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.
McConnell Co-authors Environmental Geology Text
Environmental Geology Today, published by Jones and Bartlett. Co-authored with Dan Abel of Coastal Carolina University.
Robert McConnell, professor emeritus of environmental science and geology, recently co-authored and published Environmental Geology Today. The book discusses geological principles and the affects of the human population on the environment by drawing on contemporary case studies. Features include critical thinking strategies, step-by-step math lessons, introductory-level geology and geological topics ranging from local to international issues.
Farnsworth Co-authors Research Paper
Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the University’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, is co-author of a research paper, “The Foreign Policy Presidencies of Barack Obama and George W. Bush: Comparing International Television News Content,” which was presented at the American Political Science Association Conference in Chicago.
Pineda Publishes Novel
Jon Pineda, assistant professor of English, linguistics and communication, will be a featured reader and panelist at a variety of upcoming events promoting his recently published novel, Apology.
His upcoming reading and author question and answer sessions include “Talk of the Stacks” at Hennepin County Library in Minneapolis on Sept. 12, “Fall for the Book Festival” at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Md. on Sept. 27 and “Filipino American International Book Festival/Filbookfest II” at San Francisco Public Library in San Francisco on Oct. 19.
Apology was also recently featured in a variety of book reviews, including The Virginian-Pilot, Hyphen magazine and Style Weekly. For more information on Pineda and to watch a book trailer, check out his faculty experts page.
Baker Attends White House Business Council Event
Brian Baker, UMW executive director for economic development, attended the White House Business Council “Economic Development Forum” on Sept. 27. The forum was a collaboration between the White House Business Council and the International Economic Development Council. Economic development executives from across the nation were invited to participate in briefs from economists and senior leadership in the Department of Commerce, U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service, Export-Import Bank, Treasury, Small Business Administration, International Economic Affairs, and others. The 2013 topics of discussion included the macroeconomic outlook, facilitating foreign investment in the U.S., capital access and entrepreneurship, innovations in workforce development, and critical infrastructure needs for the 21st century.