As part of an attempt to start imagining what open systems for publishing and sharing a community’s work—as UMW has done exceptionally well with UMW Blogs, ds106, and Domain of One’s Own—Jim Groom (the Director of the Division of teaching and Learning Technologies) has been invited to the Open Learning Hackathon at MIT this weekend to work with a range of thinkers to start framing an architecture that might harness and expose the power of loosely coupled syndication systems modelled on the qweb rather than monolithic information systems..
Study Created by Stephen Farnsworth Garners Media Attention
Stephen Farnsworth
A new Virginia public opinion survey sponsored by UMW’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies and created by Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science, has generated considerable media attention, with two front-page news stories on the poll in the Richmond Times-Dispatch and reports in a variety of media outlets, including Slate.com, the Daily Kos, the American Prospect and the Washington Post.
Marie McAllister Authors Article
Marie E. McAllister, professor of English, authored the lead article in volume nine of Eighteenth-Century Novel, “Pox Imagery in Clarissa.“
Eric Lorentzen Gives Scholarly Talk at Conference
Eric Lorentzen, associate professor of English, gave a scholarly talk at this year’s annual Northeastern Modern Language Association conference in Boston, for a panel called “Dickens at 201.” The talk was titled “Cultural Studies, Critical Pedagogy, and Connecting with ‘Boz’ in the 21st Century.”
Chris Foss Presents at Conference
Chris Foss, professor of English, presented a paper entitled “The Aesthetics of Bharautism: The Articulation of Autistic Identity and Indianness in Raam, My Name Is Khan, and How Can I Talk If My Lips Don’t Move?” at the 43rd annual national meeting of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association on Wednesday, March 27. This year’s conference, which featured more than 3,000 program participants, was held at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park.
Dreiss, Tweedy & Mathews Participate in Humanities Conference
Three UMW faculty participated in the recent Virginia Humanities Conference at Christopher Newport University on Friday, March 16. Professor of Art History Joseph Dreiss presented a paper, “The Landscape Interventions of Any Goldsworthy,” while Associate Professor of English Danny Tweedy delivered a paper entitled, “Faith and Ecology: Spirituality versus Eco-collapse in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.” Mary Beth Mathews, associate professor of religion, served as UMW’s delegate to the VHC.
Margaret Ray Receives M.Ed.
Margaret Ray, professor of economics and director of the Center for Economic Education, recently received a M.Ed. from UMW. Ray previously earned a Ph.D. (1988) in economics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, an M.A. (1985) in economics from Western Illinois University, and a B.S. (1984) in economics with a minor in agriculture from Oklahoma State University.
John Broome Co-Authors Social Studies Research Book Chapter
John P. Broome, assistant professor in curriculum & instruction and director of secondary education and preK-12 education programs in the College of Education, has co-authored a book chapter entitled, “Three States: A Comparison Across Diverse Policy Contexts” to be published in Research on the Status of Social Studies: Views from the Field by Information Age Publishing in Summer 2013.
Since 2008, Broome has served on a national research team studying the state of social studies education in the United States. The first study of its kind, this 50-state survey-based research sampled K-12 social studies educators in America. Research on the Status of Social Studies: Views from the Field focuses on the impact of high-stakes standards, use of instructional time, methods of instruction and assessment and application of technology in U.S. K-12 social studies classrooms. The book is divided into six parts: I. Foundations, II. Types of Schools; III. Curricular Emphases; IV. Teaching Strategies; V. Professional Issues, and; VI. What It All Means
Collaborating with Dr. Gayle Y. Thieman (Portland State University), Dr. Joseph E. O’Brien (University of Kansas), Dr. Thomas Barker (University of Kansas) and Dr. Patrice Preston-Grimes (University of Virginia), Broome co-authored a chapter comparing K-12 social studies practices of three states: Kansas, Oregon and Virginia.
An abstract of “Three States: A Comparison Across Diverse Policy Contexts” is included below.
Much of the recent data on the state of social studies teaching has focused on the impact of NCLB on the decline of instructional time in elementary classrooms, though little is known about what occurs during instruction. To address this concern the Survey on the Status of Social Studies (S4) asked K-12 teachers to report on the current status of their social studies curriculum and instructional practices. The survey investigated the impact of mandated testing, social studies curriculum goals and concepts, and teachers’ instructional strategies in the classroom. This chapter analyzed the findings from three states (Kansas, Oregon, and Virginia) and compared the results to data from the national survey. Our analysis addressed four questions: 1) How much instructional time is devoted to social studies in elementary and secondary classrooms and how has mandated testing influenced the time available? 2) How often and in what types of instructional activities are students engaged? 3) What are the major goals and key concepts of the social studies curriculum? 4) How do the three states compare to each other and to the national findings?
The co-principal investigator for the Virgina study, Broome continues to examine the status of social studies education in our state. This past year he conducted an explanatory mixed-method study by convening focus groups with K-5 Virginia social studies educators throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. As he develops manuscripts on this work, Broome’s research is being used to inform school-, district- and state-level policy and instructional decisions around the Commonwealth.
Eric Lorentzen Lectures at University of Connecticut
Eric Lorentzen, associate professor of English, gave an invited lecture at the University of Connecticut on Wednesday, March 20 entitled “‘The Catechizing Infection’: Subverting Dangerous Pedagogy in the Novels of Austen, Dickens, and Charlotte Brontë.“
Gary Richards Facilitates Event at Literary Festival
Gary Richards
Gary Richards, associate professor and chair of the Department of English, Linguistics, and Communication, was a participant at the 27th Annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival in New Orleans. He was the facilitator of the Breakfast Book Club, one of the Festival’s special events. This year, the focus was on the short stories of Southern writer Eudora Welty.