Category: What’s New @ UMW

HeartChase Fredericksburg will turn the University of Mary Washington’s Fredericksburg campus into a High Tech Scavenger Hunt playing field, where teams of four will race against the clock to find and complete heart healthy checkpoints for any activity level. This event is modeled after the hit TV show, “The Amazing Race.” During the event, you will be given the locations for the checkpoints through the HeartChase app on your smartphone (only one team member needs to have a smartphone). Once the checkpoint is found, there will be a fun, heart healthy activity that needs to be completed to receive the points for that checkpoint. There will be a total of 10 checkpoints as well as multiple hidden treasure QR codes to scan along the way. The team with the most points that makes it back to Game Central before the game ends is crowned HeartChase Champion!

Register to participate: http://honor.americanheart.org/HeartChaseFredericksburg

A one-day symposium will be held at UMW on fundamentalism and women’s rights in Islam.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012
The Great Hall 9:00-5:00

PANELISTS
Farzaneh Davari – Women’s rights activist on Gender Perspective of Transition to Democracy
Yvonne Haddady – Professor of History at Georgetown University
Sheerin Hunter – Director of the Reformist Islam Project at Georgetown University
Mark Perry – Director of the Washington, D.C., London, and Beirut-based Conflicts Forum on Democracy
Sharifeh Zuhur – Scholar of Middle Eastern History, Institute of Middle Eastern, Islamic, and Strategic Studies

Sponsored by the following departments: Campus Academic Resource Committee, Geography, James Farmer Multicultural Center, Leidecker Center for Asian Studies, The Office of Student Life, Political Science and International Affairs, Sociology and Anthropology, and Women’s and Gender Studies

Questions? contact safsous@mail.umw.edu

Exhibit: on Hold

Thursday, March 1 5 p.m., Combs Hall, Room 139

Anne Leighton Massoni is a contemporary female photographer who deals with issues of history, infertility, lineage, and identity with women who have a family history of breast and ovarian cancer. She uses both created images and found imagery to represent an underlying story which touches on the personal while still attempting the collective.

Great Lives Lecture Series: Louisa May Alcott (by Harriet Reisen)

Tuesday, March 13 7:30 p.m., Dodd Auditorium, George Washington Hall

Seminar: Is the Arab Spring a Women’s Winter?

Wednesday, March 14 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Great Hall, Woodard Campus Center

The Arab revolution that started January 2011 influenced the Middle East and put an end to dictatorship systems in at least three countries. The demonstrations further transformed traditional perspectives and depictions of Arab women as silent and passive victims. The atmosphere of the region with reference to a variety of discussions on gender equality, social justice, human rights, and democracy emerged after the successes of the Arab Spring.

Women’s Research Symposium

Wednesday March 14 4-6 p.m., Red Room, Woodard Campus Center

Please join UMW students as they showcase their undergraduate research in women’s studies. Cash prizes will be awarded to winners. Contact Professor Cooperman at rcooperm@umw.edu for more information regarding submitting an entry.

Great Lives Lecture Series: Juliette Gordon Low (by Stacy A. Cordery)

Thursday March 15 7:30 p.m., Dodd Auditorium, George Washington Hall

Adelante Mujeres!

Monday March 19 5:30 p.m., Lee Hall, Room 411

Adelante Mujeres! is a documentary that explores the lives, culture, and history of Mexican-American women. Professors Connie Smith and Jessica Locke will facilitate a discussion following the viewing of this film.

Latin American Women on the Spot

Monday March 19 6:15 p.m., Lee Hall, Room 411

Join UMW students in an exciting presentation, coordinated by Professors Elizabeth Lewis and María Laura Bocaz, of various posters that provide pictures and essential information of outstanding Latin American women in the arts, sciences, literature, politics, and other areas.

Women and Politics in the Era of the American Revolution

Tuesday March 20 7 p.m., Monroe Hall, Room 116

Join Dr. Rosemarie Zagarri, professor of history at George Mason University, as she discusses womanhood as it was understood and experienced in 18th- and early 19th- Century America. She will provide insight into the lives of women in this era, with a special focus on James Monroe’s wife, Elizabeth Monroe.

