.org/video/?452900-3/discussion-presidency
Purdy Contributes to WHO Database on Research Priority-Setting
Britnae Purdy, Project Coordinator in the Office of Title IX, has published an article titled “An analysis of research priority-setting at the World Health Organization – how mapping to a standard template allows for comparison between research priority setting-approaches” in the journal Health Research Policy and Systems. By reviewing 116 documents published over 15 years by the WHO, the researchers extracted 2145 research priorities and categorized them according to disease group, priority-setting method utilized, stage in the research cycle, and document type in a common database. The goal of this interactive and open-access database is to emphasize the importance of a standardized priority-setting approach and encourage the establishment of such by the WHO Global Observatory on Health R&D. This report and database features work conducted by Purdy as a 2015 Duke University Global Policy fellow in the Special Programme for Research and Training in Neglected Tropical Diseases (TDR).
Lauren McMillan Presents on the Rappahannock Indigenous Cultural Landscape Project
Lauren McMillan, assistant professor in the Department of Historic Preservation, presented at the Rappahannock Native American Day on November 17th as part of the Rappahannock Tribe of Virginia’s celebration of Native American Heritage Month. The audience included the chief and members of the Rappahannock Tribe, the Secretary of the Commonwealth, representatives from the National Park Service, and other members of the public.
McMillan presented research resulting from the Field Methods in Archaeology course taught in the summer 2018 session, in which she and students partnered with the Rappahannock Tribe and St. Mary’s College of Maryland on the Rappahannock Indigenous Cultural Landscape Project. McMillan’s specific area of research focuses on the study of clay tobacco pipes and their decorative motifs to understand trade, interaction spheres, identity formation, and consumer choice.
Foss Publishes Book Review on New Wilde Biography
Professor of English Chris Foss has published a book review of Nicholas Frankel’s critical biography Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years (Harvard University Press) in the most recent number of The Historian. Foss endorses Frankel’s very readable book as an important revisionist take on Wilde’s life after prison, positing the longstanding insistence upon Wilde’s “decline and martyrdom” misrepresents his actual resilience. Wilde undeniably struggled with social opprobrium and creative self-doubt, not to mention relative poverty and ill health, but his “frank and unapologetic attitude” toward the openly gay lifestyle he pursued during his final four years shows him to have understood “his erotic relations with other men as a matter of personal identity,” leading Frankel to insist that “Wilde’s greatest achievement in exile was himself.” With over 13,000 subscribers, The Historian is one of the most widely circulated history journals worldwide.
John Broome Presents at National Education Conference
John P. Broome, associate professor in the College of Education, co-presented, “White-ish: An Investigation of the Educational Resources of the National Women’s History Museum,” with Dr. Lauren Colley (University of Alabama) at the College and University Faculty Assembly of the National Council for the Social Studies 2018 National Conference in Chicago, IL. This work explores the teaching materials provided by the national museum and coded for the representation of diverse women through the tenets of Critical Race Theory, White Social Studies, and Intersectional Feminism. Findings included patterns of inherent whitenss in their materials; consistent with research on marginalized women in curriculum and textbook studies. Using Gay’s (2018) culturally responsive teaching, and the “symbolic curriculum”, we provide insights and examples for the inclusion voices of diverse women through primary sources in K-12 classrooms.
Dr. Broome also served as “Discussant” for the session entitled, “Social Studies Education and Race, Part II: Critical Conversations in Teacher Education”. His talk, “Considering Trauma: Race/ism, Critical Theory, and Social Studies Teacher Education”, synthesized the four papers presented, and provided considerations into how teacher educators: 1) develop and execute critical race-based activities, 2) prepare future teachers to discuss race beyond colleges of education, and, 3) consider the limitations of theory and publications when capturing the process.
Dr. Broome’s research interests focus on the intersection of social studies and race/ism, equity, and whiteness. He earned his B.A. in Government from The College of William & Mary, a M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction (Secondary Social Studies) from George Mason University, and a Ph.D. in Education (Social Studies Education) from the Curry School of Education and Human Development at the University of Virginia. Before joining UMW, Dr. Broome taught secondary social studies in public and private schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Cooperman Joins Editorial Board of “Political Behavior”
Associate professor of Political Science Rosalyn Cooperman has been invited to join the editorial board of Political Behavior, a peer-reviewed journal that publishes original research in the general fields of political behavior, institutions, processes and policies.
The journal is published in association with the Elections, Public Opinion and Voting Behavior section of the American Political Science Association.