Today’s issue of The New York Times features a review of “And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut, A Life” by Charles J. Shields, associate director of the Great Lives lecture series. The full review is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/books/charles-j-shieldss-and-so-it-goes-on-vonnegut-review.html?_r=1.
Jennifer Batson Named Excellent Eagle Employee
Congratulations to Jennifer Batson, academic information specialist in admissions, who has been selected as an Excellent Eagle Employee by the Staff Advisory Council. To thank her for such a wonderful job, Jennifer will have a reserved parking spot of her choosing through Wednesday, November 30.
Here is what one of Jennifer’s co-workers said about her:
“I think that Jennifer Batson is an excellent eagle employee. She has taken on several additional duties with no complaints. She is the information person for the Stafford Campus, if you need to know about any program UMW offers, location of classes, UMW faculty communication to students, she is the security guard of communication if problems occur, emergency information person, vending machine problems, etc…she is the person to go to. If Jennifer doesn’t know the answer she finds out for you and gets back to you right away.”
To nominate someone who you believe is an Excellent Eagle Employee, just send an email to Dre Anthes (aanthes@umw.edu) with Excellent Eagle Employee in the Subject Line. In your email, be sure to include the person’s name, department, work location (with the most convenient parking lot), and of course, the reason why you believe they should be recognized. Please spread the word to other employees about this wonderful opportunity to recognize a co-worker(s).
Courtney Clayton, John Broome and Adria Hoffman to Present at Conference in British Columbia
Courtney Clayton, assistant professor in curriculum and instruction, will be presenting in a panel at the American Educational Research Association’s annual conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her panel presentation, “Preparing Social Justice Teachers: Rethinking Action Research Curriculum for Transformation” is part of Division K – Teaching and Teacher Education/Section 5: Preservice Teacher Education Coursework: Practices to Improve Teacher Knowledge, Understanding, and Application of Subject Matter, Content, and Pedagogical Practices.
John Broome, assistant professor in curriculum and instruction, will be presenting his paper, “From the Field: What Social Studies Teachers Say They Do in the Classroom,” as part of the Research in Social Studies Education Special Interest Group.
Adria Hoffman, director of clinical experiences and partnerships for the College of Education, will present her paper, “I Don’t Want To Sound Racist, But…:” Race, Ethnicity and Identity Construction Among Music Teacher Candidates as part of Division G – Social Context of Education.
AERA is concerned with improving the educational process by encouraging scholarly inquiry related to education and evaluation and by promoting the dissemination and practical application of research results.
AERA is the most prominent international professional organization, with the primary goal of advancing educational research and its practical application. Its more than 25,000 members are educators; administrators; directors of research; persons working with testing or evaluation in federal, state and local agencies; counselors; evaluators; graduate students; and behavioral scientists.
The broad range of disciplines represented by the membership includes education, psychology, statistics, sociology, history, economics, philosophy, anthropology, and political science.
UMW Music Students and Professors Showcased; Mark Snyder to Perform in Richmond
Last weekend, students from the Electronic Music class at Mary Washington helped with tech at the First Annual Electroacoustic Barn Dance, a three-day festival of electronic music and art. UMW students Rebecca Brown, Paul Espino, Malcolm Moore, Paige Naylor, Joshua Roberts, Mary Thompson and Meredith Wylegala all had their works performed during the festival.
Electroacoustic Barn Dance performers at UMW
Doug Gately, senior lecturer and director of the Jazz Ensemble, and Michael Morley, orchestra manager, also performed. The festival featured composers from 32 colleges and universities across the country. Mark Snyder, director of the festival and assistant professor of music, premiered his piece Angriest Tangerine for processed double bass, electronics and video.
Snyder will perform at the eleventh annual Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival at the University of Richmond this weekend. He will perform on Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. and the concert is free and open to the public. For more information, visit http://thirdpractice.org/3p11/index.html.
Virginia Mackintosh to be Featured on Public Radio Program
Virginia Mackintosh, assistant professor of psychology, discusses her extensive work with incarcerated single mothers and their children during an interview on the “With Good Reason” public radio program. The interview originally aired in April 2011 on public radio stations across Virginia.
Her interview will be re-aired during the week of November 26 and is available online at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2011/11/behind-bars-2/.
Jim Groom on Tour!
Jim Groom, director of the Division for Teaching and Learning Technologies, recently invited to present at Baruch College’s Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute about innovative pedagogies in regards to the Digital Storytelling course (ds106) he teaches. He was also invited back to Baruch the following week to join a panel about the possibilities of DIY, web-based radio and teaching and learning.
On October 27th Jim Groom presented a well-received keynote at the Open Education Conference that focused on re-focusing the emphasis of the open education movement from resources to experiences titled “#occupyopened11”. The presentation included some drama around “occupying the open education” movement, complete with a tent and a ruffled looking presenter. See the full presentation here:
Additionally, Jim Groom has upcoming keynote presentations at the North West Academic Computing Consortium
on November 3rd and a keynote presentation for the K12 Online Conference at the end of November.
Colin Rafferty’s Essay Included in The Utne Reader
The essay, “Letter from Fredericksburg,” by Assistant Professor of English Colin Rafferty, is featured in the November/December issue of The Utne Reader. The essay originally appeared in The Bellingham Review.
Claudia Emerson Publishes Poem in The New Yorker
Claudia Emerson, professor of English and Arrington distinguished chair of poetry, had her poem “Catfish” featured in the October 24th issue of The New Yorker. The poem is below:
Catfish
It nuzzles oblivion, confuses
itself with mud. A creature
of familiar taste, it ambushes
from its nest of ooze the pond’s
brighter fish, clears its palate
with their eggs, lumbers fat
and stagnant into winter, lulled
into dreams of light sinking until
light drowns, and all is as before.
Ben LaBreche Receives Milton Society Award
Ben LaBreche, assistant professor in English, has been selected to receive the prestigious James Holly Hanford Award from the Milton Society of America.
The award recognizes a distinguished published article on John Milton, the 17th century poet and author of Paradise Lost, and will be shared this year by two recipients. LaBreche won the prize for his essay, “Espousing Liberty: The Gender of Liberalism and the Politics of Miltonic Divorce.” The essay, selected from among the more than 100 Miltonic articles published each year, appeared in English Literary History, a quarterly journal of The Johns Hopkins University for scholars and educators in English and American literature, literary history and theory. The Milton Society will present the award to LaBreche at the annual dinner meeting of the society at the Modern Language Association convention in Seattle in January 2012.
Derecki, Grymala and Groom Present at edUi Conference
Cathy Finn-Derecki, Curtiss Grymala, and Jim Groom — UMW’s web team and UMW Blogs architect — gave a presentation on the philosophical and strategic drivers behind the new UMW Web site on October 15, 2011 at the 3rd annual edUi Conference in Richmond. The presentation, entitled “University Web Site to University Web Life” talked about how the new system paves the way for a growing integration between the external image of the University and its real-time academic activities online. Also presented were the specific WordPress tools developed exclusively at UMW for scaling WordPress for multiple networks. The ideas were well-received and sparked lively discussion regarding free speech, censorship, and the changing nature of higher education online branding in the open environment of today’s web.