Category: Professional Notes

Mark Snyder, Assistant Professor of Music, had his multimedia work, Butterfly for processed clarinet, electronics and video performed at Appalachian State University on February 19th by clarinetist Andrea Cheeseman. The recital featured electroacoustic compositions that incorporate recorded sound and images.

Dr. Andrea Cheeseman is Associate Professor of Clarinet at Appalachian State University. An active and engaging performer, she has received invitations to perform at colleges and universities throughout the country as a soloist and chamber musician. She has performed for diverse festivals such as College Music Society Annual Meetings, the Montana/Idaho Clarinet Festival, the Michigan Contemporary Clarinet Festival and the Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium. She has been a regular performer at the Delta State University Electroacoustic Juke Joint Festival, and in the summer of 2003, Dr. Cheeseman was named first runner-up in the Mu Phi Epsilon International Competition.

Snyder also had his multimedia work, Alluvium for processed accordion, electronics and video performed at Montana State University on February 24th by accordionist Whitney Salo. It was programmed as part of the Sunday Night Multimedia Series, Beneath the Surface – A Concert of Sonic and Multimedia Art.

[vimeo width=”600″ height=”339″]http://vimeo.com/707246[/vimeo]

[vimeo width=”600″ height=”330″]http://vimeo.com/16524166[/vimeo]

On February 20-21, Associate Professor of History and American Studies Nabil Al-Tikriti joined a workshop in London entitled “Iraqi Foreign Policy in a Changing Middle East.” Participants included over thirty area experts, party representatives, government officials, scholars, and journalists.  The closed workshop was sponsored jointly by the Middle East and North Africa Programme of the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House and the U.S. Institute of Peace of Washington, D.C. Six sessions covered a range of topics, including Iraq’s relations with Syria, the Kurdish Regional Government, the oil sector, and the Gulf states, as well as Iraq’s future role in the region. Chatham House plans to publish a summary report of workshop proceedings within the next few weeks.

Richard Finkelstein, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of English, spoke in January at the 13th annual meeting of the National Conference on Science, Policy, and the Environment, held in Washington, D.C. His paper described the Climate, Environment and Readiness Action Plan (CLEAR) about which UMW has been in discussions with PD-16 area leaders. Also on the panel were environmental planners from the City of Philadelphia, and from San Francisco. In mid-February, the Dean also attended the annual meeting of the National Academy of Environmental Design to explore possible collaborations in the Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania area.

Paul D. Fallon, Associate Professor of Linguistics, presented a paper at the 41st annual meeting of the North American Conference on Afroasiatic Linguistics (NACAL), held at Yale University on 16-17 February 2013. His paper, “Appleyard’s Proto-Agaw vis-à-vis Ehret’s Proto-Cushitic” compared the historical reconstruction of the Agaw (Central Cushitic) languages of Eritrea and Ethiopia by two different scholars, analyzing 200 proposed roots and categorizing them. The paper contributes to the the study of Agaw and Cushitic linguistics by providing a critical assessment of two reconstructions of the same language family.

Rosemary Jesionowski, Assistant Professor of Studio Art, currently has a solo exhibition, Mapping Nowhere, on view at Randolph-Macon’s Flippo Gallery in Ashland, Virginia.  This is her third solo exhibition in the past year.  The body of work is a continual investigation of place, land, and how we identify ourselves through location.  How do we define ourselves by where we live?  How do others define us?  How does place define or even change us?  These images simultaneously reference a personal experience of place and an investigation of the relationship between people and place.  The exhibition will be on view through April 5.

See more of Jesionowski’s work on her website.