A column by Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, and Ellen O’Brien, a senior political science major at UMW and a research associate at the Center, was published recently in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The column focused on the results of a new Virginia public opinion survey from the center showing widespread public support for deploying police body cameras in the Old Dominion. The column was titled “Survey says….Body Cameras.”
Keith Lands Key Role in HighEdWeb
The Higher Education Web Professionals Association this month tapped UMW Director of Digital Communications Shelley Keith as co-chair of its membership committee. In her new role, Keith, an avid advocate for positive technology user experience, will head the group’s technical side.
HighEdWeb brings Web experts and like0minded professionals together to map the future of digital communications and services in the country’s colleges and universities, and to advance the people, technologies and standards behind it. The group hosts regional events across the U.S. and an annual international conference.
The membership committee is charged with implementing and expanding ideas to benefit affiliates, developing a research- and feedback-driven vision for the program, leading discussions at national conferences, and representing members to the Board of Directors.
“The HighEdWeb community is amazing – unlike any other profession or professional organization,” said Keith. “The goal of the membership committee is to reflect the extraordinary nature of the members of this association. It’s an honor to have been chosen to support this initiative.”
Before coming to UMW, Keith managed Web communications and marketing at Southern Arkansas University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. She holds a master’s degree in information quality from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
In addition to more than 20 years of Web experience and more than 10 in higher education, Keith has worked with HighEdWeb since 2007, serving as conference track chair and special event chair, and in vendor support. A frequent presenter, she has chaired three HighEdWeb regional conferences and served as communications manager for the group’s Regional Conference Committee. She also is a 2013 graduate of the HighEdWeb Leadership Academy.
Read more in Link, the Journal of Higher Ed Web Professionals.
Elizabeth Johnson-Young Wins National Communication Association Award
Elizabeth Johnson-Young, assistant professor of communication, was recently awarded the prize for the Top Student Paper in the Health Communication Division of the National Communication Association. The paper, “Predicting Intentions to Breastfeed for Three Months, Six Months, and One Year Using the Theory of Planned Behavior and Body Satisfaction,” was written and submitted while completing her doctoral studies in the spring of 2015 and was presented at the organization’s national conference in Las Vegas in November.
Johnson-Young’s research surveyed pregnant women regarding their intentions to breastfeed their babies for three recommended periods of time. Findings demonstrated the strength of the theory of planned behavior constructs in predicting these intentions, as well as a possible boomerang effect of perceived subjective norms, which might also be conceptualized as perceived social pressure. Including body satisfaction prior to and during pregnancy also appeared to be a significant moderator of these intentions, providing a new way to understand both theoretical influences and practical considerations for this specific population in making health decisions.
Farnsworth published in “The Fix” blog, Washington Post
An opinion column by Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, was published in “The Fix” blog of The Washington Post. The column focused on the results of a new Virginia public opinion survey from the center. The column was titled, “How a Jim Webb independent presidential bid could actually matter (hint: Virginia).” In addition, Dr. Farnsworth recently spoke before UMW’s Washington Area Alumni Association on the 2016 Presidential Campaign and the 2015 Virginia legislative elections.
Buster- Williams Published in Recruitment and Retention
Kimberley Buster-Williams, associate provost for enrollment management, had an article featured in Recruitment and Retention’s December edition. The article was titled “Moving to an Effective Digital Records Strategy.”
Dasgupta Presents on Bengali Cinema
Shumona Dasgupta, assistant professor of English, presented the paper titled “Representing the Partition: Memory, Mourning and Trauma in Bengali Cinema” at the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association’s annual conference held in Philadelphia Nov. 5-7, 2015.
Taylor-Schran Edits Melchers Book
Gari Melchers Home and Studio released a new pictorial book on the paintings of Gari Melchers. Edited by Susan Taylor-Schran ’75, Museum Shop and visitor services manager, Selected Works by Gari Melchers: From the Collection of the Gari Melchers Home and Studio, was released on December 1.
In response to numerous requests by visitors to the historic home and studio, Taylor-Schran edited and assembled the 100+ page full-color book, featuring more than 80 paintings in the Belmont Collection. With contributions from Joanna Catron, curator, and David Berreth, director, the book includes a biographical timeline of Melchers, as well as archival photographs.
Completed to accompany the 40th anniversary of Gari Melchers Home and Studio at Belmont opening to the public, the book is available only at the Museum Shop.
Farnsworth Presents Research on the Presidency
Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, recently presented a research paper, “Studying the Presidency after 9/11: Re-considering Presidential Character in Domestic and International Contexts,” at the 9/11 and the Academy Conference at Emory & Henry College in Emory, Va.
Foss Presents Paper Celebrating the Work of Claudia Emerson
On Nov. 13, Professor of English Chris Foss presented a paper titled “‘The body’s own account’: Disease, Disability, Death and the Argument for Life in the Poetry of Claudia Emerson” at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association annual convention in Durham, N.C. The paper celebrates Claudia’s unflinching consideration of disease, disability and death in her most recently published book, Impossible Bottle, a work throughout which Claudia consistently refuses to airbrush the experience of pain and suffering while simultaneously refusing to succumb to despair.
Indeed, Impossible Bottle powerfully testifies to the meaningfulness and the value of all lives touched by disease, disability and death. Ultimately, Claudia discards any vision of some sort of final disconsolate decline in the face of a dogged disease like cancer, or some sort of defeatist surrender to a death without dignity, and instead gifts us all with a brilliant argument for life that not only envisions but also enacts a truly compelling embodiment of a heartening resilience that remains elastic, fresh and enlightening.
Scanlon Shares Paper on Great War Literature
Mara Scanlon, Professor of English, recently participated in the seminar “WW I: Reconsidering Rupture” at the 17th Annual Modernist Studies Association Conference. Her paper, “Mary Borden’s ‘Moonlight’: ‘A Crazy Hurting Dream,'” focused on the experimental war book The Forbidden Zone, written by Mary Borden, an American civilian who ran a hospital unit behind the front lines in World War I. The paper theorized the traumatic encounter with beauty, defined as an “abraded adjacency” in a revision of Elaine Scarry’s terminology from On Beauty and Being Just, which can shock the self from its protective mechanization in a time of violence. The Forbidden Zone is also included in Scanlon’s English class called Literature of the Great War.