Category: Professional Notes

Courtney Clayton, assistant professor of education, presented her research at the annual VATESOL conference. The presentation was entitled “Using Action Research to Improve Instruction for English Language Learners”. She presented with one of her former M.S. in Elementary Education students whose action research project focused on improving writing skills for English Language Learners using dialogue journals through EduBlogs.

VATESOL is a professional organization dedicated to promoting professional development, strengthening instruction, and supporting research opportunities at all levels for teachers and administrators of ESL/EFL/ESOL.

Curtiss Grymala, the University Webmaster, attended and presented at two conferences in the past week. He started by heading out to Detroit, MI for WordCamp Detroit on Saturday, Oct. 6, where he presented a 45-minute session explaining the WordPress Multi-Network concept used on the UMW website.

After that, he traveled to Milwaukee, WI, where he attended the national HighEdWeb conference. At HighEdWeb 2012, he presented the same WordPress Multi-Network talk on Monday, Oct. 8; he helped lead a 45-minute panel discussion on using WordPress as a Web content management system with colleagues from Maryville University and Allegheny University on Tuesday, Oct. 9; and he led a three-and-a-half hour workshop teaching attendees how to develop their own WordPress plugins on Wednesday, Oct. 10.

Over the past 12 months, Grymala has attended a total of 13 different conferences (two of which were online, or virtual, conferences). He presented at 11 of those events, and led a total of 15 separate presentations, workshops and organized discussions.

Palgrave-Macmillan recently published “Preservation and National Belonging in Eastern Germany: Heritage Fetishism and Redeeming Germanness,” by Jason James, associate professor of anthropology.  The book explores the ways in which everyday citizens grapple with a difficult past through heritage.  It seeks to shed new light on the everyday politics of heritage and memory by highlighting the dynamics of longing, fantasy, fetishism, and local performance.

Chad Murphy, assistant professor of political science, was a featured guest on National Public Radio during the October 6th segment “Does Early Voting Prompt Hasty Choices?”

Murphy’s op-ed “The Sooner People Vote, the Better” appeared in USA Today on Sunday, Sept. 30.

Matthew Johnson, James Farmer Postdoctoral Fellow in Civil Rights and Social Justice, published the article “Affirmative Action’s Unlikely Allies” on George Mason University’s History News Network. The History News Network publishes op-eds by prominent historians each week.