Dan Hirshberg, assistant professor in the Department of Classics, Philosophy, and Religion, recently presented UMW’s Zen garden proposal to the Biennial Meeting of the North American Japanese Garden Association, held at the Morikami Gardens in Delray, Fla. His invited paper explored Zen gardens as loci of wellness on college campuses, while highlighting UMW initiatives in Contemplative Studies, Asian Studies, and multiculturalism.
Farnsworth published by “The Fix” blog, Washington Post
Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, is co-author of an opinion column, “Late Night Tells Three Times as Many Jokes about 2016 Republicans as Democrats,” published by “The Fix” blog of the Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/08/late-night-tells-3-times-as-many-jokes-about-2016-republicans-as-democrats/
Erchull Presents at Annual Meeting of Association for Women in Psychology
Mindy Erchull recently presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Women in Psychology held in Pittsburgh, Pa. She presented a paper titled The thin ideal: A “wrong prescription” not an inspiration based on a book chapter in the recently published book, The wrong prescription for women: How medicine and media create a ‘need’ for treatments, drugs, and surgery. She also presented a poster titled Self-sexualization: From other-evaluation to self-evaluation with Leanna Papp (’14) and Celeste Kelly (’15).
Chris Garcia Publishes Chapter
Chris Garcia, assistant professor in the College of Business, co-authored a chapter with Ghaith Rabadi titled “Approximation Algorithms for Spatial Scheduling” in Rabadi, G. (ed) Heuristics, Meta-heuristics and Approximate Methods in Planning and Scheduling, Vol. 236 of the series International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, Springer Science + Business, New York. (The chapter is available online: http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-26024-2_1)
Preston and Harris Featured in Monroe-Related Media
Daniel Preston, editor of the Papers of James Monroe, and Scott Harris, director of the James Monroe Museum, are featured in a new documentary film titled Monroe Hill. The movie traces the evolution of Monroe’s Albemarle County farm that is today the University of Virginia, and the events that shaped the destiny of the fifth president of the United States. Monroe Hill premiered at the Virginia Film Festival in November. It will be shown at the Richmond International Film Festival on March 6, and at UMW’s Hurley Convergence Center on March 7 at 7 p.m. (popcorn provided).
Preston and Harris
Preston and Harris also discussed Monroe recently as part of a Washington Post presidential podcast series: https://soundcloud.com/washington-post/james-monroe-the-forrest-gump.
UMW Dining’s Flo Brown Wins National Award
Congratulations are due Carolyn “Flo” Brown, salad supervisor for UMW’s Campus Dining Services, for being selected as the Sodexo Experience National Winner for January 2016. Flo was first selected as the UMW Campus Dining award winner, and then she went on to win Sodexo’s district, regional and national competitions. The national winner is selected from more than 600 nominees from colleges and universities across the United States, making this a tremendous feat.
Flo has been with Sodexo in food preparation for more than 17 years and exemplifies the excellence that Sodexo strives to provide for their valued guests – every meal, every day. Roy Platt, general manager of UMW Dining Services, stated: “We were faced with an incredible challenge in January when campus closed down due to the snowstorm. I am extremely thankful that we had Flo to help fill all the gaps in staffing. She does great work every day, but during this emergency situation she was absolutely outstanding!”
Buster-Williams Participated in Panel Discussion
Kimberley Buster-Williams, associate provost for enrollment management, participated in a panel discussion on the topic “The Future of Women in Higher Education Leadership” at the College Board Regional Forum 2016 on Feb. 17 in Orlando, Fla.
Women interested in senior-level positions in higher education attended this highly interactive session, which addressed effective mentoring, succession planning, best practices and behaviors in the job search and interview process, mentoring and pathways to campus leadership. The workshop was led by Witt/Kieffer Executive Search and the College Board and included exercises in identifying personal impact within current roles, visioning future impact and an opportunity to network with colleagues and regional leaders.
