Category: What’s New @ UMW

Congratulations to Lori Johnson, acting director of the student transition program, who has  been selected as an Excellent Eagle Employee by the Staff Advisory Council. To thank her for such a wonderful job, Lori will have a reserved parking spot of her choosing from Friday, February 3 through Wednesday, February 29.

Here is what one of Lori’s co-workers said about her:

“ Lori’s attention to detail and commitment to UMW and the Student Transition Program is second to none. She is a quiet and humble hard worker, consistently working late hours to ensure the success of students.  Lori takes time out of her daily schedule to recognize and thank her peers with thank you notes, little treats and moments of laughter that provide an irreplaceable morale boost. Lori will take the time to listen to, work with, and recognize peers and students no matter the time constraints. The Office of Academic Services is proud have her has a valued member of our staff.”

To nominate someone who you believe is an Excellent Eagle Employee, send an email to Priscilla Sullivan (psulliva@umw.edu) with Excellent Eagle Employee in the Subject Line.  In your email, be sure to list the person’s name, department, work location (with the most convenient parking lot), and of course, the reason why you believe they should be recognized.  Please spread the word to other employees about this wonderful opportunity to recognize a co-worker(s).

For information about Commencement, please visit http://www.umw.edu/commencement/.

The Jefferson Lecture on the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which commemorates Thomas Jefferson’s work to establish freedom of worship in the Commonwealth of Virginia, is an annual lecture at UMW.

John Fea, professor of history at Messiah College, will present the 2012 lecture, “Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?” on Thursday, January 26 at 7:30 p.m. in George Washington Hall’s Dodd Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.

UMW’s department of classics, philosophy and religion has sponsored the since 2002, the 225th anniversary of the writing of Jefferson’s work. For more information about the lecture, please visit http://cas.umw.edu/clpr/jefferson-lecture-on-religious-freedom/ or contact Craig Vasey, professor of classics, philosophy and religion, at (540) 654-1342.

The UMW Informal Ad Hoc Committee on Disability would like to announce the official launch of its blog, (dis)Ability @ UMW.  Please take a moment to visit the site at http://discomm.umwblogs.org/.

The blog is a space where faculty, staff and students can go both to access information about disability-related matters and to engage in conversations around disability.

To help this become a reality, please send Chris Foss, associate professor of English, any articles of interest you come across in print or online, any notices about relevant events, any links to organization homepages or individual blogs or other websites and any other resources you would like to have uploaded.  Also, consider creating a page for yourself with any pertinent about you and your personal and/or professional relationship to disability.

Finally, if you have a question you’d like help with, or you have read or watched something you’d like others to respond to, or you’d just like to share some thoughts, please consider posting to the blog’s rolling discussion forum.

If you have any questions, please contact Chris Foss at cfoss@umw.edu or (540) 654-1128.

UMW’s Arrington Poet-in-Residence Allison Seay ’02 has received the 2012 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry.

The award is a collaboration between Persea Books and the Lexi Rudnitsky Poetry Project to sponsor the annual publication of a poetry collection by an American woman poet who has yet to publish a full-length book of poems. The winner receives an advance of $1,000 and publication of her collection by Persea Books. Seay won the prize for her collection of poetry, “To See the Queen,” scheduled for publication in April 2013.

As the Arrington Poet-in-Residence, Seay teaches the advanced poetry workshop and the creative writing seminar in poetry at Mary Washington. A Midlothian, Va., native, she is the recipient of the 2011 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship, one of the largest awards offered to aspiring poets in the United States, and two fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, including Poetry, Crazyhorse and The Southern Review.

For more information, read the full news release from January 25.