Category: Professional Notes

Assistant Professor of Music Mark Snyder’s composition Butterfly for processed clarinet, electronics & video was performed by Cheryl Melfi on Wednesday, July 11 at the Thailand International Composition Festival (TICF).

This year, TICF will continue in the tradition of excellence, established by previous years. The featured composers for 2012 will include some of the leaders in contemporary composition, namely: Zhou Long (Kansas City, USA), Eric Moe (Pittsburgh, USA), Xiaogang Ye (Beijing, China), and Narong Prangcharoen (Bangkok, TH and Kansas City, USA). It will also feature an international group of ensembles: the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra (Bangkok, Thailand), the Tetris String Quartet (New York, USA), Hong Kong New Music Ensemble (Hong Kong, China), Contemporary Enclave (Bangkok, TH), Salaya Modern Ensemble (Bangkok, TH), the Mahidol University Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band (Bangkok, TH), the Armrein/ Henneberger Duo (Switzerland and Germany), the Integrated Percussion Ensemble (Bangkok, Th), Tomoko Honda (Belg. and Japan), Michael Hall (USA), Luisa Sello (IT), Cheryl Melfi (USA), and many other performers. The festival will also feature regional and world premieres of works by composers from around the world.

More information can be found here.

[vimeo width=”500″ height=”275″]http://vimeo.com/16524166[/vimeo]

On Sunday, July 1, Nabil Al-Tikriti delivered a paper entitled “Grim Advice, Bold Solutions: Idris-i Bitlisi’s 1513 Treatise on the Caliphate and Sultanic Protocols” to the 20th annual CIÉPO [Comité International des Études Pré-Ottomanes et Ottomanes] Conference in Rethymno, Crete, Greece.  The abstract of the paper was as follows:

“Following the intensely chaotic violence of the 1511-13 Şahkulu rebellion and fraternal succession struggle, a wholesale changing of the palace guard ensued. In the course of this transition, several imperial elites applied for court employment and patronage via submissions of poetry, advice treatises, and other forms of cultured knowledge production. While the historical narratives commonly known as Selim-nāmes have attracted a modicum of scholarly attention, treatises submitted at the very beginning of Selim’s reign remain largely unknown. Three examples of such submissions include the anonymous 1512 Risala fi Sharh Qasida Julus Sultan Selim Khan, Idris-i Bitlisi’s 1513 Risala fi al-Khilafa wa Adab al-Salatin, and Shams al-Din Jahrami’s 1514 Risala Siyasiyya Bara-yi Sultan Selim.

In this paper, I shall summarize, analyze, and contextualize the second of the aforementioned three works, the nearly forgotten treatise presented by Idris-i Bitlisi (d. 1520) to “Yavuz” Sultan Selim (d. 1520) in February 1513. In order to place this submission within its immediate context, I shall also detail Idris-i Bitlisi’s biography during the chaotic transition years and briefly summarize the contents of the other two aforementioned treatises. While each of these authors presumably had self-aggrandizing motivations for their respective submissions, the arguments which they put forth in support of Selim’s rule and reign should provide nuanced views of the political theories and public arguments mobilized to support the new Ottoman ruler during a sensitive and divisive period of social upheaval.”

Warren Rochelle, professor of English, presented “Terrains of the Mind: Le Guin’s Utopias as Human Landscapes,” at the annual Science Fiction Research Association conference in Detroit, Mich., in June 2012.

This summer, a familiar face is back on campus. After almost a year abroad, Joe Mollo has returned to UMW in his role as director of the office of student activities and engagement.

Mollo, who joined UMW in 2007, was in the United Arab Emirates with the Maritime Expeditionary Security Squadron 8, known as MSRON-8 .

“We were providing port security for U.S. flagships coming into port there,” he said.

After more than two months of training in the U.S., Mollo left for UAE on October 31, 2011.

Mollo said although he enjoyed the experience overseas, he is glad to be back at UMW.

“It is just a different feeling altogether,” he said. “You live your life over there looking over your shoulder.”

For the upcoming academic year, Mollo said the student activities office will focus primarily on the construction of the new campus center. He also noted the quickly approaching launch of Org Sync, a database program for student organization management.

Stephen J. Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the university’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, is co-author of a research article entitled, “Media Coverage of the 2005 Governor’s Race: A Comparison to Presidential Campaign Coverage,”  published in the June 2012 issue of the Virginia News Letter, published by the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service.

On Friday, June 29, Farnsworth was a featured guest on the TBD Newschannel 8 talk show program “News Talk with Bruce DePuyt.” In the interview, he discusses the Supreme Court’s recent decision on the health care mandate and offers and update on the 2012 presidential election.