Chris Foss, professor of English, served as one of five panelists for a session entitled “Paid in Full: Autisms, Debts, Dissents” at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association on Nov. 22 in Washington, D.C. Foss’s remarks focused on the ongoing efforts by both autistic self-advocacy groups and individual bloggers to counter the largely cure-based agenda of the most powerful autism organization today, Autism Speaks. For many autistics, and an increasing number of their allies, Autism Speaks engages in relentless stereotyping and fearmongering (while simultaneously co-opting and ultimately weakening self advocate-driven efforts geared instead toward acceptance and affirmation). Most frustratingly of all, this organization purporting to stand in for the voice of autism does not value autistic opinion or representation, still persisting as it does in not having any autistic membership on its Board of Directors or other important advisory boards. Groups like the Autistic Self Advocacy Network and bloggers like Paula Durbin-Westby are actively expressing their dissent and discontent not only through more traditional means such as physical protests and organized boycotts but also through Facebook movements and flash blogs. The extent to which the powers that be, and Autism Speaks itself along with them, might begin to listen to and actually heed these significant autistic voices remains to be seen.
Caffrey Featured in Songwriters’ Showcase
Senior Associate Registrar Kevin Caffrey will be featured as part of the Fredericksburg Songwriters’ Showcase at the Picker’s Supply Concert Hall on Friday, Jan. 31 at 8p.m. In its 2oth year, The Fredericksburg Songwriters’ Showcase is a monthly concert series featuring original acoustic music. Caffrey has been writing and recording original music for over 20 years; his most recent CD, “Medium Talent,” came out in March 2013. Admission is $10; $5 for children and students.
Farnworth Lectures on Campaign
Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, gave a lecture entitled “Reviewing the 2013 Campaign for Governor of Virginia,” at the Virginia Association of Counties Annual Meeting at the Homestead in Hot Springs, Va. In addition, Farnsworth was part of a panel of academics, journalists and lobbyists examining the results of the 2013 Virginia Elections and previewing the Commonwealth’s political agenda for 2014 at the Virginia Business Journal Forum in Richmond.
UMW Geographers Gain Accolades
Two University of Mary Washington geographers were honored at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers this year in Roanoke, Va.
Ethan Bottone’s, 2014, poster presentation, “Documenting Language Erosion and Preservation Efforts in the Canadian Arctic,” was recognized as the best undergraduate research paper in human geography at the conference.
Professor Dawn Bowen, UMW Simpson Award Winner in 2012, was one of three faculty to win SEDAAG’s Excellence in Teaching Award.
SEDAAG represents geography departments in public and private universities and colleges in 10 southeastern states. Go to sedaag.org for more information
Janie Lee Presents at Conference
Janie Lee, assistant professor in English, linguistics, and communication, presented the paper “Regulations of U.S. Citizenship through Embodied Forms of State Authority and Heteroglossic Discourses in Citizenship Education” at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Chicago.
McAllister Presents at Conference
Marie E. McAllister, professor of English, gave a paper entitled “Addicted to Fame: Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda” at the biennial conference of the Aphra Behn Society, an organization for the study of women and gender in the arts from 1660-1830. McAllister also recently attended the East-Central American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies conference in Philadelphia.
Distinguished Adjunct Professor Broadcasts Guerrilla Art Installation
On Nov. 7, distinguished adjunct professor of media, Dr. Brian Oblivion, installed a guerrilla art piece at the Open Education conference in Park City, Utah. The installation is a groundbreaking meditation on identity and data in the 21st century. Dr. Oblivion posits in this piece that “data is the new flesh.” With the help of Art and Art History professors Carole Garmon and JeanAnn Dabb, Oblivion was able to use analog technologies like a 35 MM slide projector and TV/VCR to run an eight-hour loop of both video and slide projected images to drive this point home. Oblivion’s previous work at UMW teaching a summer section of the Digital Storytelling course ds106 (called the Summer of Oblivion) was the focus of some controversy after he was kidnapped and held hostage by one of his teaching assistants. Below is both the video of Oblivion giving his looped installation presentation, as well as a short video of the piece in action. For more information about this particular installation go here.
Dr. Oblivion defines the New Flesh from Jim Groom on Vimeo.
