Over the summer, Antonio Barrenechea, Associate Professor of English, co-edited and co-wrote the introduction for “Hemispheric Indigenous Studies, ” a special issue of Comparative American Studies: An International Journal. In August, he attended the Sixth World Congress of the International American Studies Association (IASA) in Szczecin, Poland, where he presented “Thomas Pynchon’s Poetics of Atrocity: Making Words Matter in Gravity’s Rainbow.” At that conference, he was also elected to a two-year term as a member of the Executive Council of the IASA.
Rafferty Publishes Creative Essay on McKinley Assassination
Colin Rafferty, Assistant Professor of English, recently published the essay “Assassin’s Bullet (#25)” in the latest issue of Shadowbox Magazine: http://www.shadowboxmagazine.org/issue7/Bottle12.swf.
Sally Scott Presents at AHEAD Conference
Sally Scott
Sally Scott, director of the office of disability resources, and Dr. Manju Banerjee, vice president of research at Landmark College, recently presented a paper Foreign Language Accommodation: Incorporating Evidence-Based Practices under the AHEAD Documentation Guidance, at the annual conference of the Association on Higher Education and Disability in Baltimore, Md.
Stephen Farnsworth Publishes New Book
Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, is coauthor of new book, “The Global President: International Media and the U.S. Government,” published this month by Rowman & Littlefield, a scholarly publisher in the social sciences.
From the publisher: “This book provides an expansive international examination of news coverage of US political communication, and the roles the US government and the Presidency play in an increasingly communicative and interconnected political world. This comprehensive yet concise text includes analyses of not just the Presidency, but US foreign policy and contemporary political media itself. The realities of an ever-changing political landscape are magnified nowhere more greatly than in the realm of foreign policy, and the stakes surrounding the need for quality communication skills are no higher than at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue because – when the voices of the US government speak – the world is listening.”
More information: http://stephenfarnsworth.net/books/
Charlie Sharpless Receives NSF Grant to Study Fate of Marine Oil Spills
Recent research shows that oil in marine systems ages in ways inconsistent with current models. Specifically, the hydrocarbon fraction has long been assumed to get oxidized, become more water soluble, and then biologically or abiotically degrade, eventually to CO2. Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have discovered that oxidized hydrocarbons actually constitute a sizable portion of the recalcitrant tar that remains at the late stages of a spill. This process is presumably important in the weathering of natural oil seeps as well, which constitute the majority of oceanic oil. Charlie and colleagues at Woods Hole and the University of California, Santa Barbara have received funding from the National Science Foundation, Division of Chemical Oceanography to study the extent to which photochemical and microbial processes drive this oxidation process. The project, entitled “Oxygenation of Hydrocarbons in the Ocean” is a three-year study that will provide opportunities for UMW students to travel to and study at WHOI and UCSB as well as participate in a cruise in the Gulf of Mexico to sample oil at various stages of weathering.
Chris Foss Publishes Book Chapter
Chris Foss, professor of English, has published a chapter entitled “Oscar Wilde and the Importance of Being Romantic” in Wilde Discoveries: Traditions, Histories, Archives. The book is a collection of essays from the University of Toronto Press (Canada’s foremost university press) edited by Joseph Bristow (one of the most renowned Wilde scholars in the world today). Foss’s chapter delineates how Wilde’s American lecture “The English Renaissance” establishes that, for Wilde, a properly Romantic aesthetics is antisystematic and disseminative in nature, emphasizing parody and process over self-realization and synthesis. Casting Wilde as a Romantic Ironist rather than a Romantic Egoist productively illuminates how the insincerity that for many so defines the mature Wilde actually is an extension, rather than a rejection, of the Romanticism he emphatically embraced at the beginning of his career.
Eddie Perry Named President of VACLEA
Eddie Perry, chief of police, was recently voted president of the Virginia Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (VACLEA). Chief Perry has previously served in other positions with the organization, most recently as vice president. VACLEA was started in 1973. It is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote professionalism in the field of law enforcement among the universities and colleges of Virginia, thereby establishing a climate conducive to the achievement of academic excellence.
For more information about VACLEA, visit http://www.vachiefs.org/index.php/affiliate_organizations/vaclea/ or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Virginia-Association-of-Campus-Law-Enforcement-Administrators/362741047112674.
Dr. Nicole Surething Chairs Symposium at APA Annual Convention
Dr. Nicole Surething, director of counseling and psychological services, was a symposium chair at the American Psychological Association’s annual convention in Honolulu, Hawaii, July 31-August 4. Dr. Surething’s presentation, “Perspectives of Psychologists Serving on Threat Assessment Teams,” focused on the expanded consulting role that counseling center directors and counseling psychology faculty face today in light of high profile campus shootings that increased calls for specific services, better communication, and heightened awareness and response on campuses.
Leo Lee Presents at US-Korea Conference
Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Jangwoon “Leo” Lee, recently presented “Domain Decomposition Methods for Solving Stochastic PDEs” at the annual US-Korea Conference (UKC 2013) in New Jersey. In addition to attending many research talks at the conference, Dr. Lee chaired an applied mathematics session.
Erchull & Liss Present Research at the American Psychological Association Convention
Mindy Erchull
Miriam Liss
Dr. Mindy Erchull and Dr. Miriam Liss recently presented a poster, Exploring Female Sexual Empowerment: Developing the Sex is Power Scale, at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Honolulu, Hawaii.