Category: Professional Notes

University of Mary Washington Associate Professor of English Gary Richards will discuss images of the U. S. South in Broadway musicals during an interview scheduled to air on the “With Good Reason” public radio program. The show, “The Gospel Roots of Rock and Roll,” will air beginning Saturday, Feb. 16.

Gary Richards

During the program, Richards will argue that despite the popularity of musicals like Porgy and Bess and Showboat, musicals with southern themes tend to have a negative view of the region and don’t reflect its diversity today. As part of the program, Longwood University professor Chris Kjorness will discuss the legacy of gospel musician and singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Richards, who serves as chair of the Department of English, Linguistics, and Communication, is an expert on southern literature and culture, American fiction, contemporary drama and sexuality studies. His book Lovers and Beloveds: Sexual Otherness in Southern Fiction, 1936-1961 was named Choice Outstanding Academic Title in 2005. He has written several book chapters, including most recently “Everybody’s Graphic Protest Novel: Stuck Rubber Baby and the Anxieties of Racial Difference” in Comics and the U.S. South. His articles and essays have been published in Journal of American Studies, North Carolina Literary Review and Mississippi Quarterly, among other publications.

Richards earned a Ph.D. and an M.A. from Vanderbilt University and a bachelor’s degree from Trinity University (San Antonio). His understanding of various southern cultures draws in part on his years of residence in several major southern cities, including Dallas (1969-1987), San Antonio (1987-1991), Nashville (1991-1997), New Orleans (1997-2008), and now Fredericksburg.

“With Good Reason” airs weekly in Fredericksburg on Sundays from 1-2 p.m. on Radio IQ 88.3 Digital. To listen from outside of the Fredericksburg area, a complete list of air times and links to corresponding radio stations can be found at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/when-to-listen/.

“With Good Reason” is the only statewide public radio program in Virginia. It hosts scholars from Virginia’s public colleges and universities who discuss the latest in research, pressing social issues and the curious and whimsical. “With Good Reason” is produced for the Virginia Higher Education Broadcasting Consortium by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and is broadcast in partnership with public radio stations in Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Mehdi Aminrazavi, professor of philosophy and religion, recently published a new book:

An Anthology of Philosophy in Persia: From the School of Illumination to Philosophical Mysticism, co-edited with S. H. Nasr. Vol. 4. London: I. B. Tauris, 2012.

http://www.ibtauris.com/Search%20Results.aspx?query=an+anthology+of+philosophy+in+persia

The fourth volume of An Anthology of Philosophy in Persia deals with one of the richest and least known periods of philosophical life in Persia, the centuries between the thirteenth century which saw the eclipse of the school of Khurasan and the sixteenth century which coincided with the rise of the Safavids.  The main schools dealt with in this volume are the Peripatetic (mashsha’i) School, the School of Illumination (ishraq) of Suhrawardi, and various forms of philosophical Sufism, especially the school of Ibn ‘Arabi, which had its origins in the works of Ghazzali and ‘Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani.  This period was also notable for the philosopher-scientists such as Nasir al-Din Tusi and Qutb al-Din Shirazi.

UMW faculty members will discuss the 10 year anniversary of the Iraq War during a roundtable on Wednesday, Feb. 13. The discussion will begin at 4 p.m. in Combs Hall, Room 139 and is free and open to the public.

The roundtable will feature Nabil Al-Tikriti, associate professor of history, Eric Bonds, assistant professor of sociology, Jason Davidson, associate professor of political science and Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies. All four faculty members have published scholarly research on aspects of the war. Ranjit Singh, associate professor of political science, will serve as the moderator.

For more information, contact Jason Davidson at jdavidso@umw.edu or (540) 654-1509.

Ranjit Singh

On Friday, Feb. 6, Roberta Gentry, assistant professor in the College of Education, will speak at the South Carolina Council for Exceptional Children professional development conference in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Her presentation, “Supporting Pre-Service Special Educators in the Virtual World,” reviews research conducted using TeachLive to train pre-service teachers. The TeachLive Lab uses a mixed-reality (blended real and virtual characters), avatar-based (virtual characters controlled by human performers) simulated environment. In the TeachLive Lab, candidates build content and pedagogical skills in a controlled environment that enables consistent data collection, immediate feedback, and ongoing assessment.

Laurie Abeel, Associate Professor for Graduate Education, presented at regional, state, and national conferences in October and November 2012. Her presentations focused on creative problem solving, assessing growtih for gifted and talented students, and instructional impications of problem solving style. She is also the Creativity Network Chair for the National Association of Gifted Children (NAGC).