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Al-Tikriti Presents Paper, Prepares Summer Study Course Segment
On Nov. 7, Nabil Al-Tikriti presented a paper entitled “The 1502-1504 Correspondence Between Şehzade Korkud and the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem” to the Mediterranean in History Workshop, which took place on Nov. 7-8 in Venice, Italy. The workshop, which brought together some 24 experts in early modern Mediterranean maritime history, primarily from Italy and Turkey, was hosted by Universita Ca’ Foscari’s Department of Asian and North African Studies, the Archivio di Stato di Venezia, and the region of Venice. Co-organizers included Piri Reis Universitesi and the International Association of Maritime Studies (IAMS). Invited by the conference organizers, Prof. Al-Tikriti presented an English translation and analysis of several letters exchanged between the Ottoman prince Korkud and the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, then based in Rhodes. Organizers plan to complete an edited volume of conference presentations in the months to come.
Following the workshop, with the additional support of UMW’s Center for Teaching Excellence and Innovation, Prof. Al-Tikriti spent Nov. 9-10 visiting sites of historical, cultural, and pedagogical interest in advance of the Cultural Capitals Summer Study Course. This course, which Prof. Al-Tikriti plans to co-lead in the summer of 2015 with Prof. Joseph Romero of the Classics, Philosophy, and Religion Department, will take students to London, Paris, Venice, and Rome. During this three and half week course, students will earn six credits after completing several study projects. In an effort to strengthen course content in the Venice portion of the course, Prof. Al-Tikriti visited numerous sites throughout the city, fostered local contacts, and attained preliminary approval to lead students through certain closed facilities of historical and cultural interest.
Here is Prof. Al-Tikriti’s paper abstract for the workshop:
“Just at the turn of the sixteenth century there broke out a nasty little war between a Vatican-brokered Christian alliance and the Ottomans, which included a major push to siege the port of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. In the immediate aftermath of this siege, and conclusion of hostilities, the Ottoman prince, Korkud, who had been in command of the province under siege was transferred from his Aegean post of Manisa to the Mediterranean post of Antalya. Although it remains unclear why this transfer happened, or whether it was a promotion or a demotion, it appears likely that the prince was tasked with managing the highly sensitive and dangerous relationship with the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.
In this paper, I plan to explore in detail the extended correspondence which Korkud and the Knights subsequently exchanged between August 1502 and July 1504. In the course of these exchanges, the two parties engaged in a series of negotiations attempting to regularize relations between the two hostile parties and complete several highly sensitive prisoner exchanges. Through an exploration of this correspondence, as well as the relevant narrative sources surrounding this relationship during these years, I plan to draw some preliminary conclusions concerning the nature of Ottoman-Knights relations, the protocols of captivity, and the modalities of conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean during this period.”
Gentry Presents at Two International Conferences in November
Dr. Roberta Gentry, Assistant Professor in the department of Foundations, Leadership and Special Populations in the College of Education, presented on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2013 at the Council for Exceptional Children Division on Career Development and Transition conference in Williamsburg, Va. The two-hour workshop, Demystifying Transition Assessment, is based on a book by the same title in which Dr. Gentry wrote the chapter on Academic Assessment. Co-presenters include the authors of the book, Dr. Colleen Thoma,Virginia Commonwealth University, and Dr. Ron Tamura, Southern Connecticut State University, as well as Dr. Cindi Nixon from Francis Marion University.
Dr. Gentry will present virtually at the 6th International Conference on Education, Research and Innovation in Seville, Spain, Nov. 18 to 20, 2013. The titles of those presentations are: Electronic Mentoring: Do special education mentors and their mentees discuss standards? and Electronic Mentoring: What is it? What do we know?
Tim Owens and Jim Groom Present at Open Education Conference
On Nov. 6, Tim Owens and Jim Groom of the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies were part of a multi-institution presentation on “ Reclaiming the Open Learning Environment.” This talk introduced the vision behind the distributed architecture of Domain of One’s Own as an example of an innovative open learning environment that empowers faculty, staff, and students alike. The presentation was delivered alongside technologists from the University of British Columbia and Thompson Rivers University who have inspired much of the early work that informed Domain of One’s Own.