Kimberly Adams of American Public Media’s Marketplace interviewed Surupa Gupta, associate professor of Political Science and International Affairs, in connection with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement of new investments in Asia ahead of his trip. The interview was broadcast on Marketplace Morning Report nationally.
Beth Williams New Rappahannock United Way Secretary
Rappahannock United Way announces new officers, board members and staff promotions (Fredericksburg.com)
Beth Williams, human resources executive director for the University of Mary Washington, will serve as secretary.
Lynne Richardson Columns Appear in FLS
Richardson: Just Say No (The Free Lance-Star)
Several conversations I’ve had in recent weeks have concerned the appropriate time to say no to opportunities.
Richardson: Filling big shoes is not an easy task (Fredericksburg.com)
People come and go in organizations. When some leave, there’s barely a ripple. We recruit for and hire a new employee.
Foss Presents Paper at International Conference
John Andrén Foundation International Conference attendees
On June 9, Professor of English Chris Foss presented a paper (in partial fulfillment of his Summer 2018 Faculty Research Grant) entitled As he is no longer beautiful he is no longer useful: Reading Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Happy Prince’ through the Lens of Disability Studies at the inaugural John Andrén Foundation International Conference on Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley, held in Ystad, Sweden.
Wilde’s representation of disability in “The Happy Prince” is not without its issues, particularly the possibility it ends up ascribing an exclusively pejorative status to disability if it can only be some sort of martyrdom rather than a valued form of difference that need not preclude one from leading a happy, fulfilling life. Still, with his story’s divine endorsement of the shabby blind statue and the dead bird (the latter now arguably inscribed as an ugly, useless body in his own right after his decaying remains are discarded as worthless trash), Wilde also allows for readers to arrive at a decidedly different and fundamentally positive response to disability than the still-popular view of it as some sort of divine punishment or retribution.
In this alternative take, we are encouraged to value (indeed, to privilege), to love—not just a tolerance of love for bodies society traditionally has devalued as deviant and/or discarded as dangerous, but more profoundly a celebration of the love of and by bodies embraced precisely for, rather than in spite of, their difference and diversity.
Zukor Publishes Column in The Group Psychologist
Tevya Zukor, director of the Talley Center for Counseling Services, recently published a column in The Group Psychologist, the newsletter of the Society of Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy.
Entitled Civilians Die From Suicide, Not by Murder, Zukor reflects on the deaths of fashion designer and icon Kate Spade as well as celebrity chef, author and TV personality Anthony Bourdain. Zukor writes:
“Anthony Bourdain’s death hit me hard. My mind flashed back to that fleeting conversation I had with him; not the content of the conversation (which has long ago been lost to memory), but rather to the vibrancy and enthusiasm of the person I admired. I thought, with great sadness, about the people who were closest to Mr. Bourdain and the profound sense of loss they were experiencing. I thought of the multiple times, both personally and professionally, when I have been confronted with the immediate aftermath of a completed suicide. There is a profound sense of shock and incongruence of those scenes – the dichotomy that one life has suddenly, and violently, ended while thousands of others continue uninterrupted and unaware of the tragedy that has occurred next to them.”
Middle East Report Published Al-Tikriti Article on Battle of Mosul
On June 18, 2018, the Middle East Report (MER) published an article Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies Nabil Al-Tikriti submitted, entitled “Civilians in Mosul’s Battle of Annihilation.” This article was partially informed by Prof. Al-Tikriti’s service as MSF / Doctors Without Borders USA Vice-President in 2016-17, when he attended presentations on violence and participants’ conduct during the 2016-2017 Battle of Mosul.
Article Abstract: “Understanding the course of events and identifying the participants in the battle of Mosul is a difficult task. What is certain is that all parties neglected the fate of civilians and were unable to provide proper emergency medical relief. An examination of the battle is crucial to understanding the evolution of international humanitarian law in conflict zones. ”
MER Issue #286 Article Link: https://www.merip.org/mer/mer286/civilians-mosuls-battle-annihilation.
Publication Date: June 2018
Citation: Al-Tikriti, Nabil. “Civilians in Mosul’s Battle of Annihilation.” Middle East Report (MERIP) 286 (2018): 28-30
For the full article, see: https://www.academia.edu/37114216/Civilians_in_Mosuls_Battle_of_Annihilation.
Gately performs with National Symphony Orchestra
Doug Gately recently performed with the National Symphony Orchestra for their televised A Capital Fourth concert on July 4 that featured The Temptations, Jimmy Buffet, Beach Boys, Rene Fleming, Joshua Bell, and more. He is also performing with NSO for the Bernstein at 100, A Celebration concert, July 27 at Wolftrap.
Magrakvelidze Gives Invited Talk
Dr. Maia Giving Talk
Dr. Maia Magrakvelidze, assistant professor in the Physics Department, was invited to give a talk on June 20 at the Department of Computational Mathematics at Georgian Technical University in Tbilisi, Georgia, called Dissociation Dynamics of Diatomic Molecules in Intense Laser Fields.
The computation modeling methods Dr. Maia is using was the subject of interest of the Department, and future collaboration opportunities were discussed.
Magrakvelidze and Killian Present at International Conference
Maia Magrakvelidze, assistant professor of physics, and her student Hannah Killian, presented the results of their research at the 49th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics held May 28 to June 1, 2018 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The presentation, in the Time-Resolved Electron Dynamics and Attosecond Spectroscopy, was titled “Relative Delay among Br and Kr 4p, 4s, and 3d Photoionization.”
These results will hopefully help current experiments for investigating the time delay in photoionization processes of different systems.
The travel expenses were covered by UMW.
Nguyen and Magrakvelidze Attend Summer Faculty Development Workshop
Dr. Hai Nguyen, associate professor and chair of the Physics Department, and Dr. Maia Magrakvelidze, assistant professor of physics attended “Computation is an integral part of the education of every undergraduate physics student” workshop (PICUP) at UW River Falls on July 15-20. The workshop is designed to help physics instructors implement computational component in their classes. In addition it provides a great opportunity to connect with people who already have a good experience in teaching with computational component in their lower or upper level physics classes.