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.
Barrenechea Publishes Book on Hemispheric Studies
Antonio Barrenechea, Associate Professor of English, has published America Unbound: Encyclopedic Literature and Hemispheric Studies (University of New Mexico Press). The book is a study of how big novels from the Americas imagine and interrelate New World histories from the pre-Columbian era to the present. America Unbound calls for new hemispheric American Studies equipped with the international scope of Comparative Literature.
Orozco Leads Foreign Language Teaching Workshop
On Oct. 8, 2016, Patricia Orozco, lecturer in Modern Languages and Literatures, delivered a 45-minute workshop titled “From Zero to Novice High and Beyond” at the FLAVA Conference: Globally Mine! in Williamsburg, Virginia. This conference, celebrated every year, brings together high school and university instructors to share their knowledge and expertise in teaching and learning foreign languages.
Farnsworth Lectures on Presidential Election
Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, recently delivered a lecture titled “The Presidential Candidates, the Mass Media and the Angry Voters of 2017” at the Wells Fargo Forum in Falmouth, Virginia.
Konieczny Presents at American Mathematical Society Meeting
Janusz Konieczny, professor of mathematics, gave a talk, A new definition of conjugacy for semigroups, in the Special Session on Recent Trends in Semigroup Theory at the meeting of the American Mathematical Society, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, Oct. 8-9, 2016.
Farnsworth Lectures in State Department Program
Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, recently delivered a U.S. State Department lecture titled “U.S. Journalism, Public Opinion and Foreign Policy Development,” before a delegation of international journalists visiting under the government’s Institute for International Education Visitor Leadership Program.
Al-Tikriti Participates in Smithsonian Institution CRI Workshop
Associate Professor of History and American Studies Nabil Al-Tikriti participated in the Integrating Humanitarian Response and Cultural Heritage in Disasters workshop on Oct. 6-7. Sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution’s Cultural Rescue Initiative (CRI), the workshop was held at the National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, D.C.
On the first day, Al-Tikriti joined 26 other officials and experts in following presentations on cultural heritage protection in conflict and disaster zones, both domestic and international (including two presentations on efforts underway in Syria). On the second day, he provided a 15-minute response to the previous day’s presentations and discussions, before joining the other participants in deliberative breakout sessions.
Invited because of both his prior work on the looting of Iraqi manuscript collections following the 2003 Anglo-American-Australian invasion and his ongoing work with MSF/Doctors Without Borders USA, Al-Tikriti joined officials and representatives from the Smithsonian Institution, State Department, U.S. Institute of Peace, FEMA, American Red Cross, World Bank, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Park Service, National Guard, the Rose Museum at Brandeis University, George Washington University and the University of Pennsylvania to provide a variety of perspectives on potential institutional, legal and communication structures in the field of cultural rescue in the years to come.
Konieczny Publishes in Semigroup Forum
Janusz Konieczny, professor of mathematics, co-authored a research article, Directed graphs of inner translations of semigroups, published in the journal Semigroup Forum.
Farnsworth Presents Research Paper on Virginia Politics
Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, recently presented a research paper titled “News Coverage of the 2013 Virginia Governor’s Race Versus Presidential Election News” at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association in Philadelphia.