Gary Richards, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of English, Linguistics, and Communication, recently contributed the chapter “Southern Drama” in The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the American South. Edited by Sharon Monteith and published by Cambridge University Press in September, the collection features 14 essays analyzing southern literature from the rise of sectional literatures in the early 19th century to the contemporary moment. Richards’ essay surveys southern drama from antebellum manifestations through the masterworks of Tennessee Williams to 21st-century Broadway musicals.
Al-Tikriti Joins BBC Radio Panel
On September 12, Professor Nabil Al-Tikriti joined an evening panel of Fredericksburg area residents to discuss potential U.S. military intervention in Syria. The panel was organized by Fredericksburg Patch and the BBC’s Nuala McGovern, and was broadcast on BBC World Service during a four hour long world news show. In the course of the panel, Al-Tikriti expressed his reservations about a potential U.S. intervention, as both an area studies expert and experienced relief professional. For a posting explaining more about the broadcast, see: http://fredericksburg.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/fredericksburg-residents-respond-to-syrian-conflict.
Gaines’s Most Recent Translation Appears in TAEM
Jim Gaines, professor of modern foreign languages, recently contributed a translation of Alphonse Daudet’s short story, “The Ordeal of the Semillante,” to the emagazine TAEM/Eerie Digest. The story is part of Daudet’s collection, Letters From My Mill, and deals with a grisly shipwreck off the coast of Corsica in the 19th century, as remembered by the toughened crew of a customs patrol cutter. It appeared in the July edition and is still running on the opening page of the short story section of TAEM, which now reports a worldwide circulation of over 100,000 readers.
Liz Larus Offers Public Lecture on China
Elizabeth Freund Larus, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, offered a public lecture “Social and Economic Problems Facing China’s Fifth Generation of Leaders” at Creighton University in Omaha on September 9. The university’s Asian World Center invited Dr. Larus, a Creighton graduate, to offer the lecture to kick off this year’s Asian Culture Week.
Romero Joins International Symposium on Greek Literary Epigram
Last week, Joseph Romero, associate professor of classics, philosophy and religion, delivered a paper in London entitled, “Philosophers in Greek Epigram,” to a group of scholars from the U.S., U.K., and Europe. Check out more on the conference here.
Spooky Action Theatre to Produce Kristen LePine’s Play
Spooky Action Theatre in Washington, D.C. will present a Workshop Production of Kristen LePine’s play Dire Wolves.
The yet unproven presence of dire wolves rears its head in Evansville, Indiana, as six characters heed the call and face ancient fears within, in an interwoven play that encourages us to confront our wild nature or forever live in the realm of tamed comfort. Dire Wolves was commissioned by the Hub Theatre. This performance will be directed by Kristy Simmons.
Kristen teaches in the UMW Department of Theatre and Dance and has an MFA in Dramatic Writing.
The Details
What: Dire Wolves by Kristen LePine
When: Saturday, September 21 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, September 22 at 3 p.m.
Where: Spooky Action Theatre Company, 1810 16th St NW; Washington, D.C. 20009
Cost: FREE
Keith Mellinger Publishes Research Article
Keith Mellinger, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Mathematics, recently saw his co-authored research article Embedding cycles in finite planes published in the Electronic Journal of Combinatorics. The article addresses graph cycles in planes, a topic that has been connected to certain soft-decision decoding algorithms for error-correcting codes.
ds106 Wins Innovation Award from Reclaim Learning
This week, ds106, the open online digital storytelling community that grew out of CPSC106 at UMW, was awarded the Innovation Contest from Reclaim Open Learning. The award is meant to honor projects that embody principles of open education and participatory learning. ds106 is one of five projects to receive the award this year.
Reclaim Open learning is a collaboration between the Digital Media and Learning Hub at UC Irvine and the MIT Media Lab. It’s goal it to bring together like-minded researchers and educators who are interested in issues of open education. The Innovation Contest is one program of the project.
ds106 is an open, online digital storytelling community that was originally architected by Jim Groom, director of teaching and learning technologies at UMW. After teaching UMW’s digital storytelling class, CPSC106, for two semesters, in spring 2011 Groom became interested in opening the course up more broadly. Working with Martha Burtis, special projects coordinator in DTLT and another CPSC106 instructor, and colleagues at other institutions, Groom launched ds106.us and invited anyone to join the course and participate in the activities.
During the first semester, over 200 participants signed up for ds106 from around the world and explored the art and meaning of digital storytelling. Since then, the community has spawned a crowd-sourced assignment repository, a Web radio station, The Daily Create (a site that provides daily prompts for those interested in exercising their creative muscles), and In[spire] (a student-created site that showcases the finest work in the community). In addition, faculty at other schools have used the ds106 community to model similar courses at their own institutions.
As part of the award, Burtis will attend and present at the Reclaim Open Learning Symposium in Newport Beach, California on September 26 & 27.
Martha Burtis and Jim Groom Deliver Keynote Presentation
On August 28th Martha Burtis and Jim Groom (alongside Alan Levine) presented a keynote session for the e-Assessment Scotland Conference titled “ds106: A Framework for Assessment.” The presentation discusses how the course infrastructure/design is modelled upon the web unlike, ironically, most techncial infrastructures for teaching and leanring online. As a result, it has developed an open community that encourages and makes possible a form of communal assessment and feedback that is otherwise inconceivable.
Council Against Sexual Assault Speaking to Philanthropy Class
Bobby Anderson, executive director of Rappahannock Council Against Sexual Assault, and staff members will speak to Professor of Economics Robert Rycroft’s economics of philanthropy and the nonprift sector class on Sept. 16 at 1 p.m. in Monroe 122. The staff members will discuss what they do each day. This presentation is open and free to the UMW community. For more information, email rrycroft@umw.edu.