Category: Professional Notes

On Saturday, Sept. 8, University Webmaster Curtiss Grymala presented his WordPress Multi-Network session to a crowd of about 50 designers, developers and content managers at WordCamp Baltimore. The session was well-received, and a lot of interesting questions were posed throughout.

Grymala will also be presenting this session at WordCamp Detroit on Oct. 6 and at HighEdWeb 2012 on Oct. 8. The slides from Grymala’s presentation can be viewed online, and video of the presentation should be coming soon.

On Sept. 18, Karine Joly of HigherEdExperts and CollegeWebEditor, published a blog post outlining her ten most anticipated, or “must see”, presentations at HighEdWeb 2012. Among the ten sessions chosen by Joly is Curtiss Grymala’s presentation on WordPress Multi Network.

Eric Bonds, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology, recently published an article, entitled “Indirect Violence and Legitimation: Torture, Surrogacy, and the U.S. War on Terror” in the journal Societies Without Borders: Human Rights and the Social Sciences.  The article uses data from the Wikileaks “Iraq War Logs” to document the extent of torture practiced by the Iraqi state during the years of the U.S. occupation.  In the article, Bonds argues that the U.S. shares responsibility for this torture, despite official efforts to create distance from this violence and deflect blame.  The article can be downloaded at: http://societieswithoutborders.com/.

Assistant Professor of Music Mark Snyder’s multimedia work Harvey for processed clarinet, electronics and video was performed in Kansas City by the newEar contemporary music ensemble on the opening concert for their 20th season.

The Kansas City Star wrote  “Mark Snyder’s Harvey conveys well his shock and incomprehension of the sheer, random brutality of the Harvey family murders in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia in 2005. It’s a tribute to the human capacity to wrestle meaning and even beauty from evil.”

Assistant Professor of Music Mark Snyder’s band Nature Boy Explorer is featured in the weekend section of the Free Lance Star.

“The attitude and sound of their songs can shift from ‘testosterone-fueled aggression to soft and delicate.’ And it’s this juxtaposition—the harp in the rock band, the students and the teacher, the atmospheric valleys between the rough-edged ridges of rock ‘n’ roll—that makes Nature Boy Explorer something worth exploring.”

http://blogs.fredericksburg.com/weekender/2012/09/12/sounds-nature-boy-explorer/

The Free Lance Star also reviewed the EP.

“Overall, these four tracks give a great example of what Nature Boy Explorer is. It might still be difficult to understand the music, and even harder to explain it to a friend but it will be clearer. They’re definitely doing something different from most any other band, especially any band around Fredericksburg, and if anything, it’s worth giving the album a listen to be able to sing along at a live show, which is where Nature Boy Explorer really shines.”

http://blogs.fredericksburg.com/therumble/2012/09/12/nature-boy-explorer-ep-review/

Associate Professor of Political Science Ranjit Singh’s work has recently been published in “The Middle East: Its History and Culture,” edited by Jason Tatlock. The book includes Singh’s chapter, “Dictatorship and Democracy in the Contemporary Middle East.”

The book can be viewed and purchased from the University Press of Maryland at http://www.cdlpress.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=187&osCsid=a28ac9308a7a735b5300806e1ab4f639.