The session was primarily focused on women’s leadership in enrollment management. From the session description: “Women are advancing into leadership roles in enrollment management in lower numbers than men. Data from a recent survey reveals that almost 70 percent of chief enrollment officers are male, yet women appear to be well represented in the ‘middle management’ ranks of the profession.”
Snyder Releases New Record
Mark Snyder, Assistant Professor of Music, released The Invalid’s Sonnet on Friday, Feb. 19. The new recording features soprano Paige Naylor (UMW Music & Psychology 2014), harpist Becky Brown (UMW Music & Computer Science 2015) and guitarist John White (UMW Music 2013).
The third record from the Virginia-based multimedia composer offers his most potent and emotional music yet. The album’s centerpiece, a four-movement song cycle titled Facets of Love, avoids the traditional art song cliche by following the lover’s spiral from joy to ruin. The poems written by Jeanine Casler take traditional forms, yet their stories are evocative and painful, traversing from love’s exuberant awakenings to its grittiest atrocities, and withering into its most isolated despondency. The anticipation and excitement of the prelude show love at its birth and its butterflies, with waves of sparkling electronics mirroring new affection as it grows and deepens. The soprano builds off this rhythmic trust into the second movement (Our House on the Hill); gentle at first, her voice grows strong and unafraid as the ensemble bolsters her passion into something alive, untethered, and completely joyous.
An uneasy stillness opens the third movement (The Invalid’s Sonnet), punctuated by the haunting echoes that shadow the soprano. The singer’s anger builds until it erupts into self-destructive chaos, with the thundering ensemble giving weight to her pained declarations of personal surrender. A chorus of her own wordless voice drifts into the emptiness left by anger’s end as the fourth movement (Nostalgia) begins; heavy piano chords interrupt the void in the slowest, strained heartbeat. The soprano sings high enough to break, and pure enough to wring her own regretful tears, had she any left to give. Hollow and barely human, the end of the song cycle resonates loss as it echoes into silence.
The abject emptiness felt at the end of Facets of Love grants a certain silence to Calena, a eulogy for a friend who died too young of NUT midline carcinoma, an untreatable form of cancer. Still synths expose a low, unstable melody, combining in dialogue until both give way to a triumphant yet tragic crescendo, her name echoing in the background. Where Nostalgia describes a pure, abstract loss, Calena spans all the emotions that come with remembrance; warm memories organically coexist with new sorrows.
Qwee breathes a starry whisper into the album’s end, at first sounding like a meditation on emerging from solitude. The work shimmers as it builds in both volume and speed, from just slow harp and soft singing to an organ-esque accordion bolstering a whirling cloud of voices. It suggests slowly built confidence after making a well-needed change, every new beat a quicker step on some untraveled path. “I haven’t completely grasped everything about Qwee,” Snyder says. “But it was definitely a beacon.”
The Invalid’s Sonnet will be released on Feb. 19 through all digital retailers and streaming services; physical CDs can also be purchased online. See marksnyder.org for more information on listening, purchasing, or attending a show.
Deosthali Conducts Team-Building Session for Stafford Public Schools
Kanchan Deosthali, Assistant Professor in the College of Business, conducted a team-building session for the Stafford County Public Schools on Friday, Feb. 19. This team-building session for school educators focused on communicating effectively and building trust within and across teams. The session also focused on enhancing interpersonal skills of team members and the importance of knowledge sharing in today’s organizations.
Simpson Presents Findings at 2016 BSATSMC
Associate Director of Student Health Heidi Simpson, RN, MSN, FNP-C and Doctor of Nursing Candidate at Old Dominion University, presented the findings of her study: Concussion Attitudes, Knowledge, Recognition and Self-Reporting Behavior in University Club Sport Athletes at the 2016 Big Sky Athletic Training and Sports Medicine conference held Jan. 31, 2016 through Feb. 4, 2016. The BSATSMC is an annual conference providing up-to-date sports medicine information to more than 350 health care professionals from across the country. Simpson presented her original research during a one-day concussion focus session. The findings that were presented focused on the data she collected during the fall 2015 semester from the UMW club sport community.