Social Justice Brown Bag Lunch Discussion: Human Trafficking

Wednesday March 21 Noon, Woodard Campus Center, Meeting Room 1

The Social Dynamics of Family Violence

Wednesday March 21 7 p.m., Monroe Hall, Room 116

Research shows that one in four women is a victim of violence. Join Dr. Angela Hattery, sociologist and associate director of the program in women’s and gender studies at George Mason University, as she discusses this research with an emphasis on intimate partner violence.

Poetry Readings

Thursday March 22 5-5:30 p.m., Combs Hall, Room 139

Join Professors Ana Chichester and Connie Smith as they present a series of bilingual readings of poet Claribel Alegria. The poet, who is from El Salvador, has written several collections of poetry about women’s empowerment.

Women’s History Month Keynote Speaker: Dr. Danielle McGuire

Thursday, March 22, 7 p.m., 2012 Great Hall, Woodard Campus Center

Danielle McGuire is a writer and assistant professor in the history department at Wayne State University. Since receiving a doctorate from
Rutgers in 2007, McGuire has won numerous teaching and research awards. Her dissertation on sexualized racial violence and the African-American freedom struggle received the 2008 Lerner Scott Prize for best dissertation in women’s history. She is the author of At the Dark End of the Street.

Self-Help or Self-Hurt?

Thursday, March 26, 5 p.m.,  Meeting Room 1, Woodard Campus Center

Join the Black Student Association as they lead a discussion about men who write self-help books for and about women. The discussion will center on whether the information and advice presented in these books help or just reinforce patriarchal ideas that previously existed in society.

Film and Discussion: The Vision of Wangari Maathai

Tuesday, March 27, 5 p.m., Chandler Hall, Room 102

This documentary chronicles the life and activism of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Wangari Muta Maathai, the founder of the Green Belt Movement, who became a world-renowned environmentalist and women’s rights activist with the seemingly simple idea of planting trees. Join the African Student Union and Women of Color as they view the film and discuss Maathai’s life and legacy.

Film and Discussion: Miss Representation

Wednesday, March 28 7 p.m., Monroe Hall, Room 116

This film educates the audience by exposing the media’s negative portrayal of women and its effects on girls. It seeks to empower women by identifying the steps toward eliminating these portrayals and effects.

V-Day UMW “The Vagina Monologues” 2012

Friday, March 30 and Saturday 31 8 p.m., Lee Hall, Room 411

Cost: $3 in advance; $5 at the door

Email em.c.butler@gmail.com to purchase tickets

The 9th annual UMW production of The Vagina Monologues, written by Eve Ensler, uses the arts to explore women’s issues of sex, love, rape, abuse, relationships, menstruation, and childbirth. By promoting inner beauty and self-worth, The Vagina Monologues celebrates the true essence of the vagina, femininity, and the ability to speak out against the pressures of society.

The results of week two of RECYCLEMANIA are official — our ranking is 16th in the international competition and second in Virginia, with Virginia Wesleyan College having the lead.

Our combined weight is 9.90 pounds of recycling per person. This is equivalent to 48 metric tons of CO2 or 25 cars off the road, or the energy consumption of 13 households. For more information, visit http://recyclemaniacs.org/.

Message from Joni Wilson, director of landscape and grounds

Since 2004, the Chappell Great Lives lecture series has brought noted biographers and professors to lecture in George Washington Hall’s Dodd Auditorium. Now, the same lectures are available anywhere, through the iTunes U appfor iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, as well as on a Mac or PC using iTunes.

The free app is home to courses and classroom materials from colleges and universities around the world, as well as lectures and presentations like Great Lives.

Tim Owens, instructional technology specialist at UMW, said the move to iTunes U will help expand the reach of the lecture series beyond Mary Washington.

On Friday, Feb. 24, Charles J. Shields’ lecture on Kurt Vonnegut became the first Great Lives lecture available for download. Each Friday, another of the 2012 lectures will be released. Lectures from previous years also will be released.

Users can subscribe directly in iTunes to receive the video downloads each week, as well as watch them on UMW’s website at http://www.umw.edu/greatlives/category/archived-videos/.