P. Anand Rao, associate professor of communication and Director of the Speaking Intensive Program, represented the University of Mary Washington at the Faculty Senate of Virginia’s meeting at Longwood University on April 16. At that session, he was elected President of the FSVA for next year. This group includes representatives from the faculty senates and councils of schools across Virginia, including public, private, four- and two-year institutions.
Mathur Presents at Shakespeare Conference
Maya Mathur, associate professor of English and Associate Chair of the Department of English, Linguistics and Communication, presented the paper “Family Dynamics in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkara” at the conference “Shakespeare and Our Times,” which was held at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., on April 14-16. Her paper examined representations of gender in Omkara, an Indian adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello.
Larus Presents Paper on U.S. Naval Diplomacy at World Society Foundation (Zurich)
Elizabeth Freund Larus, professor of Political Science and International Affairs, presented her research paper, “Alliances and U.S. Sea Power in the Asia-Pacific,” at the annual meeting of the World Society Foundation (Zurich) at the University of Arizona in Tucson in April 2016.
Bonds Publishes Article on Think Tanks and Climate Change
Assistant Professor of Sociology Eric Bonds recently published an article in the journal Sociology Compass on elite think tank approaches to climate change. While sociologists have paid a great deal of attention to think-tank driven climate denialism — or efforts to mislead the American public about the realities and costs associated with global warming — Bonds shows that most top think tanks acknowledge the scientific consensus on this issue. Bonds offers a typology of think tank responses to climate change, moving beyond denialism to include climate mitigation, adaptation and opportunism.
Harris Wins Verville Fellowship at National Air and Space Museum
Steven E. Harris, Associate Professor of History, was recently awarded an A. Verville Fellowship at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The 12-month fellowship will allow Harris to work full-time on his second book project, “Wings of the Motherland: Soviet and Russian Cultures of Aviation from Khrushchev to Putin” while in residence at the Museum. Harris will also use the fellowship to conduct research in archives in Moscow.
Farnsworth Presents Research Paper on the Obama Presidency
Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, recently delivered a research paper titled, “The Barack Obama Presidency and the Rise of the Diffident Presidential Style,” in Chicago at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association. The paper includes findings from Dr. Farnsworth’s latest co-authored book, “The Global President.”
Good’s Book Receives Prize
Cassandra Good, associate editor of the Papers of James Monroe, received the Mary Jurich Nickliss Prize from the Organization of American Historians for her book, Founding Friendships (Oxford, 2015). The prize, awarded annually, recognizes the most original book in U.S. women’s and/or gender history. The prize committee commended the book’s “remarkable body of evidence” and said that it “greatly enlarges our understanding of gender in the early republic.” Good received the prize in an award ceremony in Providence, R.I., on April 9.
Rotter Presents Paper on Berlin Olympics
Marcel Rotter presented his paper, titled “‘… as one only knows from animals’ — Racial CommunicationStrategies in the Olympiazeitung,” at the conference The Nazi Games: The Berlin Olympics after 80 Years at Florida Gulf Coast University on March 29, 2016.
Harris talks to The Source about Soviet Aviation, Putin’s Russia
The Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991 might have been expected to make Russia a liberal democracy; instead we see broad popular support for Putin’s undemocratic regime. Historian Steve Harris turns to aviation to offer new ways of understanding the Soviet past and Russia’s present. See the full interview at The Source.
Delgado-Poust Publishes Article
Antonia Delgado-Poust, assistant professor of Spanish, recently published a research article, “(It’s) All about the Mother: Scarred Memories and Amnesic Bodies in Rosa Montero’s La hija del caníbal,” in Bulletin of Spanish Studies.