Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, recently delivered a lecture titled “Digital Media, Public Opinion and the U.S. Presidential Race,” at BI University in Oslo, Norway. While in Norway, Dr. Farnsworth also delivered a lecture titled “Three Challenges and Three Opportunities for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton” for the Norwegian Washington Seminar Program in Oslo.
McMillan Has Solo Exhibition in NYC
Assistant Professor of Ceramics Jon McMillan has been invited to show eight new sculptures at Hunter College in New York City. His solo exhibition at the Hunter Project Space, titled “Converge,” runs from Oct. 30 to Nov. 18, with a closing reception on the 18th from 6-8 p.m.
Majid Article Accepted for Publication
Kashef Majid, assistant professor in the College of Business, has co-authored an article with Hari Bapuji in International Marketing Review titled “Institutional Differences and Integration Difficulties: How Location of Headquarters and Component Sourcing Affect Firm Responsiveness.”
Richardson Gives Talk at Virginia Library Association Annual Conference
Lynne Richardson, Dean of the College of Business, presented at the Virginia Library Association’s annual conference in Hot Springs, Virginia, on Oct. 28, 2016. The title of Dean Richardson’s talk was “Manager or Leader: Should I be Either or Both?”
Rochelle Reads from Latest Novel, Teaches Seminar on Horror Writing
Warren Rochelle, Professor of English, gave a reading from his latest novel, The Werewolf and His Boy, published in October, and participated in a literary salon about the novel at the WriterHouse in Charlottesville on Saturday, Oct. 29. He also taught a seminar on horror writing prior to the reading and salon.
Lorentzen Gives Talk at Victorians Institute Conference
Eric Lorentzen, Associate Professor of English, gave a talk in Raleigh, North Carolina, at this year’s Victorians Institute Conference, which was thematized around ideas of Victorian STEM/STEAM. His paper on Dickens was titled “Hard Times, Critical Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies: STEM as the New Utilitarianism.”
Foss Presents Paper on Claudia Emerson’s “Impossible Bottle”
On Oct. 8, Professor of English Chris Foss presented a paper titled “Moulting Anatomies: Cancer, Disability, and Resilience in Claudia Emerson’s Impossible Bottle,” at the Midwest Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association annual conference, held this year in Chicago.
His paper surveyed all 16 poems from the volume’s opening section, Anatomies, explicating Claudia’s subtle and sophisticated framing of binaries such as interiority/exteriority, presence/absence, past/present, permanence/impermanence, and perfection/imperfection. In the end, her exploration of the multiple layers of the question of mortality raised by disease, disability, and death reveals the many ways in which beauty survives amidst fragility and loss.
Hirshberg Publishes Book on Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Memory
Dan Hirshberg, Assistant Professor of Religion, published his first book, Remembering the Lotus-Born: Padmasambhava in the History of Tibet’s Golden Age (Wisdom Publications, Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism). Relying on textual criticism of 12th-13th-century Tibetan texts and their surviving manuscripts, Remembering the Lotus-Born uncovers genealogies of some of Tibet’s most renowned religious phenomena, breaking new ground by demonstrating how Indian conceptions of karma, reincarnation and textual revelation were assimilated by allegedly enlightened Tibetans of later centuries who, in claiming to remember their past lives, present themselves as direct witnesses of Tibet’s conversion to Buddhism. In thereby seizing a special editorial license for the reformulation of the past, they reconstruct the emic history of Tibet’s golden age.
The collective remembrance of Tibet’s conversion unites Tibetans by means of a common identity drawn from a correlate past. This remains all the more critical as contemporary Tibetans continue to confront the pressures of Chinese administration in Tibet and the cultural diffusion of diaspora beyond it.
Rafferty Publishes Quartet of Presidential Essays
Colin Rafferty, Associate Professor of English, has recently had a quartet of essays appear in the newest issue of Waxwing: “The Fear (#8),” “Self-Portrait with Slave Ship (#6),” “State of the Union (#11),” and “What They Said About Him (#44).” They can be read here: http://waxwingmag.org/items/issue10/44_Rafferty-Four-Presidential-Essays.php#top.
Al-Tikriti Monitors Montenegro Parliamentary Elections
On Oct. 11-18, Nabil Al-Tikriti, associate professor of Middle Eastern history, served as an election monitor for the Montenegro parliamentary elections. Joining eight other Americans in the U.S. delegation, Al-Tikriti worked as an OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) STO (Short Term Observer) in several rural villages and a provincial capital in the mountains, Mojkovac. His observation partner was a Russian diplomat based in Slovenia. For more information on these Belarus elections, and OSCE’s support of these elections, please see: http://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/montenegro/245866.
In the course of his visit, Al-Tikriti also spent two days at the coastal town of Budva, where the OSCE observers carried out preliminary briefings, and spent a day surveying polling stations (see picture) while exploring several Montenegro churches, cemeteries and national parks.
